Research -Online Search Methods, books, and more -- recommendations
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: September 17, 2013 03:23AM
Dear friends and users of this message board:
Cult Education has a wealth of information--archives, lists of articles and books.
However, there are items that are pre-internet or that may not fit exactly into the criteria used for inclusion but that some of us have personally found useful.
Mention them here.
I'll go.
Online searching
Want to find out if a group's leader or guru has published anything? Go to www.bookfinder.com
Even if you don't purchase anything, this site will list titles, editions and dates. You can order items from your library by loan if you cannot afford to purchase them.
Two, if doing in depth research on a particular group, study all editions of particular book published for use by its members. Content may change. And those changes may be very important.
Amazon.com (include the Amazon.com.uk and Amazon.com.ca to look at what UK readers and Canadians have to say. )
Look at the one and two star reviews as well as the 5 and 4 star reviews. Some valuable information may turn up in such reviews. Be patient and read.
I have not yet read this but learned there is a book, Google Hacking. If you are serious about this stuff, have a peek. Run a google search and see if you can read some excerpts.
[www.bookfinder.com]
putting something between a pair of quotation marks "AAAAA" means only citations containing AAAA show up first.
An asterisk * stands for any character, even a blank space. So if you are not sure if it is Tammy Sam or Tommy Sam you can use T*mmy Sam in your preliminary search.
Your initial search may turn up stuff that has nothing to do with what you are interested in. Suppose you run a search for family and your search pulls up citations for the rock band with that same name.
What you want to do is tie your search to a term that restricts the search in some places and reduces the number of citations for the rock group.
You can do this various ways. You can put a minus sign in front of terms such as music, musicians, lyrics singing -music -lyrics -singing. Using the minus sign programs your search to exclude citations including those terms.
Suppose you think your group (group A) is based only in one town or state in the US (Arizona).
If you program the search to include just "group A" and "Arizona" that can help you zero in.
But...once you get to the group's material, do some reading. They might have opened some new ashrams in other states or even other countries. Run your next search and include those countries.
Variant spellings. Investigate those. In one case, a guru (now deceased) had different spellings of his name: Ramsuratkumar and Ram Surat Kumar.
One interesting method is to put the group or guru's name in the search slot. And then, in exact quotes try things like
"I left" or "lost my boyfriend, husband, fiancée, girlfriend, sister, brother, mother"
And...always take care to run searches about money and property.
.
Be aware that many groups have become internet savvy. They may Complaints about them may be online but may be buried, while the positive descriptions and glowing testimonials predominate. They may find ways to incorporate 'cult' into their own literature so as to frustrate searches. Don't be deterred.
Terms that can be helpful:
state of, federal, county of, finances, money, settlement, alleged, allegation, appellate, defendant, court, plaintiff, defendant, fire regulations, zoning regulations, immigration. If something has landed in legal records and those have not been sealed, you may find something if anything done by the leader or group is public record in legal proceedings. That's the terminology used in such reports.
------------------
If the group or leader that concerns you claims to be Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu (or Native American)
it helps tremendously to learn about the culture and belief system from which your leader and group claims to originate--or claims to have superseded.
Key thing is learn to use material written by people who respect a culture but have no vested interest in romanticizing or mythologizing it.
For example, on Hinduism one does well to learn things about India--modern life and its history, especially the phase during the mid to late 19th Century when the 'Hindu Renaissance' developed.
For India, certain items that I have found useful have been:
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta - In his chapter on gang (black collar) crime, Mehta met assassins for Hindu and Muslim gangs. The men in both groups were deeply spiritual.
Holy Cow Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
Has your guru claimed to be a sadhu or sadvi? This gives the inside dope on what it takes to be a real one.
(Tough reading but valuable) Wandering with Sadhus by Sondra L. Hausner
[www.google.com]
Does your leader claim to be Baul?
