It is normal to appreciate a technique from which one has benefitted. But, IMO, people dont just seem to appreciate The Work for its purported benefits. They seem protective of The Work, even when they express concerns about BK. Being appreciative is not the same as being protective. If you were capable of benefitting from The Work--you might have had the same benefits or perhaps even
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Things to Make and Do Make a T-shirt and wear it to some New Age jamboree: Proud Victim or Unrepentant Victim Unashamed Victim (Come on, maybe we can come up with more--lets have a T shirt contest. Just dont knock each other over, running off to Cafe Press to market it. A guy in New York once got crabby and manufactured a Fuck Yoga T shirt for himself. So many people begge
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

He's showing up, making more and more appearances. I see billboard and even adverts on city buses. Those do not come cheap. And these days, when everyone is strapped for cash, a religious tax exempt that has plenty of liquid case can buy itself goodwill and rent space in quite prestigious locations. The locals in Tennessee are probably desperate for anything that will bring busi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Assaultive Projective Identification and the Plundering of the Victim's Identity (Okay, has this caught everyone's attention? Good. It is the title of an article from a medical journal. Peer reviewed. Adult world. Printed on paper. No one can make it disappear by flushing it down the cyberspace toilet.) Jay, thank you for that. You put something complex into a nutshell Blame th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In the 1970s, there was a very shitty joke that was not a joke. It took the form of slogan buttons and in some cases, bathroom graffiti. 'Stop rape. Say yes.' People who have been traumatized cant stand the horror of powerlessness and betrayal and will often pretzel their own minds to get a sense of false empowerment by convincing themselves or allowing the perpetrator to conv
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteI'm sorry if "A" feels uncomfortable about his/her posts getting around. But pehaps he/she can try and understand why I felt the need to publish what I perceive to be crucial information about Byron Katie. Especially when there are so many deeply vulnerable people "decompensating" in her school. Amen. People have commented on Janaki's site, thanking her fo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The Four Questions--Pesach Introductory Question Ma nishtana ha-laila ha-zeh mi-kol ha-lelot? Why is this night different from all other nights? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First Question She-be-chol ha-lelot anu ochlin chametz u-matza, ha-laila ha-zeh kulo matza? Why is it that on all other nights during the year w
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Whether one is secular Jewish or observant, part of what defines Jewishness is the culture honors stories and story telling as a source of meaning, as a way to transmute suffering into something larger. The worst part of suffering is an element Simone Weil termed 'affliction'. Affliction is not pain in the ordinary sense. Affliction is isolation, a death in life, a state of min
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The Custody of Stories, the Making or Umaking of History There have been persons who have posted some Participant Reports on other venues. Some appear to feel concerned or uncomfortable to find their disclosures quoted here. We are not trying to make people feel frightened. We are trying to preserve people's stories, trying to preserve history. A vital area where RR.com differs fr
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Death Trains QuoteSo a Jewish (?) camp full of Nazis and they want me to clean up the garbage. I am free. I do not have to do it. I'm free. They can torture me and I still don't have to do it. I'm free! If I want to live I might clean up the garbage. An Ides of April rant from someone whose Jewish grandmother was killed by the Nazis and who is surrounded by friends working da
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

(quote)Quote: The Anticult Another BK supporter, asked many of her BK associates what happened at the BK School seminar, NONE of them would tell her. How sick is that, for one BK supporter, to not tell another BK supporter, what goes on in the seminars? Its almost like a type of sandbagging of your own friends, or setting them up. She had to find out from a recent post. The irony is that thos
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Instead of fool factor, I'd call it deception. Deception doenst just mean you've been fooled. It means someone you trusted failed to live up to their promises. You find yourself questioning your own intelligence, your own take on reality. And you are led to question the good faith of someone you thought was your friend, who led you into a mess. Here is something told me
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Too bad we cant re-name this thread the Bad AttitudeKorner/Dissenters Sanctuary I have never been a smoker, but have found that no matter what the event, many of the most interesting people are the ones who go out and smoke. QuoteIts very hard , even impossible, to have "soft" criticism of Byron Katie's system, if a person is in the BK system. It all gets turned around.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is one of the Four Questions--can you believe it is absolutely true? Our society doesnt need absolute truth in order to function. When you have a trial in criminal in criminal court, the jury is not instructed to decide whether it was absolutely true that the defendant/s did the deed. The jury is instructed to decide whether the evidence they heard supports a verdict that is 'b
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

