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I think it stinks that you talk about this when you were specifically asked not to.
Hmmm.
I agree with the first post - you were
asked to keep this confidential.
There is ample written material about Mantra initiation. A properly trained and initiated Teacher may be given a single Mantra to impart. Yet, during the initiation ceremony, this Mantra arises from the Pure Consciousness of the Initiator and takes root in the Consciousness of the Initiated.
The spelling and sound of this single Mantra will have NO similarity to the Mantra that spontaneously arises during the proper practise of meditation. Mantras change during proper meditation and loose all similarity to that spoken/written sound - Transcendence.
There are millions of Mantra contained in one simple Mantra.
An expression of the infinite has
infinate expressions.
Jai Guru Dev
Edward you sound like Eddie Haskell talking to the Beaver's Mom, all this self righteous holier than thou mush!
Yea, Edward, your fart chakra is wide open!
It didn't seem to me that Edward was saying anything about himself, much less proclaiming to be holier than anyone. It seems there's a lot of anger on both sides, or resentment. No regrets.
Hey Mr. Sudarsha is a somebody...he betrayed the Maharishi; but then so is Mark Chapman the guy who shot John Lennon.
You know, these people only get their 'fame' by the parasitical relationship they have with that which they are attempting to destroy. Without their past relationship with the MMY they would be nothing, even this website 'appears' to be totally based on sucking the life out of what it is living on in order to further personal or financial goals.
This particular poster seems to have the need to constantly 'vent his spleen', unfortunately for him this can only make his situation worst. The more he nurtures his contempt for MMY the worse it gets until, well, until it becomes self destructive and he becomes consumed by his own hate. You have to feel sorry for someone like this, if he would only let go of his bitterness, the healing might begin, naturally. It appears Mr. Sudarsha you are *stuck* in the mud, perhaps you should move on!
Betray: 1.)Prove unfaithful to, or 2.)to disclose in violation of confidence. (Merrian-Webster's Dictionary)
I don't know Sudarsha outside this forum but he seems like a pretty decent fellow to me. As for betraying MMY, whom betrayed whom? MMY betrayed his own guru by teaching without permission or knowledge. He betrayed the Holy Tradition by charging money. He betrayed his students by false advertising. He betrayed people who went barking mad using his techniques by saying it was their own fault and throwing them in the streets. He betrayed people who worked like dogs for him. He betrayed people like She She Ravi Shankar and Johnny Gray by being such a poor example of ego inflation that they had to compete with him. Now She She is almost as big, maybe bigger a blowhard than his teacher.
You know you're in a cult when the fearless leader can treat people like shit but everybody has to believe he's giving them ice cream. He must remain the unbetrayed betrayer... Recently I heard that a lady who had served MMY for 40 years and raised millions for him died--this was nearly 2 years ago. Just before she died she tried to call Maharishi. Did he get on the phone with her and say goodbye? No way, just sent word to het that she would soon be with Guru Dev. That to me is true berayal.
Betty-Mr. Sudarsha was more than likely a victim of his own gullibility, this does not absolve him of being a traitor to MMY, which I noticed you didn't dispute.
My good advice to Mr. Sudarsha is, in order to 'move on' he must find forgiveness, not recrimination and calumny, these are the symptoms of someone suffering inner discontent (rage, anger, mental imbalance).
I think Mr. Sudarsha should practice what he preaches, one being 'Ahimsa' (Non-violence) as stated in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras under Yama and another being 'Contentment' under Niyama, I don't have to take Mr. Sudarsha's 'inventory' to see he is failing in this regard...perhaps he would be happier (I know he would be happier); and forgiveness is the way. Thanks....
Betty, your assessment of "MMY" seems to be accurate. Everything was about getting his needs met. Everyone's job was to serve him.
Curiously, that seems, as well, to be the end of the story. When we look at when and how and why he "created" new stuff, it consistently overlaps his need for attention or money.
Money.
Yes, no one can ever have enough of that, certainly not a “hermit” for whom, as he said, even the whole world would not be big enough (or maybe he said only the whole world would be big enough).
Always, it seems, someone else did the homework and investigation, offered “MMY” the bits and bobs and the instructions and then, voilà “MMY” created something for which he got all the credit (kept all the money). We see this with SCI, with the ‘sidhi’ courses, of which the Age of Enlightenment technique(s) were sort of trial runs, with the “medicines” he sold, the Hindu feng shui, land flips – it’s a very long list, but the people who did the work for him so he could be so creatively intelligent never get mentioned; they get forgotten, sent far away to teach and so on. It’s a long story. The casualties are spread far and wide.
I saw Mahesh demonstrate great caring toward some individuals. When I finally realized that this only coincided with their ability to give him more, I watched more closely. As their ability to serve him diminished he increased his animosity towards them. – Something very few people seem to know directly, although many know about, is that in private he often mocked and belittled those who adored and worshipped him. Quite literally he indicated they were fools. Not because they loved him were they fools; I came to think that he thought his “fan club” was just a flock of foolish sheep because they couldn’t see through what he was doing.
