tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53311745297040131322024-03-05T10:07:30.086+01:00pitfalls of spiritualitya personal blog about spirituality, spiritual methods and movements.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-65549922124944455292013-01-01T01:58:00.003+01:002013-01-01T01:59:08.929+01:00New Year's wish to all<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWny3KdvCOR-Qc2K1ozPwAEK5t-ztn7VhZhJjT3xmE24WCMi2tU74TVbO3UQ1IOxHoK3w6cFOeUlbUA9XUw3wLrUQGHb6H2M8VM0Dg42XmycyUKGB4B-tlmI-74uBdTSftVv_hXjFaff01/s1600/nieuwjaar2013_def.jpg"><img alt="new year's wish 2013 ~ frank waaldijk" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWny3KdvCOR-Qc2K1ozPwAEK5t-ztn7VhZhJjT3xmE24WCMi2tU74TVbO3UQ1IOxHoK3w6cFOeUlbUA9XUw3wLrUQGHb6H2M8VM0Dg42XmycyUKGB4B-tlmI-74uBdTSftVv_hXjFaff01/s800/nieuwjaar2013_def.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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(click on the image for an enlargement)franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-86197595970925731682011-01-01T01:49:00.003+01:002011-01-01T20:12:21.439+01:00New year's wish to all<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_SZekRLdFEow/TR53YydEVzI/AAAAAAAALYU/VN2aI-z7w48/s1600/newyear2011def.jpg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_SZekRLdFEow/TR53YydEVzI/AAAAAAAALYU/VN2aI-z7w48/s800/newyear2011def.jpg" alt="new year's wish" border="0" width="400" /></a><br /><br />(click on the image for an enlargement)<br /><br />`zin' is an essentially untranslatable dutch word, it means as many things as:<br /><br /> 1. sense<br /> 2. meaning<br /> 3. mind<br /> 4. point<br /> 5. spirit<br /> 6. feeling<br /> 7. signification<br /> 8. inclination<br /> 9. gustofranka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-68655617615130376412010-12-02T21:29:00.009+01:002010-12-04T00:23:06.795+01:00Spiritual damage caused by false gurus and their spiritual movementsThis year I haven't written much on this blog myself (notwithstanding andrew p.'s long article I just copied in three parts last week).<br /><br />But there is a subject that has crystallized lately which I want to write about: participation in a spiritual movement isn't always beneficial, and can even cause real damage to people. For this reason, one can now find several avenues of counseling available to former members of cults and sects. You can find some links in the sidebar of this blog, but there are many more sites dealing with the fall-out of bad experiences in a spiritual movement or cult.<br /><br />It would be beyond my reach to address all the types of such damage (which involve a large range, even from psychological to physical violence). But there is one type of damage which as far as I can tell hasn't been extensively described on the internet, and which on the large scale of things perhaps doesn't weigh quite so heavy, yet which can affect individuals profoundly enough to merit a mention on this blog, I believe.<br /><br />Perhaps it is appropriate to call this type of damage `spiritual damage'.<br /><br />&&&&&&&<br /><br />One might well wonder why I still devote time to writing about the pitfalls of spirituality [and truth be said, this past year I didn't write so much ;-)], having left my former guru and his movement Sahaj Marg already more than 5 years ago. After all, a negative experience usually takes some time to overcome, but often people come to terms with it and move on.<br /><br />This goes for me too, I think, mostly...but I also observe a difference in my outlook on spirituality and my expectations in this field, perhaps especially with regard to the capacity of people to organize and/or promote spirituality.<br /><br />After my negative experience with Sahaj Marg, I find myself largely incapable of simply believing in any organization proclaiming lofty goals. Often I have the feeling that I see similar patterns of marketing and deception, or that I would see these patterns if I was more in the know about a certain organization.<br /><br />This is not limited to spiritual movements or organizations with a definite `spiritual' signature, but reaches as far as NGO's tackling hunger, disease, poverty, environmental issues, human rights, etc. <br /><br />%%%%%%%%<br /><br />So the one word which describes the feeling I am left with from my former spiritual movement is...deception. And I think that the damage that I feel from this deception goes deeper than damage from being deceived by say a conman or even by a dear friend.<br /><br />Somehow, if I must make some sort of analysis, it seems that what is so discouraging about this deception is that this deception is helped being maintained by very good-willing people, many of whom kind and oriented towards a spiritual way of life.<br /><br />In the end, I believe it comes down to this: in order to maintain a rosy feeling of well-being and a false sense of `special purpose' in our existence, many benevolent people will willingly help maintain the deception that a false guru / spiritual movement offers. The attraction of life-as-in-some-spiritual-fairy-tale wins out, at the cost of truthfulness and real betterment, in my not so humble opinion.<br /><br />Thus, instead of building for a world where true spirituality thrives within and between people, we add to to the conglomerate of religious / spiritual divisions and falsehoods and deceptions.<br /><br />######<br /><br />So what, nothing new under the sun...right?<br /><br />But regarding my 12 years of participation in a spiritual movement, what if I had devoted my time and energy to a worthwhile cause instead? And why can I now no longer bring myself to organize something for people like me, who still wish to see this world becoming more spiritual, and who also look for spiritual development in themselves?<br /><br />So that last question somewhat describes the spiritual damage I feel. Because although I still believe that most people look for spirituality on some level, I no longer believe it possible to organize something that will help speed up spiritual development in this world. And I used to be a person who devoted a lot of time and energy to trying to organize such things, both in my work and in my free time. <br /><br />In any such organization, how long before we start flocking around a new false guru?<br /><br />On the other hand, without organizing something, without making some sort of difference in numbers, the many voices of the many people like me will likely be drowned out by the clamour coming from all sorts of organizations with less spiritually oriented objectives, religions and spiritual movements included ;-). And also, in this way the many positive aspects of spirituality will come less to the fore.<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />Therefore, a challenge seems to rise up: how to maintain a spiritual outlook on life, how to see the good in people, how to endeavour for a better world, and yet not be drowned out too much, and yet not add to some deceptive set-up coming from an organization with lofty goals....<br /><br />So far this challenge has been too heavy for me. How would it be to have an organization with no members and no leaders...no ideology too...and certainly penniless, which would nonetheless bring people together in a spiritual atmosphere and which would make a voice heard petitioning for spirituality instead of materialistic gains...? <br /><br />Such an organization might see me at its meetings, from time to time. Because nowadays, I find less opportunity to exchange on spirituality, and to work together with a focus on this common goal of a better world. Not out of lack of goodwill in the people around me, but because there is no facilitating `structure', few facilitating `occasions'.<br /><br />******<br /><br />I hope to have described some sort of spiritual damage which may (or may not, we are all different) occur from participating in a spiritual movement. Summarizing: having put one's true faith in a so-called `Very Spiritual Person' and in the often good-willing followers of the accompanying spiritual movement, it can be a serious let-down if this VSP and his/her movement are finally perceived as untrustworthy.<br /><br />This let-down often has serious emotional fall-out, for which nowadays there are many counseling options. But even when this emotional fall-out is not so bad, or when it has subdued, there can well be residual damage. This may, I believe from my own experience, well result in a subsequent distrust of other initiatives for the benefit of mankind, and a lack of enthusiasm to join groups with even just a slight spiritual orientation.<br /><br />Seeing this damage for what it is may, I hope, form part of the cure.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-725936416477638702010-11-29T13:54:00.004+01:002010-11-29T14:24:32.083+01:00Spiritual marketing techniques 3: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachingsI recently came across a wonderful article called `Spiritual marketing techniques', written by <a href="http://www.zeropoint.org/">Andrew P</a> on <a href="http://www.energygrid.com/spirit/2009/10ap-spiritualmarketing.html">Energygrid</a>.<br /><br />It is quite lengthy for a web article, but I will reproduce it in 3 parts. (Kind permission is granted by Energygrid)<br />Part one: So you want to be a spiritual teacher<br />Part two: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachers<br />Part three: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachings<br /><br />[This post is part three.]<br /><br /><div id="mainContent"> <div class="titlebox"> <h1><span style="font-size:100%;">Spiritual Marketing Techniques<br /><span class="author">Andrew P—10/2009</span></span> </h1> </div> </div> <h5>An examination of methods used to market spiritual teachers and teachings. Whether you are an authentic spiritual teacher or just playing the guru-game, there is good money to be made in active spiritual marketing.</h5>[Part three:]<br /><h3 align="left">Techniques for Promoting Spiritual Teachings </h3> <p align="left"> The other focus of spiritual marketing is on the teachings themselves. Here are a few of the characteristics of successful teachings (again, these are difficult to separate from the above so there is a certain amount of overlap):</p> <div class="listo"> <ol type="a"><li><strong>Conceptual Spiritual Path:</strong> This is the number one rule in successful marketing of any spiritual teaching: present it in such a way that your customers can bring along their minds and their egos on the spiritual journey. This allows them to maintain the illusion of control, so that their concepts of a spiritual person can be acted out. Any system that encourages the development of the spiritual ego is going to be very popular, because it maintains the psychological status quo by not challenging the ego. (Ironically, such ego-centric systems are increasingly being presented as ego-dropping systems so that we egotistically learn to simulate being ego-less. Brilliant marketing!) Ego-centric spiritual teachings are very popular in a modern, ego-obsessed society. They usually involve a story about the world and our place in it, giving us a purpose and a special significance, and has the benefit of triggering attachment to both teacher and teachings, which of course leads to dependency.</li><li><strong>Promises Immortality:</strong> Death is a big fear for most people so any system of spirituality that promotes some kind of immortality (even if it is just the immortality of the soul) is going to be attractive to potential customers. Most people fear death for obvious reasons, so you must ideally not only allay their fears but adequately describe how they will continue after death — give them a road-map into the unknown. There are even some spiritual teachings that promise physical immortality, but this is more difficult to justify over time, but in the short term can be a very lucrative approach.</li><li><strong>Focuses on the Teacher:</strong> Okay, so you have nothing original to teach, but at least you yourself are original. So if your teaching keeps pointing back to the teacher as a key component in the awakening process (perhaps by direct transmission) then you end up with a unique product, one that customers do not feel that they can get anywhere else. So, in effect, by putting yourself squarely in the centre of your teaching, you end up with a monopoly on a unique product.</li><li><strong>Teachings Offer Certainty:</strong> In a world which presents uncertainty around every corner any belief system that offers certainty is naturally going to be very popular. This goes hand in hand with conceptualisation (without conceptualisation there can be no certainty). The certainty that is promoted can even extend to the future in prophecy and prediction. The more areas of mystery conceptually expelled from people's lives, the less fearful they feel and the more attached they will become to you and your teachings.</li><li><strong>A Promise of Bliss, Health and Happiness:</strong> Most like to believe that the final destination of the spiritual path is a state of eternal bliss, perfect health and sublime happiness — enlightenment. This means that there is a huge payback for following the spiritual path, which can be a strong motivating factor. After all, many people start following the spiritual path when they become disillusioned and unhappy with normal life. Maybe they are unwell or maybe they have been through traumatic experiences.</li><li><strong>Special/Secret Teachings and Techniques:</strong> Try to associate yourself with a special type of teaching or meditation/fantasy technique that is kept secret (like any trade secret) and then convince your students that they will only find awakening if they follow these particular teachings/techniques. This locks them in to you very strongly. The increasing problem with this is that, with the internet, nothing remains secret for long, so you are advised to also use some concept of "direct transmission" so that the teachings/techniques are only "activated" if given personally by the teacher or appointed student, not just "stolen" from the internet. You can also claim that each student needs a unique revelation and so stolen secrets are meaningless.</li><li><strong>Promotes emotional expression:</strong> Modern society can be very rigid in how it allows individuals to express certain emotions, more specifically sexual emotions and loving emotions. So any teaching (or community based on particular teachings) that encourages free emotional expression can be very attractive and freeing. This can be a strong component of hijacking feel-good techniques (see "i" below). But be careful if you do this to make sure that if free sexual expression is practiced, for example, that safety measure are also taken. After all, the spread of STD's through an organisation is not good publicity for it!</li><li><strong>Strict Codes of Conduct:</strong> People love to be told what to do. In fact, the impulse for bondage is stronger in most people than the impulse to freedom. So having a strict codes of conduct and attire can be very attractive to many people. This may seem contradictory to g) above but they actually go hand in hand. After all, the excitement of free sexual expression is actually the excitement of letting go to (being controlled by) bliss and ecstasy. Having strict rules also also fits in with the spiritual ego that wants a formula to do everything right.</li><li><strong>Copyrighted and Trademarked Issues</strong>: Even if what you teach is not unique, you can call it a special name and then copyright/trademark that name. This way you end up being able to own and control the teachings that that name represents. Copyright must be added subtly: too in-your-face and you won't look spiritual. And if you are ever questioned about copyright and trademark you can just blame it on your organisation so that it looks like the master wasn't the one with the attachment. Another successful approach if you are questioned about the legal restrictions you have placed on your teachings is to claim that you are only trying to protect them from being bastardised by a third party.</li><li><strong>Teachings have Material Outcomes:</strong> This can be a good customer puller because it means that those who follow them will find many of their material needs and wants met (including physical health issues). So rather than spiritual awakening being seen as a subtraction of what is not real, it is seen as an addition to our powers, potentials, wholeness and bank balance. This is attractive to customers egos and also justifies any opulence that the teacher may have relative to his customers. (Quantum physics is often used to justify this position.)</li><li><strong>Hijack Feel-Good Techniques:</strong> Most of the more successful systems of teaching will hijack tried and tested feel-good techniques such as meditation, mantras, relaxation, dance, tantra, fasting and breath control to make customers get associate a feel-good fix with you and your teachings. The key is to control the inner process enough for that feel-good fix, but not let customers get carried away with inner focus so that they awaken and leave you. (This should ideally be coupled with copyrighting/trademarking the feel-good technique if you can.)</li><li><strong>Testimonials for Teachings:</strong> Spiritual marketing is like any other kind of marketing, you need testimonials and case-studies for the media to promote a particular spiritual teaching and teacher. Fortunately, with the rise of social networking, this often happens spontaneously. For book covers, publishers will often get endorsements for a teacher from their other clients, making sure that even the dullest of spiritual manuals has rave reviews from someone other than the author who is also regarded as a teacher.</li><li><strong>Make Teachings Self-Validating:</strong> By making the sublime value of the teachings part of the teachings themselves, you help to validate them in your customers' eyes, especially if they are in their heads. It is important to describe your own teachings in the very highest terminology, and make it clear that anyone who does not understand this is just "not ready" for them yet. This goes hand in hand with marketing yourself as the very highest spiritual master.</li><li><strong>Present the Teachings Sequentially:</strong> Don't give it all away in one go — there is less money in that. Instead, spread out the teachings in a series of courses that goes from beginner all the way through to advanced, a journey that might take a number of years to complete. That way your students remain your students for the whole duration as many on the spiritual path believe that the journey to enlightenment is a long and arduous one. And by the time your students have "graduated" they will have invested so much time, money and effort with your system that they are unlikely to quit due to both their investment (the so called sunk-cost fallacy) and the fact that their spiritual ego will be reinforced by feelings of achievement. And you should also tweak it so that when your students reach the final hurdle, you let them know that they still need just a tad more direct transmission to lift them into enlightenment, so they still need to stick around.