Testimonials

Judge Mattocks

Aaron John Roupp

My calling has meant living my mission. Be a light of love, hope and faith so that others may see. Honor myself for my journey I have made so far. My spiritual path is really not about trying to get any where. It is just the reawakening to who I am.

Randall Larson-Maynard

I walked into my NWTA in Oct 1999 a man who did not trust men nor did I have any man-friends. When I completed the training, I came out a man who could see where trust and friendship could be formed. Since then, I have grown to have many trusted male friends inside, and outside, the ManKind Project and my weekly MKP igroup.

George Small

Since my training weekend, I can truly say I enjoy the path I’m on. I still have much work to do, but I live with a sense of personal mission and enjoy a bond with other men who are committed to supporting me in that work. That bond sometimes feels like a safety net, and other times like my feet are being held to the fire, but I always know that support is there. It has allowed me to develop a personal sense of integrity and accountability. I can look squarely at who I am, how I make choices, and when I act in ways that uphold my mission - and when those ways undermine it. I find it possible both to accept myself as I am, and also commit to being a better man without thinking there’s something wrong with me. And instead of a vague sense of something going on inside, I now experience emotions of joy, anger, sadness and fear deep in my gut.

While all these changes seem to be directed inward, I find that my focus has actually turned outward. Looking back, I realize the thing about being lost was that I couldn’t enjoy the scenery around me – I was too preoccupied with trying to find a way out. Now, my mission of connection feels like something that engages me everyday. I always felt called to service, but that call has evolved from “I should” or “I have to” to “I choose to.” No matter what I’m working on, my service often boils down simply to seeing the people in front of me for who they are, without letting my judgments, fears and personal needs cloud my vision. Whether or not the people in my world consciously share my vision, I feel most alive and most empowered when I connect to them without needing them to be something else. Yet somehow their defenses drop anyway and they show up in surprising ways. “Changing the world one man at a time” has become less about “doing to” and more about “being in.” From that place, I experience the magic of a community that improves the quality of life for all.

J. Scott Stephenson

The MKP Weekend Initiation was a significant milestone where I changed my approach to my life and the people in it. Most importantly I reached layers in myself of which I was not cognizant. It will always be a continuous process of work, but in that weekend I learned realized the strength I possess. I also realized the responsibility necessary to be a man. I now feel more connected to loved ones and capable of achieving whatever I aspire to do with my life.

Brian Kwitny, O.D.

I just returned from the Elder Retreat and just loved it. I even loved working in the kitchen amongst other men. Last year I got out of an oppressive job and landed a great new job as an Optometrist at a new Wal-Mart on Lafayette Road and couldn’t have done it without getting clear, owning my stuff, dealing with my stuff, and developing a strong work ethic and integrity. The MKP experiences helped tremendously. I am grateful for MKP and grateful for all the men and mentors.

Steve Wilemon

The New Warrior weekend was one of two major pinnacles in my life. My heart and soul, the essence of my being has been permanently made more integral and congruent. I’ll carry the love and gratitude for all the men who loved the hell out of me for the rest of my life.

Tim Chumley

The New Warrior Training Adventure was, without question, one of the most powerful events in my life. Throughout the NWTA I was surrounded by men — powerful, wise, nurturing men — who challenged me and guided me and supported me on a journey toward becoming a better man. I left the weekend with a much greater awareness of my responsibilities, both to myself and to the world at large, and a newfound understanding of what it means to live a life of integrity.

Kevin P.

MKP was something I needed and I didn’t realize how badly I needed it. I came out of the weekend a much better person than the one that arrived on Friday afternoon. I want this to stick. I want to continue to grow as a man, because this feels good.

Frank Manfre

At 47 years of age I had enjoyed a great career with financial success, a great wife and two wonderful healthy children yet I kept asking myself “is this all there is?” I really had no mission or purpose and couldn’t figure out what to do with the rest of my life. Then a man I worked with invited to the New Warrior Training Adventure. It was truly a transformational weekend and allowed to look at what wasn’t working in my life. The only regret I have is that I didn’t do it much earlier in my life. I came away with a mission and connection with other men that I cherish.

Orion Linekin

After doing the weekend, I am spiritually uplifted…and loving every moment of this day. I now have a huge desire to return and help other men with their work. My chest hurts with the opening of my heart. I have been needing this since I was 15, I have been looking for this since I was 28, and I finally found it at 41.

Dan W.

The weekend began as a group of somewhat cynical strangers and ended as a band of brothers. I left the weekend with a profoundly new sense of what it means to be a man and a new understanding of how I can be of service to others and be supported by others. I feel a new energy and excitement about discovering who I am and what I can do on this planet. The weekend cleared my head of lots of crap accumulated over the years and brought me back to some basic values that I hadn’t even realized were forgotten. I wish I had done this years ago.

