You may not like Bears or how they run their business, and maybe what they teach there is not your cup of tea, which is your prerogative, of course, but nothing written in that review is indicative of it being a cult. Treating employees horribly or a boss having a big ego are not criteria by which to label something a cult. Are you alleging that they coerce people into staying there? Are you alleging that they isolate participants from their loved ones? Are you alleging that they are controlling their staff and workshop participants and preventing them from choosing how to respond or to leave? If so, I think you need to provide evidence that this is their direct m.o. I was there for a long time, saw the day-to-day operations as well as experienced it from the workshop side, and while it would be accurate to say that Bears is a big personality and can be provocative in his "radical authenticity", I have never once seen him or anyone else working there exercise any kind of coercive behavior or encourage anyone to cut off contact with anyone or take away anyone's freedom either physically or mentally, and I have only ever seen him do this playfully and lovingly, encouraging people to challenge their beliefs around some issue they have. He does it with a smile, and always prefaces it with a request for permission to explore, e.g., "Can I make a suggestion?" "Would you like to try something?" "Do you want to consider something?" Unlike cults like Landmark Forum, where I have heard they use coercive tools like sleep deprivation and preventing people from going to the bathroom during the workshops, everything at Option Institute is *optional* for the participant, and this is always made clear. Everyone gets to sleep and pee when they want. And people are always given an opportunity to opt out if they want. They are very careful to make that clear, especially in the intensive workshops. So if you disagree with Bears' ideology or the pay or how he asks his staff to be accountable, that's fine. But you haven't shown how that constitutes the Option Institute being a cult, which is what this website is for. I mean, I find it interesting that people would try to label this place that encourages everyone to make up their own reality and choose their own path as a cult, while Christian churches, which are much much more dogmatic and coercive, are seen as normal. Says a lot about our culture.
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