Blindboy cancels himself.

No offence taken - thanks for the input all - I will take it filed under "consideration". As I said as soon as more "ideal" solutions or paths become available or I become capable of implementing them or turning anything over to people who can do so - I will absolutely be doing so. Until such time however I will continue to be doing the best I can with the resources I have rather than do nothing at all.

I do wonder how "vetted" or affiliated with established organisations some people are or are able to be when they start doing the work they do too. Random example that entered my recent consciousness would be someone like Jason Wilson in the US and his "Transformational Training Academy". Sometimes people just see other people in need and step up and help out.

Anyway - apologies to all if this is a derailment of the thread topic.

Honestly if you want to continue with your group and don't want to come under the umbrella of any local or national organisation you'd be well advised to formalise your position somewhat, seek charitable status for your group and get vetted. you can add on any expertise you need after that but right now you should focus on what your legal standing is.

Again apologies if we have derailed the topic of the thread here at all. It was not my intention.

Everything is entirely informal now - in fact that I jokingly refer to it on boards as a "Jedi Acadamy" makes it sound more formal than it actually is and more of a thing than it actually is which might be the reason for the majority of your concern. In reality its just a load of people hanging out as friends - during which we happily share and impart some of our skills as we hang out - and if during that the friendships come to a point where like in any friendship someone opens up to me about something like a mental health issue or concern - then like I would with any other friend - I mention all the resources I know of that deal with that particular issue including - which is the only reason I mention this stuff at all - any blindboy podcast where I happen to know he discussed that particular issue.

If it allays your concerns in any way on the legal front however - one of my girlfriends is in fact working in Law for near 10 years now mostly in an ongoing academic context (some real work in the field but mostly continual ongoing study along with lecturing and writing of papers and thesis or whatever it is legal people do, don't ask me hehehe) so Law and specifically Irish Law is very much her wheelhouse and were I engaged in anything of even moderate concern she would raise it with me before the next cock had a chance to dream about getting up for it's next crow. And in fact I know she lurks on boards and is likely reading this too.

Two is hardly a harem. I do not run a school. Not really - I just jokingly call it that.

Rather I have befriended a group who were - problematic in our locality - and I have been doing a set of things with them since. When trying to decide what to do with them I decided to imagine what a real world Jedi Curriculum would entail and I used that as inspiration for the activities I suggested. Since I have been training over a decade in a few things like close up magic and martial arts and meditation - it made sense. I also am in a relationship with a linguist with an interest in cultures - as well as knowing other martial arts people into things like knife and sword fighting - and so on.

So a curriculum centred around Jedi - who are essentially just cultural ambassadors with close combat and sword skills - clicked in a pleasing way. The magical stuff like using the Force and mind control I of course can not teach them - but I can teach them pleasing illusion and mentalism magic that sometimes has similar effects :)

So I latched on to it as a social structure rather than running any kind of actual school. In reality it is no more formal or structured than a man cave centred around football and DIY :) It's just a group of mates where some mates are teaching the other mates skills they have. Good luck to anyone trying to make a law suit stick to that :) If you made a group of mates and when deciding what to do together you jumped on - say - the name "Dead Poets Society" and that name inspired you in your choices of what to do with your mates - that's not really a structured school or system either. It's just mates doing stuff.

But I think jokingly calling it a school/acadamy might have made it sound more formal and structured than it actually is - so I can see why it raises legal or social concerns that are in fact not really warranted - but very understandable. And as I said above I appreciate the concern and input even if I do not see it as applicable. That people care at all - is a good thing and I thank them for it.

Which - returning to the thread topic which we keep derailing - I suspect Blindboy actually does. While I am once again no devotee of his - I find little reason not to take him at face value that he is as concerned about the welfare of people in Ireland as he claims to be. Jordan Peterson springs to mind there too. Often I find him boring and often he espouses absolute woo magical nonsense. But - I have seen him break down in real tears talking about the suffering of young people and for all his many faults I do not at all doubt his concerns and agenda are genuine too. I think Peterson and Blindboy deserve none of the extremes of hate or devotion they seem to attract. I reckon they are overall net positives in our world - even if they have an array of faults.

I am generally deeply wary of any judgement of a public personality that is predicated on pretending to know what they think. The moment someone takes that approach - acting like they are some magical mind readers - I usually tune out.

That said though - having only listened to his podcasts on mental health issues and no interest in any of his others - I have probably only listened to 10% of his podcast material. But of that small proportion the non-mind reading summary above does not describe anything I have listened to. I can think of no "word salad" - I can think of no failure to combine words into a coherent opinion - and I can think of no cases of the condescension or patronisation that is described.

Not saying that this stuff does not happen in the 90% of stuff I have not listened to of course. How would I know? It just doesn't remotely track with anything I have heard myself. Not even a little. Perhaps you have some good example or citation or quotations or the like to show what it is you mean - with specifics on why you felt it problematic in the ways described?

As for "lapping it up". I did briefly tune into his Twitch Stream where he makes live music Ad Libbed on the fly. Not something I could do of course - so I was impressed in at least that regard. But the fact remains that while that is mildly impressive he is producing amateur quality music of no real standard. The best I would describe it as is "fun". But his fans in the stream were certainly lapping it up describing it with all kinds of things like "Transcendent" and more while throwing chunks of money at him in the form of tips and subscriptions and more. He clearly does have some "lap anything he does up" following. But sure any moderately successful artist does I guess. So can hardly fault him or any artist for that.