--- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I had a number of heated debates with Charlie devotees. > Most of them didn't seem to care whether or not Charlie > was representing Maharishi's teachings. They considered > Charlie to be a member of the White Brotherhood and in an > exalted state of consciousness with direct cognitive or > intuitive access to the things he was saying. I think > Charlie tried to give them this impression. I always > argued that he was merely parroting things he had read > in esoteric books, but they didn't buy it. I remember > one guy arguing that Charlie was undoubtedly enlightened > "because he had been meditating 15 years."
Let's face it...after years of promises and no delivery on them, TMers were just prime sucker bait. They'd flock around *anyone* who pretended to be knowledgeable or who would tell them Woo Woo stuff they couldn't get from Maharishi or the regular TM teachers. Spice up the Woo Woo stories with a liberal dash of "You're special because you're here hearing all this special knowledge," and you've got a sure-fire mini-cult on your hands. And in my opinion that's exactly what Charlie wanted, and got. It all comes back to my rap the other day on Not Easily Impressed. People who *are* easily impressed by a good line of bullshit straight from a Theosophical Society book are just sucker bait waiting for a sucker to take advantage of them. Just look at the numbers of TMers who are impressed by someone who can zap them with a bit of minor shakti. After years and years of nothing, they look upon even the smallest something as if it's mean- ingful and the best thing since sliced bread. And, before anyone comes rushing in to accuse me of "TM bashing" again, this phenomenon is NOT limited to TM and TMers. It's across the board, in almost every spiritual trip I've ever encountered. People bring their desires to see and hear flashy stuff to the ball with them, and *of course* the teachers dance with them and tell them exactly what they want to hear. And people eat it up, because it makes them feel all special to know things that lesser, not-as-special-as-we-are humans don't. Why do you think Nabby like Benny Creme? Same thing, in spades. Tell people they're hearing the "real stuff," directly from the disembodied Great Savior Of Mankind Who Never Shows Up, and they pee all over themselves with "specialness." Charlie Lutes was just a guy who had read a lot of silly shit, that's all. He laid it on thick because the people in the audiences *wanted* him to lay it on thick. And they knew that they couldn't get this stuff from Maharishi or the "straight" TM teachers. So they flocked around Charlie because he made them feel all superior and special. And clearly, they still do, because believing that Charlie was just an ordinary guy who could sling a line of Someone Else's Bullshit pretty well would mean that maybe they *aren't* so special after all. And that's unthinkable.