What were we to make of this? Well, to demonstrate how highly evolved we were (and to cover our backsides for fear he could do cosmic retribution … superstition ran high around him) we rationalized, we made excuses, we hinted at our own high perspective by blaming the fools he despised for not seeing what we imagined we could see.
Thoreau, I believe, noted there was some substantial difference between looking at something and seeing something.
It’s something, Betty, you obviously have understood very deeply. “MMY” and betrayal are synonymous. You have seen what others have only looked at. TM experience, just maybe, facilitates moodmaking and excuse manufacture. I don’t think that this is what Guru Dev had in mind. The people I knew who knew Guru Dev never seemed like the TMers I knew.
These days, so many of the TM believers resemble the multitude admiring the Emperor's new clothes.
S
A friend of mine ( not wealthy)crawled under a table on a course to make his way to Maharishi and asked if he could be allowed to serve him directly. Maharishi laughed and said, "I have so many already serving me and they are all just fooling themselves."
I would suggest to Billy G that Sudarsha, myself and others here who seem to be angry at MMY are witnessing this anger. The truthful things we are saying about MMY and his organization must need saying. For some reason the Divine wants people to know what kind of guy he is so maybe they won't waste their lives with him. I was also a TM teacher and promised to be true, etc. I squat and piss on that promise. He broke his promise before we did. After I had paid in full for the sidhis but before I was given them, I was asked to promise that I had never been unfaithful to Maharishi "even in my heart". It is more important for me now to be faithful to my own self, my own heart. That's what God wants of me. If that is betrayal of MMY, so be it!
With comments like the below I see why you're in 'recovery', (or should be) like I said, give forgiveness a chance. Personally, I was never asked to be faithful to MMY "even in my heart" as you put it. You're not suggesting MMY asked you for this preposterous promise are you?
Betty says: "I squat and piss on that promise. He broke his promise before we did. After I had paid in full for the sidhis but before I was given them, I was asked to promise that I had never been unfaithful to Maharishi "even in my heart"." snipped...
Betty, I am always of two minds about this business of "witnessing". I see the people on street corners telling passersby that Jesus saves. I always want to ask at which Bank and does he bet a better interest rate than I do.
Then there's the kind the Maheshites talk about. I remember Mahesh using the term "detached" until someone told him that in psychological terms this was not something good,
Obviously he had never heard this before so he started stammering around trying to make it seem like he knew all about psychology.
This was after I "witnessed" him being coached by some American amateurs so he could have another Vedic revelation the next day.
Finally, we were off on another topic. I have no idea who coached him that evening, but the next day he came up with another explanation for witnessing. I no longer remember what it was. I had probably stopped paying attention.
What is the standard TM definition of witnessing these days?
When I meditate (I tend to say, when I practise) I do a simple breath meditation. As mind and body begin to calm down, it becomes easier to let go of persistent physical feelings and thoughts. Then I begin to notice/be aware of the gaps between thoughts as thoughts (it's hard to be literal here because it's not a concrete physical experience), as thoughts sort of seem to be farther away. I just kind of rest in the spaciousness. There's certainly nothing like "no mantra/no thought". I tend to think of that a blacking out. -- There's just awareness and letting go of what arises and/or just watching what arises disappear.
Is that what the TMers are calling witnessing? I feel relaxed and comfortable during and after about 45 to 50 minutes. If, and this is a big IF, if this has some influence/effect in daily life, I'm not exactly sure if I can articulate it. Maybe, big MAYBE, I don't get frustrated as easily as I used to. My doctor said my blood pressure's fine, 110/80, I think. BUT, HUGE BUT, but I would never say something like my practise lowers my blood pressure. That would be kind of off the wall, wouldn't it?
Betty, your sheer cut to the bottom line is always such a pleasure to read.
Thank you.
S
Yes Billy G, I do believe that the request for not just me but anyone on my course to swear that had never been unfaithful... came from the master of no faith himself. It was just one more examole of being required to lie. The man seems incredible immoral to me. Like I said before I will forgive him now if he admits even some of his faults and failings....or since he likely doesn't have any conscience, I'll forgive him after he's dead.
Betty, I remember those promises and legal looking contracts to sign that got countersigned by some big important TM person and stamped and put in folders.
A guy I knew back in the old days had been responsible for filing all those contracts and promises in initiator folders. How scary is that? How paranoid was that supposed to make us? (word gets around, y’know)
I suppose there were just too many non-initiators to consider doing that with. Did the citizen sidhas have to sign pledges and so forth?
I wonder what kinds of promises and pledges and contracts Guru Dev extracted from his devotees? Yes, none. He wasn’t into that kind of manipulation of others, as far as I know.
