by the way, there is a member of the BK inner circle, who sends out emails, posts blogs, and gets personally involved in many aspects of the Byron Katie internet PR machine.
His name is Stephen Mitchell.

He was even caught posting self PR on his own Wikipedia site. [forum.culteducation.com]
He may have even posted on this forum as a internet sock-puppet in the early days...some clues there involving the Epistemology of all of this...gotta have to look back into the archive.

There are reports of emails Stephen Mitchell has sent out to people who are confused about BK issues, that have been deliberately confusing, and some have been shockingly arrogant.

For example, Janaki, who seems to be a genuine person, gave some info here about Stephen Mitchell.
[janakisstory.wordpress.com]
First off, the BK Valentine story written by Mitchell is fabricated Eye-Gazing Love-Bombing PR, as has been shown. [forum.culteducation.com] (talk about clumsy attempts at amateur hypnotic word persuasion, that is almost as bad as the Mary Poppins reference, or the Neal Donald Walsch PR attempt).

But of course, Stephen Mitchell knew everything about Janaki beening literally wiped off the map by Byron Katie.
Janaki had been knocked to the ground, by BK and Stephen Mitchell.
The words she used about his message were "weird and perverted" and those words do capture what is going on.

QUOTE: "Dear Janaki, I thought you’d get a kick out of this. Love, Stephen"

Look again at that concise Zenlike phrase.
Get it? embedded words... "you'd get a KICK".

Does it give pleasure to KICK someone, after you've knocked them to the ground?
You wipe her business out, then you give her a KICK, and then you want to play Mind-Games about "love" with them, to hurt them even more?
Then you say you didn't mean to offend, to try to screw with them?

Of course he meant to offend.
You take someone who has looked up to their "guru" type person for many years, and now they have been ex-communicated, KICKED out of the group, and had their business wiped out, and knocked to the ground.

Then you send them some fake PR blog post, about how GLITTERING the LOVING EYES of the guru is, deliberately to Trigger that terrible pain of rejection in the person. That is very sicko stuff, sadistic even.

Its as if a husband dumped his wife for a younger model, and then sends the Ex an email photo of them in a hot-tub in the tropics with a Just Married sign..."thought you'd get a nice KICK in the teeth out of this...lovey dovey, Ex...no offense...".

Its a kick in the head when a person is down, literally "framed" inside BK Love-Bomb language, and also the passive-aggressive "no offense".
He thinks he is very clever, and he knows how to send a message, inside a message. Was its real intent to try and silence Janaki, with a "weird and perverted" mind-game?

"Dear Janaki, I thought you’d get a kick out of this. Love, Stephen"
"Dear Janaki, [BK love-bomb] I thought [you’d get a KICK] out of this. [BK love-bomb] Love, Stephen"

There are other examples like this.
Some other email messages from Stephen Mitchell will turn up, stripped of personal details, and then they can be looked at carefully. Also, various blog posts he's made.

No offense...we cool, right? Much luv.


______________________
[janakisstory.wordpress.com]
QUOTE"
Stephen Mitchell

At the time of writing this story, I received an email from Stephen. It contained a link to Katie’s Valentine newsletter, with the message: Dear Janaki, I thought you’d get a kick out of this. Love, Stephen

I noticed that in the newsletter he establishes himself as a connoisseur of eyes and an expert of spiritual masters. He could tell from their eyes that they knew The Great Secret. Upon looking into Katie’s eyes, he says, ‘But Katie’s eyes were even more glittering, I felt, even more ancient, and so beautiful that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with joy. The joy shining from them was something I had never seen before’.

When I received Stephens email, my thought was, ‘He is still hung up on the fact I once called him a spiritual snob’.

I responded with, Stephen, I wonder why you thought I would get a kick out of reading your story with Byron Katie and seeing the promotion of your new book. I thought it was weird and perverted that you sent me that email. Ever since Byron Katie monopolized the entire Work market with her certification program (especially in Europe), removed my profile from her website, denied people credits for my programs and suggests them to go elsewhere for workshops with The Work, I have had to cancel all workshops and training programs abroad. I have lost 80% of enrollment and thus 80% of my income. This is quite a serious matter. Perhaps you get a kick out of that. Janaki"

______________________



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2009 02:54AM by The Anticult.

just a footnote of CAUTION, about Stephen Mitchell.