</li><li><strong>Give a Pseudo-Scientific Justification:</strong> Link your teachings with modern physics as it really does increase credibility of what you are saying to anyone who is not scientific literate (which is most people). And remember that those who are scientifically literate are less likely to be seeking "spirit" anyway. So you are relatively safe. Key terms to use in your teaching are: "quantum", "relativity", "scalar waves", "quantum entanglement", "Bell's Theorem" and "photons". And you might constantly allude to the fact that what you are saying has been "proved" by quantum physics. (Nobody is likely to have any real understanding of quantum physics to challenge what you are saying.)</li><li><strong>Exotic and Foreign Words and Phrases:</strong> Students are always more impressed with teachings that are sprinkled with foreign words and phrases. For example, rather than vaguely speaking about the consequences of actions, use the word "karma", and instead of describing the world as illusion, use the terminology "maya", and so on. This makes your students really believe you know what you are talking about as you will sound very impressive, and using ancient terminology like this helps to strongly validate your teachings by throwing the whole weight of an exotic religious tradition behind them. And as the student learns this spiritual vocabulary, she will feel that she is becoming increasingly spiritual herself. This also serves to link groups together by having an "insider" vocabulary and phraseology. (This is similarly to the name-change technique used by both teachers and students to reflect their new spiritual selves or egos.)</li><li><strong>Associate Teachings with Exotic Places:</strong> As mentioned above, offering holiday and Mecca-type retreats in exotic places not only gives you an opportunity to make more money than local retreats, but whatever you teach is far more likely to be cherished because customers outside the confines of their everyday lives tend to be much more relaxed and focused. Your teachings also get to be associated with feel-good "holiday" vibes, not to mention the fact that you will get a free holiday out of it.</li></ol> </div> <p class="centre" align="left">* * * </p> <p align="left">The above is not meant to be an exhaustive list of methods, but rather an outline of some of the main ways that you can successfully market yourself as a spiritual teacher. What is important to stress is that the use of any combination of these methods does not necessarily indicate the value or authenticity of you and your teachings. After all, even an inauthentic teachers hiding behind slick marketing can be useful for some people at some point in their spiritual awakening (if only just to learn not to be so gullible).</p> <p align="left">However, although both authentic and inauthentic teachers have successfully used many of the above marketing strategies, the type of teacher you are and the type of teachings you teach will determine the emphasis you need to put on the different methods of spiritual marketing.</p> <p align="left">As a general rule, the more authentic you are as a spiritual teacher, the more you have a tendency to be putting yourself out of a job, which is not good business practice. Authentic spirituality is non-conceptual, and this presents a serious dilemma for spiritual marketing for most of what attracts people is conceptual. Therefore, most authentic teachers strike a balance between marketing and non-conceptual teaching, so that there is enough conceptualisation to hook people (the more you hook the more people you can potentially help), but not too much so that conceptualisation is badly interfering with the awakening process. Inauthentic teachers, on the other hand, let rip with the above marketing methods, hiding their ineptitude behind concepts and dogma. </p> <p align="left">So whatever type of teacher you are, spiritual marketing can really help you succeed, increasing both your customer base and your income. I wish you every success. Namaste </p>franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-48012657432319514442010-11-29T13:44:00.006+01:002010-11-29T14:22:15.451+01:00Spiritual marketing techniques 2: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachersI recently came across a wonderful article called `Spiritual marketing techniques', written by <a href="http://www.zeropoint.org/">Andrew P</a> on <a href="http://www.energygrid.com/spirit/2009/10ap-spiritualmarketing.html">Energygrid</a>.<br /><br />It is quite lengthy for a web article, but I will reproduce it in 3 parts. (Kind permission is granted by Energygrid).<br />Part one: So you want to be a spiritual teacher<br />Part two: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachers<br />Part three: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachings<br /><br />[This post is part two.]<br /><br /><div id="mainContent"> <div class="titlebox"> <h1><span style="font-size:100%;">Spiritual Marketing Techniques<br /><span class="author">Andrew P—10/2009</span></span> </h1> </div> <h5>An examination of methods used to market spiritual teachers and teachings. Whether you are an authentic spiritual teacher or just playing the guru-game, there is good money to be made in active spiritual marketing.</h5>[Part two:]<br /><br /><div id="mainContent"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Techniques for Promoting Spiritual Teachers</span> <p align="left">Here are some of the main spiritual marketing techniques that are used if we want to become teachers ourselves. The general idea is to present a spiritual image of the teacher to the customer so that the authority of the teachings is not doubted: </p> <div class="listo"> <ol><li><strong>Psychological Transfer:</strong> Encourage followers to psychologically transfer divine qualities and goals onto you, so that both you and your customers are locked into a dynamic system of projection. This way the teacher maintains his or her role as an awakened one, and his or her students maintain their roles as the unawakened ones. You must always keep your students in line by dismissing any show spiritual autonomy as this will only encourage others to believe that they can do without you. The other approach is to inflate yourself to the top end of the spiritual master spectrum — to a full avatar or God's right hand wo/man — which will forever lock your clients in the student role (apart from the odd one that thinks that he or she actually is God).</li><li><strong>Fashion and style:</strong> First impressions are everything in marketing and so your presentation as a spiritual teacher is very important. The first thing a potential customer is going to see is the outer package, so this has to fit with the image expected by the target audience. So if you are going after more alternative lovely-dovey followers, non-conventional attire is required such as white, yellow or orange robes, or a purple, blue, black or white silk shirt; long-hair/shaved head; crystal jewellery; and bare-feet or simple sandals or walking shoes. Alternatively, if you are going after a more corporate audience then you might consider dressing in bespoke dark suit, tie and white shirt, black dress shoes and an expensive watch. It is important to get into the minds of the target audience and really understand their expectations and what they are comfortable with and, more importantly, not comfortable with. Get it wrong, and you could end up with just your cat as a follower; get it right and a whole lucrative organization will form around you.</li><li><strong>Name change:</strong> Changing your name to an exotic sounding one is very important in presenting yourself as a spiritual master. After all "John Smith" does not carry the same weight as something like "Shivananda" or "Mountain Blue Ray". Names should ideally be reflective of the the type of spiritual teaching that you give. So if you are teaching concepts that originated in India, it might appear more authentic to your followers to have an Indian name, whereas if you are teaching concepts that come from South America, using an appropriate South American name is important.</li><li><strong>Nationality:</strong> If you originate from a country far different from the one in which you plan to teach, you have an important advantage in being a successful spiritual teaching. For Westerners, this means that any connections with places like South/Middle American, India, Tibet, Africa, the Far East or any Pacific Island can be very important in your marketing campaign. Having indigenous roots (no matter how tenuous) could mean the difference between success and failure. This is because, to most people, spirituality is seen as something special that comes from outside the confines of their society, so trading on any heritage that places you as an outsider can be very effective. And if you don't have those roots, don't worry, you can always upgrade your spiritual resume by traveling to India or South America and getting adopted by some traditional or native teacher/tradition. (If you can't get any one's attention, just throw around some money. It works a treat in poor countries and you will soon find yourself revered as a spiritual master.) This marketing angle can also be aided by a name change mentioned above. Alternatively, you can claim that you are from far outside this culture but then incarnated into it to teach (a "walk-in" perhaps). Alternatively, you can keep giving retreats in exotic places: not only will you make a greater profit, but some of the exoticness of these teaching locations will rub off on you and your teachings.</li><li><strong>Behaviour</strong>: Spiritual people are generally regarded as very peaceful and loving, so ideally, you have to behave this way all the time, at least in public. The problem with constantly trying to be peaceful and loving is that you end up with a huge unexpressed psychological shadow of all those qualities you try not to express, and so you can often have episodes of acting like a complete jerk (preferably behind closed doors). Fortunately, if such behaviour becomes public it can be justified by presenting it in the context of "crazy wisdom", presenting imbalance and erratic behaviour as a valuable lesson in non-attachment to expectations regarding the teacher. One marketing technique that is becoming increasingly popular today is to just sit and stare at the audience way beyond what is considered comfortable in modern society, and in this way you give maximum space for your audience to project the inner spiritual images onto you, catalyzing a strong attachment. It is amazing how wise we can appear if we just keep out mouths shut!</li><li><strong>Vocabulary and Phraseology:</strong> Most people listening to you will be listening from the heart and not the head (usually with a wistful and/or far-away look in the eyes). Therefore, when speaking to audiences you don't have to actually say anything particularly meaningful because the message itself is not actually that important. For example, you could be talking about your dog and how important it is to give him the right food, and your students will be nodding their heads in thinking that it is somehow an analogy about making sure they give themselves the right spiritual food. So the story itself is not important and does not have to make sense. Even contradictions are okay because they illustrate the paradoxical nature of the spiritual path. Words and phrases that are important to drop into your presentations, to keep the audience impressed, include: "oneness", "infinite love", "loving ourselves", "loving what is", "we deserve", "meditation", "quantum ******", "non-duality", "opening the heart", "letting go", "being yourself", "finding what is true", "authenticity", "opening the chakras", "touching the void", "reaching within", "connecting", "opening the heart", "advaita", "it is simple", "everything is inside". You should also sprinkle your presentations with foreign words and phrases to give your teaching an exotic edge, throwing the weight of religious/spiritual tradition behind you. (This is not to imply that these words and phrases do not have profound meaning, only that they can be used merely to pep-up spiritual presentations.)</li><li><strong>Self-Confidence and Charisma:</strong> Nothing is more attractive to potential customers than if have or can develop an abundance of self-confidence and charisma (a certain amount of narcissism is very attractive). You want your customers to fall in love with you. Egos love these qualities, and most people will choose a confident, egotistical teacher over one that is not so sure of him or herself. You must have the self-confidence not only in yourself as a teacher but also in your teachings. Never show doubt or admit to not knowing something. If you don't know what to say to your customers then just remain silent and let them project their hopes and dreams on to you. If they ask a question you cannot answer, just turn it back to them and tell them to answer it themselves. The benefit of displaying such confidence to your students is that you dupe them into believing that the mind can hold truth. This makes it far harder for them to escape the clutches of conceptualisation, thus trapping them as your students (students with a profound acceptance of their own ignorance can wake up and walk off, so best to bind them in the surety of conceptual truth). A good sense of humour is also very helpful in attracting customers.</li><li><strong>Comprehensive Teaching Materials and Opportunities:</strong> With<sup>*</sup> a constant stream of videos, lectures and lecture recordings, guided meditations, books, internet updates and weekend courses and holiday retreats in exotic locations, you can make a very good living. Remember, when you have someone first hooked on your teachings, rule number one is to up-sell, rule number two is to up-sell, and rule number three is to up-sell. This cannot be stressed enough as people can get bored and move to another teacher, or become awakened and no longer need your services, so you need to sell them the complete enlightenment package before they lose interest in you. To do this, constant self-marketing is vital, especially online methods such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook. A monthly newsletter (both paper and online) or even magazine is also vital to keep individuals in the fold, as well as regular "satsang" meetings and video/audio downloads. Customers have to have plenty of opportunity to become totally dependent on you and your message.</li><li><strong>Lineage and Direct Transmission:</strong> This is important in order to keep your customers. If they believe that the teacher and the teacher alone energetically transmits spiritual awakening from a long successful lineage of transmitters (an idea that is popular with Hindus and Buddhists) then they are unlikely to take the core of the teaching and run with it themselves. Even secret teachings, after all, can be easily uncovered by a Google search. So if you want your followers to stick around, focus most be transferred from the teachings to the teacher, so that followers will hang around waiting for enlightenment to be bestowed. Lineages can be contrived or genuine: what matters is the perception of them. Whether direct or contrived, spiritual lineages give you the spiritual authority of a spiritual heritage. If you don't have a lineage, a modest amount of money can buy spiritual patronage in any poor country.</li><li><strong>Pseudo-Objective Corroboration:</strong> If you have the creative nous, formulate a pseudo-objective evaluation systems to "calibrate" levels of truth. This can be applied by something as simple as dowsing or muscle testing. You can then calibrate yourself and your teaching at the highest end of the scale, giving your customers "objective" reasons for buying your books, videos and CDs. In this way, you end up lifting yourself by your own bootstraps — an accepted feat in the spiritual marketplace. It is remarkable how many people fall for these sorts of self-corroborations because they are in ego-mind. The ego loves calibration systems or scales because they justify comparison and judgment — the lifeblood of the egoic mind. And to make these fantasy-systems complete, just calibrate critics of your system as low on the scale so as not to be worthy of attention.</li><li><strong>Promoting the Rareness of Spiritual Awakening:</strong> This is important for you to do as it will keep your customers customers. After all, if they believe that enlightenment is so rare that it may not happen until the next life, your students will not be disappointed when it does not happen quickly (and it won't because such beliefs are self-sabotaging) and will just keep coming back to you for more teaching. Remember that customers who awaken are customers who are lost, so it is very important to plant the seeds of failure early on. Fortunately, the prevailing belief in spiritual communities is that enlightenment is very rare indeed (but like the lottery which has similar odds, seems to be endlessly captivating).</li><li><strong>Extraordinary Powers:</strong> You don't have to actually be psychic or a healer to use this marketing tool. All you need to do is have a few close followers spread rumours about your magical and mystical feats — how you healed so and so etc. Everyone is looking for an energetic handout so any chance to be "healed" will be taken. And remember, everyone is going to want you to have magical powers, so you don't actually have to be that convincing to be convincing. Always remember that the guru is the ultimate placebo effect, and the placebo effect can be very powerful indeed. Also, if you can sit in mediation for 48-hours or go without food for a month, if you can administer shakti pot or manifest vibhuti, all that will help to bring in the punters. You may even able to market themselves on the back of extraordinary levels of love, so that just the promise of a simple hug is enough to attract crowds of followers.</li><li><strong>Third-Party Endorsements</strong>: The New Age / New Consciousness is a close-knit community with different teachers endorsing each others books and teachings. This is usually operated on a tit-for-tat basis whereby endorsements are reciprocated for marketing purposes. This way, even the most contrived of teachers can come with very high recommendations. (One New Age teacher even has an endorsement by Mother Theresa on one of his books, although no proof of such an endorsement has ever been made public.) Another thing that will give you great spiritual credibility is to get a picture of yourself with a spiritual leader such as the Dalai Lama and reproduce it in your book and on your website. This will certainly pay dividends in your spiritual marketing.</li><li><strong>Build up a Hierarchy of Followers:</strong> Hierarchical access to the teacher is important when the teacher become more successful because it separates the teacher from the bulk of his or her students. This makes it much easier to maintain the spiritual front for the majority. Those in the inner sanctum have so much time and money invested at this point that it doesn't matter if they see the halo slip a bit behind closed doors. In fact, they will often conspire to keep private the unsavoury behaviour of their teacher, convincing themselves that the teacher is beyond normal human morality. Hierarchies are also much better control structures that can lock people into an organisation because "rank" gives them spiritual status, something they are unlikely to want to give up easily. The other advantage of hierarchy is that wealthy customers can buy access by making large donations.