Thanks for the great response and support. This is what I was hoping for: a chance to network with others and hopefully encourage others that are their concerned for their loved ones to take action.

To the people of this blog, a radiance of light.

The sad fact is, Michael uses great teachings to serve his EGO. When he aids in someone’s growth, wether spiritual or psychological it’s a hook. First he finds your main issues, second he publicly flogs you with them (causing humiliation), and third he publicly helps you work through them (power play). At psychology Michael has a gift, he can and does help many with big issues. However, it’s not done with freedom. That’s how Michael creates dependency, he breaks you down (humiliation), and you become vulnerable and easily deceived. This work happens on what Royal Way calls “Pilgrimage”, a monthly retreat at the ranch (minimum of $500.00 “donation”). Ok, so now you’re feeling good, you did some great work on pilgrimage and its time for weekly class. Class is run by Maggi, Michaels only “true disciple” or the Bonnie of Clyde. In class you’re judged on how you worked with Michael, your connection, how open you were to him etc. Most of the time it’s not good enough, of course…. The mind games continue. Hey, after all, “you just had the privilege to work with a True Master, on a pilgrimage” says Maggi, as she plays bad cop. You’re never aloud to fully rise up because then your the need for Michael diminishes. They have it down to a science. See, when you want community, growth and spirituality, your heart and mind will often overlook and dismiss what’s very obvious (not unlike a bad romantic relationship). You want it to be the lotto ticket you were sold and hoped for. Over and over it is instilled that you are one of the few who get to be with a “True Master”. All of this happens over the course of a year or so. It’s a progression of acclamation, and he looses many in the first year, the ones that stay “have been with Michael for many lifetimes”. After all, he claims to be a descendent of King David from both sides of his family. Indirectly, he is claiming to be the Messiah and at the same time teaching a lion doesn’t need a certificate. That’s also how he blocks the need to show credentials. There is no denying he is a SLICK GURU…WOW!

Michael uses insight, psychology, thought reform, meditation, peer pressure and Maggi, as one big power trip. He pulls apart families, friends and individuals. He justifies it because he believes he can do no wrong. His divine energy reigns supreme, there for what ever destruction he causes is for the greater good.

Selah



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2009 06:31AM by Fred Stevenson.

Quote
Fred Stevenson
The sad fact is, Michael uses great teachings to serve his EGO. When he aids in someone’s growth, whether spiritual or psychological it’s a hook. First he finds your main issues, second he publicly flogs you with them (causing humiliation), and third he publicly helps you work through them (power play). At psychology Michael has a gift, he can and does help many with big issues. However, it’s not done with freedom. That’s how Michael creates dependency, he breaks you down (humiliation), and you become vulnerable and easily deceived.

Michael uses insight, psychology, thought reform, meditation, peer pressure and Maggi, as one big power trip. He pulls apart families, friends and individuals. He justifies it because he believes he can do no wrong. His divine energy reigns supreme, there for whatever destruction he causes is for the greater good.

This is exactly how intelligent people get sucked in and why they stay. After years of Michael's insidious teachings, an intelligent person lives the lie. Those of you in Royal Way need to examine why you are pretending. Why do you continually dismiss your inner voice? Why you no longer hear your inner voice? Why you so afraid to claim that your growth was a result of your own hard work? Why you agree even when you don't agree with Michael? Why you are so afraid to leave Royal Way? Why you believe your life will fall apart without Michael? If you are truly honest with yourself, you will resonate to one of these questions.

A truly enlightened master does not hook his followers. He teaches, and people come and go freely. Seekers do not stop growing when they are not in the presence of the teacher or when they leave the teacher. What is most disturbing to me is that Michael has crossed the line from genius to psychopath. An example of something a mentally ill person with delusions might believe is exactly what Fred previously posted; "his Devine energy reigns supreme, therefore whatever destruction he causes is for the greater good."

Let's get black and white here - Michael is just a man - not a God.

Nietsche, AntiCult -
There was mention of some sort of "exposé" in the works. Is this still in the works?

Also, it seems that its been a very long while since any posters claiming to be members have posted. What gives? This is an open forum that accepts input from anybody. Are those folks still members? Have they stopped caring? Is their official response the new website?

I started life as a child.

I grew up hearing my mother constantly say nasty things about babies and little kids. Then, she'd always say, 'But you're different.'

She did this thousands of times.

Running away was not an option. I was six years old.

Facing that my mother was cruel was not an option. I depended on her for physical survival and for the sporadic emotional support she was able to provide.

