Most "inner work" looks like entertainment.

Imagine you’re looking for a personal trainer. You open one trainer’s webpage and read their testimonials: “I had an experience tied for the most intense experiences of my life”; “They do it all with fun, care, and a sense of humour.” You notice that none of the testimonials mention improved body composition, fitness, or bloodwork. What would you think?Personal training should improve your body. Inner work should improve your life. If inner work were optimized for results, what would we expect to see?I’d expect to see success stories: people who got undeniable life changes. Like:“He was single for years due to anxiety; today, they’re celebrating their one-year anniversary.”“He used to lose 4–5 hours per day to coping behaviors. After our program, he got bored of them all and stopped. It’s been six months; he’s used the extra time to host parties for his friends.”“She recovered from burnout, negotiated for the first time, and started shipping again.”But this is not what we see. Look at the testimonialsI reviewed every testimonial posted by three of the most well-known inner work practitioners in my network. How many describe a specific life change — something the client durably started doing, stopped doing, does differently, or achieved?For a popular retreat: 0 / 20For a well-known coach: 0 / 3For a prominent organization: 0 / 14 (homepage)The organization also had an additional ~200 testimonials posted on another page, which I had Claude review: Only ~2 of 200 described specific life changes: a husband confirming his wife sleeps better, and a CEO crediting the work with helping quadruple revenue. Nearly every testimonial from every practitioner focused on fleeting emotional states (“I had an experience tied for most intense experiences of my life”), practitioner personality (“They do it all with fun, care, and a sense of humour”), and unfalsifiable claims (“The ROI is immeasurable”), but not results. Experiences appear to be the product. This surprised me, so I chec