I haven't had a whole lot of experience with LGAT's--when you don't have a lot of money to throw around, you tend not to sign up for these sort of things as they can be rather expensive, and frankly they don't sound like anything I'd go for anyway, but it is easy to jump to conclusions. Recently I attended a conference put out by Skillpath Seminars, which I found pretty
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I have not read "The Power of Now" so I am not qualified to comment on it. I highly doubt, though, that it or any other book is what is causing your difficulties. Anna Sewell once called ignorance "the worst thing in the world next to wickedness" and said she did not know which caused the most harm. And from personal experience I tend to believe her. I had a person in my c
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You might also want to talk to a neurologist about this as well--it could be that you are having temporal lobe seizures. It's not uncommon with temporal lobe epilepsy to experience and be aware of impaired consciousness during the seizure. At any rate, you definitely need to be under a doctor's care. In my case, my temporal lobe epilepsy wasn't discovered until it progressed to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You are not alone in your views towards religion--I think that there are many people who have been in cult or cult-like situations who come out of them feeling the way you do. And I agree with you 100% about dangerous thinking. Thinking in general seems to be so downgraded that the average person probably would be hard put to identify what makes an idea or thought dangerous. My background
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Over the years I have watched how my former church deals with issues, and I find it very revealing. I am not saying that this group shouldn't be investigated--it should--but it seems like the church is quick to act in cases like this, but when it comes to the child abuse scandals, I have seen absolutely nothing but foot-dragging and obstruction. Why should this be? What makes this esp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Sounds like "The Emperor's New Clothes" to me--visible only to those who have not reached a certain level of enlightenment.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I read "Eat, Pray, Love" when it first came out and came away from it more than a little dissatisfied. I simply could not relate to her casual jaunting around to all these countries as if it were the easiest thing in the world. I think that is what bothered me the most, was that she appeared to take this sort of thing for granted and thought nothing of it. Dissatisfied with your life
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

How many people have seen "The Music Man"? It's about a con man who travels from town to town selling the concept of boys' bands. He tells parents, "you don't need instruments, you don't need music, you don't need to practice--all you have to do is use the Think Method and you can play." In other words if you just sit around thinking about it, you h
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I too have wondered somewhat about the Dalai Lama. If Tibet had not been invaded by the Chinese and he and his followers forced to flee would he still have achieved the prominence that he enjoys today? Or would he have remained the relatively obscure leader of a relatively obscure brand of Buddhism in a relatively obscure country? I have not studied Buddhism extensively, but my understanding
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

