Just amzing that the members can't see this. VivianIII, you mentioned the cult that you were in (and have since left) used the teachings Gurdjieff. Apparently you can see a likeness between Desteni and the cult that you belonged to. Was there a 'leader' in your cult? If so, did he or she, give suggestions as to what to write about? I will read as much of the above info that
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSandman The Desteni concept of "resonant symbols" or "resonant personality design" and Structural Resonance Alignment (as Poolman rants about in texts and numerous videos) has been manufactured out of information taken from various sources including The Enneagram as utilised by G.I. Gurdjieff and others... Enneagram of Personality It would be possible to decon
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In compiling the basic material for students of "Desteni", Bernard Poolman has stolen ideas from a variety of well-known sources, Gurdjieff being one of them. Desteni members continually write, "stop!" and refer to stopping thought, feelings, emotions and pictures. Stopping the mind is probably one of the most common techniques given to members of various kinds of cults.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One of the comments on this blog entry says part of the Desteni cult's "psilosophy" was taken from Gurdjieff. There are other threads here on Rick Ross about Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way" is very psychologically damaging: About Gurdjieff: Lords of the left-hand path: A history of spiritual dissent - Stephen E Flowers: QuoteEditorial Review This
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was following a forum discussion elsewhere of ex-members of a Gurdjieff group. One member has done some great research on Gurdjieff. Here it is: Lords of the left-hand path: A history of spiritual dissent - Stephen E Flowers: QuoteEditorial Review This is an extensive study of Left-Hand Path individuals and groups from ancient times to modern movements such as the Church of Satan a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was following a forum discussion elsewhere of ex-members of a Gurdjieff group. One member has done some great research on Gurdjieff. Here it is: Lords of the left-hand path: A history of spiritual dissent - Stephen E Flowers: QuoteEditorial Review This is an extensive study of Left-Hand Path individuals and groups from ancient times to modern movements such as the Church of Satan a
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Agehananda Bharatis distinction between aesthetic and empirical is the sane, democratic alternative to the unholy, destructive marriage called "occult science." Perhaps Swami Agehananda Bharati (the former Leopold Fisher of Austria) can help. Bharati made a radical change as a teenager in Vienna when he chose to become a Hindu. That was in the late 1930s before he joined the Austria
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

URL here: The author mentioned how the genre of magical realism came into being and states that Castaneda made a huge contribution by making himself a character in his stories. The author forgets that Gurdjieff had already done this in Meetings With Remarkable Men, and that Parmahamsa Yogananda did something similar in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi--and both books would have been wi
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

From Agehananda Bharati: Estoteric truth cannot be found from esoteric falsehoods'. To me, this here is the central finding on Castaneda and it may well apply to Gurdjieff. However, I suspect that the proper diagnosis would not be borderline personality, but narcissistic behavior disorder. NBD is very much more severe than narcissistic personality disorder. All persons have a varying
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

From Agehananda Bharati: Estoteric truth cannot be found from esoteric falsehoods'. To me, this here is the central finding on Castaneda and it may well apply to Gurdjieff. However, I suspect that the proper diagnosis would not be borderline personality, but narcissistic behavior disorder. NBD is very much more severe than narcissistic personality disorder. All persons have a varying
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

There is just one book that comes close to filling the need articulated by The Anticult. Unfortunately, this book is written for practitioners and academics. What is needed--Hello!!!!--would be something aimed at intelligent busy laypersons. And the proposed book should list situations where you're at high risk of being targeted for recruitment into someone's exploitative cult
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When people met him in Russia, they described Gurdjieff has having a strange accent or that his conversation was difficult to understand. Id had my hunches that Gurdjieff, one hundred years ago, must have learned some effective methods of conversational trance induction. Here are observations by one our members, The Anticult, concerning a different teacher. TAC's insights and analyses
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

What is interesting is that Rajneesh did think very well of Gurdjieff. Both were ringmasters of human circuses and excelled at keeping people off balance. Gurdjieff was a mystic and he was one of the most remarkable men of our times. Whenever a person went to him for spiritual guidance, the first thing that he would do was to make him drunk daily for fifteen days and study him in his d
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

