Forgot to mention this:

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I knew a member of the Unity Church I attended who had taken the Forum. At the time, I really didn't know much about the Forum/Landmark. This man never tried to recruit me (or anyone else to my knowledge - at least at the time I was there), but it was very difficult communicating with him. It was almost as if he was from a different planet.

I experienced the same thing when a group of people at the Unity I attended went to the Forum. (I didn't know much about the Forum at the time, either.) But at this church, it had a "viral" effect, in that there was an initial group of only perhaps 3 people who went, and they came back with supposedly heightened self-awareness and empowerment, and they spread the word, to the point where even the minister of the church attended the "graduation" ceremony (or whatever they call it). Although I don't know for sure whether this minister took the Forum or not, I suspect so, because that was roughly when things started to turn ugly at the church, in terms of mind control, and when the church shifted from teaching the Unity teachings to teaching a lot of crackpot pop-psychology. The most obvious thing I recall was how the Forum grads not only had this new lingo and terminology, but often used it to dissect what everyone else around them said. In some cases they became self-appointed censors/correctors of the thoughts and speech of others. Tremendous arrogance. I can say the same for the ACIM groupies. They display the same kind of mental/emotional "bullying" behavior.

The bottom line thing about the Unity Church, is that none of this pop psych self help new age stuff really has anything to do with religion or spirituality. It's about behavior modification and mind control. Thought reform, to change to their narcissistic way of thinking. If they're a church and claim to believe in a Deity, where is God to be found in their equation? Or do they just "shoehorn" in a "God" to make their racket seem okay?

Vicarion,

Thanks for your posts. You have a lot of insight into the Unity Church.

In my experience, I think there is a desire to escape from and, at the same time, a tendency to recreate the dysfunction of one's childhood. For example, I was raised in a strict Catholic family. I knew that didn't work for me and as soon as I left home, I stopped going to church. However, I kept searching for something to replace it. The replacements (such as Unity Church) were really just the same old thing in different clothes. When you get a group of people who are consciously trying to live a better life, but are unconsciously recreating the controlling, manipulating environment they grew up in, it really does not provide for individual growth. It just reinforces the dysfunction. And I think the group dynamics makes it extremely difficult for anyone in the group to really grow up and to accept their imperfections and limitations.

Also, if what they teach is true that we are all already perfect spiritual beings. What do we need Unity for (unless you enjoy that sort of thing)? The do very little in terms of providing help for people outside of Unity that may need assistance. They guilt people into volunteering within the Unity Church, for the Unity Church. IMO, the purpose of the Church I attended was to keep the Unity Church running so the minister could continue to be a minister, because the minister wanted to be a minister. Perhaps I am being too cynical, but that's how it looked to me.

I truly enjoy helping people and knowing that I made a difference in someone's life, even if it's just a small donation to a food bank, or driving someone when they need a drive. I never felt really good about volunteering at Unity. It was more like fulfilling an obligation and trying to look like a good person. I am sure I was not the only one who was trying to look like a good person. But therein is the danger.

Again, thanks for your feedback. Happy Thanksgiving!

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QuestionEverything
Vicarion,

Thanks for your posts. You have a lot of insight into the Unity Church.

As do you, QE!!!

Mine comes from many years of participation and observation. Whatever one may think of the "original" Unity teachings, they have been gradually supplanted over the past 30 or 40 years with new age, self-help, pop psych speak. At least the "old" Unity churches still had "God" in them. The new Unity is all about selling an agenda which has more to do with ACIM, thought control, and similar material than with what Unity was founded upon over a century ago.

Despite the weirdness of much of the Fillmore material, some of it was, I thought, fairly solid, classic Christian mysticism. Much of it interchangeable with Meister Eckhart (12th century mystic writer) type of material. But the Unity of the past few decades has been "infected" with ACIM and Forum style material and irrational new age "magical" thinking.

Incidentally, when I used the word "racket" in my previous post, I wasn't using the Landmark Forum term, I was referring to the Unity of today as a "racket" in the sense of being a scam, a hustle. Which IMHO it very clearly is.

Also, Unity does lots of "love-bombing" when you come to church, especially newcomers, but if and when you leave, the "love" stops dead cold. As you have found out. It becomes even worse if you leave the church and actively speak out against what goes on there. It can turn very ugly, as I have found out.

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Also, if what they teach is true that we are all already perfect spiritual beings. What do we need Unity for (unless you enjoy that sort of thing)?

