Bssically this reminds me of the breatharian cult leader who got caught by his followers eating a whopper.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

No offense, corboy, as i am a huge fan of your posts but i disagree on some points. While i despise radical vegans, landmark, AND cafe gratitude, i do see the vegans point. 1. I dont see it as their business what the engelhardts eat at home. It does expose a certain landmarkian hypocrisy, however. 2. The vegans have every right to be concerned that money from gratitude is going to buy cows
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Sorry, vera, not taking it back. Note: i despise rss, krishna, butler and all those groups. But there is no need to resort to anti semitic conspiracy theories about aipac, zionism, etc from muslim fascists to form a critique of hindu fascists like the butler/gabbard milieu. Better sources of info out there.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Nice go after a hindu kook with a piece from a jew hating pro jihad scumbag. Sorry, nazi, try harder next time.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

1. You clearly aren't reading the articles. 2. You take your news from "naturalnews.com", right? Completely fraudulent site. 3. You are clearly here to troll about anti-vaxx and support Oprah's fraudulent doctor buddies. 4. I really don't care what a politician who is ALREADY biased against vaccinations says on this topic. NOT a scientist. Just looking for hom
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Were either Dr. Thompson or Rep Posey on Oprah as "celebrity doctors"? I'm not sure how that is relevant to the topic of the thread otherwise. It really seems like you are here to troll as an "anti-vaxxer" rather than to discuss Oprah's Celebrity Doctors. Also, Snopes has already blown this whole story apart last year... What got lost in the brouhaha over
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Yes, thanks for bringing up Dr. Wakefield, he has been on Oprah before and is also part of the "anti-vaxxer" scam.
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Yeah, don't talk to them. That is the best thing you can do. From how you wrote this, I assume this is some kind of duplex or "landlord on property" situation where they are hard to avoid? Personally, I've always tried to avoid "buddy" situations with tenants or landlords, regardless of which side I'm on. Keep a professional distance, this is a tough capita
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

One thing that also needs to be done (sorry for tangent, but it is related) is an expose on TLC! Anybody ever read one? Why is it that I know who Rupert Murdoch is, I know who runs NBC, I know WAAAY too much about ESPN... and yet you never read a story about TLC. Who is their CEO? What is his story, why do they pick shows like this? Why isn't there a MASSIVE consumer boycott of Discover, who
Forum: Destructive Churches

More impoortantly, that site belongs to a religious fanatic anti-vaxxer opposed to... well, science. Most of the links on site go to the Nazi conspiracy site "natural news" or to Christianity Today. Glad to see the MSM finally wake up to Dr. Oz and his scams. And, no, there is NO proof anywhere on this "Hope for Holly" site that he is being targeted for being skeptical o
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Yes, Yasmin, you got the point across much better than I could. I don't have a PhD, I have no idea if folks like anticult or corboy have ones. I don't care. We've all contributed a lot to these discussion forums over the years. If this is meant to be a locked-down board where only academics specializing in cult studies can post and have strong opinions, fine, I totally respect
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Rick, I'm shocked that you are backing Dr. Mann up. She is the one who tried to derail this thread and turn it into a discussion of "Zeussors" credential or lack thereof. This happened before with the Anthroposophy discussion, in which you gently pointed out her derailing. I do not blame ANYONE for watching or reading material on Hubbard and positing that he was "crazy".
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

No, sorry, I don't have the links offhand, it's been many years since I thought about that stuff. I do remember reading an article though, years ago, about this. Also, my own perusal of some of his books seemed very contradictory to the ancient teachings. I actually got dragged to one of his events by a friend before I knew the truth, and it was all liberal sweetness and light, not much
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

