QuoteThe AnticultStephen Mitchell refers to himself in their promotional materials as...ya gotta know he wrote that line: "the distinguished writer Stephen Mitchell". QuoteTarSpielI do think that BK and Stephen Mitchell both say some very profound things. ‘Distinguished’, ‘profound’ … great promotion! In general, any reworded wafer-thin twaddle borrowed from a tear-off calendar can
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotecorboyWhen I read the name 'Tarspiel' I free associate to the figure of the tar-baby from the Brer Rabbit story. The more you try to struggle with the tar baby the more entrapped you get. 'Spiel' is just a line of verbal patter, seemingly trivial, but its what sales people use. It is a perjorative term because the person is not emotionally invested in his or her 'spi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTarSpielI had a question come to mind. Do you think it would be possible at all for someone to post an opinion (like mine) on this thread which dissents to a degree from the majority opinion, *without* being a troll, sock-puppet, liar, or deceiver? Why not? But what may pave the way to a troll, sock-puppet, liar, or deceiver-labelling is, for example, someone who keeps toning down his/her
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTarSpielAll BK is doing, as far as I can tell, is having people examine their stories about facts and seeing if the stories are true or not. And it's pretty clear that a lot of times, the stories we tell ourselves about the facts just aren't true. I suppose here you are also referring to people inquiring into Byron Katie’s ‘life story’, ultimately exposing the racket?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteN. OwisQuoteTarSpielQuoteThe Anticult(...) in Barstow, the basement was filled with boxes of books of this kind of material. Now of course, the trained eye can see the direct copying, and slight modifcation of various techniques, as has been shown many times in this thread So which is it? She had a whole basement full of Ken Keyes' books from time immemorial, or she was given one o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTarSpiel(...) I guess you can call me a sock puppet or a troll, or ban me for voicing an opinion which seems to dissent from what most of you seem to be committed to. Either way, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. But I do find this topic interesting, and I'd find talking about it interesting, too. Dear TarSpiel, For your info: there’s another ‘TarSpiel’ posting on Scout.com.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteN. OwisWhat has always puzzled me is that Byron Katie’s story of her alleged awakening is a pure contradiction in itself. On the one hand she ‘woke up’ in total amnesia. Her children had to re-educate her from scratch on ("now, this is a chair, mom, and I’m what’s called ‘your child’"; etc.). On the other hand, eight years later when she rewrote her history she had a crystal-clear
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotescrambledeggsEven if the cockroach really did crawl over Byron Katie's foot, compare this "awakening" side by side with the stories of Suzanne Segal and Jill Bolte Taylor . There was a MEDICAL explanation for their "spiritual awakening" experiences: Suzanne Segal died of a brain tumor and Jill Bolte Taylor survived a massive stroke. Did Byron Katie have a legiti
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe AnticultWould those be real "staff", as in people who are actually paid by the company? Or the fake so-called "Staff", the people who work for no pay, or even pay to work at the seminars? QuoteCruzThere's a recent and ongoing tweet that current full-time staffers who used to refer to their employer as 'BK', have now started calling her 'BS'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe AnticultAnd they give them little cookies, like maybe a group photo with the Guru, and they give them a label, like "Crew" or "Staff". There's a recent and ongoing tweet that current full-time staffers who used to refer to their employer as 'BK', have now started calling her 'BS'. One can only guess what that stands for.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult “(...) a recent teleconference with BK: Byron Katie is not so sweet-sounding there. She is saying she will revoke the Facilitator referrals, if you say anything "negative" about The Work, or associate with anyone who does. She gives a clear threat to anyone who posts their profile on a website she does not like...take the profile down, or she will kick you out.” Quot
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticultby the way, there appears to have some dissent in the now closed Open Forum at the Institute For The Work website? Questions about the cockroach story, questions about the books being copied from other books, etc. So they closed the Open Forum. Bye bye freedom of thought, and open discussion. An interesting bit of information came up, regarding Byron Katie’s no longer Open
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The other day, my friend who led me to Byron Katie's (no longer) Open Forum shared a recollection that intrigued me to some extent. She recalls being rather surprised when the very first BK book came out, several years after Katie’s alleged experience and quite some time into their friendship. For, prior to this publication, all this time not a cockroach had been mentioned. Not even a hint.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A friend of mine who frequently visits Byron Katie’s Institute For The Work Forum brought the following to my attention. A few days ago someone quoted some info from your site regarding the true origin of Byron Katie’s ‘Tao book’. This contribution turned out to be the last entry on the ‘open’ forum. About an hour later the forum was closed “in order to better serve" the visitors.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"