If anyone has contact with him, by email, or in person at a seminar about any BK problems or issue, please be very very cautious, and very skeptical.

You don't know what Stephen Mitchell is really up to, or what he may or may not be doing to you.

Stephen Mitchell has been an expert in these areas, since the early 1970's, his entire adult life.
He is reported on the Kwan Um Zen as the first western ordained "Zen monk" for Seung Sahn who practices a seriously abusive and manipulative form of so-called Zen. Seung Sahn was also involved in serious sex scandals with his students.

Of course none of that makes it into the Stephen Mitchell bio...why is that?

Stephen Mitchell, Mu Gak Sunim, Seung Sahn, Kwan Um School of Zen,
[forum.culteducation.com]

Stephen Mitchell also is highly expert at the subtle ADVANCED use of language in many ways, including persuasion and manipulation, as can be seen in many areas. Language is his business.

Stephen Mitchell is very active in attempting to use similar techniques, for example in his "Glittering Eyes" PR Story induction for Byron Katie, which literally serves as a way to induce and trigger these same states from hypnotherapy.
(of course his use of these particular techniques is still quite amateurish and clumsy at this point, not like the wife!).
[forum.culteducation.com]

There have also been reports, even in this thread, about strange and confusing emails and comments he has sent to people. Maybe we can find that reference in this thread..and elsewhere.

and that does not even scratch the surface of Stephen Mitchell's patterns.
So just be very very cautious, and carefully analyze what Stephen Mitchell is saying to you, the words he is using, their order and syntax, phrases being used, the imagery being used, self-blame being triggered, emotions being triggered, confusion being induced, paradoxes being invoked.

Trust your gut instinct.
and trust your own careful thinking and analysis.

To communicate with experts in persuasion, one needs to use meta-cognition, and to take a step back, or 2 steps back, and carefully analyze what they are doing to you, as they are doing it.
Its not that hard to do, thankfully most people have decent natural BS detectors.

And when you are getting an email or disturbing comunication from Stephen Mitchell and your BS detectors are flashing a red warning light and a...BEEP BEEP BEEP, then its a good idea to trust those warning signals.

Don't be like little Red Riding Hood, who didn't trust her gut, and ended up in someone else's gut!
------

"Grandmother, what big arms you have!"

"All the better to hug you with, my dear."

"Grandmother, what big legs you have!"

"All the better to run with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"

"All the better to hear with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"

"All the better to see with, my child."

"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.

Janaki to Stephen Mitchell:

"I responded with, Stephen, I wonder why you thought I would get a kick out of reading your story with Byron Katie and seeing the promotion of your new book. I thought it was weird and perverted that you sent me that email."

Yay Janaki!

Some Continuing Education modules buried in the earlier parts of this thread.

The first includes quoted material from a medical textbook on the caution therapists use in dealing with hand shakes and physical contact between client and therapist. This must take place within a clear set of rules.

This often seems cold and non nurturing, compared with human potential types who go around saying 'sweet heart' and 'honey'

But there is a reason why therapists follow this seemingly stodgy set of rules:

Quote

'Patients who were sexually abused as children are particularly wary of a changing set of rules, because the offending parent would use exceptions as a way to rationalizing away the incest taboo'. (Epstein, page 213)

The discussion of this article, led to a further discussion by Anticult of a technique few laypeople know about Milton Erickon's use of handshake induction.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Reading matter on fiduciary issues:

Fiduciary Issues

[forum.culteducation.com]

This discussion mostly relates to therapists. But here is a key principle:

Quote

Back to Lilienfeld and Lohr: 'In the law, when a relationship exists between individuals, based on trust and confidence, and one individual has greater knowledge, experience, training and skill, than the other, (that is, a power imbalance--C), then that relationship is generally considered in the eyes of the law to be a fiduciary relationship.

Note the 'generally considered'. If one has a particular situation in mind, it has to be evaluated by an attorney.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2009 09:18PM by corboy.

This article is well worth reading as a case study in PR. (It may apply to One Taste, too).

All this went on in the 1970s to 1980.

[www.templeofdreams.com]

Especially look at Page 3.

"First I was taken to some homes. Everyone I was introduced to wanted to instantly love me," he said.

