For those who will at some point be researching Sagiv's enterprise...
Here is a description of Essence training from a Dutch website, from 2009. It is Google translated (but understandable), and quite a lot of text, I hope this is OK. Humanication Holding did sue this website, and lost in a Dutch court.
Source: [
www.stelling.nl]
***
April 2009
Beforehand
In most cases, you arrive at the Essence by the enthusiastic, no doubt well-intentioned, recruiting friends and acquaintances of yours. They have made you curious, but if it is told nothing about what really happened in the training. That they did not do the Essence, because otherwise the effect of the processes would be lost (according to the Essence). Thus the Essence marketing works: Use fresh "graduates" (people who have done so just one Essence) to acquire new customers with their enthusiasm. These people do not realize that their wonderful feeling is not permanent, (probably mainly an adrenaline rush as a result of the exhaustion and the deluge of experiences you get over you) and not at all good for your judgment. Furthermore, they do not know, or they choose not to know that some people after an Essence (or Source, advanced training) may be serious problems: depression, psychosis, up to suicide attempts). Some relationships are saved by it, others go right on the cliffs. Not everyone picks it well.
Here is a description of what happened in Essence Training. Some details may be a trainer or training or are some differences (eg in the tracks). Which, however, are not large. It is a tightly organized concept.
Day 1, Wednesday, bootcamp
Around 17:00 start recording. Is then checked whether you've paid. You will also get handed your name card. You have to necessarily right pinning. However, no reason is given for it. It is the first thing that is meant to get you out of your "comfort zone" (means: take off your ordinary, out of your daily habits, even from your normal resistors, to make you so open to "new" "overwhelming" insights that Essence has to offer). Why that: most people are right-handed, and then left pinning the easiest. Hence. It is also a dressage thingy. It is no more than a very first step, moreover.
The buildings where the courses are held are extremely sparse furnishings (also here with the intention to get people out of their "comfort zone", it is also very inexpensive decorating). A catering is not there, trainees must bring their own food. Coffee and tea can be given, and there are microwaves to heat your mash.
Besides trainees are also ongoing assistants around. Who also wear name tags, but who look different (varies by training: different color nameplate than a trainee, different color ink, a sticker instead of in a container, that kind of things, in a training which is, however uniform). They provide the helping hand in training. There needs during a workout often a time which dragged away or otherwise decorated. Without the voluntary efforts of these people Essence training would not be possible. For clarity, these people are NOT paid, and most of them are committed to the full five days of training very intensively. They must arrange their stopover, and also their travel expenses are not reimbursed. Because the workouts last deep into the night, that means quite a few car-kilometers and / or host costs (and they are just as exhausted as after the trainees). So they are cheap labor for the Essence.
Most aides do this exacting labor of love from sincere good intentions. All of them have done themselves a Essence training, and they have come out enthusiastically bouncing. They want what they themselves have experienced transfer to others. Many of them do actually another relive their own Essence. The latter, incidentally, they must be careful. If you eg in a visualization exercise (closed eyes process) as an assistant (as trainees) also close your eyes, you will be sent the room by the trainer. The trainer is incidentally lord and god in training. Contradiction is not tolerated, participation is not there. The assistants are pretty rushed. Who does not do what is said, is removed from the team. All under the guise that you everywhere "confidence" should have (read: should blindly do what is said).
The mutual group tie in the team of assistants is very strong, and the team also captures a lot for each other. Much of that camaraderie is definitely real. Joys and sorrows are shared, and team members who are cared for emotionally under pressure, get a lot of sincere support. That does not mean that relations are dictatorial. Would you like to get further inside the Essence organization, you have fifty times voluntarily assist in the training. A critical attitude within the organization decides not encouraged.
There are many processes known as "process assistants." These are people who come for a separate process to help. These people mean all the good, enthusiastic, and do it all for free and for nothing. In some processes the Essence strives to process one assistant per trainee (eg at wdyw 1 and 2, which more later, see Saturday). There are so quite a lot of it.