What follows may seem a diversion but I dont consider it so.' Today, homelessness is the secular equivalent of damnation, a death-in-life. Especially in todays economy, it carries a huge, huge emotional charge. We are like healthy people in the middle of an old plague epidemic, seeing bodies on the ground, dreading we could end up like that. Today, we see the folks on the sidewalk a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I am not writing as someone who hates India or hates Hinduism. Am putting this out here in case someone comes along and tries to throw that out. What I disapprove of is not India, is not Hinduism, it is cruelty, especially when religious argument is used to make cruelty seem praiseworthy, or make it seem trivial and not worth troubling oneself about. I am actually writing as one who wi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A most interesting discussion of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his involvement with the Bharata Janatiya Party which itself is a Hindu Fundamentalist group that has been involved in mob violence. All too often, gurus who vacuum up US dollars and Euros are using those funds to establish themselves back home in India as patrons of political parties whose methods, and ideologies many Westerners, espec
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Am glad to share this. I have a magpie mind and just never stopped reading. Am sometimes not even sure why I keep picking up particular books. But all I have shared are a few snippets. And...Ive been reading this way for years. The stuff I have shared in the past few posts ranges from books I found over a fifteen year period. Am not kidding. Jung is someone people tend to quote in snipp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If bored, go to Google and put 'Ken Wilber' 'Bernie Glassman' and 'Gempo Roshi' together and see what ya get. Aside from the New Wage/Inspiration Industry scene.. the only other social scene venue where you can witness an equivalent amount of derriere sniffing is at the local dog park.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Speaking of screeching halts to contributions to venues offering consumer reports on BK, there have been no new posts to the guruphiliac/lefora thread since April 8th by 'joanieg'. In fairness, the last person who posted, gave URLs for two posts on RR.com..
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My favorite imaginal exercise is to remember that the clenched fist, middle finger extended upwards is the Sword of Manjushri, the Buddha who cuts through illusions and bullshit.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Watts is not much of an advertisement for Zen, let alone Zen and psychotherapy. Watts was not trained as a therapist. He was active in the 50s, He didnt do Zen sitting in a monastery. He missed out on the ethical foundations (Bodhisattva Precepts) that real Zen practitioners are mindful of. And..Watts had lifelong problems with alcohol, screwed around and left behind a series of ex wiv
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Not all Zen stories involve being hit by a stick. There is one in which two seekers travel to find a Zen teacher. The ask the old man, 'What is Zen?' The teacher refuses to answer their question, as stated. Instead, he replies, 'I would rather be torn to pieces than darken the mind of a single student.' The understanding of this story is that if the teacher had r
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Finally, perspective from Captain Richard Francis Burton, who travelled India and the Near East in the 1840s and 1850s. Agehananda Bharati who is quoted next, lived as a monk in India in the 1950s, in monasteries and wandering as a sadhu, and taught philosophy at the University of Delhi and then later, at Benares Hindu University. He later became an anthropologist and taught at the University
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Arthur Koestler, who visited India about the same time Jeffrey Masson did QuoteQuote: Though I had read about it in books, the din and noise and profanity in Indian places of worship came as a shock. I found that there is more peace to be had in Manhattan than in any Indian town or village, temple or shrine. (Koestler was there in the late 1950s!) 'If the temple was an historic mon
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dear QD, I wasnt even doing homework. Id found Davidson's book at random in the library, I like travel narratives about Northern India, especially by people who are there as long term residents and as participant observers. I didnt expect to find so very much in Davidson's Desert Places (early 1990s) that would tie in with what we've been discussing. Okay, now that we have Da
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

'I grew sick of callousness posing as spiritual refinement' Robyn Davidson, Desert Spaces. Am reading a book, Desert Spaces, by Robyn Davidson, a splendid, courageous Australian who spent a year travelling, first in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, later in the Kutch desert of Gujrat, both in northwestern India, with the nomadic Rabari people. The lives of the Rabari nomads are
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Regarding the BK forum that is now closed. Years ago, when studying research on memory, I learned that what tends to be remembered best are: The first item and the last item.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteA cancerous tumor doesn't exist until you believe you have it, and when you forget you have it the tumor no longer exists What a bunch of BS. I was convinced I had food poisoning. Turned out what I had was the flu. I was convinced I was freezing cold, but my thermometer measured my body temp as 104 F. Turns out when we fight infections, our bodies secrete cytokine chemica
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is how to do a 'screen save' *Get what you want on your screen. *Open a new MS Word document * Find the 'print screen' button on your keyboard. It usually lives just above your 'insert' button'--upper right hand cluster of buttons up above the up, down arrow buttons. *Once you have what you want on your screen (as in a tantalizing post), tap
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"