Questionlady, that was the film, all right! Thanks. 'I dont want absolution, I want the truth.' The whole movie theatre audience broke into applause at that one.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Vera, creating that sort of flow chart may have to be customized for each person's group. So persons in your group will have to do that assignment. I am just an outsider who can do a flyover and suggest areas for others with 'on the ground' experience to do for themselves.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Vera: I cannot directly answer your questions. Only persons who have been through a particular group and then study its deviations from the Hindu norm AND also take the trouble to read up on LGAT techniques can answer that question. I found material pertaining to one group--SY on some old AOL threads from 1995-1996. The situation may be different today in SY--one hopes so. But in lookin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is mostly based on material shared by persons who were in SYDA/Siddha Yoga during the period of time (1970s--1996) who have published accounts online. Matters may since have changed. But for those in SY still struggling to recover and who berate themselves for being weak of will...do ask if possibly it is time to examine LGAT (large group awareness training) 'tech' for its un ro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Am thinking of opening a thread based on material shared by persons who were in SYDA/Siddha Yoga during the period of time (1970s--1996) who have published accounts online. This is an avenue for speculation. This already-published material leaves me wondering whether recovery has been greatly hampered because subjects from SY thought they were exposed merely to a toxic patriarchal Hindu
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There's an song from the musical South Pacific that may contain a good image. 'I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair....'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Must mention other gurus have done disappearing acts after leading followers to be unhealthily dependent on them. Gurdjieff pulled that after his car accident (some thing he drove drunk, and some think he was fed up with all the dependent students clinging to him and faked the accident). Ouspensky, a little more honestly, stated to his own startled students, that the whole thing was worthless,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dear TAC: The person whose AOL material I referred to used this phrase: "I began to fear I could really slip off the deep end, especially after the "secret" install-the-Guru-in-your-bodymeditation which did NOT feel like a loving thing to do to myself." And...it isnt just a case of people walking away from the guru, with this active introject planted in them. Guru
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yes, and its a thread dedicated to recovery. Last thing needed here is for folks to show up playing therapist or guru and doing it behind a mask. The people who arrive here to use this thread for its proper purpose have already been thorugh that sort of thing and dont need a replay.
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

In the Psychotherapy and Clergy Abuse section, I posted (7-19-08)a long excerpt from one of the AOL threads. It gives, in detail, descriptions of how people in SY had their therapy derailed by working with SY therapists. One person got into SY through her therapist who was already a devotee and describes how thier therapeutic alliance was undermined and ended up serving the needs of the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Gurumayi, leader of SYDA yoga, has not been seen in public for the past 5 years..about 2003. This vanishing act is all the more grave because, in SYDA people were at that time trained to be dependent on that guru,not trained to be adult in relation to her. ccordign to a 1996 correspondance on AOL, a former devotee (who also had done EST), mentioned a particular meditation exercise practiced
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A Case Study: Corruption of the Psychotherapeutic Process within SYDA Yoga. (taken from a dialog on AOL in 1996) (Note: Further on in the Dialog it states these conferences took place in the early 1980s. So this wasnt a brief aberration in SYDA yoga culture. It appears to have been a systematic long term pattern. C) Here is a quote indicating how early this corruption process took p
Forum: Clergy and Therapy Abuse

