Run (don't walk) to download the chapters from this one. I found the chapters on Krishnamurti and Adi Da to be quite informative. Granted, the author does focus on the negative aspects of these teacher's lives, but that's highly relevant when considering the claims made and the attention given to these teachers. - http://www.strippingthegurus.com/
Hi, Phil, I came across that book some time ago. I've only ever looked at the chapter on Findhorn, since I knew the Caddy family back in the 70s. As you say, the author selects his evidence so as to present as bleak a picture as possible. In the case of Findhorn, all his "revelations" are from previously published and widely available materials.
Derek, I wasn't aware of any controversies concerning Findhorn, and after reading what he wrote, it doesn't seem so bad -- not nearly like the chapters on Adi Da and Wilber (haven't checked out others yet). Findhorn seems to have arisen like so many other communities -- from the impetus of strong leaders, then morphing into a more democratic group.
A big problem for a lot of the other guru chaps treated in this book is that they can't seem to keep their pants zipped up! That's understandable, given that higher consciousness doesn't just increase brain function, but stimulates the "lower chakras" as well. When this is all excused as "crazy teaching" in a community, however, sick and abusive dynamics can set in.
I started checking out this book from your other post on Krishnamurti. In that version, I notice he includes the Roman Catholic Church as one of his chapters...That didn't sit well with me, and I see that in this version above that you post, the RC chapter is absent.
Anyway, this guy is a real comedian! A hoot to read! Sharp but maybe a little too much into humiliating these guys...at the same time, I see the perspective of needing to expose their dark and hypocritical sides as important public service announcements to rescue followers. And how can I not like a guy who wants to help people out in this way--even financially.
I read through the Muktananda chapter. Though I never met him personally, I was into SYDA for a while and witnessed some of the seedy blow-up in Ann Arbor years ago between the brother-sister successors of Swami M. Falk doesn't go into that much or the numerous legal problems M. got into with sleeping with minors, threatening to kill people if they talked. Nasty stuff. I don't know what's more crazy? His sexual addiction or his apparently severely impaired judgment to think he could keep such activity a secret in an ashram? !
I'm praising God for my great fortune. While M. was blazing through Ann Arbor with his SYDA stuff, initiating folks like my psych. prof. at UM, who turned around and got me and so many others launched into that nonsense, the Holy Spirit fell in great power and the huge charismatic community flourished. It was from this group of lovely people that I was brought to Christ and cleaned up of those connections.
Shasha, I saw that chapter on Roman Catholicism and read it (I think it's still there, toward the end of the book). It's no secret that there's been scandalous behavior at very high levels of church leadership, including popes. The author misunderstands what Catholics mean in considering the Pope the Vicar of Christ, however, and takes this along with "one true Church" teachings to make of Catholicism a cultish phenomenon. It's easy to see how an outsider would connect the dots this way, but, unlike the other kinds of scandals he writes about, these are condemned by the Gospel itself and are not rationalized as some kind of "crazy teaching."
Sounds like you just missed the Muktananda phenomenon! Part of the problem with men like him is they're just completely out of their element in Western culture. The differences in women's attire alone is probably enough to drive a young Indian man crazy, especially if the women seem fawning in their affection for him. I doubt that these gurus realized the kind of power they were exerting, nor the level of impropriety, much of which would have been hushed over back home. Not intending to make excuses for them, of course . . .This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil,
w.c., your post reminds me of a phenomenon of the 1970s. At that time, many of us were sickened by the state of Western society and had mentally formed the equation West=bad, East=good. What's emerged since then, and what is reiterated in your post, is that Asian cultures are just as encouraging of neurosis as our own, only in a different direction. Your experience of the Vietnamese kid especially speaks volumes.
w.c., I'd never made that connection before, but you're right. Here in Canada "multiculturalism" has become part of the de facto state religion. Questioning the psychological health of other cultures would be a taboo subject. As for priests, though, I think we need all the priests we can get, and I'm happy to support them.
Those are all cogent points, w.c., and I can attest from many personal experiences of working in the church for over 30 years, now, that we have a real problem because of some of our teachings on sexuality. Michael Crosby's book, The Dysfunctional Church, addressed this head-on some years ago, and got him "un-invited" from a number of diocesan retreat centers. He located the core dysfunction to be the preservation of the male, celibate priesthood over-and-against Protestant tendencies, "liberal" theologians, feminists, etc. The sex-abuse scandals in the Church are not disconnected from this mentality, although more care is being given now to attending the psychological needs of seminarians.
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Re. the Falk book, one thing that strikes me is that, with the exception of his chapter on Roman Catholicism, the common denominator among the others is this equivalency between godliness and higher consciousness. Once we do this and claims are made by and accorded to certain people, all sorts of weirdness can follow, especially if moral behavior is relegated to a lesser validation of saintliness. That's all so different than in Christianity, where higher consciousness isn't especially encouraged, and moral behavior is the final litmus test of authentic holiness.
And I should also share knowing a few priests who do deal with these difficult and painful matters, and have been through psychotherapy, often for years; they often end up not only realizing their own loneliness and emasculization from childhood, but their aloneness among fellow priests once the membership vows have been broken.
That's understandable, given that higher consciousness doesn't just increase brain function, but stimulates the "lower chakras" as well. When this is all excused as "crazy teaching" in a community, however, sick and abusive dynamics can set in.