Seeking the Bauls of Bengal Jeanne Openshaw. Openshaw found that one isn't a Baul just by calling oneself one, having nasty manners, and making music. It entails a great deal of social pain and estrangement. Having a bunch of people catering to one's whims isn't what its about. To be Baul is to be other, in relation to the social context one is in. So it is a rather fluid state. A guru, sometimes several gurus, figure large in the life of a Baul couple, but its the practice that matters. Reifying a guru into some fixed authority figure runs counter to the fluidity that Bauls cherish. They respect their gurus but are ready to become skeptical even quite satirical if anyone becomes too arrogant and clingy to the role of guru--either as a guru or as a guru enabler/apologist.
[www.google.com]
Tantra (very, very many have written on tantra. This is just one item. Before you go spending big bucks on some western tantrist, do your homework first. Its cheaper to do that in the long run, anyway. And you'll have interesting material to discuss at parties.)
[www.google.com]
Much of what is today taught as yoga and as Hinduism is not ancient, but originates from variations of material taught by Vivekananda, who was given a Western education and had an agenda to modernize India by eliminating the legitimacy of
Sanskrit scholarship. He is responsible for the huge emphasis on the Bhagavad Gita, which today functions as a badge of identity. This article is very difficult, may need to be re read many times. But it is worth it. Corboy assures you it is worth it. I had to read it more than six times before I could get a grasp of it.
The Hindu Renaissance and Its Apologetic Patterns by Agehananda Bharati
This IssueThis Title
The Journal of Asian Studies >
Vol. 29, No. 2, Feb., 1970
[www.jstor.org]
Vivekananda claimed learning was an impediment to spiritual realization. Agehananda Bharati tells us, how can one know learning is an impediment if one doesn't bother to acquire any learning. This also plays into the hands of charlatan gurus who use it to discourage students from doing background reading that would expose the charlatans for what they are.
Cult Education has a wealth of information--archives, lists of articles and books.
However, there are items that are pre-internet or that may not fit exactly into the criteria used for inclusion but that some of us have personally found useful.
Mention them here.
I'll go.
Online searching
Want to find out if a group's leader or guru has published anything? Go to www.bookfinder.com
Even if you don't purchase anything, this site will list titles, editions and dates. You can order items from your library by loan if you cannot afford to purchase them.
Two, if doing in depth research on a particular group, study all editions of particular book published for use by its members. Content may change. And those changes may be very important.
Amazon.com (include the Amazon.com.uk and Amazon.com.ca to look at what UK readers and Canadians have to say. )
Look at the one and two star reviews as well as the 5 and 4 star reviews. Some valuable information may turn up in such reviews. Be patient and read.
I have not yet read this but learned there is a book, Google Hacking. If you are serious about this stuff, have a peek. Run a google search and see if you can read some excerpts.
[www.bookfinder.com]
putting something between a pair of quotation marks "AAAAA" means only citations containing AAAA show up first.
An asterisk * stands for any character, even a blank space. So if you are not sure if it is Tammy Sam or Tommy Sam you can use T*mmy Sam in your preliminary search.
Your initial search may turn up stuff that has nothing to do with what you are interested in. Suppose you run a search for family and your search pulls up citations for the rock band with that same name.
What you want to do is tie your search to a term that restricts the search in some places and reduces the number of citations for the rock group.
You can do this various ways. You can put a minus sign in front of terms such as music, musicians, lyrics singing -music -lyrics -singing. Using the minus sign programs your search to exclude citations including those terms.
Suppose you think your group (group A) is based only in one town or state in the US (Arizona).
If you program the search to include just "group A" and "Arizona" that can help you zero in.
But...once you get to the group's material, do some reading. They might have opened some new ashrams in other states or even other countries. Run your next search and include those countries.
Variant spellings. Investigate those. In one case, a guru (now deceased) had different spellings of his name: Ramsuratkumar and Ram Surat Kumar.
One interesting method is to put the group or guru's name in the search slot. And then, in exact quotes try things like
"I left" or "lost my boyfriend, husband, fiancée, girlfriend, sister, brother, mother"
And...always take care to run searches about money and property.
.
Be aware that many groups have become internet savvy. They may Complaints about them may be online but may be buried, while the positive descriptions and glowing testimonials predominate. They may find ways to incorporate 'cult' into their own literature so as to frustrate searches. Don't be deterred.