At about 18:00 the doors open to the hall. The chairs in the room are lined up in tight rows. Back of the room sit assistants have been instructed to stare straight ahead of him and not to issue any sign of contact. Everything is designed to give an effect as alienating as possible. To get you out of your "comfort zone".
The trainer presents himself before. Then a preek.over what you want out of the training, which points you think you do not get out of life what you would like, then follows the first plan, which is drawn on the whiteboard. The story boils down to is that you linger in what you've always done, you can linger in victimhood about what has been done, with all the negative feelings from that (pain, sadness, frustration, disappointment, etc.). Instead this type of 'mechanical' and 'routine' function, you can choose "function effectively". You realize that your old routines do not work and go try something new. So you learn something new and you come to further development.
After the sermon continues with what role you have in training. There then follows a comparison with a football game, and four rollers that may come before them:
1. Commentator: comments on a competition aimed at others, not himself. Share criticism, focuses on the past. Does not affect the game.
2. Spectator: at home looking for the tube. Focused on others, not himself. Wait and hope, looking back. Does not affect the game.
3. Players in the To field, in the here and now, focused on themselves, act and create results. Has 100% influence on the game (you can at least hope)
4. Coach: outside the game, on the sidelines, other-oriented, presented opportunities, increases the ability of the players, forward-looking
It will be appreciated that the last two categories are the most desirable. You can crawl into the group, but what do you do? Incidentally Essence some groups are so large (more than 100 trainees decided to come more than once) that's simply not for everyone leeway. One commentator, moreover, implicitly equated with a "gossip" or "negative critic" (the type in a group or department anywhere negative over and smothers any initiative).
Real life is obviously a lot more complicated. As players or coaches make mistakes, then it is very questionable whether you with their activities must now be so happy. And it is not often enough that a knowledgeable outsider sees more than those who are on top of something with their nose? Well, at this kind of nuances they are not as good at the Essence.
Then follows a question and answer game between trainer and group (it is still something of a kindergarten) about how the four roles look like in training. 'Discuss' is then quickly commentator in the corner, 'observing' the viewer. That will be dutifully put on the board.
Thereafter, the TC's are introduced. These are the permanent assistants are assigned a small group of trainees. Every so often they sit with their group together, and then discuss the experiences of the group of trainees in the training. They also serve as a channel of communication between trainer and trainees (the numbers of trainees are simply too large to be monitored by the trainer). These TCs have done the Source (later in the Essence training they need namely to recruit, of which more later).
The TCs stand on a chair, and the trainees may choose their tc. That has to be very fast, in a kind of "Ren-your-rot-style". If you are late as a trainee, you will be put at a tc still too little "klantjes" has.
The chairs are put back, tight rank and file. The trainer will discuss the ground rules that everyone has to keep in training. It is important that none of the training may come out, you can only talk about your own sense of belonging. About contents of processes may not be brought out, and not about people. They gave as reason people should feel free to show all of himself. The course also has the additional advantage that if something goes wrong, which remains in private. You may not use alcohol and drugs during training (given the intensity of the processes rightly privately, outside the Essence building no one can control it). Furthermore, you must keep yourself on your medication, if you have one (if you as a trainee indicates, they also remind you, do not, do not like the Essence). Furthermore, you should continue to eat and drink well. If you do not leave your name card, you can center be called in the night if everything okay with you (is immediately a nice control whether everyone is indoors).
You may leave the room, but then you can inside pass again if you 'outside by guard' (a permanent assistant so) has received from the coach permission to let you in again (which goes through notes which are slid under the door). You can disrupt the training does not utterly. You get the "outside door guard 'the obligatory question:" Do you realize that training in place and that you stand out? "(Or a variant thereof). Eating and drinking in the room is not allowed.
It is funny how everyone inside is called after a break. That happens the beginning of "Also sprach Zarathustra" (Essence jargon "Sprach" called). Everyone should then with raised hands to come in and remain standing until the track ends. Everyone should also end it that fragment inside and stand for a seat. Only when the coach says, you may be seated.