To get what little and unpredictable nurture was available (and at such a young age, I couldnt easily find other options)...I had to stifle how I really felt, which was, that every time Mom expressed outspoken revulsion toward babies and little kids, I felt like I died inside each time she said that.

(For an equivalent, try as an adult to imagine being black being, Latino, being Jewish and be in a job you desperately need to keep, given todays economy. Imagine you have a boss who keeps making ghastly bigoted verbal slashes and then constantly says to you, 'But you're different.'

Or a boss who says horrid homophobic things or nasty misogynistic tirades, then keeps saying, 'But you are different.'

Now try to be a tiny child, without an adult's capacity to hold and contain that kind of emotional payload--and without an adults ability to go find a friend who can say, 'God, you are really working for an awful person. You need to look for another job. And I'll get the word out around my place and see if they have any openings.'

What if you are six years old, no social support, running away isnt an option and you cant consciously own that you are horrified and enraged by what your mother is saying?

Instead, you convince yourself there is nurture there when there is not.

You convince yourself wisdom is there and love are there, when actually cruelty is what is there.

You are being turned into the perfect disciple for an abusive guru, and you are six years old.

For in my case, I had to convince myself Mom was motherlly, when in many ways she was tearing me down--the opposite of mothering.

Mom combined the Good Cop Bad Cop functions that Fred has described above.

One half of Mom tore me down.

The other half of Mom built me up.

I had to deny this pattern in order to survive in that house, knowing that running away was not an option.

So if someone has an upbringing like this, they may become the kinds of adults blind to this very same pattern when re-enacted by a pair of people doing Good Cop Bad Cop routine, as described by Fred Stevenson.

Persons who have been 'pre-formatted' in this way, in early childhood may be very recruitable for a group whose dynamics are isomorphic to what was done to them as children, in their families of origin, and memories of which are unavailable to conscious awareness.

My victory is being able to hold and contain this today and code it into language.

I put this on the community platter just in case it sheds any light on dynamics you're trying to make sense of in RW.

Note: There is an old but good book by Pressman entitled Narcissistic Families. Its worth finding and reading because it applies to small groups.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2009 11:31PM by corboy.

Quote
MisterAEIOU
There was mention of some sort of "exposé" in the works. Is this still in the works?

Also, it seems that its been a very long while since any posters claiming to be members have posted. What gives? This is an open forum that accepts input from anybody. Are those folks still members? Have they stopped caring? Is their official response the new website?

This is clearly another example of Michael's dicta. Inside members should not post because it backfired on them in the past. So much that they had to mess with the Rick Ross website; it had to shut down for upgrades. In fact, RW lawyers (the best that money can buy) sent letters demanding information be removed from this thread. I am sure Michael has told the RW community to stay off the internet since that time. He even has a letter about how the internet is more destructive than TV. Which really shows you Anticult hit it right on when he said that "They had attempted a complete information blackout. But that failed". I guess the best defense is a good offense, so they put up an elaborate website which is nothing but propaganda...and this from a man who teaches freedom.

Dear folks,

I am a “former” member of Royal Way and, although I left Royal Way many years ago, a large part of me still feels connected to the people and to Michael. It is strange,
and I must admit that I do not understand it, so I would have a difficult time explaining it to someone else, someone has never been part of a group like this one, and is concerned about close friends or family members that are “deeply” involved. The involvement is very much like the way Corboy explains it: I was six years old, etcetera.

Consider this parable that was taught on one of the pilgrimages (Michael tells it better, of course, but the jest is the same):

A master had 2 students. He gave them shovels and told them both to dig a hole in the ground, and that they were not to stop digging until he told them to stop. Well, they both dug very deep ditches, and when they were told to stop by the master, they did. Next the master told them to stand in the ditches and to not move. Soon, the rains came and water began to fill the bottoms of the ditches. The dirt became muddy, but both students stood still, without movement or protest as their master demanded. With the rains, the rivers began to over flow, and the ditches began to fill up quickly with water. The master saw that the ditches were filling with water, but gave no instructions to move. Finally, when the water was up to half of his head, one of the students could stand it no longer and he frantically climbed out of the ditch knowing that if he did not, he would drown. The other student remained in the ditch where the water rose above his head and he drowned. On that day, the student that drowned became a disciple, and he was transformed to a higher level of consciousness.

