Oprah is crap. She plays on the whole "empowering women" shtick to promote pseudoscience and feel-good-bullshit ideas.

I'm sorry. I have ABSOLUTELY NO respect for anyone who would ever work with Dr. Oz, or promote Jenny McCarthy's "Vaccines Cause Autism" bull. Seeing as it has been completely proven to be false, and half of McCarthy's arguements are simply lies, the other half are ridden with logical fallacies.

Oprah loves that "WE ARE EMPOWERED" crap. And to be honest, women in today's society love it too. Its a sad world we live in.


<3 I am woman, WATCH ME THINK FOR MYSELF.

Once upon a time, Steven Sashen claimed the following on his website:

"I am a former Curriculum Director for The School for The Work of Byron Katie and taught with Katie at the school."

The above can be found at www.archive.org - at the "Wayback Machine" prompt, type "sashen.com/thework.htm" and hit "enter".

A similar statement appears on the current version of a Wikipedia page about Steven Sashen:

"Steven is a former curriculum director for Katie's School for The Work (2000-2001) and he taught with her at the school."

[[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Sashen]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Sashen[/url]]

As recently as May 8, 2009, someone called "Sashen" edited the above-mentioned Wikipedia page, but did not remove the reference to Byron Katie.

Let's contrast this information about Mr. Sashen with something I've recently learned...

The official word from the Byron Katie folks, as put forth by Natalie Gray, Director of the Institute for The Work, is that Steven Sashen was NOT a "Curriculum Director" for The School for The Work.

It appears that someone is not telling the truth.

Other information pertaining to Mr. Sashen...

[[url=http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing.screenplays/browse_thread/thread/37287d1601f39bef/d1b6f0f0afe59fc4?q=%22steven+sashen%22+legal]Scriptware Vs. Final Draft[/url]]

[[url=http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing.screenplays/browse_thread/thread/37287d1601f39bef/a81d50f117b29165?q=%22steven+sashen%22+law]Bird On A What? (Was To Mr. Sashen)[/url]]

[[url=http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing.screenplays/browse_thread/thread/2967ed3deaad1c53/629e83d18d4f7a40?q=sashen+melvakian]MR. SASHEN: We are not STUPID![/url]]

[[url=http://groups.google.com/group/misc.legal/browse_thread/thread/afd5751aa10b7955/74c368c6028cad6d?q=sashen+plaintiff]Palimony Suit Requirements?[/url]]

Also...

"Duhism" is one of Steven Sashen's latest projects. "Duhism" seems to be a play on Taoism... a faux spiritual path headed by a mythical character named "Bob Tzu".

If you visit the "Duhism" website, you are invited to order a free copy of "The Duh of Success". Fair use allows me to quote briefly from it:

"Finally, give Bob Tzu some money (being the founder of Duhism doesn’t exactly buy the tofu, if you know what I’m saying). Go to [www.Duhism.com];

Mr. Sashen has said that he retired at age 39 - see "Getting A New Perspective On Money".

One might wonder why a person of early retirement teaching something called "Quantum Wealth" would feel compelled to ask for $$ for Duhism...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2009 04:31AM by helpme2times.

Very interesting read Helpme. Most people would feel ridiculous claiming they purchased a rival scriptwriting software co's domain name due to computer error. But there you go, Steven Sashen surpasses expectations.

Sashen being a kyudo zen teacher in colorado is interesting given the amount of zen connections to Byron Katie. However I couldn't find anything specific about it.

I did find one article from six months ago where he discusses his practice and zen teacher in some detail yet doesn't name either. The teacher is japanese and was not deceased at the time of writing. I don't know Helpme if you found out anymore about Zendo (Kyudo) in Boulder, Colorado but founder Kanjuro Shibata XX is Japanese and currently not deceased. It seems highly likely this is the one.

