I just forgot another area that has become a very active niche market--

Going 'Green' or 'reducing ones carbon footprint.'

This is not to deny the importance of being attentive to ways we can reduce consumption and waste.

But any area where large numbers of very engaged and concerned people come together on a particular endeavor, this is where salespeople, both purveyers of high quality services and hucksters, will show up.

Years ago I was in line for a lecture given by a renowned Buddhist teacher--a line long enough to go down most of a city block in our downtown area.

On cue, people with fliers with other ventures, homed in on us to push their views or products. It was all just part of the scene.

Any time you are part of a scene that brings large numbers of people together (including the ball game)--folks are going to try hard to get your attention and money.


The New Age is such a scene--but has an added dimension because so many are seeking healing.

So, this is why it is important to recognize you are a valuable person--to yourself and a potentially lucrative person or target, to those working that scene to sell their stuff or perhaps get hold of your attention, your time, your money, perhaps even your body.

Value yourself by knowing this and being choosy and by doing research, just as you do when considering what mobile phone plan to switch to or stay with.

NotEnlightened,

I think all the major, mainstream religions most likely started out as cults, they were just better at squashing dissent and used methods that would be seriously looked down on in modern society (burning books and critical documents/information, crusades, burning/executing their critics) and were extremely successful at gaining power and money and dominance, and eventually respectability, through these tactics.

My personal experience growing up in a mainstream Christian church and having a family member convert to the Mormon faith really brought that to light for me. The LDS/Mormon Church tries to suppress information that isn't flattering or exposes outright fraud, lies about what it believes in to outsiders, and over time has changed its dogma to make it more palatable to mainstream society.

They started out as a cult with a charismatic leader, but their aim is to become included as one of the major religions along with Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And it looks like they're close to getting there. All it takes is money, lots of money, good PR, and a system that keeps followers trapped even if they want to leave (A Catholic or Protestant can just stop going to church, you can't just leave the LDS church without serious repercussions).

If it weren't for modern advances in technology and communication I think the LDS church and Scientology might just succeed in becoming respectable mainstream faiths. Although they do use intimidation tactics and threats of legal action and other bullying techniques, unfortunately for them they can't just burn or suppress the people or books that expose them like they did in the good old days. So their victims live to tell (usually) and more and more are starting to come forward and tell their stories.

I'm not sure if there is a Christian bias on this forum. There might be individuals who are Christian but I don't know if the forum actually promotes Christianity. I personally haven't encountered it, but I haven't read everything on the forum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2010 09:18AM by Penelope.

Also, I am a recovering 'new-ager' myself, so I can relate to your story a great deal. I feel like a sucker for falling for a lot of things that I did too.

I think going out into nature is excellent advice. Just avoiding all man-made belief systems for a while and getting in touch with nature can be one of the most therapeutic things a person can do. Some people might find conventional cognitive-based therapy helpful, but getting away from all complex ideas/philosophies/therapeutic models and just letting yourself heal with doing things you enjoy just for the sake of it, being playful and getting away from all things heavy and serious has been helpful to me. Just my experience/opinion. Different approaches work for different people.

Notenlightened

Nice post..you got pretty in depth. I'm sure you can find many acceptable cults in our society so it is hard to draw the line. It has been going on since the beginning of mankind so it's a pretty huge topic to dip into.

Is this website a cult? no...because we are not presenting material as the truth. We are going into other peoples material and pointing out the fiction and falsehood. It is our opinions on here, however we are are rather debunking falsehoods as opposed to presenting them.

I myself consider religions to be cult-like and only an opinion that is shared by a bunch of people.
Christianity to me is definitely a cult. As I feel New Age is as well. Ultimately they're all based on mythology that people believe is the truth.


so where do we draw the line? Christianity is widely acceptable, in fact, it seems more acceptable to be Christian in our society than not. So what is right and wrong.

well..this may seem goofy but I've been watching that tv show "what would you do" and it goes into social scenarios where right and wrong are explored. That helps me for some reason.

Hi all

Quoting: I'm not sure if there is a Christian bias on this forum. There might be individuals who are Christian but I don't know if the forum actually promotes Christianity. I personally haven't encountered it, but I haven't read everything on the forum.


I'm Catholic and a Christian. I have not encountered any problem on this forum for anyone. People might tiff over ideas but I think most are open minded and accepting that others can have different viewpoints. The mod seems quite quick to keep things civil so I don't think you will have any major problems. There are trolls on every board on the internet but this one seems very safe to me.

Best of luck in your searches and healing.


Cheers
Agur

Yes I can understand you. I'm in the point that I don't find any point in life because everything seems to be pointless, everyone speak bullshit, trust no one. I have thoughts to organize my own cult actually, In the whole its pretty interesting, mind controlling and manipulation is pretty easy in the end.

