As I pulled into the retreat center circled with towering cedars, blossoming wildflowers, and the deep green richness emblematic of the Pacific Northwest, I saw smoke. Surely this couldn’t be an actual fire on the premises, I thought. But it was. Local firefighters were just beginning a controlled burn of an old barn. After checking in and getting settled, I watched in curiosity and awe the bright flames pouring from the windows as the fire keepers positioned themselves and their hoses to carefully control the deconstruction.A few hours later, the men, the hoses, and their vehicles were gone. Broken stones and bricks lay among the charred wood. I trembled slightly. Was this going to happen to me on what’s called Path of Love?What I knew from the website was that the seven-day group process was supposed to give us “a unique and direct experience of our true selves,” and “tools to come out of old patterns of compromise, fear, complacency and isolation.” That was good. But the secretive nature of the program, the multiple calls for confidentiality, and the in-depth waiver had fueled my anxiety and doubt. C …