"Later I was taken to a restaurant in Hollywood. Of course, the tab was picked up. It didn't take too much for me to see that something unusual was going on, that this was actual recruitment. Right away, I thought something was wrong. This is not what happens in therapyThen we went to the open house. All through this, it became more and more obvious that it was important to the women who'd brought me that I like this, that I join. Which also told me that there was pressure, and brownie points to be won by my joining. Again, a very terrible sign.

"In the open house they showed a slide show. I expected to hear about the therapy, but the entire show was nothing but how completely wonderful the founders were. Then they broke off into so-called therapy demonstrations, and in one they described how patients would do therapy on other people by mail. At that point I raised my hand and said, 'You're describing therapy being given by unlicensed individuals through the mail, and that's against the law.' A hush came over the room. The presenters replied, in essence, 'You're talking legalities and we're trying to save the world.'"

This was the 1970s, so they talked about doing therapy by mail.

Today we have the internet.

Quote
Meadow
About Steven Sashen:
Check this out: [www.duhism.com]
It looks like the guy loves to hear himself speak, and thinks he is very funny.
I actually heard that at some point BK threw him out herself, after he had been working for her. She used to make fun of him behind his back.

Mr. Duh seems to have taken the video down.

Hey, I think that was a good move. Appearing on camera so messy-looking and talking about his cold... it was icky to watch and listen to. I felt like I was going to catch that cold!

Quote
quackdave
I do have a point: In my opinion, people like Sashen are equally as dangerous as Katie, because they seduce you and then take you by the hand to Katie's house, all prepped and ready to be fleeced by someone a lot more savvy than Steve Sashen. Although, I should add that Steve Sashen does have some expertise; I am sure that he has studied the techniques of Internet marketing very, very well. I was scammed by more than one scheme that promised riches of one type or another, and ended up studying their techniques meticulously, to avoid repeating my mistakes in that area. I even went so far as to pay money to one company to learn the techniques themselves. Tricky stuff, too. Multi-layered, NLP loaded, image-laden double talk designed to get your checkbook out NOW, "before this offer ends".

I agree with quackdave, having gotten into The Work via Steven Sashen. It appears Mr. Sashen has recently been trying to distance himself from Byron Katie and The Work. A good question is, why?

I have my guesses.

How did I find my way to Steven Sashen? By reading his comments at the Guruphiliac blog.

Over a year ago, The Anticult pointed out that Steven Sashen was referenced at least 25 times on the Guruphiliac blog. (This is his post re that: [[url=http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,12906,53568#msg-53568]TAC post re Guruphiliac[/url]].)

Currently, Google shows around 31 hits for "Sashen" in the Guruphiliac blog: [[url=http://www.google.com/search?q=site:guruphiliac.blogspot.com+Sashen&hl=en&safe=off&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-05,GGLG:en&start=20&sa=N]Google re Guruphiliac & Sashen[/url]].

Here is a sample comment by Steven Sashen in the Guruphiliac blog. It's a really interesting comment because it shows him clearly viewing a particular group as a cult.

At 11/27/2007 4:30 PM, Steven Sashen said...

My wife and I drove by our local Dahn Yoga center about 2 years ago and, barely glancing at it, I said, "It's a cult." At first she thought I was joking. I said, "No, seriously, give it 2 years and I guarantee there will be some freaky story that comes out about the leader -- maybe not sarin-in-the-subway freaky, but something."

"How do you know?" she asked.

While I'm no fan of the book Blink (long story), this was an "immediate hit" moment. I could just tell.

Actually, it was similar to what I felt when I met Shoko Asahara (5 years pre-subway) and, after I criticized him for being, well, totally full of it, he asked if I wanted to run his American centers. (I passed)

From [[url=http://guruphiliac.blogspot.com/2007/11/taking-dahn-down.html]Guruphiliac - Taking Dahn Down[/url]]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2009 02:58AM by helpme2times.

Here is a post from Feb 2008, where the manipulative tactics from Stephen Mitchell in email are mentioned again.
[forum.culteducation.com]
QUOTE: "The author Stephen Mitchell is her husband. When I was trying to figure out what was happening to me, I contacted Katie with questions. Stephen responded... And let me tell you, his attempts to make me question myself got so ridiculous that I just quit responding to him at all.
He's the one who writes her books. There's a woman named Paula who appears to running everything, and I believe she is a paid employee of Byron Katie International."

