Berkeley Ironworks — Local services in Berkeley

Back at it! Touchstone perpetuates a manipulative system involving energy and the flow commonly used by cults to manipulate people, which, coincidentally is how many of the most vulnerable people in society are conditioned to fear their neighbor and think they’re crazy. Great job guys! Equity and inclusivity right? (3rd paragraph and on for full analysis after 3 years of observation)

This gym is ok, not great, their other gyms have better everything, routes are kinda stale, holds are old and polished. Still fun, but not as fun as other gyms.

Back to the important stuff, touchstone as a company does what I suspect many large companies do, they foster an environment where you either go with the current or get ostracized. I observed the touchstone community for almost 3 years (and even worked at a touchstone gym) and my conclusion is what I’ve previously stated and this: The concept of “the flow” will be introduced to you by someone affiliated with Touchstone or a community member and then brought up repeatedly to reinforce the belief. Once you believe in “the flow” they can try to convince you that people are somehow influencing it or taking your flow. When in actuality what they’re doing is making you feel uncomfortable, which disturbs your peace and ability to feel calm enough to “flow”. This is deeply troubling and incredibly manipulative, what they’re actually doing is spreading the collective delusion of their “yogis”.

I am especially concerned because after being subjected to this exact thing I noticed that the behavior I see in homeless, addict and impoverished communities follows the exact same patterns of behavior as fear of the flow would induce. It’s a paranoid thought that can drive people to exhibit symptoms of insanity and make the person think they’re going crazy when in reality, theres a confusing concept they don’t understand that they see and feel direct evidence of, but cant explain, it’s gaslighting, through and through.

What does this preoccupation with the flow do? It serves to divide us and conditions us to fear our neighbor. Shame! And what’s even worse is the symptoms associated with this type of gaslighting don’t affect wealthy people at even a fraction of the intensity as marginalized and impoverished populations. And guess what economic demographic is most common at climbing gyms. Yup. You want to know the real kicker, if you have a home, you can escape seeing things that remind you of the flow, if you live on the street you can literally never get away from it. Shame!

I’ve been going to therapy for 15 years, I studied psychology and I’m not gonna sit back and say nothing while I have to deal with your collective delusion every day of my life. I’ve been trying to deprogram my mind for a long time now.

You took away my peace, you can deal with my 1 star reviews, I can’t deal with your paranoid delusions that you spread through your...

The staff was absolutely rude and kept my ID hostage. I would not come back to this place and give them patronage. Stay away! If you are visiting from out of town, do not come here. The day pass is $25 for their 15 foot wall for lead Climbing.

This is what happened... I arrived an hour before closing time and wanted to take a tour with a staff or check out the gym to see if it's worth the $25 day pass (for the next day, when I would have more than 1 hour to climb). The staff refused a tour and instead asked for my driver's license so that I can see for myself. I checked out the lead climbing area, was pretty unimpressed, and left to go back to my car. I left the gym without my ID. When I realized it, I drove back and asked the front desk for my ID. The male staff, different from the female one who took my ID in the first place, held my ID in his hands and started the following line of questioning: "what time did you get here? where were you this whole time? I saw you disappear for awhile" I explained that I had left without my ID and now I'm here to pick it up. He still didn't budge and responded with "well, you people come in here and try to sneak a workout in." At this point I've assertively told him to hand back my ID and that I did not try to sneak a work out in. I left because I was very unimpressed by their facility and customer service. Note that this Caucasian male staff used the phrase "you people" when talking to a POC. This is...

I called ahead and asked questions about my wife an I coming down. They said just come on down, pay the day pass, and use whatever equipment or walls you want till closing. So, we went through 45 minutes of traffic to get there. Once we were there, nobody greeted us, so I approached a lady and asked her if we can climb. She said, go fill out the waiver, and pointed at a computer by the door. My wife and I filled out the waiver, paid the $40.00 to climb plus the $10.00 for gear rental. Once we did that we waited around for about 15 minutes to get shoes. Once we got our shoes, we were ready to have some fun, then they said, "since your new, you can't belay but you can boulder. I asked if someone could refresh me on the belay and someone could teach my wife real quick to belay. They said no, you have to come back tomorrow for a class. They then said you can test to see if you know how to do it. I said, if someone can test us, why can't someone show my wife how to do it? Their reply, "we don't have a belay class at this time" I will never come to this gym again. If people are there to test your knowledge, why can't they help refresh or teach? It's pretty damn simple to use a belay, come on. It's just another case of poor customer service that is plaguing this country. If it were my gym and someone wanted to pay $50.00 to use it for the two hours left in the day, I would provide the customer service...