Solea, your rants are excellent. Unlike these fake culty new agey philosophies, I think most psychologists would agree that getting quite angry and pissed off is part of the healing process. (that is different than excessive Raging or hatred, which needs to be managed carefully).
My pet theory is its about getting our healthy "boundaries" back again.
I cannot think of any reason to worship or excessively idolize any human being for any reason at any time.
We are all just fallible mortals down here.
And as we can see, the so-called Guru's, especially the famous one's are usually 10x more screwed up than any average person. They are often liars and hypocrites.
Some are even psychopaths.
I do think "Guru's" are unhealthy, and dangerous, and create dependence.
I think its also just as important, maybe more so, for people to look for the "Invisible Guru's".
It seems some blogs that criticize Gurus focus only on the worst criminal Guru's whom wear robes and say they are God while raping and stealing.
But there are Gurus, who wear pantsuits and sweaterss, smile, hug, and say they are NOT God, and tell you they are NOT your Guru.
The amazing thing is that many of these ones, are MORE controlling, more devious than the guy in the robe.
These "invisible Guru's" often even call themselves Anti-Gurus, and preach against Gurus.
Yet at the same time, they have massive LGAT seminar systems, and make millions of dollars a month being the Guru, while saying they are not the Guru, their system is the GURU SYSTEM, no matter what they say or write.
These same people run dozens and hundreds of techniques on "soccer moms" who have no idea of what is happening to them. They are doing "brainwashing" methods on "soccer moms" and not many people even know it.
They do hypnosis, and when you ask them if they do it, they laugh and say they are dehypnotizing people. They turn everything around. They are master salespeople, so good, no one can see it.
Massive evidence shows Byron Katie, for example, is one of these new Guru's. She can get people to hand over their wedding rings to her...that is very deep.
And these days there are many others, and it seems most people can't see what they are doing, as they don't have the training.
But public education should help.
We all get conned at some point, but if we can learn what happened, hopefully it won't happen again.
But I really believe the Invisible Guru's who say they are Anti-Gurus are more dangerous, as its less obvious. We need some scholars to write some books explaining how this works, and more TV reports, etc. the public seems to have almost no idea of what is going on.
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solea13
So that story is used a lot. Thanks Anticult! And I just saw your other post about Anxiety with the link. I ordered the Feeling Good Handbook from Amazon too. I appreciate any sensible approach that will encourage me to think and feel for myself and not force me to worship someone anyone as a living God. Even if they are a Living God. Hahaha. How blasphemous.
There should be a warning label, like on the side of a pack of cigarettes: 'DANGER: HAVING A GURU COULD CAUSE SERIOUS HAZARDS TO YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH, AS WELL AS YOUR EMOTIONAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL & SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT!"
Yes, your physical health too because more than likely, your Guru will STRONGLY discourage you from seeking medical attention when you need it. Mine did.
Then there is the host of psychological problems that can be caused (which I have also experienced) such as floating, depression, phobia indoctrination, etc. etc.
You come out on the other side with reduced ability to think critically and function normally in society, not to mention greif over missed opportunities for love, education and career.
There should be disclaimers, there should be warnings, there should be full disclosure. People should be allowed to know what the heck they are getting themselves into when they start studying with anyone who declares him or herself a 'Living Master'.
There. That's my rant fot the day. Thanks for letting me share ...