So again note, Stephen Mitchell will ENDLESSLY try to make you question yourself, doubt your doubts about his tactics he is doing on you, twist your thoughts around on yourself, and create even more confusion. He is an expert in that going back decades.
[Warning about Stephen Mitchell's methods] [forum.culteducation.com]

A video-clip of Stephen Mitchell where he talks about his so-called Zen beginning. But take note, he does not mention the name of his abusive guru "monk" Seung Sahn, who was caught in a sex scandal with his disciples. [www.youtube.com]

The next post after the one above about the manipulative emails from Stephen Mitchell, is by a poster named "Ralpher" who is obviously a BKI person.
February 22, 2008 [forum.culteducation.com]
Ralpher, uses the word VOLUNTARY at least 5x, and imples it over and over, just like the BKI contract you are forced to sign. This is because they know all about the persuasion engineering techniques being used on people without their awareness.

Who could that Ralpher be from BKI?
Near the end...about Stephen Mitchell, Ralpher writes...
QUOTE: "Katie's husband is a renowned--and I mean highly renowned, widely acknowledged to be a brilliant scholar and translator of ancient texts. He's involved in her work as well, cleaning up the prose, I think. ...It's a kind of conspiracy theory obsession. Every idea you don't like is a conspiracy."

:-) LOL!
Not just renowned...but HIGHLY...and WIDELY and BRILLIANT... its almost too much to take after a meal.

Stephen Mitchell was also busted on Wikipedia for writing a bunch of self-promotional material there too. [forum.culteducation.com]

also notice the poster Ralpher has already started the "conspiracy theory" conspiracy theory, which is being used again.
The poster also ignores and DEFLECTS from the FACT of the dozens of common LGAT techniques being used by Byron Katie in her seminars.
This poster says they did the Werner Erhard LGAT...interesting, picked up some techniques from Werner Erhard too.

Stephen Mitchell and Byron Katie have got themselves into a serious Double-Bind. Especially Mitchell.
He claims that Byron Katie is some type of idiot savant who just makes everything up.
Byron Katie can play-dumb, but Mitchell can't use that escape hatch.
But EVERYONE can see the dozens of standard LGAT techniques and persuasion engineering methods Byron Katie is using on people, and all of their other techniques. So how can they explain those?
They can't. They're trapped in a double-bind.
They can't admit to the tech, they can't deny it as its too obvious.

All they can do is stand there like the cat who ate the canary, with feathers all over their mouth, blood on the floor, and a full stomach.
They are trapped, and there is no way out, other than the last ditch effort, to try to bluff their way out, baffle the public with bullshit, and to distract, deflect, deny, and try to screw with people's minds and perception of reality.
And the more they try to deny it, the more ridiculous and disingenuous they make themselves look.

Talk about a checkmate, and a double-bind.






[Warning about Stephen Mitchell's methods] [forum.culteducation.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2009 03:19AM by The Anticult.

...its also frankly a shameless bluff by RandomStu, when Stuart Resnick claims to have no real connection with Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell, when in fact he recommends Byron Katie on his website, with direct links to her videos and blog.
RandomStu also links to Carol Skolnick,

and also highly recommends Steven Sashen's dubious get-rich-quick schemes, while attacking others get-rich-quick schemes. Here's the logic, its bad when others do it, but if we do it, then its good...for us. subtle.

[Kwan Um School of Zen connections with Stephen Mitchell] [forum.culteducation.com]

You don't have to be a game-theory expert to do the math here.
Obviously these folks all know eachother personally, and cross-promote eachother's business interests on the internet.
Obviously their intent was to throw ole RandomStu into the middle of the Byron Katie analysis, to do his so-called attack "Zen" thing, with constant off-topic random deflections, distractions, and bullying tactics, just to try to create more confusion. Its a deliberate tactic.

also take note, the date that RandomStu joined this fourm, and under the topic of complaints, with his standard victim blaming and abusive-guru apologetics [forum.culteducation.com]
There have also been questions raised about when and how RandomStu Stuart Resnick entered into the debate in the SYDA yoga fiasco. Clearly, there is some very dirty poker dealing in play. [forum.culteducation.com]

__________________________________
[QUOTE: by Stuart Resnick]
My So-Called Spiritual Life [home.comcast.net]
"Byron Katie teaches how to examine thoughts to see if they're true and beneficial. She says, When you argue with reality, you lose... but only 100% of the time. Katie has a blog and some videos on Google".

