Sorry about the long wait for a reply. I kept putting a response off.
Darth Wong wrote:
It's like a spam E-mail. I'm surprised he didn't tell you he could enhance your penis as well. I'm pretty sure the organizer of your meeting can't possibly be stupid enough to believe this is legit. This charlatan is probably paying him a kickback in order to take over a meeting to sell his get-fixed-quick scheme. The idea that he can "cure" addictions in a single session is such utter bullshit. He probably has fantastic "testimonials" to back it up, too.
Amusingly, the organizer is actually a financial planner. I'm not sure if I could imagine him getting any kickbacks from this guest. For fucks sake, his daughter also has social anxiety and is a regular participant of this group. I actually emailed the organizier about this guest and told him I cannot believe he invited this shifty guy. He replied back saying he might as well come since it'll be free. Also during the meetup the organizier told us a story about how even though he apparently is one of the top financial planners one time he talked to a mediocre financial planner at length, just so he could get any sort of tips or information he missed. Then he said that the same principle applies with our guest, basically he might just have something useful for us. I do kind of wish I pressed the issue, saying the two are not comparable because in the first situation at least the mediocre guy was talking within his field of expertise and probably has a proper college degree. Our guest has... some "certs" and fantastic claims?
Our guest unsuprisingly said that he did diverge with the established medical community on treating various disorders and problems. He told us a bit about time-line therapy. However it has been a while since that meeting. I cannot remember the details on it. I do distinctly remember him telling us that if you were to think of something like PSTD as a difficult thing to cope with, it will be difficult. But if you imagine that it is actually easy to get over with, it will become much easier to get over with. I cannot remember what else he said on that, like how far can you take that positive thinking concept. Could PSTD really be cured in a few days or few weeks with the help of the mindset, "its easy."
Also the guest gave us this note via email as an exercise. "When you wake up in the morning ask yourself "What would I do differently today if I no longer had my problem or If I had recovered from my problem? Among all the things that come to your mind, choose the smallest, most minimal but concrete thing and put it into practice. Every day choose a small but concrete thing as if you had already overcome your problem and voluntarily put it into practice. Every day choose something different.
Send someone a note each day telling them what you did. It is critically important to do this every day for 30 days."
Again sorry about the delayed reply; I cannot remember much. I do have some basic notes from the meeting however. I'll go down the list:
"Selection bias: Helping those who have had much help, giving them a bit more help, then taking credit for ALL of it?"" - If I remember right he said he wanted clients who were very motivated
already. I suspect that this would in a way pad his claims.
"Emphasis on the unconscious" - He said just basically mentioned how automatic the unconscious is and how it can infulence us.
"Cause is greater than effect" - I can't remember anything about this except that he considered it very important.
"Believing something is hard makes it hard. Believing it to be easy, makes it easy." - Already mentioned
"Beliefs change" - I don't remember the exact significance of this. Maybe related to the previous note.
"Emphasis on self" - Don't remember any details about this at all.
And that is the end of my notes. I can't add more comments than that. Maybe I should take a psychology class next semester so I know more about the mind and behaviours.