</li><li><strong>Start an Educational/Charitable Foundation:</strong> This allows you to look like a real do-gooder and will really open your customers' wallets. You can talk about the need for a better world and by telling your customer base how your spiritual message can really make a difference, you can use these charitable donations to support yourself as well. These types of money making exercises when thought through properly can offer substantial tax breaks. Ideally, such foundations should be set up in poor developing countries to garner the most sympathy, and perhaps offer off-shore tax status.</li><li><strong>Open an Ashram or Spiritual Centre:</strong> This adds credibility to your organization by literally placing it on the map. And the good things is that, in league with 14) above, it should be possible to get your customers' donations to cover the entire cost. Once a centre is built, you can then more economically run weekend retreats and spiritual workshops without having to pay expensive hotel/hall rates. And by having a fixed place you really can build up a strong residential core of followers that will bring in a lot more people. And of course the ultimate is to have a spiritual center in some kind of holiday destination or spiritual-mecca destination.</li><li><strong>Website:</strong> It is now vital for any 21st Century master to have a web presence. The domain name should probably be your spiritual name and should be a ".org", which will associate yourself with non-profits and other do-good organizations. The website should have a lot of close-up photos of you looking very spiritual (you know what I mean) and offer tasters for the different talks that you have given. The full versions of your talks and retreats should be available in the shopping part of your site as either downloads or CDs/DVDs. The website should also sell pictures of you and other related paraphernalia.</li><li><strong>Multiply Yourself But Retain Control:</strong> The fact that you are just one person limits your ability to directly teach others, especially if you have proprietary/secret spiritual techniques. So it is important, once you have grown your organization and or spiritual teaching, to multiply yourself, so that your trusty inner circle of customers can go and and repeat what you are doing, not for themselves but for the good of you, your centre and your spiritual message. Think of it as a franchising scheme where you cream the profits.</li><li><strong>Donation vs Set Price:</strong> This is a difficult one, a bit like whether to set a reserve on an Ebay item. If you don't, you could end up with very little, but chances are that donation will outstrip cost. Donations make you look far better as it distances yourself from the world of commerce. In some instances, such as weekend retreats in hotels or centres that need to be booked, set prices may have to be used, but try to generally keep to donational contributions as you will look a lot more authentically spiritual. You can also have a "recommended donation" or "suggested donation" amount to make guilt people into giving more, as well as making sure that someone is always standing right by the donation box to witness your customers generosity.</li><li><strong>Supplementary Sales:</strong> It is not just your teachings that you can market but also your energetic vibration. Apart from pictures of yourself, you can also flog crystals, energized water, pendants, key-rings and other items imbued with your visage/spiritual vibration. These can can be marketed to help develop devotion, protection, success (in finance and relationships), healing, awakening, or whatever.</li><li><strong>Reward Sycophantic Followers:</strong> Keep telling your most ardent followers how fantastically they are doing on the spiritual path so that you feed their spiritual egos. This will give them an ego-investment in staying loyal to you and your teachings, and together they will become an effective controllers for the rest of your followers. This way, your inner circle of devotees end up having a huge emotional investment in making sure that, even when your halo slips occasionally as it inevitably will, that you will be picked up and put you back on the guru pedestal.</li></ol> </div> <p class="centre_z" align="left"> * * * </p>[*: the original article writes `without' but I believe this to be a simple error]<br />[this was part two, part three (final part) is the next post on this blog]<br /></div> </div>franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-30259396958208991662010-11-29T13:28:00.006+01:002010-11-29T14:06:04.698+01:00Spiritual marketing techniques 1: So you wanna be a spiritual teacherI recently came across a wonderful article called `Spiritual marketing techniques', written by <a href="http://www.zeropoint.org/">Andrew P</a> on <a href="http://www.energygrid.com/spirit/2009/10ap-spiritualmarketing.html">Energygrid</a>.<br /><br />It is quite lengthy for a web article, but I will reproduce it in 3 parts. (Kind permission is granted by Energygrid).<br />Part one: So you want to be a spiritual teacher<br />Part two: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachers<br />Part three: Techniques for promoting spiritual teachings<br /><br />[This post is part one.]<br /><br /><div id="mainContent"> <div class="titlebox"> <h1><span style="font-size:100%;">Spiritual Marketing Techniques<br /><span class="author">Andrew P—10/2009</span></span> </h1> </div> <h5>An examination of methods used to market spiritual teachers and teachings. Whether you are an authentic spiritual teacher or just playing the guru-game, there is good money to be made in active spiritual marketing.</h5> <p><strong><span class="dropcap">S</span>O YOU WANT TO BE A SPIRITUAL TEACHER? </strong>You want to have your own paying customers who look to you for inspiration and spiritual support? Why not? Always remember there are many people just like you who have done it very successfully, and you don't actually have to be that awakened or enlightened. All you generally need is to understand and apply spiritual marketing. It really couldn't be simpler. Whether you are someone who had a flash of inspiration on a bus, a simple meditation or yoga teacher, or a fully-fledged guru, these techniques will help you to be more successful by increasing your customer base and your income.</p> <p>Spirituality is something that many of those in the New Age and New Consciousness movements focus upon. These individuals want to be spiritual because they have a yearning for a more meaningful life than the one officially sanctioned by society, and they have a strong disdain for the limitations of ordinary material perspectives. After all, spirituality usually offers inner happiness; unlimited love; physical, emotional and mental healing and wholeness; and even the ability to create our own realities — having anything and everything we want (even that Ferrari). No wonder spirituality is such a popular buy! </p> <p align="left">New Age spirituality is currently one of the huge growth industries (and has been since the 60s/70s), an industry that is worth countless millions in annual turnover as individuals, reaching the limits of what they feel society can offer them, reach forward into what spirituality can offer. After all, why settle for the house, the car, the TV set, the family and the food on the table when we can add to these inner fulfillment, God's love, a place in the afterlife, a magical ability to manifest things and events, and even physical immortality? </p> <p align="left">The thing about spirit is that you can't see it, touch it, hear it, smell it or taste it. Spirit is formless and ephemeral, and so just about anything and everything can be said about it and attributed to it (and has been). Because of this, it is a marketer's dream: it costs nothing to produce; it is in infinite supply; a large percentage of the population wants some of it, especially in desperate times; and it can be packaged in any way desired without risk of trade descriptions legislation. Not only that, but what makes it especially valuable is that spiritual awakening is usually considered a one-way process, making it a one-in-all-lifetimes' purchase. In other words, spirituality is the perfect commodity.</p> <p align="left">Consider the mapmaker analogy: When you promote your spiritual philosophies you are really promoting maps of a mysterious territory called "spirit". The thing about spirit is that it is invisible to the mind, the senses and the emotions, and so the general public are in the habit of buying maps of this mysterious place from the explorers who claim to have been there — and that includes you. The fact that the territory is actually unmappable is an in-house secret; most people just do not want to believe this. Whilst spiritual maps were culturally integrated for most of human history — basically there was no choice in the matter — today with the burgeoning to cultural and religious freedoms, at least in the West, there are numerous maps now on offer. And you want to be one of those people with a successful trade in your particular spiritual map or maps.</p> <p align="left">The only snag, of course, is credibility. If spirit cannot be experienced objectively because it is formless, how do you convince your customer base that it exists as you have described it, let alone that it exists at all?</p> <p align="left">Fortunately, there are a multitude of ways to do this that have resulted in the success of many different teachers and gurus. You can't convince everybody, so do not even try, but you can convince those who are open to being convinced (for whatever reason). To be successful, you should market both yourself as the teacher and your teachings.</p> <p align="left">Below are listed some of the marketing techniques that have been successfully used. Some of these you might feel are too transparently marketing techniques, but always remember that the type of customer you are trying to attract is pushing for a relationship with a teacher — your target audience is more open and gullible than you could imagine — and will actually thank you for hooking them even with the most obvious marketing techniques. Remember, there will always be people you will NEVER convince so don't even try to set your sights on convincing closed-minded, rational people; it is a complete waste of time and resources.</p> <p align="left">Although there is overlap between the marketing techniques used on the teacher and the teaching, they will be listed separately for clarity. </p> <p class="centre_z" align="left">* * * </p>[to be continued in part two, next post on this blog]<br /> </div>franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-42872476333771859482010-04-16T13:19:00.007+02:002011-09-18T23:05:56.087+02:00False gurus and spiritual energy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-on0GgFNO635nuZPkHMvHXaQy0D2hYghZBJoMcmqNlXPTcv3yDbJIaOlkLi2NGRZkbMPLgA68yk8t4xulmEr8FwelXwwJ0CWnS-JTJEtqANzGUxAMMTmpLaKZE-0O9mMNaiFLa4a78zC/s800/falseguru_2k.jpg"><img alt="frank waaldijk, the false guru and his Divine Energy (drawing, 2010)" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_-on0GgFNO635nuZPkHMvHXaQy0D2hYghZBJoMcmqNlXPTcv3yDbJIaOlkLi2NGRZkbMPLgA68yk8t4xulmEr8FwelXwwJ0CWnS-JTJEtqANzGUxAMMTmpLaKZE-0O9mMNaiFLa4a78zC/s800/falseguru_2k.jpg" border="0" width="400"/><br /></a><br /><span style="font-size:92;"><em>The false guru and his Divine Energy</em> (own work, 2010)</span><br /><br />From time to time, people correspond to me about this blog via email. One of these exchanges, coupled with some comments made by people on this blog, prompted me to draw yet another `false guru' drawing, see above. Because obviously, there are many different false gurus all employing some form of `spiritual energy' to draw followers, and to assert their own Special Status. <br /><br />In the drawing, one sees the false guru emanating his Special Unique Divine Energy (Cosmic Consciousness, Divine Awareness, whatever). This was somewhat discussed in previous posts on `spiritual energy' (pitfall 16), but I believe I may have left out a certain important angle.<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />The thing is, certain meditation techniques really work, in my not so humble opinion (imnsho). Therefore, imnsho, it is possible for people to develop certain altered states of consciousness, and I even believe this can be felt by others.<br /><br />Now, some individuals have more talent in this field than others. And some of those spend a great deal of time to develop themselves in this field. None of this is in any sense reason for precautions.<br /><br />This changes, when a certain individual who has so developed her/himself, starts claiming that the particular technique used is `Divine' or concerns `Divine energy', and that the only practical way to reach such a Divine State is through the help of this individual, the Guru, and Her/His Technique.<br /><br />Suddenly, a whole different ballgame is being played. Because now, if we accept this premisse, surely our guru must be as close to Divine as is humanly possible. Therefore, this guru must be a Very Good and Ultimately Loving Person, and have Divine Knowledge as well, and...(fill in any of our human conceptions about `Divine').<br /><br />Imnsho, a false guru plays upon these expectations, and uses them to enhance her/his Specialness, her/his Moral Authority, the need for Obedience, etc. etc.<br /><br />Yet how reasonable are these expectations?<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />One could compare it even to mathematics (bear with me here for a short while). In a sense, one could really make a case for saying that mathematics is a divine language, and that higher levels of mathematics bring about altered states of consciousness. Mathematics is the language used to describe reality and predict events in a way which our long-ago forebears would surely think of as `divine' and `superhuman'.<br /><br />Some individuals have more talent than most, and in devoting a lot of time and effort, they reach levels of mathematics that mere mortals can only dream of. These are Special Mathematicians.<br /><br />Does that necessarily make these individuals kind, caring, `good' people? Do they have Divine Knowledge? Should they be obeyed in moral matters, in any matter? Can one of them be the Unique Person from which you can learn mathematics?<br /><br />Of course not. They have mastered certain mind levels, using certain techniques, applying advanced levels of concentration, and devoting an incredible amount of effort and time. That is all. If one wishes to learn mathematics on those levels, it is probably wise to study their teachings, but history has shown convincingly that there is no such thing as a unique approach for mathematics. Many ways lead to Rome. <br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />Back to our false gurus with the `enhanced consciousness' / `spiritual energy'. Does the mastery of certain meditation techniques, a certain stillness of the mind, a certain `energy' if you like, give any guarantee that the person who has achieved this mastery is indeed `good', kind, caring, wise, spiritual, ...?<br /><br />Personally I don't think so. Science has shown that meditation affects human brains, and brings about different brainwave patterns. Mastering these `energy' techniques might be not so easy, and some have more talent than others. But still, it is an effect which has been widely observed for different techniques and very different people practicing such technique.<br /><br />There is in other words, nothing `divine' about it - apart from the `divine' mystery which envelops all of Reality.<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />Now you might think that I am a skeptic with regard to `enhanced awareness' and `superhuman knowledge' and things like that. You are then mostly correct, but I also allow for `strange' phenomena which might or might not have an explanation in contemporary science.<br /><br />Even the apparent mastery of or access to such `strange' phenomena does not give ANY guarantee that the person in question is a good, spiritual, loving, ...etc..., person. Let alone that such a person should be `Divine'.<br /><br />Let me give yet another example.<br /><br />From scientific experiments, it seems that there is a possibility that humans can look a little into the immediate future. From experiments with cards and other images, it seems that many people can anticipate around 3 seconds ahead of time, what type of card they will be dealt, or what kind of image they will be shown. Not with 100% success rate, but yet with more success than average statistics would predict. <br /><br />Science as of yet has no explanation for this phenomenon. We could easily call it Mystical. Divine! (if you remember that ` to divine' means to guess correctly...).<br /><br />No doubt some people are better at this than others. Successful poker players might be found to have elevated potential in this respect...<br /><br />Does that make these people Divine?<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />To finish, I am somewhat amazed at how often these pitfall mechanisms occur in many many different spiritual movements. Imnsho, `simple' spirituality suffices for our planet. Anyone can if they wish learn to be kind, loving, connected, concerned for others' well-being and the well-being of nature. We do not, I believe, need any `divine' energy for this. And we certainly don't need false gurus, if you ask me.<br /><br />&&&&&&[later addition on 17 April:]<br /><br />There is one more aspect of this which I forgot to mention above. And some might therefore misinterpret what I'm trying to say, and dismiss it out of hand as being altogether biased against all `spiritual' methods. <br /><br />However, I don't feel biased against all `spiritual' methods. One could say: well, some forms of meditation calm the mind and help diminish the inner disbalance which so frequently leads to unkind/uncaring/selfish etc. behaviour. There is some merit in that statement, I believe.<br /><br />And of course someone who really strives to develop her/himself as a kind caring connected person, and who does so unsanctimoniously, is bound to become a `spiritual' person, if you ask me.<br /><br />So, among the many gurus of this world, I have no doubt that there will be quite a number of `spiritual' persons. And this type of spirituality can inspire, and be of help to others looking to develop similar spirituality in themselves.<br /><br />So when does the term `false guru' start to apply? It applies like stated above, when things are made Absolute. When mind-calming techniques are made Divine, and proclaimed as belonging Uniquely to the Movement, when altered states of consciousness are associated with Divine Energy, when the Guru becomes Infallible, and -whatever She or He does- is Always Spiritual, beyond the criticism and understandig of mere mortals...<br /><br />And like I said, this happens far more often than one would think likely.