A quasi-religious group I used to belong to had spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what this business of forgiveness was all about. One lady brought in a book the details of which I no longer recall, but I remember the substance of the section on forgiveness she read: no matter what you have done, remember to keep the door of your own heart always open to you.
Forgiveness is about being able to love yourself, no matter what.
Mahesh sure got in the way of that, didn’t he. Damn democracy and damn you if you don’t do as I say. Some mantra.
Well said, Reader. Funny how many people like Billy G.oat don't want to believe things done to others because they didn't happen to them. If what we are saying is so offensive to MMY, let him forgive us! As John Wayne said, "That'll be the day!"
So where ARE all these ubiquitous contracts and promises? (Besides the initiator pledge), you're shooting blanks folks.......?
I'd be happy to look at one, just sounds like more inuendo to me, and you all talkin' to each other. I'm waitin'......
(I remember those promises and legal looking contracts to sign that got countersigned by some big important TM person and stamped and put in folders.)
Are we to assume they're 'evil' because they got put into folders and countersigned and stamped? What do they say........
Do you think we actually got to keep a copy of the initiator pledge, or a copy of a promise that we had always been faithful, even in our heart? By 1975, we didn't even get a piece of paper proving that we were initiators. My point is that we were far more faithful than MMY. What promise that he made us was ever kept? I'm beginning to wonder if he is still alive. Maybe it's time for me to forgive him after all.
Since we most certainly did NOT get copies of what we signed, I suspect the contract/promise/pledge cannot be considered binding or more likely is simply nul because we did not get copies.
I remember on one ATR or maybe it was a TTC, a copy of a "pledge" went missing. There was a fantastic uproar (from the TM organization folks). No one ever came forward (i.e. the copy was never recovered).
It was apparent that Mahesh had not wanted what we were actually forced to sign (sign or you don't become an initiator or whatever it was) to become public. I wonder why. It's available on the Internet, now.
As I recall, we were also asked to re-sign on ATR's.
We did. We were afraid. Tells us more about Mahesh the despot than anthing else. The more he forced his will on people, the more people questioned and finally left.
But, I suppose there were then and will always be those who subscribe to this sort of control. Mahesh ends up with an organization of yes-'persons', mostly men but a few women.
Quite right, Reader! Now we have his spiritual shun/son who created an entire cloned movement based on having a TMO with "heart". I'm talking about Ravi Shrunkar. But people on the inside there(see many posts on Guruphiliac) testify that the son didn't fall far from his daddy' tree.
Sudharsha,
Are you clear about your path. What is to you your plan for future? Where will you be in a 5 years from now? Any plans to start anything
Vijay bhai, you are Bharat-janma, or one of these poor diaspora 2nd gen, cult fodder suckers?
If Bharatvarshi, then you know all this 'TM' stuff is readily available in India, with more care and love, less stress, far less money (sometimes anyway!), from traditional sources, sometimes such high-caste cultured Brahmins they make Maha look like the adivasi banya Kayastha ring-in he really is.
It is intresting that one of the prime goals of budhist emotion watchers is to target unnecessarily and misleads people.While his experiences are valid, the analysis posted here is of uninformed/
Anonymous said: It is intresting that one of the prime goals of budhist emotion watchers is to target unnecessarily and misleads people.While his experiences are valid, the analysis posted here is of uninformed/
I do not understand what you mean here. Can you explain what "budhist emotion watchers" means?
You refer to analysis posted here; do you mean about Buddhism? Can you help me find what was said so I can draw your comment into perspective?
You decided to share your experience with others and, as I read through your comments and the comments of others after you, I understand that it took you courage to do so. Courage means that your heart is strong even in the midst of the confusion imposed upon you.
First, beware of everyone requiring confidentiality; such requirement is often a mark of control upon others.
One can safely and with integrity exercise control upon only one person, and this person is oneself.
All form of control upon others is manipulation as it takes the freedom away from others. Acts of manipulation are always aiming at taking something from another, whether money, energy, emotions or forced services (slavery), which the person experiments as loss or pain.
Certainly, intrigues and request for money are a sure sign that something is wrong about the partaking in the spiritual experience of some groups.
However, you may freely choose 1/ to serve another willingly and happily and to receive accordingly or 2/ to suffer the force of another upon you and to enslave yourself in pain, confusion and grief.
And this freedom is the golden key of choice.
This may well be what we came upon this plane to do: TO CHOOSE! Think about it!
Second, your life belongs to you and so is your freedom to choose, equally so is your free will as much as they do not infringe upon the free will/freedom/life of another human being.
Do not give away your free will to any 'god' that you do not know... What if it turns out that the entity you thought was 'god' were in fact a demon...
What is the definition of a demon then?
