Sahara 71 wrote.

Quote

I am glad that you are OK, Corboy.

I am recovering from my unfortunate brush with Moo. It's really hard, because the 'trance induction' stuff does something to you. You feel really let down when you realize that you have been duped and fooled. It's pretty scary stuff...

I know that in France they have laws to protect against people the use of thought-reform and brain-washing, but obviously Portugal must be lagging behind in this respect.

But if a french citizen were to return to France from the Moo ashram... I'm just saying, that I think something could be done about this. If Moo were reported to the french authorities, there would then be some kind of warning put out by the french authorities to officially recommend people stop going over to the Moo compound?

I think this is a possibility!

About the possessions by demons and exorcisms performed 'regularly' by Moo:

Talk to the French Embassy in Lisbon.

The French know their history.

Suggest to them that Moo may resemble Tartuffe.

[www.google.com]

Mention demons and exorcism and they will remember
the demon possession hysteria that gripped a convent in Loudon, France in the 17th century

[www.google.com]

and they will remember there was religious community which had an epidemic of
psychogenic swoons and seizures.

Convulsionaires Paris Jansenists Saint Medard

[www.google.com]

Mooji in The Guardian:

[www.theguardian.com]

Interesting that this Guardian item appeared right when serious allegations and concerns about Moo are being voiced from a variety of sources. No matter how harsh

Moos back ground and the sufferings endured by his sister do not not invalidate complaints and concerns voiced about Moo.

* Treatment of persons during satsangs

* Reports of exorcisms

* Requirement to attend satsangs

* Reports of people getting trancy and alienated from family and friends after
involvement in Moo's world

* Huge sums of untaxed money

* Suppression of concerns voiced about Moo in online discussions

* Concerns voiced about treatment of women

* One suicide reported at Moo's ashram

Moo's past and his sister's inspirational example are irrelevant to this.

We are asking about what's happening NOW.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2018 05:46AM by corboy.

Thanks Corboy,

The French embassy in Lisborn may be able to put out a warning about this guy, Moo. That would be really helpful. I never thought about that.

I read the Gaurdian article... It's actually a re-hash of an old article published years ago, under the same name. I think the purpose of it was to be able to authenticate Moo, as his Wikipedia page had already been deleted.

The Wikipedia page was deleted as Moo was not "a person of note" because there were not enough references from "reliable sources" to qualify Moo.

Now, with the sycophantic Guardian article, they are able to re-instate the Wikipedia page! It makes Moo look somewhat legit, when he is only a charlatan!

The fact that Moo has had plenty of personal problems of his own should lead him to have more compassion for people and not to exploit them. I'm not a psychologist but you really have to wonder about this. Someone who commented on the Moo section of Gururating.org called Moo a "pathological narcissist" - so that could explain why he is so callous and has no conscience.

I yam what i yam,

Thanks for sharing how some people may be duped into feeling that they got some kind of benefit from being in a cult. I'm no expert on cults, but I am learning more and more each day.

I guess if someone was suffering terribly with mental health issues that consumed their every waking moment, then they might somehow feel a bit better if they were brain-washed into believing that their problems didn't exist. Perhaps.

But the brain-washing would have to last for the rest of their lives for it to continue to be effective. So it kind of points to them spending more and more money on Moo products and Moo books and Moo retreats to maintain the effect.

As far as I am aware, it would be much more beneficial for these people to get effective, evidence-based medical and psychological treatment. The end aim of such treatment is to allow the person to regain independence and lead a productive life.

The end aim of brain-washing is to render a person helpless and compliant. I think there is a big difference in these two forms of "treatment". I know which one I would prefer and which treatment I would recommend.

If people genuinely prefer to be brain-washed, than to lead a normal, healthy life, then there isn't much I can do about it. My big concern is that in the case of the Moo Cult, they don't even know they are being brain-washed in the first place! So they don't get to make an informed choice.

It happened to me!! I was brain-washed by this cult!!

Ia m not happy about it, I am very upset about it. It has impacted my life and disrupted my ability to enjoy things I would normally enjoy.

Let me quote for you again what Tristan Harris said, as you don't seem to have got it:

"One of the interesting things is the way that people that I met in those cults who eventually left and later talked about their experience, and the confusion that you face - and I know this is an interest you've had - the confusion that you face when you've gotten many benefits from a cult. You've actually deprogrammed let's say early childhood traumas or identitites that you didn't know that you were holding, or different ways of seeing reality that they helped you, you know, get away from.