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-28228823820502876372010-01-01T20:00:00.001+01:002011-01-02T20:52:31.549+01:00New year's wish to all<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwK5377SUtRCKugcKtSQKMAYDRonReMG9VTSF-dSkVWdxzi7Cs-TMLQzsEaA3FtDCifR36S1NHslzYpzk03giBABdDKGVvtwHzHfs2Hbg19YBd3GZnrslaomWEHXh8X8FA4lWwLHOab5hh/s1600/newyear2010_defzs.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwK5377SUtRCKugcKtSQKMAYDRonReMG9VTSF-dSkVWdxzi7Cs-TMLQzsEaA3FtDCifR36S1NHslzYpzk03giBABdDKGVvtwHzHfs2Hbg19YBd3GZnrslaomWEHXh8X8FA4lWwLHOab5hh/s1600/newyear2010_defzs.jpg" alt="new year's wish 2010" border="0" width="400" /></a><br /><br />(click on the image for an enlargement)franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-87262639937428807232009-11-12T16:30:00.005+01:002009-11-12T19:24:56.885+01:00Cognitive dissonance 7: boundary control (end of thread)So let's finish with the three yet-undiscussed elements of boundary control that I perceive to be used often in spiritual movements by their Inner Circle:<br /><br />2) Limiting contact with `outside' world views<br />3) Blackening of former followers<br />6) Limiting free discussion between members, that is discussion which is not in some way controlled or influenced by Inner Circle orthodoxy.<br /><br />(the other elements being:<br />1) Intensive recruiting of new followers (see previous post)<br />4) Partial truth & secrets (already discussed intensively in earlier posts)<br />5) Stressing the need to forego rationality (likewise already discussed))<br /><br />%%%%%%<br /><br />ad 2): There are various ways for the Inner Circle of a spiritual movement to limit contact of the followers with the broader societal views. Clearly, physical separation is frequently seen, by creating communes and the like. But Marc Galanter's book gives several examples which are more subtle. From my own experience with Sahaj Marg, I remember that various law suits in which SRCM is involved are being kept largely from the followers. As well as the fact that there are sizable dissenting factions which claim (with more than passing credibility) that the guru-succession in SRCM on the death of its founder has been a vicious power struggle involving decidedly unspiritual manipulation. This is perhaps also a case of 4): Partial truth and secrets. <br /><br />Anyway, the reason for limiting contact with `outside' world views and conflicting information is obvious, as Marc Galanter points out. For a charismatic group to maintain its group identity and group rationale, cognitive dissonance should not become too big. Certain anomalies and contradictions -between the Theory on the one hand and on the other hand the worldly activities of the Movement plus the possible worldly opposition against the Movement- are most easily managed if the followers are largely unaware of their existence. <br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />The motives behind 3) and 6) are of course completely similar. In Sahaj Marg, followers are repeatedly asked by guru P. Rajagopalachari not to create discussion forums on internet, with the reason given that these forums could be targeted by `malicious' individuals (looking to harm SRCM specifically). This of course holds for any discussion forum on the internet. Generally, the pros of a discussion forum outweigh the cons, especially if one takes some simple measures against `trolling'. Therefore, a more likely reason to prohibit these forums is that they are uncontrollable by the Inner Circle, and thus prone to becoming a source of cognitive dissonance. Discussions on whether it is `spiritual' to ask €250 for a book of which the guru says that it is essential for your spiritual progress, for instance...<br /><br />The <span style="font-weight:bold;">internet</span> therefore poses a real problem for Inner Circles wishing to exercise boundary control.<br /><br />Because most spiritual movements have their own publisher's media, such as newsletters, quarterly journals, videos, cd's, books etc. These media are in many if not most cases under rigourous guidelines/supervision by the Inner Circle. Typically therefore, one encounters in say a quarterly journal -say <span style="font-style:italic;">Truth at Home</span> or something similar- lots of positive feedback from both Inner Circle and `ordinary' followers. <span style="font-style:italic;">Truth at Home</span>, like the other publications, so likely becomes an active instrument of the Inner Circle to reinforce the Message. Critical letters, `bad' news, accounting figures, property holdings, etc...are simply not published.<br /><br />But the internet today is easily accessible to all followers. It cannot be controlled by the Inner Circle, yet it also yields results about relatively unimportant and obscure groups - in contrast with the traditional media (books, television, radio, newspapers). So therefore, it can also contain specific criticism against their Movement, small though it may be. Criticism which the Inner Circle cannot edit out or block from reaching followers.<br /><br />This criticism is often the most threatening -like stated in one of the earlier posts on cognitive dissonance- when it comes from (longtime) former followers. Because they are really in the know, and their arguments are often not so easy to dismiss as the more uninformed criticism coming from general society. Often their arguments point out the <span style="font-weight:bold;">fundamental internal inconsistencies</span> in the Movement. (And then, what happens with the child who repeatedly sees different Santas? Who comes across a Santa whose beard accidentally falls off? Who sees Santa drunk, who sees parents sneaking in with presents, ...).<br /><br />One way for the Inner Circle to deal with this particular `former follower' threat is to blacken their character and motives. (Yes, this occurs in all types of organizations, I know. One just would expect this not to happen in a <span style="font-style:italic;">spiritual</span> organization...). As an example, I have been called an `enemy of spirituality' by my former guru P. Rajagopalachari ;-) And with me, all former followers who blog about their experiences with Sahaj Marg. It's funny enough, but I'm not kidding. Still I can't possibly take it very seriously, for me personally I mean.<br /><br />It does beg the question what part of the boundary control is conscious and what part un- or subconscious. Personally, I'm inclined to believe in `good' intentions of most people. This would imply that many Inner Circles have a high level of cognitive dissonance and corresponding avoidance. Indeed Marc Galanter describes this to be very often the case, complete with delusional world views and self-aggrandizement / overimportance / self-proclamation of divinity (direct or indirect) etc.<br /><br />One should not forget that it often takes decades for Inner Circle members to attain their Inner Circle position. Time enough to build up a significant cognitive dissonance avoidance. Also, by the nature of the enormous time & effort investment made, if their position and/or their rationale is threatened one should not be surprised to see them react in what I would deem rather unspiritual ways.<br /><br />Dear reader, to me it seems none of us are free from these mechanisms. But for me, having been at the receiving end of such unspiritual reaction, it has been a great help to analyze the possible motives. This analysis gives me a fresh perspective, and also allows for understanding and forgiveness, on the personal individual level.<br /><br />Then, if all is peace and love now ;-), you might wonder why I still find it necessary to write on this blog from time to time. The answer is still the same simple one that I started out with: it helps me to analyze my experiences, feelings and thoughts, and I find it likely that some other people can benefit from this analysis also. <br /><br />Still, I think it will be quiet on this blog for some time to come, since this particular pitfall (cognitive dissonance avoidance & boundary control) has had enough attention, I believe.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-87164967339535118982009-11-11T19:35:00.002+01:002009-11-11T20:39:04.266+01:00Cognitive dissonance 6: boundary control & Santa ClausSince I'm stuck inside with swine flu (pandemic H1N1/09 officially), why not continue the thread on cognitive dissonance?<br /><br />Still, the following example of boundary control might strike you as ... childish. Consider the common practice of Santa Claus. Most young children in the western world are made to believe that this fairytale figure really exists, and brings them presents around Christmas...provided they've been `good'.<br /><br />To maintain this elaborate charade, adults and older children lie and cheat. Even the television and other media play along. Still, for any child, inevitably the cognitive dissonance of the situation grows to a point where it can no longer be avoided. Sometimes the child finds out for her/himself, sometimes the child is told by others that Santa is in fact a deception. (This can be a disturbing experience, although to many it seems relatively harmless.)<br /><br />But until that moment, the parents (mostly) try to control what information about Santa is available to the child. By keeping secret that they are the ones buying the presents, by asking others to keep silent about the charade, etc. etc.<br /><br />This conscious effort to shield the members of a group from `outside' views and information is part of what I would call `boundary control'. Also part of it are the attempts to explain away inconsistencies, to cover up contradictory activities, to limit interaction with `outsiders'/`unbelievers'/..., etcetera.<br /><br />#######<br /><br />Anyway, it might surprise you that children already have complex motives and mechanisms for avoiding the cognitive dissonance arising from the Santa Claus deception. Be it consciously or not, it turns out that many doubting children are afraid that if they stop believing in Santa Claus, then there will be no more presents and no more fun-time at Christmas.<br /><br />#######<br /><br />But that is not the main issue for this post. We were discussing the Inner Circle of a Spiritual Movement, and its possible conscious efforts to control the doubts and misgivings of the followers of the Movement. In my not so humble opinion, for many if not most spiritual movements (religions included) these doubts and misgivings are often well-founded (see also the list of pitfalls in the sidebar of this blog). <br /><br />Especially charismatic groups cannot function when there is too much visible doubt in the followers or a clear contradiction in the Theory and/or the practice of the Leader/Inner Circle.<br /><br />So let's discuss some of the common forms of boundary control that Inner Circles use:<br /><br />1) Intensive recruiting of new followers<br />2) Limiting contact with `outside' world views<br />3) Blackening of former followers<br />4) Partial truth & secrets (but this was already discussed intensively in previous posts)<br />5) Stressing the need to forego rationality (likewise already discussed in previous posts)<br />6) Limiting free discussion between members, that is discussion which is not in some way controlled or influenced by Inner Circle orthodoxy.<br /><br />$$$$$$<br /><br />Ad 1): a for me striking insight from Galanter's book was his observation, that intensive recruiting of new followers is a conscious instrument used by many charismatic groups to control the cognitive dissonance of existing followers.<br /><br />The mechanism behind this is obvious, once you think about it. In order for a Universal Truth theory to make sense, it must be universally recognizable...If the Theory promises that out of the Movement shall come a New World Order, then it is rather disheartening if after 50 years of intensive proselytization still only one in 50,000 (say) has been attracted to this Truth.<br /><br />So new followers are a boost to the rationality of the whole Movement. `See, what we say makes sense, because how would we attract new people otherwise?'. This mechanism is frequently used by the Inner Circle (I have seen this in my own former spiritual movement Sahaj Marg) in the following way: <br /><br />* The number of followers is reported as much higher than it is in reality.<br />* `Senior' followers are exhorted to devote time and energy to spreading the Message<br />* Growth in numbers is seen as very important and duly rewarded<br />* Decline in numbers is frowned upon, and often blamed on inadequate conduct of members - the attractivity of the Theory is not to be questioned. Members are expected to be shining examples, thereby attracting family and friends.<br /><br />#######<br /><br />To be continued with 2) 3) and 6) from the above list.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-25025263278897574852009-11-06T12:34:00.008+01:002009-11-06T15:07:06.731+01:00Charismatic groups (intermezzo)Once one starts looking for information and studies regarding spiritual movements, there seems to be a vast amount of research and descriptions of experiences. So much so, that I wonder once again if this blog has anything substantial to add.<br /><br />But then again, it won't hurt either to look at these things from a personal perspective of a former follower of a `charismatic group'. Marc Galanter starts out his book with a description and very short definition of this term:<br /><br />A <span style="font-weight:bold;">charismatic group</span> is characterized by the following:<br /><br />1) Members have a shared belief system<br />2) Members sustain a high level of social cohesion<br />3) Members are strongly influenced by the group's behavioural norms<br />4) Members ascribe charismatic (or sometimes divine) power to the group or its leadership <br /><br />Notice that these traits can hold also for non-spiritually-oriented groups. Also notice that for the large religions, most of these traits are watered down due to the large numbers and the diversity of the followers. Which is why the large religions are usually not considered charismatic groups, although they all count various much smaller submovements/subgroups which can be very charismatic. <br /><br />########<br /><br />For the purpose of this blog, it might once again be helpful to list some characteristics of charismatic <span style="font-style:italic;">spiritual</span> groups that I have seen in many descriptions:<br /><br />a) <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gradual introduction/conversion</span> of new members, usually through personal contact, in a family-like setting. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Repeated enhancement of the `family' feeling</span> through spiritual gatherings and other activities, often involving an ashram or other facility where communal living is the norm. <br /><br />b) One's <span style="font-weight:bold;">own physical/spiritual well-being</span> is linked to a <span style="font-weight:bold;">higher noble spiritual Goal</span> (`Meditate, and you will feel better. But also you will help uniting Humanity, and bring about a world where love is the predominant guiding principle.')<br /><br />c) Some <span style="font-style:italic;">special</span> practice, usually involving <span style="font-weight:bold;">some state of altered consciousness</span>. Very frequently this includes some form of meditation. The experiences with and results of this `special' practice are discussed among members, and good things are associated with it. The specialty is stressed from time to time: `other movements do not have this Method' (exclusiveness).<br /><br />d) A <span style="font-weight:bold;">Special Leader</span>, who has a direct Divine connection. His Guidance and Helping Hand are mystic and <span style="font-weight:bold;">beyond rational understanding</span>. `Surrender' is the way for a follower to achieve spiritual progress.<br /><br />e) A <span style="font-weight:bold;">strong behavioural code</span>, together with a lot of <span style="font-weight:bold;">`positive' groupthink</span>. Occasional criticism might be possible, but is made relatively light of. Fundamental criticism of the Leader or the Movement is frowned upon. Positive `witnessing' is encouraged and rewarded [witnessing: relating one's experiences with the Method/Leader and one's resulting insights; `So when I was having a real difficult time in my life, the image of the Leader appeared when I was doing my Morning Prayer. He spoke to me and said: `<span style="font-style:italic;">Be strong, and do not listen to your Ego. Let God do His work on you, do your Practice and have Faith</span>'. So I decided to go to satsangh regularly, and my other problems became lighter!'].<br /><br />f) An <span style="font-weight:bold;">Inner Circle</span> of long-practicing members, who are close to the Leader. Positions in this Inner Circle are coveted, as a sure sign of spiritual progress and the elevated opportunity for direct Guidance from the Leader. Management of the Movement's Organization is organized hierarchically, with the Inner Circle at the top of the Pyramid.<br /><br />Dear reader, if much of the above looks familiar to a movement that you participate(d) in, then it might interest you to know that from many many studies it has been assessed that in such charismatic groups the risks of manipulation and power abuse are manifold.<br /><br />########<br /><br />One thing which strikes me particularly is the element (c) above: the <span style="font-style:italic;">special practice</span>. Often it is some form of meditation (prayer, chanting) which can both be done individually and in a group. <br /><br />The altered state of consciousness arising from meditation is well-documented, even scientifically. Generally, mental health benefits are associated with many forms of meditation (that doesn't mean that all forms of meditation are beneficial to everyone, and like stated in <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/2008/09/bliss-pain-spiritual-energy-meditation.html">this previous post on spiritual energy</a> the human brain is still largely uncharted territory). Many charismatic groups however claim these benefits as being uniquely due to their Method.<br /><br />But more importantly, the altered state of consciousness is often used to `prove' the Leader's specialness (and the Movement's specialness) and to underscore the need to let go of rationality. Therefore the `transcendental' experiences are often used to manage the cognitive dissonance which can arise out of internal contradictions of the Movement/Theory/Inner-Circle-Behaviour.<br /><br />A frequently occurring advice when followers are experiencing doubts and start asking critical questions: `Meditate more. Don't try to understand with the mind. You must <span style="font-style:italic;">feel</span> what is right. Especially since God cannot be found with the mind, but only through the heart.'...or something similar. <br /><br />(to be continued with the thread on `Cognitive dissonance and boundary control')franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-81225473728932859092009-11-05T12:24:00.006+01:002009-11-05T14:49:54.488+01:00Cognitive dissonance 5: boundary control and Inner CircleContinued from the previous post, which ended with: <br /><blockquote>This forming of some kind of `family feeling' is very common in spiritual movements, religious groups included. What Marc Galanter describes as boundary issues, concerns the interaction between that `family' and the rest of society.