At least three companies now offer Life Dynamics seminars in the SAR, of which ARC International is by far the largest. Ah Fai, who was not sent on the course by his company, is one of more than 20,000 Hong Kong people in the past nine years who have attended ARC's $5,950 basic seminar of three evenings and two full days. An advanced five-day seminar is available at $9,950.

Persuaded by a friend who had attended the course, he went to a briefing in ARC's spacious offices in early May. There he heard Life Dynamics success stories from enthusiastic trainers and dozens of volunteers, many of whom were graduates of the programme. Insurance brokers sold more policies, secretaries were promoted to managers, quarrelling couples made up and single men found girlfriends, he was told. 'I really wanted to get a girlfriend, so I thought this was right for me,' says Ah Fai, who split up from his last girlfriend seven years ago. Finding love and wealth seemed great ideals, and if the course could help him, he thought, it would be worth it.

Instead, the day after he finished the course, he couldn't go to work. Rather than feeling invigorated and inspired, he was numb and listless. 'I felt that I was being controlled, I felt like a dead person,' he says.

The next day he went back to work, but deliberately failed to make his lorry deliveries and drove around aimlessly. At the end of the day, Ah Fai told his boss that he had been unable to control himself.

The next morning, he decided to commit suicide, and went as far as leaning out over the 23rd-floor roof of his block. 'Just when I wanted to jump, another thought came to my mind: I thought maybe I could find a doctor to help me,' he recalls. His family took him to the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital, where he was diagnosed as suffering from psychosis - a disorder which distorts sufferers' grip on reality and can cause delusions.

His private psychiatrist, Dr Chan Cho-mao, says Ah Fai had no history of mental illness before he took the course. 'After he took the course, he heard voices telling him, 'You are useless, you had better die',' says Chan.

ARC International's president, Mitch Feig-enberg, defends the Life Dynamics course. 'While our seminars can be intense, the experience is no more so than many life events such as marriage, divorce, work or school in which people can feel stress,' he says. 'Can you say the course made people crazy, have a nervous breakdown, or stressful? Not exactly. I don't think the course can cause people to have mental problems.'

Thousands of people have done Life Dynamics in Hong Kong, with no apparent adverse effects. Many clients are satisfied and claim great benefits. One of these is Danny Mak, 43, the owner of an engineering company. He says that after he went through Life Dynamics in June, he could communicate better with his employees, motivating them to be more active and hard-working. Another, Lao Sai-tak, 25, attended Life Dynamics a year ago, and says she became more positive and earned promotion from administration clerk to senior manager.

Ah Fai is not alone in his experience, however. Psychiatrists and social groups have seen a small but significant number of people needing counselling and psychiatric treatment after attending Life Dynamics seminars. These patients suffer disorders ranging from depression, anxiety and sleep problems to more serious psychiatric problems such as neurosis and psychosis, says Chan.

Since 1996, Yang Memorial Methodist Social Service alone has seen 10 such patients - most of them with no prior history of mental illness, the group says. This year, it has already received three cases, including one who attempted suicide. Susan So Suk-yin, the family service division supervisor, worries that these cases are only the tip of the iceberg: many people refuse to admit to having mental problems because of the social stigma it would entail, so they would not seek help, and it becomes impossible to draw a true picture of the number of people affected, she says.

Every year, Kowloon Hospital psychiatrist Dr Chan Sai-yin and colleagues he knows at other hospitals each receive one or two patients who have been to Life Dynamics. Most suffer from psychosis.

'They lose contact with reality, as shown by delusions and disorganised behaviour,' says Chan. 'They would suddenly refuse to go to work and to eat, [they] lock themselves in their room, go out on the streets at midnight. They did not respond to questions.'

Feigenberg says ARC's Life Dynamics courses do not have a psychologist on hand to give help in an emergency, but he stresses that such situations are rare. 'If, during the course, we notice that people need assistance that we can't provide, we refer them to qualified professionals,' he says.

American Robert White founded ARC Interna-tional and Life Dynamics in Japan 25 years ago. In 1991 it reached Hong Kong. From its headquarters in Japan, ARC runs seminars in eight cities, including Sydney, Las Vegas, Taipei and Guangzhou.

In Hong Kong, Life Dynamics has recently enjoyed a resurgence. Formerly viewed as an offbeat activity for expats and middle-class locals, it has become a magnet for market hawkers, housewives, clerks, hairdressers, construction workers, chefs and high school students who borrow money from banks, friends and relatives to pay for the course. Some say its new found popularity is a symptom of Hong Kong's stressful lifestyle. Nowadays it seems people are as likely to attend a course as take their problems to a counsellor.

Consumers are nonetheless in the dark when they sign up. They join Life Dynamics courses without knowing the specific content of the seminars, which the company keeps a closely guarded secret to preserve the 'spontaneity' of activities, Feigenberg says.

Participants are required to agree not to reveal what goes on. It is apparent, however, that the basic seminar has a session on the second day where students are asked to 'discover' themselves by recalling unhappiness in their past, a technique which psychiatrists agree can be a trigger point for psychological problems.