Terms that can be helpful:
state of, federal, county of, finances, money, settlement, alleged, allegation, appellate, defendant, court, plaintiff, defendant, fire regulations, zoning regulations, immigration. If something has landed in legal records and those have not been sealed, you may find something if anything done by the leader or group is public record in legal proceedings. That's the terminology used in such reports.
------------------
If the group or leader that concerns you claims to be Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu (or Native American)
it helps tremendously to learn about the culture and belief system from which your leader and group claims to originate--or claims to have superseded.
Key thing is learn to use material written by people who respect a culture but have no vested interest in romanticizing or mythologizing it.
For example, on Hinduism one does well to learn things about India--modern life and its history, especially the phase during the mid to late 19th Century when the 'Hindu Renaissance' developed.
For India, certain items that I have found useful have been:
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta - In his chapter on gang (black collar) crime, Mehta met assassins for Hindu and Muslim gangs. The men in both groups were deeply spiritual.
Holy Cow Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
Has your guru claimed to be a sadhu or sadvi? This gives the inside dope on what it takes to be a real one.
(Tough reading but valuable) Wandering with Sadhus by Sondra L. Hausner
[www.google.com]
Does your leader claim to be Baul?
Seeking the Bauls of Bengal Jeanne Openshaw. Openshaw found that one isn't a Baul just by calling oneself one, having nasty manners, and making music. It entails a great deal of social pain and estrangement. Having a bunch of people catering to one's whims isn't what its about. To be Baul is to be other, in relation to the social context one is in. So it is a rather fluid state. A guru, sometimes several gurus, figure large in the life of a Baul couple, but its the practice that matters. Reifying a guru into some fixed authority figure runs counter to the fluidity that Bauls cherish. They respect their gurus but are ready to become skeptical even quite satirical if anyone becomes too arrogant and clingy to the role of guru--either as a guru or as a guru enabler/apologist.
[www.google.com]
Tantra (very, very many have written on tantra. This is just one item. Before you go spending big bucks on some western tantrist, do your homework first. Its cheaper to do that in the long run, anyway. And you'll have interesting material to discuss at parties.)
[www.google.com]
Much of what is today taught as yoga and as Hinduism is not ancient, but originates from variations of material taught by Vivekananda, who was given a Western education and had an agenda to modernize India by eliminating the legitimacy of
Sanskrit scholarship. He is responsible for the huge emphasis on the Bhagavad Gita, which today functions as a badge of identity. This article is very difficult, may need to be re read many times. But it is worth it. Corboy assures you it is worth it. I had to read it more than six times before I could get a grasp of it.
The Hindu Renaissance and Its Apologetic Patterns by Agehananda Bharati
This IssueThis Title
The Journal of Asian Studies >
Vol. 29, No. 2, Feb., 1970
[www.jstor.org]
Vivekananda claimed learning was an impediment to spiritual realization. Agehananda Bharati tells us, how can one know learning is an impediment if one doesn't bother to acquire any learning. This also plays into the hands of charlatan gurus who use it to discourage students from doing background reading that would expose the charlatans for what they are.
Re: Research -Online Search Methods, books, and more -- recommendations
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: September 20, 2013 04:04AM
"Our Brush With Rudolf Steiner" iwas written by Sharon Lombard, who volunteered at the Anthroposphy (Rudolf Steinerist) Waldorf school in which she enrolled her daughther. Lombard conveys how crazy making it was to become unknowingly involved in a group that kept its doctrines secret.
Other groups will do this same thing: keep secret the actual beliefs and rules yet expect those who dont know this to toe the line.
[www.waldorfcritics.org]
Other groups will do this same thing: keep secret the actual beliefs and rules yet expect those who dont know this to toe the line.
[www.waldorfcritics.org]
How to fact check photographs and graphics
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: January 18, 2014 06:06AM
How to fact check a photograph.
One might protest, saying this tutorial is from a politicized source.
But...one can use this information for any project one is working on.