</blockquote><br />On rereading, it appears that Galanter only uses the term `boundary control'. I'm glad however to have used `boundary issues' previously, since I associate boundary <span style="font-style:italic;">control</span> more specifically with <span style="font-style:italic;">conscious management</span> of the boundary issues. Galanter uses a systems-theoretical approach for <span style="font-weight:bold;">charismatic groups</span>; for him `control' can be brought about in and by a group on the human subconscious level also [an interesting and valid approach, I believe. I will come back to the term `charismatic group'].<br /><br />$$$$$$$<br /><br />Anyway. To resume: the vast majority of spiritual movements (religions included) make a marked distinction between followers and non-followers. In my not so humble opinion this already casts a strange light on any claim by such movement that uniting humanity is one of their goals. Yet such or similar claims are very common to these spiritual movements. This is just one example of cognitive dissonance avoidance, but I repeat it because I believe it to be a telling example.<br /><br />Telling in the sense that the <span style="font-style:italic;">need</span> for some `separate' group structure is so strong, that the resulting logical contradiction between goal (`uniting humanity') and behaviour (dividing humanity) is blocked from perception - cognitive dissonance avoidance.<br /><br />Why does the need to form a `separate group' arise? It is precisely to maintain a certain set of beliefs, in the face of a surrounding society which challenges these beliefs. And the more the movement's beliefs differ from what general society holds as normal, the stronger the need for reinforcement of the movement's beliefs through a close-group mechanism.<br /><br />And even stronger, when the movement's beliefs start becoming self-contradictory or unlikely to the point of self-delusion. Because then, even a relatively neutral outsider can point out: `but the Emperor is naked!'. <br /><br />&&&&&&&<br /><br />So, it is in this light that I would like to discuss `boundary control'. <br /><br />And let me start with a perhaps unexpected example from history. One would say that Christianity is supposed to be a spiritual movement centered around the love for humanity. So how would it strike you if a high and undisputed Church authority would pass the death penalty on the complete population of the Netherlands, with the expectation of it being carried out as well? <br /><br />It simply beggars belief, yet it is exactly what took place on 16 February, 1568. The Inquisition condemned the entire populace of the Netherlands (around 3 million people at that time I believe) to death, and king Philip II of Spain was all set to have it carried out too. Why? Well, simply put, the Dutch were heretic. They had taken it in their convoluted minds that Catholicism was wrong, and that Protestantism was a better way of looking at Christianity.<br /><br />#######<br /><br />The extreme example above is meant to show to what lengths the Inner Circle of a spiritual movement can be willing to go to protect the Movement. Lutheranism and Calvinism were seriously threatening the Catholic Church's stranglehold on Europe. (And there was a good reason for this: the inner contradictions of Catholicism had become too large, and increasingly impossible to ignore.)<br /><br />In this series on cognitive dissonance avoidance, this is a natural point to mark my difference in looking at individual followers (often kind, loving, concerned people) and the Inner Circle (also individually often kind etc, but somehow so strongly in the grip of maintaining power/control and preserving the Movement that they are willing to twist even the most basic principles of their own Theory to achieve their control and preservation goals).<br /><br />As you can guess, I tend to look on many individual cognitive dissonance situations as being relatively equal from different positions. We all suffer from cognitive dissonance avoidance, I believe. Does any one of us know even in the slightest what this Universe is all about? [OK, I know a majority of people might answer yes to this...but I mean: really?]<br /><br />But I have great difficulty accepting the manipulation schemes which many Inner Circles in Spiritual Movements (religions included) employ to control their followers, and to protect their boundary as a group.<br /><br />(to be continued, with examples)franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-15813795958024269702009-11-01T00:30:00.009+01:002009-11-02T20:35:58.258+01:00Cognitive dissonance 4: former followers & boundary mechanismsLet's continue with discussing possible answers to the second and third question from the previous post, which I repeat here for readability:<br /><br />2) How can the avoidance of cognitive dissonance lead to communication problems between followers of a spiritual movement and non-followers?<br /><br />3) How, personally, can one recognize one's own avoidance of cognitive dissonance, and how that of others? And how to deal with it?<br /><br />$$$$$$$<br /><br />So with regard to question 2, I think it is relevant to note that the body-of-thoughts-and-beliefs of dedicated followers of a particular spiritual movement is often quite different than the body-of-thoughts-and-beliefs of non-followers. And like I said in the previous post, for both sides the problem in communication can lie in the fact that what is logical to the one, is contradictory to the other.<br /><br />If we forget about most established religions for a moment -in most established religions, children are brought up in the religion also-, then strikingly, many followers of newer spiritual movements joined their movement later in life, most likely as an adult, after having first experienced an existence as `normal' non-follower of that movement. Often it is precisely some more-or-less articulated disappointment with that `normal' society which brings them to try out participation in their spiritual movement.<br /><br />This `disappointment' can well be formulated in terms like `spiritual longing', for reasons explained in the previous post. As opposed to the `normal' materialistic or ritualistic/orthodox approaches to life. <br /><br />However, most non-followers have <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> experienced an existence as follower. To me it often seems that they underestimate the benefits of following, and they overestimate the `normal' society -in which we have human neglect, abuse, violence, depravity, isolation, greed, power hunger etc... thankfully with many exceptions, but still dominant enough to shape the world in a seldom peaceful and respectful way. Is it surprising that many followers of a spiritual movement often dismiss the arguments against following from non-followers? It is in a sense less surprising, I believe, than that many non-followers often dismiss the arguments fór following from followers...;-)<br /><br />There is however an interesting group of non-followers whose arguments cannot be so easily dismissed by followers: the former followers, especially those who participated for quite some time. People who know the Movement well, who know the Theory, the Practice, the Pyramid, the Inner Circle and the Leader. And who of course also know quite some followers on a personal basis. Probably or possibly there are some other non-followers who are well-informed, well-experienced, and well-connected to followers. For brevity's sake consider them included when the term `former followers' is used.<br /><br />########<br /><br />So, it is my personal experience that it is easier for followers to completely avoid talking with me about most things related to the Movement (in my case Sahaj Marg), but especially on the subject of why I decided to stop with it.<br /><br />Although surprising to me, and initially not pleasant, I found this blanket of silence illuminating. I now think that followers whom I really care for, and who vice versa care for me, see no other way to reconcile the different positions than by adapting the position that I'm an OK person, but am deluded by the foils of my ego. They find it painful to be confronted by the use of my inside knowledge to bring out the discrepancies between the Theory of the Movement and the daily state of affairs. My bringing out the discrepancies causes them to experience cognitive dissonance, precisely because what I have to say in that respect makes too much sense to be easily dismissed.<br /><br />And so I have learned to see this silence as a sign of their caring for me, which I appreciate. Still, I would of course like more to be able to discuss things out in the open. Perhaps I would learn about my own ego foils then too - no doubt they exist, and are seen sharply by the people who know me best.<br /><br />#######<br /><br />This gives us a straight lead to question 3: <span style="font-style:italic;">How, personally, can one recognize one's own avoidance of cognitive dissonance, and how that of others? And how to deal with it?</span><br /><br />Once again I have to say that I do not know anything even close to a complete answer to this question. To recognize my own avoidance of cognitive dissonance, I think both the heart-approach and the mind-approach which I mentioned at the closing of <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/2009/10/cognitive-dissonance-2-mind-heart.html">this previous post</a> might sometimes be helpful:<br /><br />Heart-approach: I think part of the answer lies in `unease'. If I'm experiencing some form of unease for a prolonged period of time, then this could well be an indication that I'm avoiding some insights and some conclusions which would force me to change my belief system. (Accepting this unease for a prolonged period of time might well lead me to a serious form of self-delusion, I believe). <br /><br />Mind-approach: `face the facts'. Making a factual list of the important issues, I might be able to pierce through the cognitive dissonance avoidance mechanism. <br /><br />(For me it sometimes helps to make an alternative fact list. By this I mean a list of alternatives to what I perceive as problematic. For example: what if there were more recognized Guides in the Movement, instead of just one Leader? So that a Guide would be truly accessible for all seekers, and there would be far less personal idolatry etc. OK, if this seems better, then why isn't it like that in the Movement? Does not the Theory state that everyone can become a Master, and that the Method is simple and efficacious....so why aren't there more Masters, after all these years?...)<br /><br />#######<br /><br />Recognizing the avoidance of cognitive dissonance in others seems so much easier ;-). I recently came across a really funny postcard stating:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Be reasonable...do it my way!</span><br /><br />It made me laugh because of its utter simple and yet accurate description of what I consider to be at the root of most of our world's problems.<br /><br />However, if I think to be wise enough to spot cognitive dissonance avoidance in someone else, perhaps this can help me in changing my strategy for communicating with that other person. Perhaps I might consider finding some other level of communicating than that of rational argumentation. Or perhaps I might just switch to asking some neutral-in-tone questions, not meant per se to convince but more to illustrate my own position. Or perhaps I might want to discuss only simple facts, which can be easily recognized for what they are.<br /><br />Or, a different strategy which I fear is the most common: avoid the subject altogether...which is however not usually my initial style with people whom I really care for. Still, in my eyes it seldom helps to harden positions and go into verbal battlemode. Changing belief systems is a slow process, at least for me, so probably for others too. Why not give ourselves and each other time?<br /><br />&&&&&&&&<br /><br />The above also describes what Marc Galanter calls `boundary issues' (if I remember correctly). Many spiritual movements consider themselves separate from `normal' society in some way (also see the posts on the pitfall <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/search?q=%22us%20and%20them%22">Us and Them</a>).<br /><br />To give an interesting example: in Sahaj Marg participants are encouraged to <span style="font-style:italic;">know all people as thy brethren and treat them as such.</span> This no doubt has helped bring about that participants are used to start talks with words like `dear brothers and sisters'. But also, unconsciously, to bring about that the words `brother(s)' and `sister(s)' are often being used exclusively to indicate other Sahaj Marg participants like in the sentence: `our brothers and sisters in the United States are all very happy that Master is coming to visit'.<br /><br />Now, to me it seems obviously impossible that all the people in the United States are happy that the Master of Sahaj Marg is coming to visit. So the statement can only be read as to imply that `brothers' and `sisters' are particularly those USA residents who also practice Sahaj Marg. So Sahaj Marg promotes a family feeling among participants (also quite explicitly in speeches and texts), but thereby <span style="font-style:italic;">excluding the rest of humanity</span>, in direct contradiction with their own maxim 6: `Know all people as thy brethren and treat them as such.' In other words: not uniting humanity as is their stated intention, but dividing it. And being blind to the division, I would wager, because it is not out of malice or lack of empathy or lack of concern for others. <br /><br />This forming of some kind of `family feeling' is very common in spiritual movements, religious groups included. What Marc Galanter describes as boundary issues, concerns the interaction between that `family' and the rest of society.<br /><br />This will be the focus of the next post, to be continued therefore. Still, I feel that there is not longer much more for me to say on this subject, so maybe one or two posts and then I will be done with it.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-28868561347059661802009-10-29T18:16:00.007+01:002014-01-27T09:05:24.787+01:00Cognitive dissonance 3: followers and non-followersDear reader, you might wonder where the theme of cognitive dissonance is headed. To summarize, I am trying to focus on the following questions:<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">1) How can novices in a spiritual movement be led slowly to accept a situation where facts, theory, practice and behaviour are contradictory, when seen from a rational or even moral point of view (based on common societal rationality/morality, or on the rationality/morality preached by the movement itself)? <br /><br />2) How can the avoidance of cognitive dissonance lead to communication problems between followers of a spiritual movement and non-followers?<br /><br />3) How, personally, can one recognize one's own avoidance of cognitive dissonance, and how that of others? And how to deal with it?</span><br />
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&&&&&&&<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">1) How can novices in a spiritual movement be led slowly to accept a situation where facts, theory, practice and behaviour are contradictory, when seen from a rational or even moral point of view (based on common societal rationality/morality, or on the rationality/morality preached by the movement itself)?</span><br />
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I hope the previous posts covered a lot of the first question. But there is perhaps room for improvement. In Marc Galanter's book (see <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/2009/10/cults-faith-healing-and-coercion-book.html">this post</a>) one can read many interesting accounts of practicants of various spiritual movements.<br />
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Marc Galanter studied their motives also using questionnaires, and one of his results I found remarkable, although Galanter seems to attach a different explanation to it. The result being this: <br />
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Participating in such spiritual movement provides significant stress-relief. Stress-relief from life's difficulties, comfort when life is tough, support from other members, support from the Theory, ... whatever: it works. <br />
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I think participating in such spiritual movement also has quite a few other benefits, like mentioned in earlier posts. Personally I find our society quite materialistic. And there is too little talk and effort to really bring about a world free of war, hunger, ...etc. It was to me a relief to meet so many kind and loving people who also wish to actively help build a better world. Who think and talk about non-materialistic issues, who are willing to work on self-improvement etc. <br />
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So let me repeat in a different way some things stated in earlier posts:<br />
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There is a good reason that many kind and loving people turn to spiritual movements. This reason to me being, that the world outside these movements can hardly be called a kind and loving world, although there are many kind and loving people in it. <br />
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Put yet differently: it is relatively easy to scoff at the many spiritual movements' shortcomings. But such scoffing is hardly fair, if one refuses to see the many and severe shortcomings of the not-spiritually-oriented society.<br />
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%%%%%%%%<br />
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This is why the counterquestion from spiritual movements makes so much sense: <br />
<blockquote>
Look what rationality and materialism has brought society. Look at how we avoid recognizing that the way we exploit the natural resources, and the way we exploit people in far away places, would be considered immoral if we would see it happening in our own backyard. Do you feel spiritually fulfilled in your life? Or are you feeling caught up in the treadmill, the rat race? Do you feel you live like a free loving person, or are you being lived by your fears and materialistic desires? <br />
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How can one free oneself of these mechanisms? Join our Movement, try our Method, meet our Leader, and experience for yourself the transformation.</blockquote>
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<br />
Or something similar. Anyway, suppose you meet kind and caring, interested people, who invite you to try out their spiritual movement -no strings attached. Suppose you are looking for some way to live a more caring, loving, connected existence than that of our modern hardworking individualistic material society. Your critical questions are welcomed, and there are only few requirements of your behaviour. <br />
