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Luis Cordoba, isa Experience Facilitator.
“The purpose of the experience is to get people to wake up,” says Luis Cordoba, the isa facilitator. We live a lot of our lives from an unconscious state which makes us feel like victims of our circumstances. The isa Experience helps people explore the way they react to the things that happen to them and help them to realize that they have a choice as to how they see things. “Self-actualization begins with discovering that it is not the problems in our lives (the content), it is the way we approach the problems (the context) that gets in our way,” explains Cordoba.
Cordoba is carrying on the work of Ole P. Larson who in 1977, while seeking higher knowledge from Willem A. Nyland, a student of George Ivanovich Gurdjief, a German-Armenia mystic and spiritual teacher, discovered the precepts that have formed the isa Experience. Gurdjieff’s system of self-development calls for the application in daily life of a specific method of “Work on oneself” or self-actualization.
Self-actualization refers to using the energy and power within us to become who we need to become. As Cordoba explains, “There’s a possibility of ‘Waking Up’ in the midst of our lives.” By using our present state of habits and difficulties as the catalysts for transformation, we begin to see ourselves as we are without preconceptions and judgments.
The isa Experience is a 4-day seminar that provides an environment of safety and caring for people to explore their lives in detail. Beginning on a Thursday evening at a local hotel or meeting center, 75-200 people with a wide range of backgrounds gather for a weekend of exercises and sharing designed to help them examine their lives to see what is working for them and what is not.
“The isa Experience is an adventure; full of challenge, excitement and spontaneity. It is often light and playful, and sometimes even a bit scary. It is always open, sensitive and warm.”
The main purpose of the isa Experience is to help people create the lives they want. Even successful people realize that there is still something missing in their lives.
“You will see yourself with a greater sense of wholeness and balance, and can begin to act in harmony with who you really are,” says Cordoba, who encourages people to go deeper into themselves and adds that if you are not living the life you want, you are letting yourself down.
For more information on the isa Experience that will take place in Nashville on October 8-11 and at other times in Great Britain, Sweden and Australia, go to:
http://www.isaexperience.com/whatis.html
Comments
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Good response. I like this.
ISA is a cult designed to liberate one thing--your cash.
A cult means 'a belief system.' All religions are cults or any group of people who share a belief system qualify. I think I get what your saying. Like any in this group,they like people to join them. There's safety in numbers and and the group reaffirms itself. I think isa offers another way of examining things and I'm not suggesting that anyone become a member. I took away some useful things from the experience. I haven't really become a member as I don't really want to be a member of any group.
Thanks for reading my article and the feedback. Writers always like feedback. At least I do.
Major honey trap, great for a while but don't get suckered by ISA!
You said it well. "Great for a while." It's useful to look at thing this way. One has to decide if one wants to be a member. That's something else.
Thanks for reading my article. I hope you'll read more.
It's only a matter of time before Luis and his crew or brainwashers get arrested for their cult. What a money making scam. If I didn't have any morals,would have been something I wished I would have thought of.
I'm not sure I saw the brainwashing part. I thought a lot of what Luis has to say is right on, especially when he talks about the Program that has been installed. All religions are cults but I haven't felt any pressure to do anything. I don't attend any more. I actually got involved because I was looking to write an article on something local as this Publisher likes. Anyway, here's something I took away from the experience:
"Revenge is like drinking poison and waiting for someone else to die."
Thanks for reading my article. Please read further and add comments as you see fit.
I have a friend who got involved with this isa thing. She is now a walking, talking isa robot. She does isa-speak and isa-think. It has made a ruin of her. She thinks she woke up; in truth, she has gone to sleep.
As far as I'm aware, the money ISA makes goes towards hiring the hotels and function rooms they use, the lunches they provide over their weekend, flying the facilitators to and from countries, setting up ISA based activity camps for kids etc. I don't think it's a rip off - your can do the ISA a second time for free so they must have money to accommodate that too.
ISA is not a cult, because they do not force you to do anything, or indoctrinate you into anything. I gained a lot from the ISA experience, and did it a second time just to fix the ideas in my head. I think it's a great thing to do and helps you in your life if you let it, because a lot of their information makes sense.
But I understand when people say someone they know seems to have been taken over by ISA. That seems a step too far to me. I'd do the ISA experience when I felt it was necessary for me, but to centre your whole life and well-being around it seems... odd?
Entirely agree with Anonymous post above. ISA is great but don't get suckered in and make it your life. I guess the reason that some people do is the same reason that got them there in the first place.
For the record, ISA saved my life quite literally as well as that of a friend that I referred. I never took up the chance to become a rep or whatever the term is and (not but!) was not pressured to do so.
I have had friends who became ISA robots as a result but to me that meant that they weren't actually ready to go solo - their continued involvement ensured that ISA was there for when I needed to go back or refer more friends and colleagues.
If it was all about the money then repeating wouldn't be such a low cost (is it free now?) and they would let you do the GIT twice or at least have more versions of it.
I also attended one of the weekly sessions in London over a couple of months (forget which one) which resulted in lots of list writing and reflection that I then repeated and used (Free of charge) 8 years later at home when I felt I had lost my way a little.
Despite no involvement with them for 8 or so years what I learned made me into the success that I am today. I would not be alive without it. Life was too hard before I woke up.
You say that isa isn't all about money because repeating is either free or low in cost. - Au contraire. Former believers are encouraged to attend seminars with new recruits because it helps the seminar go more smoothly. The long time isa-bots know the lingo, know what to say, and exhibit the desired behavior. The newbies unconsciously pick up on all this, and unconsciously confirm.
I have a friend who is involved with ISA. It is a control group and they check up on their members to make sure they are staying in the zone. They feed off of peoples insecurities and separate them from their cash. Total pyramid scheme. I wish my friend would stay away from them but I fear she may be lost.
I agree with you, Anonymous. This is my experience of isa. When healthy people do find their way into a seminar, they often walk out. Or, if they do see it through, never go back. isa depends upon those vulnerable, naive people who need what they believe they are getting. These needy people form the free labor force that isa enjoys.
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