[unitedwithisrael.org]
One might protest, saying this tutorial is from a politicized source.
But...one can use this information for any project one is working on.
[unitedwithisrael.org]
Quote
There is Another War going on. The war we speak of is in the world of social media. This is where we have people posting past images as if they are current. We cannot be posting these images, the truth is the only way and we promise you that the photos will be reported as past events. We cannot stoop to their level and must maintain honesty, it is our greatest weapon.
Here Is How To Check If A Photo Is Current Or Not:
Hover over the image with your mouse
Right Click ON the image
Click Copy Image URL
Go to www.google.com and click on Images
Click on the little Camera icon in the search box
Paste the URL we copied from the image
Click Search
See if any articles come up in the results from before this week.
If they do then DO NOT POST THE IMAGE and alert whomever posted it that it is an old image and should be taken down.
Fancy property owned or rented? Good neighbors?
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: February 17, 2014 04:22AM
One way to assess a group, a teacher, or even a possible business partner is to examine property records.
Here is a story that ran in a local paper.
[www.sfexaminer.com]
The gentleman at the center of the allegations was described as hosting friends at an impressive property - and it seemed he was the owner.
According to the newspaper story, he did not own that handdome property. He rented it.
So, suppose someone seems successful, has all the trappings of success.
Wait.
Feel yourself becoming impressed.
Then, treat that excitement as a cue to become curious.
If someone makes it seem he or she owns that fabulous car and fabulous house but actually does not own it at all, merely rents it or is house sitting -- thats important to know if you are considering hiring the person, getting married, or thinking he or she might be the guru of the age.
What are this persons current and past relationships with property, neighbors, landlords?
* Is the house owned or rented?
* Any debts or upaid taxes?
* Were the contractors and gardeners paid?
Go to the records offered by the County, small claims court, superior courts, both civil and criminal.
Find out also if a group has had good relationships with neighbors.
If they want to build an extension of their worship sanctuary or monastery, were they truthful?
Were neighbors included in the process and in a respectful manner?
If property is in an unincorporated area outside of a town or city, look it up in the county records.
If property is within town or city limits, go to the city clerk, board of supervisors/city council or mayors office.
Finally, a person may actually own swank property and a glitzy car. But..thats no guarantee.
Persons who feel secure and dont have a need to impress others avoid houses and cars that are ostentatious; impressing people with display of wealth is an attempt at domination.
Here is a story that ran in a local paper.
[www.sfexaminer.com]
The gentleman at the center of the allegations was described as hosting friends at an impressive property - and it seemed he was the owner.
According to the newspaper story, he did not own that handdome property. He rented it.
So, suppose someone seems successful, has all the trappings of success.
Wait.
Feel yourself becoming impressed.
Then, treat that excitement as a cue to become curious.
If someone makes it seem he or she owns that fabulous car and fabulous house but actually does not own it at all, merely rents it or is house sitting -- thats important to know if you are considering hiring the person, getting married, or thinking he or she might be the guru of the age.
What are this persons current and past relationships with property, neighbors, landlords?
* Is the house owned or rented?
* Any debts or upaid taxes?
* Were the contractors and gardeners paid?
Go to the records offered by the County, small claims court, superior courts, both civil and criminal.
Find out also if a group has had good relationships with neighbors.
If they want to build an extension of their worship sanctuary or monastery, were they truthful?
Were neighbors included in the process and in a respectful manner?
If property is in an unincorporated area outside of a town or city, look it up in the county records.
If property is within town or city limits, go to the city clerk, board of supervisors/city council or mayors office.
Finally, a person may actually own swank property and a glitzy car. But..thats no guarantee.
Persons who feel secure and dont have a need to impress others avoid houses and cars that are ostentatious; impressing people with display of wealth is an attempt at domination.
James Randi Educational Foundation
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: February 28, 2014 12:09AM
A very interesting website.
[forums.randi.org]
Archive of topics discussed on the JREF message board.
[forums.randi.org]
If anyone is looking for information about a group, situation, product that concerns them, see whether the topic has been discussed on JREF.