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Suppose you join, to try it out. Now you start bonding with some of the participants. Gatherings are pleasant in atmosphere, meditations are uplifting, you find that you can talk about real things in life, and few waste their time on the latest Gigabyte-expansion of the iPhone X36gT or what have you.<br />
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You take up the practice, and after some time you notice certain anomalies, discrepancies, contradictions in either Theory or behaviour or practice. But by now, people who you consider friends tell you: `Oh, that is all but words and rational thinking. Not the real essence. Feel with your heart, have faith in the Leader, He is such a radiant wonderful person! When I started out, I had quite some doubts myself. But with one meditation, he cleared my heart, I didn't understand but I felt I had to trust Him all the way.'<br />
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So you decide to try out the heart-approach, and develop faith in this Leader who by now you have met and who seems -albeit from quite some distance as there are many followers all eager to be with Him- to be indeed a loving and very spiritual person. Especially since everyone around is also constantly repeating this, and telling amazing stories about His Grace.<br />
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Over the years, it will not be surprising if you find yourself a member of a close group of kind loving people, with whom you share many of your deeper feelings and insights. <br />
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But what happens if over the years you also come across increasing contradictions? <br />
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* When for instance you are asked slowly but steadily for more and more money? [Where the movement claimed in the beginning that spirituality should be free of charge.] <br />
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* When the Leader starts asking more and more for strict obedience? [Where in the beginning you were given texts stating that critical thought was a requisite for spiritual progress.]<br />
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* When you find that supposedly `very advanced' and long-practising people from the Inner Circle have lied outright to you, and manipulated you in a distinctly non-spiritual way? [Where the movement promises to be very efficacious in bringing about spiritual progress, and where `Be truthful' is a main tenet in the movement]<br />
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* When the purity which attracted you in the beginning, is not practiced at all in the running of the Movement's organization. An organization which turns out to be very hierarchical, a Pyramid structure, dominated by men, and rife with intrigue and Inner Circle mechanisms, often favoring a limited number of nationalities? [Where the movement preaches equality of all, novice and `advanced' alike, woman and man alike, all nationalities alike] <br />
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* When slowly but surely, all sorts of `magical' or `paranormal' or spiritualistic elements are being introduced as essential in the Theory, and/or practice. For instance the existence of ghosts, or voices from the afterlife, and mediums; the affirmation of the truth of reincarnation; special visions etc. [Where in the beginning the movement promised that these things were to be left aside, and not relevant anyway.] <br />
<br />
&&&&&&&&<br />
<br />
Yes, I think that this is the moment where the avoidance of cognitive dissonance can lead one beyond what is really self-acceptable. Because who wants to give up this warm nest of spiritual ` family' , `brothers and sisters', who feel so close and caring and interested in the real you? Who wants to give up this practice which makes one feel connected to some higher purpose, adding to a better world?<br />
<br />
It is quite understandable why it can be a lot easier to simply close one's eyes for the inconsistencies, and quickly accept some non-rational explanation like:<br />
<br />
`Some things in our World are beyond our understanding. The intellect however strives to be in command, and will therefore block our progress, beyond a certain point. We need a True Spiritual Leader, who has traveled the narrow passage Himself, to shake off our intellect and depend on Faith. For this Faith to develop, it is best to surrender completely to one's Leader. Pujashri Ammehula has repeatedly stated that the aspirant can only cross the seven Rings to the Central Level if he is carried by his Master like a child by its mother. To reach this level, where one is completely dependent on one's Leader, it is absolutely necessary to develop unthinking and unquestioning Obedience at all times.' <br />
<br />
#######<br />
<br />
To me, the mechanism of cognitive-dissonance-avoidance explains why so many followers of spiritual movements prefer not to listen to rational arguments, or rational presentations of facts. In a sense, one could even argue that the more rational the approach, the more many followers will shut their ears to it.<br />
<br />
And this brings us to the second question posed at the top of this post:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">2) How can the avoidance of cognitive dissonance lead to communication problems between followers of a spiritual movement and non-followers?</span><br />
<br />
I believe this question calls for a two-sided answer, but the elements for this have already been described.<br />
<br />
On the one hand, non-followers will be quick to point out the inconsistencies of the movement, and possibly certain -in their eyes- dangerous or detrimental effects. (`You are in a cult! You are being brain-washed! Look out for your sanity, your family, your health, your money!'). But they probably do not see the flip sides of this coin: namely that the followers derive quite some benefit from their participation. Family-like ties for instance. These benefits, built up through the years, have helped build a world view that is not so rationally based as non-followers might assume. And therefore from the followers' point of view, it is the non-followers who are inconsistent and in possible danger (`You live a materialistic life, you are not spiritually fulfilled. You are being brain-washed by society to believe that ego-driven materialism is the road to happiness. You are wasting precious time needed to cleanse your heart and your soul. Look out for your spiritual well-being, look out for your eternal soul!')<br />
<br />
So, you might be a bit surprised to find me thinking that both followers and non-followers often avoid their own cognitive dissonance.<br />
<br />
This does not in any way diminish my conviction that it is morally wrong for the Inner Circle to deceive the followers of its Spiritual Movement. And I believe this to be a very frequent occurrence.<br />
<br />
To be continued...franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-63961220033458534582009-10-28T23:13:00.003+01:002009-10-29T00:44:30.829+01:00Cognitive dissonance 2: mind & heartBack to the last question raised in the previous post: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How can it be a problem and a pitfall, if by a slow process of avoiding cognitive dissonance, I gradually come to hold views and beliefs which earlier would have been paradoxical or morally wrong to me?</span><br /><br />&&&&&&&&<br /><br />In my eyes, the question is relevant (otherwise I wouldn't ask it of course ;-)), but my answer will take some time because I do not perceive this as a black-and-white issue.<br /><br />Any development, any learning implies (I believe) that I change my views and beliefs. And even in mathematics, I have experienced that what I first thought to be contradictory or impossible, later turned out to be correct or possible, once seen in the correct light or with the correct enabling definitions. (Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, the other way round also occurs frequently in mathematics.).<br /><br />So to me the pitfall lies not in the changing of my views and beliefs per se. The pitfall lies in me deluding myself. In the posts on <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/search?q=%22partial%20truth%22">partial truth</a> I raised the example of me riding over your bicycle, and then claiming that at the last moment your bicycle jumped under my car, damaging my front fender. You might laugh at this example, but I'm sure that people have given stranger testimony of events. Witchcraft, voodoo, and also Divine Intervention are but a few names given by people to justify things they say and/or think to have witnessed.<br /><br />This car-bicycle example is of course rather mild. Things get more worrisome, when we consider a number of psychological experiments in which more profound consequences of belief-changing and rationalization were found to occur easily. Some of these experiments have become famous, also for their ethical dilemma: is it ethical to subject people to such an experiment? <br /><br />In the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment">Milgram experiment</a> the participants were asked to give punitive dosages of electricity to subjects (this was actually not really happening, but the participants thought it was real). Although most participants had some initial trouble accepting that it was okay to do so, in the end they ended up giving really painful electrical shocks to their subjects (so they thought). The authorative figure of the doctor in charge told them it was ok, and rather than upsetting this expert authority and being a troublemaker, they chose to believe that what the doctor said had to be true.<br /><br />From wikipedia:<br /><blockquote>Milgram's testing revealed that it could have been that the millions of accomplices were merely following orders, despite violating their deepest moral beliefs.[3] Milgram summarized the experiment in his 1974 article, "The Perils of Obedience", writing:<br /><br /> <span style="font-style:italic;">`The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.<br /><br /> Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.</span>'</blockquote><br />$$$$$$$<br />In another famous experiment <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave">The Third Wave</a>, a class was slowly led by their history teacher to accept and join a (fictitious) movement `The Third Wave' which had clear fascistic tendencies. Quoting from Wikipedia:<br /><blockquote>Jones writes that he started the first day of the experiment (Monday, April 3 1967[2]) with simple things like proper seating, drilling the students until they were able to move from outside the classroom to their seats and take the proper seating position in less than 30 seconds without making a sound.[3] He then proceeded to strict classroom discipline emerging as an authoritative figure and improving efficiency of the class dramatically.<br /><br />Jones closed the first day's session with a few rules, only meaning to be a one day experiment. Students had to be sitting at attention before the second bell, had to stand up to ask or answer questions and had to do it in three words or less, and were required to preface each remark with "Mr. Jones."[3]<br /><br />On the second day he managed to meld his history class into a group with a supreme sense of discipline and community.[3] Jones named the movement "The Third Wave", after the common belief that the third in a series of ocean waves is last and largest.[3] Jones made up a salute resembling the one of Nazi regime[1] and ordered class members to salute each other even outside the class. They all complied with this command.[3]<br /><br />The experiment took on a life of its own, with students from all over the school joining in: on the third day the class expanded from initial 30 students to 43 attendees. All of the students showed drastic improvement in their academic skills and tremendous motivation. All of the students were issued a member card and each of them received a special assignment (like designing a Third Wave Banner, stopping non-members from entering the class, etc). Jones instructed the students on how to initiate new members, and by the end of the day the movement had over 200 participants.[3] Jones was surprised that some of the students started reporting to him when other members of the movement failed to abide by the rules.[3]<br /><br />On Thursday, the fourth day of the experiment, Jones decided to terminate the movement because it was slipping out of his control. The students became increasingly involved in the project and their discipline and loyalty to the project was astounding. He announced to the participants that this movement is only a part of a nationwide movement and that on the next day a presidential candidate of the movement would publicly announce existence of the movement. Jones ordered students to attend a noon rally on Friday to witness the announcement.[3]<br /><br />Instead of a televised address of their leader, the students were presented with an empty channel. After few minutes of waiting, Jones announced that they had been a part of an experiment in fascism and that they all willingly created a sense of superiority that German citizens had in the period of Nazi Germany. He then played them a film about Nazi regime. That was the end of the experiment.[3]</blockquote> <br /><br />$$$$$$$$<br /><br />[As an aside, these types of experiment are why I am really extremely wary of anyone advocating obedience-without-thinking to some Moral Authority. Any spiritual guide which I deem worthy of that name should have knowledge of these experiments, or at least insight in how the atrocities of the second World War and similar genocidal practices could possibly happen.<br /><br />With this insight and knowledge in mind, I don't believe a spiritual guide would ever ask for total unthinking obedience (see also the posts on <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/search?q=obedience">obedience</a>). Because this insistence alone could very well be very painful for all those who have suffered under the consequences of totalitarian regimes.]<br /><br />&&&&&&&&<br /><br />So, to come back to the pitfall that I perceive in the avoidance of cognitive dissonance, can I find out the divide between learning and development on the one hand, and self-delusion on the other?<br /><br />I'm sorry to say that I believe this to be very difficult for most if not all of us.<br /><br />As an example, I'm quite positive that many practicants of my former spiritual movement Sahaj Marg will consider me self-delusional. I am being led astray by my mind, and -poor soul- have lost contact with my heart. My mind is creating all sorts of ego-fed illusions, and therefore I am blinded from the love of the Master. Something like that.<br /><br />I cannot find a 100% proof that they are wrong. It is just that their view no longer jibes sufficiently with mine, which leads me to holding more the opposite view. So perhaps this is a good moment to explain why this blog is meant mostly for people who are uneasy with their spiritual movement, and cannot put their finger on their unease. This is partly because I do not think that I cán influence people who are happy in their heart-oriented participation in a spiritual movement. But also partly because I'm not sure that I want to influence these people.<br /><br />If they are happy and fulfilled, and they do not grievously wrong others, then who am I to want to change that?<br /><br />The counter-remark to this is of course that if I consider the Inner Circle of a Spiritual Movement to be actively deceptive and power abusive, then I would also hold the well-meaning members responsible to some extent, for they are the ones giving power to this Inner Circle.<br /><br />$$$$$$$<br /><br />The question for this post remains: <br /><br />How can I, personally, just for me, decide whether I am deluding myself (or am being led to delude myself)?<br /><br />I think part of the answer lies in `unease'. Accepting some form of unease for a prolonged period of time might well lead me to a serious form of self-delusion. (You might call this the heart-approach)<br /><br />Another part lies in: `face the facts'. Making a factual list of the important issues, I might be able to pierce through the cognitive dissonance avoidance mechanism. (You might call this the mind-approach).<br /><br />I will come back to this, but for now this post is already terribly long, and should take its ending. To be continued.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-42946704821468714682009-10-28T00:21:00.004+01:002009-10-28T01:08:06.550+01:00Cognitive dissonance: something we all avoidLet me begin with a quote from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance">wikipedia article on cognitive dissonance</a>. This article is very informative, but I will not repeat it all, just the beginning:<br /><blockquote>Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, the awareness of one's behavior, and facts. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.[1] Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.<br /><br />Dissonance normally occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency among his or her cognitions. This happens when one idea implies the opposite of another. For example, a belief in animal rights could be interpreted as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing fur. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. When people's ideas are consistent with each other, they are in a state of harmony, or consonance. If cognitions are unrelated, they are categorized as irrelevant to each other and do not lead to dissonance.<br /><br />A powerful cause of dissonance is an idea in conflict with a fundamental element of the self-concept, such as "I am a good person" or "I made the right decision." The anxiety that comes with the possibility of having made a bad decision can lead to rationalization, the tendency to create additional reasons or justifications to support one's choices. A person who just spent too much money on a new car might decide that the new vehicle is much less likely to break down than his or her old car. This belief may or may not be true, but it would likely reduce dissonance and make the person feel better. Dissonance can also lead to confirmation bias, the denial of disconfirming evidence, and other ego defense mechanisms.</blockquote><br /><br />$$$$$$$<br /><br />The reduction of cognitive dissonance is a very powerful human drive, I believe. And imnsho it very often seems to explain a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication between people.<br /><br />Because, although it is often couched in scientific language, the gist of the above description of cognitive dissonance (avoidance) seems to be this: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">We mold the facts that we perceive, to fit the conceptions that please us.</span><br /><br />&&&&&&&<br /><br />If like me, you have ever tried to have an open discussion with Jehovah witnesses ringing at your front door, you will understand that it is a difficult feat to accomplish. From both points of view. From the Jehovah witnesses' point of view, I am blind to the word of God, and therefore cannot see the facts clearly, such as that the Bible is the Absolute Truth. From my point of view, they are blind to the fact that the bible is a book, written by humans, and that there is no such thing as Absolute Truth.