On cult membership and addictive disorders:

[www.sciencedirect.com]

Quote:
Re: Mooji a cult?
Posted by Constantin
October 25, 2018
Hello Everyone!
I was very happy to read this thread since many things that are said here have been watched here first hand. I have been with Mooji and later here at Sahaja since 2011. Its very hard difficult to get out of this cult because the amount of bliss one can receive, or seemingly so....

Re: Mooji a cult?
Posted by: yourinlove
October 24, 2018
....Soon, The Invitation became a label and books were published about it. In Monte Sahaja, the team put the Invitation to Freedom.....

Thanks for your first hand comments from Monta Sahaja.
I enclosed another comment to The Mooji’s Invitation to the Freedom “for immediate awakenings", the bliss experience in Monte Sahaja:
Some Mooji’s critics (neo-advaita-vedanta) say that seeing through the illusion of the personal “I” or the ego-mind optics is the main point of Mooji’s teachings but this understanding or recognition do not suffice to discover the true Self or the true human nature. According to these Mooji’s opponents, the enlightenment, bliss, or spiritual awakening experiences induced by Mooji and his satsangs or pointing out are considered to be short by dopamine/serotonin-reward releasing in the brain, problematic like a bliss-bobble, and superficial similar a heaven hypnosis.
Such indirect recognition or discovery could not be taken yet to be equal to the experience of the identity of Atman, the true Self, or the true human nature in one’s self, because there is still subject-object pattern present, the latent ego-mind is still active and one cannot leave the ego-mind aside so easily. The true human Self cannot be an object of the personal “I” or the object of the attention of the ego-mind. One cannot attend the true Self by means of the ego-mind so simply.
Much more realistic and modest point of view or approaches is an indirect recognition/experience of the non-existence of the "I" or ego-mind in the form of the silenced mind, a gap between two following thoughts, quite sensation, present moments/awareness, and deep meditation but only like a ‘gateway’ to the true Self. This is also a reason/argument why zen/budhhist monks, yogis, or some regular people meditate for years to turn the ego-mind inwards to be absorbed in the true Self by itself…



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2018 11:30PM by Horowitz.

Papaji devotee David Godman talks about so-called immediate enlightenment:

[youtu.be]

Sahara71, of course cults can also be charities!

But here's a UK charity that may be more to your taste:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Janja Lalich clarifies what constitutes a cult and also the different kinds of cults out there. Great article:

[cultresearch.org]

A personal perspective on self-inquiry in response to the recent posts by Horowitz and Happytown.

Before I ever came into contact with the Moo Cult, I was well aware of self-inquiry as a method for spiritual development. For me, it was a helpful way of exploring my place in the world. I didn't meditate all that often, but when I did, I would often use some form of self-inquiry.

This was just a matter of asking myself quietly "who am I?"

I am not my age, or my name or my occupation. I am not my body (or not simply my body) and I am not my emotions, my thoughts, my feelings... I am not my social conditioning, nor my family conditioning.

I simply exist. That is all.

This feeling of simply "being here now" made me feel very peaceful. It was like a release from the pressure from all the things we think we should be or do. Because really, those things are just arbitrary. We could easily be or do something else... ultimately we could do anything we want (within the law) and it wouldn't really matter much. It's totally up to us....

We could choose to do nothing, of course. There is nothing wrong with doing nothing..... except that we need to eat, we need to earn a living to some degree and ultimately human beings are happiest when they are doing something.

It's really hard just to do nothing. It's kind of boring. :)

So, to sum up, self-inquiry was a pleasant and harmless experience. No doubt, in combination with meditation, abstaining from drugs and alcohol, living a good life and getting plenty of sleep, self-inquiry would lead to a happy, balanced life with a strong spiritual component to it.

It would help a person shed the weight of social conditioning that often binds us to a very limited life-style, where we are only doing things from habit or from (mostly imagined) pressure to conform to some ideal.

When you remove a lot of these ingrained ideas, you definitely feel freer and less restricted in your life. You feel very optimistic.

However, what Moo is teaching does not seem to be making people free. It seems to be enslaving them. They are looking to him to tell them what to do, rather than previously looking towards their social conditioning. They are hanging off his every word in an unhealthy way. They are parroting responses without thought.

It's like they have replaced one form of conditioning with another form of conditioning -cult conditioning.

Rick Ross addresses the formidable issue of how to talk to someone still in the grips of a high demand group:


[culteducation.com]

This letter was written 34 years ago, in response to an article about abuses perpetrated by Baba Muktananda of Siddha yoga and Richard Baker, abbot of San Francisco Zen Center.

Though written such a long time ago, the anonymous author's insights may sound familiar.

CoEvolution Quarterly's editor wrote:

Quote

Regarding the kind of total allegiance to a guru that characterizes SYDA and similar groups, a former follower of Muktananda who requested anonymity had this to say:

'What makes Siddha Yoga so hard to get out of is that it's like a lobster trap of the mind: easy to blunder into if you're not careful but almost impossible to escape from without help.

The guru's greatest crime is not his hypocrisy, not the fact that he impersonates God, but that fact that he impersonates you.

Of course you can differ with God's judgement. But once you accept the the premise that the guru is really you, your own True Self, and that what you think is you is not you but only a vicious imposter (ego), then you cannot differ with your own Self.

All faith-thoughts come from ego your true inner Self, all doubt-thoughts come from ego, all good things that happen to you are Guru's Grace, all bad things that happen to you are your own karma: you're in the lobster trap.

Thanks Corboy.

Interesting that your quote mentions Baba Muktananda. I was just reading all about him the other day. He was notorious for his inappropriate sexual conduct with his female devotees.
There is an interesting website about this guy and the Siddha Yoga cult:

[www.leavingsiddhayoga.net]

How groups try to get inside your head:

[www.decision-making-confidence.com]