Comments on THE GURU LOOKED GOOD by Marta Szabo: PIECES OF A DREAM by Caitlin O'Gormally

http://members.aol.com/carol2180/hypnosis.htm Marc...

2008-04-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

http://members.aol.com/carol2180/hypnosis.htm
March 18, 2008 11:53 AM

Thanks Caitlin for the helpful link and the brave posting of your story. I hope your heart stays strong and you receive tons of love and support along your way. My heart goes out especially to the younger folk who were in SY from an early age.

Warm regards,
Alas, Anon

I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful re...

2008-03-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful responses to this story. Since submitting this story, I came upon a paper that seems to address this experience of dissociation quite well. It is called “The Manipulation of Spiritual Experience: Unethical Hypnosis in Destructive Cults.” The link is:

http://members.aol.com/carol2180/hypnosis.htm

Thanks, Caitlin

I hope to learn more about Siddha Yoga. I have ju...

2008-03-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

I hope to learn more about Siddha Yoga. I have just joined this blog. I am confused by some loving the path and some feeling betrayed.

This is from a community practicing its own ritual...

2008-02-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

This is from a community practicing its own ritual of dis-enchantment over on the TM-Free blog.

It is a descripton of how methods taught by Maharishi M Yogi turned out, in this author's experience, to create and then entrench a state of mental dissociation. The author went on to practice in a Theravedan Buddhist tradition, still meditates, but in doing so, discovered how MMY had omitted certain procedures that would actually have either prevented dissociation or caused it to cease.

http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/01/mantras-part-1.html

What MMY omitted were practices that

1) sharpen the mind

2) omitted to instruct people to stay in contact with their own bodies--that is remain physicially grounded throughout

and 3) instead of teaching devotees how to avoid becoming attached to or panicked by certain mind states,they were taught to crave certain mind states

Those who have been through SY might read through the article and see if anything matches up with what they have observed and if there are any items that support recovery.

It answers the cult question well:

You have a cult when someone says 'I am a healer'---and keeps prescribing methods that make people ill--and refuses to notice this, concentrating only on those who claim to benefit.

Yeah, Gurumayi's singing is god-awful. That shoul...

2008-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

Yeah, Gurumayi's singing is god-awful. That should have been a big red-flag right there! My ears bleed! BTW, don't you think that Nico (from the Velvet Underground) kinda sounds like GM sometimes? I looooove the Velvet Underground except when that lady sings. EEEEWWW! Flashbacks!

Hm..there is reportedly a neurological mechanism ...

2008-02-12T06:55:00.001-08:00

Hm..there is reportedly a neurological mechanism that has been termed 'kindling.'

If you go through certain experiences, such as trauma, or addiction, specific neural pathways get sensitized, and then, over time, it takes less and less of the original stimulus to cause those pathways to activate.

I think they've done PET scans of combat veterans with PTSD vs persons without PTSD and found that the PTSD sufferers' brains became metabolically more active in specific zones when exposed to footage of war movies than the brains of persons who had not been in combat and come away with PTSD.

A crude analogy is like an old vinyl record where you've repeatedly dropped the needle into the grooves to play just one favorite song and the grooves get so worn down by the repeated treks of the needle that eventually the needle readily skips into the deepened grooves with less and less prodding from the listener.

So it may be that some who have quite heavily utilized certain devotional practices (in this case the chanting) may find that it powerfully kindles an extensive neurological field within.

Its a chain of cause and effect that is powerful, and that when hidden and concealed by a mythology, will seem magical, but that when recognized as a chain of cause and effect that has an impact on thought and emotion, can, eventually be examined, and gradually de-activated.

The toughest part is finding ways to get curious about this powerful experience, stand outside of it--which, in relation to such a powerful tide of mood and memory, is hard to do, especially when it is linked to so much that is pleasurable.

But that's what liberation requires..the ability to question even our pleasures, question even blissfulness itself, if we are given good cause to suspect that pleasure and bliss are tied to something or someone that is enslaving us.

The impact of this is real, but its still cause and effect that we can de-construct.

You have reached very mature practice when you've discovered that even shakti and bliss are generated by cause and effect and can be questioned, rather than drowned in.

More than one correspondant has described how shakti was mythologized and then tied to a story that legitimized an authoritarian leader.

We are in bondage when a chain of cause and effect is set aside as an unquestionable essence to be submitted to and never questioned, never curiously examined.

Lib/Zennie

Thank you Caitlin for bringing the state of mind a...

2008-02-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

Thank you Caitlin for bringing the state of mind alive. All that self-induced euphoria that SY convinced us came from the Guru. I am so embarrased by my lavish journals, praising and thanking the guru for everything in my life. The only religious experiences I seek now are the one's that help me scale the mountain of selfishness.

SY did accomplish that for a bit. But there was something else that drove it down. I know people were re-formed, re-made for a while from practicing SY. I was, but overall the focus on appearances and ever present sense us 'luxe', made it a sham. What am I to do with silk saris and punjabis? Prasad was a great start with great hearts. Just wasn't a big enought piece maybe.

I recently cleaned my puja and my photos on the al...

2008-02-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

I recently cleaned my puja and my photos on the altar are now of the few teachers I've come to all in equal size. i kept a photo of a young Nityanada for the center of the photo triptych. He feels sincere and I see him as the source of our energy transmissions from M and GM.
I do not meditate on any being or deity, just project myself into the column of light within and I go away. We can scare ourselves more with our own minds than any black magic. I knew a black magic woman who was po'd at me. But my mind told me she had no power over me and she would if I allowed it, I lived my life without fear.

It's like someone who decides they drink too much....

2008-02-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

It's like someone who decides they drink too much. Some people, some times, have to cut it off in an extreme way, making sure they never go anywhere near a bar, or go to any party where others are drinking etc. If that's the only way they can gain control of their lives, OK.

But more typically, for most people, they just gradually become more indifferent to it, they find alternatives. Then they no longer have to go to such lengths to avoid any exposure to alcohol, since it no longer has so much meaning to them.

Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/