Yes, I already asked him most of these questions, Ann, and I asked
Curtis and Robin the same kinds of questions. The only response I got
was from Curtis who said that he "grew up", but he admitted that he was
selling "snake-oil" for all those years. So, I guess we can assume that
they each had a turn of mind, so to speak. But, I still wonder what
really happened. Most of the things I believe in are things that I
learned back in grade school and I haven't changed my mind since then.
It must be a very traumatic experience to make a 360 like that - from
cultist to anti-cultist! Go figure.
. On 1/15/2014 8:46 AM, awoelfleba...@yahoo.com wrote:
Here is a chance for Bawwy to engage in a conversation:
Bawwy, so what personal character traits did you or do you still
possess that would have allowed you, indeed propelled you, to become a
TM teacher and to have stayed one for as long as you did? Extra point
question: What character traits or personality attributes caused you
to seek out a cult leader like Rama and to stay with him for as long
as you did after abandoning TM?" Now, watch what happens, or not.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson wrote:
>
> of course they are lying about it - that's their stock in trade
*/The sadder reality, Michael, one that you may not be aware of from
personal experience (or may...that is for you to say) is that they
*aren't* lying. Except to themselves.
One of the aspects of the disciple mindset (or cult mindset if you
prefer) is that people who have bought into a shitload of dogma laid
on them by teachers they now revere almost as infallible and as
near-gods (think MMY) have an incredible way of *just never thinking
about* anything that contradicts that dogma. They stuff any
contradictions or cognitive dissonance away back in a corner of their
minds -- literally "out of sight, out of mind."
So technically many of these people are *not* lying -- consciously --
when they say that TM is not a religion, often only a couple of hours
after leaving a "celebration" at MUM in which they chanted and made
offerings to Hindu gods. They push the dogma they've been told to
repeat -- and which they desperately *need* to be true to keep up
their allegiance to this org/cause they've been told is so important
-- and they just hide the cognitive dissonance away in the back of
their minds and never acknowledge it.
I have sadly been there, done that. Both in the TMO and in the Rama
trip, so I know it's not only possible, but probable for *most* of the
TM Teachers repeating the "TM is not a religion" meme they've been
taught to repeat. I myself repeated the "TM is 100% life-supporting
and cannot possibly have any negative characteristics" even *while*
assigned to the "Twitching Group" in Fiuggi, surrounded by dozens of
people like myself experiencing non-stop jerks and spasms and symptoms
that looked for all the world like a viral outbreak of Tourette's
Syndrome. It took *years* -- after hearing of a number of suicides and
seeing people wind up in mental hospitals after long TM courses --
before I became open enough to recognize that I'd been lying to
myself, and thus to others. I *wanted* to believe the "no negative
side effects" meme, so I managed to blot out recognition and
acknowledgement of anything that suggested it wasn't true.
I would suspect that many of the people still clinging to the "TM is
not a religion" meme are doing the same thing. A few may indeed be
consciously aware of the reality and be lying about it, but my bet is
that many are still so stuck in the cult mindset that they feel they
*have* to believe what they were told to believe, and *have* to repeat
it every time the question comes up.
Yes, it boggles the mind, but that is the nature of the cult mindset.
People who had to learn and memorize the English translation of the TM
puja and "hold it lively in their minds" every time they chanted the
Sanskrit version of it will look you straight in the eyes and call it
a "non-religious, traditional ceremony." *Some* part of them knows
that they're lying, but it's a part they can never admit into their
conscious awareness.
It's really weird, but it happens every day, in pretty much every
religion, spiritual organization, and cult in the world. It even
happens in business. I remember a documentary about activists who were
tried in court for staging a demonstration at a General Electric plant
back in (I think) the 60s. The screenplay was largely drawn from
transcripts of the actual trials, and thus the under-oath testimony of
workers at the plant, *dozens* of whom claimed that they didn't know
what they were building in that GE plant. "We just worked there," they
all said, claiming that they had no idea that they were working in the
largest manufacturing facility for atomic weapons in the world. Every
morning they walked in through a main entrance hall in which was
prominently displayed the nosecone of an Atlas missile, and yet they
claimed that they didn't know what they were building megadeath every
day on their assembly lines.
Go figure. That's the cult mindset for you -- protect the myths,
protect the memes, protect the image of the group that pays you or
that you owe allegiance to, hide your own everyday lies by hiding the
truth even from yourself, way down deep in parts of your mind that you
never allow to surface. That's what I think is going on when any TM
Teacher these days claims that the TMO is not a religious
organization. They're not necessarily lying to you; they're lying to
themselves. /*
> --------------------------------------------
> On Wed, 1/15/14, anartaxius@... anartaxius@... wrote:
>
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] RE: Apostasy, is a terrible thing.
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2014, 4:58 AM
>
> 'Apostasy is the
> formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of
> a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as
> an apostate.'
> As I never was the member of
> any religion, I cannot ever be correctly accused of
> apostasy. As the TM org claims it is not a religion, so no
> one can ever be correctly accused for disafilliating or
> abandoning TM as apostasy (unless of course the TM org is
> lying about that claim).
