"You want to be the best man you can be? Be yourself!"

June 2003
By a "feminized man"

I attended "The Sterling Weekend," but did not graduate.

A very close friend and business partner sold me on this supposed "passage to manhood." He told me to go without questioning anything and to trust "everything" Justin Sterling said.

Well, I tried, but didn't even make it through the first night.

I saw and heard enough to know that the Sterling way of life and what I feel is being "the best man I can be" are as different as day and night.

They said at the Weekend men should never show their "true self" to the that woman they spend their life with. And men should never let women see them without their "battle armor."

Are we living in the dark ages? Did I miss something here?

As for the word "love," we were told to essentially abandon it.

It also seems that according to Sterling being a peaceful easy-going man, is not being "the best man you can be."

Well I'm sorry, but I guess deep down I'm just too much of a so-called "feminized man."

That's what Justin Sterling says men of my generation are. Which is why we supposedly "need" his weekend.

Through it all there was this fear, that what they really wanted to do was to try and brainwash me. And from the looks of this archive, it seems like I am not the only one to come away with that impression.

When they finally introduced Justin Sterling and he started talking, it was in the dark with incense burning. This seemed somewhat cultic to me. He talks in a soft almost hypnotic tone, apparently trying to lay the mind to rest. Justin slowly gets people comfortable with him.

When the lights came on, getting straight answers from Sterling was like pulling teeth. The man is good at overcoming any and all objections. Don't expect to win a debate with Justin Sterling at his Weekend.

I felt intimidated; almost scared not to go along, which is how I got sucked into the Weekend in the first place.

Actually I tried to make myself believe some of what he was saying. But it seems to me that Sterling wants men to behave like animals.

As for Justin's philosophy about relationships, if you want a woman who loves you for you, a woman you can confide in, then I suggest staying clear of this group.

Hold onto your $600 dollars and buy something nice for your wife instead.

I walked out of my Weekend because it felt like it would actually harm me to finish it. Even though I feel that I have a strong mind and that it would be hard to brainwash me. But it wasn't worth taking the chance.

No. I just didn't want to buy what they had to sell.

I would rather be a peaceful, loving man, husband and father. And that can be done without Justin Sterling & Company!

You want to be the best man you can be? Be yourself!