I just remembered two other manipulative statements by JS. Like I said, I wonder if others recognize these statements. From attending his satsangs and watching his videos, I get the impression that JS has a repertoire of manipulative statements that he keeps repeating. Paraphrasing JS (Amsterdam seminar 2019): "To learn Vedanta, you have to be qualified. That's what the other teac
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thank you for confirming the content of the original e-satsang, Valma! Here's some interesting quotes from the book Saints and Psychopaths by William L. Hamilton: QuoteDistinguishing saints from psychopaths Distinguishing a saint from a psychopath presents a unique problem because they have some common characteristics that seem at first to be identical. Both saints and psychopaths can
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Right you are, Heather! It's unhealthy to battle trolls. And there's no need to. Their own words confirm and reveal the problematic influence JS has on his students, and the attacks give people (like me) a renewed interest in this topic. QuoteMynameisHeather However I don't know him or his family now, nor am I involved in his current racket. I can only repeat what I've been
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

earthquake Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Apologies, that link is wrong. The changed > e-satsang is here: > > From the e-satsang (bolding mine): QuoteI guess you think that we are some kind of buddies and you can just write the same doubts over and over, promptly forget my replies and ask the same question again. I’m not your butler. I ha
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTraveler99 Sages have warned about how people miss an important point. Persons hear, "There is no individual self, but only the Self," and they begin to think of other persons as 'unreal'. (And why worry about the feelings of an unreal 'non'-thing?) The thing these persons miss is that, based on these teachings, he or she IS NOT REAL, either. Therefore, his o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Some closing thoughts on this topic on this last day of the year: - It should be clear to anyone who's read JS's biography that he scores high on the Dark Triad personality traits: machiavellianism (a manipulative attitude), narcissism (excessive self-love), and psychopathy (lack of empathy). - Advaita Vedanta is an exceptionally valuable system of knowledge, but it can't giv
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteValma But who is willing to face the truth of oneself and one's cherished psycho-spiritual investments? Exactly! Sunk costs make it hard to face the truth. Not just psycho-spiritual but also monetary investments. I donated generously this year at his satsangs in Amsterdam, because he told us he could really use the money, now that he had a mortgage to pay for his villa in Spain. Some
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

AreYouKiddingMe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don’t know who any of you really are — the cloak > of anonymity is a comfy one (for who knows how > long), but none of what you’re doing is remotely > constructive. You really have no intention of > proving anything, other than to blab angry > nonsense for page after page. I don't k
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSattva S: What James taught me is how full, whole and complete I am, a simple fact that I never knew until I learned this from Vedanta via James as Isvara's instrument. E: Traditional Vedanta does NOT teach this. S: It is too bad that traditional Vedanta does not teach this. This is a super cool idea. You might want to try to apply this idea to your life. This idea may help you to reali
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That's amazing, AniNassui! The NewMessage-Reddit rabbit hole goes much deeper than I thought. QuoteAniNassui I find it unsurprising yet consistent with their disingenuous means of attracting & recruiting, by them effectively ‘mis-labeling’ videos & tags on YouTube. Yes, I also kept noticing that same pattern with them recruiting by disingenuous means! That's apparently typ
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You're welcome, Facet! Quotefacet Yes it is a scary part, I know that there are terrible things on the planet as we are, but to wish wiping us all out makes me wonder what would happen if BK’s themselves manage to amass enough money to obtain nukes. Maybe that is what they are doing. It would be the surprise moment for all world leaders and people I’m sure, (should any survive) no one wou
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The BKWSU largely claims that its philosophy is > derived from mediumistic channelled messages they > believe are God speaking directly to them. During > its history, especially in the early years, it > used a number of different mediums some of which, > such as the "Golden Circle", left the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks for that link. I rewatched a bit of the Batgap interview. When Shunya talks about joining an ashram at Mount Abu (from 20:03 on, ), he must be talking about the Brahma Kumaris ashram at Mount Abu. He probably avoids mentioning the BK name due to their notorious reputation. Se says nothing negative about them, other than that they couldn't help some people who needed psychotherapy,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s probably going to be plenty of people’s cup > of tea still and I accept that. Sheesh. I always > wish it would be different ! Yeah, I feel the same way... I'm starting to think it's part of the cosmic joke that every time we seek wisdom externally instead of internally, we get hoodwinked. I
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s a theme, I’ll have find examples so that I > can share more clearly, though even in this new > Christmas one again Shunya mentions in it that the > more people are a certain way, others will follow > because of our ‘presence’. I’d say to everyone > with this idea to go and take that into reality,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