Well that's it exactly. If what they say is true, who needs them?

Personally, I don't believe God requires "middlemen" of any kind. Each of us is free to find God as we understand he/she/it to be, if we choose to believe in a Deity.

You mentioned I believe having been involved with Religious Science at one time? So was I. I left that church as well, but kept many of their books, along with the writings of Emerson and others of that calibre. There is some good material and ideas there, but no need for a church or minister. I'm a big kid now and don't need my hand held anymore. ;)

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The do very little in terms of providing help for people outside of Unity that may need assistance. They guilt people into volunteering within the Unity Church, for the Unity Church. IMO, the purpose of the Church I attended was to keep the Unity Church running so the minister could continue to be a minister, because the minister wanted to be a minister. Perhaps I am being too cynical, but that's how it looked to me.

Very observant and quite correct. Cynical? Not really. Realistic.

The purpose of a Unity church becomes providing the minister with people to serve him/her and do his/her dirty work (support groups, prayer partners, chaplain teams, etc.) so that the minister doesn't have to do any of these things. The ministers would rather preach (and do weddings and funerals, for which they get paid extra) and let other people do their dirty work, including hospital visits, etc. However, while Unity has always had licensed Unity teachers to run the classes, many ministers don't trust them to indoctrinate as they would like, and so in most churches the licensed Unity teachers are marginalized while the minister directs all of the teaching alone, or in some cases has an associate or co- minister (often the husband or wife) by their side to reinforce them and their message.

Unity churches do not care about the community around them. They only care about the church and the people within it. When they spend money, it is only on themselves and their own church programs. When they tithe to the community, it is only to Unity-affiliated organizations. Unity only gives lip service to the real charities in the local community. They may announce a canned food drive or somesuch thing, and set up a box for donations, but their real attention goes to collecting tithes for their own church.

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I truly enjoy helping people and knowing that I made a difference in someone's life, even if it's just a small donation to a food bank, or driving someone when they need a drive. I never felt really good about volunteering at Unity. It was more like fulfilling an obligation and trying to look like a good person. I am sure I was not the only one who was trying to look like a good person. But therein is the danger.

Unity is all about "looking like a good person" and self-congratulation for one's "heightened" consciousness or self-awareness. It feeds the holier-than-thou Unity mindset and groupthink. (Compassion, integrity, humility, spiritual maturity and simple lovingkindness is unnecessary and almost frowned-upon in Unity.) I once coined a phrase about the attitude of Unity people: "MY consciousness is bigger than yours!" And that's truly how they feel. But this mindset is fed by the ministers and the books they use to teach from (A Course in Miracles, etc.).

There was a time when mystical or metaphysical groups and churches were far more humble and grateful in spirit. No more. Not today in this era of Oprah and Dr. Phil and Wayne Dyer.

As your name says, keep questioning everything! It is the only way to maintain a rational mind and individuality in an era of spirituality prone to mindless groupthink and surrender to teachers and gurus.

Thank you for your thoughts and insights as well. I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving too!

Most interesting to return here after such a long absence and find that this topic still has life in it.

Vicarion -- are you an old and dear friend of mine from the old Unity forum battles, by any chance? If so, I'm glad to see that you are posting here -- and "what a long, strange trip it's been", eh? :D

I shudder to think what fresh hell I would find if I were to venture back into a Unity church. My girlfriend lives about a block away from the one in Cincinnati. The minister there is a friend of a friend who was one of the few (mostly) sane and honest ministers of note who remained in Unity as of a few years ago. When I'm up there, I sometimes think about popping into the office to inquire after my old friend.

Takes about a second for me to reject that idea entirely.

I often regret having closed down "Unity In Crisis", the YahooGroup that I ran for a few years. Whatever I had in the way of backup from that group, and from the other listserves and forums, was destroyed when Hurricane Charley dropped a massive oak tree on my house a couple of years back. Luckilly, the forum I had on Delphi remains, now in a state of "suspended animation".

Someday, I still intend to write a book some day about Unity, ACIM, Endeavor, Sai Baba, Landmark, and the whole damned mess. Thankfully, there is still the Delphi forum to draw from -- and now there is much of substance on this one as well.

I wonder, though ... what on earth ever became of Timmer?

Take care!

