Animal Farm-like rewriting by WCASY of tenets on which SY was originally founded

[Guest guest]

Dear Semira and John,

 

My pranaam to both of you for this gem.

 

Jai Shri Mataji,

 

 

jagbir

 

--------------------------------

 

" jglove7 " <jglove7

Thu Nov 10, 2005 2:06 am

Hello Again

 

Thank you Everyone for your helpful input.

 

This is the sort of kindness we need more of in our world -

especially the SY world which is supposed to epitomise compassion.

 

You know, one of the respondents suggested checking SMs vibes. I

hope you won't be upset, but it actually makes me deeply silent. I

know it contradicts all the bodily ailments we hear about, but there

is definitely (for me) a lovely, soothing, deep calm and silence

when I put my attention/hands towards SM.

 

Then of course, after maybe 10 minutes, thoughts arise about all the

discrepancies and I become disturbed and think unfriendly thoughts

about the whole SY organisation.

 

Oh what a conundrum.

 

BTW, I no longer " bring " people into SY - I cannot mess up their

lives even though I know some could enjoy that joyful bliss I

experience in many of my meditations.

 

I have spoken up in the past to no avail. A friend who has been

in SY longer than me has been kept at arms length for talking about

the problems in SY - and he was one of the " early " yogis who spent a

lot of time with SM and established centers in England. The problem

is that no truly intelligent person with a conscience can keep quiet

about these conflicts.

 

Perhaps that's why even in old yoga books the intellect is

considered a hindrance.

 

I've said enough.

 

Bye for now.

 

 

" semirafields " <semirafields

Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:06 am

Re: Hello Again

 

Dear John,

 

You might like to read some chapters from the following link(scroll

down the page for the chapters)

 

http://www.strippingthegurus.com/

 

In particular the chapter XXV11 'Gurus and Prisoners' is helpful in

understanding what psychologically changes happen to people in

situations where there are leaders and positions of power, and in

any situation where there is a superior/inferior differential.

 

Best wishes, Semira

 

http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/gurusandprisoners.

asp

 

A few short excerts;

 

-----AS WE HAVE SEEN, a common set of alleged problems, even

expressed in nearly identical words, tend to occur in our world's

spiritual communities. Indeed, the reported characteristics observed

are essentially independent of the specific beliefs espoused by the

community, and of the historical time and place in which the

spiritual leader and his disciples have existed.

 

------

Even a pure democracy will naturally and inevitably turn into an

authoritarian hierarchy in the face of any one person whom enough

people believe to be an infallible " god. " Those supporters then

defer to his (or her) " omniscient " perception of reality, and

collectively enforce that same deference on their peers, against the

penalty of ostracism from the community—a fate worse than peon-ship,

even were salvation not at stake. Thereby do they ingratiate

themselves and secure their own inner circle status, where they

can " bask in the reflected glory " from such close proximity to

the " cool sage " above them. In the same positions, they will further

receive bowing respect from those below—exacted sadistically, if

need be.

 

------ (With regard to the spontaneous production and defense of the

guru position: Compare the unavoidable—not necessarily good, but

unavoidable—presence of " alpha males " and pecking orders even in the

animal kingdom. There is neither " patriarchy " nor " too much linear

thinking " in such pre-verbal environments; yet the hierarchical

orderings occur all the same.)

 

Spiritual paths as diverse as Roman Catholicism, Tibetan Buddhism

and Paramahansa Yogananda's SRF have been grown in cultures ranging

from the agrarian East to postmodern America. Yet, they are scarcely

distinguishable in their power structures, the behaviors of their

members, the penalties for leaving and the reported, spirit-crushing

cruelties visited upon those who stay. And given all that, it seems

clear by now that not only are the problems with such communities

systemic, but the abuse-creating structures are basically

unavoidable.

 

The issues we have seen, then, are the product far less of a

few " bad apples, " than of the surroundings in which they are

contained. Almost universally, in spiritual communities, there are

no meaningful checks and balances on the behaviors of the leaders,

to restrict their exercise of " divine " power. That is so, not only

in terms of their indulgence in base (e.g., sadistic or sexual)

impulses, but also in failing to prevent the Animal Farm-like

rewriting of the tenets on which the community was originally

founded. (Compare SRF's current monopoly on " valid " kriya

initiation, etc.) Yet, there is simultaneously no shortage of

indoctrination, required deference, ostracism and worse, utilized to

keep the followers from even cognizing, much less speaking up about,

those power-grabs and rule-changes. And before you know it, the

Board of Directors members, for example, have become " more equal "

than the people they should be accountable to. They will further

benefit from there being no shortage of peons eager to prove their

loyalty to the cause, and work their way up " toward God, " by doubly

reinforcing that inequality on anyone who dares to question it.

 

 

------Regardless, having spent sufficient time in silence within a

group of onlookers, the first question one would face should one

finally openly object would be the embarrassing: Why did you keep

quiet for so long, if it was obvious from the beginning that

something needed to be done? We therefore have a personal stake in

not admitting that we should have done things differently—i.e., that

we were wrong to behave thusly. For that reason, and even merely for

the sake of socially rewarded consistency, we instead remain silent,

allowing the problems to continue. (Institutions such as the Vatican

persist in their errors and reported abuses in no small part exactly

for being unable to come out and admit that they have been wrong in

the past [cf. Wills, 2000].) Plus, for Zimbardo's relatively

sensitive " good " guards, for example, to speak out against the

activities of their more sadistic counterparts, would surely have

resulted in their quick ostracism from that sub-community of " alpha

guards, " who actually enjoyed mistreating their prisoners.

 

------Only three things are really needed in order to begin creating

a closed, toxic environment—whether that be a " cult, " a bad

marriage, a prison or a dictatorship. And those are (i) a

significant power differential between the leaders and their

followers, (ii) a lack of checks and balances on the leaders to keep

them from abusing their existing power and grabbing for more, and

(iii) sufficient psychological, financial and/or physical (e.g.,

locks and bars) constraints to keep the mistreated followers from

simply leaving. The increasingly " cult-like " nature of the

environment will then follow straightforward, simply via the

presence of basic human psychology in both the leaders/guards and

their followers/prisoners.