Aernout

Through my initiation I found bearings I can call my own, and so have been able in the years since to lay to rest my anger, to retrace my steps and explore new paths, to learn to live in the here and the now, and to embrace myself as a man in Africa.

Adam

MKP has opened the door into my multiplicity. This has afforded a re-birth. It too is making it possible for me to be conscious and mindful as I grow - 360°.

Gary Viljoen

The Mankind Project has offered me the space to really understand what the mature masculine is all about, and, more importantly, to find that part of myself and to live it in a confident way as a husband, a father and a professional person.

Andrew Fulton

For me, MKP provides a safe container to discover and realize my mission in life.

Willie Baronet

MKP changed my life in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. At the time I did my weekend I owned my own company, had done quite a bit of self discovery work, and didn’t know I was missing a key piece of what I now believe it means to be a man. It’s made a tremendous difference in my relationship with my girlfriend, my father, and my friends. And I am so grateful.

Mark Zwahl

I didn’t realize it at the time I went to the training, but I didn’t trust men and definitely didn’t know how to love them or to see men as anything but a threat. Through this work, I’ve learned to truly see men for all that they are, and to love them just like they are.

Jim Lovestar

As a boy I was lonely, isolated, and bullied. At eighteen, I enlisted in the Marine Corps seeking trust and connection with men. I was disappointed in that experience, finding little of what I sought. Now, nearly forty years later, I am connected with men who I trust. I know I can speak to these men candidly. The feelings I keep hidden in the rest of my life are welcome with these men. The ongoing community that we create nourishes my marriage and my work life. This is priceless and I am eternally grateful.

Burt W.

I went through my weekend in 1997. Its the most life altering experience I’ve had. Over the years the empowerment has spread to every part of my life. I am very, very happy with the life I have created.

Jack Childs

ManKind Project fulfills my need for connection with men. MKP came in my 70’s, a culmination of years of teaching men’s issues and running a college men’s group. It is for me a place of loving support where I can become more whole and further the transformation of the planet. I experience in the work of I Group the range of my emotions, always with an underlying sense of joy—saying "Is this possible?

Sean Niland

The New Warrior Training Adventure was a turning point in my life. I really noticed how I felt different crossing the threshold of my home Sunday night. I felt a depth of gratitude, responsibility, and love for myself, my family, job, and friends well up within me. I could see more clearly how I needed to live in the world around me. My confusion, emptiness, and aloneness had cleared. I began to trust in a deeper part of myself that I always sensed, but couldn’t act upon in my day to day living. It was truly wonderful to make the journey with others, and receive the support from so many men. I had never experienced this much trust and love from men in the past.

G. J. Anderson

At age 63 I thought that I experienced all that this life held for me. My weekend was a re-birth, a new beginning of a new life that holds endless ways to grow, to be happier, to find myself after years of shutting down. How exciting the future is and how excited I am to be walking a new path, filled with hope, love and new brothers.

M. Davids

Experiencing the New Warrior Training Adventure was the most eye-opening, impactful & meaningful experience of my life. It was my wake up call to how I live my life, how my actions affect others, how I see my self and how other percieve me. It is a must for any man who wants an intense personal growth experience.

Dee Spitler

After 3 failed relationships, 2 failed businesses and sinking into depression, partying and running away from major responsibilities, including 3 sons, I was finally ready for something different in my life. I had no clue what it meant to be a man and how important it was to my self-esteem to be accountable, responsible, and congruent in my actions. My warrior brothers supported me in my self-forgiveness, shame and not good enough self lies. My life today is full of successes, abundance and gratitude.

Mike Matt

MKP gave me the opportunity to live a life of connection with the world around me, rather than isolation and fear. Before my NWTA, I had everything I had hoped for — a prosperous career with an incredible salary, success over years of addiction, material possessions — but I was still alone and in fear. I was afraid to let go of the dream and hope that eventually my father and uncles were finally going to step forward to show me how to be a man. Instead, I have elders and brothers in MKP who WANT to connect with me on this level. I now am able to help the next man living that same life of isolation and fear that crippled me.

Horace Stewart

I have been “working” on myself since 1991 by using weekend seminars, workshops and motivational materials. I found that live people to people gatherings allowed me to be more real and authentic. When I did my weekend in 1999 it was a synergy of all the work I did before combined. The 8 to 10 weeks follow up helped to reinforce many life changing skills which I still use practically in all my relationships today.

Thomas Griggs

What could possibly be so compelling that an independent and very busy man would choose to meet for 4 hours every other week for 13 years with a group of 10 other guys? I can tell you, it is not sports, or poker, or hunting. It is the discovery that emotional authenticity and trusting other men completely can save a man’s life. How valuable is that to his children?

