I did something similar once, minus the brainwashing.
One of the best experiences of my life.
Was it like a Christian weekend type thing? Please say more if you're OK with giving more info. PM if you don't want to post in the thread.
As for the Kairos thing, just stay vigilant to your own emotions and the reasons for their appearance. Try to be above the situation through non-judging introspection.
Alright, I'll step in and answer this as well, because I *think* I might see what Moose *might* be saying, but I could be off. My church had a youth retreat every winter called Powderburn. There were a few other names, but they all considered teh same thing: a weekend up at a christian camp in the rockies middle of winter. We'd leave Friday night and come back Sunday evening. Saturday was reserved for snowboarding/skiing (lift tickets were extra but not ungodly, same with rentals), and if you didn't want to do that there were a TON of other silly fun things to do at the camp...karaoke, hot tub (hot tub+snow angels = derp burns), sumo wrestling, mafia/card/board games/full contact spoons, and so on. Each youth group got their own floor in a mini cabin...boys on one side of a main sitting area, girls on the other, roaving death squads - I mean councilors - to make sure that boys weren't in girls rooms and the other way around. In the evenings there was a Bible Study led by someone the campground hired, an indie Christian band played worship songs before and a "sending song" after, we went back to our floors with our youth groups and we talked about the lesson, sometimes as a group sometimes in small groups (my youth group had divided groups by gender and grade). Saturday morning there was an option early prayer/worship thing, but you didn't have to go.
We were exhausted all weekend, mostly because we were willfully up ALL NIGHT. Curfew was liberal up there, eleven o'clock friday, midnight saturday. As long as you kept your nose clean you could go do whatever you wanted (it was truly beautiful, because the camp ground was high and the sky was clear so you saw a lot of stars), and I'm pretty sure people 'broke' curfew by hanging out in the common area regularly. And of course we were exhausted anyways...we got out of school, stuffed our backpacks with overnight gear, went on a three hours car trip up to the mountains, waited an hour for everyone to get rentals, went to an evening "welcome chapel," did activities if you could and crashed at eleven. The next day if you were going skiing you had to be up at seven, were on the slopes all day, came back down to another chapel and bible study, more activities, and crashed at midnight. Sunday was pretty chill except that you had to clean and all that, but by the time you were home it was time for another nap, because its another three hours down...and so on. You could've gone back to the cabin whenever you wanted and bitched enough until it was quiet enough for you to take a nap if you really wanted to, i guess.
For most of us it was a chance to gt away from our parents, and the adult volunteers were always on the level with us - they didn't demean us or talk down, so as long as you didn't majorly screw up you could do whatever you wanted. They fed us obviously but we were cracked out on sugar...it didn't help there was a convenience store right next to where you picked up ski/snowboard rentals so we'd pick up all the stuff we weren't allowed to have. Childish sure, but come on we were in high school. Most of the stash was cookie dough. ;P There was very little stress up there, if you weren't comfortable with talking to your peers there were the volunteers, if you weren't comfortable talking to them there were college aged kitchen volunteers, if you weren't comfortable there there was the band...seriously...a very open and comfortable atmosphere. It was also relatively cheap, so pretty much every year our entire youth group went, which made it a lot of fun. (Not to mention my church had 'scholarship' funds to help people who otherwise couldn't afford to go).
I would say it was religiously powerful and I honestly miss that type of experience. A lot of what happened in chapel I'm sure would make most of you think I was batshit crazy. There was a lot of emotions, a lot of crying and connecting. It was open...people really got to know each other there. I really got close to a lot of people, and after they explained where they were coming from I was able to understand people who I otherwise kept away from.
Everyone came back closer because we shared the same air for a weekend...we all got to open up and act like ourselves and be totally comfortable in a judgement free environment. I'm sure there were some people there who would turn around and talk about things people did or said behind their back, but I never witnessed it.
It was fun and uplifting. Kinda wish there was something like that now, except now I have to act like an adult and can't be coerced into karaoke without liquor.