Cultic Milieu--further pondering Another author refers to 'oppositional subcultures' as part of the cultic milieu. Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization (Paperback) by Jeffrey Kaplan (Author In 1972--a period of social upheaval much like today--sociologist Colin Campbell posited a cultic milieu: An underground region where true seekers test hid
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Final note on Jung and his autobiography: For all his attempts to give an honest inventory of his life, Jung did not mention a long term affair he had with one of his student/analysands, Toni Wolff. Today this kind of thing is much better understood and is considered unacceptable behavior on the a part of a therapist, whether you are a client, a student therapist in clinical supervision, o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I think Ive seen photos relating to this group in a lot of free yoga magazines. If so, the group has the money for PR, so they should not be vague about whether they have the ability to support their employees--or their employees 401(k) plans. Ditto for health coverage. You could leave your pal out of this and check with the Department of Labor in the state where this ashram is.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Solea, thanks for fact checking that emotionalzen blog. I thought that 'theohumanity' name sounded familiar but didnt check it. Damn, its so easy to see how one quite good article or blog post that bats 1000 can be tied to something else that is iffy. Hazards for Intuitively Gifted Persons Solea wrote: these were people, myself included, who were not able to fit into the do
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If you want information on AC, read this blog which was started by a former editor (Hal Blacker) of AC's What Is Enlightenment? magazine. The EnlightenNixt articles are good start because they give an orientation to the entire collection of articles, plus comments. The blog ran for 3 years. And WIE magazine is still published to this day, and each issue includes an interview bet
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

TAC wrote: "Its always those who do the victimizing of others who don't believe in victims, until they get caught, and then they see themselves as the victim." This double standard is readily seen when a powerholder's suffering elicits endless compassion from followers but if underlings report incurring harm at the hands of the leader, or by following the leader's
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dear S13: I didnt write it, just found it elsewhere. As The Anticult has reminded us that the social structure/LGAT infra structure of these seemingly different groups is, under the surface, quite similar, well--the inner structure of a charismatic leader's psyche is also pretty similar, no matter what the group or belief system. There's the difference between public persona
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This letter was written by a former follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But some of what is in that letter may apply here: What are quoted are some excerpts. The URL will give you the whole thing. "Transcending real feelings that live inside me is not the path to anything but denial. These feelings don’t go away or get healed by transcending. You described it as a bore to drill thro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Getting Out the Raid Anticult wrote: also, just want to drop into this a reminder...that virtually all of this research can be applied to almost ANY of these New Agey type antiguru Gurus who are out there today. They use very similar methods, as they all learn from a similar playbook. They're CONTENT may be different, it may even be aliens, Christ Consciousness, Hinduism, alleged
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Cult City's questions are best answered by his or her hiring an attorney--not by us. William Butler Yeats wrote a poem that ends, 'I am poor and have only my dreams I will spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly for you tread on my dreams.' In this modern world of cost and profit, there may be a compensatory and yearning for magic, for instant transformation,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"Corboy - I have taken in everything you have offered and see your approach with me as helpful and instructive." Again, if you did not enjoy what I wrote, I can guarantee it is a lot worse in a court room. Just make sure BK is as loyal to you as you are to her.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Anticult wrote this about PTSD: "Katie also says The Work can be used PTSD. Do people have any idea of how dangerous that is? Triggering PTSD trauma flashbacks in people?" Years ago, I met a veteran who had been a Recon Marine in Vietnam. Recons are Marines who have been further trained to function as commandos. This man had a veteran's love for his comrades and yet he
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I'm just telling you what I saw as a result of showing up and doing jury duty on two civil suits. Too many people dont do their jury duty, BTW. They miss one of the greatest educational opportunities available. A suggestion for those who have to stay in town this summer and save gas money: go watch a trial, and sit through the whole thing including jury selection, and all the time
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Meta Question--Do I Want to be a Legal Test Case? Additional Questions--Six, Seven and Eight If you think we play rough on Rick Ross's message board, it is actually worse, much worse in court. Reading our stuff might perhaps save you from that fate. I served twice as a juror in civil suits and it hurt me like hell watching people put through the wringer on the witness stand. Th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Following up what The Anticult has written, if you wanna help people as a BK facilitator you had better add a Fifth Question to BK's Four Questions: Here is the Fifth Question--which contains two sub questions: If I am sued as a result of being a Work facilitator, will The Work Foundation, and by extension BK, reciprocate my loyalty by supporting ME in my hour of need? Or to put it
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

