Final wrap up from DJ Corboy Go online and check out the price of gold for today. That will put all that reportedly donated bling in perspective. Two...what state of mind are you in when someone refuses to give back your cell phone and you feel like a moron as JJ reports? You feel like a moron instead going into a healthy boundaried rage and telling that phone with-holding beotch that y
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Programmed Confusion or... I felt like someone had just stuck a plunger in my ear and mushed around my brainnnnnnns.... QuoteAnticult, I like what you are saying about Programmed Confusion. Byron Katie and her followers are VERY confusing people. And, it definitely serves a purpose. It leaves you wondering, and doubting yourself... and makes you want to understand, so you try a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A BK Minion Refused to Honor JJ's Request to Have Her Cell Phone Given Back to Her Next, JJ tells us all about 'literal listening' Quote At the School for The Work, most everyone talks like ralpher by day 9. There is a whole exercise on "literal listening", which is exactly what it sounds like. We paired off into groups and practiced listening to what people wer
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

(Whew. Feel free to go take a break, do whatever you want. This is RR.com, not an LGAT). Okay....more classics, from JJ. Duelling drummer 'Ralpher' accused JJ of giving us too many details by having printed that last post. JJ replies: Quotewanted to ignore ralpher, but I seem to have gotten stuck on trying to make any sense at all of his erratic post. I think he's say
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Golden Oldies on This Thread On a long and ancient thread like this one, which has grown to over a 100 pages, its often good, for perspective, to pull a few of the classics off the shelf. To simplify, we can just read this thread, starting from February 24th of 2008...a bit over a year ago. Many people participated. But...I draw our collective attention to this mornings featured arti
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That claim of her being 'Yaqui' sounds like a lure to attract people interested in the dubious material of Carlos Castaneda. Castaneda claimed his alleged 'teacher' Don Juan Matus was Yaqui. And unless I am very mistaken, sweat lodges do not seem to be part of the rituals of the Yaqui or tribes further south in Mexico, such as the Huichol. Sweat Lodges were part of
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

See if this website is still active and go to the forum and see if anyone has mentioned this group. 'New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans' If not, you may be able to find someone by e-mailing the website moderator.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I dont want to minimize what you two went through, especially if you lost serious sums of money. But from what Ive read, many people are in these groups for years, even a decade or more. And if you marry and have children, its not only much harder to leave, but any children who come into the picture are, in effect born into prison. Congratulate yourselves for having paid attention to y
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is just my own personal rule-of-thumb for evaluating whether a relationship or group is bad news: Unreciprocated loyalty. Time and again, loyality and devotion (time, talent, treasure and making allowances) are demanded of you But...when the time comes to reciprocate, that other party shows itself incapable of reciprocity and rationalizes that 1) In realms of enlightementment/sp
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Note for researchers: Anyone interested in Radhasomi and its very many splinter groups should look up David C Lane on the web and also an author named Jurgenmeyser. The two of them have done extensive published research on this very complex area, full of saints and some utter scoundrels. One would need to do one hell of a lot of background research before one could even tell what part of this
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

About 4 years ago, I was looking to buy a high quality woolen djellaba and was doing Google searches. That took me to the Shadilyyah website. They had some woolen djellabas for sale--for, as I recall, $300 USD. They'd supposedly been brought back to the US by Sidi, and one person wrote she felt blessed and protected by Sidi whenever she wore one of these garments. The price was ju
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yet another warning from Corboy: As the words are written, in bronze at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem: People be Vigilant When charismatic narcissistic people show up wanting to support your beleagured cause, BEWARE. Charismatic narcissistic people like Jones only back a cause, however controversial it is, if they smell out that it is going to WIN, or at least has so very
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Forgive me the vanity of quoting myself, but as I wrote: Quote(For a cult to establish itself in the guts of society)you need a gap, a breakdown in the larger social context, and a lack of vigilence by those who should be the immune system, the Fighter and Helper T-cells of human society--politicians, journalists, mainstream clergy. If too many politicians, journalists, clergy and social j
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteWho knows, maybe Jim Jones was providing money, people, and even sexual services from his followers (male or female) to some people in high places? This is exactly what 'Cy Aaron' (pseudonym for a real person), leader of the cult Steve Susoyev, wrote about, did. You can read all this in Susoyev's memoir, People Farm. Cy Aaron invited highly placed therapists, academics,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteFor some reason, it is very important to certain powerful people that the "big, bad Jim Jones who made everyone go crazy in the last year myth" be maintained. The agenda is to make pre- Guyana Jones stuff look like "idyllic socialism" and a perfect "intentional community", when the reality is that Jones was ALWAYS evil and his movement always a deception. Y
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

