Sometimes it is only 2 or 3 people, but it all works out in the end. You learn to ascend with the first technique given on Friday evening. As we say in the course, it's really the only technique you'll ever need to ascend. But other techniques are good to accelerate the process and help it flow. The First Sphere weekend gives you everything you need.
Maximum benefit comes from steady use of the techniques.
In fact, Ascension is effective immediately. It is simply not true that what is your birthright, after all, needs to be difficult. The main difficulty we encounter is a person's mistaken belief that it's not working when everyone around them is saying what remarkable changes have occurred. Letting go of stress is all that's required. And it can be easy.