- Boz

Unity sounds alot like RS to me. My mom is a regular at RS services. She was introduced to the LE FORUM by members there. She was offered jobs with various multi level marketing schemes by the same members. They've also started some NLP courses being taught right in the church and have occasionally had some New Age style self help seminar circuit replete with books and tapes type grade A jackasses come and visit the church. Hell the RS pastor is from California, an ex bit actor. AGAIN THE PASTOR IS AN EX ACTOR ... HELLO! ANYBODY HOME!?

celebrate the new dark age ... *sigh

ok guys keep shining the light, it's a bit murky out there

My experiences in young adulthood are similar to QuestionEverything's. I, too, thought that changing my religion (Roman Catholicism) would give me the key to enlightenment. I went from the Roman Catholic church to the Episcopal, then Lutheran (ELCA), and then branched into "new thought" religions.

A New Thought-y internet friend of mine~ a devout Abraham-Hicks, Louise Hay, Jane Roberts/seth- type~ encouraged me to look at Unity, Religious Science, and metaphysical churches. In my mid-twenties at the time, I was saddened that I could not link up with other young adults. In fact, it seemed that the community was just not attracting people in their 20s and 30s.

I also disagreed with the Unity principles of abundance. I couldn't afford to tithe, enroll in classes, buy required books, etc. The "love offering" seemed more like a big guilt trip. I wasted my time with all of these churches and their related practices. I remember walking out of one Unity service with an even deeper sense of loneliness and unfulfillment. Eventually, I walked away from it all. I donated my New Thought/New Age books and supplies to Goodwill and the library. I kept some Louise Hay things- 1 book and 3 CDs- I'm not impressed, was hoping I would be.

I am a lot better now that I look within to find the real root of my problems. New Thought principles very much put band-aids over much deeper problems I was having. I could never work with the principles because I actually have an anxiety disorder- no amount of New Thought work ALONE can help someone with anxiety problems.

I found a wonderful group of friends and a boyfriend though my local Roman Catholic church. I don't agree with everything in the church, and I certainly disagree with the conduct of many priests!!!! BUT, I just feel a much warmer environment. I am putting my religion "on hold" while I work on my anxiety/depression issues. Will I ever go back to Unity-type churches? No!

I have been attending a Unity Church in North Atlanta for about the past three months. The meetings are in a lovely chapel (bereft of any symbols) and feature a "traditional" style of service (music, prayer, sermon, offering).

What troubles me is that the services are exactly the same. Despite the slight variation of the sermons, the events are extremely repetitive. I have witnessed most of their teachings to be biblically derivative and generally harmless. Love your neighbor, and so forth. But there is no "mission" to coalesce the church into action. No feed the poor, clothe the homeless, etc initiative. Most of the work (almost all I have seen) is based upon personal development and is VERY self-centered.

It's a bit egotisitical. I also find their whole "spirit allows", abundance philosophy to be a bit simplistic. At the heart is a group of people who GENUINELY want to be good and do good. And yet they are unwilling to apply any discernment or focus to their actions.

More of a mutual support group than a living breathing church.

Like all things we can't go into extremes ... but Unity is Christian per se but endorsing of New Thought/psuedoscience techniques that border on woo woo New Age. One of the hallmarks of something to take into consideration is what is the doctrine. Unity is liberal and its endorsment of the Secret movie leads me to believe that it is definitley edging towards LGAT in a religious context. Once again - faith is perfect but people are not.

This is where i mention 'the secret' is the topic of the month @ mom's Religious Science church.

Welcome to the affinity fraud beltway!

Critical thinking is out, now open the doors to any that may, like wolves to the lambs I say!

More complaint than logic; but I think you may agree with me here, I'm beginning to think 'new age' is more of a 'new dark age'.

My brother has a 16cm lymphoma in his chest, my mother hastened to tell me when I told her to make a list of questions to ask the thorasic surgeon that she'd be asking mainly about, 'alternative medicine' ... I could only scowl and tell her I think she'd run into a bit of trouble with that.

Pity me not for i've lingered in ignorance for as long as any other in my family, it was only by chance perhaps that a few friends pointed me towards the secular world, made my choices just recently to learn all I can. Thank man for the internet :D

Kastlefeer, my thoughts go to you and your family at this time. Your mom needs a healthy dose of whup-ass. I am all for a comprehensive approach to illness (including "non-traditional"), however, these should always be adjunct with mainstream, allopathic medicine.

I think many times we want to be distracted by "magical thinking" or new thought when we don't want to face the harsh reality that is sometimes our life.

I like the quote two posts earlier..."faith is perfect, people are not".