And you get these incredible benefits and you feel more free. But then you also realise that was all part of this larger persuasive game to get you to spend a lot of money on classes or courses or these kinds of things.

And so the confusion that I think people experience in knowing that they got all these benefits, but then also felt manipulated. And they don't know in the mind's natural black and white thinking how to reconcile those two facts."

People got "benefits" but felt "manipulated".

That's pretty much what I thought I said.

The point he makes is that they do actually get benefits. The benefits are real. But the bigger-picture is that they are being manipulated.

Personally, as well as pulling me out of a severe and hate-fuelled anxiety disorder I felt the Mooji experience helped me remember and work through some issues I had around my father. At the same time I'm glad that it didn't take me long to realize that healing my relationship with my actual father was more useful than imagining Mooji to be my surrogate father. (One of Mooji's videos is actually titled This Father Will Never Reject You - which sounds to me like an explicit bid for the "Daddy issues" crowd!).

I eventually realised that going to daily bikram yoga classes was more beneficial to me than sitting watching Youtube videos, because watching Mooji videos or attending retreats didn't stop my eating disorder or heal my disconnection from my body. And that although my heart could be stirred by the world music played at the end of satsang, this didn't mean that all these feelings were felt in reverence of Mooji.

As I said, I am glad I spent a while listening to Mooji. I needed the powerful energetic jolt such as only he could deliver, before I could find the strength to take the practical steps to bring me back to mental health. Then having been given that spark, I was better able to find solutions elsewhere.

I'm glad that the Mooji period of my life happened, but also that it ended. I very much like the posts earlier in this thread by NSH999. Today I've found myself thinking about this paragraph:

"Instead of preaching the good news, he preaches an entrapping method of becoming confused with ones identity. He tells people they are something that they are not, and then asks them to demonstrate to him that they are what they are not. Nothingness and Consciousness and The Way may be real experiences, but they are not required by any means to live a happy life in harmony with ones surroundings. Instead of just pointing to basic fundamentals, he now leads people on a goose chase that only ends when they choose to give it up."



Edited 13 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2018 06:46AM by i yam what i yam.

I'm glad you are OK, i yam what i yam.

I wonder if you wouldn't have just gotten better, anyway, without Moo? Sounds like you have done some really pro-active things in your life.

But then you say that you received some kind of "energetic jolt" from Moo. I'm really not sure such a thing exists.... I didn't experience it myself.
I just felt spaced out from watching Moo videos. At first it was pleasant, but within a week or so it was kind of empty. The concerning thing is that this emptiness led me to want to watch more videos!

Then I was just confused by the "message" basically. It's a message without any real meaning, in my opinion. It just doesn't help at all.

It's like this:

"You are not really you. You only think you are you. Don't think! Don't think at all. You are you but not you. The universe is you. You are the universe. You might believe you are you, but that is just your mind. You are not your mind. You are the one who is witnessing all this. Even the witness is being witnessed. But not by you. You are not really you."

Sadly, I must have missed something, because it really didn't make any freaking sense to me at all! I began to worry that I was really missing the point in all this. That's where my vulnerability came in.... that's where I became the perfect target for thought-reform.

I was questioning my own mind... my own ability to comprehend something. And all this questioning revolved around my very identity, my own sanity and sense of myself. It makes a person very, very vulnerable... and very, very open to suggestion. Questions, questions, question....who am I really if I am not me?

I don't know.

And then Old Moo is there to tell me who I am. One of his followers.

No, he doesn't say it outright, but it's implied by him all the time. The foot-kissing, the bowing down, the prayer gestures being offered up to him, like he is some kind of God. The photos of him you can buy in the gift shop, along with the prayer beads or whatever the heck they are.

Then he conveniently denies that he is any kind of leader or anything - of course he does!! Only a true messiah would deny his own divinity.

Think of your being on the road, in your car.

Your engine overheats, you make it to a service station.

They fix your car, you get gas.

Do you then stay at the gas station or keep returning to that same gas station?



In a good situation, the benfits are there - but they free us to go beyond the social setting where we felt relief.

In a bad situation, the benefits are there -- but to hook us in.

We never leave the service station/petrol station. We and other people are convinced its the only place that understands our vehicles.


We stay at the service station doing the social equivalent of living on soda and chips for months, years, and let our outside friends and family drop away, staying only with the others stuck at the gas station living on junk food.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2018 01:02AM by corboy.