Hello all,
As you can probably tell from my screen name, this is a request for participation in a small study. I'm at University (in the UK), and for a final year project have to produce a small report looking at a particular area of cults and NRMs. My research question examines the regulation of sex and sexuality as a prominent feature in many cults. This site has been a gold mine for information, but the study requires a small amount of empirical data. As such, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to answers 2 or 3 questions on the topic over email or instant messenger? I'd ideally like participants who have substantial knowledge of a particular cult, or ex-members who could shed some light on the topic. Obviously any participation would be anonymous, unpublished and confidential!
I aim to cover both sides of the coin by looking at cults that advocate 'free love', and those that instead propose celibacy. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks, L.

Hi student.

Interesting proposal. I think many people would want to help you, but they would not want to post their email or private message information here. Perhaps we can send a message to your account.

I also have an interesting bit of information about a rarely know type or grouping of cults that do not fit either extreme of free love or celibacy but is equally cult like in their teachings about Sexuality. In these cults people are guilted into practicing what they call alchemy, and is similar to what you might call Taoist alchemy. However the core difference is the believe that every time you ejaculate your invisible tail that connects you to hell grows stronger.

The cults I speak of follow the teachings of Samael Aun Woer (the think of themselves as Gnostics).

To me this seems like an analretentive kind of place between the two ways of thinking. I have no problem with the idea of Taoist Alchemy or Kundilini but the people who get involved in it have years of practice with other meditation before changing their sexual activity and are certainly not doing it out of fear.

There are a few websites here on the teaching of Samael Aun Weor. The best to start of with is [forum.culteducation.com]

Sex is a factor in pretty much any social or religious movement, be it overt or subvert.

-Ty

tyciol:

You seem to be here in an effort to downplay and apologize for cults and their behavior.

Sexual abuse within many cults has been well-documented.

Attempting to minimize this isn't meaningful.

Hello Student_Researcher,
Have you come across:
Christopher Hansard
Sogyal Lakar/aka Rinpoche
Mohan Singh/aka Michael Lyons
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (dead) and his *regent* Thomas Rich aka Osel Tendzin (also dead from HIV/Aids)
The San Francisco Zen Centre
Shri Bhagavan Rajneesh aka Osho
Traveller in Space by June Campbell?
Eg: It is estimated that 98% of all diasporaTibetan lamas whether monks or not have had/have sex with their students
Have you been in touch with LSE's Inform? If not suggest you do forthwith.
I know a great deal about Sogyal Lakar and other Tibetan lamas. So too does my colleague in Paris who is doing a Ph.D on the same topic.
If you read French take a look at [troismondes.canalblog.com]
I am Pema there. My colleague is Peldzum. If you search carefully you will find my email address.
Cheers

also,

Victor Baranco, Lafayette Morehouse,
Nicole Daedone, OneTaste, San Francisco, NY
[forum.culteducation.com]

I think this topic is now over a year old but i thought I would check to see if Pema might be able to give some sources for this number.

"Eg: It is estimated that 98% of all diasporaTibetan lamas whether monks or not have had/have sex with their students"

Thanks

Also are we talking about abusive sexual relations or is that not declared?

Er no -- I cannot quote sources. The 98% is a guestimate based on my own research.
This has been thorough over an extended period of time. I was a naive devotee, totally in love with Tibetan dharma. Also a journalist with an appetite for gossip. Slowly but steadily info started to trickle through to me from a variety of sources (June Campbell, author of Travellers in Space, for example) that some Tib Budh lamas ostensibly celibate were having sex with their students. I was horribly shocked -- but when recovered, set about finding out as much as I could. Around this time people were leaving the lama Sogyal Lakar aka Rinpoche's org in droves -- and talking to me about his promiscuity and abusive treatment of many women -- some of them very young. Then came the Trungpa/Thomas Rich scandals, closely followed by the Janice Doe lawsuit. It all piled in thereafter until it became obvious to me that the majority of Tibetans teaching in the developed world were sexually active with their students -- whether they were in robes or not. As to the levels of abuse -- my opinion is that most sexual relationships that involve a power imbalance are inherently abusive. But I also know that one highly respected lama who had many consorts seemed to manage to keep his women happy -- except for only one or two exceptions.
Hope this helps
Blue Dakini/Pema

I can agree with this "As to the levels of abuse -- my opinion is that most sexual relationships that involve a power imbalance are inherently abusive. " If it is a secret relationship.


'that some Tib Budh lamas ostensibly celibate were having sex with their students."

It sounds more like a few Lamas may be having sex with some of their students, not the majority, nor the majority of students. 98% sounds like a little much.

Years ago, in an article that has since been taken down, I read one man's advice, after he had left a high demand group: in evaluating a group led by a dominent male leader, take care to see if the leader allows other men his age and of comparable social and intellectual stature to be colleagues, or if he insists on being sole dominent male and monopolizing sexuality and access to women, while reducing the other men to submissive status and driving away men who refuse to be demeaned in this manner.

Am sorry to report that in some cases, women leaders have reportedly replicated this sort of domination paradigm. Get and read The Buddha From Brooklyn by Martha Sherrill.

In some cases a such group is linked with entrepreneur type projects

[forum.culteducation.com]

Or it is rationalized as therapy. For a brilliant description of a wilderness therapy group that masked such activity, get and read People Farm by Steve Susoyev. Go to www.peoplefarm.com for further information. (If the link does not work, just paste it into your browser.) This one is most interesting for the group Susoyev was in was a 1970s version of a ranch wilderness program that was part of the troubled teen industry
yet also included a group for adults that had extensive ties to the legitimate therapeutic community. It was only the leaders deterioration into alcoholic paranoia and cruelty that led to the groups eventual downfall. Susoyev by his own admission, did stuff that could have landed him in in prison for the better part of his life.

In other cases, there have been reports that a leader did not act out sexually himself, remained married, but would order followers into relationships or to be celibate at whim, as though using them as surrogates act out urges he dared not do on his own.

Find and read American Guru by William Yenner. For supplementation, read Enlightement Blues by Andre van der Braak, who on this same guru's orders broke up with three different girlfriends until finally he became fed up.

[forum.culteducation.com]

This stuff goes back into the 19th century and earlier. Read Madame Blavatsky's Baboon by Washington for instances.

And Google Jan of Leyden and Munster for information about an apocalyptic take over of an entire city--Munster Germany in the 1530s, led by a charismatic prophet who reportedly instituted polygamy and broke up marriages.

[www.google.com]