ha, ha, ha - well, perhaps they are attracted to the special energy vortexes that are created by large piles of cash. :-)

Cheers -
Matt

Yeah, the money sink....or is it a faucet?
No doubt an attractive factor.
But I know there is more; a certain all-pervasive gullibility in combination with a heavy pressure to be politically correct....
I am trying to add to my list.
Does anyone have any more Sedona Cults to add?
This is serious research I'm engaged in here!!
(Well, semi-serious, anyway.)

HOLISTIC HORROR LAWSUIT
By DAVID HAFETZ and PHILIP RECCHIA

Julia Siverls was voracious, racking up advanced degrees in a dogged pursuit of knowledge that eventually led the Queensborough Community College education professor to a fateful spiritual retreat in the Arizona desert.

Dahnhak, a yoga and holistic-health group, offered to make her a master of its discipline if she completed one last test.

But that test cost Siverls, 41, her life, her family charges in an explosive $84 million lawsuit.

The suit calls Dahnhak a cult and alleges that it drugged Siverls, loaded her backpack with 40 pounds of rocks, gave her little food or water, then took her on a hike up Casner Mountain, near Sedona, Ariz.

She collapsed from dehydration and exhaustion in the desert heat but was forced her to go on and died halfway up the mountain on July 12, 2003, the suit says.

"It was total, total neglect," her sister, Veronica Siverls-Dunham, said. "This was a senseless death."

According to police reports obtained by The Post, an off-duty officer spotted the group on the mountain. The officer said Siverls was "hunched over" and had fallen.

An autopsy found the cause of death to be consistent with "acute heat stroke, dehydration and hyperthermia due to environmental exposure," the suit states.

Her family believes her meals at the retreat were laced with marijuana and methadone. A vegan, she never touched drugs, it says.

Siverls-Dunham, a high-school science teacher, called her sister, the youngest of 12 siblings, was the family's "pride and joy."

The suit says Dahnhak "lures" members with free yoga classes, then pressures them to attend pricey classes and retreats. Named as co-defendants are over a dozen allegedly related operations and Dahnhak's Korean leader, "Grand Master" Seung Huen Lee.

Chris Scanlon, a Manhattan lawyer for Mago Earth, one of the defendants, said, "The allegations of wrongful death are baloney."

A Dahnhak spokeswoman said neither Lee nor any other official could be reached for comment.

Seung Huen Lee, who also goes by the name Ilchi Lee, calls himself an "educational philosopher and world-peace leader" on a Web site that claims that Dahnhak teaches "the study of energy and how to use it to achieve mastery of mind and body and illumination of the spirit."

Dahnhak, based in Sedona, operates 50 centers in the U.S. and many more worldwide, according to the suit. There are at least 13 centers in New York, including locations on Sixth Avenue and a Dahn Yoga in Brooklyn Heights.

Arizona police say that the Siverls case is still open but that it's unlikely anyone will be charged.

A lot of Advaita teachers are located in Sedona too. I believe Pamela Wilson is based there, and some others. Advaita is a branch of Vedanta Hinduism. Its original teachers were Ramana Maharshi, Poonjaji (Andrew Cohen's guru) and in America, Robert Adams.

There are lots of Advaita "teachers" out there who are treated like gurus even though they're supposedly not.

Sedona may have some very laidback laws or other attitudes that attract seekers.

It may just be the "vibration" for lack of a better term. Mount Shasta and Santa Cruz have that sort of openness where people accept the out of place, without questioning it at all. Then again, so do many college towns.

It also could be the relative wealth of those areas.

Some of these groups seem to be after cash.

I've done a lot of traveling, and lived many, many places in my life, so I feel qualified to speak about the mood, or vibe, or whatever you want to call it of a few towns.

Sedona, IMO, has the most emphasis on [b:44b91266b1]Political Correctness[/b:44b91266b1] of any place I've ever been. You can barely open your mouth to say hello without being "corrected".

The emphasis seems to be on "negativity"; any criticism of anything, or any admission that your life may not be perfect, is perceived to be an open door for those who feel they have the answers, and they will usually tell you all about their own interpretation of reality at this point.
The "politically correct" view of life in this geographical area is that the individual creates their own reality; if something happens it is because YOU made it happen by thinking about it. Sedona is the center of the universe for "magical thinking". I have no idea why this area is like this, but in my experience it is.

