Sadly I believe Corboy is correct. People who promote spirituality (or themselves being a source of knowledge) on the web, are watered down versions of someone else's revelation or an established lineage/tradition.

I think it's difficult to find any institution, group, or individual with a platform that doesn't have a self serving agenda.

Why should anyone be required to pay for knowledge and spiritual guidance? Why is "spiritual teacher" a paid position? This concept is so backwards.

I like Valma's idea of an ethical and responsible platform run by a community of like minded folks who want to share ideas and offer support. This makes me think of some long-ago mythical gnostic group of inward seeking people. It is a beautiful fantasy...one that I have dreamed of before.

If there is one thing Swartz taught me, it was to not trust people. When I left his cult, I distinctly remember having a cogent moment knowing I had been manipulated and mind controlled...it was my break through moment in breaking free from the cult. After that I said over and over to myself, "don't trust anyone...don't trust anyone..."

It was a sad and difficult lesson for me--a lesson learned the hard way.

It's taken years for me to learn discernment, to know who to trust, and to trust myself when a person or situation doesn't feel right.

I like Valma's idea of creating a platform that provides information and offers critical thinking strategies to safely support a person's unique spiritual quest.

The challenge for people creating such a platform is how members would self-review their material and others peer review material to keep the system accountable.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2020 06:21AM by MynameisHeather.

Friends, I want to write about something called attunement. Deep learning can only take place within an attuned relationship, which is a secure relationship.

No crazy wisdom.
No shock tactics.
No incineration of the ego.
No step-into-the-guru fire.

After decades of struggle, I began working with a new psychotherapist.

Through her, I discovered what psychologists call "attunement".

Attunement happens when people read each other, understand each other. Its like two strings on a musical instrument sharing the same note.

Attunement is not dramatic. It isn't bliss or ecstacy. Bliss and ecstasy masquerade as attunement but are not the same.

Attunement is a human need that supports learning, healing and autonomy. Attunement is not addictive. It can only unfold in the context of secure relationships.

There are folks, many of them who sneer that this is for wimps. That you are not a serious spiritual seeker unless you submit to guru cruelty and celebrate cruelty as necessary to The Great Quest.

Nope. These types are scared of attunement. Their jackboot/bunker stance denies their hate and terror of their humanity, where we are all creaturely social mammals, tender and wiggly and vulnerable as newborn puppies.

You can call someone in their shit in an attuned relationship. Both parties can say, I don't like what you are doing.. and the respect is shared.

Its perhaps like comparing when a work of art speaks to us by itself without being surrounded by a technicolor marketing campaign.

Star Wars One..we sat in the theater, and the film unfolded. Bit by bit a connection developed between us and the story, the characters, the music. A sense of discovery.

We could become attuned to Star Wars One in 1978.

The later Star Wars films were different because Lucas Film barged in. They manipulated our relationship with the Star Wars series, like pushy parents commanding the children to have fun because they paid zillions of dollars. We were told You Are Gonna Get Excited! You're Gonna Get Thrilled! They piled on more intense special effects. Anything to crank up the dopamine.

In the context of hype, search engine optimization, attunement is not possible.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2020 09:39AM by corboy.

Many of us have grown up in households where we did not have an attuned caregiver, so we do not know what attuned relationships are like.

If we encounter attunement it will be so unfamiliar that we mistake it for a peak spiritual experience.

If a guru offered attunement, students would outgrow that guru and leave. They would want wider horizons.

Worse, our culture teaches us to equate ecstasy, bliss with attunement.

Attunement is not exciting. It is like Gods still small voice.

When humans are disoriented and need to be grounded, we need attunement. Unfortunately, those are the times when we are at risk of buying some bliss bandit's fake attunement.

An sad to report that anyone with herds of disciples cannot provide attunement. Videos that make us feel seen and uniquely loved are counterfeit attunement, the way heroin counterfeits our endogenous opiates.

Attunement can't happen in the context of insecure attachments. Bliss ecstacy and fear, yes. Attunement, no.

My guess is a lot of us crave nondual realization because we crave attunement without being in human relationships and the vulnerability that requires.

Attunement only happens in human relationships.

Am still trying to sort this out, so I rambled.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2020 09:41AM by corboy.

Corboy:
Attunement is not exciting. It is like Gods still small voice.

Heather:
Yes, God's still small voice is not exciting. Grounding, uplifting, guiding, eternal, illuminating--yes. Exciting--no.
I've had to weed out Swartz's enlightenment concepts and spiritual "training" that he programmed into my brain and teach myself, while in meditation, to go into the deep, eternal, not-exciting place where I can hear God's still small voice. Going to the deep and still place doesn't produce instant bliss effects.

"Be still and know that I am God..." Psalms 46:10

Corboy:
When humans are disoriented and need to be grounded, we need attunement. Unfortunately, those are the times when we are at risk of buying some bliss bandit's fake attunement.