One of the recent discussions concerned an situation in which a pseudoscientific product was pushed on employees at a company.
The manager who pushed this product said it had been recommended to him by his priest (!)
[forums.randi.org]
[forums.randi.org]
Archive of topics discussed on the JREF message board.
[forums.randi.org]
If anyone is looking for information about a group, situation, product that concerns them, see whether the topic has been discussed on JREF.
One of the recent discussions concerned an situation in which a pseudoscientific product was pushed on employees at a company.
The manager who pushed this product said it had been recommended to him by his priest (!)
[forums.randi.org]
Reddit
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: March 01, 2014 07:24AM
Put reddit.com into quotation marks or into the exact phrase slot on google.
Then put whatever guru or group your are researching into the search slot. See if anything comes up.
For example, there is a group called Sokka Gakkai International. Heres' a lead.
[www.google.com]
Then put whatever guru or group your are researching into the search slot. See if anything comes up.
For example, there is a group called Sokka Gakkai International. Heres' a lead.
[www.google.com]
Masters Revealed - Book on Blavatsky's sources
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: March 04, 2014 01:10AM
[webcache.googleusercontent.com]
[www.sunypress.edu]
The Masters Revealed
Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge
The Masters Revealed
Click on image to enlarge
K. Paul Johnson - Author
SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions
N/A
Hardcover - 288 pages
Release Date: August 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2063-9
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2063-8
Out of Print
Price: $31.95
Paperback - 288 pages
Release Date: July 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2064-7
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2064-5
Quantity:
Available as a Google eBook,
for other eReaders and tablet devices,
Click icon below...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary Read First Chapter image missing
"Previous works about the mysterious Madame Blavatsky are full of conflicting information, since she left behind a trail of concocted legends. The Masters Revealed, by K. Paul Johnson, strips away most of the fantasy and provides a wealth of new material.
"K. Paul Johnson's book is a real original. In straight-forward, readable prose, it presents a panorama of heroes, heroines, and eccentrics. Tracing Madame Blavatsky's secret life, it often reads like an occult whodunit about a woman who was, in fact, as fascinating as the legends she created about herself." -- New York Times Book Review
"Johnson is a tireless and careful researcher...he has presented to the reader willing to set aside personal bias and prejudgment on the central question of Blavatsky's 'teachers' a reasoned and well-documented case for identifying their personae.
"Whether read as a 'whodunit' or as fact, it is a remarkable piece of research in a hitherto unexplored field of study." -- The Quest
"Readers will be fascinated, as I was, to see basic profiles of historical personalities behind Morya and Koot Hoomi, as well as to gain some understanding of the way Blavatsky wove together many strains of esoteric teaching." -- Hal W. French, University of South Carolina
"There is darn little non-partisan writing about Theosophy and this book fills a real need. Johnson shows that the Theosophical movement is intertwined with the intellectual and political history of its time. He has marshalled an impressive body of evidence to show that the Theosophical masters are neither disembodied spirits nor are they fictions but are specific historical personages whose identities were disguised for various reasons." -- James Burnell Robinson, University of Northern Iowa
Bookmark and Share
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
The Masters
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Masters and the Myth
Part One. Adepts
Prince Pavel Dolgorukii
Prince Aleksandr Golitsyn
Albert Rawson
Paolos Metamon
Agardi Metrovitch
Giuseppe Mazzini
Louis Maximilien Bimstein
Jamal ad-Din "al-Afghani"
James Sanua
Lydia Pashkov
Ooton Liatto
Marie, Countess of Caithness
Sir Richard Burton
Abdelkader
Raphael Borg
James Peebles
Charles Sotheran
Mikhail Katkov
Illustrations
Part Two. Mahatmas
Swami Dayananda Sarasvati
Shyamaji Krishnavarma
Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir
Thakar Singh Sandhanwalia
Maharaja Holkar of Indore
Bhai Gurmukh Singh
Baba Khem Singh Bedi
Surendranath Banerjea
Dayal Singh Majithia
Sumangala Unnanse
Sarat Chandra Das
Ugyen Gyatso
Sengchen Tulku
Swami Sankaracharya of Mysore
Part Three. Secret Messages
Suspicion on Three Continents
An Urgent Warning to the Viceroy
Who Inspired Hume?