Not Enlightened,

I have found the people on this board to be helpful as I search for answers. I'm finding that as New Wage beliefs become accepted as main stream it can be frustrating to be always the odd one out as I encounter yet another person who is bubbling over with enthusiasm about Eat, Pray, Love, Mr. Tolle, etc.

I've come to believe that religions are too cultish for me. Life is complicated enough without adding unnecessary and unhelpful complications. I"m looking for simplicity... Getting up every day, striving to do my best for myself, the ones I love and being a kind, compassionate person with all living beings.

You mentioned having been "heavily involved with the whole Emotional Freedom Technique craziness." I'm curious to know more why you now refer to EFT as "craziness" because I have been lately using that technique. It helped in a big way when I found out last month that my father had died. He was an abusive narcissist and I needed to deal with the memories that re-surfaced. When I first found about that he had died I was barely functioning, but within a few days I was feeling stronger and the flashbacks and accompanying feelings stopped. EFT also helped different times when I'd wake up in the middle of the night after yet another nightmare. There have been other instances I've used the technique where I didn't get the results I hoped for, like when I did surrogate tapping when one of my cats would howl during the night. I'm still feeling my way around with EFT, still learning different ways to use this tool. If there are reasons I should be wary, I would rather know than waste my time. I've wasted too much time and money as it is on New Wage lies.

'I'm still feeling my way around with EFT, still learning different ways to use this tool. If there are reasons I should be wary, I would rather know than waste my time. I've wasted too much time and money as it is on New Wage lies.'


If you're going through a rough time then it is natural to use whatever works for you--just make sure that you don't make any technique into more than it is, a technique to get you through a bad time.

Later, when you are feeling better, you might like to look up 'placebo' ---approximately 30% of all results from all pills, techniques etc are put down to the placebo effect---what amazing things our minds are.

'In the whole its pretty interesting, mind controlling and manipulation is pretty easy in the end.'

I read a great quote today:
"The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them."
— Maya Angelou



Its bye bye from me, Mr Bungor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2010 07:05AM by Stoic.

@Sunshine

Hey Sunshine, I had a few things I wanted to say to you. I don't want to discourage anyone from using a tool that could help them, that is certainly the last thing I want. So if EFT is something you find useful, I'd encourage you to continue to explore it. My problem with EFT lies much more in the way it is marketed, and the way it is explained (which is pure pseudoscience). In my opinion, if it seems to work and we don't know why it works, we needn't make up a pseudoscientific rationale and pretend that we know why it works. Furthermore, the marketing for EFT is highly questionable. It is touted as a panacea.

My take is that EFT may offer help, but it is not due to the mechanisms that its creator has laid out. So on one hand we can say if something works for someone then it works for someone and who cares why. But on the other I do think it's important to distinguish how things work - what about the people who EFT doesn't work for? What if EFT truly is not suited for some problems? If we just accept the marketing at face value we can't address these questions in meaningful ways.

I was talking to someone last night about homeopathy. I said I can't find any evidence that it works. Not to say that it doesn't work - just that there is no evidence. Her response was that it "worked for her." To me that is not evidence. Sugar pills often "work." Could it be the dynamic between her and her homeopath, the subconscious beliefs that he would heal her and knew how? It's perfectly possible her good results are placebo. Its perfectly possible her success was the result of another factor. This is why we have controlled experiments, to find out things like this.

I say, if EFT has this much potential, let's really examine it and get it out of the fringes and into the hands of the people who need it and understand it in a real way that will allow it to be applied most effectively. Don't come up with a psuedoscientific explanation for it and assume we know things we don't. As an aside, a lot of what I was tapping with the therapist was essentially tapping away my thoughts that were critical of the process. There are people out there that do EFT nothing less than compulsively. In my opinion, the ability to be present in one's body and allow feelings to exist as they are with awareness is a key to emotional healing (and that is an OPINION). Perhaps tapping on one's body while holding certain emotions in consciousness keeps you aware of feelings that would otherwise remain hidden, allowing them to heal. That sounds plausible to me, but it's a far cry from Gary Craig's theory set forth on EFT. Even acupuncturists I have talked to who deal far more in depth with the cosmology that EFT is purported to be based on find its theory very questionable. EFT theory is a sort of bastardization of acupuncture theory, which I have studied quite a bit.

If doing tapping helps, I'd encourage you to continue to explore the area. There's a lot we don't know! My caution is to not get wrapped up in thinking that doing EFT on everything is the final answer to life's problems. I don't think you can tap your way to perfection. That is what I started to get caught up in. I knew people for whom doing EFT seemed to turn into an almost obsessive compulsive disorder - Oh, I feel something I don't like..... TAP, TAP, TAP.... Oh no, something else I don't like..... TAP, TAP, TAP, for hours a day..... And for all the tapping, they didn't seem like they were in a very happy place. Thanks for asking by the way, I hope that helps you see why I included EFT without discouraging you from exploring creative avenues of healing and change. Take care.