To bring my remarks back into context, I was replying to: Quotefacet No, it’s around the 20 mins in mark mentioning ego and then pertaining to the egoless state becoming a unified field. I’ve heard a few heralding this it is kind of a theme, Eckhart Tolle immediately springs to mind. The thing for me is that ego activity or not, we are all a unified field anyway, like it or not. Anything
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And as for thought, thought for me is a wonderful > thing... it’s the people who tell you not to think > you have to watch for I found, thinking is kind of > like our personal processes, and yes the non > thinking state is absolutely beautiful, I loved > and savoured every moment but thank goodness tha
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Shunyamurti's Christmas talk: At around the 40 minute mark he goes into detail about the apocalypse. He seems to be serious about it happening soon, in the form of nuclear war. Imagine being there in his ashram, listening to him talk again and again every day, no dissenting opinions voiced anywhere, believing that the end is near. Pretty scary stuff. You're right, Facet, better to s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Looks like the archived version of trancenet.org that I linked to is a product of a takeover of the site by pro-TM people, and you have to go back further in time in the archive to get the original version, for example this snapshot from 2003: Edited to add: The other website linked to in Corboy's quote has been taken down (by TM?) also, but is archived here:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Looks like the content of trancenet.org is still accessible here: In looking into the available research on meditation, I've noticed that TM-affiliated researchers are over represented, and surprisingly enough, they often manage to conclude that TM-meditation is superior to other meditation techniques. Having been in multiple meditation groups, I've certainly seen people who seem
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I can certainly see where you (facet and sig) are coming from wrt the red flags. Interesting to note that Shunya is a trained hypnotherapist and does indeed often speak in a hypnotic way. This leaves listeners more open to suggestion, and when in this state they get told about a coming end of the world, this is problematic. On the other hand, the state of the world and where it's heading
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

2cents Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mooji has been invited again to the 2020 > International Yoga Festival and is listed as H H > Pujya Mooji. His Holiness Venerable Mooji !! > Please !!! They forgot "baba", what a disgrace!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I watched the video you shared and almost straight > away Shunya mentions the field of egoless people > or something like that, it is unfortunately regime > like to me. Why it is that everyone should be > ‘awake’ is beyond me, this is something I never > got in all of the spiritual fields. You mean
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Link to the video I was talking about:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What really struck me was the similarity in what > Bramah Kumaris put out, and that is a shame > because for me BK is an establishment that has > much to answer for. Yes, and Bramah Kumaris are very into doomsday prophecy too, from what I gather. > I imagine coming out of something so abusive as BK &
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

facet Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Across the YouTube uploads he gives some really > wonderful insight and value, however I couldn’t > help but notice and become disappointed with his > obvious and more frequent references to the ‘end > of the world’. I felt the same way when I watched some of his videos some years ago. He doesn't s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Great job looking into all that, AniNassui! QuoteIt is obviously an unusual topic with a wide variety of ideas & opinions about it. Remarkably, in response to any of his posts and to others within the group, the mods replied almost uniformly with “well, the allies say this” or “the allies say that” — & kept referring to the information contained in the “briefings” that Mr. Marshall Sum
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

JS's comments about this discussion once again reveal how his views are distorted by egocentrism. QuoteThey have a saying in India: “Nobody throws stones at a tree that doesn’t have ripe juicy mangos.” So it is really a badge of honor to be hated like this. Fake news. The saying actually is "The Tree That Bears Fruit Will Be Stoned," which has a very different meaning. &qu
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

AniNassui Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Also, I’m glad to see you liked (& quoted above) > that article I posted earlier in this thread from > from SkepDic.com - I agree that the article was > very informative & is in sync with the few other > reviews, found floating out there for Mr. Summer’s > ‘work’ — which all basically agree
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Bernadette Roberts has a 3 hour talk on Youtube where she describes the spiritual path as she sees it: At first it confused me, because she uses the words consciousness and ego differently from how I define them, and she uses the word God a lot, which I never do. I had to get used to her way of slicing the pie, but now that I did, I must say her message is really profound, and I'm very g
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"