The Occult Imprisonment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
[www.sunypress.edu]
The Masters Revealed
Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge
The Masters Revealed
Click on image to enlarge
K. Paul Johnson - Author
SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions
N/A
Hardcover - 288 pages
Release Date: August 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2063-9
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2063-8
Out of Print
Price: $31.95
Paperback - 288 pages
Release Date: July 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2064-7
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2064-5
Quantity:
Available as a Google eBook,
for other eReaders and tablet devices,
Click icon below...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary Read First Chapter image missing
"Previous works about the mysterious Madame Blavatsky are full of conflicting information, since she left behind a trail of concocted legends. The Masters Revealed, by K. Paul Johnson, strips away most of the fantasy and provides a wealth of new material.
"K. Paul Johnson's book is a real original. In straight-forward, readable prose, it presents a panorama of heroes, heroines, and eccentrics. Tracing Madame Blavatsky's secret life, it often reads like an occult whodunit about a woman who was, in fact, as fascinating as the legends she created about herself." -- New York Times Book Review
"Johnson is a tireless and careful researcher...he has presented to the reader willing to set aside personal bias and prejudgment on the central question of Blavatsky's 'teachers' a reasoned and well-documented case for identifying their personae.
"Whether read as a 'whodunit' or as fact, it is a remarkable piece of research in a hitherto unexplored field of study." -- The Quest
"Readers will be fascinated, as I was, to see basic profiles of historical personalities behind Morya and Koot Hoomi, as well as to gain some understanding of the way Blavatsky wove together many strains of esoteric teaching." -- Hal W. French, University of South Carolina
"There is darn little non-partisan writing about Theosophy and this book fills a real need. Johnson shows that the Theosophical movement is intertwined with the intellectual and political history of its time. He has marshalled an impressive body of evidence to show that the Theosophical masters are neither disembodied spirits nor are they fictions but are specific historical personages whose identities were disguised for various reasons." -- James Burnell Robinson, University of Northern Iowa
Bookmark and Share
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
The Masters
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Masters and the Myth
Part One. Adepts
Prince Pavel Dolgorukii
Prince Aleksandr Golitsyn
Albert Rawson
Paolos Metamon
Agardi Metrovitch
Giuseppe Mazzini
Louis Maximilien Bimstein
Jamal ad-Din "al-Afghani"
James Sanua
Lydia Pashkov
Ooton Liatto
Marie, Countess of Caithness
Sir Richard Burton
Abdelkader
Raphael Borg
James Peebles
Charles Sotheran
Mikhail Katkov
Illustrations
Part Two. Mahatmas
Swami Dayananda Sarasvati
Shyamaji Krishnavarma
Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Kashmir
Thakar Singh Sandhanwalia
Maharaja Holkar of Indore
Bhai Gurmukh Singh
Baba Khem Singh Bedi
Surendranath Banerjea
Dayal Singh Majithia
Sumangala Unnanse
Sarat Chandra Das
Ugyen Gyatso
Sengchen Tulku
Swami Sankaracharya of Mysore
Part Three. Secret Messages
Suspicion on Three Continents
An Urgent Warning to the Viceroy
Who Inspired Hume?
The Occult Imprisonment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Look at sources of grant money & who administers grants
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: March 10, 2014 10:17PM
Follow the Money, Honey
A multi page thread. May need updating.
[forum.culteducation.com]
The first page notes Tricycle Foundation and Magazine
Zen Master Rama (now deceased) After his death by sucide, ZMR left behind a large grant to be used for Buddhist purposes.
This funds a lot of reputable Buddhist projects.
A multi page thread. May need updating.
[forum.culteducation.com]
The first page notes Tricycle Foundation and Magazine
Zen Master Rama (now deceased) After his death by sucide, ZMR left behind a large grant to be used for Buddhist purposes.
This funds a lot of reputable Buddhist projects.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.