hey I picked up a book callled "emissary of ligh"t which is basd off the program claled "course in miricles" at a bargan book sale

got to reading it..and it is kinda cultish

claims that glabal peace can be won by meditations and acceptoing our negitive thoughts and feelings instead of fighting them

whats cultish is this too good to be true tone and a guarentee of glabal peace thropugh 9 plus hours of meditation sessions and releasing energy into the spiritual to form a tunnel of light....ohhhhkay

does anyone have info on this?


joanne

Here's a start: www.selectsmart.com/twyman.html Check out the links too.

Looks to me like more of a spiritual business that uses half truths and lies to get followers to buy things, like courses on spoon bending, more than what we think of as a cult, but I don't know. Maybe some insiders feel pressured or ripped off but no one seems to be complaining, not openly at least.

They offered a degree granting program, for a M.Div., that wasn't approved by the state and got called on it after hundreds of people were already enrolled. Now they don't offer the degree, but I don't know if any students were upset about it. I get the feeling that people who fall for Twyman are happy to be deluded, just like the people who fall for the Indigo child movement.

Hope this helps.

It's my understanding that this group has historical ties to Miracle of Love, which is carried on a different thread. I don't know if Emmissaries' activities are as extreme as MOL, but they share the common thread of (I think this is the way it goes) the wife of a co-founder of the Emissaries hooking up w/ the wife of the co-founder of MOL to carry on MOL, changing some of its philosophies and practices. In the past (I don't know about currently), I'm told that there was some cross-membership between the two groups. Also, Emmissaries have multiple locations and, in my area, keep a low profile. They have a website (Or did last time I looked) Check out the MOL thread, and also check out the FactNet board www.factnet.org/discuss . Good luck -- and good for you to ask questions and listen to your instincts!

Momster

Peony,

Think about what you just wrote "...are happy to be deluded." Do you know of anyone who knows they are being deluded when they are being deluded? When one realizes they have been deluded, it's in the past tense. Do you think they are happy when they realize the teachings or methods used were twisted in order to manipulate them?

Yes, you're right Hope. Certainly, they would think that I am the sadly deluded one.

I was trying to shortcut my thoughts into a few words, and perhaps expressing some frustration in there too because sometimes it seems like I'm beating my rational head against a brick wall.

What I was trying to express is that Twyman's followers seem more than willing to suspend disbelief, much like we all willingly do when we watch many fiction movies.

Like, paying for Twyman's "course" to learn how to bend spoons with your mind -- he tells you to weaken the spoon first by bending it beforehand over and over at the neck and shake it to allow gravity to work. That's mental spoonbending?! It's enough to make a rationally inclined person like myself raise my hands in disgust and ask: "What the bleep! Do you people [u:ff92340092]want[/u:ff92340092] to be fooled????" Yet he raised enough money from that course to buy 42 acres of forested property.

I have seen the excuses made when Twyman's admirers are confronted with good evidence (or even his own admission) of his lying and exaggerating and his not making sure that information he gives out is accurate. They (not all, or course) seem more than forgiving. They seem to find it easier to believe that he is being persecuted by his accusors, comparing him to Jesus and Buddha, than the clear evidence that he bends the truth much easier than he can bend metal. Some just don't care about the veracity of what he says as long as his message "resonates" with them; the rest is just details. I've seen this on his own bulletin board and on the message board for selectsmart.com/twyman.html. Those who criticize and question are pounced on for being "negative" and accusatory, or of being stuck in an old paradigm, not up on the spiritual realm supposedly proven by quantum physics, or the like.

I saw a poster on his bulletin board praise and compare Twyman to Sai Baba, and when she received a reply from a skeptic revealing the child molestation charges against Sai Baba, she struck back that she herself would never judge anyone or accuse anyone of something like that, even if she had first-hand knowledge of such abuse , and she quit the board. I pity her kids if they are ever molested!

Anyway, even though I said that I don't see James Twyman's group as a destructive cult, I do worry that we are seeing the seeds of that kind of cult being planted right now. I see a manipulative entrepreneur with a cult following, someone with a state registered Corporation Sole who seems to be in sole control of the operations and the assets, and because he has a religious following and calls himself a church, he claims he is tax-exempt. Attorney Generals usually don't wants to touch this type of thing because of religous freedom. I value religious freedom, but it can't be right that "spiritual" businesses get away with not having to pay taxes, but I digress.

Momster, I think you might be getting James Twyman's Emissary of Light/Beloved Community mixed up with some other Emissary organization. The only Emissary of Light book that I know of is James Twyman's. Or, am I wrong about that?

Thanks for reading, and thanks, Hope, for the feedback.

'Bridging the Chasm Between Two Cultures'

[www.csicop.org]

The author is a former New Age healer and teacher.

That is truly an excellent article. I read it long ago, but the second reading was better.
I myself used to believe in "New Thought" ideas for a number of years, and went through a process of Skeptical awakening as well.
I think i will write out all the details of how i went from a "New Thought believing Tony Robbinite", to exploring the skills of Critical Thinking.

Coz

Quote
corboy
'Bridging the Chasm Between Two Cultures'

[www.csicop.org]

The author is a former New Age healer and teacher.

Thank you so much for your imput.....I value it very much.

ya I seen a group go from slightly funkified to hazardous to one's life in a year and a half after merging with a more extreeme group...It happened to my church. first it was your typical "holy rolling" church then the pastor became more and more bizzare then a secondary group came in " World Apostolic network" talking about breaking the curse of physical mortality and freeing humanity from certain death....the church split and ( the smart ones left) and then people started going nuts...including me. I almost comited suicide until my mom and best friend saved me and got me out.

yes the bending spoon thing is weird to say the least.. however if I bent mental with my hand or pliars until it became flexable..and then waved it up and down......I dont think that takes quantam physics but gravity, and a con artist to do that.

What a terrific article.

I too, was very turned off by Randi, and his bombastic form of debunking only served to convice me that he was out to tar all healers with the same brush as (to me) obvious frauds like Geller.

I'm now much more of a sceptic myself, having dealt with a great deal of extreme self-delusion on the part of so many of my friends in New Age and New Thought groups. My own critical thinking skill were never as atrophied as theirs were, I guess -- because I was able to resist the hynotic trances or "guided meditations" of Unity, ACIM, along with the group-thing that it engenders.

I was finally, after 15 years, able to think for myself and openly express skepical ideas. And, of course, the more I did so, the more of a pariah I became.

New Agers consider themselves to be free-thinkers. But, as the article points out, often they are as far from that ideal as they can possibly be.

- Boz

Coz...ya that is true....new agers really do think they are free minded.

however they are never farther from it...most new agers I noticed come from some sort of conservitive background like the ol' mountain baptist church

so like many people they think that they gained freedom of mind.....since they dont know what that is..they just trade one ruler for anouther

Sadly only trauma creates the paradyme shift one needs to learn to think for ones self

Jojo