Quotehelpme2timesQuotejj52Oh, duh. Since you apparently didn't understand my post at all, I feel pretty safe in saying that you did not hear me. -jj JJ! Saying stuff like "Oh, duh" is hardly modeling the civility that you're begging from us. That be's my opinion. And I'd like to add... BK, if she is watching any of this, is likely loving the diversion away
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoterrmoderatorTo whom it may concern: Please to be civil and reasonable. There should be no need for anyone to leave due to a lack of civility. Flaming and personal attacks are against the rules. THANK YOU! -jj
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe ShadowQuotejj52 jj, you make some good points here, and initially i WAS patient and diplomatic, but it very quickly became apparent that Jon was not here to "learn", he really was here to preach and defend his position. I think he was defending himself, and with good reason. People involved with The Work have a hard time distinguishing between themselves and The Work. I th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Shadow" WOW, You sound really angry jj, and I can't help but wonder who you are really angry with? I am really angry, and was very angry when I wrote that post, you're right about that. With who? Anticult, for discounting my feelings, ignoring my request, and making implications that I was somehow trying to turn this forum into a cult. I responded to Anticult, obvi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotevlindenJJ, I'm saying all these things to you this morning because I don't want you to leave the board. This board is about real life, which is messy and sometimes ugly and angry. The strongest people are the ones who can face that reality. You are a very intelligent and strong person, and I don't think you need to run away from what's being said here on this board. Yo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotevlindenJJ, One of your comments makes me think . . . You say you don't want to hate BK for the rest of your life. You're absolutely right. As as child, I was abused. If I held onto that anger all my life, I would never be able to be free from it. I feel the same way about Byron Katie. I don't want this woman to have a hold over me all my life. I came here to get free, an
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Responding to all of this is quite a task. My responses are in bold. Quotevlindenjj, Because this is actually not a group in any sense of the word, no one is affiliated in any way, it's just a bunch of individuals posting, we really don't have any control over each other. Exactly, we don't have any control over trolls coming in here. So why has so much control over this p
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticultjj, I am going to be really blunt here...those are extremely fucking dangerous people. I am not making this stuff up. They want to hammer people's minds down to nothing, rip it apart, Dis-Assemble your Identity, and reform it focussed on Byron Katie for her own vanity and self-interest. Meanwhile acting all sweet and holy, and saying the exact opposite. Its sicko stuff, a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticulta friend just lent me a CD set... A THOUSAND NAMES FOR JOY, 6 hours of audio from someone named Byron Katie, and her renowned unknown hubbie Stephen Mitchell. Lets put it on right now.. Anticult, My legs went numb while I was reading your notes. I bought that book, read a few passages, and got rid of it the next day. I was still doing The Work regularly, but that boo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult honestly, I don't know what he's doing over here anyway, he really does not have anything to offer, except to "defend" his position, which he keeps saying he is not defending! Here's here to plant the seeds of The Work inside the critical threads, to hook followers of the Work who are reading these threads, gently back into The Work. To lead them back
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticultjj, thx for the Insiders look at a Katiephiliac...very interesting. Because, from the outside, one can see someone lying. Just not telling the truth. But from the inside, its all been warped, and they see it as something else. Of course, those at the TOP who make a ton of CASH from this stuff, know what they are doing. But the lower end newbies are often True Believers
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotevlinden Then of course they refuse to say anything against the group, they insist there's "value" to be had from it, and if it didn't hurt them, well what's the problem, right? That is part of the Byron Katie alternate reality. If someone rapes you, there was something to be learned. If someone robs you and takes everything you own, there's value in it.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quoterrmoderatorjj52: Scary. Because there is such a thing as objective reality and denying it might make people crazy. This is one reason LGATs have casualties. Byron Katie promises reality, and then takes it away.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteGuruphobiacSteve Salerno, author of SHAM: How the self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, is one our most effective critics of what he calls the SHAM -- Self-Help and Motivation -- industry. Yesterday on his blog he mentioned that he is preparing a post on Byron Katie. Some readers were so eager for that post that they started making comments about not only BK and "the work" but
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoterrmoderatorByron Katie's questions appear to infer that objective reality should be subjectively interpreted. In other words what is objectively real should be reinterpreted through subjective feelings. In the end what you feel is real, is therefore real. And reality ceases to be objective and becomes subjective instead to the believer. Katie's Q and A keeps going round an
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteJon WillisHi JJ, Thanks for your post - I don't know why, but my postings were delayed - maybe because I've just joined the forum. More than once the thought went through my mind that 'my messages have been blocked' but I just checked that out for myself and thought 'well, if they are blocked that's OK and I don't know that that is what has happened.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult(link) ___________________________________________________ Here is some general information about the simple process of making a complaint. Complaints can be made confidentially, and there is information on the sites about privacy protections. Complaints can protect future consumers from also being victims of unlicensed abusive group psychotherapy, due to warnings rec
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotejj52 I think meditative inquiry has great potential. It's been around for a long long time, way before Katie's experience. But the way it is being used by many people introduced to it through the work and the BKI organization is not meditative inquiry. What I've seen happening to people is a lot of confusion, obsession, manipulation, and control. Many of the people I met who
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotejj52 I met a woman who had been involved with BKI for many years. During a conversation we were having she bagan to cry and told me she was anything but happy in her life but she "thought" she couldn't be honest with anyone because everyone was to into speaking the jargon and pretending to be loving what is that she felt completely alienated. I really like this part of th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

