Ma Kali lives, she's a therapist, and she's tired of our crap :)

[www.youtube.com]

yes, traveller99, a good idea to give mr. Schwartz the "honour"of his own topic.

Just visited the leavingmoojipage, no problem.

The moo-moos changed their advertising for the upcoming recruiting-event in Lisbon. Took down the glamourpicture of the venue and the glamourwords (about famous artists performing at the venue). It's a not so appealing pic now and just a place perfect for satsang. No more mentioning of a discount for the Portuguese citizens either.

Thanks Snapping-out,

I hadn't had a chance to look at the next Moo-Moo intensive until now. It's a slick piece of advertising, I'll give them that!

Most importantly:

The Moo-Moos say: "Occasionally, being in such an environment can adversely affect pre-existing mental health conditions. It may bring up latent traumatic imprints or deep-rooted tendencies in the body-mind, which can trigger strong, seemingly overwhelming, thoughts, emotional responses and behaviour. Satsang may offer an opportunity to recognise, release and transcend these states. However, a participant with a mental health condition may feel overwhelmed by this, and so additional medical and psychiatric support may be required. Please be aware that we are not able to provide this type of support or expertise."

The Moo organisation are unable to help people with mental heath issues who show up at these events. If you do suffer any kind of mental health issues, and you plan to go to this retreat in Lisbon, please consider what it will be like to try and seek help in a country where you don't know anyone and you don't speak the language.

Will you be able to find a doctor who speaks English (or French or Russian, etc.)????

You are feeling depressed and/or angry/disillusioned, home-sick and begin disassociating due to Moo-Moo mind games - what are you going to do????? The Moo organisation make it quite clear that they will not help you!

[mooji.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2019 06:03AM by Sahara71.

Yeah, and anyone who gets freaked out at a Moo event can expect to be dismissed as having had an under lying psychological problem.

This is a great way to shame traumatized subjects into staying silent.

Fear of being written off by the Moo Moos as being too fragile to benefit from Moo Meister's superpowers.

This Mooji forum is huge.

I first came to it as I heard that the controversial teacher (and alleged criminal) James Swartz had become a sub-topic.

I’ve known about the reputed dark aspects of James Swartz since late 2016. Having discovered this excellent site, a separate chain for James Swartz seemed an obvious next step. This page, “James Swartz— What is the Truth?”, alredy has hundreds of views and over 30 posts in only four days.

Fraud, liar, rapist, bully, and more that is just as loathsome? You can read the posts, the free to download PDF which the allegations against him inspired (“Guru? The Story Of Heather,” at www.reallyguru.com), talk to people who’ve experienced him, and then, of course, make up your own mind.

This post, though, is about “Is Mooji a Cult?”

I Tried to read through the whole thing. Except, it is over 150 pages. I lack the time and endurance. Therefore I have a favor to ask. Could someone knowledgeable about this Mooji controversy, and who’s been following this from the beginning, give me a summary of Mooji’s alleged shortcomings as have been presented here?

I haven’t been able to read the whole site, as I admit, but so far, Mooji’s transgressions seem minuscule compared to those alleged against James Swartz.

Thanks in advance for your summary. I am sure that others will appreciate it, too.

Hi Traveler99,


All the main problems with Mooji are summarized in this recent article by Be Scofield:


[gurumag.com]


• Former members accuse spiritual teacher Mooji of running an abusive cult at his isolated ashram three hours from Lisbon, Portugal.
• They allege sleeping with students, abuse such as screaming, shouting, shaming and humiliating, controlling behavior, pairing and breaking up couples, brainwashing and mind control, coercing people from leaving and more.
• Mooji lives in a secluded hilltop gated area of the property with three young female disciples whom insiders say he is sleeping with. They also dress and undress him daily.
• Mooji has cheated on his past three girlfriends with other students. One longterm female resident of the ashram who left claims to have had sex with Mooji the entire time she was there. There are other women too afraid to speak out.
• Followers believe Mooji to be God and refer to him as “my Lord,” “my Master” and “my Father.” They regularly kiss his “holy” feet and bow to him.
• Strange ceremonies and rituals including exorcism type events occur at the center.
• Mooji has designated an isolation building for members who act out. They will be given one meal a day and learn to “know the self.”
• Mooji and his team smuggled over €200,000 of unreported cash into Portugal from London and one member got caught. They used this to purchase Monte Sahaja.
• Two members committed suicide in 2017, one at the ashram in Portugal and another in India.


I think the whole truth of the matter is much more nuanced than as reported in the article - but Mooji is definitely exploiting people for personal gain and people are returning from their time with him with deep emotional scars.

Other issues not on Sahara71's list:

* Lack of confidentiality
* Getting filmed on video when you are vulnerable
* Allegations of wiretapping
* Allegations about physical safety hazards - including a serious fire at Monte Sahaja.


One person who posted here said he had to fight hard to leave Monte Sahaja.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Quote

Re: Mooji a cult?
Posted by: StartingOver (a79-169-249-15.cpe.netcabo.pt)
Date: November 08, 2018 10:18AM

That is not true, when I tried to leave they did everything possible to get me stay, they told me things like I was giving up my one and only true opportunity for freedom and it was my mind that was afaid. The way they would look at me and say it would really confuse me and make me feel I needed to stay.The Austrailian woman who works in the office with the English woman are both cold blooded. And also Moo most definitely got involved in my relationship there. His anger towards me about it came off as if he was jealous or something, but im not certain on that its just how it felt. I have many friends there as well who actually won't talk to me now as I guess im seen as some sort of low spiritual loser. Moo went behind my back a few times and spoke bad about me, I told him something very personal and he pretended he cared and then went back and told my story to others while he and the others all laughed. I honestly can't stand that bastard.

