Corboy said: "To Janaki: Just wait. Sooner or later the inevitable guru apologist (s) will arrive and claim that its only our own craving minds that cause all the trouble." I have heard worse rationalizations, this is the one Advaita 'teacher' Ramesh Balsekar used to explain his touching up (perhaps worse) of female students. The guru in the story is apparently pedoph
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

(note the URLs for earlier articles published in this newspaper about other commerical 'export gurus' and 'paisa piety' Hinduism. ('Paisa' refers to coins of small denominations, similar to what the Greek Scriptures called the 'widows mite'--the small contributions made by the poor, but which, metaphorically refer to any amount of money, which extend
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Anyone thinking of getting involved with an Indian guru should investigate how that guru and his or her follower behave in India. All too often Westerners are given a sweetness love and light message, but in India, this same guru behaves like a warlord. The dewy eyed westerners will not be told that in India their guru purchases politicians by the lakh, and tellsgoondas (thugs) to whip cri
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hi investigator! Thanks for posting your find and the link too. I could swear I saw that woman's website months ago when I was Googling for info about Derek O'Neill. She seems to be in what is probably a common state of mind for people putting their cult involvement behind them -- aware of the abuse and exploitation that they had been subjected to by their "guru", but still
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Whats up! Found some info on this guy for you, in addition the person O'Neil studied under has many allegations against him. He studied under Sai Baba supposedly and Sai Baba has many allegations of sex abuse against him. SOURCE QuoteBeth Farmer quoteMany of us that left, did so because of the constant push for money, land, deeds and other things that we were asked in some subtle
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Excerpted with permission from EXPOSING CULTS: WHEN THE SKEPTICAL MIND CONFRONTS THE MYSTICAL David C. Lane Garland Publishing, Inc. (1994) Chapter Twelve THE SPIRITUAL CRUCIBLE A Critical Guide to America's Cultic Renaissance The 1980's may be known in the future by spiritual aspirants as the decade of the fallen guru. Already a number of prominent and respect
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its wonderful the Guruphiliac points out the problems with some Guru's. And some of those websites attacking him personally, are from followers of Sai Baba, who Guruphiliac has rightfully criticized. Sai Baba is a flat out con-artist, with his fake magic tricks, and more seriously the sexual abuse, and local government corruption, etc. But why only go at such obvious targets? And why
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotequackdaveI'm with you, there hm2x. To paraphrase something said a few times before on this thread, there are many so called 'guru busters' out there who actually are putting down all but the guru that they are 'in bed with', as a sort of deflection from the true issues. Did you notice how Jody absolutely steers clear of any response to the Seung Sahn issue, which is
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

that's the magic trick! ;-) this is how you do it... You point to the most obvious abusive con-men, criminals and child-rapists who call themselves guru's, like Sai Baba. They become the bad-guys. But then you misdirect away from the much more sophisticated LGAT groups, who actually make MORE money than the old-school religious cults in robes. The modern so-called anti-guru LGAT g
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult...its also frankly a shameless bluff by RandomStu, when Stuart Resnick claims to have no real connection with Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell, when in fact he recommends Byron Katie on his website, with direct links to her videos and blog. RandomStu also links to Carol Skolnick, and also highly recommends Steven Sashen's dubious get-rich-quick schemes, while attacking ot
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

its interesting having a glance at the Guruphiliac thread about Byron Katie. Its the most active thread there, approaching 20% of all the posts in that forum. The original poster in that thread, posted some obviously honest, and thus very damaging information about the Byron Katie LGAT seminar. Even though they don't appear to have much experience with LGAT seminars, and were just repor
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"Realize your real mind and drugs will have no power over you." This BS may have originated with a famous encounter between Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba. At the time, Dass was not yet Ram Dass. He was a drug addled research psychologist and disciple of Timothy Leary who was in India exploring the Spiritual Option. So the story went, the young American visitor, gave his guru s
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"

