I guess feminism could be viewed as a large-scale cult, just like society as a whole is a large-scale cult. Participation is mandatory, enforced by social pressure, just like in a small-scale cult, except harder to escape.
Forum: Destructive Churches

granejim Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Are there any legal avenues or organizations that > can provide guidance or support in dealing with > this? That's just the problem with cults. The RR/CEI forum has been here for years ... but people are still getting sucked into cults. If you had psychological trauma, wouldn't you seek out a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

arunadasi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Seen this? > > > > John de Ruiter charged with sexual crimes. Also posted in this thread: "John de Ruiter arrested, charged w assault" Also posted in this thread: "John de Ruiter"
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Alberta spiritual leader John de Ruiter charged with four counts of sexual assault
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Eye-gazing as performance art. "In 2010 at the Museum of Modern Art, Marina Abramovic engaged in an extended performance called 'The Artist Is Present.' . . . Seated silently at a wooden table across from an empty chair, she waited as people took turns sitting in the chair and locking eyes with her. Over the course of nearly three months, for eight hours a day, she met the gaze
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Jesse Finley Hurley (1935-2022). Sorcery. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Chapter 4 of Sorcery by J. Finley Hurley (1985) covers hypnotism. “Thelma Moss, a University of California psychologist, reported the remarkable hypnotic powers of a Peruvian Indian, an inheritor of an ancient tradition, who 'felled a Ph.D. anthropologist to the floor like a rag doll' without a word or gesture, but with his eyes alone.” He also reports on psychiatrist William Sargant’s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That's the typical cult leader way of seeing the world: himself in the role of the guru who is beyond reproach, being unjustly persecuted by ignorant outsiders. According to a post on his Facebook page dated February 16, 2019, it had something to do with students who were filmed for a video: "Now, having left this teacher and the community, several of these students are unhappy to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There is a bit on this blog "Igor and I had a falling out. The details don't matter right now, but maybe one day I will be tempted to kiss and tell, if only as an object lesson for teachers in how not to run a sangha."
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've noticed that a common subtext to cult messaging is, "There's something defective about you, but I can set you straight." People then get hooked into proving to the cult leader that they are now okay. You can see it in these titles: "How to Read a Paragraph." The implication is that you've been reading paragraphs wrong all your life. But Linda Elder and h
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Let's make that link a bit more user-friendly:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It's well documented enough to have its own Wikipedia page, with a couple of dozen references to sources: It's also been written up by anti-cult journalist Be Scofield: Andrew Barnes was apparently a student of Shantam Nityama, who (surprise, surprise!) was a student of Osho/Rajneesh:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There is already a 36-page thread titled "Ex members of John MacArthur's church." Here is the link:
Forum: Destructive Churches

I think your link should go to The Guardian rather than Google His story reminds me of John of God, another "healer" who turned out to be a criminal
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There's more on Chetanananda, also known as Michael Shoemaker, in the recent Frank Report post "People Who Knew Swami Chetanananda Speak Out About His Mental Illness and Sadism." Here is a Reddit post that also includes a link plus links to prior Frank Report posts about Shoemaker: The reports of Swami Chetanananda's activities go back a long way. Here's a post from o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was wondering what the magic manuals were that "Jean" was talking about. This is the closest I could find. It is an excerpt from Lauron William de Laurence, The Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism, 12th edition, Chicago, 1914. This passage is about how eye-gazing can be used to psychologically overpower people. QuoteL. W. de Laurence The Art of Fascinat
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotecorboy But in his book The Sun at Midnight, Harvey said he was told by a number of people that there were certain very powerful techniques of hypnosis in which a guru gains power by gazing deeply into a person's eyes. And in the book, Harvey alledges that in California, a Tibetan lama casually offered to teach him 'some yogic techniques from the Shaivite tradition that are very eff
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote“Turn off the critical brain; it will not help you.” Turning off your danger-sensing mechanism is one of the tricks that leaves people vulnerable to predators. QuoteAnd when my tears started to flow unbidden because I was so in need of his attention, he told me, “You are so negative.” Denying that your actions have any effect on other people, or that they have any right to respond, is
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I agree with you that nonduality provides a smokescreen for any number of corrupt guru-scenes. These people only have one or two tricks. This one -- switching to the absolute to avoid responsibility -- is called "the advaita shuffle."
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote from the abstract: "practicing any skill renders that skill self-central, and self-centrality breeds self-enhancement bias." In other words, your yoga and meditation practice ends up being "all about me." If you want to read the full text of this abstract, you can request a copy directly from the authors at
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In de Volkskrant, Bentinho Massaro's father is named as Arturo Massaro. He operates his own guru-business from "Onze missie is om elk jaar meer dan 10.000 mensen te inspireren om hun eigen dromen waar te maken zodat zij Meer Plezier, Grotere Voldoening én Betere Prestaties ervaren in hun leven." "Our mission is to inspire more than 10,000 people every year to make their
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteLeslie Read Unfortunately, give *any* teacher a growing following and desire for power and, sadly, the need for control seems to grow in direct proportion to that. I'm coming to that conclusion too. It's the entire guru system that breeds corruption: the toxic premise that allowing the guru to gaslight you is in your own interest. Be Scofield reports that a Dutch newspaper ar
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTraveler99 I was surprised that in doing a search of this site, the name "Bentinho Massarro" did not appear You need one "r" only in his last name. The existing Bentinho Massaro thread is here
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult That is from the confusion technique in hypnosis which Byron Katie uses, which has been described in this thread. That is the first step of this type of conversational hypnosis, to put people into a very confused mental state. It's good to have my observations validated.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've been studying a lot of YouTubes on hypnosis recently. There's a particular class of rapid inductions called "the confusion induction." I'm guessing that's how BK's "Is that true?" question works. The subject doubts their own perceptions, has nothing to replace them, and confusion results. After this point, they are malleable.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteFactoverfiction I've been "slain in the spirit" by Gary, also by Mahesh. It's probably got a lot to do with the 4 hr worship service that precluded it. I sobbed uncontrollably, some people went into laughing fits. All of us had our faith in Gary's word strengthened by the emotional bliss we experienced. Slain in the spirit ... or hypnotized? You be the judge:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I spent several hours yesterday watching YouTubes on hypnotic induction techniques. I began to see that trance-induction is almost everywhere. Listen to the start of this video. Soft voice, long pauses, invitations to relax and close your eyes, focus inward on your own experiencing, don't follow any thoughts, don't have any goals. Doesn't this sound like trance induction?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotecorboy An ambitious charlatan who had already mastered 'tratakam'--the technique of lengthy, blinkless gazing--would have had no trouble learning these forms of trance induction. Talking about lengthy, blinkless gazing ... Marco Paret is an Italian hypnotist. He has uploaded to YouTube dozens and dozens of trailers for his hypnotism courses. One of his specialities is the hyp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

TBH I think accusations as serious as this need to be substantiated with more than "someone once said something about it on a website somewhere."
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotefacet I think that this alone is to do with the predatory nature of some early human experiences that our brains built the means to deal with. Human beings certainly can be predators of other humans. Evidence of cannibalism is found in prehistoric Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. It goes back 600,000 years The energy-stealing tricks whereby the rich exploit the poor, the strong ex
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"