EVENTS UPDATE

Declare your emotional independence:  Introduction to The Option Method has been restructured and relocated to the Bay area!   The dates are now August 27th and 28th and we have lowered the fee to an astounding $95.  Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in the life-changing, joy-building experience of an Option Method workshop.  In this empowering, experiential and fun workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of the most efficient, effective method for unraveling any unhappiness, from the slightest annoyance to the deepest fear. 

The Option Method is a personal growth and happiness tool designed to help people feel the way they’d love to feel.  The philosophy behind it recognizes that if we are unhappy, it is because we believe we have to be on some level.  The Option Method helps to bring those beliefs into awareness through loving, non-judgmental questions.  As a result, we develop a completely new way of thinking about happiness and unhappiness.  We come to understand the true genesis and purpose of unhappiness and possibly for the first time in our lives, to be able to effectively question its necessity.    

This workshop is a rare opportunity to work with three of the most experienced Option Method Master Teachers in the world, trained directly by the creator of The Option Method, Bruce Di Marsico.   The workshop is intended to provide you with a basic understanding of the principles and practice of The Option Method.  There are no prerequisites. 

Workshop Hours and Agenda

Saturday, August 27th and Sunday, August 28th

Morning Program:  9 am to noon

Afternoon Program:  1:00 pm to 5 pm

Saturday program

Laying the groundwork for the practice of The Option Method.  An experiential and personally focussed exploration of:

• The dynamic connection between beliefs, judgments and emotions
• Your happiness attitude and how it affects the way you feel about your life
• How and why you choose unhappiness and how to stop
• The awesome power of questioning beliefs that cause unhappiness
• How to listen to yourself and others with unconditional love and acceptance
• How to take charge of your internal dialogue to uncover crucial beliefs that affect your happiness

Sunday program

The practice of The Option Method.  You've learned the fundamentals - now let's put it into practice, through:

• Understanding The Option Method Attitude and Questions
• Live demonstrations by our master teachers
• Guided practice with partners 
  

This workshop satisfies some of the requirements for registration as an Option Method Teacher.

TUITION:  $95

WHAT'S NEW IN BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Enjoy this new article by Frank Mosca:

What philosophical camp or framework does The Option Method fit into?  This a great question that comes up as people hear about OM and may ask themselves: so what’s different about this perspective? Why would I pay attention or spend time getting more fully acquainted with it? Isn’t it just like Buddhism, or cognitive behavioral therapy, or the alleged revelations of some “channeled” angelic entity or other, or some of the best sellers that have appeared in the last years with what seem like similar leanings etc., etc.?

 No it is most certainly not. I have been studying philosophy and psychology for over 50 years now, and in my opinion Bruce Di Marsico’s perspective is utterly unique and  therefore just about impossible to stick into any one “camp” or grouping. That doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t do that and think they had pegged Bruce and labeled him fully. Often to define is to make irrelevant however paradoxical that might seem. Let me give an overview of Bruce’s perspective starting from its very basic assumptions as best I can.

The Fundamental Illusion:  The Belief in Unhappiness

First Bruce, like the Buddha rests his view on the notion that human thought has negotiated its way through the centuries on the basis of a fundamental illusion. For the Buddha, the illusion was the belief that what humans perceived as “reality” really existed. Not only is it “maya” but the engine that drives maya and deepens the hold of the illusion on humans is desire.  Precisely to the extent and intensity with which a given human may pursue and become enmeshed with the illusory seductions of desire, precisely to that extent is that person bound to be unhappy, miserable, confused and often addicted to the blandishments of power; it is striving to somehow order the uncontrollable, unpredictable chaotic alterations that emerge out of the very attempts to control something which doesn’t even exist.

 It is like wrestling with an illusory tiger; you take the creature to be real and respond with reactions you deem suitable to such an extreme existential situation. The more fiercely you struggle, the greater the misery and the wider the undesirable outcomes of your power strivings. This point of view already existed to some degree in the Hindu traditions that were the matrix out of which the Buddha emerged.

 I make the point about the Buddha, first because it is close to being the most popular philosophical/spiritual method on the planet with a core initial starting point that has  something in common with OM; secondly, only to indicate that here is a system that defines as the core problem the existence of a fundamental illusion to which all humans give allegiance. This system has gathered literally billions of adherents over the centuries, so it demonstrates that taking illusion as a point of departure does not vitiate your argument as it were.

 Moving on to Bruce we see that he also begins with the assertion that humans have lived their lives enmeshed in a fundamental illusion: the belief in unhappiness. That belief has been the bedrock upon which all cultures have been built. So that the laws, customs, imperatives, strivings, struggles and conflicts have all poured forth from that illusory cornucopia of endless insoluble paradoxes. Just as the Buddha attempted to resolve all of the human problems by basically denying their existence, so too does Bruce get out from under all human problems by the same type of understanding. The difference here is that instead of declaring all of reality an illusion and making desire the instrument of the maintenance of that illusion, Bruce ratifies the existence of what is and merely reveals that access to what is, which is self realization of one’s “happiness nature” so to speak, is made enormously difficult through the belief in unhappiness.

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We are pleased to announce that the ebook version of The Guru Next Door, A Teacher's Legacy by Wendy Dolber has been nominated for a Dan Poyntor Global ebook Award.  Guru is a fictional treatment of the life of Bruce Di Marsico and  demonstrates The Option Method through the story of a troubled girl who lives in the house next door..  Winning this award would be wonderful publicity for The Option Method.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.  If you'd like to help, leave a comment on the site about how much you liked Guru.