<br /><br />And any discussion is not likely to bring about much change, since the giving up of either position would require such a dramatic effort to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance...<br /><br />&&&&&&&<br /><br />On a more subtle level, I believe that avoidance of cognitive dissonance can play a significant part in the way I see my spiritual movement, as a practicant. This could be a (sub)conscious reason why many spiritual movements have a graded introduction to the `finer' aspects of the movement's Theory and Practice.<br /><br />Because if I start out as a novice, and I am received in a loving atmosphere, by loving caring people, giving me time and attention and goodwill...and where questioning is okay, and where my `not yet fully compliant' behaviour is okay, then on a subconscious level, I might well develop the idea that this is a very ok group. Giving me lots of freedom etc.<br /><br />Then, later, if my mind starts to perceive certain anomalies, it could well be that cognitive dissonance kicks in: <br /><br />On the one hand, my spiritual movement is very fine, and I feel really uplifted by being connected to it.<br />On the other hand, something seems to be not quite right. Perhaps the Leader is focusing on money quite a lot, whereas in the beginning everybody said, no no, this is a free movement, no money required. So I ask a question, and the possible answer could be: `He is only doing it for us, you see. It is not about money, it is about teaching us to let go of our material bonds which are holding us back. Love is giving, giving to those that need us. If you give without thought, you will receive benefit thousandfold.'<br /><br />So what to do? Will my mind say: `Well, it was nice this past year, but inconsistency is inconsistency, goodbye you all.' Or will it say: `OK, perhaps I am too focused on my intellect, and on my rationality. Of course, in true spirituality we share our resources. Let me step in too.'<br /><br />In the second case, it would not surprise me if it continues like in the wikipedia car example. I have given money, so now I will change my belief system and perceptions to justify even more that I gave money.<br /><br />$$$$$$$<br /><br />Slowly, over the years perhaps, can I imagine that this would lead me to beliefs and thoughts which would have been paradoxical to me in the beginning?<br /><br />Yes I can.<br /><br />But why would this be a problem or a pitfall? Is this not a simple fact of life, that we learn, and thereby come to accept things which we firstly rejected?<br /><br />(to be continued)franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-2123282011419547712009-10-24T22:03:00.007+02:002009-10-24T23:31:10.364+02:00Cults - faith, healing and coercion (a book by Marc Galanter)Since I seem to be in the mood to refer to other sources of information on `pitfalls of spirituality', let me mention a rather scientific book by Marc Galanter called:<br /><br />CULTS<br />Faith, healing and coercion<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Galanter_(psychiatrist)">Marc Galanter</a> is a well-known psychiatrist. From Wikipedia:<br /><blockquote>Marc Galanter, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at NYU, Founding Director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at NYU, and Director of the NYU Fellowship Training Program in Addiction Psychiatry. He is also a Division Director at NYU’s World Health Organization Collaborating Center, and Director of its national Center for Medical Fellowships in Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. He is Editor of the journal "Substance Abuse," the annual book series “Recent Developments in Alcoholism,” and author of the books, "Network Therapy for Alcohol and Drug Abuse" and “Spirituality and the Healthy Mind: Science, Therapy and the Need for Personal Meaning.” His NIH and foundation-funded studies have addressed family therapy for substance abuse, pharmacologic treatment for addiction, self-help treatment for substance abusers, and spiritually-oriented recovery.</blockquote>$$$$$$$<br /><br />So, do I recommend his book above? Well, I do, if you are not deterred by a scientific approach, and if you are willing to read what is perhaps not so easy English.<br /><br />Because the book contains a very interesting mix, based on 15 years of research and personal experience:<br /><br />* A very good and detailed description of various relevant issues around `cults', `religious groups' and the surrounding society <br /><br />* A more or less scientific analysis of many of these issues (not always really possible though) <br /><br />* An account of Marc Galanter's personal experience as a counselor with members of various spiritual movements<br /><br />&&&&&&&&<br /><br />In the book, I came across two remarks which merit some additional posts on this blog. One remark is about cognitive dissonance (to be explained later). The other about `boundary' issues between a spiritual movement and general society.<br /><br />To be continued, therefore.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-11110439368126332552009-10-20T13:57:00.003+02:002009-10-20T14:05:40.271+02:00Techniques used by Gurus to controlIn the same vein as the previous post, I repeat a post from Michaels blog. It gives a different perspective on many of the pitfalls discussed here, and may be easier to recognize for some.<br /><br />######<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Seven Techniques Used By Gurus to Control The Masses</span> (by Michael, from his blog <a href="http://innercircleofsrcm.blogspot.com/2006/05/identifying-guru-exploitat_114866183506845898.html">Inner Circle of SRCM</a>)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Establish High Ideals</span><br /><br />• Establish noble, high sounding principles, such as selfless service, closeness to God, and brotherly/sisterly love.<br /><br />• Insist that your teachings are free and the birthright of all.<br /><br />• Demonstrate charity in a highly visible manner.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Define and Enforce Exclusivity in the Organization</span><br /><br />• Every Guru must have an exclusive hook to differentiate themselves from others.<br /><br />• The exclusive nature of the system or Guru must be re-emphasized at every opportunity.<br /><br />• Disciples are trained to also extol the virtues of the system’s exclusivity in every conversation.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Exploit a Higher Authority</span><br /><br />• Designate a “Higher Authority” that can be attributed to for literally everything.<br /><br />• Higher Authority must be easily identifiable by disciples. Abstract higher authorities such as “God” are generally not as effective as a dead person.<br /><br />• It is critical that the Guru can claim to be in direct communication with this Higher Authority.<br /><br />• The Guru’s example of love and servitude to this Higher Authority serves as an example to disciples as to how to treat their Guru.<br /><br />• Miracles, which happen naturally in an emotionally charged environment, can be attributed to this Higher Authority<br /><br />• Disciples will naturally transfer all things credited to the Higher Authority to their living Guru.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Establish and Maintain an Inner Circle</span><br /><br />• Guru creates contentious environment around themselves for people to earn their trust.<br /><br />• Those who fight the hardest and most effectively for inner circle status are rewarded with positions of authority and grandeur.<br /><br />• The Guru must treat inner circle members with strictness and humiliation when necessary to maintain their loyalty and subservience.<br /><br />• The Hierarchy established through the Inner Circle is a critical tool for a Guru to maintain exclusive control as the organization grows.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Foster the Image of Humility</span><br /><br />• The Guru will exploit any ailments or physical injuries to get sympathy by silently suffering.<br /><br />• If no physical ailments exist, the Guru can use exhaustion from serving his disciples as an ailment.<br /><br />• The Guru does not directly complain about ailments, but uses the Inner Circle to propagate stories of his humble suffering for the cause.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Establish and Maintain Total Control<br /></span><br />• Demand total devotion and trust<br /><br />• Guru uses their own total devotion and trust to their “Higher Authority” as an example<br /><br />• Blame all disciples failings on not having sufficient faith in the Higher Authority or lack of dedication to the practice.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Reap the Benefits</span><br /><br />• Establish an organization to hold and manage wealth collected.<br /><br />• Exploit that wealth through the organization, not directly<br /><br />• Enjoy the services of devoted disciples as their expression of devotion to the Higher Authority.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-39439088791545281992009-08-26T17:52:00.004+02:002009-10-20T13:38:35.846+02:00What is not a cultBelow is a post by `corboy' from the <a href="http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,75577">rick ross forum topic `what is not a cult'</a>. <br /><br />I reproduce it for general benefit. It is a different way of looking at certain pitfalls, and it might in its brevity help to determine quickly if a spiritual movement is cultish or not.<br /><br />"<br /><strong>What is not a cult</strong> (by corboy)<br /><br />* The group generates courteous behavior and does not produce a high percentage of trolls. Discussion venues that are independent of the group are left unmolested.<br /><br />*If people complain about incurring harm, the group uses this as a sign to clean up its own act, not vilify and shame the people reporting this information.<br /><br />*You do not sign any document in which you waive your legal right as a citizen to sue or mediate for damages in case you are injured during an event run by the group.<br /><br />You are not pressured to go past your boundaries or disclose intimate or traumatic information. Your confidentiality is respected. You do not live in fear that any intimate disclosures you have made will be used to shame or control you.<br /><br />** The leader and group tell the full truth about their origins, their finances, methods and you are able to give full and informed consent before deciding to participate. Methods are not kept secret.<br /><br />*Your car keys, your phone, your laptop are not taken away from you. <br /><br />*You are ensured 7 to 8 hours of sleep and breaks during events and you can bring your own food or have a choice of food options available. You are allowed to go sit by yourself at lunchtime or breaks if you need a privacy break.<br /><br />*The leader and group are capable of reciprocating the loyalty they demand from you. In cults and bad relationships, the loyalty flow is always in one direction--to the leader and group. The few times the leader seems to reciprocate loyalty, a huge deal is always made and the many other times the leader is a selfish person are ignored.<br /><br />*Actions match words. <br /><br />*Principles before personality. You don't get all caught up in the leader's specialness or the group's specialness. <br /><br />*The group does not claim endorsement by the scientific or medical establishment unless studies have been done by outside entities with no personal investment in the group and that material has been published in peer reviewed journals.<br /><br />*The group and leader trust in attraction not promotion. They do not use the workplace, the client caregiver relationship and do not push people to use their friendships as sources of new recruits.<br /><br />*A group that does not constantly change its doctrines or methods, forcing you to buy endless series of books, CDs, tapes. <br /><br />*Doctrine remains stable--it doesn't get so complex that only its leader can understand it and the rest are left confused.<br /><br />* Older editions of a groups books or literature are not destroyed or suppressed in an attempt to re-script the group or leader's history.<br /><br />* The amount of money, time and attention you are expected to offer a group is clear in advance. <br /><br />*You are never pressured to cut off friendships or associations with persons outside the group or who disagree with its teachings.<br /><br />* A non cultic group does not encourage you to patronize a small network of 'recommended' businesses. You can consult therapists, doctors, contractors, yoga teachers, who are not in any way involved with the group.<br />"franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-64166275439961699262009-08-12T20:34:00.009+02:002009-08-15T23:08:04.197+02:00Quakers in the UK embrace same-sex marriageWriting on the issue of homosexuality in earlier posts (click on <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/search?q=woman+man">pitfall 12: Woman & man</a>), I am happy to repeat some news from the UK earlier this month:<br /><br />(from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/31/quakers-gay-marriage">the Guardian, 31 July 2009</a>):<br /><blockquote><br />The Quakers today agreed to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples and said they would ask the government to change the law to allow Quaker registering officers to register same-sex partnerships in the same way as marriages.<br /><br />At their annual meeting, held at the University of York, 1200 members gave their unanimous approval to revise relevant parts of Quaker Faith and Practice to treat gay marriages in the same way as heterosexual unions.<br /><br />Michael Hutchinson, of Quakers in Britain, said: "Many of our meetings have told us that there are homosexual couples who consider themselves to be married and believe this is as much a testimony of divine grace as a heterosexual marriage. They miss the public recognition of this in a religious ceremony."<br /><br />Following the Civil Partnership Act of December 2005, same sex couples in England, Wales and Scotland who share Quaker beliefs may opt for a blessing or commitment ceremony after entering a civil partnership.<br /><br />While legislation allows same-sex partnerships to be registered as civil partnerships in law, the registrations cannot take place in the context of religious worship. Civil partnership is not recognised as marriage, although registered civil partners share almost the same legal rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples.<br /><br />During this week's meeting, Quakers spoke about their personal experiences and said "whereas there was a clear, visible path to celebration and recognition for opposite sex couples" the same was not always true for those in same-sex relationships.<br /><br />Quaker spokesman Anne Van Staveren said she did not foresee a surge in membership numbers following the decision.<br /><br />"Anyone is welcome to attend a Quaker meeting but to become a Quaker, to understand the ways we live and worship, takes a little longer," she said. "Marriage ceremonies are for Quakers, but we are open to people to come and belong."<br /><br />Resolving the hotly disputed issue of homosexuality in the church has not been as easy for other religious groups. This week the archbishop of Canterbury conceded the matter had caused an irreparable division in the Anglican communion.<br /></blockquote><br />I'm really happy that one spiritual movement has come out like this. And in fact they are ahead of the UK legislation, which still discriminates same sex couples. They are also far ahead of my former Sahaj Marg guru P. Rajagopalachari who said in a recent speech that homosexuality is unnatural and against the wish of God. Hopefully one day, spiritual leaders like him will be seen for what they are doing: adding to the division of humanity, instead of uniting humanity.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-20789504130679798172009-03-22T23:48:00.005+01:002015-01-15T21:56:03.308+01:00Some closing remarks 2Last september, it seemed to me that what I set out to do on this blog was done. So I wrote <a href="http://pitfallsofspirituality.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-closing-remarks.html">some closing remarks 1</a>, with the idea `enough is enough'.<br /><br />In January, I realized there were still some things left to discuss, so after some hesitation I started posting again. And now I find myself yet again at the point of closure: the relevant issues have been discussed enough. <br /><br />So first: thank you, all commentators who provided me with feedback and suggestions, and thereby with inspiration to continue.<br /><br />Then let me simply repeat my earlier closing remarks, putting them at the top of this blog where they belong.<br /><br />####### (Repeated from September:)<br /><br />The best way to read this blog (I think) is to start out at the oldest post and click on `newer post' (at the bottom of the post) each time. This might take some time though, I have no idea how much pages of a regular book these posts would fill.<br /><br />Notwithstanding the pitfalls discussed here, I've had many positive experiences with regard to spirituality, and also with regard to practising a spiritual method. In my life I've been privileged to have met many kind, loving, wonderful people from whom I have learned a great deal about what spirituality means to me. Many of these people have given me what cannot be expressed in words, without second thought or reserve, out of what to me seems true and inspiring altruism. Thank you all.<br /><br />It might seem negatively balanced also to only talk about pitfalls of spirituality, but I really do not feel that I can add significantly to the many beautiful texts on positive aspects of spirituality existing already. (My personal attitude is to read beyond certain often-occurring pitfalls to find what is to me the real meaning in a spiritual text.)<br /><br />Non-absolute, non-divisive, individualized spirituality to me seems necessary to bring about what I would call a better world. A world free of exploitation. A world where children are safe, and can grow up playfully. Where `war' and `poverty' are strange concepts from long-forgotten times. Where humans are the custodians of nature. Where human and animal rights are respected. Where difference of opinion goes together with a friendly helping attitude. Etc. You might say: `dream on'...and I would reply (I think) with John Lennon's song <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOkxRLzBf0">Imagine</a>:<br /><br />Imagine there's no Heaven<br />It's easy if you try<br />No hell below us<br />Above us only sky<br />Imagine all the people<br />Living for today<br /><br />Imagine there's no countries<br />It isn't hard to do<br />Nothing to kill or die for<br />And no religion too<br />Imagine all the people<br />Living life in peace<br /><br />You may say that I'm a dreamer<br />But I'm not the only one<br />I hope someday you'll join us<br />And the world will be as one<br /><br />Imagine no possessions<br />I wonder if you can<br />No need for greed or hunger<br />A brotherhood of man<br />Imagine all the people<br />Sharing all the world<br /><br />You may say that I'm a dreamer<br />But I'm not the only one<br />I hope someday you'll join us<br />And the world will live as one<br /><br /><br />This better world is far more important to me and probably you (why else would you be reading this blog?) than most other things. Including of course this blog, which is as personal as it is imperfect. Let's put aside our differences and combine our efforts to make this world a better place.