By the way, from seeing Liz Gilbert on Oprah, at least at that time, she appeared to be a glassy-eyed true believer, who was deeply programmed. The amazing thing is the general public has no idea that there are many people out there, who are highly skilled in taking fairly naive and innocent people, and very quickly taking them in, and deeply programming them in advanced and subtle ways. Its to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Those kinds of book publishers only care about selling books. They have all the demographics worked out. They know that auto-biographies that are juiced-up with BS sell. They know that women of a certain age seem to buy up these kinds of books. So they make the book about FOOD, "love", and religion. These publishers know that people buy up books on those topics like crack-cocaine
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

And of course all of this was exposed last year in these threads!! Byron Katie (the Work) Siddha Yoga, Marta Szabo, EAT PRAY LOVE helpme2times QUOTE: "I KNEW Gilbert was into SYDA when I read Eat Pray Love! She kept the guru anonymous in the book, but from the various descriptions of the group, it was so obvious it was SYDA. And it was laughable how she painted Gurumayi as some
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its an important link. Matthew B. James "says" he was doing spiritual training at age 5, and was exposed to Muktananda Siddha Yoga in childhood. Of course that would come from his parents and father Tad James who was one of the main people in NLP hypnosis in the early years. Many NLPers took the NLP modeling/copying tech, and applied it to "spiritual" pursuits. They would
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Matthew B. James (and his people who taught James Ray NLP, as shown below) were also into the abusive Siddha-Yoga cult and Muktananda. Muktananda also had his fingers into the NLP group persuasion tech, fusing the modern persuasion techniques and "spiritual" practices. This was explored in the Byron Katie thread, and this would be where the SYDA "install the guru in your body medi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its a very good point about these types of persuasion salespeople becoming very directive, forceful, and giving direct orders to people. They know that that works. It works on some people just to order them, to DIRECT them to do something. Large amounts of people respond submissively to that, and will literally do as they are told. Persuaders know that, and know often there is no need for fancy
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Those comments by Stuart Resnick on the Marta Szabo blog are truly beyond the pale. They are precisely relevant to the Byron Katie situation, and Stuart Resnicks distraction, deflection, and poker-bluff tactics. What is his agenda? He says the SYDA org is weak? Are you kidding? That is a blatant bald-faced bluff and nonsense. Does this look weak? a quick count shows close to 150 Sidd
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

on other forums, some folks are wondering what Stuart Resnick is up to, and even if he believes in advanced persuasion techniques in groups and cults. The reality is that RandomStu has reached a point, where he has to be carefully looked into himself. RandomStu is not an objective guru analyzer, he is not a critical thinker. He is not even on "the peoples" side in this cult abuse s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

a bit of a followup on RandomStu Stuart Resnick which is essential due to RandomStu deliberately inserting himself in the middle of the Byron Katie internet distraction machine...and feigning innocence in a transparent bluff tactic. RandomStu also links to Carol Skolnick's blog (Byron Katie facilitator) And contrary to what RandomStu has said about Seung Sahn's sexual abuses of
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It would be interesting to find out how many of the Byron Katie senior people and inner circle come from Muktananda and Siddha Yoga, and related groups. Muktananda died in 1982, (he also had connections with Werner Erhard, as well as the cult leader and sex abuser Sai Baba) and it does appear that a significant number of people connected with Muk are connected with the Byron Katie system, and
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I also do think Carol Skolnick is totally sincere in her propagation of Byron Katie. But I looked at quite a bit of Carol's writing in the past, and I found it to be highly deliberately constructed. My guess was that she also picked up a lot of persuasion techniques previously from her deep involvement with Siddha-Yoga. I see Skolnick as being a public softener of what Byron Katie does,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotequestion lady How ironic that anyone trying to recover from being hurt by a psychopath or narcissist would turn to BK as a route to healing. There has been some recent discussion how certain Guru systems, carve some type of projection of themselves into the psyche of their followers, they get their followers to fuse with their Guru identity, using all sorts of techniques. So then if a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There are some inaccurate and even dishonest statements being made in the RandomStu drive-by posting above. It reminds one of what can be read on some Siddha Yoga websites...of the subset of ex-SYDA people who basically say..."I got mine, so screw you". (the self-centeredness of some folks in the allleged spiritual community is stunning) That sounds like Werner Erhard. The fact tha
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Solea, your post above is extremely helpful. Having those kinds of posts from those recently "inside" these types of groups helps a lot of people. Today, next month, next year, some people will read those posts and maybe they will start to connect the dots for themselves. Lying: in the LGAT field, they all believe that "all beliefs are lies". There is some truth to that
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

