For the record, Ann, I hadn't read your response to this post of Barry's before I posted mine, despite the fact that we both made some similar points. I would suggest -- and in fact have, many times -- that a synonym for charisma in many cases is Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
There is a weakness in many people and their basic *lack* of self confidence and self awareness that makes them "easy prey" for those who have a surfeit of it. They encounter someone who is so "taken with themselves" that they can literally think of nothing and no one else and they project a bunch of admirable qualities onto a disorder that is largely devoid of them. I find this such a limited view and one that perhaps implies you are threatened by smart, confident, strong people and therefore find a way of analyzing them that makes these characteristics appear menacing and negative. Some people on this planet are actually possessed of leadership qualities, who are stronger and more interesting and arresting than others. These people are not necessarily those whose world is focused around themselves any more than anyone else. These can be human beings who are, seemingly, naturally self-confident, look as if they were born with an ease and strength that many others do not possess. The fact that you describe these kinds of charismatic individuals as those who are "so taken with themselves that they can think of nothing and no one else" is abysmally short sighted, Barry. Think about the arrival on FFL of someone who is as classic an example of NPD as has ever existed. Some people saw the endless "But enough talking about me...let's talk about me" drivel as what it was and lost interest, and some looked at the same drivel and somehow projected greatness onto it. Now you're sounding resentful and mistaken. No one here thinks of anyone else on this forum as "great" in the way that you mean it/imply here. To this day, the most dismaying thing about my entire experience at FFL has been the fact that many people here were completely *unable* to recognize two classic psychopaths -- Ravi and Robin This is a very heavy-handed diagnosis from someone who is not only not an expert in any medical or psychiatric field and who lacks utter objectivity when discussing either of these individuals. It is comically obvious that you have never been pandered to by either Robin or Ravi and it pisses you off. And while both of these men have given you lots of attention in the past you didn't like the kind of attention they gave you, you simply write them off as "psychopaths". -- when they encountered them. Instead they admired them, became their groupies, and in one case actually created a small cult following around them. This is Barry's attempt at farcical interlude. But Barry, you are not a funny man in the way you think you might be. Leave the humour to Bob, he does it waaaayyyy better than you. That is worrisome, Another attempt at generating an audience chuckle or to elicit terror, I'm not actually sure which. especially in a group of people who claim to be Alright, who are the one's "guilty" of "claim(ing)" this? Show of hands please. "sophisticated spiritual seekers" who've been "on the path" for 20-30 years. To have spent that much time theoretically studying the psychology of enlightenment without being able to tell it from the psychology of psychopathology is shocking. Well, at least we know you have the low down and the situation in hand. We'll make sure to use you as our enlightened guidepost on all things psychologically suspect that might show up here. After all, you're the guy who never falls for fakes. That was fun Barry. Let's do this again.