I believe that this addiction to [b:44b91266b1]magical thinking[/b:44b91266b1] is as much of a lure to spiritual scam artists as the comparative wealth of the populace. After all, it would not be considered "politically correct" to criticize the religious beliefs or behavior of another when you, as creator of your own reality, had produced whatever you experienced in the first place.

That's my opinion, right, wrong, or simply stinky, and eternally "politically incorrect".

Bonnie -

The "creating your own reality" term sounds very much like one the Landmark cult uses. While we are responsible for ourselves and our own lives, there are certain realities we must face and work through - difficult co-workers, relationship issues, family problems, career difficulties, business problems, etc. Admitting and facing these issues is not judging someone else or being politcally incorrect. It is being true to oneself and one's own perceptions. If you do work for someone and they do not pay you, they are trying to take advantage of you. No amount of spin will change that. Just as if one has a family member that is abusive, no change of interpretation will alter that reality. Cults will always try to change one's own reality to fit *their* reality.

Peace,
Matt

No, that's not what I'm talking about.
And I'm not talking about [b:55ac638303]MY[/b:55ac638303] beliefs; I'm trying to describe the basic pressure towards a certain type of [b:55ac638303]"political correctness"[/b:55ac638303] that IMO, pervades Sedona.

I'm talking about [b:55ac638303]"manifesting"[/b:55ac638303] your own reality. (As in "I'm God, You're God, we are all Gods, and we create this existance.)

In new age circles this means; (let me see if I can describe this...)
If I want a million dollars, what I have to do is invision myself with a million dollars, live my life as if I already Have the million, and most of all Feel like I own a million dollars. If I don't get the million dollars it's because I didn't do this right. ( I have actually had a "therapist" direct a group of us to roll around on $100 in singles on the floor to teach us how to manifest money. She said it would work better with $100 bills.)

Also, if you do something to injure me, it's not because of any action on my part, or on your part; it's because I had negative thoughts which manifested as you harming me. In fact, if you come into my realm at all, it's because i thought or felt something to either draw you into my realm, or perhaps create you; I'm a little unclear on which.

Sadness is politically incorrect.
Anger is very, very politically incorrect.
These are [b:55ac638303]negative emotions[/b:55ac638303] which will result in drawing in bad events by creating an energy vortex.
[b:55ac638303]Mindreading[/b:55ac638303] is an accepted fact here, and everyone is telepathic, don't you know? That's one reason why you should not have "negative" thoughts and emotions like sadness and anger.

If you work for someone and they do not pay you it is due to:
1. [b:55ac638303]Bad Karma[/b:55ac638303] from a past life, or
2. [b:55ac638303]Negative[/b:55ac638303] thinking and emotions

It has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of rational theory of cause and effect. It is pure voodoo.

This is just my summary of the type of political correctness I encountered in Sedona.
I [b:55ac638303]do not[/b:55ac638303] believe in it, myself.
No one has to agree with me, this is just what I have seen.
It is a lot like Tony Robbins, in some ways.
I don't know about Landmark, as I have no experience with them.

But it does seem to me that if you can swallow this kind of crap you are a mark for whatever cult nonsense comes your way, especially since it is Politically incorrect to say anything "negative" about anyone or anything.

OK, I'll try to put it in the simplest possible terms.

Not only are many people in Sedona [b:55ac638303]RICH[/b:55ac638303],
They're [b:55ac638303]CHUMPS[/b:55ac638303], at least when it comes to spirituality.

They'll swallow [b:55ac638303]anything[/b:55ac638303] in Sedona, and tell you that you should swallow it, too. I've never seen anything like it in all my travels.
That's all I have to say about political correctness in Sedona.

Bonnie,

EXCELLENT explanation!

That is exactly the thinking that my family raised me with (ugh!). My parents still talk that way.. incessently... teaching classes on 'intention' and bladdidy blah.... AND moving to Sedona in the next month or so.
:roll:

Birds of a feather flocking together.

As you state, it is all useless B.S. So much of the same is taught in many cults, after the person is in the trance state. This places all blame upon the cult member. They feel there is something 'wrong' with them to have attracted such misfortune, and then must continue to do their WORK in the cult, and paying for such work, in order to be worthy individuals again.

I've heard genuine medical problems (tumors, etc) blamed back upon a person in this way, problems with furnace, job issues, you name it... issues over which the affected person would have had no control.

sad