Cultivating a good understanding of what is and is not a cult......
I was talking to a friend yesterday about her experience with a 'self awareness group' quite a few years ago and how long it took her to work through the effects. She was lucky because she was aware and had a grounded, sensible partner but it still took three years for her to get her 'mind' and Self back, as she said.
I may be suspicious by nature but I have always felt that seminars, healing workshops, spiritual courses etc., have the potential to do as much if not more damage than healing if you are the wrong person in the wrong place or end up in the wrong hands. Psychological and emotional healing is not meant to happen overnight or in a weekend or a week and if it does, or you are told it will, then warning bells should ring.
The so-called 'human potential movement' is huge these days but along with the good, a lot of damage can be done. How do you tell the difference was the question she asked. The course she did looked okay and a friend was going so it seemed okay - it was only later that she realised how deeply her mind and thinking had been affected. Then again, a lot of these groups in the name of healing look to de-stabilise the psyche in order to gain followers, power and often money.
The human mind is tricky and we can get caught up in movements which have us doing things we would never normally do if we applied common sense and reason; but such groups often tap into need. I guess my instinct would be that anything which is 'absolute' in any way is likely to have a lot of 'cult' in it, no mater how noble the aspirations and promises.
Read, research, discuss, ponder so you can tell if there are cult aspects at work.
http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/LGATs.html
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm
I may be suspicious by nature but I have always felt that seminars, healing workshops, spiritual courses etc., have the potential to do as much if not more damage than healing if you are the wrong person in the wrong place or end up in the wrong hands. Psychological and emotional healing is not meant to happen overnight or in a weekend or a week and if it does, or you are told it will, then warning bells should ring.
The so-called 'human potential movement' is huge these days but along with the good, a lot of damage can be done. How do you tell the difference was the question she asked. The course she did looked okay and a friend was going so it seemed okay - it was only later that she realised how deeply her mind and thinking had been affected. Then again, a lot of these groups in the name of healing look to de-stabilise the psyche in order to gain followers, power and often money.
The human mind is tricky and we can get caught up in movements which have us doing things we would never normally do if we applied common sense and reason; but such groups often tap into need. I guess my instinct would be that anything which is 'absolute' in any way is likely to have a lot of 'cult' in it, no mater how noble the aspirations and promises.
Read, research, discuss, ponder so you can tell if there are cult aspects at work.
http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/LGATs.html
http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm
posted by Roslyn Ross at 12:14 am
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