To repeat--Jones did not just manipulate his immediate followers. Jones brilliantly manipulated the context--social, political, even journalistic-- in which people made thier choices. He didnt just put items on the menu--he chose the paper that menue was printed on! We cant stand to face the extent to which the context of our choice making can be manipulated. But if we can face this s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is another take home lesson that is not emphasized strongly enough in most documetaries and news analyses: Many, many corrupt gurus and cult leaders make a point of cultivating the local political and religious establishment, as Jim Jones so successfully did. And often these corrupt gurus and leaders make a point of supporting good cause projects--food pantries, social justice and c
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I started life as a child. I grew up hearing my mother constantly say nasty things about babies and little kids. Then, she'd always say, 'But you're different.' She did this thousands of times. Running away was not an option. I was six years old. Facing that my mother was cruel was not an option. I depended on her for physical survival and for the sporadic emotion
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

If you want to ascertain whether any group is cultic, start here with Lifton's criteria For a two year long and very informative discussion of DW and Ole by persons in DW there is a 52 page thread that can be read on the e-sangha website after you have registered, which is easy to do and free. The thread is in the Kagyu fellowship subsection of tibetan Buddhism section
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

People who have autistic children are DESPERATE. And the careful and cautious language used by responsible physicians and scientists, a language of probabilties and statistics, offers little comfort to those who are desperate. When parents are desperate, they dont want to hear about probability, they want to hear promises, hope, encouragement. Adult critical thinking is gravely disabled whe
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

And they are trying to get this stuff into our schools, via Transcendental Meditation: QuoteYou can contact John Knapp at: jmknapp53@gmail.com 1-518.651.6490 DETAILS Join us for a lively, free Web Event, April 2, 8 pm EST, to learn a side of the Transcendental Meditation story they won't
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteAnticult wrote: Certain countries got rid of Landmark, and clearly Landmark is shrinking more every year. The Landmark Forum used to be something people talked about, now its seen as being exactly like Scientology in the workplace.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

(What I have offered are a few excerpts, bits and pieces, from longer essays. I urge readers not to be prisoner to my own selective bias but to read all this for themselves. Here is an article to read that gives some of the political and ideological background for what Mohit is describing: Postmodernism Hindu Nationalism, and 'vedic science'. (part one) and
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thats where Tim Conways article is helpful. He describes exactly how well meaning teachers can become stuck and trapped in the role. By contrast, people in normal non guru occupations involving heavy public contact (eg physicians) have to learn to safeguard their private lives and in some cases have to learn ways to decompress so as to make the transition from job to home life. A judge wro
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Go take a peek at some books by Barry Magid, a Zen teacher who also works as a psychoanalyst. He states that one can very sincerely practice meditation and (my guess) be quite sincere about 'being in the moment' but in some cases, a person can use this skill to do what Dr. Magid terms a 'spiritual bypass' around areas of one's life or one finds painful and doenst want
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Speaking for myself, Im not interested in sexual perversion. Im interested in how power is perverted--and how to get information published online so that people can educate themselves not to fall for it.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

knowledge, you're up against something that may have begun long before you were born. I was not in RW but was involved in a family lie situation that was milder, didnt involve a guru like Michael, but the stress of finding out the truth nearly made me flip my lid-and I was well into adulthood and had tons of support. First item on the agenda--Rescue yourself. That's the Prime Di
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

CommuniqueResearch wrote: QuoteThose on this site who think they are being helpful by not disclosing details are, in my opinion, still under the cult's influence to some degree. Exactly. Inplanted shame or a lingering loyalty. Or a complex mixture of both. And if internalized shame is part of the brew, that makes the code of silence all the more powerful, because internatlized shame
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Go to Google, go to 'More' and go to 'Groups' and then do a search. There may be plenty of information on the Google listserves. Eldon M. Braun has done a lot of work in this area. Include 'Eldon' in your searches and see what you get.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Utilization of Ivy League Universities in LGAT Legitimation Narratives Anyone or anything that has an impressive name that inspires instant credibilty has to watch out. Harvard is literally a 'name to conjure with'. Its easy to rent rooms in or near an honored institution and make it seem your stuff is sponsored by that institution when it is not. Remember too, we are in a bru
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"