James Arthur Ray's quotation from Emerson's "Self-Reliance" is an essay about independence and free-thinking:
[
www.carrothers.com]
(Link via "RayShouldPay" on Twitter, an alias of the Salty Droid: [
twitter.com])
This is of course an utter inversion of Emerson's message in self-reliance. Ray is effectively saying "think for yourself--as long as what you think is that I am the savior of mankind and not in fact a homicidal sociopath LGAT guru professional manipulator."
A classic rhetorical trick is to ask your cult followers to "think for yourself" meanwhile telling them exactly what to think, and forcibly expelling dissenters. The apparent message is about independent, critical thinking, but the true message is about obedience and total conformity. A corollary is to frame your totally obedient non-thinking inner circle slaves as non-conformists, part of the elite who "get it."
Here are some other quotations from Self-Reliance with my commentary:
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"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,-that is genius."
Conversely, if you believe what James Arthur Ray tells you, you're an idiot.
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"...the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought."
Say what you personally think, not just what James Arthur Ray or some other guru tells you to think.
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"The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. Bravely let him speak the utmost syllable of his confession."
Ray should fall indeed--he has fallen far from the light already. The witnesses to his crimes shall testify in court to his slimy, deceptive character. But no, Mr. James Arthur Ray has not confessed even one syllable of his guilt, not a single word of his responsibility in the deaths of the four and injury of the 18+ directly from his callous and ruthlessly manipulative behavior that he "attracted."
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"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man to exhibit anything divine."
Indeed, such a fake "warrior" as James Arthur Ray who cannot even take the minimum of responsibility for his actions is indeed a Spiritual Coward and is not exhibiting anything divine.
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"The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. ... Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist."
If are to be a man (or woman), you must rely on yourself and not conform to any LGAT guru professional manipulator plastic shaman sham artist like James Arthur Ray.
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"Every decent and well spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways...."
The rude truth about LGAT gurus like James Arthur Ray is that they are phonies out solely to get your money and your obedience. They will push you to the edge and way beyond, inducing psychosis, suicide, or death, and take 0% responsibility. Many decent and well spoken individuals are now speaking out about these individuals and groups.
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"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. ... the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
No matter how many people are going along with a dangerous LGAT exercise like a deadly sweat lodge, you must do what concerns you and take care of yourself, get the hell out of there, etc.
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"A man must consider what a blindman's buff is this game of conformity."
Conforming to James Arthur Ray or any other LGAT guru plastic shaman is to be a blindman, to be literally in the dark--especially if the LGAT in question keeps it's schedule secret "as to not spoil the exercises for you."
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"If I know your sect I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly can he say a new and spontaneous word?"
These LGAT gurus are entirely predictable, as Anticult and others have demonstrated. James Arthur Ray is incapable of "a spontaneous word" for he simply copies the manipulative tactics of others. All his arguments can be anticipated to be framing him as the victim, the light of the world, etc. instead of what he is, a ruthless sociopath who is facing a homicide trial for the deaths of three (should be four) people.
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"...most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion."
This is especially true if you are a member of a cult or LGAT like James Arthur Ray's.
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"This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four: so that every word they say chagrins us and we know not where to begin to set them right."
You can see this kind of distorted thinking both in James Arthur Ray as well as in his inner circle, like Josh and Megan Frederickson's "immunity" testimony.
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"Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison uniform of the party to which we adhere."
James Arthur Ray's prison uniform is traffic cone orange, representing the party to which he adheres--the party of those who are on trial for murder.
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"We come to wear one cut of face and figure, and acquire by degrees the gentlest asinine expression."
James Arthur Ray's asinine expression: [
www.washingtonpost.com]
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"the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease"
See Megan Frederickson's manic forced smile: [
saltydroid.info]
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"The other terror that scares us from self trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them."
Trying to be consistent keeps James Arthur Ray from just admitting his wrongdoing. It also is the cause of the cognitive dissonance cult insiders often feel.
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall."
James Arthur Ray is a little philosopher/divine, a plastic shaman, a phony who must maintain consistency to keep up the appearance of having his shit together, to cover up the lies and injuries and death that follow him like the cart following the horse.
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"To be great is to be misunderstood...."
Yet it is easy to understand James Arthur Ray. He is an entirely predictable copycat LGAT guru, having stolen everything he does from telemarketing sales techniques, Tony Robbins, and various LGATs. It is easy to understand exactly what he is doing and has done.