PS: The main astounding lesson learned in spades recently, is that many of these organizations train their followers that it is perfectly acceptable and proper to tell lies, for the sake of the organization. Most people get socialized that lying is wrong, not only for moral reasons, and yourconscience, but also that eventually people will find out you lied to them, and then trust is shatter
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There is some interesting cross-fertilization going on here between LGAT's and more classic Guru cults from the east, like Siddha Yoga SYDA, Muktandanda, Gurumayi, Werner Erhard, est, Landmark Forum.. Byron Katie (The Work)
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Did a quick scan of the Byron Katie book "Losing The Moon". There is a lot more in there about the Nazi's. QUOTES from "Losing The Moon": "God is the Nazi too". (P. 55) "I AM GOD" (p 91) They open the book with this quote: "EVERYTHING WE SAY HERE IS A LIE. BUT ONLY EVERYTHING". I finally understand the senior Byron Katie promo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

ok, just to make sure this doesn't get lost...below is a blog about Eat Play Love, and it has a good amount of SYDA cultic propaganda fused right into it here and there, in a very conversational way. There are probably many more of them out there like this, nice and understated, which is the new approach. Underselling. But they point right to a book by the Guru. Sadhana of the Heart: A Co
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

also, lets always remember, dealing with any type of culty issue can be very emotional and stressful for everyone involved. And its very easy to misinterpret plain-text email, as there is no voice-tonality. (they teach you how to manipulate voice-tonality in NLP, and Byron Katie uses that technique very carefully). So from time to time some of the threads are going to get emotional and highly
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Came across an interesting statement made by Daniel Shaw, which one assumes is the same Dan Shaw who has been speaking about SYDA for years, and is quoted above. There are clearly some strong parallels with the Byron Katie system. What jumped out as similar was about people who DEFEND and PROTECT Byron Katie by LYING. This has already been shown time and time again, lying by omission and co
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Something about this smells funny. They were mocking her at the other website about the "tiny ashram" and the rest of it? If she was honest, she would just tell the truth about the fucking ashram, and not play mind games with it. But there are other links there, that might lead to it? Clearly, the codeword is LONG-TERM STUDENTS. LOOOONNGGGG...Lifers. The image of the top of t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Gilbert kept the Guru anonymous in the book? For real? Holy shit...blatant bald-faced conscious planned deception... so the someone probably picked her to do this, as she is so non-threatening looking, and she will sell well to the western soccer moms on TV. Throw out the fish-hook. HAPPINESS, Food, God, Love... Then they do the subtle referrals and filtering probably using the internet.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

here is a couple more adventures into alleged Ex-Siddha Yoga. Stuart Resnick and Dan Shaw back in 1997 on usenet. And Carol Skolnick comments on Siddha Yoga on the Marta Szabo blog. You may notice that Carol writes in "stories" and uses embedded metaphors. What is she saying? Why does she write like that? (its a tech). Then Carol Skolnick gives a Masterclass on Love
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

and after looking at the comments on the Marta Szabo blog above... ...surprise...Werner Erhard appears to have had his fingers in Siddya Yoga too, according to some comments below, by a "Dan Shaw" who if I am not mistaken, was bantering with Stuart Resnick years ago on Usenet about all this same stuff!! I am liking what I have read so far of "Dan Shaw"..someone being intelle
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

oh man...came across a blog about Siddya Yoga by Marta Szabo below. What I found shocking, is that the EAT PRAY LOVE lady, Elizabeth Gilbert...is she into the current Siddha Yoga? I saw her on Oprah one time, with her eyes bugging out of her head talking about EAT PRAY LOVE. (I thought is was going to be like Sex in the City, or something). But then she started going off about her India As
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My 2 cents on this, is I don't see any major evidence that victims of various cults and LGAT's, on this forum at least, are merely pointing the finger at gurus, and avoiding personal responsibility. If anything, it seems to me too many people over-guilt themselves for getting conned initially, when they had not yet learned how it all worked. For example, personally, I have always
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

To me this is a pretty good example of some of the problems with some people in the so-called spiritual community. They have no problem bashing outrageous criminal Gurus, like Sai Baba, and one's at that level. That's obvious and easy. But its just as important, or even more important, to point out the problems with those who are in the middle of the pack, who wear sweaters, smile, w
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Its sad for Stuart Resnick, as here is a guy who has been making internet posts around this subject since before 1996, and he is making that kind of ridiculous statement? Instead of just promoting a non-dual belief system, people need to step back and look at it from a meta-level, of what the person controlling the system is DOING to the subject, without the subjects awareness. Who is creating
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Well Shakti, I don't know much about Stuart Resnick, sounds like folks in the Non-Dual area are familiar with his writings? But if he feels he is Uber, he is sadly mistaken. Even a casual glance at his writings shows he is in the thick of it. I don't know much about this Siddha-Yoga thing, but it does seem Byron Katie has scooped up some Ex-Siddha folks. Even in the book Losing The
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Guruphobiac: Thank you again for the interesting information. Its interesting how Stuart Resnick, Carol Skolnick, and Steven Sashen are all connected, and the Siddha Yoga connection. I saw the word "blogroll" above, but my brain triggered the word "payroll". LOL. That just "might" be part of it. The Work = serious cash. People are paying The Mortgage d
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"