Greg Gondron

MKP has created a space for me to look at all parts of myself, to see what’s working and not working in my life, and to connect with a powerful, healthy circle of men whom I trust and love.

David Two Hawks

MKP quite literally has saved my life. My life was like watching a re-run of a bad T.V. show over and over again. Every relationship had the same plot and same demise; I had no way to change the channels. MKP has shown me how to stop them from playing.

William R. Pike

A ’veteran’ of self-help books, ’healing’ workshops, and personal development courses, I felt powerless to consistently extend myself to be the ’me’ I wanted to be. At 41 I needed to regain some of that elusive courage and self-belief I demonstrably had years ago. Several ’things’ in the MKP New Warrior Training Adventure literature ’spoke’ to that part of me that wanted to be more than my current lot. I took the plunge, enrolled, and attended what remains the most transformative and empowering experience-bar none I have ever experienced. Simply put, the MKP Initiation is a highly evolved and purely spiritual ’initiation’ into the sum of the best that Mankind has ever been, and has potential to become;- it’s the ’ignition’ a truly ’connected’ man must experience to connect and remain in tune with the sacred mature masculine energy which permeates our world. It is ’essential’ men’s business, as practiced throughout the history of mankind prior to its suppression in recent centuries through excessive religious practices and over-rationalism. I will happily speak to any man of this essential experience at any time on +61411754547-its the least I can do to share this sacred, and much-needed gift with another man who needs it like I did.

Ron Samfeld

My eleven-year experience with MKP/New Warrior has enabled me to GET IT. I don’t know what IT is? But, I got it.

Ken Rehm

MKP changed my life. I now know what accountability, integrity and mission really mean. I practice the skills I learned at MKP every single day. I know what it means for me to be a man with all the honor, responsibility, accountability and emotions that go with that.

Bill Napier

The NWTA weekend served as a wakeup call for me. I initiated 11 years ago and the memory and learnings still resonate within. This weekend was instrumental in a deepening up my relationship with my wife & children as well as a new personal direction for myself. I highly recommend it to any man ready to look inside and do his work!

Mike

Actually, I thought my life was working just fine. Granted, my son was dying of cancer, my marriage of 20 years had ended, I had no real friends, I was spiritually dead, and was depressed and suicidal, but, hey, I’m fine! So to say that MKP saved my life would be understatement. It gave me a life. It set me on a spiritual path that makes my life one of joy and purpose. Even though it’s been only 4 years since I was initiated, I can barely remember what life was like or what I was like before MKP.

Robert Desmarais Sullivan

On the Weekend, I learned how much I had been hiding my feelings from myself, living in shadow, blaming everything on everyone else in the process. I was living with total misunderstanding of my own role in creating sadness. The Weekend was a first step, but one I probably wouldn’t have taken on my own. Also, I discovered honest and compassionate connection with men that I had never known before. With initiated men, I continue to have experiences that mystify me and bring a richness to my life that I rarely have with uninitiated men. I believe that it is because I learned to trust men who have willingly gone through the initiation, but that I am generally still suspicious of men who have not.

David C Pierce

ManKind Project activities have opened me up to go deeper and inquire about what I really am. This work with Adyashanti is setting me free to be totally conscious, and sense the joy of life. I am much more present, with a heightened awareness, for all of us. Much Love & Blessings!

Joe Sigurdson

I initiated in 1994 with my brother Corky. In 1995 we brought our father Herb to a weekend. He was 67 years old and had done a lot of internal work in his life. Jim Coleman facilitated his work and had the wisdom to recognize that he had been around the block. His guts work was to tell a love story of our mothers passing and what he did to grieve and move through his loss. The entire room was bawling. When he entered the New Warrior community he took on the role as ideal father for many men. When he became ill with cancer, that is when I became fully aware of what this community meant to me. Men literally carried me through his death. The outpouring support for him and our entire family was and still is one of the most expressions of love I have ever experienced. I am eternally grateful to all the New Warriors that have taught, shaped and evolved me into the man I am today.

William L. Marinucci

The New Warrior Training Adventure weekend changed my life… forever! It was perhaps the most powerful gift I have ever given myself… Six years later, I am heavily involved with MKP and living a life filled with joy, accountability, and integrity! Thank you ManKind Project.

Dennis Nicely

The NWTA and the follow-up group work has been a major part of the change that has occurred in my life these past nine years. This organization has provided the space for me to claim my place in this world as a man whose is gay. I denied that part of myself for so many years, but realized I was not in integrity with my core being. Since I have embraced that part of myself and have learned to love that part of who I am, I have become a much happier man and I believe a better Dad, brother, son, educator, and friend.