Hi Karma, I'm writing this publically because it may help others. What you are describing here is part of the experience of surviving a cult. You are doing your best to make sense of the experiences you have had. That's good. However, you can't do it alone. All of us need help to do that. The best thing you can do for your road to freedom is to find someone with qualific
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Chime, I salute your bravery! Great to have you with us. Every individual coming forward shares strength with us all. Thank you. In turn I hope you know all of us freedom fighters empathise deeply, and send you masses of good wishes and just huge positivity. It’s only after years that I understood that PY's influence was bullshit. Thank you for saying it so clearly. One day, if you&#
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Wonderful to hear about Kate and Rachel's escape. Karmicwind has very correctly identified common methods of abuse at Pathgate in bold. An interesting theme that comes across is that PY's victims are brainwashed into believing that when bad things happen in life, they are not to be addressed or thought about in any grown-up, intelligent or realistic way. This is part of PY'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is a message from a former student of Peter Young's, posted on the Pathgate Survivors webwsite: I’d like to tell you about Peter Y the Martial Artist, (I must apologise as I’m not the most educated but I’m trying to make this readable) My name is John and in the late 70’s I read a magazine article about Tai Chi (I believed it and wanted to know more,). My best friend’s wife traine
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is a very interesting project many survivors of abuse in Buddhist communities, including survivors of PY and Pathgate, are contributing to: Dr. Miriam Anders from the LMU University in Munich, Germany is conducting a three year research, financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Part of the research is also to examine possible harm individuals have experienced in Buddhis
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

To update a link that seems to have gone down, the reference to Pathgate and PY being recognised as: "'maximum' on the Group Psychological Abuse Scale, characterized by absolutely indefensible misbehavior and violation of the common vows of Vajrayana Buddhism ... a clear and present danger to its membership, and to society at large. They are to be regarded as an openly notorious
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was there when PY was given his PhD, which prompted him to call himself "Dr Young" for several years (as referred to in the above post), until he found himself a new title (Lama). The PhD was given to him by a Chinese friend of his who ran some kind of education establishment in the USA. If you know something about education in the USA you will know that these establishments basic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I’ve extracted relevant quotes from the other thread on Peter Young to give easier access. The full thread can be found here: Posted by: howi () Date: September 15, 2005 10:05PM ... ... runs this program ... Once I got up there it became clear that these people think he has supernatural abilities. ... He was certainly good at brainwashing his students. They worshipped the man. He wore
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

From this article: , more useful enlanguaging (from Chinese): Pengci. “Pengci ('porcelain bumping') ... refers to the practice of manufacturing drama to obtain a desired outcome. ... the term was coined to describe a technique used by fraudsters who would wait with delicate porcelain vessels outside busy markets and demand payment when these shattered, ostensibly due to the careles
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Fallout from an initially trivial event amongst C-list celebrities in UK has brought to public light the set of abusive practices now known as "gaslighting". This is very useful enlanguaging. There's a clearly expressed article about it here: "Ten years ago I’d never heard the term “gaslighting”. But I realised something wasn’t right when I began to believe the person t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

thanks Corboy, the info on that link is exactly what I experienced. Two points hit me particularly hard, and were very good to hear: 1. "People in totalist organisations are pressed so tightly together that their individuality is erased – as are any trusting interactions among them. Everyone is a ‘friend’ but true friendship is suppressed ... followers face a triple isolation: from the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A very interesting article here: Scientists identify the "dark core" of personalilty. This "dark core" of personality is perfectly illustrated by Peter Young. Egoism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, spitefulness ... are among the traits that stand for the malevolent dark sides of human personality. ... these traits share a common 'dark core'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