22-30 Helen Crovetto, Azusa, CA From Tiruvannamalai to Prescott and Bozeman: The Western Baul Lineage The Western Bauls follow an iconoclastic form of Tantrism that incorporates many of the practices associated with both the medieval Bauls of Bengal and contemporary Baul communities in India. The guru-parampara runs from Yogi Ramsurat Kumar, to Lee Khepa Baul, to Purna Steinitz; with
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Whoever wrote this appears to have regarded Lozowick as a Fourth Way teacher. This visit lists visits to sites important to Gurdjieff, and nothing is said about anything of interest to a Hindu--despite Lozowick having made such a big fuss about being validated by Ramsuratkumar. PARIS JOURNAL - Part 1 by Stuart Goodnick Evening 5/20/96 A long day. We flew from San Francisco to P
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've just been asked by a client in the UK to investigate Ernesto Baron, it's taken me quite a few days to decide what his relationship to Weor was, I couldn't work out what relationship the Gnostic "cult" was to Baron, now I'm thinking that Baron has found it convenient to "adopt" it, presumably because Weor is dead (?) I see a pattern emerging here, lo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Another thing to remember about Jesus He said, "Let you yes be yes and let your no, be no, anything else comes from the Adversary". On that basis, we know that Gurdjieff had nothing to do with Jesus--so much for those who claim he taught an "esoteric Christianity." Other differences between Jesus and today's cult leaders: *His own followers often argued with h
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The trail of wreckage left by Gurdjieff is astounding and heartbreaking. Thirty years ago, there was very little information available. All of you in that generation of seekers were like travelers in a jungle, without maps. A lot of people have spoken here. And it may be that persons brought up in the UK and in the ANZC countries were at special risks. You were trained to endure hards
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I found this site researching a cult I'm investigating. I came across the Ouspensky thread purely by accident. I was abused by a "fourth way school" in the UK 30 years ago. The leader sexually abused all the females in the group, and took all our money. Of course he did this justifying his actions as "helping us to achieve inner unity". I can't believe I bought it
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

John M - Do you still have the photos? Did you post them someplace? You could try esotericfreedom.com and see if they would post them. esotericfreedom@safe-mail.net
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

For persons trying to get free from the tentacles of Fourth Way / or distorted forms of Sufi practice that took a culty turn, doing some overview reading of the history of Hermetic texts, and their historical sources may help de-mystify the stuff used to mess with your heads. As I suggest, Hermetic material may be the equivalent of a 'mother sauce' - it was a messy but fascinating c
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hermes Trismegistus a Mother Sauce for Cooking Up a Myriad of Cultic Entities If one of these cultic entities fits the criteria posed by Robert J Lifton or the LGAT (Large Groups Awarness Trainings checklist, then its no longer a cultic neutral, non mainsteam belief system, but a CULT. Another suggestion for continuing education. Read at least the first 4 chapters of Frances Yates book
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Before volunteering or donating, always, always fact check the history of the group or leader. You want to give to those live in need, not to those who live in greed. Butler sounds like a big, greedy child in an adult body who monopolized the affection and energy in the group, with nothing left over for the biological children of the devotees who entrusted themselves to Butler. As time
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

About six plus years ago, there was a very long thread discussion about ISA Experience on the Factnet.org message board. "A Chief Feature" of LGATs is Donation of labor that goes in to support the teacher and group and the needs of the teacher and group are a bottomless pit. One must give and give and give. These teachers of exalted wisdom are childishly needy bunch. They nev
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

English is not my mother tongue I'm a [...] German. I have recovered from eckankar when I was 35 years old. And especially from this excercise: (Singing) Hu at 24:00 at midnight 30 minutes for a quarter year while rubbing my Pineal Gland. But this is long ago it was in 1982. It takes me approcs. two years to recover. I recovered with the full program: Suicide, mental clinic 1/
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There's a four to five page thread entitled 'Carlos Castaneda. However, discussion on this thread has become lively and could be re-titled as 'Mythomaniacs and Charisma.' The discussion started with Carlos Castaneda and shifted to charismatic personality, an article on how disruptive charismatic teachers can be if immature and use charisma for their emotional needs a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

IMO as a mythologizer Steiner has had immense influence because he left an infrastructure behind him and a system of education and what has become a lucrative network of businesses. He has also taught his higher level followers to lie and mythologize, just as he did. And Waldorf education is so prevalent that its a force to be reckoned with--unfortunately. As for your question QuoteThere a
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

rrmoderator, Tell me how my "perspective" is wrong again? If you infer from what I have said that I blame the victims for their own problems you are WRONG. I DO NOT. The points I made are to PROTECT those that would become involved in any group. For example, let's say you have had a recent traumatic "life incident" of some sort be it financial issues, marital
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

dostfez: No. What you said was quite "clear". But we do disagree and I think your perspective is wrong. Regardless of where someone is "personally" -- when groups are deceptive and manipulative they are to blame, not their victims. You appear intent on insinuating blame elsewhere, which is frankly, victim bashing. And your sympathy seems somewhat contrived, t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

rrmoderator, Wow!, I get called a troll after being falsely accused of being a 4th way practitioner. Nice. Why isn't he being modded for his false accusations which I found offensive? As stated in the OP my purpose in coming here was to offer an opinion on the 4th way posts I have read here. As for the post corboy commented on. I wonder how it comes across as "victim bashin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"