'Everyone has internal weaknesses. The course digs out their failures or scars, but no one is there to give counselling. If they are not treated, people may develop serious mental disorders,' says psychiatrist Chan Cho-mao. Psychiatrist Dr Leo Chiu Pak-wang describes this recalling of old trauma as like a dam bursting. 'Many of the patients couldn't stop crying, couldn't sleep, and some even attempted suicide,' he says.

Other potential catalysts for psychological problems are peer pressure, shame at revealing secrets to strangers, or guilt at not being able to forgive those who have caused past sufferings.

Chiu had a female patient who remembered during the course how she was sexually abused by her family. Reliving the experience, she felt renewed anger with her family, which stopped her sleeping and working, and made her consider suicide. Another patient, a salesman, was forced to confess weaknesses to classmates.

'The man lacked confidence. After that, he started to fear that people would laugh at him. He had delusions, and suspected people on the streets were gossiping about him. At work, he thought his workmates would harm him,' Chiu says. 'When I first saw him, he was very scared. He did not even trust me at first. Now after seven months, he still has not recovered.'

So why do some people benefit from the course, while others suffer?

'People with a history of mental or emotional disorder, such as depression, and anxiety, and those with past history of trauma, for example physical and sexual abuse, are more vulnerable to the effects of Life Dynamics courses,' explains Dr Sing Lee, associate professor of the department of psychiatry of Chinese University. Counsellors say those who lack self-esteem or are nervous could be vulnerable on the course.

Ah Fai fell into this last category. 'In fact, I didn't have anything that I felt unhappy about, but the trainer insisted that I did not treat my family well enough,' he says. 'Then most of my classmates too admitted that they didn't treat their family well. Gradually I started to think that I was also bad. I was not kind enough to my father, I hadn't taken my mother to the teahouse often enough. I lost control, and cried. I hugged other classmates who were sobbing too.'

Life Dynamics teachers do not appear to be required to have psychological training. Many are former graduates of Life Dynamics seminars - Feigenberg himself, formerly a diplomat, became a trainer six months after he took the course in the US in 1985. He insists that Life Dynamics seminars are not about psychology or therapy, but philosophy. The trainers are 'applied philosophers', he says.

'The purpose of the course is not to fix psychological problems, it is designed for normal healthy people,' Feigenberg says. But the only psychological screening to weed out unsuitable participants is simply a questionnaire where prospective students are asked to state their physical and mental health. 'No-one has ever asked me about what I wrote on the form, including my mental health,' says Frankie Shiu Lun-hei, an 18-year-old Form Six student, who took the Life Dynamics basic seminar in July. 'I knew that some of my classmates had been receiving counselling,' says another former student, who asked not to be named.

In Hong Kong, there are no specific laws monitoring self-development courses. The Consumer Council says it will not investigate because of a lack of manpower. The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority say the area is not their responsibility.

Three months have passed and Ah Fai has returned to work, but his trauma lives on. 'I am scared of being alone, because I am afraid my brain may spin again. I worry that I may do something terrible, such as hurt my family,' he says. 'I took Life Dynamics thinking it could give me the confidence to find a girlfriend. I couldn't have imagined it would make me like this.'

Ah Fai's Life Dynamics Diary

The basic seminar lasts from 6.30pm to midnight on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 9am to 10pm on Saturday and 9am to 6pm on Sunday.

Wednesday: Theory lecture

Thursday: I was asked to choose a partner. The trainer asked us to look at each other for 10 minutes, then close our eyes and think of bad things we did to others, such as our parents. He said I was not good enough to my parents, and I felt depressed. Then I was asked to tell another partner how we were victimised in the past, such as how we were cheated. I remembered that some friends had borrowed money from me but never returned it. Then I felt that I was very stupid.

Friday: Every student had to walk from one end of the classroom to the other in different ways. Some people acted as if they were disabled, others somersaulted. When it was my turn, the students cheered for me. Everybody was 'high'. In another session, everyone sat on the floor and recalled how we had broken commitments. I became very emotional, the trainer asked us to cry loudly. We finished the lesson at midnight, and had to be back again at 9am the next morning. I was tired, but the trainer insisted everyone write a two-page report on how the exercises reflected our life. I felt very stressed.

Saturday: Again, I had to recall my childhood. The trainer asked me to say loudly the things that I had wanted to but was denied by my parents. Afterwards I wept. After lunch, there was music in the classroom, we had to hug each other to 'experience the concern and warmth of others'.

Sunday: The trainer spent half a lesson explaining the benefits of the advanced seminar. He said that, 'once you have a goal, you can achieve it no matter what', including finding a girlfriend. After lunch, the classroom was turned into a disco. Everybody danced wildly, it was like a rave party.

Monday-Tuesday: I couldn't sleep, I couldn't control myself. The ideas spun in my mind, one after another.

Wednesday: In the morning, I had delusions and heard voices saying, 'you are useless, you had better die'. I did not die in the end, but spent nine days in hospital.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51krrPAyJyjnmdjZ4N4hJNoo6KelWK6prrDoqWgZZ%2Bneq61zZ1km52embavsw%3D%3D