Beware of Northcentral

[Herbert Spencer]

Are these "mentors" qualified in any particular areas? How would one know? You also mentioned "counselors." Are these really qualified counselors, or are they actually salespeople? Does anyone know?

I would liken the NCU "mentors" more to the Dementors of the Harry Potter books:

The Dementors are soulless creatures considered to be among the foulest beasts on Earth. They are soul-sucking fiends who guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. In the books, Dementors appear to have a generally human shape, approximately ten feet (3.05 meters) in height, but covered in dark, hooded cloaks which reveal only grey, decayed hands. The wraith-like creatures have no eyes, and there is a large hole where the mouth should be. According to the author, they grow like fungi in the darkest, dankest places, creating a dense, chilly fog. This effect is cumulative with the number of Dementors, and large numbers can effectively freeze even a lake with merely their presence....

Rowling has likened the effect of a Dementor to the human ailment known as depression, which the author has herself experienced.  She describes it as "that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad."

Being blind, Dementors sense and feed on the positive emotions, happiness and good memories of human beings to move around, forcing them to relive their worst memories. The very presence of a Dementor makes the surrounding atmosphere grow cold and dark, and the effects are cumulative with the number of Dementors present. Despite their attachment to human emotion, Dementors seem to have difficulty distinguishing one human from another....In addition to feeding on positive emotions, Dementors can perform the Dementor's Kiss, where the Dementor latches its mouth onto a victim's and sucks out the person's soul. The victim is left as an empty shell, incapable of thought and with no possibility of recovery. It is believed that existing after a Dementor's Kiss is worse than death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_cre...#Dementors