JM:
Thank you for all that you shared about MOL. Your remarks provide further clarity for those who follow this thread. I honor your willingness to communicate about your MOL experiences and knowledge. Those of who have seen MOL at work close hand, are aware of how insidious and tempting the group is to their followers.
Good that you have the common sense not to have "gone active", and maintained such clear objectivity for yourself!
It is interesting, given your remark about MOL's teachings that our souls are more than our name, yet your chosen identity here is the name of MOL's private attorney.
Obviously, the majority of us who post on this message board use pseudonyms, and our personalities come through regardless..we are more than our name. Even Shakespeare said ... A Rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.... Nothing new there.
The concept of stripping the outter identity, for deemed spiritual union, is common with many cults. On a cassette recording of an MOL Intensives, clearly labeled "Not for Public Distribution" - I listened as Jim St. James (another MOL leader) coached a young man through adapting to the new name that Kalindi had given him. The man was clearly not yet comfortable with this new identity bestowed upon him, and the efforts that would be required to adapt his professional and legal identity. On the tape, using a hypntoic tonation to his voice, Jim St. James calmly assured the man to trust and surrender, that releasing his old name was to release his past connection to the Illusion (the material world and his family).
Name changing is an old method used in many cults to further secure the members' identity with the group - apparently also commonly used in ISKCON, Kaldindi's original cult. Not everyone in MOL is blessed to receive a new name by Kalindi, but many of the truly devout are given new names and procede with legal name changing procedures.
Someone else told me about the BBQ you mentioned, and also described those adorable dancing children, wiggling their rear ends to the adults. That person also found it quite funny. OK, so you stated that you think the children were not aware of the sexual implications of that song and dance. Do you think that all the adults observing that dance were watching it equally innocently? I'm not accusing anyone, but creating suggestions with children is generally not wise.
Just a thought.
So much emphasis in MOL of "Feeling the Divine Energy" "God is sensual" Where does one draw the line? Many adults in ISKCON did not draw that line in safe ways with the ISKCON children . Why condone such flagrant potential temptations where children are concerned? Does that have anything to do with the nude photos of childhood Maha (Kalindi's daughter) in meditation rooms? Children are so open to the energy of "G" after all, per MOL teachings.
My understanding that MOL is a nonprofit and functions as a tax exempt religious organization. Most nonprofits make their annual financial statements available to donors, and outside auditors.
Others have mentioned Candyce Duvray, as a therapist in San Diego who has experience assisting former MOL members. I've never found anything about her on the internet though. Do you know how to contact her? Others may appreciate the contact info.
It is interesting that you know some former members who hate MOL so much. Why do you think that would be? So many broken families as spouses leave their families to join MOL and break outside attachments? Maybe they resent the extensive coaching and guidance from MOL mentors and coaches, at great expense? or perhaps the scripted lines used to response to those who question MOL? All the while members were taught to maintain a semblemance of normalcy while they 'play in the Illusion' for a break from this demanding path to God.
JM, Your views are interesting and valuable. Your clarifications and explanations would be quite welcomed. Thank you in advance.
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JM
All I know is I told them that I had no interest in that bed bouncing and would be emotinally messed up for years if I had to participate. So they told me to follow my heart and not do it. .......And again granted I didn't go active so I wasn't under the thumb of any of the leaders.
I have been threatened with being tossed out of the group because I cut loose at the lady one time in a letter and that threat caused me a great deal of mental and emotional anquish. However once i worked my way through why I attacked her and saw I had a lot of hostility towards my mom that I projected at her, I released that and the connection I had towards her. I even wrote her that I no longer cared about her. Not in a negative way or insultive way, just that she was no longer of any real importance in my spiritual seeking, I was mostly focused on God.
........Granted this could be a really subtle form of mind control being used on me, but at no point was I told I would go to hell or I was bad. ......Now days I go to their meditations quite often and their public dances. If you are in San Diego you are invited to come dance if you want. It is free.
......They are about waking up the being that lives in you under your made up name and personality. Your name is made up, no matter how much you identify with it, it is made up. Your personality is a series of beliefs and defenses that one develops in life to protect one's self and to create an understanding of what is around you so you have a system to operate in while in the world. But it is made up. Before all this, the made up name, this made up personality that one has talked to internally since before you learned language, before all of this, there was a being that took a body at birth. It is the energy that makes your body operate, and it is the one that has a chance of attaining some kind of fredom. However the name and personality, these made up false things we live in, they cloud over the original being. So the idea is to strip away the made up name and personality until they no longer have sway, and the original being, the one that is really alive, can awaken up into real life. That is what all the exercises and changes are about, not about following and joining in.
You may think this is all word play, but your name is made up, and your personality is made up, yet something is alive in your body.
.......
Last week I went to a birthday BBQ with them and some "outsiders". ....... At one point the children put on a little show to the song "I like Big Butts." Now I realise that is a rather sexual song but the kids were oblvious to that. They just stuffed a bunch of toilet paper in their pants back on thier butts and shuck them around singing they liked big butts and wiggling and laughing about it. I thought it was rather funny. But then I may be brain washed.