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VoxVeritasVita Das
quote: " how other people can allow themselves to get sucked into that reality?" I have often asked myself the same question. How is it that seemingly normal people with normal or perhaps above normal intelligence
can actually believe the whole "Butler as Guru" package, and believe it for so many years, has always escaped me.
The message itself was never bad. The reality is, in this case, that we must all question the messenger.
I was around several of the devotees who were very near to and sometimes in the inner circles, especially the ones involved in direct personal service as well as direct contact on his many, never ending, always changing, bottomless pit of uncompleted projects. I found many of them to be kind and caring, it was a pity that their boss was not. Still they did as they were told, over and over. There were others, however, who left much to be desired. I remember seeing the mats on the floor with a bit of foam on top that was the bed for a few of the single men at the old warehouse. They were worked hard and I know they had to be physiclaly hurting when they had only
cardboard and foam for a bed. But the Guru, he had the finest of matresses and while many of his followers shivered in the cold months in Cottonwood and down in Twizel, he & his consort were getting to wear $300.00 Eddie Bauer jackets. In the meantime, what were the minions
rewarded with? Being called horrendous names, in the case of the women (which makes me wonder- he must really hate women to use one of the more caustic and vile of words in the English language, ergo I must submit to you all, he must be a mysoginist) or else they had to wear bags on their heads. So why do they believe?
This is a dysfunctional relationship, not unlike the master who kicks the dog over and over, yet still the dog will come back to get any scrap of food or care from the same hand that beats it. You have to ask what personality type accepts this situation?
I have to question this post of yours. You accept that devotees are "seemingly normal with normal or perhaps above normal intelligence" and you also say that "the message itself was never bad". So why do you then ask what "personality type" accepts this situation?
You must know then, that there is a much deeper process at work. It goes way beyond a personality type accepting stuff, that is only the beginning. Yes, a person needs to be a thinker, disillusioned with society perhaps, looking for deeper meanings, looking for some personal satisfaction, something that makes them feel good, ... yes. But that describes millions of people and therefore can only be starting point. The journey from there is a complicated emotional dance that is very adroitly manipulated from the top down. Ordinary people really cannot see it coming, until it is getting to be too late. The process is very well described in many other posts so I will not go into it all over again.
The problem I have with your post is that you assume that only certain people will go along with CB's cult, and only because they have a personality flaw "kick me again, master". I think you fail to see that *anyone* can fall prey to the process, and therefore the process needs to be shut down. I also feel that you are blaming the victim instead of the perpetrators, and really...that just sucks.
As I have said on other posts, this cult will probably not attract too many new members off the street anymore, but I don't think they are looking for that. The second generation is multiplying like rabbits, CB has all the slave labour he needs out of that. The digital age has shed some light on their practices and they are scurrying underground, no more "hare krishna" but it's all Yoga, don't you know?
Lets put the pressure where it belongs, on CB and his long-time disciples and keep this in the light of day, and stop writing it off to pathetic personalities as willing victims. thanks