Here’s a top six rationalisations of spiritual guru / cult leader / abuser / manipulator types for being called out.

It’s not exhaustive, I don’t know it all and you are reading a list compiled by someone who has managed to trail bin juice all over their feet just this morning, so don’t get any ideas.

1- “Their perception is their reflection”

Manipulative spiritual teachers love this one. They play on adherents belief in the teachers special powers of “magnifying” issues within some, and put out that the person calling them out is simply acting up their strong personality traits in the pure presence of the teacher. It does happen (as in projection) but if you’re in the middle of being called out for inauthentic behaviours, this stance is completely out of place.

2- “They are in the Hell Realms”

Deep biblical programming is recalled from the back of our minds with this one, where the idea of heaven and hell being accessible places on Earth for the spiritual journey is utilised for the benefit of trying to escape being called out, the person calling out seeing only “hellish” outcomes, by goodness, they must be in the hell realms. Groan.

3- “Past life karmic bonds”

Some epic story about how the manipulator / teacher or guru will come out that they once knew the person who is calling them out in a past life where they were some kind of religious figure involved in medieval practices of burning at the stake for gifts, hanging, or fighting in some way to create the outcome that they are experiencing today.

4- “They have been infiltrated by dark forces”

Common in groups believing in off planet species, is the idea that people can be taken over and used by alien species with dark intentions, therefore becoming problematic and henceforth, calling out an abuser but in their shoes it’s stopping the transmission of light on Earth, etc. Dark vs light battle. This one works especially by turning adherents away from the person who has been “infiltrated” due to the fears involved. Adherents tend to feel that they are all of light so anything other (which is reality anyway) will be highly disturbing to them. Same story different dialog with “entities” or “spirits”.

5- “They are a heyoka”

Heyoka is connected to shamanism though increasingly popular at the moment in the “specially gifted” empath community, which is awful, however those gurus and manipulators who are familiar would gladly rather see the person calling them out as “Heyoka” perhaps from past lives challenging the teacher. A lot of the time, those who state this couldn’t be further from shamanic lineages if they tried. You can search Heyoka to understand more.

6- “They are a narcissist, they are a bully”

Yep. Unfortunately, in paradox with 1, the manipulator, spiritual guru, abuser will project themselves onto the person who is calling them out with their own personal best quality. Highly abusive move where the sense of self of the manipulator has been challenged and must be protected, in this case by putting the blame everywhere else except for on themselves.

Well, this started out as a top ten ! I couldn’t think of any more so if you do, feel free to add them in. I’d love to see them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2020 06:35AM by facet.

I love this list.

7 -- "They are a racist sexist homophobe bigot."

I saw this one recently from a current member of my old group. This guy had convinced himself that our group was so pure, that anyone calling it a cult was using an offensive slur as bad as racial or homophobic ones. Followed by a long list of "do we do all these culty things? Sure, but..."

(I find this one so personally toxic, because those harmful things are real enough and exist in the world enough that if the group or its members were criticised on any of those grounds, absolutely it would be wrong. But cults often use it at random, and becomes draining thought-stopping nonsense.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2020 05:42PM by Jupiter.

8 -- "It's their purification"

Probably related to 3 in your list, but in my group we were told that we had to "purify" our ancestors going back 7 generations. I have no idea who 7 generations of my ancestors even are, but there was always some imaginary great-great-great-great-great aunt who had got herself into some weird situation in her life and was somehow speaking through my voice and my body. Therefore, any criticism could be safely ignored, because it was just poor old Ida in her rocking chair 200 years ago needing resolution for something totally unrelated to what the leaders were saying.

Hi Jupiter,

I love your contributions, thank you for sharing them, they are great!

For 7, throwing accusations around it seems like a deflective control tactic?

I have seen this in very manipulative people where they have tried to control someone and a group by throwing an accusation when they themselves are the wrongdoer, or they are trying to get rid of someone that they deem a threat.

If you are a threat, they will try to get rid of you and this means naming you the worst of the worst when you are not the worst of the worst, it will be a wild accusation just like you say!


For 8, absolutely and such a dreadful burden placed upon people. I hope that you take good care of yourself with this. Big responsibility for repairing a family line is a story spread throughout many of the different spiritual schools and cults, I cannot say all of them simply because I have not been exposed to them all :-) but it is a common theme and dreadful, dreadfully unnecessary responsibility .

This important point you mention also spreads out into the global responsibility, being responsible for the entire world. This is also widespread and keeping people locked in.

9- ‘It’s an attack’

Sometimes connected with the topics in no. 4, ‘it’s an attack’ is often the reasoning for anyone or anything that rationally questions what the teaching or guru is claiming. To the guru or teacher, yes it is an attack due to the great threat being presented to their version of survival.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2020 06:28AM by facet.