A few words in defence of Insight seminars

For more information I recommend the following sites http://lifenews.ru/news/102416 , http://lifenews.ru/news/102238 , http://world.lib.ru/b/belew_w/insight.shtml (on Russion)

Then you can read my opinion. My article turned out to be subjective and emotional: most likely since I was personally involved not only as a participant but also as an organizer of the Insight seminars.

The Insight seminars started out in the USA in the late 1970-s, them spread around the world; more than a million people have taken them. The ideas of John-Roger, the founder of the Insight were supported and approved by President Bill Clinton during their personal meeting.

Not a single country in the world ever tried to forbid the seminars or persecute their participants or organizers. Not one, but Russia.

The Insight seminars were first held in Russia with approval and support of the governor of Omsk Region, Leonid Polezhaev, in 1991. Among the participants of the first of the seminars in Russia, there were representatives of city and region administration as well as the heads of prominent enterprises of Omsk.

The first seminars were inspired and organized by their big fan, the docent of the Department of Economics of Omsk Pedagogical Institute, Aleksandr Kovalev. The Insight seminars took place in Omsk and St. Petersburg starting in 1991. Thousands of people participated. In 1993 the Insight seminars stopped for financial reasons. In 1997 the seminars were restarted by initiative and effort of a group of people, which included the author of this article.

The seminars were held in Omsk and Barnaul. I was the director and representative of Insight International in Russia in 1997-1998.

Insight is a system of enlightening and educational seminars which present a participant with a new outlook on the world and a variety of psychological tools to use in everyday life. There are four steps. The first one helps a person open up and become aware of the connection to the others, repair relationships with his or her family, discover hidden abilities and talents, learn to forgive and accept other people.

The second step seminar is deeper and it helps discover and understand one’s inner self, one’s strengths and weaknesses , find one’s inner core, learn the ways of becoming successful and powerful.

The third step leads a person to find the balance between the inner world and the outside world, his or her place in the outside world.

The seminars on the first three levels take from 3 to 5 days. Naturally, there is a fee for the seminars. naturally, those who are now discussing and weighing the harm and bad influence of Insight on the psyche, have never taken the seminars.

The fourth level is quite different, I call it “professional”. The workshops take place in the USA or Chile and last 4-5 weeks, and cost around $4,000. Only few Russians had desire and opportunity to take the fourth step. I am among them. During those seminars quite different tools are taught: choosing and realizing one’s life goals, art of public speaking, psychology, including NLP, leadership and spiritual growth. The training is done by world class professionals.

While I was the director of the Insight seminars in Russia there were two attempts to shut down the seminars by the KGB and police forces. There was an accusation of fraud and attempt to start a criminal investigation against me. Unfortunately, it did not work out for the investigators: none of the several thousands former participants from Omsk and Barnaul gave testimony against me.

Right now, there seems to be a second wave of persecution against Insight. The excuse is the alleged suicide of Alexander Knyazev.

The other day, I was contacted and interviewed by the journalists of the First Channel of the Russian television. They are working on a show about that suicide. I was asked if Insight could cause suicide.

My answer was no. If a person makes a decision to end his or her life, there must be serious outside problems., like relationships in the family, work, business, debt, dissatisfaction with one’s life, or inner contradictions, unsolvable problems. Insight, on the contrary, and its friendly environment could help deal with the contradictions; find the essence of the problems and ways out of dead ends. But to end one’s life? No way.

Now I am going to quote the Internet article I mentioned earlier.” “According to the investigators, the deceased committed suicide by stabbing himself a few times”, told Life News the senior assistant to the chief of Investigation Unit of Police of Omsk regiom, Larisa Boldinova.”

Now try to imadine it. A person stretches his arm holding a knife, then forcefully stabs his own chest (weak stabbing won’t go past the rib cage), pulls the knife out of the ribs, then stretches his arm again and stabs himself again. And he repeats this four times. Aren’t you a bit suspicious? Apparently, the investigator was not. It’s perfectly normal when everyday people stab themselves in the chest a few times or… shoot themselves into hearts then into heads then put down the gun on the table…. The last piece is from the investigation of the other suicides of the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of The Soviet Union during the time when the party money disappeared inexplicably. The common factor is the same in both investigations. The investigator does not see the facts but what the bosses would like to see.

And here is what I know about this. The man spent a day at the seminar, then he stayed up all night answering text messages (whose?). In the morning he packed up his things and went to his country house. To meet whom? Later he was found dead. Who discovered him after his death? The investigation confirmed that he died of numerous stab wounds into his heart. Excuse me, do these investigators need their mental abilities checked?

At present there is a show being put together -- a journalist investigation by Andrey Malakhov “Let them talk”. It is going to air at the end of the week. We shall see if the journalists’ mental abilities need to be checked as well…

I am publishing this article on the site “My America” because I live in the USA now, because Insight led me here and helped me discover this country for myself and make friends and make it my home.

More than a million people around the world participated in the Insight seminars, and no one had a reason to blame this educational program for their problems, or other people’s problems. But as usual, Russia is ahead of the entire planet. Looking for a scape goat?