No, but in general, before enrolling in a "private" college or university, especially one that is not well-known, it is best to ask around whether their degrees are accepted in your chosen field of study and whether their credits will transfer to a public college or university. Don't take the private school's word for it that these credits will transfer, go to a community col
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Also, I checked your link, and one of the things I noticed right away is when it mentioned local script being issued during the Depression, it was always in the context of "local bank," "local merchant", "local government" being the ones who issued the script. There is a world of difference between script issued by Smalltown Bank and script that is issued by a group
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, if it is like a coupon book then that is not so bad. But in that case, why not say, "coupons" instead of money? In all the discussions I have ever heard on the subject, it is "currency" that is talked about, not "coupons." Now I don't know about anyone else, but to me, coupons and currency are two different things. I am not saying this is a pyramid
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is all very interesting, but I am concerned about this business of Transition communities issuing their own currency. According to at least one person I talked to, who hadn't heard of Transition, but had heard about this trend of communities issuing their own money, how this works is that for each dollar (or equivalent national currency) you give them, you get five dollars of their mon
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Also, read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakenhauer or watch the movie. The book goes into much more detail. Basically, a naive kid from a wealthy family decides to chuck it all and head for Alaska, with very little in the way of wilderness survival skills. What happened to him was not pretty. He was already severely malnourished when he mistook poisonous berries for edible, and by the ti
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This sounds awfully familar--some of the members of the Transition Town group I was briefly in were big on these books and were passing them around. They were the same people that insisted on conducting "New Age" rituals as part of group meetings. This was just one of the things that led me to question who these people were, where they came from, and what was their agenda. By themsel
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi, Maple, It sounds like your experience was similar to mine (minus the hysteria). I was especially interested in your comment that you had served on a county emergency response team. When I first heard about Transition Town, I was envisioning something along those lines. So I was quite unprepared for what I did find. My feeling on the local group is that it is not a cult per se but tha
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yes, it is true that other professions have problems with their members sexually molesting people, and yes, it is true about Mapplethorpe, but the big difference here is that the perpetuators took PUBLIC VOWS OF CHASTITY. Moreover, they belong to an organization that claims to have the authority to tell people how to live their sexual lives. Many of us took NO VOWS of chastity, yet managed to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"Our bishops are indeed getting on top of this in the Church." I am very, very glad to hear that. I am sure that they will handle it with the same expertise and decisiveness that they have shown in the ongoing clerical sexual abuse scandal. I have every confidence in our bishops and Pope--NOT!!!!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When I read about stuff like that I am sure glad that I walked away from the Church. It sounds like things are just getting nuttier and nuttier. To be fair it is not just Catholics. I have Lutheran friends and they tell me the same kind of nonsense is going on in their church. I am not trying to promote or advertise a particular point of view; my decision to leave was a strictly personal on
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Wow, that is a scary story! It has been at least 20 years since I walked away from the Catholic church--in fact, from organized religion in general; my experiences, which I have written about elsewhere, have given me a healthy distrust of any group that is based upon an ideology, whether religious or secular. It sounds like the situation has gotten worse in the Church since I left, as none of t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I am a former Catholic who left the church mainly because of the situations described above. Maybe there is a place in the Church for middle-of-the-road individuals like myself who were struggling with the practical aspects of living the faith, but if so, I never found it. Instead I found a Church divided by a bitter civil war between liberals and conservatives. Neither side will listen to eac
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hello, an update: I recently ran into one of the local Transition Town members who said he hadn't seen me around for a while and wondered what was going on. Since he is one of the more stable members of the group I felt I could speak freely with him about my concerns. I did not bring up any of the issues that have been raised on this forum as, while I have no doubt in my mind that there
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Having had some experience in several relatively benign Christian groups, I agree pretty much with what has been said here. I do want to add that just because a group may not fit this site's definition of a cult does not mean that one does not have to exercise caution. Sometimes the "brainwashing" can occur without one being aware of it. Here are some additional things to look
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In the mid-1970's I was involved in a house church in Kalamazoo, Michigan that was known simply as "Ralph's Fellowship". It was primarily run by two men, Ralph and Pat. I don't think strictly speaking it was a cult, but it may have been part of Berg's Family of God. The theology was a blend of Messianic Judaism and evangelical Protestantism. I would say as group
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, Shakti, No, I am afraid that I did not get the name of the channeller who brought Transition to the US. I believe it was a man. At any rate they were rather uneasy about this getting out to the general public, if I recall correctly. You mentioned population control. One of the topics raised that night was population control. There were some extremely bigoted remarks made against tw
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks everyone for responding. You have been most helpful! Back in the 1970's I got involved in a home church type of thing that may or may not have had connections with Berg's Family of God. As groups go it was probably one of the more benign ones, but the experience showed me how easy it is to get wrapped up in something and put your critical thinking aside, especially if you ar
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My biggest problem with MLM is that there seems to be something fundamentally dishonest in their recruitment tactics. I have been approached several times by people wishing to recruit me into different MLM's and I have noticed a similarity in their approach. One is, unlike a conventional business, you are not told anything about the business until you sign up. Questions are usually give
Forum: Multi Level Marketing and Commercial Schemes

Yes, there was someone in my community who tried to recruit me into it. I don't know if it is legit or not, but this person was extremely evasive in answering my questions. For example, he would not tell me the names of any of the lawyers that were involved or give me any information. I found this extremely suspicious. If I am going to fork over my hard-earned money then I want my questi
Forum: Multi Level Marketing and Commercial Schemes

Hi, I am new here so I don't know if this question has been asked before. If it has, please bear with me. I am wondering, has anyone here had any experience or information on the Transition Town movement? From what I understand it started in England around 2005 and is a group that supposedly teaches communities how to become resilient in the face of economic uncertainty, peak oil and clim
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"