Vicarion, Thanks for your posts. You have a lot of insight into the Unity Church. In my experience, I think there is a desire to escape from and, at the same time, a tendency to recreate the dysfunction of one's childhood. For example, I was raised in a strict Catholic family. I knew that didn't work for me and as soon as I left home, I stopped going to church. However, I ke
Forum: Destructive Churches

I knew a member of the Unity Church I attended who had taken the Forum. At the time, I really didn't know much about the Forum/Landmark. This man never tried to recruit me (or anyone else to my knowledge - at least at the time I was there), but it was very difficult communicating with him. It was almost as if he was from a different planet. The other thing that bothered me about Unit
Forum: Destructive Churches

I was raised Catholic, but as soon as I reached young adulthood, stopped going to church. I became a "seeker," trying out new age philosophies and ideas and was a member of a religious science church for a couple of years, and then attended a Unity Church although I never became an official member. I did go through Unity's introductory seminar on membership. They showed a vide
Forum: Destructive Churches

My sister has been a member of the Way for around 30 years. When she first joined, she tried to convert everyone in the family - saying things such as "without God, don't even try to be moral." My mom died several years after my sister first joined the Way. My sister (who had been living in different places in the U.S. as part of her mission with the Way) decided to move back
Forum: Destructive Churches

I am not trying to belabor this point about ACIM; however, I think this attitude towards anger and other "negative" emotions can be found in other religious groups/cults as well (everyone has to be sweet and loving all the time). While some anger may be the result of perceiving someone as the "bad guy," I do not believe all anger falls into this category. I think anger can p
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I still feel that ACIM's teachings tend to be black and white and are confusing and inconsistent within themselves. Anger, in ACIM, is not considered a normal human emotion but an "error." If someone hurts me and I feel angry, what is the "error" in feeling angry? That is a normal response. The only issue is what I do with my feelings of anger. While I agree that A
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

This is an interesting thread for me since I studied Option Institute materials and took one weekend course there about 20 years ago. I never really considered it a cult (even though I had previously been a member for about six months of what I later came to consider a "cult" - the Way International - at the urging of my sister, who is still involved). As a result of my involvement wi
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I was involved with ACIM through a long-distance study group (Miracle Distribution Center) on and off for probably between 8-10 years. I think this group is relatively benign in the way they present this material. ACIM was channeled purportedly from Jesus. It is a ponderous amount of material and very confusing. It is also at times very black and white in its philosophy, e.g., "anger is
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Having been a New Age/self-help seeker/junkie, I have tried so many different approaches looking for the "answer." But was unsuccessful and never really convinced that any group, seminar or self-help book was "the way." Which is probably a good thing. This website has been very helpful in furthering the growth of my critical/skeptical thinking. Although I have become dis
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I attended a small church of Religious Science (Science of Mind) on and off for a couple of years. One of the things I was looking for in attending was a sense of community, and I never really felt like I could connect to any of the people in the group. It was also very one-sided emotionally in that only positive thinking/feeling was acceptable. Even though no one was mean about it, negative e
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"