What is the New Warrior Training Adventure?

The NWTA is weekend training sponsored by the ManKind Project (MKP), an international, non-profit organization dedicated to helping men live meaningful lives. The purpose of the training is to take men on a journey to connect head and heart, examine their lives, and create deeper, more powerful, and more joyful ways of living. The training is an initiatory experience relevant to our times that honors the sacred masculine and empowers men to action in the world.

Joseph Campbell described initiation as a transformational experience involving separation, descent, ordeal, and return. Many of us have experienced "pseudo initiation" through divorce, death of a loved one, puberty, induction into the military, or incarceration. These are often transformative experiences, but they are usually incomplete and wounding and do not connect us to our authentic selves or to healthy ways of living. The NWTA provides a complete and healthy initiation relevant to our times where a man is separated from his known world, taken into a descent to face his limitations, challenged to grapple with his destructive as well as generative aspects, and then welcomed into a new community of authentic men committed to service to the world.

In our culture, so called "masculine" traits have been viewed differently at different times. In earlier times, such traits as aggression, fighting, strategic maneuvering, conquering, and destroying were valued in the battlefield warrior who was called on to defend the tribe and conquer other tribes. Later, many of these same traits were valued in the athletic, corporate, and military arenas in service to team, company, and nation. These warrior traits became synonymous with what it meant to be a man. We assert that this definition of manhood is incomplete and no longer serves us, humankind, or the planet, well. We affirm the need for a "new warrior" energy channeled into service of the betterment of humankind and the planet. And we claim a "sacred masculine" energy that embraces all aspects of our nature and that we believe is essential to healing ourselves and our world.

The NWTA model calls for men to live lives of service guided by vision and action. "Integration Groups" are available around the world to help men integrate their learnings from the weekend experience. Called I-Groups, these ongoing gatherings provide a place for men to support and challenge each other in their ongoing growth and healing and in living lives of service. I-Groups often have their own external missions of service such as working with men who have been abusive, mentoring youth, or other work in their communities. Other trainings are available to help men continue to grow, heal, and reach their full potential as mature men.