Briefly, demons are invisible beings of upper planes of existence, feeding upon our fears and negative emotions; their interest is mainly to be able to go on feeding upon humans souls and, in order to do so, to keep them in ignorance and pain.
The more ignorance, slavery, control, discord, conflicts, manipulation and tyranny imposed upon humankind, the better for the demons. They relinquish fears, wars and sufferings of all kinds.
They take our energies by force and it is the reason why we experience them as 'negative'.
Hate is only energy, it is only the opposite energy of love and, so is fear.
Thirdly, on account of the above, the 'positive path' (the path of love) is also about feeding upper entities, except that, no one being forced into giving their emotions/energy, the experience and interrelation with the ‘people of light’ is a rather pleasant one.
The very reason why these emotions are positive resides in their very nature (truth, love, joy, health, harmony, laugh, good humor, understanding, knowledge, awareness, etc.) and also because they are freely given, experienced and exchanged.
By choosing to experiment positive emotions, we resonate with positive upper entities who then become naturally attracted to us and therefore remain around us as guides.
To say briefly, we feel their love, joy and truth around us and, as we feel these,
To say briefly, we feel their love, joy and truth around us and, as we feel these, we create more of these positive feeling in ourselves and again, as we create more, they also benefit from being around us. It is therefore called an 'optimal' relationship.
Fourthly, on a technical note, may I suggest guiding into a simple technique of Silent Meditation of my own concoction?
. Close your eyes and think about a musical sound or note, any you would like to choose and feel comfortable with. You may feel that it is an inner note. You may choose to hum it or simply ear it silently inside your being.
. While doing this and keeping your note alive, visualize the air around you filled with a beautiful light (Prana) full of love and joy. As you are aware of it, inhale deeply through the nose and exhale, and as you breathe in and out, feel the light gently coming in with each breath.
. Call the words of ‘beauty’, ‘love’, ‘joy’, ‘truth’ and ‘understanding’ if you think it helps saying them.
. Keep written notes of the time and length of the various part of the meditation, as it can be easily adapted according to the needs of each. Written notes will enable you to regulate yourself day after day, according to who you truly are and to your differences and inner qualities.
. It is important that each take one’s meditation technique and time into their own hands for no enlightened one would wish to infringe upon the free will of another being. It is then after all a matter of self-responsibility.
. Every being has different qualities and is beautiful in their difference and also, the light shines differently in each according to the many factors of our past and future lives. The past, the present and the future are entwined and, as you go along everyday in your meditation, you will recover some memory of a past life or of a future life.
. Now, you have breathed in the beautiful light around you through your nose. While your eyes are still closed, watch the screen in front of your closed eyes; take time to follow peacefully the shapes, the shades and the changing colors in front of your inner eyes.
. After you have done this for a length of time you feel happy with and which may vary from one person to another, as you enter deeper in yourself, you will feel a feeling of a kind of peace and joy.
. As you feel lighter, start breathing in the light through the main chakras from the bottom upwards. Imagine that the light comes in through the chakras. The idea is to keep your focus upon each chakra at a time while breathing in and out, for a duration that each person will decide; it could be as much as five minutes per chakra.
. Keep you focus upon the base chakra as you breathe in and out, then move to the next chakra, under-the-navel and, while focusing upon this second chakra, breath in and out the light through this chakra. Then go on moving your focus onto the solar plexus chakra then onto the heart chakra, then the throat chakra, then th
Then go on moving your focus onto the solar plexus chakra then onto the heart chakra, then the throat chakra, then the third eye chakra, then the crown chakra, then above the top of the head, each time breathing in and out the light through the chakra.
. Then, give it another turn, meaning moving your focus again to the basal chakra, then the under-the-navel chakra, then the solar plexus ck then the heart ck, then the throat ck, then the third eye ck, then the crown chakra.
. While you are doing this, keep you mental silent, or ‘blank’ if you will, no bubbling allowed for it is in the silence of the mind that you will be able to move above the chatting mind and open the channel into the divine.
. The breathing in and out will help you to keep your mind free from the chatter of words and thoughts.
. When inadvertently thoughts or words pop in, just silent the mind, as soon as you become aware that a thought is working its way in. The tone or musical note (mantra or any other note that you would have chosen) will help you to keep your mind silent. It is the main function behind introducing it to the meditation. Be kind to your mind though when asking it to leave you alone, remember that it is helpful indeed in the surviving skills we need in our daily life.
. After you have done all this, you may decide to enjoy the peace and silence for a while until you decide to cease your meditation. Slowly open your eyes and look around, observing the changing and shining quality in the colors around you. Move slowly your arms and your legs, gently until you have fully recovered from the numbness of the body.
. Remember that Love is all around you and, so is the sacredness of every object and every movement there is. Everything is alive, even the metal.
. Write down everything that happens to you. In the silence of the mind, many beautiful or instructive 'visions' may arise.
