Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
Thanks, Rick, I love this post. Though have to admit that the idea of having to wake up moment after moment forever sounds exhausting! Doesn't it ever get automatic? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From:Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnowthat's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult, the one that keeps re-hypnotizing you back into the consensus trance. The point is this: you can leave the cult now --- in this very moment. May you do so, and may you keep leaving it, by waking up! Again and again and again --- every day, for the rest of your life. To your practice and awakening and freedom, Terry P.S. If you'd like to comment on this blog you can do so here.
[FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
From: Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnow that's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice http://click.e.evolvingwisdom.com/?qs=25c601ea8e0de1d61695affe716d537855c77 379117f20a921a45c29a6b5363e05cb13fd718cfdc9 I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult, the one that keeps re-hypnotizing you back into the consensus trance. The point is this: you can leave the cult now --- in this very moment. May you do so, and may you keep leaving it, by waking up! Again and again and again --- every day, for the rest of your life. To your practice and awakening and freedom, Terry P.S. If you'd like to comment on this blog you can do so here http://click.e.evolvingwisdom.com/?qs=25c601ea8e0de1d6d814fa7ddb98dce1b67dc d1b067775bab011d9905329524d43cec6b0fb51020d . http://click.e.evolvingwisdom.com/open.aspx?ffcb10-fe9a16757767047574-fdf61 6717462027f7c11-fea315707364077f75-fecb167076670c79-fe2617727664027a701c 77-ff981675d=40026
Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
So have you tried this Rick? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From:Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnowthat's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult, the one that keeps re-hypnotizing you back into the consensus trance. The point is this: you can leave the cult now --- in this very moment. May you do so, and may you keep leaving it, by waking up! Again and again and again --- every day, for the rest of your life. To your practice and awakening and freedom, Terry P.S. If you'd like to comment on this blog you can do so here.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
No need MJ - Rick is part of Amma's cult. He was mighty uncomfortable with all cultish elements of TM. But now he is very mature - totally at ease with the personal worship of Amma as the Divine Mother - what with the 108 names of her, pada puja and worship of her during Devi Bhava, the Satsangs full of her miracles. On May 14, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com wrote: So have you tried this Rick? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From: Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnow that's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult, the one that keeps re-hypnotizing you back into the consensus trance. The point is this: you can leave the cult now --- in this very moment. May you do so, and may you keep leaving it, by waking up! Again and again and again --- every day, for the rest of your life. To your practice and awakening
Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
But of course this is natural. As a man - feeling very uncomfortable having the male Guru sleeping with women and being totally at ease with a woman, Guru, Divine Mother who is pure - a virgin, doesn't pee or menstruate. On May 14, 2013, at 12:29 PM, Ravi Chivukula chivukula.r...@gmail.com wrote: No need MJ - Rick is part of Amma's cult. He was mighty uncomfortable with all cultish elements of TM. But now he is very mature - totally at ease with the personal worship of Amma as the Divine Mother - what with the 108 names of her, pada puja and worship of her during Devi Bhava, the Satsangs full of her miracles. On May 14, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com wrote: So have you tried this Rick? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From: Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnow that's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult
Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
But he don't post a lot of Amma stuff - and what is pada puja? From: Ravi Chivukula chivukula.r...@gmail.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:29 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? No need MJ - Rick is part of Amma's cult. He was mighty uncomfortable with all cultish elements of TM. But now he is very mature - totally at ease with the personal worship of Amma as the Divine Mother - what with the 108 names of her, pada puja and worship of her during Devi Bhava, the Satsangs full of her miracles. On May 14, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com wrote: So have you tried this Rick? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From:Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnowthat's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming of the Cult is everywhere and that going in and out of trance is a constant, on-going process. As you do, it will become obvious that waking up from the trance needs to happen again and again, in many little moments of choice. This is what I mean by practice --- that choice to live deliberately, to embrace a way of life that's fully alive, always evolving, spontaneously in-the-moment, self-aware, humorous and free. (This is the core of the Integral Spiritual Practice I teach.) From this perspective, yes, you're in the big Cult, the one that keeps re-hypnotizing you back
Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult?
It's the accumulation of all your past lives good karma, something that would lead to moksha - the ceremonial washing of the Guru's feet. I was offered this twice, being a sinner I let my ex do the honors while I watched the show. I quit all this drama long time back even when I was participated in the cult, mostly having fun, until one day a woman I loved asked me to back her up as she chanted 108 names of Amma, no way in hell I was going to say no to her though I did hesitate for a bit. On May 14, 2013, at 12:47 PM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com wrote: But he don't post a lot of Amma stuff - and what is pada puja? From: Ravi Chivukula chivukula.r...@gmail.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3:29 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? No need MJ - Rick is part of Amma's cult. He was mighty uncomfortable with all cultish elements of TM. But now he is very mature - totally at ease with the personal worship of Amma as the Divine Mother - what with the 108 names of her, pada puja and worship of her during Devi Bhava, the Satsangs full of her miracles. On May 14, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com wrote: So have you tried this Rick? From: Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 1:09 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Are you in a cult? From: Integral Spiritual Practice [mailto:integralpract...@e.evolvingwisdom.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 12:01 PM To: r...@searchsummit.com Subject: Are you in a cult? Dear Rick, Are you in a cult? Here's the short answer: You bet. And, worse, it's most likely an invisible cult! Okay, you're probably not a member of a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre by the larger society. But you're almost certainly a member in good standing of the Public Cult of the World, whose beliefs and practices are bizarre and abnormal by any objective healthy standard. After all, as the Dalai Lama has pointed out, in the Cult of the World you: ...sacrifice your health in order to make money. Then you sacrifice money to recuperate your health. Then you are so anxious about the future that you don't enjoy the present: the result being that you do not live in the present or the future; you live as if you are never going to die, and then you die having never really lived. It's a totally crazy way to live, when you look directly at it! But among us members of the ubiquitous and invisible Cult, it seems the natural order of things, unremarkable and inevitable. The Cult reinforces and conceals a great many other unwritten rules, invisible beliefs and unexamined assumptions too. (One example: the Cult inculcates you day and night with the message that you're a separate individual who must compete to succeed and build up a big, impressive ego-domain, or otherwise you're a failure.) Some of the Cult's beliefs may be crazy (and make you miserable) but as soon as you start questioning them, you're the one who's risking madness. After all, you'd be departing from the Public Cult of the World's consensus reality (which is what defines insanity). One of the strictest rules of the Cult is the taboo against acknowledging that the Cult even exists. Thus, every day while you're working hard and focusing intelligently on your priorities, you're also being lulled back into being oblivious to the Cult and its bondage. You're being drawn into what consciousness researcher Charles Tart memorably dubbed the Consensus Trance. He described it as a state of partly suspended animation, of stupor, of inability to function at [y]our maximum level... [dominated by] automatic and conditioned patterns of perception, thinking, feeling and behaving... Is there any escape from the Cult? Sure, but here's the paradox: to leave the Cult you'll have to risk being seen as...joining a cult! The official Public Cult of the World won't provide any support if you want to wake up from the consensus trance. And if you find someone who has in some sense awakened and who offers to help you wake up, or if you band together with others for mutual support in waking up from the trance so you can leave the Cultnow that's when your family might start to ask Hey, have you joined a cult? Maddeningly, your family (and critics) will probably be right! Most small groups, however healthy and intelligent their premises might be, readily develop groupthink dynamics that can easily become unhealthy, and even dangerously cultic. And yet without support and teaching, you're just going to be sucked back into the consensus trance and the mediocrity of the Public Cult of the World. What to do? Well, you can recognize that the consensus trance and the programming
