Dear Nancy, if you do a search of the message board you should be able to find a number of other posts with information.
Involvement in G groups can go back for generations.
A thoughtful person named Jupiter described what it was like to grow up in a Gurdjieff type group that was tied to J Bennett and did a sub practice called Subud. If you do an author search and 'all dates' you will find Jupiter's works. You will also see how J was harassed by others who were quite threatened that someone else dared express misgivings about something they'd dedicated their adult lives to--and could not bear to question.
Jupiter got out while still young. Those who remain inmates until they are middle aged or older have a much greater burden of investment.
In a Gurdjieff/Fourth Way oriented household, if the parents are distracted and spaced out by constantly practicing self remembering, 'alarm clock' exercises, or fretting about group politics and staying on the right side of a demanding and tyrannical leader's whims, that means little emotional energy is available for parenting a youngster.
In such a circumstance a child desperate for attention and love may try and turn him or herself into a 'fourth way prodigy' and share the parents' interests in gurdjieff work and get attention by that route. The trouble is childhood is bypassed and the desperate child develops a cult personality in order to get some crumbs of nurture from parents and the Fourth Way group the parents are in.
In some cases, a child in that predicament may grow up, and become a life long inmate of G work, and in some cases perhaps become a G work teacher, marry within the group and produce a second or third generation of children who get exposed to this same warping influence.
The search button can be a little hard to find, because it is tiny and in the upper right corner of the RR.com message board window.
Some people have been contributing posts for years so do 'all dates' when conducting searches, otherwise you will miss some good items.
Click the search button open and then do a search
'Webbydeb' was the daughter of someone who taught G work. Her mother Kathleen was reportedly daughter of parents who were involved in a G group in New York City and supposedly little Kathleen met old man Gurdy him self.
[
forum.culteducation.com]
[
forum.culteducation.com]
She had to surrender her license to practice clinical psychology in circumstances reported here.
[
www.culteducation.com]
A survey article on G groups can be read here:
[
forum.culteducation.com]
G groups--SF Bay Area
[
forum.culteducation.com]
And to show that it is futile to argue with persons who have an entrenched personal curative fantasy linked to G work, one can read the dialogue that unfolded here.
[
forum.culteducation.com]
I was not myself in such a group. But I grew up in a very strict all adult household late in my parents' lives. I was expected much too early to understand the concerns and adjust myself to the emotional needs of adults and in so doing I was evicted much too soon from childhood, adopted a facade of false maturity.
As an example, how this worked, I gave up watching Saturday morning cartoons, long before I genuinely outgrew interest in them. My dad used to nag and make shaming comments when he saw me watching TV on Saturday. So I gave up something I enjoyed---and that had not, BTW interefered with my completing my homework.
The interesting thing is, Dad had no trouble letting himself enjoy TV.
Years later I discovered that before I was born, my father had been a TV junkie and spent hours watching 1950s cowboy Westerns. In short, he was a hypocrite. He'd been ejected from childhood due to a strict European upbringing. As an adult he happily let himself enjoy junk TV, but when he saw a child of his own enjoying recreation in a way he had not been allowed to enjoy in childhood, he was bitterly envious and nagged.
But at least my father didnt induct me into a religion. As an adult, I was free to pick and choose my own entertainment.