The Youth Intensive of Miracle of Love
Date: August 22, 2004 01:58AM
Hi again,
SLS, yes you are right. I would like to think something can be done. In an ideal world, our system would work. IMHO, things don't work 'as they should'. Part of the reason that so many are seduced into cults, is being seduced into the idea of a social structure that works on behalf of individual concerns, since society at large is so fragmented. MOL calls it 'true love' of the group, the TM group calls it "taste of Utopia", the Mormons refer to 'eternal heaven'.
I call it "Lord of the Flies"
While I am in no position to take this on myself (beyond grassroots activism)... If "we" are considering a class action law suit. IMHO, there would be a few initial obstacles to address :
* Gathering the folks. People's fear of "coming out". MOL has extensive personal files on individuals (& compromising photos?). Folks are afraid of being double-crossed. Notice how few postings by exMOLrs ANYwhere! Two cult exit counselors told me that while they have successfully exit counseled MOLrs, those (former) clients repeatedly decline to come assist w/ other MOL interventions. I tried! Their history is so painful, they don't even want to reopen the memories, let alone help others w/ theirs. (Kalindi IS brilliant, no denying that!) so, so sad.
* We'd have to find a nonpublic forum to gather. MOL higher ups lurk on these boards. In the past, I've seen MOL recruitment postings, hence removed, on factnet. (How sick can they get... like offering heroin outside a drug rehab center)
* If Rev. Moon, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Scientology Leaders, Warner Erhard, etc are still floating about (I won't begin to name some current mainstream political leaders...)... what's the real likelihood of shutting down Kalindi? sigh.
r.e. the abused /neglected children :
* I deal w/ the Child Protective Services (CPS) system through my work. They are terribly over burdened already. In my experience, CPS gets involved w/ heavy physical abuse.. multiple fractures, young children with crack in their urine, gunshot wounds. They just don't have the staff/resources to get involved in 'mild' things like middle class teen sex, teen drug use, a middle class teen's documented apparent suicide, etc. more sigh. That's viewed as a domestic situation. as parents of Youth Intensive attendees sent their kids to this program as they believe it's helpful, CPS would probably see it as a domestic situation.
My grown, late 20's daughter, read these threads and said the Intensive probably would have put her in the mental hospital (divorced family issues, etc... am soo grateful my kids declined to attend when they were offered.. I had not been consulted at the time)
I've called CPS for situations such as 14 y.o. pregancy conceived w/ her her 28 y.o. cousin, the 14 y.o. keeping the child (consensual per the 14 y.o.). Or have delivered a baby to a 12 y.o. mother who wouldn't reveal the identity of baby's father. When calling CPS for these, and other similar, they say to me "Why are you calling me about THAT?!" I have to remind them that of the legal guidelines for professional 'mandated reporting'. If not broken bones, limping, open wounds (Yes, I have photographed such and gotten CPS to take abysmal action), they simply don't have the staff. .. funding cuts...
As I'd mentioned elsewhere, I was raised in a cult. The Transcendental Meditation Movement. Saw lots of kids sexually molested and neglected while parents spent hours meditating together, or parents going away for months on end for advanced courses. As my mother said to us as children of the 60's & 70's "This is the best thing I can do for you. By evolving spiritually, the energies benefit all of the family, so it pulls you up closer to enlightenment too." ... abuse?..neglect?... CPS involvement? shrug. we always had food, a roof over our heads, no bruising. I got off lucky... I know many other kids who, as written above on MOL youth, turned to drugs, or ended up diagnosed as schizophrenic, who are afraid to leave the TM Community because ingrained that the world is such a threatening place of 'ignorance' and 'dark forces'.
Sorry, SLS, I don't mean to put a damper on your vision. Just trying to share my experience, so we can together benefit from our cumulative experience, and yes.. an organized tactic, or direct our individual efforts to helping individually, hoping that straw-by-straw we make an impact.
choosing the grassroots one-at-a-time approach,
gi :?