
Gnosis Retreat Center - gruseom
https://gnosisretreatcenter.org/
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okareaman
I became homeless due to the depressive phase of bipolar disorder and
alcoholism. I did a 180 and now live a happy and productive life thanks to
HVRP (Homeless Veterans Rehabilitation Program), which is similar in ways to
this program. I'm sharing this for any veterans reading this that need help.
Please contact the VA and receive the help you earned. There are people who
want to help you.

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gruseom
Can you say what similarities you've noticed between the two programs?

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okareaman
Two sentences from the archive link made me cry: "Suppose you come to the end
of your tether, can no longer cope, have a break-down, fall apart, go to
pieces. To whom would you turn? Where would you go?... Our program offers a
network of fellow travelers who aspire to cultivate skillful means of helping
people whose relations with themselves and others have become an occasion of
wretchedness and despair."

It's impossible to describe if you haven't been in such a state and don't know
where to go. The contempt people have for you when you are on the street is
unbearable. Compared to other places, people at HVRP loved me because many of
them had been there. That turned out to the magic ingredient. The power of
Love is remarkable.

~~~
billman
Thank you for sharing. For one lucky enough to have found Love, I appreciate
your courage.

~~~
okareaman
Thank You. Life is good!

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mtraven
This seems organized around the work of the radical psychiatrist RD Laing.
I've admired some of writing in the past, but his theories of psychosis are
considered nonsense these days. From the website:

“Legacy of R.D. Laing,” Michael Guy Thompson, on Madness Radio. Is psychosis a
journey and a breakthrough to somewhere more authentic? Scottish psychiatrist
R.D. Laing was a fierce critic of the mental health system, and saw madness as
a rational adaptation to irrational family and social constraints. How are
Laing’s provocative insights about politics and culture still relevant today?

~~~
gruseom
> his theories of psychosis are considered nonsense these days

They were considered nonsense when he first put them out, too. That's what
happens when you challenge a field at its foundations.

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mtraven
Archive.org to the rescue
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190306154203/http://www.gnosis...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190306154203/http://www.gnosisretreatcenter.org/)

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ccvannorman
This is awesome! But so expensive. After traveling abroad in Costa Rica and
Thailand, I imagine such a program could have 10-20% the cost, making it much
more accessible. I wonder if such programs exist? Maybe I should start one...

~~~
zeerev
And the people who are losing their mind due to lack of money lose again.

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sthatipamala
gruseom: This seems like an interesting initiative. Can you tell us why you
shared it?

~~~
gruseom
R.D. Laing is a major figure in the history of psychiatry and psychotherapy.
His radical critique of how society treats the mentally ill, and advocacy for
a more humane approach, are legendary. Laing was also a charismatic guy who
became a celebrity of the 60s and 70s counterculture.

The most famous of Laing's experiments was Kingsley Hall, where patients and
therapists (though presumably they didn't use those terms) would live
together, and where the focus was on helping through simple presence and
relationship rather than techniques or treatments. Here is a striking, even
astonishing story from one of the houses Laing started after Kingsley Hall:
[https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/11/living-one-r-d-
laings-p...](https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/11/living-one-r-d-laings-post-
kingsley-hall-households/). I posted it here years ago, where it didn't get
one upvote
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6713259](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6713259)),
but I still think it's one of the most interesting submissions I've made to
HN.

The author of that piece, who at the time of the story was a young therapist
enamored of Laing's approach, is now the founder of the new(ish) Gnosis
Retreat Center in San Francisco, along with a bunch of other people who worked
with Laing. Here he is talking about it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-lJWwwRc8#t=8m53s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-lJWwwRc8#t=8m53s).

I think it's interesting that they are making a fresh start at reviving what
Laing did, and that it's in San Francisco. That's why I posted this, though I
certainly didn't mean to bork their server!

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david-cako
“Gnosis”, is this rooted in Gnostic or neoplatonic philosophy? Or just the
name of knowledge.

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Merrill
[https://www.facebook.com/Gnosisretreatcenter/](https://www.facebook.com/Gnosisretreatcenter/)

Gnosis literally means knowledge, but most often it is used to indicate
mystical knowledge.

Also
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1MQyM14pcKhu96Zr5e2WA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1MQyM14pcKhu96Zr5e2WA)

[https://twitter.com/gnosisretreatc](https://twitter.com/gnosisretreatc)

~~~
cmroanirgo
Gnosis is more than just a term and is often quite controversial, particularly
to those that do not actively practice it. There are specific practices
(generally not divulged in public, but on a one-to-one basis and always for
free) on techniques that allow one to verify for oneself the truth of pretty
well anything /everything.

This does not appear to be one of those, but rather is formed by a collection
of psycotherapists, asking for rather sizable donations. Authentic gnosis will
never have fees. These people have a 'free consultation' followed by $100
individual fees for family support, from what I can make out.

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pmarreck
Database hosed.

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kylek
Must be a rough monday if this is on the front page. Hang in there.

~~~
throwaway35784
And we crashed the site too.

