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Why is the King's training so expensive?

This is here to answer the question, often posted by men in the New Warriors, about the pricing of the Inner King Training:

I was not part of the King's when the prices were originally set, but here are the reasons as I understand them:

1. The King's training is a very complex thing to run. Currently there are only four men certified to lead it (Cliff Barry, Tom Daly, David Kaar, and Dmitri Bilgere). This is NOT a training the bulk of which can be run by good-hearted, sincere men memorizing protocols--it is highly complex. Each of the leaders has many, many years of experience and training in this work. It took me, personally, YEARS to be able to run some of this stuff, and some of it I still don't run and Tom Daly does.

2. The training is Thursday morning to Sunday afternoon, just about comparable to the price of the New Warriors per day. We are talking all day and evening Thursday, all day and evening Friday, all day and evening Saturday, and Sunday til about 2pm. On the New Warriors we are talking Friday evening, all day and evening Saturday, and Sunday til 2pm or so. Count it up, that's fewer days. I haven't done the math, but David Kaar tells me it's about the same price per day as the NWTA.

Of course, it is more money out of pocket than the NWTA, you can't argue with that. Plus, with the Warriors, you don't have to take off Wednesday (travel), and Thursday and Friday from work, which you do with the longer King's training. By the same token, though, the King's used to be (before my time) a week long and cost $2000+. As it gets shorter it gets cheaper. We keep trying to figure out how to make it fit in a weekend, like the Warriors, and charge the same amount as the Warriors (plus room and board), but we haven't yet figured out how to condense it down that much. So for now at least, it's more days and more money.

3. The King's relies on fewer volunteers, and gets less community support. In fact, most staff go through and re-experience most of the training, and run very little of it. Except for the God Splits, most volunteers get to have the whole training again.

4. King's trainings tend to be smaller than warrior trainings. Fewer guys, less money total.

Here are some other things to think about:

- You can get scholarships! I personally put $500.00 into a scholarship fund for St. Louis men to do the IKT, specifically earmarked to be five $100 scholarships for St. Louis men. Ask for it! There also are scholarships through the King's Training for men who need it.

This next bit, I think, is the MOST FUNDAMENTAL reason for all the discussion and upset about this:

- The Culture Clash: Some men may remember a few weeks ago I posted an article about the culture clash between the Gift Culture and the Exchange culture. The Gift Culture is the MKP, in many ways--your social status comes from what you give, NOT from what resources you control. The guys who came up with the IKT were coming from the Exchange Culture point of view, basically saying, "Hey, we make our living as facilitators--we can make the great training, serve the NWTA community, and make money!" In an Exchange Culture (like the world at large) this makes perfect sense. In the Gift Culture, like the MKP, it's insulting to TRY to make money on something. I think men are insulted that other men are TRYING to make money on a training. In the world of the Gift Culture, TRYING to make money on something IS insulting. It's not the way things are done. It's a very real faux-pas. I think this is why you often hear men excuse the NWTA price by saying, "Hey, nobody's getting rich on it!" because getting rich off selling something in a Gift Culture would be BAD. The founders of the King's Training, however, would love to get rich delivering great product. That's insulting in a Gift Culture/MKP setting. It truly is a culture clash. I think you have to face and get past that to do the King's training. And, to some extent, the Warrior Weekend, too.

Click here to go to the Inner King Training website (www.innerking.com).