What's even MORE unsettling is his longterm association without flat-out NAZIS, including Heinrich Harrer of "7 Years of Tibet" fame and even worse, war criminal Bruno Beger who conducted experiments on human beings. I think that is covered earlier in this thread, but it always bears repeating. He has never explained any of this and simply doesn't care what people think about
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, keep up the great work! The stuff on this message board is definitely a game-changer for a lot of people who find it. Deeply appreciated.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"This board over the years has had it's share of people breaking this rule. Often it's done by people that want to drag a thread off topic because they are members of the group being discussed." -Bingo. Apologies to Dr. Mann for assuming that was her goal. Some of these threads are pretty much Corboy and AntiCult doing data dumps for years on end (keep it up!), with only me
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, I apologize, did not realize you were on Rick's board. I had assumed that you were a pro-waldorf poster looking to stir up trouble, which, if you have read the board much, you know is not an unusal occurence. I would also point out that you did not read my statement carefully as I did not say "all Christians". Here is what I said, and I stand by my statement. &quo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"But, I am not going to debate beliefs." -And, yet here you are... debating beliefs. It is quite clear that the majority of "mainstream Christians" believe in: a) the Holy Trinity b) the notion that Jesus died for your sins c) the 10 Commandments d) the Four Gospels as the most important part of the bible They do not believe: a) that god lives on a planet nam
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Catherine, Thank you for your input! What is "not credible" about that site? While it calls itself "liberal conspiracy", it is not Alexjones.com or of that ilk. It is one person's opinions, some of which I agree with, others not so much. To have a problem with it is to have a problem with the concept of blogging itself. Either the arguments stand on their own
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself." -Wow, I can't believe he used this quote from Leary. It's the very essence of the mindstate an org like Landmark wants its minions to be in. Yeah, I believe in Questioning Authority... including authoritarian personality cults like Landmark. Go ahead, btherl, put
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

I did a little more digging. Yep, definitely SGI. Jonathan Bonato, 53, met Nieto through his volunteer work teaching Buddhism classes in 2008 and worked with him and the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International on setting up the Victory Over Violence exhibit in the Bayview neighborhood. "He was an encouragement and inspiration to me," Bonato said. "I just never in
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hadn't thought about SG for awhile. Been following the sad story of Alex Nieto in SF. He was a young man with mental issues and restraining orders against him, who was still allowed to work as a security guard. A few months back he was threatening people with his work taser in a park in San Francisco. Police confronted him and shot him to death. This is somewhat of a cause celebre for th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

You're doing great work, much better than the media on this topic, so don't think nobody has noticed. Couple notes: 1. Expecting actual journalism from bloggers is pointless. Not that all bloggers are bad, that is not true. But things like Gawker, and hell Yahoo news, have completely dropped the bar and it is perennial amateur hour. Writing itself has been devalued and in the int
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I think it is safe to say "yes" as an American. It's a double-edged sword: we have the religious freedom that was lacking in the "Old World", which was one of the drawing points for our early immigrants. Sometimes that freedom is used to create something even worse than the Old World that we left behind. There are other factors at play here: 1. Strong attitudes to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

And within one post, I'm proven right.... "If the Subgenii find this thread, expect it to be spammed with all kinds of "jokes" and disinformation. Because they are just oh-so-"funny" like that..." " You need to be able to read the doctrines with the Yeti's eyes of discernment before it makes any sense. Pinks like you cannot do that, and that'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Did any longtime readers of this forum happen to archive the lengthy thread about Alcor, the cryonics company? I suspect it all vanished when Rick had server problems in recent years. Had some very interesting information in it that I can't find anywhere else on the web. While I know Larry Johnson lost his court case, I don't think that EVERYTHING he said or others said in that thre
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That stopbob site is bogus. Personally, I think there is something very off with the "Church". However, one of the key tenets of the church is to bury criticism of it within mountains of disinformation! You'll read an amazing "expose" of the Subgenii, then find out it was written by one of the key members. Go digging around about them and mostly you'll find jokes.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yeah, it's funny. I used to cringe when right-wingers would attack "multiculturalism" and just assumed they were being racist. Now that I'm a little older, I've realised: diversity=good melting pot=good muliculturalism= bad Mulitculti means you get to move to a new place, keep ALL your old customs and superstitions and impose them onto the society you move to. T
Forum: Terrorist and Extremist Groups

"Why are not certain forms of Islam held up to the same criteria and scrutiny as a dangerous cult? " -A very good point. Well, it's this simple: if Scientology had a billion followers and controlled much of the world's gas and oil reserves, they would be considered "one of the world's core faiths", and the UN would be discussing banning criticism of them.
Forum: Terrorist and Extremist Groups

For some time, in some corners of Pune, anti-Ashram sentiment had been rising. To distinguish their particular brand of joyous surrender from the renunciation of the traditional sannyasin, Bhagwan and his sannyasins sometimes referred to his discipleship as 'neo-sannyas'. But religious purists were still outraged. The local Indians were at best bemused, and often shocked by the Westerne
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"