Anticult
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The Guru has done the same persuasion routines hundreds and thousands of times, and calculates moves a chess game.
Yes, and some of these master game players know the stories very commonly used
on the human potential circuit--some stories are ancient and are part of the teaching tradition in Hinduism or Buddhism.
So....guys, there may be some persuasion technicians who are Out There as 'story tellers.'
Gurus and LGAT leaders are slowly coming into scrutiny. So to a slight extent is yoga.
But story teller has a benign ring to it. There are actually persons who practice story telling as a marvellous and honorable vociation--such as Joel ben Izzy.
But...we let our guard down around
story tellers and they can gain access not only to the trust of adults but also to kids.
So..if someone shows up in your neighborhood or library event as a story teller FACT CHECK THEM!!! See if they were mixed up with LGATs. See if they start developing a
'scene' or following or an aura of unquestioning authority.
Common Teaching Stories[
forum.culteducation.com]
The Clay Pot Story/Cliche
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forum.culteducation.com]
Flowers and Flowers in the Vase Teaching Cliche
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forum.culteducation.com]
The Snake and the Rope
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forum.culteducation.com]
That same story can be emancipatory if used by a someone genuinely interested in your well being but can turn into trance inducing poison if used by an ego driven leader who wants to get into your head and impregnate your inner life with his or her image and parasitize your inner garden with their crabcrass.
A real guru or true helps you see what naturally grows in your inner garden. That person will not plant his or her crab grass in there.
A real story brings you home to your own roots.
A power theft story-teller estranges you from your roots and enables the story teller to colonize your inner life.
I say this as one who emerged from childhood knowing more about my parents emotions than I did about my own.
Their stories intruded upon my age appropriate attempts to get a sense of what I experienced.
I still have access to my parents stories, but have shoved them further to one side and know myself better. But I needed to prune back my parents' crab grass first.
Again, Story Tellers--its an honorable vocation and some like Joel ben Izzy bring us home to ourselves.
But there may be a few Story Tellers out there who are serving themselves and not their listeners and you need to know this.
It is a venue that has not yet attracted scrutiny.
The same story can emancipate or it can imprison, depending on the agenda of who is
using it.