The thing that struck me the most about "The Workshop" was this: for a film that's supposed to be about "enlightenment", the more I listened to the interviews, the more confused and stupid and contradictory these people sounded. I definitely saw and heard more ambivalence, uncertainty, and guilt than anything else. It was like flashing back to the 60's and 70's, when all this "free yourself of all sexual hangups", "you can love more than one person at a time" stuff was in full force. The PROBLEM with that approach is that, just as happened post-60's and 70's, jealousy, guilt, and "reality" all come crashing down. It's as if humans are not particularly happy with monogamy, but we're also not particularly comfortable with free and open lifestyles either. Just look at that couple in the tent, for example. The woman wasn't quite sure WHAT to call her relationship. Jamie kept saying it looked like an open relationship to him, but she kept insisting it wasn't. That pretty much sums up the whole film for me in a nutshell. It was as if NOBODY really knew what the hell they were talking about. And for a film about "enlightenment", that just doesn't fly.
There was also the surfacing of the oldest paradox in the world: jealousy = really loving, as expressed by Ryan's partner, who seemed to really enjoy the fact that her partner got jealous of what she was doing in the group sex/orgy part of the retreat. Sorry...but that just doesn't sound particularly "enlightened" to me. In fact, it sounds very old school to me.
In a way, this film reminded me of the E.S.T. seminars/retreats of the 70's. A friend of mine attended one. He was a pot head (as were most of us at the time), and engaged in a lot of dysfunctional behavior. After the seminar, I looked to see if anything had changed in his behavior, and it hadn't. I said to him: "Shane, you're still doing the same stuff you were doing before the seminar. Nothing's really changed". His response was: "Yeah, but I don't feel guilty about it now. That's the difference". Hmmmmmmmmm...you be the judge.
"Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you DO". (The Last Kiss)
reply
share
maxtshea
9 years ago
You are so right, Skay! I took EST (the young persons training)behest of my parents who both took it a year earlier. If a person was BORN in 1985 and never heard of Werner Erhart or Bagwan Shri Rashneesh, he or she might easily fall for Paul's BS. It's very seductive, if you can't see it for what it is. Paul's rhetoric is an amalgam of self-help/human potential movement cliches. A little Werner Erhart, a little Fritz Perls, a little Anon LaVey, whatever gets 'em naked so I can get my Caligula on!
An observation on this non-monagamy business: Whether you call it free love in 1969 or polyamory in 2015, it destroys families. When families get wrecked, it's usually the woman and her children who suffer for it. Dad might get his paycheck gored for alimony and he suffer because his children don't respect him, but it is the women and the children who carry the brunt of the economic, psychological, and medical fallout of the destructive lifestyle the Guru Paul promotes.
reply
share