Does anyone know someone who was part of a “spiritual community” in Austin, Texas, led by Bryan and Kat Law, that’s actually a polygamist cult?
Forum: Abusive and Controlling Relationships

QuoteMapleTenrec and Petrus4, you make some excellent points I'd never thought about before. Cults are not always about high visibility and recruiting numbers. I'm glad I could help, Maple. As I said, however, I'm not going to label Transition a cult par se. I'm not a psychologist, but I've had an interest in cults and mind control since probably the mid 90s; and
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteBrad69"The Secret" - which I haven't seen yet - talks about the Law of Attraction. Esther and Jerry Hicks were involved in the movie which, much like "What the Bleep?" has attracted a bit of a cult following. I've got an early copy of The Secret on an old hard drive. It's basically Chaos Magick 101, although I wouldn't expect most people here to kno
Forum: Multi Level Marketing and Commercial Schemes

The country town I'm living in, had a Transition hub start up here last year. I ended up going and doing a permaculture course, partly in anticipation of being involved with them. I'm not currently active in the group, but I'm still on the mailing list. I will say up front, that I do not consider Transition, in and of itself, to be cultic on a broad or overall institutional le
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Transhumanism is a mental illness in general terms, as far as I'm concerned. I've never heard a single Transhumanist speaker, who I didn't almost immediately regard as insane. There are a lot of sick people in science, unfortunately; and they simply need to be banned from engaging in any further research. Cartesian mechanism is a slippery slope; once you adopt the initial elem
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A couple of points, here. a} Most importantly, I consider the one crucial element, as far as Shaktism is concerned, to be a real, passionate love of Kali, or the Goddess in more general terms. I am not an atheist; I consider Kali a completely real personality, to the same extent as you or I, albeit in acorporeal terms. Ma is not for everyone, however; and that is a big part of the reason wh
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThinkwise23 People get into this kind of spirituality because they think it's all fluffy and blissful, and there are no real rules, it's all about feeling better. However Tolle's books are not all light and fluffy. They are cruel, insensitive and brutal in their content to the point that you have to wonder how the hell it gets authorised in the first place. There are too ma
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I can't speak for the others, but I've been subscribed to Mooji's YouTube channel for probably the last two years. However, in that time, I've maybe watched two of his videos, for a grand total of five minutes. The guy to me seems completely harmless, but the reason why I stopped watching him, is simply because I got bored. I should probably unsub, but occasionally the topi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote If OWN lost the magic connection Oprah once had with her audience, the 58-year-old star, worth an estimated $2.7-billion (U.S.), knows exactly how to re-establish it: bromides wrapped in saccharine passion. Will it be enough to reinvigorate her network? On the floor of the convention centre, the sentiment was clear. People were un-Canadian in their effusion. “Oh, that was life-changing for
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteJudyHello everyone! I've been dealing with health issues for some time now and whilst consulting with regular MDs (who were of no help) and a naturopath (the most helpful, so far), I've also been reading the works of people such as Louise Hay, Doreen Virtue and Wayne Dyer... (And yes, I also read The Secret and started A Course in Miracles, but couldn't get past the first
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"