[www.meditationtruth.com] How to be a Meditation Teacher

In the same article he does mention one name of importance:

"A friend of mine is a radical Zen meditation teacher named John Tarrant.."

To recap: John Tarrant Roshi is a practitioner of Shunryu Suzuki's line of zen mentioned previously on this thread and is acquainted with Michael Katz and David Chadwick on the Shunryu Suzuki Legacy Project at the San Francisco Zen Center. All three have been involved with Byron Katie's books.

Sashen is acquainted with Stuart Resnick also. He is one in a total of three members of Stu's Random Thoughts MyBlogLog [http://mybloglog.com/buzz/community/RandomStu/]. Stu advertises Sashen on both his sites and both are readers of the Guruphiliac blog and friends with Jody Radzik. Radzik lavishly endorses both these guys.

This link is not helpful but I thought you'd get a kick out of it :D Why is Sashen actually funny when he's not trying to be?

[themachoresponse.blogspot.com] Meaning of True Enlightenment



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2009 08:57AM by Jay Cruise.

Quote
Jay Cruise
I did find one article from six months ago where he discusses his practice and zen teacher in some detail yet doesn't name either. The teacher is japanese and was not deceased at the time of writing. I don't know Helpme if you found out anymore about Zendo (Kyudo) in Boulder, Colorado but founder Kanjuro Shibata XX is Japanese and currently not deceased. It seems highly likely this is the one.

[www.meditationtruth.com] How to be a Meditation Teacher

Jay, you might be right that Kanjuro Shibata XX is the zen teacher Steven refers to in the blog entry as "our old Japanese Zen archery Master". There's a picture of him here.

Quote
Jay Cruise
This link is not helpful but I thought you'd get a kick out of it :D Why is Sashen actually funny when he's not trying to be?

[themachoresponse.blogspot.com] Meaning of True Enlightenment

Interesting comment The Macho Response guy made on Sashen at the end. I'd love to know the story behind that. ;-)

That is very interesting about the Byron Katie "Curriculum Director" information about Steven Sashen.
Even a basic search showed there was no such reference.
What's the real story about that?

What did Steven Sashen really do for Byron Katie?
Why was the Byron Katie information removed from his website? What really happened?
Did BKI tell him to take it down?


Also, when the first information about Byron Katie was posted at the Guruphiliac blog, he later backtracked after he spoke with a "friend" who was a Byron Katie "formerly-inside man" who ALLEGEDLY "taught approximately 700 people in The Work".
[guruphiliac.blogspot.com]

Take a wild guess who that was, obviously that must have been Steven Sashen. Who else?

Notice how all these 3 guys claim that the Byron Katie School for The Work LGAT seminars don't harm anyone, there is no peer pressure and staff pressure to conform, its not a cultic indoctrination system, there is no advanced persuasion techniques being used, and Its All Voluntary.

All FALSE.
And knowingly false.

And who has been the #1 internet apologetics poster for Byron Katie, outside of the BK websites, where analysis of Byron Katie is banned?
Probably RandomStu Stuart Resnick, he's posted more than anyone about it.
Stephen Mitchell probably asked him to do so, as they thought he could disrupt the analysis of Byron Katie, with his so-called Zen confusion tactics from the hypocritical and disgraced Korean Zen guru Seung Sahn.


And by the connections between RandomStu, Stephen Mitchell, Steven Sashen, and Guruphiliac, anyone can see the blatant conflicts of interest.

People who sell The Work person-to-person can make a lot of money doing that, they can charge $100 an hour, and much more for leading groups. So there are/were people on the Byron Katie gravy train, and their blogging buddies don't want to kill their buddies golden goose.

So its a simple pattern.
Attack everyone elses Guru and processes you don't like, and are not associated with, or not making any money off.

But promote, distract, deflect, shill and lie, for the processes and Guru's that are paying off your mortgage, car payments and debts.