. Remember that no-one is 'nothing', that every one is beautiful; just only let it shine through the shell for the light within is formidable! Always remember this!
. Find the tone within and the negative emotions may well transform into positive ones.
And, yes, Billy G, forgiveness is truly a balm for all wounds and, a highly recommended one.
Now remember also that every soul can choose what he or she creates in their mind, in their emotions and feelings, and ultimately, in their life. Talk to your divine, you’ll find it within you.
In Light and Love and Truth,
Be well my friends,
An EO,
Crystal Swan
I love that you offered a positive solution to this debate, providing a wonderful, honest and true meditation technique. Your suggestion supplies the answer to those asking "so now what?" or "you got somethin' better?" Yes, you do, and it's free.
Karrie's new comment drew my attention to this thread, although I have no idea what it is connected to. Does anyone know?
Trying to find out something more about "TM" I found this interesting web link
http://skepdic.com/tm.html
Reading through this long chain of comments about the Maharishi, I guess the trillion$ endeavour will go to feather the Mharishi's nest and world poverty and hunger and peace and all the rest will be on their own to work it out for themselves.
Sounds like the kind of guy one blows the whistle on. You can call it "betrayal" if that helps you keep your cult mentality intact. I guess some folks would rather have a cult induced sense of security than face the real world.
TM looks like a real crock. I wonder how many are really stewing in it.
I am reading these comments and feel I need to address them. I am an ordinary human being seeking truth in life and began meditation in 1969 and became a teacher in estes park colarado where i meditated 14 hours a day for 10 weeks while learning the puja and being with maharish every night.
I am far from a mood maker as i worked in some to toughest prisons in the world maharishi's life was invisible to someone who has not reached that level of consciousness my experience with him had many moments that confirmed this truth about him.
when i became a teacher we did not sign any papers but then i would not have to in order to honor the integrity between two human beings.
this was maharishis teaching and he wanted it a certain way and to honor the purity of the teaching is a matter of human integrity that simple.
the people who gave out the mantras were hoping to diminish their value to people but they actually diminish themself.
I have known maharish for 39 years and he was full of love and compassion the wealth built around the world was just an instrument.
I did not agree with everything the organization did but they tried to do the best they could to make a better world. that is good enough for me.
George, you and I might have met at Estes Park. I remember very clearly signing the initiator's pledge there, by the way, possibly because I did nowhere near the amount of rounding you did. I didn't like rounding and rarely ever exceeded 2 a.m. and 2 p.m.
I also enjoyed Mahesh's company, daily, in private and public teachings from Mallorca through La Antilla (where he asked me to be one of the course leaders). He gave me many techniques and paid for my trip to India where I taught SCI and got dysentery. And he sent me to a Swiss physician in Zurich when I got back.
However, and I say this only because I think it is really important, Betty's observation that the "darshan" you experienced comes from you and you alone; this is completely accurate and must be seen for what it is.
I also think that Morris' good angels will be fighting over who gets to sit nearest you (if you ever attracted any bad angels, I am sure they long ago grew despondent and have since gone out of business).
Teaching TM in prison/to prisoners is one area where I think TM (just TM, 2x20) might actually do more consistent good than harm. I am pondering taking a training course to teach Zen in prisons here in Canada. There is a lot of investigative paperwork indicating Zen and Vipassana have proven to be of excellent benefit. I have a prison pen pal who is Buddhist and having to practise on his own without any support group. Some of the things he writes to me stir me more deeply than some of the teachings I have received from teachers I have known for a long time.
When I became a special techniques instructor I asked Mahesh about teaching TM in prisons. He absolutely forbid it.
I feel especially pleased to know you, if only via one message here on our Blog. You are almost the first TM teacher I know, who has taught outside the comfortable atmosphere of nice Centres.
I think you have made TM a good thing for those whom you have taught. I know Mahesh very, very well but William W. Eberwein's memoria-mea An Ex-TMer Remembers the Maharishi ( http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2008/...-
maharishi.html ) has hit very close to the bone for me. I didn't personally know this Mahesh, but I know now I was watching these very seeds germinating in Switzerland after La Antilla.
You, George Ellis, are an excellent human being who has acted generously towards others. You didn't get this from Mahesh; I think it would be impossible for anyone to get this from Mahesh.
Guys, seriously, you all need to go read some Alan Watts and CHILL.
Read Alan Watts?
No way - i have all of his lectures on cassette tape. During my sales days
i was on the road in the car every day and always had a Watts tape playing.
i recall mentioning Alan Watts to many TM types and always had the response "he talked a good game".
i always enjoyed Alan's light touch and the manner in which he discussed the various methods or techniques used to recognise the Enlightenment that simply is.
The 20th Anniversary of his passing was quite an event for me. It was held at the Museum of Asian Arts in Golden Gate park back in 1993.
I stayed at a hotel in Chinatown.