Although this parable may seem alarming to someone is not in Royal Way, this story creates and nurtures, in the Royal Way members (as it did in myself,) a yearning to become the disciple that is so devoted to his master, that he would rather drown than question or disobey him (after all, who want to be “just a student” when they can be “a diciple.”) People come to Royal Way for many different reasons, but the ones who stay the longest, are the ones who crave transformation … are passionate about transforming their lives, at any cost, it becomes everything … everything … and anything that takes it away or threatens to, is darkness and fear.

Looking at this “parable” now, from the other side of the “looking glass,” I see the drowned man as just that … a drowned man and nothing more.

Mishmash1:

Thank you for posting that story. That is extremely important and disturbing in this context.
Why?
Michael is no dummy, he knows what he is doing. He is clearly very knowledgeable in psychology for obvious reasons.
But this story shows he knows exactly what he is doing to people. Its deliberate.

That Story has many layers.
(and "Stories" structure the psyche, as Byron Katie, Werner Erhard, and most of them know).

First off, Master and Student. You see that in the RW website too, as mentioned above. He's the Master, you are the follower. That is implicit and unquestionable. He's the King, you are the lowly slave.

So then you are supposed to engage in MINDLESS OBEDIENCE. He tells you to dig a hole, you don't think, you don't ask how deep, you just start digging. That is very bad, of course. But this is a common method to get the students/followers to follow orders on command.
This would get all the free labor done on the RW Ranch, for example, and get more money donated.

But then it gets much worse.
A dangerous flood starts. DANGER. Common sense tells you to get out and save yourself from DANGER. That is a healthy human instinct. But Michael tells you to keep yourself in danger, and to suppress your natural instincts. (he knows that on some level people know what is happening to them, they feel the Royal Way water creeping up to their necks).

Then DEATH is about to come, and even then Michael tells you that DEATH is preferable to disobedience to him.
It doesn't matter if he is referring to Ego-death, or bodily-death, as they can be the same thing.
This is no joke or mere metaphor.
How many culty groups have there been where followers have willingly gone to their physical deaths in the name of their leaders? Sadly, there have been many.
But even if they don't go to their physical death, the Ego-death can be almost as bad, as people turn everything over to the group, work 24/7 for nothing, and destroy their lives and themselves for many years or decades.
Its all there in that one story. That Story contains the entire story of your personal destruction for mindless obedience the Guru.


But here is the escape hatch.
The Master tells you to dig a hole in the ground.
First, you question him about why he is your "Master". Says who? Who made him the boss?

Then, you ask what is the hole for, a well?
He won't tell you?
Ok, then pay union rates, and we'll dig, like working for the city, and take long coffee breaks.

No pay? No information about the hole?
Well, then Mr false Guru, get off your lazy ass, and dig your own damn holes in the ground.

If people want to help in the world, get away from these bad false Guru's like Michael and Royal Way, and maybe find a registered charity that digs water wells in areas where people can't afford the technology.
There are human powered deep-water wells that are being dug in the ground that are saving kids lives, right now.
So if you are going to dig a hole in the ground, first figure out what the hole is for, and make sure it is going to help people.

Do the opposite of what the bad false Guru Michael tells you to do.
And when you smell DANGER...run. When you smell smoke...run, or if the water is rising, get in your boat and escape while you can. If the water is rising around your neck, time is running out.

There is a thread discussion on a secret install the guru in your body meditation that was practiced in SYDA yoga, years back. Something like this could lead people to become very protective of such a person, even if years later, they find the person did not act in their best interests and failed to reciprocate their devotion.

This is not confined to SYDA yoga, BTW. Ive read of visualization practices used by quite ancient traditions. The problem is, they have to be prescribed with the utmost care or they can easily foster regression and non spiritual merger with whoever is the focus of the exercise, the way any potent healing medicine can turn poisonous if prescribed to the wrong person or at excessively high dosages.

Anything powerful enough to heal can, if improperly used harm. Spirituality is not exempt from this.

This being said, here is a thread worth reading, just in case it has clues for RW refugees that would be invisible to a non RW person such as myself. The entire three page thread is worth reading, IMO. I wish more people could contribute insights because I think this is a very neglected area of research. It was easy to attend EST and Lifespring, and anyone could have learned a number of 'tools'.

And NLP courses are still easy to find. Too easy.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Read the long item posted here on this thread-- July 21, 2008 09:55AM

another version is here

[forum.culteducation.com]

Quote

Install the guru in your body meditation?

for real?!
Did the SYDA people use the word "install" or was that added later?
Because that is a phrase right out of NLP-hypnosis modeling.

"Install the X in your body".

Just substitute the word INDUCTION for "meditation".

