The ISA Experience

Self-Actualization

Self-actualization is a term used to describe the manifestation (actualization) of our potential as human beings beyond basic survival needs. Self-actualization is tapping into and using the power we already possess to transform the quality of our lives.Many people go through life thinking they could "do more" or "be better", and circumstances such as time, money, and relationships, somehow prevent them. Self-actualization begins with discovering that it is not the problems in our lives (the content), it is the way we approach the problems (the context) that gets in our way. The isa Experience demonstrates the technology of self-actualization and goes beyond the recognition of what gets in our way to expanding our ability to see more options and choices. The result is an energizing experience of freedom and control : the ability to create more results and fewer conflicts.

The isa Experience

The isa Experience provides a situation and an atmosphere, over a whole weekend, in which you can find time and space to look clearly at your own life. It takes place in a hotel conference room, and is attended by 75 - 200 participants representing a wide range of age, experience and education. The Experience takes place over four days : Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. It is completed with a personal half-hour follow-up a few days later, and a three-hour Post Experience in a week to ten days.During the weekend, the group participates in various activities including discussions, sharings, and exercises. In the Experience, you focus on you. You are encouraged to look for yourself to see what works for you and what doesn't - without any judgment or criticism. The isa Experience is an adventure ; full of challenge, excitement and spontaneity. It is often light and playful, and sometimes even a bit scary. It is always open, sensitive and warm.

The Purpose

isa's purpose is to assist people to achieve more of the results in their lives that they really want.Most people who do the Experience are people who are successful in their lives. You may be successful in your work, have relationships that are more than adequate, and feel reasonably satisfied with the way your life is going. You might think it's all quite good enough ; and somewhere underneath, at a deeper level, you sense there is something missing - something unfulfilled or not quite right. The Experience is about looking - looking at the deeper part of you that has been ignored for a long time. What comes out of this is a sense of adventure, exhilaration, and an appreciation of life for its own sake. You begin to feel you can retrieve that capacity you had as a child - to reach out, with both hands, every time you wake ; to touch and feel the experiences of each day. isa is not just about being happy. That's only one of the aspects of what it is to be human. isa allows you to recognise your ability to love, to grieve, to be strong, to be afraid, to be kind, to accept your vulnerability. The isa Experience assists you to live more fully, to put your whole self into life - to experience more happiness, and perhaps more sadness too ; and you will find your life more 'textured', rich, and substantial than you did before the Experience. The isa Experience is not designed to change you, nor to make you ''better''. To become more authentically what we are, more fully human, is isa's aim.

How it works

The content of the isa Experience is drawn from a wide range of sources ; from Lao Tzu to Einstein. It is substantiated and actualized through a variety of discussions, exercises and processes ; combining 30 hours of engaging dialogue and intense self-exploration in an atmosphere that is intimate and nurturing. The environment created in the Experience encourages you to explore openly your relationship to life. This examination occurs through three channels of interaction and communication.The first is your interaction with the material presented by the facilitator. Each segment of information is offered for you to examine and apply to the context of your personal experience.The second channel is your interaction with the other participants. As you and the others share and ask questions of the facilitator, you will serve each other as reminders and mirrors ; stimulating emotions, memories, and insights, leading to a powerful, internal recognition of self. The third and most important channel is your relationship with you. Special processes, or exercises, have been designed to enable you to recall specific events in your life and examine them with a new clarity. The Experience broadens the context in which you view your actions and experiences. You will see yourself with a greater sense of wholeness and balance, and can begin to act in harmony with who you really are.Although it is encouraged, active participation is not required to get value from the Experience. You can participate or not, as you wish. You can ask questions or not, as you choose. That doesn't affect the results for you ; except, perhaps, in measure. The more you participate, the more you will take in. Many participants who are initially hesitant to speak in groups discover the environment to be safe and supportive, and find it easy to share their insights and questions.

What it does

The isa Experience transforms your relationship to life by assisting in expanding and clarifying your knowledge of yourself. Using this information, you can move from the receiving end of the circumstances in your life into a position of initiating and controlling them.