Every time i sat to do TM, i simply sat down, relaxed and experienced an openess and energy i never felt before. This was not some silent dead calm but an alive, vibrant awakeness.
This was almost every day of my stay there.
The significant difference between Alan and MMY was that the green-eyed Englishman wanted no disciples.
i'll alwasy remember one of his many comments to the fact.
"Once you get the message, hang up the phone".
Thanks Alan.
Watts had a gift that few possessed in his day. Mahesh may have had charm and an awesome manipulative skill, but Watts was quite different. His quality was something I still cannot articulate.
I was disappointed when reading Phillip Kapleau's Three Pillars of Zen to discover that Watts hadn't got all his facts right. I guess this was some kind of TM carryover, purity of the teaching and suchwhat.
But Watts was right: once you get the message, hang up the phone. I think I hung up on Mahesh long before the message was clear through the haze and fog of Maheshism. It's something of a pity that Mahesh got so hung up on his own need for recognition, glory and money. Playing the actor's bit before the cameras and living the ham-fisted, demanding role of the cut-throat CEO off camera may have been his demise.
He chastised some lady on my TTC for knitting during his lectures. He said it was dividing the mind. -- How divisive was his double life?!?!?!?
At least Watts had the sense to avoid that, along with many other teachers who were more concerned about the message than what it was going to net them.
The core element of every cult experience boils down to unreciprocated loyalty.
The leader has the knack of inspiring loyalty in devotees, but is incapable of reciprocating.
And...when asked to reciprocate, the leader will do a flip and accuse us of being selfish and ungrateful.
The other core element one witnesses again and again in cults
is that the leader presents a sunny
benevolent face to the outer circle/rank and file members. Often these outer circle members get the bliss and benefits.
But they dont ever get close enough to find that this same sunny faced leader has a hidden, shadow face, a childish angry side that is hidden, uses persons as objects and this hidden side of the leader is shown only to the inner circle, who parent the leader, lie for him or her, make excuses for him or her, and absorb the childish rages and tantrums--are caressed and used as toys, then tossed aside when drained or if someone more interesting or useful happens along.
The entourage members witness and absorb levels of abuse behind closed doors, and their misery and what they see are kept secret from the thousands of outer circle members. The suffering is often rationlized as a privilige.
It may also be that entourage members are hand selected after they show signs that they are more capable of absorbing and rationalizing long term stress and abuse than the average person.
You need a special combination of psychological malleability plus physical resilience to be entourage material for an abusive leader. Perhaps an independent income helps, too.
Someone whose health break down rapidly under stress would not last long in an entourage--which could be, long term, not weakness but a real blessing in disguise.
It is also likely that many abused enotourage members keep going by getting drugs, either prescription or non prescription, or seek out alternative therapies to suppress stress/abuse symptoms.
They may provide a steady stream of income to health care providers who are outer circle devotees who know nothing of the abuse and who unkwowingly collude by prescribing tranquillizers without asking 'Why do you keep needing refills? What is happening in your life?'
Health care providers who did ask these questions probably would not get much business from those living as enablers/entourage members to abusive gurus.
This article describes inner circle life in a totally different group. But its similarities to other cults is remarkable.
http://www.i4m.com/think/
recover...octrination.htm
The title is 'LDS Mormon Indoctrination'
The opening lines read:
"Author Douglas Rushkoff lists 20 common steps of indoctrination in destructive cults. His steps are quoted in italics with my comments included below each step."
Here are two:
19. Witness and Accept the Leaders' Faults
'Once they reach the highest levels of the cult pyramid, members are privy to their leaders' darkest actions. Members must also
The URL and the full contents of the article did not print. The entire twenty points give such a good run down on life in an abusive leader's entourage that it deserves to be printed in its entirety.
1. The Goal
Every cult has a stated, vague and metaphorical goal. Because this goal must serve as the "illuminated eye" of the pyramid, it cannot be attainable. Rather, it is expressed as an abstract idea - like "salvation" - which the cult members will enjoy once they have made it to the top of the pyramid.
So what is the ultimate goal for Mormons? Nothing less than Godhood, not salvation. Mormons don't talk about salvation as the ultimate goal. They talk about "Exaltation" and "having all that God has," becoming "priests and kings" and having "kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions and exaltations."
The top of the Celestial Kingdom is the goal for Mormons. Yet very little is known about it. And it's certainly impossible to attain and experience that goal in this life. Best case scenario is you die and go the Celestial Kingdom, but it's not something that exists or can be reached during this life.
2. A Charismatic Leader
All cults - whether spiritual or mundane - have a charismatic figurehead. The leader must be someone whose speech, manner and energy exert inexplicable influence. In religious cults, the leader attains his divine status in one of two ways. The first is by claiming to be the hand-picked successor to the last guru. The second is by claiming to embody an entirely new spiritual force - either to have been born sacred or to have suffered an "awakening" trauma or a sudden "new breeze" of insight.
