Most men in our society, in one way or another, are "MIA's" - a wartime term originally used to designate soldiers missing in action. In one way or another, regardless of whether it is wartime or not many of us have continued to be "missing in action." We suffer the casualties of an internal war that is fought in our hearts and souls and that we then take into the streets and our lives.

Men's weekend training seminars and subsequent integration processes have allowed more than 10,000 men over the past twelve years who were "missing in action" reclaim themselves. In this reclamation process many men have built communities of healing and service to themselves and their families throughout the world.

The men of this growing community continue to find MIA's in places very similar to where they themselves were missing in action a short time before; in corporate offices, in church groups, in AA recovery groups, in therapy offices, in divorce recovery groups and in many other places where men have been taken captive by their own compulsions, by their drive to succeed at something, anything in an attempt to accept a poor substitute for their own deep need to be loved and to contribute meaningfully to the world.

What's New about the New Warrior?

The Old Warriors were tribal warriors. They slayed dragons and fought neighboring tribes. They protected the castle, the women and the children. Their lives were spent training to kill in defense of the kingdom. They were fighting for tribal visions that were not as large as that needed for the continued evolution of the human species.

The New Warrior is more concerned about slaying his own internal dragons, his shadows, in the dungeons of his heart first, before taking on those of society. Holding his dragons, demons and shadows, those parts of him that he hides, denies, represses or projects onto others, out in front of him, in full awareness of how it's possible to wound others with these shadows, he is then freed from the old ways of harming others with a new sense of awareness.

As with this new awareness comes responsibility, the ability to respond.

If he continues to persist in his old behavior the dissonance that is created between these two conflicting energies, the new awareness and the old behavior, becomes a new kind of pain, a signal that something needs to be addressed to restore balance to the new system.

Bert Boda M.A., currently lives in Taos, New Mexico and is developing a healing retreat in the northern New Mexico mountains. He is a licensed Trans-personal Psychotherapist and a personal lifestyle coach. He retired early (1992) from a successful career as a TWA captain/instructor.

Bert is a leader in the New Warrior Training Adventure (Global Lodge), a seminar and workshop leader and is author of numerous articles on the effect of personal healing on flight safety. He is currently writing a book titled: "Fly Solo No More: The New Version of the Right Stuff for Isolated Men, Women and Their Families."