Heather:
I like this phrase "bliss bandit's fake attunement". That's exactly what it is. Swartz is a master at love bombing, or bliss bombing. This technique is used to get victims not thinking in their own terms; they must only push aside critical thoughts and absorb the "light".

Corboy:
An sad to report that anyone with herds of disciples cannot provide attunement. Videos that make us feel seen and uniquely loved are counterfeit attunement, the way heroin counterfeits our endogenous opiates.

Heather:
I have experienced attunement in different situations. While running with friends, it means listening instead of talking all the time. Really listening--not just nodding my head. Within my own family, with my husband and kids, attunement is something we aim for. It means being truly present with a loved one. It means listening with the whole body. It means taking care of myself so that I'll be capable of supporting others when support is inevitably needed.

Corboy:
Attunement can't happen in the context of insecure attachments. Bliss ecstacy and fear, yes. Attunement, no.

Heather:
Yes, my relationship with James Swartz was definitely an insecure attachment! I felt both bliss ecstacy and fear. This combination caused me to feel more disoriented and insecure. The more insecure I felt, the more I became dependant upon him. It was a vice that became tighter and tighter, and escape felt impossible. A far cry from Attunement!

Corboy:
My guess is a lot of us crave nondual realization because we crave attunement without being in human relationships and the vulnerability that requires.

Heather:
Yes, when Swartz taught me nondual concepts it came at a time when I was trying to distance myself from my parents. Swartz's nonduality was more like dissociation than a spiritual concept of non-attachment (which is totally different than dissociation!). Dissociation was exactly what Swartz wanted me to do! In that state he had the power and control. I craved Attunement with James, Marlene, Joseph and Jessica, but instead I was hypnotized and abused. Anyway, I digress. Yes, a lot of us crave nondual realization because we crave attunement without being in human relationships and the vulnerability that requires. It can be messy and often difficult work to be in vulnerable human relationships. Attunement with others doesn't produce instant bliss results. Attunement connects people into a creative force that supports all in relationship. It requires willingness to face into one's own psychological issues and desire to change for the better. It requires owning responsibility in relationships.

Corboy:
Attunement only happens in human relationships.

Heather:
I would add that attunement happens in human relationships where the individuals involved have the desire and intention be a positive force in another’s life…to help them be secure, nourished, and able to come into full expression of who they want to be in life. Attunement happens when we take care of ourselves and support the wellbeing of others.

Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun resigning from her Buddhist organization:

"In a letter released yesterday, she states that she was ”disheartened” by news that Shambhala leader Sakyong Mipham may resume teaching this year with the approval of the organization’s board. Sakyong Mipham has currently “stepped back” from his roles in the community after allegations against him of sexual assault and clergy sexual misconduct.

“I experienced this news as such a disconnect from all that’s occurred in the last year and half,” Chödrön says in the letter. “It feels unkind, unskillful and unwise for the Sakyong to just go forward as if nothing had happened without relating compassionately to all of those who have been hurt and without doing some deep inner work on himself.”

Full article here:
[www.lionsroar.com]

Yes can we go with "business as usual" after such serious sexual allegations are made and do as if it did not matter that much since the teachings are great and precious? Well this nun said NO and resigned. Something i would have liked to see happening around J Swartz. But i am a dreamer..

James Swartz Criticizes Sai Baba!
One Child Rapist Goes After a Molester.
OMG...

What was James Swartz thinking? Could it have been:

"I'm better than Sai Baba, 'cause at least I raped underage girl(s), not boys. At least I'm no Homo!"

"He got so many more young victims than I did that he's much 'worse' than me. (Plus, I'm jealous.)

Or something else?

Here is the part of a message from my friend, the "Beautiful Woman in the Himalayas," that alerted me to Swartz's newest hypocrisy:

Quote
Beautiful Woman in the Himalayas
On the SW website, there is a recent discussion between JS and a 'seeker' called 'Avatars and Liberation.' (In their discussion) JS has the audacious hypocrisy to go after Sathya Sai Baba for abusing children, when JS himself is a child abuser. Is this an attempt of JS to deflect attention?

I appreciate my friend letting me know about this, as I never would have found it myself. She has the toughness and tenacity, despite knowing ten times more than Swartz has ever dreamed of knowing, and true spiritual attainment, which Swartz does not understand (and seems only to be jealous of), to read Swartz's pathetic sharings on his Shining World Site.

I can't do it. I can't stand it. He's such a liar, so two-faced and hypocritical, so full of crap (praising Ramana and the Buddha and then totally distorting their teachings), that, ugh, I wonder how my beautiful friend does it.

But I'm glad she does. The truth about James Swartz is now "out there" for all to see, and she has helped in making this so.

Hey Everyone,

I'm so busy working at the moment..

