"And the Swedish woman victim, BTW, is rumoured to have CIA links." Anything to back up this assertion? Rumoured? Where is your proof. Talk about propoganda. You are just a long line of rally-round-the-rapist enablers. Like all the Hollywood assholes supporting Roman Polanski and the idiot football fans at Penn State who care more about sports than the violation of children.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It's not about "not using a condom." It's about forcing yourself on someone, also known as rape. I'm sick of all these liberal men who think women are less than nothing and crimes against us are trivial. Like the women raped at the Occupy Protests being told not to report being raped because there are more important issues than stupid little females. What about our ri
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The Secret works for me, I use it everyday with great results. I like "Powder Fresh" the best. (Yes, they still make the deodorant :)
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotepinklilieswow! what a great answer. I wish i could get out of it and think like u..i feel i already starting to now im discovering the truth. How do you do it? any tips would be great! off to buy that book! funny.. since i stopped believeing neales hype and stopped blaming myself for others behaviours I feel more like me more free! so thats the real truth. Obviously I never would,but do y
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Laura, There's a great book by Robert M. Price called Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms that goes into a lot of the hypocrisy in popular New Age ideas. He has a chapter on Neale Donald Walsch that's very insightful and funny. He says Neale's "puncturing religious pomposity turns out to be quite ironic, since eventually we are going to find that Wals
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Pinklilies/Laura, Sorry the link didn't go through correctly. James Randi, who is a former stage magician, says Sai Baba uses tricks most magicians know well: Quote His followers claim that he can produce vibhuti (“holy ash”), gold rings, and even modern Seiko wristwatches for them by simply reaching into the air. There are claims that he has raised the dead, levitated, healed ca
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Pinklilies, I read the Conversation With God books and at first they seemed helpful. It was the first time I considered the idea that if God exists, he wouldn't be angry and willing to throw people into hellfire for believing the wrong thing. But the more I read by Neale DW, the more disturbing I found his "God" and the things he promoted. He wants people to question the trad
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quoteseattlesage I am surprised at how many people judge the Hicks and yet admit they haven't read or listened for themselves. We have all had great things happen on our best days and bad things happen on bad days. What could it hurt to try to have more good feeling days than bad ones? You are more likely to meet people and find answers when you are magnetically charged than when you are a b
Forum: Multi Level Marketing and Commercial Schemes

grainne uaile, Just yesterday I was reading about Kalacakra and was shocked at the subtle and not-so-subtle misogyny in these ideas. I also came across a great article on the Dali Lahma by Christopher Hitchens written in 1998 that's worth a read: Quote His Material Highness FAR FROM HIS HOLIER-THAN-ALL IMAGE, THE DALAI LAMA SUPPORTS SUCH QUESTIONABLE CAUSES AS INDIA'S NUCLEAR
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteQuote: Authority Authority these days often has little to do with knowledge, experience or ability and far more to do with media reach. Whoever benefits by advertising dollars, favoritism within dominant media and participation in elitist meetings are those who will be deemed authoritative. Authority by celebrity is rapidly replacing actual knowledge and wisdom. Or celebrity must
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That sense of mission and urgency is another common feature among cults and sects, and even mainstream religions. As a teenager raised Orthodox Christian, I was told we were living in The End Times. Like, now. I was brought to believe that the anti-christ will be taking over the world in next five or ten years at the most, and it absolutely terrified me. I didn't even think it was worth i
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteMartin Gifford In the beginning, I was interested in opening up a dialogue and getting movement and fluidity and balance because I actually think Cohen has some good things to say.... Oh, they ALL have something good to say. I have heard this from EVERY group under the sun. Of course they offer good ideas and some truths, otherwise you would never have joined. That's the trick, the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteAbraham has suggested that even going to the doctor's office is "looking for trouble." Jerry Hicks seems to be looking for big trouble then. He is ill with something that he is being incredibly vague about but has decided to use heavy chemotherapy for it. According to Abraham Quote"We could take an example of the person who is noted by medical doctors to be the si
Forum: Multi Level Marketing and Commercial Schemes

I was watching the trial today on In Session, the picture of the sweatlodge tent just blew my mind. I went to a sweatlodge once many years ago and I even have some photos of the tent, it was big enough to hold about 10-15 people at the most, and it was covered with cotton blankets NOT anything plastic. I only lasted one round, it was so hot I felt like I died and went to hell. But the people w
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

