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Along with Elvis Presley's reincarnation he also claims to know where Hitler's is, and has also claimed that Shakespeare's reincarnation has been in attendance at his workshops.
If he actually makes these claims..
Making such extravagent claims might be a way to assemble and perhaps create a docile audience.
This is just guess work on my part. We have to wait until former UM participants feel able to visit here and describe for themselves.
Here is why these seemingly wild claims about reincarnations may be useful in creating a docile audience.
Skeptics are annoyed enough to hit the 'close' button on the UM websites or annoyed enough to leave the room. Right there, this sifts out potential dissidents.
Those who remain are too polite to leave, or who are not troubled by extravagent claims. Result: a malleable audience.
These extravagent claims, if Serge is actually making them, may have still another effect.
The wild claims (Elvis, Shakespeare, Hitler, Lords of Form) dont put any burden on those who think they're nonsense.
Because..the mainstream world will agree this is nonsense.
If you're a skeptic, go to a talk or read a book or hear a video where this stuff is peddled and you think its hilarious, you can find plenty of people who will laugh right along with you.
But..lets look at people who find these claims (whether offered by Serge or by anyone else) exciting and intriguing.
First, a lot of these ventures do have an effect of making people feel better--at first. New group of people. Some shared group meditations, deep breathing, a nice group converstation afterwards with some tea and biscuits -- a lot of us are lonely and tense and will respond very well to a well organized reception of this kind.
Bang.
Persons who feel a bit better and are also intrigued or thrilled by wild claims of reincarnations may find themselves feeling part of a special mission..special and perhaps burdened at the same time.
THey're feeling better, yet fear they will be ridiculed if they talk openly about how interesting this stuff was, and that it made them feel better. So they keep it a secret from their outsider friends and co workers. This makes em feel special, custodians of something so significant that the outside world just will not understand. They will be more dependent on their new buddies in UM
Keeping secrets isolates us.
Suppose people dare confide their interest and excitement to friends and family.
A by product might be discord. A person might come home from an introductory talk, all fired up and meet with concern or (worse) scorn from skeptical friends or mates. All too often, this may cause the new recruit to end friendships with the skeptics and become yet more dependent on the intense and exciting world they've just found.
If ridiculed, they may feel resentful, break away from their real family and friends and decide only UM is trustworthy and that it has some special truth that generates demonic persecution from the outside.
And remember, most of these ventures start out making people feel better. If someone's been a bit lonesome or depressed and feels some relief, he or she will be reluctant to question it. Theyre more likely to get resentful if skeptical friends laugh at em.
These are the kinds of claims are 'attention grabbers'.
But, one of the rules of genuine search for verifiable evidence based truth is extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Two, in evidence based inquiry (science!--science is what created the computer you are using this very moment to read all this) in evidence based scientific inquiry, one starts out not by claiming something is true, but....
by stating a hypothesis that can be proven wrong.One cannot prove or disprove that Serge or anyone else is Elvis' reincarnation.
Ditto for Shakespeare's reincarnation. And ditto for claiming to know where Hitler's reincarnation is.
One cannot dis-prove such allegations.
One cannot disprove the existence of "Lords of Form".
So what you get are a dust ball of claims that cannot be disproved and thus the kinds of ideas that never go away. Thats why they keep showing up in new forms. the kind of stuff that collects like dust in corners. Evidence based inquiry sifts away stuff that cannot disproved and concentrates on problems that can be as hypotheses that can be proven wrong.
The claims reportedly made by Serge are standard re-writes of Theosophical and other systems that make unproveable claims. That is why versions of these systems keep showing up in new packages.
Theosophy in its present form was launched by Mme Blavatsky and Olcott in the 1870s and generated lots of spin offs, Alice Bailey being one of them. (Rudolf Steiner was another)