These examples from "On Cults and Authoritarian control, the Guru Papers", are precisely how Peter Young's cult Pathgate functions: "Surrendering to a guru brings instant intimacy with all who share the same values. ... This opening consequently increases the emotional content of one’s life, bringing purpose, meaning, and hope. ... But this quick, one-dimensional bondin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is a revealing article excerpted from Prophetic Charisma: From the stories I've heard Peter Young tell about himself, this article about how and why people become "gurus", describes him accurately. Those who read it will understand, scientifically, precisely why to some people it really looks like PY has metanormal abilities ... and that they are fake. A few excerpts:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A couple of quotes highly relevant to the Pathgate cult from this webpage on The Difficulties of Emerging from a Cult: "If they have to start thinking for themselves they will have to deal not only with the pain they ran away from in the first place, but also the realization that they were being manipulated and abused by Castaneda for years as well." I had to overcome this diffi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Corboy notes on another forum that research shows how abusers get inside the heads of their victims: A destructive mode of projective identification is delineated: a predator's catastrophic attack calculated to cause the victim a stress disorder marked by a disarrayed identity. This discomposure enables the perpetrator to aggrandize a manifold inroad upon the victim's identity to imp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've been aware of Teal Swan for a couple of years, my thoughts if they're useful: 1. The Completion Process is a very effective trauma recovery practice. It is clearly based on well established practices, so it's not surprising that it works. Teal's refinements of this process are useful. This is the one thing about Teal that is objectively positive and useful and add
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is a recent article from The Guardian on a yoga school that was a front for the predator who set himself up as a teacher to abuse his students: What's interesting is that the following quotes are exactly what Peter Young does in his cult: “When they said “no”, the women claim Tarcau would say “I know what’s best for you”, before forcing himself on them.” “... many complaina
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thank you RRmoderator. I say this in response to Udumbara, but really it's for everyone to see how these sorts of statements are so easily exposed for what they are: I know about Energy. Everything I have seen in his videos teaches all there is to know about Energy - how to create it and how to use it. By saying this, it is clear you do not know about energy. What you think you kno
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It is often very difficult to accept an abusive cult leader is fake. One of the important steps in freeing oneself from their influence is to accept they are abusive. Here is there clear proof Peter Young is a dangerous fraud: 1. The Buddhist authorities refuse to acknowledge Peter Young. He claims to be endorsed by them. He is not. 2. Peter Young claims to understand Buddhis
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Interestingly, since this thread was started and notified to groups linked to Pathgate, Peter Young has removed from the web all the email contacts of its groups around the world (including on their own websites). All contact must now go through the central hub in UK, clearly for the purpose of censorship. This is because: Peter Young knows his lies are so weak that he can't take the ri
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

More of the text referred to above on Peter Young's organisation "Pathgate" "... 'maximum' on the Group Psychological Abuse Scale, characterized by absolutely indefensible misbehavior and violation of the common vows of Vajrayana Buddhism. ... represents a clear and present danger to its membership, and to society at large. ... ... characterized by fundament
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Another website worth looking at: Samples: 1. "Does anybody here have experience of the Pathgate Institute of Buddhist Studies in Newcastle, UK? ... I ask because I took refuge with the teacher there, Lama Dondrup Dorje, several years ago, and only recently have begun coming across many suggestions and reports that the Institute is not genuine, that Rinpoche hasn't b
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I've found a few more websites with views on Peter Young: 1. Sample: "My personal view is Young is a dangerous person, who seeks to manipulate vunerable young people into following him in a manner very similar to a cult. I watched the way the students at his then club bowed and scraped around him and how he clearly expected this. There is no need for any legitimate master to d
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The simple objective proof that Peter Young is not who presents himself to be is this: Peter Young claims to be able to teach Tibetan Buddhism at a very high level. Yet he mis-teaches the Buddha’s most basic instructions. Here is the evidence: Dr Robert Thurman is recognised by both Tibetan and Western practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism as one of the foremost scholars and translators, an
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One other very important point to note occurred to me: "... and yes I left Newcastle at one point feeling like a shitty person. The purpose of a spiritual journey is to wake up right? Well, I needed to see that I was being a shitty person at that time and Rinpoche helped me to do that." Yes the point of a spiritual journey is to wake up. It is to wake up to the fact that each of
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi, Again, I understand, and in many ways agree with what you say, but again the context is important to understand when looking at PY’s behaviour. If it’s OK I’ll just pick out a couple of examples: “Rinpoche NEVER invited me to become a nun, he just said the obvious which was that there is a fast track and a not so fast track.” Him getting you to believe there is a fast track and no
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks Corboy, you raise a very important point. The thing is, I don't hold "rinpochehelpedme" at fault there. It is rather further evidence of the way Peter Young does not teach compassion. Peter Young's need to inflict aggression and violence alongside his "care" is very clear from her description. "but it's not abusive as far as I remember. I
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The final point I thought was worth raising is Peter Young’s use of the title “Rinpoche”. Peter Young will say he doesn’t use it, that it is his students who insist on calling him that, in exactly the way you do here. The thing is, by allowing, and passively encouraging (which I’ve seen him do), his students to call him Rinpoche, he is once again proving his lack of respect for, and underst
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi, First off, I totally respect your journey, and the part you feel Peter Young played in it. Overall, I think there’s a few things that are important to note, because I agree with much of what you say, but see it in a different context: 1. Drill sergeants behave the way they do in order to program their soldiers into certain behaviours. Teachers behave differently, because they are
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"