An article written by a former disciple who came to the conclusion that Rajneesh did have special abilities but that his many gifts were vitiated by just one thing: Rajneesh was willing to lie.
'Rajneesh never lost the ultimate existential truth of being. He only lost the ordinary concept of truth that any normal adult can understand. He rationalized his constant lying as "lefthanded Tantra," but that too was dishonest. '
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home.att.net]
IMO genuine practitioners of 'crazy wisdom' suffer the consequences themselves. Genuine crazy wisdom teachers do not live in luxury while inflicting disorientation, illness and chaos upon thier minions.
There's a sufi website for those recovering from spiritual abuse. Its author fell under the influence of a brilliant operator who had acquired remarkable hypnotic powers. This person had all the right credentials, was able to give people astounding experiences in a manner similar to Rajneesh, but the person reportedly delighted in lying and disrupting his disciple's relationships. Adab's comments can read here:
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sufi-spiritual-abuse-recovery-assistance.org]
(The author uses psychological concepts whenever he can, but when these fail to fully account for the sheer power of certain situations, he then uses the concepts from his spiritual tradition)
He makes a comment in another essay ('Abusing Love) that also applies to Rajneesh and those who are, behind various masks, continuing his legacy:
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sufi-spiritual-abuse-recovery-assistance.org]
'The suicide bombers who claim they do what they do out of love for God and the Hereafter, don't have a clue about either.
'They do what they do because they have been conned into believing that a certain delusional world-view is true, and they have a passion for that delusion, and they confuse this with love.
'Through techniques of control, hypnosis, compliance, obedience, confusion, ambiguity, social pressure, suggestion, manipulation, deceit, duplicity, and lying, a vulnerable person can be brought into a state where they are prepared to sacrifice anything -- job, money, possessions, family, spouse, time, talent, and even one's life, and this willingness to sacrifice is called love, but it is not love because, among other things, there has been no real seeking, finding, or coming to know which has preceded it -- and, one can only come to love that aspect of the Divine which has been disclosed [i:9723d0a876]in Truth [/i:9723d0a876]within one's being.
([i:9723d0a876]Which is why dishonesty is incompatible with spiritual practice--so much for the various 'crazy wisdom' methods used to rationalize lying and other kinds of wrong doing--C)[/i:9723d0a876]
'There are many lessons to be learned from situations which seem to resonate with love, but, subsequently, have been shown to reek with hypocrisy and malevolence. These can be bitter lessons to learn, but once one begins to differentiate the taste of sham-love from real love, then, one is in a much better position to seek assistance on the path and one is in a much better position to sense where one needs to go.'
(Note: The author makes it very clear in many of his essays that this in no way excuses or justifies exploitation and deception. You can learn a lot from being taken advantage of, but its still WRONG for someone to have done that to you. And this kind of spiritual counterfeiting leaves such terrible wounds in people's minds, hearts and souls that recovery is difficult, sometimes impossible.
People venerate gurus because the guru and his or her PR people encourage them to belive that the guru can make them better people, show them what love is, put them in contact with the divine. We dont venerate a guru because we expect to 'learn something' by becoming more worldly wise by having the guru trick us, abuse us, lie to us.
Gurus are venerated because they are supposed to offer [i:9723d0a876]a different kind of knowledge than this kind of cynical wordly wisdom. [/i:9723d0a876]And true gurus support the student's spiritual development and NEVER derail it. A real guru will tell you when you need to work with someone else.
If the only thing a guru can do is create a situation in which you discover how far humans go in abusing power than that guru is a fraud, because
1) gurus are not supposed to inculcate that kind of experience and
2) you can learn about use and abuse of power in a good political science class or in an especially rotten job setting--if you have not already learned about it while in grade school.
Even though its always good to have a BS detector, you're supposed to get that BS detector in the ordinary school of hard knocks, [i:9723d0a876]not an ashram[/i:9723d0a876].
ISuch experiences hamper spiritual progress by adding layers of trauma and reactivity to what people are already burdened with and leave them worse off, not better off than before. To continue on a spiritual quest, the survivor has the added burden of healing from the crap inflicted by the traumatic teacher. Life is precious. Losing time and energy to heal from a a untrained guru is tragic.
If a survivor can transform such tragedy into a blessing the achievement is theirs alone, and the malpracticing guru cannot take credit.
To acquire a BS detector you dont need a spiritual teacher. You're better off getting a job at a tough and edgy place -- a casino, night clerk at a 7-11, or work at a homeless shelter. In places like that you'll earn your BS detector, and actually be paid a salary, too.