helpme2times, I had help finding it! I noticed that same sentence, and it really struck me. I've seen that side of Byron Katie as well, but had blocked it out of my awareness with The Work. (I can't tell you how many Judge-Your-Neighbor worksheets I did on Byron Katie before I finally realized that what I was seeing was NOT a projection of myself.) I remember that she gave a fr
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteJon WillisHi JJ, Well, I'm certainly open to hearing what people have to say - if there is one thing The Work has taught me is that if I'm resistant to someone or something, there's something for me to look at in there, so I'll at least try to do that if stuff comes up for me. By the way, my ex-wife attended one of the schools a couple of years ago, also a weekend-i
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Someone brought this to my attention, and I feel like it needs to be posted in this thread. This is a comment that an anonymous person on Guruphiliac's blog under the heading "Byron Katie Is Either Going To Enlighten You Or Kill You Trying" from February 23, 2008. Thanks a million to whoever posted it (and I have no idea who.) ________ There are many of questionable gurus mak
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Okay... so all this discussion about byron katie's website and the Ericksonian hypnosis... got me thinking about this book I read once upon a time called "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. I found it on the shelf and started going through it tonight... and I'm really glad that I did. Here's what I learned: Byron Katie uses some prett
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult Now here is the "new" version of their Claims, profoundly altered, in at least 6 main ways. Compare for yourself. (as of March 3, 2008) Quote What is The Work? The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It's a way to understand what's hurting you, and
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteJon WillisHey there, My name's Jon - as you'll see from my user profile. I'm intrigued by what's going on here - I admit I don't know much about cults, as I've never been involved in one, at least not consciously :-) I use The Work regularly (the process of asking the 4 questions and trying out the turnarounds), which I do see as something quite separate
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was happy to find this thread. Thanks for all the tips. I am a Nationally Certified and Licensed Massage Therapist who is considering a complete change of profession because I'm so sick of all the kooks in the Holistic Medicine field... and tired of being associated with them. I'm sick of the looks and comments people make because of their experiences with kooky people in this field.
Forum: Abusive and Controlling Relationships

I was happy to find this thread. Thanks for all the tips. I am a Nationally Certified and Licensed Massage Therapist who is considering a complete change of profession because I'm so sick of all the kooks in the Holistic Medicine field... and tired of being associated with them. I'm sick of the looks and comments people make because of their experiences with kooky people in this field.
Forum: Abusive and Controlling Relationships

QuoteThe Anticult Well, if you spend time studying, LGATs, persuasion, cults, mind control, hypnosis, and all that stuff it starts to make sense. Then when you see a Byron Katie or her people running their PATTERNS and TECHNIQUES right in your face, and acting like its "true" or "not true" etc, you just shake your head and can't believe people can fall for it. But if
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, I did a search on Google for "Byron Katie blogs" to see what would come up. I found several blogs kept by Byron Katie followers. I also searched for "facilitator Byron Katie" and found websites by people advertising their "skills" and abilities to free others of suffering through The Work. One thing that all of these blogs and websites by Byron Katie fanatic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteThe Anticult She is literally trying to get into the deepest part of your psyche, and FUSE WITH IT, using that hypnotic command, its very common stuff. She can get into the deepest part of your mind and "soul". "Do you love me yet?" That is a presupposition and leading question, an outright ugly abuse of hypnotic language, to make you LOVE HER. Anyone can go throu
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"