--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote: > > All this "you're an narcissist" "No you're a narcissist" talk > flying around does dilute the value of the term a bit. > > When I came across this description applied to gurus (primarily > to Rajaneesh, secondarily to Maharishi) in a Secular Humanist > magazine in the late 80's or early 90's it helped me understand > how some people could function so differently. It also helps > explain how people who come from such a different internal place > can have a profound effect on the rest of us. That kind of > internal certainty is foreign to people with a more humble sense > of self regard. If you don't buy into Maharishi's view of himself > as the person of the greatest importance in human history for > bringing out the knowledge of TM and sidhis, then the description > of narcissism helps explain the guy for me. And as we begin to > understand brain chemistry better we can perhaps develop a bit > of compassion for someone so compelled to have an inordinately > high opinion of himself. > > On the other hand, there might be a bit of random haplessness > to the whole Maharishi deal. I mean how many other yogis who > fell into such a fantastic reception from the world could avoid > thinking "damn, I AM da man!" So from this perspective perhaps > Maharishi was not a narcissist in the clinical sense but more > of an ordinary guy who rose the occasion of his celebrity (his > success surprising even him)whose personality got distorted by > his rockstar fame and fortune like many modern celebrities. > Without a close family to keep him real, and through the years > ditching those who served that function (buh by Jerry) he grew > into a Seelisberg pampered little prince. Not anything clinical > really, but somewhere between the unhinged and unchecked ego of > a Jerry Lee Lewis and the wildly imaginative and ambitions > Richard Branson. > > Fascinating human story either way.
I've now seen the story twice. That is, I've seen two spiritual teachers destroyed by narcissism -- MMY and Rama - Fred Lenz. I think you're onto something with the last paragraph above, but I would go further with it and say that the real problem is that neither of them should ever have gone into the spiritual teaching business in the first place. Their narcissism (present early on as hubris) led them to believe that they could "handle it," but neither of them could. They both "began to believe their own PR." They both used the classic behavior of Narcissistic Personality Disorder to distance themselves from any real feedback, and limit anything said to them to, "Oh...you're just so cool and perfect and amazing, oh Guru." Some can handle that; I've met a few Tibetan gurus who could. But neither of them could. They started to believe all this crap, and "act out" behind it more and more and more. It wound up leading one to suicide and one to spending his last few days trying to get people to "erect" big penises with his name on them, to make his "specialness" last forever. I feel more than a little sorry for both of them. So much potential, squandered away on petty ego nonsense.