There is a common theme emerging from Shiningworld now. They have been trying to redress, subtly, what we have been revealing about them here. As well as Trav's example, here is a satsang from Sundari....

Quote
Isabella
1. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality, or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress and act.

I have in my possession, detailed evidence of you Isabella, and your husband, admonishing students because they are not speaking in this idiotic non-duality speak. I have detailed evidence where this is rampant in Shiningworld.

Quote
Isabella
Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes and circumstances that do not conform to the written or unwritten rules of the group.

I have multiple first hand accounts and witnesses verifiying how James and Isabella SWartz have done this exact thing many times. I have an impressive amount of first hand evidence of how the way both of you operate your cult, that your members also do.

I am also one who was victim to this exact behaviour.

Quote
Isabella
Genuine Self-inquiry can only be conducted alone, with the help of a qualified teacher. It is not for needy or ambitious people. Vedanta is for mature adults who can stand on their own and think for themselves.

I have a huge amount of evidence where you, Isabella do NOT allow this to happen. You will not let up against James Swartz, and he is so interested in you, that he gladly sets aside all proper ways in vedanta, and let's you call the shots.

I could speak about point 8 of your satsang in regard to you only having your position as you are James Swartz wife, and not nearly qualified in terms of vedanta, though I have made that extensively on here.

Point number 9 about spiritual pride, is a joke. Let's not forget the self-proclaimed, recently self-crowned, 'Mr. Sampradaya'! The very same man who exclaimed to a teacher student they were ejecting (cause of you Isabella) - "I AM A MATHATMA!" When the student challenged the validty of the ego of the Swartz'.

Point number 9 of the satsang is about spiritual ego. Really Isabella? Are you and your husband not the same couple who have set themselves up, in your own words, as coining the phrase 'non-dual relationship'? What the heck are you both talking about? it is a complete oxymoron. What it is though, is those poor cult victims in Shiningworld see you both as some kind of glorified Gangaji and Eli. In your video it is clear you are marketing yourself as that.

Your concept is that. A concept. And you do know how they are not really wanted in vedanta, right? It is totally useless. And in fact. yet another little trinket for your prey to aspire to.


My oh my. I told you guys here... They can't help themselves. They talk themselves into it every time.

Just let the people go James and Isabella. Do they really deserve this?










[www.shiningworld.com]

FYI:
James Swartz.
You must hate this.
Rick Archer and friends Discuss Spiritual Teaching,
Sexual Misconduct, Ethics, and...
Basically, Everything you are, aren't, do, and misuse.
Did they Use Your picture on the Program?

From a good friend came the following.

It would have been wonderful if James Swartz had learned the lessons presented here when he was a young man, but it seems even then, he specialized in Sexual Misconduct, illicit gathering of money, getting whatever power he could however he could, and in passing Trauma to whoever crossed his path. Ethics? Please... Those are only for those who don't understand the teachings the way Swartz does...

Quote
Excerpt from a personal message
And just watched the latest Batgap offering from Rick Archer: "Discussion on Sexual Misconduct, Money, Power, Trauma, & Ethics in Spiritual Communities", quite refreshing that people are speaking about these issues candidly, for those who haven't seen it, it's at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=B8AAvcYvCt8&feature=emb_logo

Very appropriately, "Heather," whose tales of James Swartz's abuse of her brought about the book and this thread, has created a new topic on this website which highlights this link:
Discussion on Ethics in Spiritual Communities - BatGap



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2020 10:37AM by Traveler99.

The below was also posted at Heather’s
“James Swartz—my original written account.”

Report from India, 2020.
Memories of James Swartz
AKA “The Incubus of Non-Duality”
And
“The Charles Manson of Advaita.”

One of my friends who does research for me was recently in some of James Swartz’s old haunts (and with him that word reflects a heavier meaning than usual) in India.

He reports that among those who remember him, one responded, “Oh, our Incubus?” My friend said, “What do you mean?” The man said, “Hey, word’s gotten around he drugged and raped a 14 year-old, and all I can say is ‘Only one?’” Another person reported that Swartz threatened people with black magic, and confirmed, “At first I thought he was wonderful. But as I got to know him, I could see he was evil. No wonder he’s been called The Charles Manson of Advaita.’”

One person who knew Swartz said, “I read that Heather book. Sad to say, I got to know enough about Swartz that I believe it.“

The general consensus of people seemed to be, “Thank god he’s not coming here anymore,” and “How sad that young girl found him of all people when she was fourteen...”

Again, the rules of Swarts holds true. The more people get to know him the less they like him and the less they trust him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2020 01:38PM by Traveler99.

Hi Traveller,

Yes, James Swartz is a dark human capable of evil and he's done evil acts. I endured terrible abuse by him.

As a result, I have a no-guru policy. NO GURU.

I respect other people's spiritual quests and philosophies, but for myself I cannot have a relationship where there is a power differential.

The greatest Love of All is within.

[www.youtube.com]