Characteristics of powerful men
by Steve Norcross When I was a kid, I feared powerful men. Now upon reflection, my fear was based on observations that were real. In the world I grew up in, many men were powerful to the extent that they were dominant if not domineering over members of their families. Their work tended toward the competitive, and their life styles were punctuated by alcohol and a love of high contact sports. Since then, I have come to appreciate power...
A conversation with Bill Kauth
Bill Kauth is a co-founder of the ManKind Project. He helped develop the New Warrior Training Adventure, the Inner King training and the Warrior Monk training. He is the author of A Circle of Men: The Original Manual for Men’s Support Groups. To mark the upcoming 25th Anniversary of The Mankind Project, the 2003 interview below is reprinted from the New Warrior Journal, forerunner of the Mankind Project Journal. The...
The law of commitment
by Roy Biancalana Imagine your life three years from now. If you’re like me, that’s a fairly easy thing to do. Most of us know what we’d like to attract, create or manifest in our lives. It’s the “how” part that trips us up. We know where we want to go, but we’re not sure how to get there. I want to discuss this confusing “how” issue. There are universal laws that govern manifestation. If you consciously align your life with these ...
MKP’s 25-Year Anniversary Celebration
Men of the Project: On October 21-23 in Louisville, Kentucky, The ManKind Project International (“MKPI”) will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. In February of 1985, Ron Hering, Bill Kauth and Rich Tosi invited the first group of men to attend a “Wildman Weekend” outside of Chicago, Illinois. Since then, nearly 44,000 men worldwide have attended a similar version of that experience. At our anniversary...
Welcome Home Project helps veterans heal by sharing war burdens with the community
On Memorial Day 2008, the veterans presented themselves with their poetry, songs and stories to an audience of more than 600 men and women who came to honor and truly welcome home these warriors.
The MKP Mental Health Resource Team: History, Process and Mission
by David Rose One of the ongoing narratives of The ManKind Project has been the tension between keeping the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) a fierce and powerful experiential training while at the same time keeping a consciousness around safety — whether physical, spiritual, cultural, or psychological. There have been several major advances in our consciousness around safety. In the mid-1990’s, a new emphasis on pre-training...
Can people with bipolar disorder recover?
by Peter Dorsen, MD Why do those of us with bipolar disorder have to carry the stigma that we will always be sick? Can’t we ever “recover” enough from our disorder to return to the place we started before we were diagnosed with a chronic mental illness? Does the tail wag the dog? Are psychiatrists motivated by the pharmaceutical industry to push medications rather than provide holistic, collaborative care? My...
Dipping into the wells of mental health
by Joe Glassman In trying to find and keep my own sanity, and in trying to assist hundreds of others solve problems in living, I’ve found value from dipping into five wells for emotional health. Balance means dipping into different wells for sustenance. My wells are not everyone’s wells. I can only speak to mine, yet I believe there is some universality to them. The Health Well. This includes eating healthy foods and doing some...
Gender differences: Are men or women more likely to be mentally ill?
by Steve Norcross Part of my training as an Episcopal priest was to go through a summer of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). I accomplished this as an intern at a state mental hospital in Texas. Years later, I advanced my education to become a supervisor in CPE, and did so at a large federal mental hospital in Washington, DC. My training assigned me to several wards, some of which were coed, and others one-gender. In this article I...
Break into your heart; a poem
by Paul Goldman If like a thief in the night, I were to break into your heart — what would I find there? Precious gems tucked away beneath velveteen cloth, ethereal ancestral songs, and deeper still— a longing to know your own Creator; the one who through alchemy’s mystery transformed the very essence of you into a gift golden. If you broke into mine, what would you find beneath the layers? You would find the most valued treasure of...
I was a husky child
by Peter B. Perkins A husky child, that was me. Ample. Hefty. Beefy. In that by-gone time, children were a non-descript, average-size. On the other hand, I was conspicuous, distinct. My separation from the preponderance of my classmates — indelible, clear-as-a-bell, plain as white bread, obvious as a raisin in oatmeal — was stitched into the waistband of my dungarees. There lived the word that defined so much of my childhood:...
Mastering what’s in front of me
by Wayne Luthi “Master what is in front of you.” — author unknown, believed to be a Buddhist saying My focus has always tended to be “future” oriented, my mind on what’s coming up next. I’ve subscribed to the idea that somehow the future will always be better, no matter what’s in front of me. My “focus” is already on the next page, three blocks down the road. I could excuse myself...
Psychoanalysis: The forgotten grandparent of The ManKind Project
by Joe Jeral, MD Psychoanalysis is the father of psychotherapy as we know it today. Every form of therapy, even an overtly non-therapeutic personal growth experience like MKP, owes its existence to Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. In the nine years since my first MKP weekend in 2001, I’ve noticed that few people know about the forgotten psychoanalytic “grandparents” of MKP. Actually, the emotional, psychological and spiritual...
Stress relief: Seven things you can do today
by Mike Biles, M.A. Let’s not kid ourselves – stress is fear. I have fear. You have fear. We all have fear at times, and it’s helpful to recognize stress for what it is. Stress or fear is a known cause for heart attacks, lowered immune response, psychological disorders, addiction, and it’s probably the most damaging element you can bring into your relationships. Here are seven things you can do right now that...
Seventh World Elder Gathering
Held October 20-22 in conjunction with MKP’s 25-Year Anniversary Celebration in Louiville, Kentucky, the Seventh World Elder Gathering (WEG) for this first time this year features men and women participating throughout the event. A closer connection of the masculine and feminine began last year at the Sixth World Elder Gathering in the UK, which was the first international MKP gathering held outside the U.S. Both the WEG and the...
Changes; a poem
by Stefan J. Malecek I neither hate nor depreciate the self I used to be, for failures and faults I could not then avoid, that now burn brightly like ingots of stellar mass deep in my heart of hearts like a beacon for others, my brothers, to follow on their own journey into the heart of dark shadow and emerge newborn, reborn from the ashes of the past into the love, joy, and brightness that awaits each of us in the golden...
Gender Differences: Women love by sentiment. Men love by action.
by Steve Norcross Women give and receive love as sentiment. Men give and receive love as action. Already I’m in trouble. I have made a sweeping generalization with many exceptions. In this time of discovering that men and women are more alike than different, and in this day of a blurring of the lines that formerly defined the gender roles, I may be politically incorrect to describe inherent differences between the sexes. Actually, I’m...
From darkness I approach; a poem
by Devon Strong As the seasons change at Equinox, it lasts the winters night, from darkness I approach. As the cold of frost feathered windows, from darkness I approach. As snowy footprints under star sparkled sky, from darkness I approach. It is time for changing or renewing the spirit of flesh, from darkness I approach. I see before me the vanity of youth and experience of times to come, from darkness I approach. I take the hand of...
The four loves of my life
For me, love is devotion, promise, interaction, giving, and risking. High risk; high reward.
Heart Opening; a poem
I opened my heart and found you comfortably resting inside, as if you had always been waiting for the right time when I would find you.
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     The ManKind Project® is a global nonprofit education and training organization dedicated to helping men find and live the best of who they can be as men. We support over 1000 men's groups in over 10 countries around the world. Our flagship training is the New Warrior Training Adventure. Over 58,000 men have stepped out of their comfort zones to make a better life for themselves and their families. |
