Friday, August 16, 2019

A Schism in Flow-land? Flow Genome Project vs. Flow Research Collective

In Nov. 2017 I did a scathing review of  the "Stealing Fire" book by Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler - in support of expensive workshops offered by their "Flow Genome Project" - purporting to show the latest science relevant to the flow states of enhanced human performance described in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s original writings on this subject. I judged the book a mess, with very little of substance to offer. A follow up post in Sept. 2018 passed on an exchange between one dissatisfied customer and a representative of the flow genome workshops.

Given this background, I can't resist passing on to MindBlog readers an email I just received indicating that there has been trouble in Flow-land... Mr. Kotler and Mr. Wheal have apparently split up and are now present competing websites, both very slick, with Mr. Kotler's (https://www.flowresearchcollective.com) radiating a bit more gravitas than Mr. Wheal's (https://www.flowgenomeproject.com.) Here is the email:
Hey there, 
I work with Steven Kotler who is featured in this article on your site. I have a critical request to change the text and link from Flow Genome Project to Flow Research Collective as this is Steven's new company. 
Currently there is traffic that is being directed from your site to the old company that Steven resigned from and so it's important that we get this updated so that the piece is accurate and up to date. 
We are not requesting that the mention of Flow Genome Project must be withdrawn in relation to Jamie, just that we need it to be clear that Steven is with the Flow Research Collective and that we're directing toward's [sic] that site. 
Please confirm that this is possible. Thanks, 
Gabby-- Gabby Nuñez Chief Of Customer Service and Satisfaction 
W: flowresearchcollective.com
Continuing in the tradition of the "Stealing Fire" book the link in the email "this article on your site" is not to either of the posts I mention above (Nov. 2017, Sept. 2018), but to all the posts done in Nov. and Dec.  of 2017.

I'm not taking the time to look further into this, but would suggest that any potential clients of these expensive purportedly transformational programs do due diligence. CAVEAT EMPTOR!

2 comments:

  1. Thank you!
    This is very useful information. Especially after just now I have bought my way into the collective by way of preordering the art of impossible.

    And my spider sensors sense a bit of a "culty cult"-ish setup.
    Which didn't sat well with jamies latest transmissions and pieces with Rebel Wisdom. Given that Stealing fire was just 3 Years ago, I started to wonder what happened there in these 3 years, if you consider Jamies strong position..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:26 PM

    Stay away from the Flow Research Collective, they don't update their science, they mash together other people's frameworks and tools without citation and out of context. There is no flow whatsoever.

    ReplyDelete