I see through his tricks

I don't doubt in my mind most of these people went away from the Date With Destiny seminar feeling high and euphoric, vowing to make positive changes in their lives. For some of them, Tony Robbins did cause what may be a positive transformation for them. But from my perspective, what he's doing looks like a mass brainwashing exercise. I would not be the least surprised if Robbins is some kind of CIA asset trained meticulously in Neurolinguistic Programming and inducing a trancelike state in his audience. He even implies near the end of the film that he may have had a handler--a forensics speech teacher who was the first to tell Robbins "I know who you are. I know about your home life. You're not a speaker. You're a COMMUNICATOR"--thus setting Robbins on his career path. The audience, mesmerized by Robbins' NLP skills, is in a highly suggestive state in which he seeds his positive affirmations and feel-good philosophy, but if this is an intelligence project, there might be other levels to the programming than that which is on the surface.I saw little difference between what Robbins does and what certain evangelical pastors in mega-churches do. The entire environment even looks like a church. Bright colors, usage of music, getting the audience involved through gestures--all of these things would look quite at home in some fundamentalist gathering. Robbins' goal is not ultimately to change these peoples lives, but to convince them that their hard-earned $5000 was well-spent. It did not surprise me in the least that the final day of the seminar has Robbins leading his audience on a deep meditation primarily designed to open the heart chakra and have people focus on moments they are grateful for, then they are to shout out "who they really are" and let that sound bring you back to THIS moment. This programs the audience to equate those feelings of love and gratitude with Tony Robbins himself, leading no doubt to repeat customers who want more of these "feelings" they get from his seminars. I see exactly what he's doing. Whether his techniques lead to long-term success for his participants would have been a compelling direction for the documentary. Was this a commissioned work Joe Berlinger made--the man who gave us the great Paradise Lost films? The film carefully paints Robbins as not a phony--that he's the same person on stage as off and that he believes all his quasi-New Age positive messages. However, as likable as he seems to be, there's something about him I just don't buy, and I sense a form of manipulation in his techniques.