Personal friendships must NOT be allowed to cloud one's judgement when analyzing groups like the Byron Katie system. People are getting badly hurt, and if a close friend is involved in the cultic enterprise and is making money off it, then the minimum one has to do is DISCLOSE the conflict of interest and bias.

You can't be a Gurubuster, if the only Gurus you are busting are the one's you are not associated with. You can't just attack the Guru's you dislike, and promote your friends Guru's and Anti-Guru's and the seminars/coachings that are wetting their beaks.
That's intellectually corrupt and dishonest.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2009 01:36AM by The Anticult.

OMG, did you read this ditty linked above, posted by Steven Sashen?
[themachoresponse.blogspot.com]

He gives it all away there, by mistake. Not too subtle.

Remember before in the thread, where it was pointed out in great detail how Byron Katie does the "head cock" head-tilting movement, right before she gives a powerful "suggestion"? (maybe we can find that link).
And remember also the Yes Set.

Steven Sashen is aware, and was trained in both these techniques, as he reveals here.
[themachoresponse.blogspot.com]
(QUOTE) "One day, after 28 years traveling on the path, with no end in sight (and not many examples of people who had reached the goal) I stopped nodding my head and, instead, I began 'tilting my head.'
Almost literally, instead of nodding in agreement, I took on the attitude of 'Hmm…? What’s really going on here? Is it true?' (QUOTE)

Nodding of the head, that is written to create a sense of "entrainment" in the reader, if someone "nods their head" people will also do so...that is the Yes-Set. (just think head-nod, and your head will begin to nod Yes!)

He then transitions that into the "Head-Tilt" which is the Byron Katie method. Byron Katie LITERALLY tilts her head, into a STRONG head-cock, right before she gives Suggestions. She also does so in her photo's to create a Visual Anchor, and also her view of the world is also "tilted".

Then Sashen transitions into...Is It True? which is the The Work.

That is a very carefully written paragraph by Steven Sashen, it begins in Confusion, moves into the Yes-Set, and then the Byron Katie Head-Tilt for Suggestions, and then slips into The Work without your awareness.

Steven Sashen is 100% aware of the precise techniques being used by Byron Katie, he is using them himself.
Just imagine of how you would have to think about "people" to use these types of techniques on vulnerable people to make money off them. You have to depersonalize people into objects and playthings for your own personal enrichment. Its really sick, and there are a lot of people who do it.

Previous posts about the head cock/tilt:

[[url=http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,12906,59528#msg-59528]http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,12906,59528#msg-59528[/url]]

[[url=http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,12906,66859#msg-66859]http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,12906,66859#msg-66859[/url]]

Also, a YouTube video of Byron Katie with some head tilting going on:

[[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_60tFzgquA&feature=related]Byron Katie - About Cancer[/url]]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2009 02:22AM by helpme2times.

Quote
The Anticult
OMG, did you read this ditty linked above, posted by Steven Sashen?
[themachoresponse.blogspot.com]

FYI, that blog entry from The Macho Response is copied from Steven Sashen's "Anti-Guru Blog":

[[url=http://sashen.com/blog/3/the-day-i-stopped-nodding-my-head/]The day I stopped nodding my head[/url]]

Quote
The Anticult
And who has been the #1 internet apologetics poster for Byron Katie, outside of the BK websites, where analysis of Byron Katie is banned?
Probably RandomStu Stuart Resnick, he's posted more than anyone about it.
Stephen Mitchell probably asked him to do so, as they thought he could disrupt the analysis of Byron Katie, with his so-called Zen confusion tactics from the hypocritical and disgraced Korean Zen guru Seung Sahn.

Critics of RandomStu have been making comments in Guruphiliac territory, such as in the recent blog entry, ""What Enlightenment" Reignites".

In defense, someone called "Ellen" has come forth to say:

Quote

I do find it very strange that extremely tenuous links have been imagined between Stuart, Byron Katie, poker playing and zen practice to try to build a picture of Stuart as some kind of dangerous predatory guru. Are there not enough of these jokers at large in the world without imagining new ones behind every blog post?

