Ingredients of the cultic milieu--and I have probably not covered them all.
Note--none of these by itself is necessarily a cult. But these form boundary markers
for a social scene in which recruiters can fish and media types can advertise any product, whether its a food or a vitamin, body care product or a guru.
First, magazines serving the Buddhist and yogista communities. Look at the advertisements.
1) Health food stores (look at their bulletin boards. At the one I go to I see the Noni Juice manufactured on Chris Butler's farms. In the bulk bins they have Golden Temple granola (Yogi Bhajan-the fake Sikh 3HO) and Yogi Tea (same).
2) Any event that attracts large numbers of people, period, especially people who think themselves progressive --yoga in the park events, Phish concerts, Harmony Rally, South Asian/Indian festivals, Sufi concerts and poetry readings.
Nearly forgot. Laundromats and cafes. Anyone that has a bulletin board will have fliers for all sorts of wierd stuff on it, especially if you live in some parts of the country.
3)Yoga studios. Yoga
anything. Its a gateway into cultic milieu and a lucrative niche market. Lulemon, who manufactures yoga clothing has a Landmark connection.
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www.google.com]
4) Anything related to meditation. Everyone wants cheap or low cost meditation and yoga and few think to fact check.
5) Meditation centers that are excessively loosy goosy with whom they are willing to give rental space to. Esalen was a powerhouse of the cultic milieu. The places that let too many spiritual entrepreneurs in, especially ones who claim expertise in too many traditions all at the same time (eg anyone who says they do enneagram, advaita, insight mediatation and martial arts is trying to do too fucking many things all at once)
6) Vegetarian, Vegan and Raw food restaurants. Cafe Gratitude has a Landmark connection. [
www.google.com]
Sri Chinmoy started some vegetarian restaurants, too.
7) Indian restaurants. The owner of the restaurant often has zero connections to a cult, but owners are usually willing to let anyone post fliers on thier windows and too busy to fact check. A surprising number of Indian restaurants have fliers for cult related stuff. that the owner may have nothing to do with.
So in hippie dippie parts of the US, it may be that people who are apt to eat in Indian restaurants seem to be denizens of the cultic milieu.
For, Ive not seen fliers for cults in Chinese restaurant windows nearly as often as in the windows of Indian restaurants.