From "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" by David D. Burns, MD: "Because cognitive therapy asserts that only your thoughts create your feelings, you might come to the nihilistic belief that you cannot hurt anybody no matter what you do, and hence you have license to do anything. After all, why not run out on your family, cheat on your wife, and screw your partner financially? I
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

CC, there is something bothering me deeply here. You say that you wish to offer sessions of the work. Re this you specifically say, "If I saw that what I offered people as a facilitator created harm, I would reverse my opinion." Why on earth would you take the chance of doing sessions with people when there is a risk that they could be harmed? This seems unconscionable to me. Bryon
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotecultcityI am a facilitator of TW and thinking about launching a website to offer my service to those who may want to experience TW. I have gotten as far as reading about page 9 of the 77 on this thread. <snip> Please let me know why I should or shouldn't offer facilitation in TW in your opinion? Cultcity, I concur with the moderator that you ought to read the entire thread.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Oh right, there was that scary business about targeting children. I can really freak myself out about this BK stuff, so I need to remember that just as I woke up and did an internet search for critiques of Byron Katie, so can others. Also, children tend to have good b.s. detectors, so there's that going for them. Plus how many of them will rebel against continually doing the work?! H
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

What a weasel! The weasel and the cockroach, quite a pair... I really feel sickened by this stuff, when I think back to how trusting and gullible I was, and I'll bet there are quite a lot of people like me out there. I do hope some of the Oprah people will find their way here after the radio show, and hopefully will be open enough to take in the criticisms of BK (and Tolle).
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotequestion ladyI am frustrated and dismayed by the silence of good therapists on this issue. They need not specify any particular system in order to warn against harmful distortions of their work. In the widest sense I suppose, "The Work" could fall under the category of "cognitive therapy" when done with someone with a license, in much the same way that a lobotomy is o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A good question, question lady. I will see if I can find out anything about it. Whilst reading Burns' "Feeling Good" book, I have been wondering if BK has "borrowed" from it, as Burns talks a lot about one's thoughts causing problems (aka suffering). I think the book originally came out in 1980, some years before the cockroach made its debut.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Byron Katie is to appear on Oprah Winfrey's "Soul Series" radio show on Monday, July 28th, August 4th, and August 11th at 4am, 10am, 4pm and 10pm (all times Eastern). Hopefully people drawn to the show will look into criticism of Ms. Katie's work, such as in this thread: [Byron Katie (The Work) and Eckhart Tolle Legit??]
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Another person falls under Byron Katie's spell: [Byron Katie: The Raw Interview] Warning: if you click on that link to read the interview, there is a very annoying "soundtrack" playing. How is someone supposed to concentrate on reading the interview with that playing? I had to turn my computer volume off. I can't help but wonder if it's Korn music, which JJ said was
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well I like this image... Byron Katie as Katherine Hepburn and I play the Cary Grant part: [Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant] Actually there is more from the same movie that kind of fits our discussion: [Katherine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story"]
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I will happily repeat the process. Thx!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe AnticultBut the happy story is people can deprogram themselves and do a Guru UNINSTALL. Just do the opposite of what they did before. Kick her out of the body using imagination and self-hypnosis meditation, over and over. Reverse all the processes. One has to do the same thing with Byron Katie if she is in your mind too. Kick her out using the same methods she installed herself, in re
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe AnticultAs a matter of fact, from reading Carol Skolnicks self-published accounts of her "conversion" to Byron Katie, it does sound like she had a pre-existing schema in her own psyche for a female Guru. She rejected the Guru from Siddha Yoga, and then guess what, she "falls in love" with Byron Katie, as she describes in in great detail in various writings she promote
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Not sure if this has been posted yet... a brief article questioning whether Eckhart Tolle's name has been completely fabricated (likely, according to the author): [Oprah's "Eckhart Tolle," Meister Eckhart, and Johannes Tauler]
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