Tenuous links? That's certainly debatable. And who has ever said that Stuart is "a dangerous predatory guru"? Who has even said he's a guru at all? We've been talking about OTHER guru types he appears to be defending.

And now in the latest Guruphiliac blogging, "New Buddha Erupts", the very first comment says:

Quote

Hi Jody,

On the topic "What Enlightenment Reignites", it seems quite a few comments are not getting through.
I've heard from people I know, who are not getting their comments posted to your site.

Are you moderating comment more heavily than usual?

In the "What Enlightenment" blog comments section, Jody had said re the Stuart critics:

Quote

To be honest, I find these criticisms of Stuart totally lame. The only reason I'm posting them is because it provides Stuart more contrast from which to make his points.

But now he says:

Quote

This is not a venue for attacking Stuart Resnick.

Jody can't seem to make up his mind on his criteria for letting comments through!

Its interesting how accurate criticism of a guy like RandomStu, gets flipped and deliberately exaggerated into "demonizing" or trying to say RandomStu is in THEIR WORDS a "dangerous predatory guru".

Who said that? No one.

But again, it points to intellectual dishonesty.
RandomStu markets himself as a so-called Gurubuster, which he is NOT. He dishes out criticism of others, but can't seem to take any legitimate criticism himself.

The REALITY is that RandomStu Stuart Resnick, has been extremely aggressive in trying to create a smokescreen around Byron Katie. He tried to do it in this very thread.
He was using very dishonest poker BLUFF tactics.
He is operating exactly like a standard apologist, that many of these cultish groups employ.

Why was RandomStu trying to create a smokescreen around Byron Katie in this thread, and in other threads about her?
That has also been explained, due to his personal connections with those folks, and his close ideological connections with Stephen Mitchell, Byron Katie's husband.
Stephen Mitchell himself is quite active in email postings, and even possibly anonymous online postings, perhaps even in this thread, as has also been shown. Maybe he asked for reinforcements?

Byron Katie is a guru, and she is damaging to people, that has been shown in great detail.
RandomStu has gone to great lengths to try to distract and deflect from these facts about Byron Katie.
Why?

RandomStu is not in any way a "Gurubuster".
If he was, he would start first in his own backyard, and Bust his own Guru Seung Sahn for his hypocrisy, sexual scandals, and years of lies. But instead, he is an Apologist for Seugn Sahn.
He also generally "blames the victim" in every case.

RandomStu also functions is a Distractologist for Byron Katie. Whenever people start posting accurate first hand criticism of her damaging LGAT seminars, RandomStu goes running in there, and tries to disrupt the discussion, and kill it, using his standard techniques. That's reality, that is what he does.
That is what he did on the Guruphiliac forum, when he killed the thread where recent Byron Katie seminar attendees were trying to have a discussion. He took the focus off the specific TECHNIQUES being used by Byron Katie, and made it about RandomStu, using his own techniques of disruption.

The reason is that people like Byron Katie know they MUST block the public's accurate knowledge of the techniques being used in these seminars, or they don't work on people very well.
Their main tactic of defense is to just create confusion.

Notice its the exact same method used by Steven Sashen above, his Story begins in "confusion".
You create confusion in people, and then "lead them out of the confusion". Very standard.

And since RandomStu has chosen to run interference for Byron Katie, and try to play mind-games about her LGAT seminarsand techniques, and thus ruin his own reputation as a so-called Gurubuster, then he has no one to blame but himself.

You can't only criticize the Gurus you don't like, and then go easy on and get into bed with the Guru's your friends are making money off.

That is hypocrisy, a gross conflict of interest, and intellectual dishonesty.
Sound familiar? Some so-called "Zen" schools, actually think those vices are Virtues, as it means you are a "superior" human. beware.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2009 02:34AM by The Anticult.