Release Technique – Larry Crane
This review is updated after participating in a 30-day Release Technique program in 2016. There are many great new teachers involved in the organization (Larry Crane is taking a less active role,) and some nice updates and refinements.
The Release Technique is a very solid method for letting go or “releasing” our constant grip and desire to control emotions, negative habits, energy, and thoughts. These are the driving factors behind most of our suffering in life around unwanted experiences. It is a simple process, but can represent a total 180 degree shift from our learned, habitual pattern of holding on to, analyzing, and resisting these energies. As such, it can develop some very powerful new habits in how anyone experiences their thoughts/emotions, and therefore the perception of life itself.actually comes from students of a very beautiful and powerful teaching.
The release technique has been around for several decades – well, it’s been around for 1,000s of years, but this particular embodiment labeled “The Release Technique” started in the US many years ago and has spread much further now. It boasts many dedicated students.. some fiercely dedicated, many with inspiring stories. It can yield very powerful results and, like most methods similar to this, can grow deeper and deeper with time and practice.
If you have ever heard of the Sedona Method and think that this sounds remarkably similar, that’s because it is. Both that method and the Release Technique come from students of a man named Lester Levenson (whose story is absolutely fascinating and worth reading separately,) and are based upon his teachings. It is essentially a distillation and refinement of the processes he went through to heal himself mentally and physically after being diagnosed with weeks to live.
Larry Crane and Other Teachers
The Release Technique was primarily taught by a man named Larry Crane for many years, who was extremely successful from an outward perspective: money, impressive possessions, national recognition, but was still depressed to the point of considering suicide.
His introduction to Lester Levenson took him down the path of dedicating himself to this work, which is now his sole professional activity. His hotline is available every day to support students of the technique and he himself is known to answer regularly and work with callers, something quite unusual in any modality.
There are now new teachers involved who actually lead most of the live courses and events, and my experience with them was excellent. There is a lot more nuance in their styles, and different energies in how they are and work with others.
The Release Technique does not have a book out there, at least not one nearly as easy to find and massively produced as that of the Sedona Method.
The primary way to get introduced to the material is through the audio/workbook package known as “The Abundance Course.” The recordings are Larry explaining and taking you through the process and also has interjections of actual recordings from Lester Levenson.. something I find an extremely valuable addition.
The “How” of The Release Technique
Compared to some of the other variations out there, this method takes what you might a call a more kinesthetic approach initially. The Abundance Course, the audio program where the course is most often learned (and is now significantly less expensive), begins with you bringing up a feeling and noticing any contraction in your body. Some approaches are then presented to welcome that feeling instead of fight it as we normally do, and allow it to be released.
Since just about everyone can feel their body and following along this process, it is a great way to get in touch with the feeling of “releasing.” Saying to “let go” can be something that the mind latches onto to try to make complicated, say it doesn’t know how to do, or get a lot of philosophy attached to it.
Visualizing the movement of energy can often get one in touch with this sensation and serve as a starting point for working more deeply into it. This is FAR from the entirety of the technique, it is just a nice starting point, and one of a few different ways of releasing that are presented.
In the spirit of Lester Levenson’s teaching, the Release Technique has you get in touch with the core emotions and wants behind almost every thought or behavior. These are the wanting security or safety, love and approval, or wanting to control (something that is literally constant in many people.) These are the “attachments” and on the opposite side of the coin are the “aversions” – the things we are clinging on to in life and those things we are constantly looking away from.
Almost every area in life has both attachments and aversions, which seems to be impossible, but that tends to be the very thing keeping any unwanted emotional content “stuck.” We don’t want to look at some aspect of it, and/or we are clinging to it because we believe it is critical either to our safety, how we are viewed by others, or provides us with some aspect of control.
The technique involves examining these attachments and aversions through the direct experience of welcoming them up, and allowing this energy to pass through you, to stop clinging to it (attachment) and/or resisting it so strongly (aversion) so that it can move freely. The stomach and chest analogy continues to be used for some time in order to keep you in touch with this kinesthetic experience rather than a purely intellectual exercise which the mind will either chew on endlessly or give up on.
This is examined on a wide variety of topics in the abundance, and also while moving you up through a progression of emotional states: from total apathy and defeatedness to acceptance and peace with what is. Fascinatingly, through direct experience, you can see that even on topics you might rate yourself as feeling either great or awful about, you will find yourself able to get in touch with every energy state on this scale and notice how some aspect of it is locking the energy in place. The course itself is quite thorough and warrants a separate review in and of itself, as it is far more than just “how to do the release technique” but a rather deep exploration of using it.
Larry has a New York, let’s get down to business type of vibe. It can be a bit gruff, “Here’s the process – let’s do it, and let’s stay with it. I’ll kick you in the ass if it’s required to get you moving” is how I perceive the tone, if it’s not explicitly said in some of his 1 on 1 or other work. Some do not resonate as well with it and others absolutely love it, finding it a welcome change from what is often presented in this arena. However, there are a lot of different styles and generally a gentler hand with the involvement of many new teachers.
Should you Check out the Release Technique?
My suggestion is that if you resonate with this type of releasing work in any way- are interested in experiencing the movement and freedom of energy and expression that can come from this way of dealing with emotions and thoughts that is so different from the usual suppression, you should at least check out some of the free material on the website below.
Like I’ve said about some other things, the RT website has a lot of the “make more money and get a great relationship” stuff right out of the gate, because that’s what captures the attention from a marketing standpoint, but I highly suggest you check out some of the free material or video to get a taste of this and explore the process for the sake of what it is. External results are a nice byproduct but it is really about a new of processing and freeing the thought patterns and emotions that can weigh us down so heavily.