Most True Believing Mormons find the General Authorities to be very Charismatic. They are celebrities and almost worshiped wherever they go among the membership. Even Gordon B. Hinckley is charismatic enough to woo over Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, who was so impressed with Hinckley he called him "charismatic."
For Mormons, the last guru before Mormonism was Jesus Christ. Smith claimed to be picked by Jesus Christ and God the Father to restore the only true church. He claimed they personally came to him in a grove of trees and started off his prophetic ministry. Every church president since then has also claimed that Joseph Smith was the hand-picked successor to Jesus Christ to restore His gospel in this "dispensation." Only Joseph Smith had the divine mandate to translate and restore the gospel due to his personal calling by God Himself. You can't claim more authority than that.
3. Sacred Doctrine
Most cults have a sacred text or doctrine. Often a cult will adopt an established text, like the Bible or the Koran. Others use a spontaneously revealed doctrine. These are usually "channeled" or transcribed.
Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Ensign, General Conference Talks, etc..
4. Divine Coincidence
New members must learn of the cult as if by grac
4. Divine Coincidence
New members must learn of the cult as if by grace. If the members believe they came to the cult through conscious or rational process, then they are in a position to take responsibility and credit for their participation. Cults try to avoid this perception because members should be separated from their sense of willpower in order to be fully indoctrinated.
Most converts see their discovery of the church as a divine coincidence of some kind. Missionaries thrive on stories of divine intervention and every convert has that as part of their story of joining the church.
But I think this goes even deeper than that. Instead of following a rational process, converts follow the irrational instructions of the "Moroni Promise" in the Book of Mormon. Missionaries tell people to join the church because of how they feel when they pray about the Book of Mormon, not because Mormonism makes logical sense.
True spiritual converts to the church do experience divine coincidence either in how they met the missionaries or how they felt their answer to the "Moroni Promise."
5. Positive Results Through Commitment
While discovery and introduction are almost always free, the newcomer is told that he will experience satisfaction only when he has made a financial or equivalent commitment. At sales meetings for another of the cults I investigated, writing a check was equated with the first step toward changing one's life, and new members reported feeling results the moment they made this commitment.
For Mormons, this commitment is primarily expressed in tithing. Tithing is affectionately known as "fire insurance" in the Mormon Church and the Bishop does not see you as a member in good standing if you are not a full tithe payer. Those who do not pay tithing are second-class members that are not given leadership callings, cannot perform church ordinances or attend the temple (endowments or family weddings). Most True Believing Mormons think something bad will happen to them if they stop paying tithing and superstitiously attribute good luck experiences to their paying of tithing. What follows are temple recommend cards which for many believing Mormons is a symbol of their worthiness and self-esteem.
6. Extraordinary Measures
Once new members have made their initial surrender or contribution to the cult, they are asked to do something that contradicts their judgement. What's important is that the act goes against the new members' own internal sense of appropriateness. The members must get used to acting against their own values.
7. Member Complicity
Once an extraordinary measure is taken, the members are rewarded with complicity in the greater pyramid. To get out of the cult after this act of complicity, a member will have to own up to all of the cult's practices as if they were his/her own.
This goes back to what happens to people in the temple. After accepting garments for life, being touched while naked, making loyalty oaths and learning secret handshakes, members are then rewarded with inclusion into the temple club and the privileges that includes. Being a temple card-carrying member is a huge sign of complicity.
Apart from the temple, church leadership positions also work this way.
8. A Cycle of Breaking "Self"
After extracting extraordinary measures and complicity, the cult exploits the commonly practiced spiritual discipline of self-denial and demands increasingly difficult acts of faith from its followers. Sometimes these requests seem to benefit the cult - members are instructed to donate huge sums of money or contribute tremendous time and labor to the cult. Just as often, however, these requests will be completely arbitrary or even against the interests of the cult. By interspersing real requests with these random and bizarre instructions, the cult can avoid the appearance of self-interest. It can also paralyze the followers' ability to second-guess cult actions.
Look at this from the convert's perspective. Most don't know about all of the responsibilities and duties of membership before they join the church. For many it is a shock to learn how much time the church really demands of them, from church meetings, home teaching, genealogy work, missionary service etc...
To people who weren't born in the church, Mormonism is very demanding of time and restrictive on behavior. And it gets worse the longer you strive to be a "Faithful Mormon."
Compared to 19th-century Mormons, the church demands less. But compared to a normal life, the church demands more of people and it only gets worse as you climb the church hierarchy, just like other destructive cults.
9. Confusion and Transference
By alternating self-interested and random demands, the cult brings its followers into a state of great confusion - they aren't sure how to please the cult. Sometime leaders will reward members who fail to carry out commands, and punish those who complete them successfully. The CIA suggests using rewards and punishments in a random, illogical manner so that the subjects regress into a childlike dependence. Similarly, the confused cult member will eventually regress to a childlike state and transfers parental authority to the cult leaders - which is why so many cult leaders insist on being called "Mother" or "Father."