After rattling off the rules 'asks' the coach everyone to abide by the rules.
Then, each trainee must be buddy pick. That's the fellow trainee lets you share everything you experience is considered. Your "buddy" so. If it is good that you help and support in the training. If it goes well ... The choice is energized with a piece of music. We will in the rest of the session often encounter.
After a pause begins the second part of the night. It is already quite late. The doors open with the previously described "Sprach" -ritueel. The assistants call you to come in to the room with your arms up. This is also designed to get you out of your "comfort zone".
The trainer says now about the Essence organization. Official motto of the organization is' to create a better world that works for everyone, out of love, care and cooperation. " They forget it or to tell you that if the training is due in deep mental problems, there is no aftercare.
The goals of the workout be interpreted also:
Create a breakthrough in our lives beyond our feelings and thoughts
To improve the quality of our personal and professional lives
Create results in our lives through participation and commitment
To take the next step
And to see ourselves as possibilities
Then the chairs are put aside and dims the light. In this "trust walk" you go looking for that trainee in the room that you find most attractive. Or if you meet someone on the run together you say one of three sentences: 'I trust you', 'I do not trust you, "or" I do not know if I trust you. " Most people do not know in advance, so you do not really know enough of the person to be able to say much. It becomes so often "I do not know if I trust you." After a first round following a sermon by the trainer. Are you with that last sentence actually honest with each other? Do not be guilty of "not-the-cat-language" (a dog not a "dog" but not a call-cat, to the bush rotate so, instead taken directly say what you mean). The latter is typically Essence jargon. The principle is not wrong, but the difference between clarity on the one hand and disrespectful and intimidating bluntness on the other hand is in the Essence world is not always clear.
In the second round the commentary on each other a lot more direct. Soon it will be "I do not trust you."
The chairs are put back, and headed by the trainer follows a sharing (sharing of experience). The trainer says' who wants to share? ". Who that should raise your hand. Then the trainer points to preference someone. People tell you about what they have experienced with the training. About who they trust and who not. There can sometimes be very painful stories among them. For example, about bullying as a child. Or overweight people who have trouble with their body (and are boosted with the song "Sex Bomb", a fixture).
Then a sermon by the trainer about trust or not follow. Trust you usually give to people who meet our own internal "frames" (read: prejudices). If someone is personable and nice, then we trust that person quickly. The same goes for eye contact, a smile, a good handshake etc. But are these lists do with reality? And is an academic program or refined language always as intelligent as people think. Then comes the "kalypagos" example (Greek for "nice ass", follows Yiftach Sagiv good to impress professors, you just have like to have found in a dictionary. He forgets or upon to tell it is also the name of a famous statue, a jewel among the preserved ancient Greek statues. Well, at aesthetics and sophistication they do not understand that at the Essence).
Then follows something the example of the security guards of El Al. Are not very accessible at an airport, but there you trust your safety and your life to. They protect you, but are not nice to you. And also its lists valid?
Then follows the example of the "yellow train". Which stand tonight on the station .... (Fill in a name)? After some prodding, then follows the question of how to know for sure. It could be that they are not there. That you only know if you're going to check it in reality. You therefore have two kinds of reality: which according to you 'opinions "and" wisdom ", which sets standards on how you would be reality. Whether the reality as it actually is, and which can investigate, to get to know so natural.
Then follows the explanation of the dyad. You will be as trainees in pairs opposite each other put on your seat. Knees together, hands on your thighs. Eye contact required, escape is hardly possible. Especially in the beginning determined awkward, not to say somewhat menacing.
Then follows a Closed Eye Process. The trainer gives a visualization where you propose to be on your own beach, and how it looks. It is also working with color visualizations that do very strongly reminiscent of the traditional Indian charkra leather. The meditation will conclude with some music.
To conclude the evening, it is now well into the night, following the conclusion of the evening. Where necessary, still sleeping arranged for trainees.