The existence of this message board is itself an act of compassion and hospitality for the many who have come here in pain, asking questions and seeking sanctuary.
To permit this space to vandalized by taunts, jeers and invalidating mind games would undermine compassion, not support it.
We have a lot of material on hurtful groups. If a person is still loyal to that group, that information will most likely be painful. Getting mad at us and blaming us will not help you.
Its not our job to persuade anyone--only to provide information and a discussion space for people already doing their own thinking for themselves. It is up to visitors to use the information provided here, decide for themselves if their group matches the socio/psychological criteria for a cult (Lifton, Ofshe, Singer), not demand that we convince them or do their homework for them.
Someone who demands that we convince them that theirgroup is bad is wasting our time. The only person who can convince you is [u:68f064224f]you[/u:68f064224f].
Librarians point you to information but dont do homework for you.
If anyone nagged a librarian to do their calculus homework for them and would not stop nagging, the librarian would have every right to call Security and have the person escorted out.
As for 'hurting's' mother, it is true we do not yet have all the facts about how her mother decided to cut off contact with her family.
But we most certainly can and should ask questions.
First, an abrupt change in behavior, such as cutting off contact with your family (and friends!) plus a name change, merits concern.
We need to learn more about the circumstances in which 'hurting's mother decided to leave her family--whether this was her own decision or if undue influence is a factor.
Two, there is a wealth of information from tribal elders and anthropologists expressing concern about 1) whether shamanism can ever be separated from its specific cultural context and 2) the harm that has been done to tribal peoples and their spiritual pratices by eager seekers who commercialized these spiritual practices. All this and more is discussed and URLs provided here:
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board.culteducation.com]
Why concern oneself with whether shamanism can be validly and honestly taught outside of its cultural context?
Because if someone is going to invest signficant time,money, energy and (in some cases) perplex or worry their families and friends, they should be doing this in relation to a genuine and honorable spiritual practice, not something that is inauthentic and being taught without permission of the culture and elders from whom the practices originate.