Not so deep in a Brisbane Reddit thread is a post raising some interesting questions about a personal development organisation called Real Education. 

Our curiosity was sparked, and the investigation began. As we started to speak with former participants we heard stories about transformation, psychodrama, breathwork and getting naked in the forest. Our conversations with both participants and the organisation itself would go on for many months. 

Real Education has been operating since 1996, when its founder Murray Masarik, along with his wife Denise, began the ‘Real Man’ workshop. This was a weekend-long experience for men looking to better themselves and develop a deeper understanding of their relationships.  Since then their offerings have expanded. 

The organisation runs a range of workshops, as outlined by this chart we found amongst their promotional material. They told The Feed that their programs have had “amazing life changing outcomes for more than 12,000 participants to date”.

The personal development movement emerged in the 1970s. Since then it has grown into a massive global industry. 

From Tony Robbins-type celebrities to small business style life coaches spruiking one-on-one sessions via Instagram, there are minds to mend and money to be made. 

Today, the industry is worth $50 billion annually.

Of all their workshops, the Real Man and Real Woman experiences are Real Education's key offerings. Known by the Real Education community as the ‘mountain workshops’, these experiences cost up to $4,395 and are promoted as “innovative” and “dynamic”. 

Real Education told The Feed they use over 40 modalities; many of which are not taught in traditional clinical education fields and most of which are not available through traditional clinical settings. According to the organisation, their practices can help those who haven’t found closure from more conventional counselling or therapy.

Michelle arrived at her first Real Woman workshop in 2017 feeling lost. She had been prescribed antidepressants to help with her mental health, but she was looking for a more holistic form of healing. 

She left Real Woman One feeling like she had found her solution. 

“I walked through this world, like ‘I am so healed; I am such an amazing woman,’ and I was so ready to do Real Two,” she says. 

Her first mountain workshop was the last time she ever took an antidepressant. 

But the mountain workshops are not all positive transformation and strolls through the forest. 

Some former participants spoke to us about intense breathwork and nakedness. Carl was involved with Real Education on and off for eight years. He recalls one night when everyone was dancing around the fire when everyone, including Murray Masarik, started getting naked.  Carl told us he had a history of sexual abuse, and found stripping naked in this context was outside his comfort zone.

Real Education told The Feed, “at no point are any participants being pressured to participate in nudity”, and that detailed information is provided before each activity.

But perhaps the most confronting activity in the mountain workshop is called ‘dotting’. Real Education told The Feed that ‘dotting’ is a type of group therapy where you address some trauma from your past. 

“It would be considered psychodrama in today's world,” says Rose, who was a participant and crew member with Real Education between 2004 and 2009. “And in fact they recreate the trauma, and they ... make people relive that memory.”

After her time with Real Education, Rose went on to study clinical psychology. 

She says, “for the majority of people who go to the mountain workshops, it is a truly positive experience. But I'm concerned about the maybe, five or 10 per cent who it … actually makes their trauma worse.”

Real Education told The Feed that the purpose of dotting is to, “process the traumatic experience out of their nervous system, their mind, their emotional state, their beliefs and set themselves free.” 

This dotting process can bring up past experiences of sexual assault. 

Jess was a participant between 2012 and 2014 and remembers hearing a woman recount her experience of assault as a child. 

Michelle remembers another woman’s dotting process which also related to sexual assault.

On the mountain workshops, you start as a participant and can work your way up the various levels of crew. 

This hierarchical structure means  participants might be processing trauma with crew who have no formally recognised qualifications or skills. 

When we asked Real Education about this, they said the most experienced crew have done no less than nine workshops and that many of the crew members are life coaches.

Unlike in psychology, life coaching is unregulated in Australia. Whereas practising psychologists are held accountable by a profession-wide code of conduct, there is no equivalent in the personal development industry. 

There is also no independent body or organisation where consumers can lodge a complaint about organisations or individuals in the life coaching space. 

“There is nothing in the personal development world that holds people like Real accountable, ongoing and regularly,” says Rose. “There's no one watching”.

Rose says if she was to walk into a Real Education mountain workshop today, knowing what she now knows, she would walk out again.

“It's just so wrong,” she says. “It's not safe to do those things with vulnerable people. And I didn't know that at the time”.

Real Education says they’ve already adopted standards akin to professions such as counselling.

By many accounts, Real Education’s co-founder Murray Masarik is a skilled facilitator and orator. When we asked Michelle what words she would use to describe him, she said: “Interesting, power, control” and “the king”. 

Carl told us, “Murray had a way of walking into the room and having everyone cast their eyes and attention in a single second… I saw him as something like a role model or, or even a father figure”.

But former participants told us that there's an element of secrecy around Real Education and its practices.

“I felt that I was bound to this secrecy and confidentiality of the brotherhood,” says Carl. “This is actually probably one of my first experiences where I am actually telling people what happens up on the mountain."

Real Education says they have no objection to individuals talking about their general experiences at the workshops. They say it’s through word of mouth that people find out about it. 

But the organisation’s documents show that those who’ve done the workshops are told, “what happens at the mountain/ seminar, stays at the mountain/seminar”.

Throughout the production of this story, The Feed had been in contact with Murray Masarik. But at one point, the conversation suddenly stopped.

It turns out Real Education is no stranger to legal action. We’d been hearing about a situation that happened in 2018...

Five female employees, who were also participants and crew members, left the organisation. One of them had been a partner of Murray.

There was a lot of rumour and speculation about the organisation at that time. But this is what’s on the public record: 

Each of the five women who left Real Education in 2018 made a claim to Fair Work.

Three of the women settled, and the two others withdrew their cases. 

The Feed understands there are legal agreements in place that prevent the women from talking about the nature of their complaints.

Separately, former participants had told us they were worried that professional and personal boundaries were being blurred.

“I’m aware that Murray has had relationships with people who were participants at some point,” says Judith. 

Judith was involved with Real Education between 1997 and 2003, and was there for the first Real Woman workshop. 

“In my view, there always needs to be that arm's length in the relationship between a practitioner or a professional and a client or a patient”. 

Rose agrees. 

“It is so unethical. He's in a higher, higher position and he's, he's got this control... almost like a teacher or someone who you look up to,” she says. 

When contacted by The Feed, Real Education denied that Murray Masarik has had relationships with former participants, saying that “the allegations are untrue”.

They say crew are forbidden from intimately engaging with participants for at least a month after a workshop, and that they’re certainly not aware of any “inappropriate” sexual relationships between participants and crew or leaders.

There are other questions around Real Education related to their business management. In 2018 the company went into voluntary insolvency after not paying tax for three years. 

The liquidator found they had traded while insolvent and that Murray and Denise Masarik together owed more than $100,000 to the business. 

Three years on and Real Education continues to trade under a new ABN. 

Real Education says the longevity of their organisation - 25 years in business - is testimony to the overall management and quality of their services.

The organisation’s lawyers deny that Murray and Denise are unfit to be directors and say that ASIC hasn’t made any findings to that effect.

They continue to run their intensive weekend workshops.

Real Education says their program is unique and will not appeal to everyone.

They accept that some may not be supportive of what they do, and say they have no difficulty with those individuals expressing their view in that regard.

“You know, I'm very, very happy and grateful for the growth and learning... I cannot say how much it helped me grow and break free from so much pain,” says Michelle. “But on the other hand...No.”

The Feed is not suggesting that any individuals associated with Real Education have committed any offence.