We usually go through life thinking we are in a certain mold, or mode, and because that is how we think we are, it looks to us as though that's the way we actually are. If, for example, you think you are timid, or shy, then you will behave as if you are shy and will accumulate lots of evidence to prove it. Each time you approach a new situation that challenges this belief, you will think you are shy and that is exactly what you will reproduce - reinforcing your belief and perpetuating the pattern. Most of us have accumulated many barriers such as this, and we don't dare explore anymore. Something in us is ''frozen'', so whatever dissatisfactions we have continue to be the same.

The isa Experience gives you the opportunity to be and experience yourself as otherwise, and then suddenly you discover a whole realm of qualities and talents you weren't in touch with before, simply because of the way you thought. During the course of the isa Experience, there is some quality in all of us that emerges as something we have not recognised before.

It is how you see life, and how you approach what life has to offer, that is transformed.

What isa is not

isa is not a belief system, nor is it a substitute for religion. Nuns, monks, clergy and lay people of many denominations and religions, as well as agnostics and atheists have participated in the Experience.It is not therapy, encounter, positive thinking, or intellectual theory. It is not designed to change you ; it's designed to enhance your ability to produce the results you want.

History 

The Institute for Self-Actualization (isa) was founded by Ole P. Larsen in 1977 with the creation of the isa Experience. Ole developed the isa Experience as a way of sharing information he had learned while seeking a higher level of awareness and a greater sense of balance and wholeness in his life. The isa Experience is an intensive workshop that focuses on "you" and explores how your perceptions and experiences shape your world and the way that your life unfolds.

Early on, Ole observed both in himself and in others, that even successful people were missing a sense of satisfaction and contentment in their lives. Searching for answers, Ole studied philosophy and literature at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California. Continuing his quest for knowledge, he found a teacher in W. A. Nyland, a man who had studied with Gurdjieff, an Armenian philosopher. Ole studied with Mr. Nyland for five years, and discovered he could shift the way he looked at his life and his experiences. When Mr. Nyland died in 1975, Ole continued practicing the methods himself. People around him noticed that he approached life differently and began asking him questions about his life, and about theirs. He felt a responsibility to share what he had learned and developed the isa Experience, a practical information and experiential seminar, to pass on this knowledge.

Ole facilitated the first isa Experience with a small group of people, consisting of people who knew him or had heard about him. These attendees shared the value they had received from the Experience with their friends and family, and soon there became a steady demand for the seminar. Graduates of the isa Experience grew and formed a community of like-minded people who were actively working on themselves to shift their life perspectives and experiences in valuable and healthy ways. isa has continued to grow over the years through word of mouth and people sharing the value of the Experience and the isa community with others.

Luis Cordoba, Ole Larsen's apprentice of twenty years, is the President of isa. Born and raised in Colombia, Luis moved to the United States when he was 18. He served in the Army and then enrolled in the University of South Alabama, studying Dentistry. While an undergraduate, he met a professor who was strikingly different - full of joy and excited about life and his work. When he questioned the professor, he learned about the isa Experience.

Although skeptical, Luis attended the next Experience. He now says that, to his surprise, it was "the best, the most important, weekend of my life". He felt as if a veil had been lifted and he could see clearly for the first time. He recognized that he was in charge of his life and could change all the negative programming he had acquired. He also realized that his desire to be a dentist came from his belief that earning a lot of money would make him feel secure. At the Experience, Luis realized that true security does not come from money, but rather from the way he lives his life. He saw that others also received a genuine and profound value from attending the isa Experience. Luis decided then that he wanted to facilitate the Experience. After studying with Ole for many years and putting the information into practice in his life, he led his first isa Experience in 1987.

Luis currently resides in Chicago and facilitates about 40 events a year, including the isa Experience, the Graduate Intensive Training, and other isa workshops. A worldwide organization, isa workshops are held in Nashville, Chicago, Denver and Detroit in the U.S.A., in England, Sweden, and now Australia. In each city, a growing community of isa graduates network, encourage, and support each other in continuing their personal growth. The national and international isa communities are also connected via many projects and events. In this way, the work begun in the Experience is continued in the lives of the graduates.

For further information and program schedule see Links page