QuoteThe Anticult"The Work" by Byron Katie is not a form of actual Cognitive Therapy, notice how they do not show any links or information about ANY actual studies of The Work? What they do is just mantion the names of the founders of Cognitive Therapy to try to gain some credibility by false association, and then some anecdotes. I saw that blog entry and it made my heart sink. Su
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteShaking My HeadLater, I told my husband, I wish I had thought fast enough to tell her I don't want her New Age kiss of germs. LOL!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSusanDI am reading a David Burns books that anticult recommended which is giving me some grounding after the months I was in BK's "unreal reality". *coughs* Hey, thanks for reminding me about the Burns book, I want to read that too. I've just put it on reserve at my library. Psychology really can be a wonderful thing. How could I have missed that for so long? BK actual
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Duh, I see that Susan has already posted here, back in mid-June, so my "welcome" to her is a bit tardy. Oops!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSusanDDaphne I would like to address the "Four Questions". They are the mental equivalent of spinning someone round and round on the spot for ten minutes, then telling them they must walk straight. I feel the same way as the Amazon reviewer helpme2times quoted. I am still recovering from being sucked in just by reading and believing the book Loving What Is. Tellin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thank you very much, RR. :-)
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Some good news regarding one of the apologists in our midst: [http://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?4,9147,58903#msg-58903] Thank goodness for forum boundaries!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteDaphneif byron katie said she "healed" someone, she was simply wrong. however, i'm a little lost on this cult part. no one trashing her work seems to address the four questions and turnarounds, which is the useful part of her stuff. if you don't like the suggestions of healing or the stuff about roaches or whatever, then toss it aside, i agree it's fairly meaningless
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If Stu is indeed a "senior dharma teacher" of the Kwan Um Zen school as he has claimed in various places on the internet, then he would have vowed to uphold the "ten precepts": ~I vow to abstain from taking life. ~I vow to abstain from taking things not given. ~I vow to abstain from misconduct done in lust. ~I vow to abstain from lying. ~I vow to abstain from intoxican
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Well this is "enlightening"... [Dialogue with Seung Sahn: The Medicine Buddha] Interesting excerpt from the dialogue: PP: Nowadays many people have problems with drugs and drinking. What kind of karma is this? How can these people be helped? ZMSS : Sometimes it may be before-life karma, but sometimes it may be because of doing "together action" with others: "
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

According to a reviewer of one of the books that Byron Katie's husband Stephen Mitchell edited for Seung Sahn, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: "I first read it 20 years ago and always enjoy opening it. Stephen Mitchell, now married to Byron Katie, was an early (as Americans go) student of Seung Sahn's and has gone on to a career of writing and translating many spiritual books.&quo
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteThe AnticultIts clear that RandomStu is mainly just about derailing threads by avoiding the problems of Byron Katie.. You know what, I retract what I said the other day about feeling badly for getting down into the gutter with Stu. I don't any longer feel regrets about how I responded to him. It's clear that Stu has been incredibly dishonest as well as in denial about a whole bunch
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteThe AnticultByron Katie had a book written about herself called... A Cry in the Desert: The Awakening of Byron Katie by Christin Lore Weber There does not appear to be any copies of that available at all, except for $200, so that was taken off the market too. One has to wonder what kind of information is in that book. Maybe a scanned PDF copy will appear at some point...there appears
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe AnticultIsaac Shapiro...one wonders if he and his Gurus like Ramana Maharshi were hooked in with Eckhart Tolle at some point? There are a lot of links coming up, there has to be something in there somewhere... Ramana Maharshi seems to have been a rather saintly guy. I've never uncovered any "dirt" on him. (I will be happy to be corrected on this should anything arise.)
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks a bunch, Corboy! The info is very helpful, as always!
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

And by the way, it's very convenient to speak euphemistically of ingesting "entheogens". In normal parlance, it's known as "drug addiction"! But then it could explain the fuzzy thinking. Why would a so-called Zen teacher would need to alter his consciousness regularly? Whatever happened to "clear mind"?
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"