Another Reason I Blog About James Arthur Ray Killing 3 People in a Seminar

I’ve been healing a case of PSSD or Post Seminar Stress Disorder (no, it’s not PiSSeD). PSSD is Seminar Induced PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I’m sure that I’m not the first to coin this phrase, but I could not find any other reference for PSSD. So maybe I have coined a term.

Blogging about James Ray and the seminar industry business practices I want to see changed is been healing and cathartic for me.

It seems that Seminar Communities fill the same need in Middle Class folks as Gangs fill for Poor People in the Inner City.

It wasn’t until after I quit the seminar industry in 2007 that I realized how much stress I put myself through. I was numb and felt dead. I was a good student and always worked and tried harder, but the harder I tried the worse I got. After decompressing in early 2008, I realized how far astray I was from my true feelings, beliefs and core values. I made big mistakes in judgment in my business, financial and my personal life.

The “results at any cost” mantra that pervades many personal growth and transformational seminars had me seeking “creative solutions” to problems that only existed because of a “weed of discontent” some where inside. I could never quite pull all the roots of this weed. The seminars added water and fertilizer to this part of me and helped it grow uncontrollably promising the next seminar, book, program held the answer. To say that differently, I wanted to belong, be loved, accepted, make a difference and feel powerful. I wanted these things very badly and I got disconnected from my voice of reason and knowing. I was running intuitively blind.

It’s funny. There’s one Seminar where you’re encouraged to be “Unreasonable”. But for me,  acting without reason is running without my internal radar system.

Here’s what I realized when I got out of the Seminar Rat Race:

• I prefer places of quietude and peace.
• I have all the answers I need, if my mind is quiet enough to hear.
• There’s nothing in the world I will take with me other than my memories.
• If I think I know what’s best for anyone else, I AM WRONG!
• Life is more than a “dash” on a tombstone.
• Love is the answer to everything.
• Love starts and ends with me and I can share my love with the world.
• Life is too short to drink bad wine and deal with a**holes.
• For those that don’t “get it”, they will… In time and On time.
• There are only 3 questions and now I know their answers (for me that is).

That’s it. I have a simple life. I develop websites to help business owners make money (no seminar companies yet). I Enjoy being with my wife and watching my granddaughter grow up.  I am happy!