There are allegations of wiretapping and spying on residents at Monte Sahaja.

[forum.culteducation.com]

There are also concerns about safety conditions at Monte Sahaja.

There was a serious fire. Some allege that the fire was caused
by lack of safety precautions at one of the work areas at Monte Sahaja.
All the residents had to be evacuated.

[forum.culteducation.com]

People should be mindful that this is about education and it’s not a competition as to who is worse than someone else.

Victims come in all shapes and sizes.

To your question Traveller99, i may add to other members' comments a few more:

Most people who come to Anthony Moo (Mooji) are good decent people who would not see and later on believe anything could be evil or questionable in someone who claims to bring them Truth and Advaita Vedanta; many like myself had no idea about what Advaita Vedanta was. Many find his online videos at a moment of crisis in their lives which means they are in a vulnerable state of mind and so may initially benefit from feeling good after watching a video or two, then wanting more of it.

However,I see two majors issues with him as a public teacher:

1) The lack of a proper teaching, in fact what he shares is not aligned with the rigorous methodology of traditional Advaita Vedanta; that is why it is called neo-Advaita. He creates apparently new techniques, bases his sharing mostly on his own experiences and insights, occasionally reads from advanced texts of Advaita Vedanta which can at best be inspiring, at worse very confusing for unprepared minds and he mostly discourage critical thinking in contradiction with the traditional Advaita methodology and progression in one's studies. I personally did not find what i was searching for in terms of knowledge though i tried hard to get it. That is the reason i stop following him only to find James Swartz who introduced me to a more accurate idea of what Advaita Vedanta is until i had doubts arising..

You could argue that Mooji is more encouraging bhakti and devotion, the love of God rather than knowledge, the heart of Advaita Vedanta - so necessary to free us from ignorance! He himself consider himself an authority as a self-realized being; his devotees consider him like a kind of Jesus Christ or God incarnate, which means we face now a personality cult with lots of emphasis on him and his insights rather than the impersonal age-old words of Scriptures, though i am sure his devotees would refute that.

2) The second point is his questionable conduct with devotees especially those who have lived in his ashram in Portugal for a while. There has been a lot of alarming reports by many individuals about his misconduct with students. He has denied any of it without responding accurately to any allegation by saying basically to his devotees: they lie, don't believe them, implying he tells the truth. His devotees refute any allegation vehemently, no criticism is encouraged on any of his Facebook groups.

Out of respect for those who have come out with confusion, PTSD after having been under his influence, the least we can do is to listen to them and not refute en bloc the possibility that what they share are their true experiences even if we ourselves were not direct witness of it.

I agree also to say this is not about competing who is the worse case, but a matter of honoring those who have been misled, mistreated, still under fear etc. and are in a process of healing by being heard and understood. It is also a matter of educating each one of us to not fall into any unethical or questionable teacher influence by making careful choice thanks to the varied rich information and tools that have been provided on this much educational forum.

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the forum, joined because of my knowledge of James Swartz, to participate in that topic.

I'm very familiar with Vedanta, though not with Mooji. My comparison is being revealed already, haha.

I'm not entirely sure what Mooji teaches. He says his teachers are Papaji and he also met Ramana Maharshi. Both of these taught modern Vedanta. Modern Vedanta is chiefly characterized by one person teaching their own expression or opinion.

Whereas traditional vedanta does not do this. It abides by the Sampradaya, the collective knowledge of many. Chiefly, Shankara.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The problem with modern vedanta is that sharing ones personal interpretation is good mainly for the person that is sharing. If we look at Ramana. It was pretty certain he had attained moksha but the conditions for that were precise. Not just sitting on the mountain, it is also to do with the Grace.

There is no systematic process with these. So it is not as comprehensive and takes longer. If at all. What this does with the teaching head (especially newer ones) is invariably they will loose confidence internally so they will then look to include more things. Generally these are what is termed samsaric tools. They are things that may make one feel good. Give a buzxz etc.

Yet Vedanta is not about such temporary things. They miss the point. Mooji and James Swartz. Vedanta is about revealing that you are independent of the vrittis (thoughts) and upadhis (mind/body). that you cannot be affected by the appearance of Dvaita (duality).

These teachers may not even be at that understanding which is enlightenment. and without a doubt they have not been taught how to lead others. Vedanta is what is called a pramana. It is used in a certain way from different angles. It is complete in itself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is vital to throw out many of the teachings. In the end Vedanta says it is also not needed. And most certainly thee is never to be any dependance on the teacher.

That is not permitted in the tradition. Also, and i've mentioned this in the James Swartz topic, a teacher in vedanta is not permitted to have sex with his students. Not even consensual. that is a serious abuse of position, and also it shows a complete lack of understanding. Such things are not permitted in any reputable ashram in India, and there is valid reason for that.

the teacher at all times does not accept and praise nor criticism. For scripture teaches the teacher does nothing special and is only a mouthpiece for scripture.

These, erm, people are having sex with students. Emotionally, spiritually, and mentally abusing people and taking advantage of them. they enticing money from sometimes damaged people as payment for this. And they are rejecting all criticism as trolls, whilst reveling in praise.

It is a most shameful thing.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2019 07:39PM by earthquake.