An Open Letter to Former MOLrs and their loved ones :

I have been blessed / cursed to learn ‘everything I never wanted to know about thought reform and cults’ in the previous year. This has been a wonderfully growth-producing experience for myself!

The stories which many of you have openly shared with me are both tragic, and inspirational. Your courage is laudable.

I believe (and hope) that I am correct that MOL has not assaulted nor defamed anyone who left their fold. The one exception, of which I am aware, may be the children bound up in custody issues. Miracle of Love is NOT AlQueada! It would be good, and healthier, for former MOLrs to post directly for themselves. I have not minded posting for you, but you could be just as anonymous here yourselves. I'm taking a mental-health break from this. Am sure you could understand.

What I have termed the mind F**Ks are real, but they are internal, and largely conquerable with appropriate support. It is comparable to fear of an invasion of gnats – they may cloud your vision for a while, and be incredibly irritating. But in reality, the shadows from MOL, the swarm of gnats, are the vestigial Illusion from the Miracle of Love.

May you feel free to honor yourselves, and others, with honesty and continued courage. Your strength to move on, to forgive yourselves, to claim personal liberation, to acknowledge the joy you felt from your MOL experiences, as well as the entrapment, can empower you throughout your life.

May the voices of your souls sing freely, without fear of honest self expression.

Blessings

Reading your postings is like going back in time! i.e. "F--k your brains
out" was a favorite line of Kalindi and supposedly very spiritual and
helpful to go "deeper".

I just realize how screwed up I got being with MOL. My current
partner is so very committed to me and his love and patience makes
it possible for intimacy to flourish again in me.


Being just a human being is good....

Due to harrassement and pseudo-threats from MOL, presumably because these online postings, I've changed my phone #, filed a sheriff report, and am filing a restraining order to assure my own protection.

Phone harassment is very easy to stop.

You can use caller ID, an answering machine turned off, voicemail features, etc. etc. etc.

Let's NOT use this board for that purpose. That is, let's not comment about personal issues like this on the board.

You might also file a report with the local police and discuss the matter with an attorney.

I'm so happy to find this extremely helpful albeit disturbing information. I am currently dealing with a woman who has progressed through various levels of this &^%$#@! and your information is very helpful in understanding why she seems to have left a great deal of reason and good judgement behind in her quest for self and so-called peace through MOL and through a variety of other new agey / self-exploration activities. The effect her life choices have had on her children is very, very sad and disturbing.

I'm also a writer gathering information about this and about Reiki and about the effects these mind-control, emotionally addictive, and manipulating practices have on people, most especially with regard to a gradual breaking down of logic and discernment. In short, how these things re-train people's brains until they are making crazy life decisions and things of that nature. Any first-hand accounts would be greatly helpful and appreciated and I will promise anonymity if required. Send me a private message or post here and I will hopefully help inform others about this growing threat.

My understanding is that many former followers of Rajneesh/ Osho joined the Miracle of Love.

I also understand that the Rajneesh Community in Oregon eventually dissolved because of rampant AIDS.

In a prior posting above, someone mentioned a (former?) high level MOLr w/ schizoid-like symptoms. Both HIV and Syphyllis can attack the Central Nervous System and cause serious mental disturbances also.

Quote
Toni
My understanding is that many former followers of Rajneesh/ Osho joined the Miracle of Love.

I also understand that the Rajneesh Community in Oregon eventually dissolved because of rampant AIDS.

In a prior posting above, someone mentioned a (former?) high level MOLr w/ schizoid-like symptoms. Both HIV and Syphyllis can attack the Central Nervous System and cause serious mental disturbances also.

I've noticed also regular reference to Rajneesh/Osho followers in MoL discussions, I do also see a lot of similiarity in styles. Rajneesh himself took from many different philosophies and religions as does MoL.

Rajneeshpuram in Oregon actually was extremist concerning HIV/AIDS near the end. Hotel rooms all had kits of latex gloves, bleach, spermicide, condoms and the like. I have heard that a few sannyasins not favored were told they had HIV when they did not, and some were quarantined. I did not get the impression of rampant AIDS at the ranch, to the contrary, but I wasn't present for the entire show.

Definitely having lots of sex (protected) was seen as a good thing. Along with many practices designed to hit a bliss/manic state, such as screaming, flailing, intense dancing.

Various reasons why Rajneeshpuram in Oregon is no more, the group is still very active world wide, original center in India ongoing, many many groups round the world. All holding workshops and meditations.

When I look over MoL online, their official webpage etc., I do see lots of Rajneesh type influence. Wild dancing, flowers, "crazy wisdom", shock tactics, emphasis on sex, preying on intelligent well educated folks.

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. '

[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:

[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:

[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.

About the orgies:

-Meditations during the intensive can get very sexual, because everybody is encouraged to let go of all the emotions and energies inside. In the beginning (1993 was my first intensive)Kalindi joined in and it got very wild. I remember my first intensive was also the first one with reviewers. The Saturday is the so called let "go day". Everybody get dressed up, "whores for God" "Fighters for God" etc., every group will get tested by the Lady if ready or not. That creates a lot of pressure for the groups. At one point the Lady will announce the group and everybody gets wild (let go) I was shocked when the reviewers group was called, because people were screaming, ripping there clothes off and started heavy sexual acts.
However, the intensive got milder over the years, especially since advanced intensives and final step intensives are initiated.

-GMP mediations could get pretty wild too. But, as I sad the first time courses or meditations to the general public got milder.

-2 male friends, former MOLrs, told me about sexual parties and SM sessions with Kalindi in Hawaii. Other such parties take place privately in homes of MOLrs

-A lot of the young girls (including Maha) worked or still working at strippers to support themselves and the mission. A woman from the bay area gave how to strip workshops for a while.

-a male MOL leader, runs an MOL house, is arranging dates between MOL men and woman to serve there sexual needs because it is hard to find a lasting partner in that setting.

-Another MOL man, the one mentioned above who talks to himself nonstop now, had always girls taking care of him. Cleaning and cooking around him. Some of them complained about requests to dress up naughty and some of them were grateful to be taken by the holy spirit.

I don't think we will find evidence that MOL actually encourages sexual behavior. Kalindi and the inner circle is pretty clever and JM Sandlow the lawyer is pretty scared about public exposure and watches that the girls are over 18. However, the constant open sexuality makes for subtle pressure for sexual promiscuity.

There are 'natural' occurrences of inappropriate interactions with underage youth. It is all claimed to be simply an expression of the divine being. Also the MOL coaches will often encourage a lot of pornography and masturbation in the name of breaking attachements to other relationships. Many former MOLrs have joined sexaholics anonymous to help them get on with a more normal state of exitence.

Thanks jorgem for sharing such details, both for us voyeurs and for the concerned.

The whole thing sounds so stressful and pressured to perform. I imagine if someone is really tied up and repressed inside, there might be an aspect of relief to just let go and dance or whatever.

For my own curiosity more than anything :

What does it mean that there were 'reviewers' at the Intensive?
What were they reviewing? who is being reviewed, and who does the reviewing? where does the review report go?

What does it mean that "Every group will be tested by The Lady to see if they are ready or not?"

How would The Lady test people? to see if they are ready for what?
Other than being a so-called 'enlightened master', what are The Lady's credentials to approve someone for anything?

I figure that real life is enough of a pressure cooker.
You must be glad to be out! :D