Confusion and Transference is all about reducing people to childlike dependence on the church through confusion. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Mormon obsession with "following the spirit" which leads to all kinds of pe
Thanks, AK.
The Mormons have really reduced "cult" to a kind of science. The URL you provided is a valuable link.
Now, if only there were a way to reverse the cult-science into a rescue-science. But, alas, I am a firm supporter of people's rights to be total morons in making life-choices. After all, been there, done that.
There is no way for you, AK, or me to know what salutary benefit may come out of the material you have just shared. We can only do just that, share our experiences, our pains and joys and, like the parable of the sower, let nature tend to nature.
Tks, AK!
My brother, raised in TMO like me, is now a Mormon high priest. The link is great! I'm fwding it to my nephew who left the LDS church, but loves his family.
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The process of becoming fuzzy brained which the author described -- that was not the proper practice of meditation. When MMY explained the use of meaningless sound so as not to become more sharp minded, he explained that the purpose of the mantra was to allow the mind to simply and naturally relax. Sometimes in that relaxed state the person automatically snaps into a state of unbounded awareness, or transcendental awareness. There is a sense of being timeless and being all pervasive with no locality in space.
In a way it's like falling into sleep in so far as it is impossible to force oneself to sleep, it is more a matter of having the right conditions of relaxation, security and comfort, and one falls asleep naturally.
With meditation however, the mind remains alert and awake.
i do not know, R.C., to which post you refer as this thread seems to have begun nearly a year ago (3 May or 5 March)
what i do know from reading here and from observations on courses is that the maha used tm to get people 'stoned' so he could get them much more easily to subscribe to his belief system, that his ideas were absolutely good
this is brainwashing and becoming fuzzybrained seems like a very valuable first step in that direction
other cults have done the same thing using sleep deprivation or poor food (low protein) and then done exactly as the maha has done for all the years i knew him: repeat his ideas to the exclusion of all other ideas
this works well when people are rounding or doing the sidhi program for 8 hours a day
i like 'fuzzybrained', it describes the rajas and the organization's bigwigs very well - maybe it even describes the maha very well, i don't know
To Anonymous,
I think the reason I felt compelled to respond to your fuzzybrain theory is that I think it is just so silly and unfortunately, misleading. I just wanted to clarify the practice, how it actually works, and what the aim is.
There is the movement and then there is the practice of meditation. While I disagreed with many of the machinations of the movement, there is no point in misleading people about the practice of meditation or of gaining transcendental consciousness.
Perhaps you got off track in your meditation. However it makes more sense to go back to the basics than to negate the entire practice and make up elaborate theories ascribing nefarious motivations to Maharishi. When done properly, the TM technique actually works, and is an awesome and highly beneficial daily practice. There is no reason why people can't stick to the simple practice of TM, 20 minutes 2X a day, if they so choose.
Of course Maharishi did not follow the time honored traditional role of guru. For whatever reason, which we do not know, he chose to create a world wide meditation movement which was unprecedented and had unique challenges and complications. A lot of what was done on courses was frankly experimental. Maharishi didn't know how people were going to respond, he wanted to see if he could accelerate the growth of higher states of consciousness on a large scale.
The notion that "he used tm to get people stoned so he could get them much more easily to subscribe to his belief system," is simply ludicrous because that was not and is not the purpose of meditation. The purpose is gaining god realization in the long run, and improved life and happiness in the short run.
Normally gurus only take on a few devotees, and are highly selective about who they take on as students. Taking on large numbers and pushing large numbers of people to gain experiences once limited to small numbers of advanced yogis was really incredibly ambitious and risky. But then the goal was to change world consciousness. Even with all the mistakes, Maharishi was a man of deep faith and optimism.
I'm just saying that you can practice TM and get all the spiritual benefits and have nothing at all to do with being part of a cult. It really is not a cult.
R.C., i had no intention of putting down meditation, but i see little value in the way the maha handled tm; he used it to subdue people
R.C., you said:
The notion that "he used tm to get people stoned so he could get them much more easily to subscribe to his belief system," is simply ludicrous because that was not and is not the purpose of meditation.
i totally agree, this is DEFINITELY NOT the purpose of meditation
my point is that it was the maha who misused meditation in a big way
your last remark, meditating and not being part of a cult, is something i agree with 100%
the maha totally turned me off, tm was ok, but i have found more productive meditation teachings and methods elsewhere
the maha's meditation teachings were in support of his barking notions and not very much in support of his followers or his meditation method
R.C., you also said
Even with all the mistakes, Maharishi was a man of deep faith and optimism.
in my opinion, the maha's deep faith and optimism focused consistently on his ability to fool others and get their support
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