Thx for the info. It would be interesting to find out the exact dates of Stephen Mitchell’s Byron Katie hypno-EYES story, and to see if the romantic Valentine's Day Story was adulterous in spirit. ...but he just made-up and wrote-out the entire thing anyway, its the exact same sales-pitch that Neale Donald Walsch gave about Katie before he got busted for plagiarism. Mitchell probably wro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

yeah, I agree. People should find something that they feel comfortable with. In theory, they could even find a LOCAL group of people that they can hang out with, who have a similar interest. That social connection is crucial. But of course, that's tricky. Just have to make sure these folks are not part of some global or local culty group!! There are even loose groups of things around h
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Would seem to be the Sathya Sai Baba cult. It claims anything from 60 million to 600 million followers of this self-appointed Creator of the Universe and God Incarnate, depending on which of their countless official websites you study. I think the real figure is probably closer to 5 million, and what proportion of these are genuine 'followers' and not partly convinced persons is anyone
Forum: Destructive Churches

Seems incredible that anyone in this day and age could fall for a guru who claims to be a disciple of Sai Baba. Maybe if it was the 1980s, but since then the internet has brought to light the chicanery of so many fake gurus and spiritual leaders, Sai Baba being one of the foremost, there really is no excuse. Maybe they are just desperate for some "exotic" Eastern spirituality at
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A friend exhibits his photography at a gallery here in New York. While exploring this gallery's website, I noticed that they also exhibit the work of a fairly prominent female digital artist who's name I was familiar with. One of the shows she had was called "The Vibhuti Series", which consists of large polaroid prints of "vibhuti", the ash that the notorious India
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Guys, I have a very good friend who has really gotten into Sai Maa and I'm a bit concerned. There are numerous 'gurus' from India of all sorts. Sai Maa reminds me alot of JZ Knight (Ramtha). There are videos of Sai Maa up on youtube and consciousmedianetwork. If you really listen to what she is saying there is no profound discourse, it's really just common new thought/
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Sparky, it read excerpt, not expert.... Granted Dr. Ross might be an unreliable source... Have you read my 2nd last post re "expansions"? Loads of questions marks... Still, if you have met with people that have experienced this (& yes, I, agree with AC that this whole scenario creates a lot 'disturbed' minds... but to reprint a quote from the SkepDic link: QUOTE
Forum: Coercive Persuasion and Undue Influence

sorry cochise, i posted that reply in the wrong thread..........please disreguard that.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Cochse, please read through this thread - . there are many former 2ho who you should contact to talk to your friend. and one of the major sikh newspapers - panthic org reported on the head of gurdwaras gong to visit these people, and how angry they were. these people have been craftily brainwashing people for about 40 years. please do not let them make you gullible and pray to their whims. try to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

These are responses to questions and comments from sincere and inquiring students and forum paticipants taken from the forum daily journal. Please pay close attention of the statements to see how much of these answers and underlying tone of much of what is said in the posts is invalidating, negative and disempowering and naturally could cause doubt in one’s mind. It appears that David Bruce Hughe
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteMedia Advisory UNESCO WITHDRAWS FROM CONFERENCE Paris, September 15 - UNESCO has decided it will no longer sponsor nor take part in a conference it had been due to co-organize with the Institute of Sathya Sai Education (ISSE, Thailand) and The Flinders University Institute of International Education (Australia), in Puttaparthi, India, from September 25 to 29. The decision mea
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I agree that Myss can be very abusive. In addition, she has promoted Sai Baba, who has been accused of molesting young boys and also has been caught using sleight of hand for his "materializations". One look at Myss's website says a lot. There's a page, "Caroline's Shop", which contains A LOT of items for sale, including workshops and trips, e.g. "Travel
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I think listening to Cosmik Debris by Zappa could qualify as therapy. He literally debunks most of these Guru cons in one song. I wonder who that Guru was? Zappa was probably approached by a Guru when he was famous...who was the Guru to the other musicians? Sri Chinmoy was hooked in with some of those guys... The "oil" sounds like the oil Sai Baba would apply to the penis chakra
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"

another ludicrous thing about Eckhart Tolle, is he, and his people, say that he is not running a New Age religion, or any type of personality cult. Well, that is factually FALSE on both counts. Eckhart Tolle is literally running a personality cult around himself and his writings and products, as well as running a highly organized distributed, decentralized type of New Age "church"
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

another ludicrous thing about Eckhart Tolle, is he, and his people, say that he is not running a New Age religion, or any type of personality cult. Well, that is factually FALSE on both counts. Eckhart Tolle is literally running a personality cult around himself and his writings and products, as well as running a highly organized distributed, decentralized type of New Age "church"
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"