--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall <thomas.pall@> wrote: > > > > On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 3:44 AM, turquoiseb > no_reply@...: > > > > > > *When the craziness of the TMO starts to get to you, or you find > yourself > > > shaking your head in disbelief at the off-the-wallness of either > Nabby's > > > Benjamin Creme or the antics of the RC cult back in his "I can > identify the > > > demons within you" days, articles like this can put things into > > > perspective. This one reminded me that cults have been around for a > long > > > time, and some of the older ones were even weirder than the modern > ones. At > > > least the TMO has never promised to fly your soul up Uranus. :-)* > > > > http://www.salon.com/2011/11/11/the_lunatic_cult_that_history_forgot/sin\ > gleton > <http://www.salon.com/2011/11/11/the_lunatic_cult_that_history_forgot/si\ > ngleton> > > > > I don't find this strange at all. What I found strange was having to > get > > your compass out before meditating. Scraping your tongue, shaving, > > slathering your body with oil all after eating your stewed apple. > Pulling > > out your compass to figure out which direction to do asanas, pranayam, > > meditation and the sidhis. Making sure your head was ever in the > right > > direction when you rested or slept. Having your food grown and > prepared > > by sidhas, transforming your food with special prayers before eating > it. > > Keeping track of the time so you could change the Ghandarva CD or tape > at > > just the right moment. This was a real problem at night, since you > tended > > to sleep then. Buy a timeshare on MIU or face certain demise. Have > a > > pundit blow in your ear and then into a bottle of spring water, which > > spring water you replenished before it emptied so the Woo Woo would > > propagate from old to new water. I sometimes wondered what would > happen if > > I poured the contents of the water into the toilet in New York City. > Would > > there be giant, stoned alligators cured of some malady because the > water > > they swam in was infused with Woo Woo? Would all the marajuana > growing > > in the sewers the alligators fed off of grow with special qualities? > > Would I be struck down by lightening if I smelled the flowers or blew > out > > the incense? I could go on and on. > > Good point. There is strange, and then there is strange. I may > no longer find spiritual teachers/healers/charlatans themselves > interesting, but I never cease to be fascinated by the things their > followers come to believe as if they were not only Truth Incarnate, > but Truth that makes the believers better or more highly evolved > because they know it, and the non-believers don't. > > In retrospect, I think that a lot of this phenomenon has to do with > charisma. Even a crazy person can be charismatic, and for those > who have fallen under the sway of such a person, continuing to > believe the stuff they say may after a time feel preferable to going > back to being around normal, boring, non-charismatic people. > > A lot of it has to do with "indoctrination over time." That is, in the > early days of one's participation in a cult, the odd things one is > asked to believe are often minor, such as that it's "better" to face > a certain direction when meditating. Given a few years, the odd > things have escalated such that True Believers are now terrified > to enter a building from the wrong direction or have electricity > in their homes because both produce Bad Woo. > > The third aspect of how such beliefs grow, of course, is "group > mind." Only a small percentage of the "teachings" of a cultic > group are actually delivered in lectures or books; the majority of > them come from "osmosis," being around a group of people who > all believe the same things, because they've seen others do them > and heard others talk about them all around them. If everyone > around you is terrified to enter a building from the "wrong" > direction, you're not going to think it's as crazy as if you were > living in a normal community. > > But the fourth aspect of all of this is the one that IMO is potentially > the most damaging in the long run. People who have fallen for one > charlatan's BS tend to be more likely to open their hearts, minds, > and wallets to other charlatans. Just look at the number of hucksters > who religiously make Fairfield a prime stop on their tours. Why? > Well, duh. They know the town is full of people who have paid tens > of thousands of dollars (or more) on one set of promised benefits > and cures, and are thus more likely to pay similar amounts of money > for *their* promised benefits and cures than other people. It's > literally > gotten so ludicrous that there are people out there giving "darshan" > via Skype. Worse, there are people so gullible that they pay for it. > > With all of this in mind, I don't think we can be all that hard on a > bunch of English women who got off on hearing that Christ *and* > his co-savior Octavia were here to save the "special" people who > recognized them for what they "really" were. That's SO much more > comforting to believe and self-importance enabling than believing > that you're worshiping a former mental patient. >
Nice summary of good points, Barry. I recognize all of them in myself to some extent. Makes me wonder too about the issue of age. I suspect that if you get into a spiritual group during those vulnerable years say between 18 and 28, you forever remain at least a tad susceptible to the usual hooks. And then there is the human nervous system -s eems to need stories, beginnings and endings, good v evil. We all love that ability to categorize/label/neaten up the mess of life - whether in a movie, in fairy tales, novels or in our own lives.
