“Picture the scene: you are in a room with more than a hundred adults. Sitting at one end, with a microphone in his hand, is a man with long white hair who is encouraging everybody to introduce themselves to each other. ‘Go up to somebody,’ he says, ‘and say one honest, true thing about them that strikes you immediately. Then have them do the same back to you. But before you do that,’ he goes on, ‘please take off all your clothes.’

Welcome to the ‘most radical self-help workshop in the world’, as this hip new 10-day residential retreat is dubbed. Led by the Birmingham-born life coach guru Paul Lowe, it is not a place for the shy and retiring. As well as being encouraged to voice compliments to each other, such as ‘you make my vagina tingle’, discuss innermost feelings in intense, nude ‘sharing’ circles and take part in sensual massage sessions, participants will also be invited, during the course of the workshop, to explore their sexuality with multiple partners (yes, actually in the workshop). In Lowe’s eyes, you see, monogamy is one of those ‘ludicrous, unnatural social conventions that stand between you and spiritual enlightenment’.

(via The Times Online)