"Steven Sashen creates the ANTI-GURU BLOG. It isn't guru-bashing; it's about looking to yourself for the answers. Check out his posts on Ramesh Balsekar, I Had a Dream..., and Become a Millionaire Self-Help Guru: "The key here is to engender an AHA! experience ... This is especially easy in a workshop setting where, frankly, if you charge enough money and put a bunch of strangers in an unusual place you’re guaranteed to get 'results.'" He also offers an online Instant Advanced Meditation Course."
_________________________________



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2009 03:47AM by The Anticult.

Quote
The Anticult
...its also frankly a shameless bluff by RandomStu, when Stuart Resnick claims to have no real connection with Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell, when in fact he recommends Byron Katie on his website, with direct links to her videos and blog.
RandomStu also links to Carol Skolnick, and also highly recommends Steven Sashen's dubious get-rich-quick schemes, while attacking others get-rich-quick schemes. Here's the logic, its bad when others do it, but if we do it, then its good...for us. subtle.

Stuart Resnick's use of the word "Random" in his online I.D. seems no accident. It's like he's trying to throw people off with the "random" bit, yet his disruptive entries into critical discussions of Byron Katie (as just one example, who knows what else he is up to?) seem anything BUT random.

I'd like to add that on his "so-called life" website, Stuart speaks of cults and the like, as if they really do exist as problems! (Alas, he keeps dismissing the power of cults in discussions of Byron Katie.)

From Stuart's website on cults and such:

Quote

EXes and ANTIs: Rick Ross has tons of info on destructive cults, skewering Sri Chinmoy and many others. Get the latest world-wide updates from the Cult News Network. Guru Maharaj Ji was a teen-aged Indian God-man in the 70s; now he's ditched the Indian trappings but continues his show under the name Prem Rawat. Disillusioned exes of Rawat/Maharaji run the excellent Ex-premie site, the Prem Rawat aka Maharaji Information Resource with lots of old photos and videos, and this talk forum. Lord of the Universe is a documentary of this guru from his 70s hey-day. Adi Da is debunked at the Beware of the God blog. The online book Stripping the Gurus hits lots of them, including Yogananda's Spiritual Realization Fellowship. This book's author, Geoff Falk, keeps an entertaining, intelligent, and bitter blog. David Lane's Neural Surfer deconstructs a number of teachers, including Ken Wilber and Satya Sai Baba (subject of the BBC expose The Secret Swami). To reject the whole Christian Ball-O-Wax, take the Blashphemy Challenge. Some former students of Transcendental Meditation (TM) believe that the organization and founder Maharishi Mahesh Yoga have been deceptive. TM secrets are revealed, and possible harmful effects of its "trance suggestions" are explored, at TranceNet, the TM-Free Blog, Behind the TM Facade, and Falling Down the TM Rabbit Hole. John Knapp, who runs the TM-Free Blog, also offers private cult recovery counseling.


Betrayal of the Spirit is a sincere examination of the HARE KRISHNA movement from ex-member Nori Muster. Other thoughtful accounts of leaving the movement include On Leaving ISKCON and I was a Teenage Hare Krishna. The Krishna teaching stresses an absolute duality between pure and impure... and yet in practice, the movement degenerated to the point where gurus valued fund-raising over honesty ("We can do anything in Krsna's service... Krsna is the most expert cheat... It belongs to Krsna anyway.") Since Krishna founder Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada died in '77, the movement remains in disarray, with the original organization ISKCON debating the ISKCON Revival Movement and other independent voices over who the real Spiritual Master should be. The newspaper article Rebuilding its temple suggests that today, the typical Krishnas aren't young Americans renouncing the world for a life of monkish spirituality, but more likely a congregation of expatriate Indian householders. On that page, click the Krishnas Come Home video link to see footage of devotees at the New Vrindaban Krishna farm in 2006. More Krishna-themed videos at the KrishnaTube site. Two stories of my own encounters with the Krishnas are included on my Strange Trips page.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2009 04:12AM by helpme2times.