I am very glad to have the board back. Here is a most interesting conversation from a message board that serves the needs of persons who feel damaged by having been entangled with personality disordered people. (what follows is from the second page of this discussion) One lone person, 'disengaged' was the lone voice of reason and critical thinking. 'Disenagaged'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dear TAC: FYI your mail may be full.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Taking the Two Actions Again, whenever someone shows up this seems to have the effect of disrupting/derail the discussion, take these Two Actions * What was being discussed before the disruptor showed up? * Audit the disruptor's posts and see if this visitor's strategy resembles other disruptive visitor's behavior.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If you read the item by Karl (A Tale of Two Teachers) the fellow who was also enlightened (cough) by Poonja and then told to go out and teach (you need more training than that before they let you pull soft drinks at Micky D's), Karl mentioned Andrew Cohens formidable talent in debate--which, according to Luna Tarlo, Andys mom, seemed magcially to emerge post Poonja. My guess is somewhere
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Regarding Swami Rama Tirtha, whom Poonja said was his uncle: The Wikipedia entry for Poonja (hagiographic in tone) states Rama Tirtha's sister was Poonja's mother. It also mentions, confusingly that Poonja when a youngster also had a unitary experience (which is what would be validated by Advaita Vedanta (advaita means nondual) then practiced devotional bhakti to Krishna in t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Final Note: Ramana Maharshi is not to be confused or equated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Ramana apparently was genuine. He left home, lived in a cave and would have died if a man in the neighborhood had not taken care of him when he was ill, and later built him a small ashram. Ramana never left India. His relatives swooped in and took over management of thier illustrious relatives ashram as
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Concerning Maharshi, Poonja (aka Papaji), Gangaji, and the Seekers Scene Ramana Maharshi's name is invoked for legitimation purposes by quite a few who seek to create resumes for themselves and it appears a key stem in this 'resume pedigree' was someone named HWL Poonja who went by the name Papaji among those devoted to him. Ive read some scattered citations that after Rajnee
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is what to do if a lot of energy is diverted by struggling with a disruptive visitor: Go to the topic/s being discussed right before the visitor showed up. Such as room set up, and the possible enhancement of sophisticated LGAT techniques if applied to persons who have been persuaded to travel far, far from home, fly through multiple time zones and then do that same LGAT in a setting
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Stuart wrote: "And even then, very very few people were affected." and "It's misleading to talk about "powerful methods," when the fact is that the methods used by Muktananda etc had no major lasting effect on 99% of the people who met him." That is interesting, given that we have had at least three discussion fora dedicated to SY--Leaving SY, Marta Sza
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

There is a rug merchant whose store has a going out of business sign. Ive seen that same sign for the past 3 years.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Supercharging Manipulation of Room Environment--Fly People Through Time Zones & into Unfamiliar Surroundings It is time that we supplement our understanding of Manipulating the Room Environment by considering the impact on subjects on being sent to fly through various time zones to foreign countries before even attending a 'retreat' 'intensive' 'satsang' or
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

There may be a new way to enhance what has been discussed on the thread Manipulating the Room Environment There are gurus and what appear to be LGATs now doing events in foreign countries in glamorous sounding locations. So, we need to supplement our understanding of Manipulating the Room Environment by considering the impact on subjects on being sent to fly through various time
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Note: here is another issue. If you fly from the US to Germany, you're flying through a bunch of time zones. Our friend 'Daphne' says people taking these BK events are 'adults'. Well, recall when you were in a foreign country. You were in some ways back to childhood, less autonomous. You have to ask the locals lots of questions--where is the bathroom, how to get
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Note on Daphne: Read the earlier message here. The last two are essentially rehashes of the first one. And in this first one, we are pathologised for 'getting worked up' and then the suggestion is made, why not get worked up over other abusive entities, such as the LDS? Well this is discussed elsewhere on the message board. And in this earlier thread D mentioned taking th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The RR.com Message Board is like Motel Six for Those in Recovery This is strictly speculation on my part--Corboy.) Ive often wondered whether some gurus or groups have been clever enough to figure that one way to foster loyalty toward them while inculcating fear and hatred of of RR.com is to persuade key members to troll on RR.com, incur hostility and then get banned. For awhile, that ba
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"I went to a nine day seminar. I was curious to see if there was any of the stuff you and others seem to be concerned about." Those 9 day seminars cost something to attend. That's a lot to pay for 'something to be concerned about.' And this is classic troll behavior...puts the onus on us. Just for clarification, ..no one makes people log on to visit RR.com.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Note from Corboy: The information that Vera refers to as from 'Corboy' is material I and others have been discussing on a different thread, in which SOI/CB/Jagad Guru is not discussed. I wish to state that at this time I have no experience, personal or otherwise with the groups or persons discussed on this thread (CB/SOI, Jagad Guru). Correspondants on this thread can decide fo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The BIGr Secret The Rick Ross Message Board Thread THEY Do Not Want You to Read!!! Its titled 'Manipulating the Room's Environment' I am still trying to sort this out, but it might be useful to break this down into an analogy..see a group as similar to a computer--the applications part (MS word, browsers), the operating systems portion (MS DOS), and the hardware (your
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"