For the record, we have had the following as trolls in relation to BK: Daphne, Anticultist, ralpher, Randomstu, prsp (or something like that) and..Ex Scientology Kid. Six and I may well have missed the ones who showed up earlier. So, just to assist in sorting out persons genuinely interested in an adult discussion from those only willing to discuss BK from within her own system, here
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I cant claim credit for 'slavya'. I found it on one of the early AOL discussion threads relating to Siddha/Syda yoga. It was a pun on 'slavya' (slave labor) for 'seva' (selfless service). Just so I dont act like a fairy tale dragon and hoard treasure all to myself, I invite all interested persons to read the vast amount of material on those AOL threads. Sol
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Scott wrote: "Gathering my own personal resources up to the point where I could confidently confront the cult leader in each case, anticipating his or her various ploys to keep me in the cult, so that I could be sure that I could counter these with my own legitimate answers. " If you can do that, its great. Problem is some of us zone out and dissociate when having face to face
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

A Wee Question: Oprah promotes Eckhart Tolle. But...promoting someone is different from hiring someone. But...would Oprah HIRE an administrative assistant with the unverifiable life background that Tolle gives? Or, for that matter, BK? ------------------------------------------------ A correspondant who responded to misgivings about Oprahs' speech to the 2008 graduating clas
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Another gentle reminder from Professor Dutch: Freedom of Speech 'The Constitution gives you the right to free speech. It gives your critics the right to rebut your claims or ignore you. 'As the late Hubert Humphrey once observed during the Sixties: "The right to free speech does not imply the right to be taken seriously. That depends on what is said." 'N
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

It is easy, very easy to start a thread on a new topic. Just look for the 'new topic button' -- and use it. If that new topic button is not visible, you may need to update to a new browser. And..here is a test to see whether a logical discussion is even possible between two parties. It is from Professor Steve Dutch's website. "A Note to Visitors: I will resp
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Here's the story. The comments are interesting. Comments: Comments I went to the graduation, it was a lot of fun. The most boring part was Oprah's speech. I was all about her and Tolle. She even gave all the students the book he wrote. They were expecting a car... hahaha!!!. I wonder what the faculty thought about her attack on science and physics in particular.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I cant recall the names at the moment, but picked up a New Age free magazine the other day. At least one female hypnotherapist was in there and her hair, its color, her make up, eyes, smile and dress style made her look like a BK-clone. Start looking at pictures of various new entrepreneuses on the scene and see if any are similar in appearance to BK. It might be amusing if this turns out t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'too much' seems to be on to something important here--no matter where you're coming from, certain groups will find fault so as to throw you off balance. "Or simply the power to trust ourselves and leave and take our money with us." It can be more than 'the power to trust ourselves and leave' that may be taken from us. Some entities have 'intensives&#
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

A new thread was added in July 2008 discussing the implications if a guru claiming to teach an authentic and ancient Hindu practice path covertly utilized modern, American technicques ('tech') derived from Large Group Awareness Trainings/LGATs) such as EST aka Erhard Seminars Training. Those interested in Hindu or other Asia cults that harmed them make commendable efforts to trac
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Embarrassment Works Better than Insight Or: 'A Cesspool of Weirdoism.' (Problem is, what if something doesnt look weird) (From C:This gem is from one of the early AOL threads 1995/1996 in which people discussed the impact of Liz Harris' O Guru Guru article in the New Yorker magazine, an article meticulously fact checked, that exposed the actual history and abuses within SY
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The Hidden Unspoken Ingredient of the Siddha Spell? Since there was earlier discussion on this thread that related to how some crossed over from Siddha/SYDA Yoga (often abbreviated as 'SY') to other LGATs and even to BK, I researched some ancient SY dialogues posted on AOL between 1995/6 and found some intriguing material. This can be read on this thread. SY survivors st
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Neurolinguistic Programming? Install? (Drawn from material on AOL discussion thread 1995/96. Matters may be different today. But persons in SY during the period covered by the AOL discussion may find this useful if concerned that they are still feeling lingering effects despite diligent work with therapists and a sincere desire to be free) One of the correspondants on another thread, The A
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Regarding what Zorro and some others have said about losing access to their dreams while involved with their various LGATs: I think this is serious and excellent that you brought it up. Dreams can give us access to our own inner wisdom and can even warn us away from persons and situations that cannot support our development. Anything that disrupts both sleep and our access to our own dream
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

There was an interesting discussion by persons exposed to different LGATs about the impact on their dreams. Some reported cessation of dreams or that their dreams became frightening, especially after leaving. Sometimes our deepest and wisest selves speak to us in dreams. To lose access to one's dreams may mean losing access to a buried part of oneself that might otherwise have led you to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"