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Basic Causes. Some 170 students have "graduated" from Arica training, another 60 will finish in August, and registrations are coming in for future semesters. Oscar is sure the trainees will fare well: "If the body is cleared of tensions, the trouble in the head is diminished. If Arica doesn't make you happy, it will at least make you happier than you were." One of his disciples is even more enthusiastic. Everyone, Arica Instructor Bill Gay insists, can achieve the nirvana of Level 24 (though Levels 12, 6 and 3 are beyond the reach of the ordinary trainee). Once there, "you have built up the essentials, broken the ego structure and have all the tools you need to continue to grow. You can empty your head any time you want to, and you are in the here and now and know what's going on."
Such euphoria seems almost certain to fade. To its credit, Arica rejects alcoholics, drug users and the conspicuously disturbed. But like the encounter movement, it attracts chiefly those with emotional problems, yet does not try to help them come to grips with the underlying causes of their difficulties. For some, it could even be the source of new worries —of a financial nature. Exclusive of board and room, the cost of three months' Arica training is a whopping $3,000.