JR apologists using blame the victims tactics on his official facebook fan page. This gem from a JR fan: Quote... My name is Kari. I gave an interview to The Prescott Courier yesterday to a reporter named Mark Duncan. He was looking for supporters for James Ray. My predominate view in this case is, we are all responsible for our own actions and choices. Every time you step into an automobi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteStoicAnother interesting court doc where the prosecution is again presenting a motion for the inclusion of the prior acts on the basis of a charge of negligent homicide (which is lesser offence included in the manslaughter charge) which allows for some evidence of the mental state of the defendant to be presented. Included in this doc are JAR quotes from the audio tape of the sweat-
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I just reconnected with the woman to took me to my first and only free James Ray seminar in 2006 or 2007 (honestly can't remember or maybe purposely blocked it out) and she is still a James Ray fan. Should I say anything? I never know what to do in these situations, I don't want to come across as obnoxious or a wet blanket. She's an incredibly sweet person. I have to shar
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There is a new documentary out that seems to celebrate or at least gloss over the exploitative behavior of teachers like Chögyam Trungpa. Johanna Demetrakas, a former Trungpa student, is the director of “Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche” and doesn't see a problem with the sexual exploitation of his students or his drug abuse: QuoteAnd far from his “bad boy”
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I just got a copy of William Yenner's American Guru yesterday. I admire Mr. Yenner for having the courage to write this book, if Cohen's group isn't a cult I don't know why we even have the term. I checked out the ForaTV talk and it's interesting that the comments that are critical are all directed at Deepak Chopra. Is Cohen just not that well-known or am I missing
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"I had my vision/met my spiritual teacher at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street from CalTech, Pasadena" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it. :)
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotenewagesurvivorI'm not sure if this has already been linked to here, but Vinstonas Wu has written a piece called Debunking the Law of Attraction and "Thoughts Create Reality" Concept. The contents of the article are Introduction Common sense and ordinary examples that logically refute this teaching Beware: Whatever you expect to happen, will happen! And whatever you fear wil
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Warren Farrell, a former feminist and now 'father and chilren's rights' activist, has some very disturbing views on rape and incest. It's been brought to my attention that any attempts to address this on Wikipedia has been censored by so-called "Men's Rights" groups (I support men's rights, but too many of these groups are extremely misogynistic and believ
Forum: Hate Groups

Also, I am a recovering 'new-ager' myself, so I can relate to your story a great deal. I feel like a sucker for falling for a lot of things that I did too. I think going out into nature is excellent advice. Just avoiding all man-made belief systems for a while and getting in touch with nature can be one of the most therapeutic things a person can do. Some people might find conven
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

NotEnlightened, I think all the major, mainstream religions most likely started out as cults, they were just better at squashing dissent and used methods that would be seriously looked down on in modern society (burning books and critical documents/information, crusades, burning/executing their critics) and were extremely successful at gaining power and money and dominance, and eventually resp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I follow Best Friends and I had no idea about any of that. Wow. Background checks, yes! I was complaining to my doctor about that acutherapy class I took, thinking as a medical professional he'd agree with me. I said how many times do I have to learn about imaginary spinning wheels of color (chakras) in these CE classes and he said "Well, this has been around for thousands of
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Hope, Yes, It's really getting out of hand. There's a great blog called Respectful Insolence I'd highly recommend that's written by a surgeon/scientist; he did a piece on the problem with Harvard accepting woo into its curriculums awhile back: QuoteThere's no woo like Harvard woo Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Quackery Posted on: July 11, 2008 9:01
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"This new age bs tries to get you to deny science and proof,....take the follower away from reality. that's their strategy." The new strategy is to say they have science to back up their claims. In my job I have to take continuing ed classes to stay licensed and you wouldn't believe the nonsense that passes for real education now. I just took one a few weeks ago and all w
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Lauren, Just because her eyes were really pretty in person and she was super nice to you doesn't erase or minimize the damage she's done to other people.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Neale isn't offering any new cutting edge philosophy, the criticism of him isn't because he's being 'persecuted' for his great ideas. He is a charlatan, he promotes a rather creepy moral relativism and claims to speak with/for God himself. I think he had a Mr. Rushmore-sized ego to begin with and he is quite openly materalistic and greedy. I saw an interview with him a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Splash90, it was a good try. I didn't think anything critical would last. Wouldn't excerpts from Katie's own books be considered a reliable source? Losing The Moon has some real whoppers! One good thing that came from my trek to Downtown Salt Lake City, after seeing BK's face plastered all over the wall at the one bookstore, was that I went to the SLC Public Library (whi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"