"Install the Guru in your body (hypnotic) Induction".

That is flat-out hypnotic engineering out of NLP. (NLP is just a technical and systematic way to model-copy anything).
To take the image of the Guru and INSTALL it in the BODY, is incredibly powerful. And that does not go away quickly, it can sit there for many years, if not permanently, if you don't get it out.

That is very profound. If people went through that type of deep hypnotic conditioning, and then just walked away from Gurumayi, they would feel a deep hole in their psyche. And they would run and plug that emotional hole with someone like X , or whomever.

Put it this way.

If SYDA used the word "Install" you can be assured that they hired some of the senior NLP of the time to come in and design some processes for them to use on people. They would have taken an old practice of people visualizing their Guru in their chakra's, or whatever, which is ancient.
But the NLP people come in, and spend a few weeks studying it in great detail, and then they shrink it down to its essentials, and come up with something like...INSTALL THE GURU IN YOUR BODY.
They write it into a MANUAL, like they did with countless other things. (I bet we could find out who wrote this NLP program, could have been Robert Dilts as he was into that, even writing a manual on the Cognitive Patterns of Jesus of Nazareth). [www.nlpu.com]

The word INSTALL is very specific. Its designed to become part of the person.
That comes out of the software world, which Richard Bandler was involved in. (you "Install" a software program).
and meditation is just another word for hypnosis.
So it becomes...

Install the Guru in the Body hypnotic Induction.

Does anyone know if SYDA used the word INSTALL?

Also, X uses similar but more refined techniques, as she tries to "fuse" with your identity, not in the mere body, but in your very concepts of self.


Quote:
corboy
Gurumayi, leader of SYDA yoga, has not been seen in public for the past 5 years..about 2003.
...
One former member reveals that those who took a month long SDYA intensive were actually at one point trained to internalize Gurumayi (an abusive woman for whom appearances and beautiful clothes were everything)--internalize this guru within thier own bodies.

In the words of psychotherapy, to make Gurumayi their maternal introject. [www.ex-cult.org]

The secret—install the guru in your body meditation.

Written by The Anticult on July 19, 2008 08:45AM--in the context of a discussion on the Byron Katie thread

To repeat:

I was not in RW so I have no idea what forms of meditation you all would have been taught.

But if any of it included practices resembling this--that is to say, internalizing the image of the guru--and especially if kept secret, it might well be hard to free oneself of lingering effects.

And...the effects might??? be re-triggered (in computer use terms, 'refreshed' if one has pictures in ones house of the person whose image you were trained to internalize using the method described above.

Two, do a search on the RR.com message board for material I have cited on other threads from an article by psychoanalyst Stanley Rosenman. This may also offer some helpful clues and insights.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2009 01:35AM by corboy.

thx for reposting that. It is relevant, in the sense that Michael has people keep a picture of him in their home, bedroom, etc. That is a visual anchor, and everything else is linked to that. All of the Stories and everything else can be encoded into one central image of the Guru. Then all they have to do is keep a picture of the Guru on the fireplace, and that is extremely powerful.
As powerful as a Christian cross, to a believer. (I think RW was also using some fake golden-rocks too?)

As far as NLP, all NLP is, is a way of copying things that are effective, and then communicating that to others.
For example, they started by figuring out how people like Virginia Satir was effective.
They even used it to "model" (copy) people in sports, musicians, etc.
Or they could copy an effective salesman, and then train others to do the same thing.

But later on, it got highly dubious. For example, some NLPers were hired, at very high rates, to come in and do the same thing with what we would call Guru's or cult leaders.
So they would bring the NLPer in for a few weeks, and he would VERY VERY carefully write out the EXACT techniques being used by "natural" Guru's. They could then write that out, literally as a manual. These were some very intelligent people, and they could figure this stuff out in precise detail.

Its not known to what extend Michael had access to any of these techniques or methods. But its obvious he's crafted his own niche, by using his own knowledge of human psychology, and various tricks he's picked up over the years.

But its possible to get ones hands on the type of information about Guru techniques that have done by NLPers, and other professionals who study that type of thing.
But it ain't cheap, nothing under 100K to start.

The key is to get one's mind out of the clouds of "spirituality" and try to take a look under the hood, and see how the sausage is made.
The key is to itemize and analyze each technique being used by the Guru.

This is why they all try to kill the "Ego" and get you to follow orders without thinking, and passify you to Surrender The Ego to the Guru.
Its like cutting the testicles off a bull, so to speak, so it can be used a farm animal.