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-15192009054295470912009-02-25T23:55:00.005+01:002010-01-03T13:19:51.377+01:00Honesty, truthfulness & openness (partial truth, secrets & things unsaid 2)(continued from the previous post)<br /><br />So let's look at things from the other `positive' side. Personally, one of the most important qualities that I associate with spirituality has to do with truthfulness, honesty, transparency or openness, whatever you prefer.<br /><br />Of course I'm not talking about situations where one lies to the Gestapo to save fugitives' lives. I'm not even saying that it is humanly possible to be truthful all the time, simply because I think we cannot discern even our own personal truth 100% accurately. Perhaps I could even come up with situations where it would be more kind, more humane to lie to another person, even if there are no fugitives to be saved.<br /><br />I'm not talking about all that. I'm talking about the large majority of cases where telling partial truth -leaving important things unsaid, hidden- or even lying is simply an instrument to avoid confrontation, or for personal gains. In a large majority of cases, I think we know what the truth is, or we know so enough, but we choose to tell only a part of it.<br /><br />All a part of la condition humaine, I suppose. Still, for me it is a spiritual tenet to strive for truth, honesty, transparency / openness. The fact that we're not on that level yet doesn't mean for me that it would not be better if people were more honest with each other.<br /><br />I believe this tenet to be advocated by most spiritual movements. Be truthful. Don't deceive. Yet many spiritual movements practice a graded truth in their Pyramid. And many spiritual movements keep things hidden, unsaid, unknown but to the Inner Circle. Examples of things kept hidden:<br /><br /><ul><li>Financial holdings & dealings for instance, to be sure! But also controversies, power struggles, power abuse, sexual indulgence, other not so holy-looking behaviour, well the list of cover-ups is probably endless.</li><li>Marketing strategies for new books (what and when to release, what price to ask). Proselytization strategies (where to hold gatherings, which countries to visit, what message to give to newcomers, how to ensure retention of (new) practicants).<br /></li><li>Also, and not as infrequently as one would think!, secrets and secret rites, initiations, secret organizational groups, secret meetings.<br /></li><li>Parts of the spiritual theory (to be revealed when a practicant is singled out as a trainer or priest-like functionary)<br /></li><li>Less-than-shiny details of its History<br /></li><li>Criticism of the Movement by serious well-meaning people <br /></li></ul><br /><br />#####<br /><br />Suppose our generic Spiritual Movement consistently shows any or many signs of the above. In all honesty I do not see how one can rhyme this with `be truthful'. Apart from other unwanted effects, it also comes down to separating humanity once again: `Us in the know' and `Them not in the know'.<br /><br />As I wrote earlier, uniting humanity to me seems a worthy spiritual endeavour although we are surely a far cry from such unification. To me, many of the pitfalls that are discussed on this blog actually hamper us in becoming united.<br /><br />For me, to respect you and to feel connected, I cannot willingly deceive you. The same, but more difficult perhaps, holds for me deceiving myself as well. If I am honest to myself, only then can I be honest to you. Making mistakes, holding less-than-desirable thoughts, reacting `badly', it's all part of the game. To play the game sportingly, with respect and with others as my equals, this to me means that conscious deception of any form is out of bounds - ball to the other side...;-) so no moral pressure but you get my drift.<br /><br />#####<br /><br />In short:<br /><br />To me, a spiritual movement which is not truthful and open about its finances, about its holdings, about its power structures, initiation levels, spiritual theory, history, criticism from well-informed and well-meaning members, proselytization strategies, ...<br /><br />does not deserve the name `spiritual movement'.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-66720853775891672082009-02-25T17:15:00.007+01:002009-02-25T23:55:38.765+01:00Partial truth, secrets & things unsaidOK. From my last comment on the previous post, one more pitfall strikes me as occurring commonly enough to mention separately.<br /><br />In many spiritual movements (religions included), there are things unsaid and unrevealed, especially to `newcomers'. For instance, one may start out innocently in our Spiritual Movement, and slowly notice that all the top executive functions in the Pyramid and even almost all the midlevel executive functions are filled by men. So then one asks: `how come?'. And only then it turns out that in the philosophy of the Movement, the spiritual essence of `woman' is seen as different from the spiritual essence of `man', leading to the conclusion that men and women need to be separate at meditation and that the Guru can never be a woman, and all sorts of other consequences.<br /><br /><u>Truly Interested Seeker (TIS)</u>: <i>`But you said spirituality unites? You said we are all humans, and we should not distinguish between race, age, poor, rich, man, woman,...yet here you are, drawing this thou-shalt-not-cross-line down the middle?'</i><br /><br /><u>Orthodox reply (OR)</u>: <i>` As one progresses on the Spiritual Path, insight grows. In the beginning, our Leader kindly takes the hand of the seeker, and slowly reveals the Truth according to the capacity and condition in the practicant. Do not doubt, doubt poisons the heart and weakens the will. Although man and woman are equally important, they are not spiritually equal, it is a given of Nature. As your heart sheds its old beliefs and false western preconceptions of emancipation, you will progress to the next stage.'</i><br /><br />#####<br /><br />Of course such examples of enlightenment-in-degrees set the stage for a glorious role of Partial Truth.<br /><br />Partial Truth is where one can claim: I never lied to you, I just didn't tell you everything. A nice example of this (I think):<br /><br />I push your car in the canal at night. You come back the following day, and think it stolen. I say: `One never knows, perhaps someone pushed it into the canal'. Did I lie? <br /><br />#####<br /><br />Partial truth is the perfect strategy to avoid confrontation, and yet still maintain a facade of truthfulness. It is an essential ingredient of manipulation. To be continued.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-57674635301150814962009-02-07T00:31:00.011+01:002012-04-10T15:04:09.128+02:00Obedience & groupthink: the Sahaj Marg exampleRecent speeches by my former Sahaj Marg guru Chari have convinced me that `obedience' is worthy of being mentioned as a separate pitfall.<br /><br />Although this blog aims at a general analysis of the pitfalls which commonly occur in many spiritual movements and religions, the example given in these speeches is stronger than anything I could possibly come up with myself.<br /><br />Dear reader, perhaps you are participating in some spiritual movement, and some of the below sounds familiar. Please then ask yourself if you really wish to give up your own, independent thought to someone else? Especially since a true spiritual guide would never ask you to give up your own independent thought. A guide is a guide, guiding humans. A guide is not a shepherd herding sheep. Or do you prefer to be a sheep? Part of the unthinking flock? Fine. But then you will never be a master of yourself, now will you? <br /><br />######<br /><br />I quote from Chari's recent speech `Read with your Heart' (given 2 February 2009 in Satkhol, I emphasized the last paragraph in bold type):<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">`Again and again Babuji Maharaj emphasizes the fact that Sahaj Marg does not ask you for all your life earnings, to give up your family and go into the jungle. It is a very simple method: meditation in the morning, cleaning in the evening, prayer at night. No major sacrifices involved. Only to live a good life, in the right way, but with the only stipulation being obedience to the Master's wishes, and that again is only for our benefit.<br /><br />We obey to benefit. Unlike in public life, in human life, in our day-to-day life, we obey for somebody else's benefit. In spirituality we obey for our own benefit. You obey; you benefit. You don't obey; you don't benefit. In obedience there can be no questions: "Why have I to obey?" If you ask such a question, it would probably mean several lives more to be taken before you understand why I have to obey. In obedience there is no `why'. There is no search for logic. There is no demand for your question to ask: "Why this question should be obeyed?" or "Why this order should be obeyed? Why does the Master have to tell me and not somebody else? Why does he ask me to obey and not somebody else?" No questions. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Totally unquestioning obedience is the only requirement of this spiritual way that I know, Sahaj Marg. The moment you start asking questions, it is implicit that you are questioning the wisdom of your Master, the intentions of your Master and his existence itself - never done, except at the peril of your own evolution.</span>'</span><br /><br />Notice the not so subtle use of `fear and temptation' above. If you ask questions: it will probably cost you several lives! (fear). If you obey blindly: you benefit (temptation, the implication is `liberation in this life', whatever liberation may mean of course).<br /><br />######<br /><br />And I quote from his speech `Preceptors, the arteries of Sahaj Marg' (given 4 January 2009, Manapakkam, the bold type emphasis is mine):<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">`<span style="font-weight: bold;">When Babuji says eat, you eat. When he says don't eat, you don't eat. You don't think.<br /><br />One thing that our people must understand is, in obedience there is no place for thought. You are not to think whether this is to be obeyed or not. The Guru orders, you do it. The famous example in our mythology is Parashuram. When he said he was devoted and loved his father, his father said, "Will you do what I tell you?" He said yes. He said, "Cut off your mother's head." Chichick. And the head came off. Mother's head! - obedience.</span> Of course, then the father said, "I am pleased with you. Ask for a boon." He said, "I want my mother alive again." And the mother came alive again.<br /><br />So, you see, obedience never gives you personal loss, though apparently it may look so.'</span><br /><br />#######<br /><br />Sahaj Marg, like many movements before it (and after, no doubt alas), has turned into a religion, in my not so humble opinion. I see no difference at all between the organization of the Pyramid in Sahaj Marg and the Pyramid of the Roman Catholic Church. The preceptors are the priests, the centers-in-charge are the bishops, the zonals-in-charge are the cardinals, and the guru is the pope, each with their Inner Circle of powerful confidants.<br /><br />Blind obedience imnsho is necessary to keep the whole Pyramid from toppling over, to maintain closed ranks to all the critical questions that are posed. Questions which are increasingly difficult to answer, because -like the child saying: <span style="font-style: italic;">new clothes? but the emperor is naked!</span> - not even God can make the square root of 2 equal to π (pi). Not even the emperor can make imaginary clothes cover his nudity.<br /><br />The point is -if one believes in God- that God saw to it that the square root of 2 is necessarily not equal to π (pi) . Logic, science, rationality are perhaps just a part of reality...but reality nonetheless. To deny critical self-reliant thought a worthy place is to renounce spirituality, in my not so humble opinion.<br /><br />Many great scientists were deeply spiritual persons. They saw God in the wonder of reality all around us. They marveled at the insights that the human mind could glean into Nature, by not accepting religious dogmas and by following the logic of the cosmos. By allowing all questions, especially the critical ones, since the critical questions challenge what we think we know, and lead us further on our slow path of both scientific and spiritual evolution.<br /><br />######<br /><br />Spiritual evolution, that is what we need, if you would ask me. If we would have obeyed religious leaders in the past as blindly as Chari is suggesting, we would still be cannibals. Does one need religion to be kind, loving, sharing, concerned for other beings? Does one need blind obedience for this? Let's get real: we do not need anything, anyone, but our own commitment and dedication to becoming `spiritual'...whatever that may mean.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331174529704013132.post-55994220591160037682009-01-23T00:43:00.005+01:002009-02-09T00:53:07.734+01:00Positive thinking 2: groupthink and denialOne obvious question regarding `positive thinking': Who gets to decide what is `positive'? Let's paraphrase the obscure poet from the previous post, to arrive at:<br /><br />There is nothing either positive or negative, but thinking makes it so.<br /><br />#####<br /><br />Now, to stay with Shakespeare, suppose there is something rotten in the state of Denmark (meaning our Spiritual Movement of course). What do you think will happen? A likely scenario: someone(s) with real commitment to making things better notices that there is something important not right. This person (these persons) will try to correct the issue, but if they are not in a position of power and the issue has been caused by people higher up in the Pyramid...then their efforts will be perceived as threatening to the position of these higher-up people.<br /><br />Now the person trying to ameliorate things is caught between two grindstones. The denial of the Inner Circle (=the people high up in the Pyramid) is the top grindstone, and the bottom grindstone is ... the denial of the majority of followers. Because the followers are in the Movement for `positivity'. They want to believe in the purer-than-pure heart of the Leader, they want to believe in that God has granted Special Power to the Special Personality, and that they themselves are Special because they follow Him.<br /><br />The followers cling to these beliefs because it offers them escape from the pangs of life. But then when someone criticizes either the Movement, the Pyramid, or the Leader...their rosy world is threatened.<br /><br />And so, an emphasis on `positive thinking' & `no criticism' most often occurs in groups where there is a strong hierarchy and a tendency of `groupthink'. By `groupthink' I mean of course the phenomenon that everyone is encouraged to say the same (`positive') things, and critical, self-reliant thought is frowned upon.<br /><br />#####<br /><br />From this point, how far are we away from fundamentalism, from becoming a sect? Well, this is difficult to say. Most large government organizations tend to show the same mechanisms. Last weekend, a 2003 memo from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs resurfaced in a major newspaper. In the memo, the Legal Affairs Department advises the Minister that entry in the Iraq war is most likely illegal under international law.<br /><br />It turns out the memo was blocked from reaching the Minister of Foreign Affairs by the Secretary-General of the Ministry. It was deemed untimely since the Legal Affairs Department had not been asked to give a `negative' advice. But it was archived, and resurfaced now that 5 years later the Senate is asking insistent questions about the legality of the Dutch participation in the war. <br /><br />So, with or without any label of sect, inside or outside of spiritual movements and religions, I dare still say that `positive thinking' can be a pitfall. `Positive thinking' can be a power tool, used by the top of a Pyramid to smother criticism.<br /><br />Is this an effective strategy?<br /><br />#####<br /><br />Well, yes, from the Pyramid's perspective. One might think not, because almost inevitably, in the end the truth will come out. At some time, the falsities will be exposed. You can fool some people some time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. <br /><br />But the word `time' is of the essence in understanding why the strategy is still effective. Because by the time things are exposed, often the ones who stand to suffer from the exposure have moved on. Or they will say: `Ok ok, so we made some mistakes, LONG AGO, but let's stop arguing about who killed who...and please don't be so negative, we must look to the future and forget the past.'<br /><br />In this way I have seen so incredibly many cover-ups, even clumsy ones, succeed.<br /><br />#####<br /><br />The one perspective from which the `positive thinking' strategy does not succeed, in my not so humble opinion, is the spiritual perspective.<br /><br />Be truthful.<br /><br />I cannot imagine any spirituality without such tenet. Truthful can mean praise as well as criticism. Truth is the opposite of denial. Truth means: open to criticism.<br /><br />#####<br /><br />The pitiful attempts by many so-called `spiritual' movements to stall criticism, to block criticism, to deny criticism are in my eyes a sure sign that such criticism is justified.<br /><br />What to think of a memo sent by a member of the Working Committee of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (Sahaj Marg) to the organizer of an orkut webcommunity on Sahaj Marg in Iran? (See <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJBUUMGoiqelWhqWfH3klO38h1uivzwjxrvAAsXwbQwWzfDNeekyinXFEHStF8s8LWPHWtCnGKuvmBwZV_aESAvSaLjFrOdhn3vrQpGNlGWE35-qX__F5UFENkz49Cj3uZqyZc0b6c8NY/s1600/adityaarya.JPG">here</a>, where you can also see how this movement's Pyramid prefers people with positions of power in the secular world.) <br /><br />Paraphrasing this memo:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">`Dear brother, although your community serves 1500 people, we strongly urge you to remove your community because we fear it will be the target of individuals spreading misinformation about Sahaj Marg'.</span><br /><br />Of course, webcommunities and blogs are new instruments to create open source exchange of information and ideas. And open, non-hierarchical exchange of ideas always threatens the Pyramid.<br /><br />No surprise that spiritual movements (religions included) seek ways to maintain their Absolute Truth by denouncing open exchange.franka waaldijkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09469775707351652635noreply@blogger.com12