Re "Yes, using 'cult' works as a slur here on FFL the way it is often used here without qualification or material substance.":
Yes, indeed. In the sociological classification of religious movements, a cult is a religious group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices. Well the TMO has novel beliefs and practices so I would happily call it a cult. But that label has no negative connotation for me. It's just a useful category. The problem is that "cult" has, over time, acquired negative meanings such as coercion and social withdrawal. Now ask yourself: out of all the people who have learned TM and then decided the technique was not for them, how many have come under pressure from the TMO to get back with the program if they knew what was good for them? Zero! That's how many. Contrast that with the experience of those who've turned against Scientology and have started to talk publically against Dianetics. So Scientology is a cult in the full negative sense. Although I suspect that the TMO has cult-like behaviour (in a negative sense) for those who penetrate the upper echelons after becoming teachers or administrators, for those who are simply meditators, TM is not - repeat not - a sinister cult. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote : Yes, using 'cult' works as a slur here on FFL the way it is often used here without qualification or material substance, that is the point. But without material substance it's mostly an ad hominem the way it gets used against people here on FFL. The continued use of 'cult' without qualification the way some writers employ it in method as slur runs to violating the Yahoo-groups guidelines, again. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote : 'Cult' this, 'Cult' that, it has no meaning anymore it is become so ubiquitous in use. And these same professionals as writers employing 'cult' here complain about what they assert is a lack of creativity or originality in posts.. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <richard@...> wrote : You are really asking a lot of the informants, Buck. Using the "cult" word is one of their favorite straw man arguments. Everyone knows that at least three of the current FFL informants were leaders of a cult years ago. Transference? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote : Could we get beyond the claim that TM is a 'cult' and not just a practice. They would have us believe that they were all forced into a cult at an early age, held against their will for a decade, brainwashed into believing in a secret doctrine, and then sent out into the world and to online to news forums to preach - like some kind of Manchurian Candidate, but in reverse. Seems that some here have an ideological bias that is intellectually passe in claiming 'brain-washing' and 'cult' as ad hominem. One guy claims he was forced to live inside a pod for two winters in Iowa and work in a hot kitchen every day baking pastries for the leader. On weekends, he was locked inside a golden dome and couldn't escape unless he learned how to fly. Gawd! Some clearly seem to have a personal axe to grind that is other than objective. At one point this particular informant, so he said, refused to set a table for a group dinner and so he got kicked out of the cult and sent packing. He claims to have gone over the fence late one night and took a bus back to his mother's place to hide out. The question now is, is he still brainwashed or not? Apparently he is very susceptible to suggestion. So, how does he get his mind back after being held in a cult against his will? Where is Dr. Pete when we need him? Go figure. The Brainwashing Model Debunked: http://tinyurl.com/y6bzst2 http://tinyurl.com/y6bzst2 Work cited: Anthony, Dick. "Religious Movements and Brainwashing Litigation: Evaluating Key Testimony," in Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony, eds., "In Gods We Trust", 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1990.pp 295-344. 1990. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/413891 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/413891 Discrimination, or legal action, against religious groups because someone doesn't like them is clearly a violation of the free exercise of religion, a human right increasingly recognized around the world. But the claim of "brainwashing" shrouds the discrimination by claiming that religious groups are victimizing recruits and potential recruits by employing powerful means of manipulation that are extremely difficult to resist. Social scientists who study religious movements do not reject the general proposition that religious groups (old and new) are capable of having considerable influence over their members. Indeed, most argue that "influence" is ubiquitous in human cultures. But they argue, further, that the influence exerted in "cults" is not very different from influence that is present in practically every arena of life. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <richard@...> wrote : The definition of a "cult" implies the element of force or coercion, as in "they forced me to work in the kitchen" or "they forced me to get down on my hands and knees and pray twice a day", or "they locked me inside a golden dome and made me try to fly". In your case, they apparently used a mind-control technique and then they put you in a trance-induction state in order to cause your chronic cognitive dissonance. Apparently you were housed alone in a small pod, deprived of sleep and fed only vegetarian food. They forced you to get up at the crack of dawn and work in the kitchen and bakery. Every minute of your day was probably already planned out with assigned minders watching over you to make sure you didn't break your celibacy and your meditation schedule. They probably indoctrinated you with endless hours of tapes, videos and speeches at meetings. For years you were made to bow and scrape in front of the elite administrators of the religious school at ceremonies. This kind of human cult slavery is just outrageous! Gawd! Only when you were fully programmed by the cult would they let you escape from the camp in the middle of the night on a Greyhound bus to get back to your mother's place. In another two weeks you probably would have been a walking nut-case or a raging maniac. You are to be congratulated on your daring escape from the sex cult, Sir! What I can't understand though, is why you refuse to see a cult-exit counselor or a professional, after going through such a hellish experience for all those years. Go figure. My advice would be for you to get yourself a PTSD dog as a pet to keep you company - take it with you everywhere and to your AA meetings. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : Please explain to me how Scientology is not a cult. Then lets deal with the TMO. From: "dhamiltony2k5@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2015 9:10 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Maharishi School retrospective Okay it is all or nothing for you and you make no distinction between practitioners and the movements. Not much to converse over with you as such. Evidently they all are cultists in your book without gradation or scope. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : If anyone can look at Scientology and the behavior of Scientologists and think its not a cult..... And as I have said before, if anyone can look at the Movement with its supposedly celibate King, it robe and crown wearing little king-lets and their tendency to block up or lock up all south facing entrances, avoid solar eclipses and keep the pundits in a stalag and think it isn't a cult.... So, evidently “religious philosophy” as mentioned in this article is not the same thing as religion. Is religious philosophy necessarily cult-ish in your book? You seem to assert TM is a religious philosophy coming out of religion, like Scientology in this article? Is there a level of religious philosophy where they are just practices or philosophy for people in life. Is there a point where you draw a line between religious philosophy in practice and cults for people? Just wondering, you seem intent on painting cult on everything and everyone. From the article: “It's a religious philosophy, so when I'm sitting there, studying about something, I'm oftentimes sitting next to guys from Nation of Islam and friends who are fully Jewish and other friends who are Catholic and Reverend Alfreddie Johnson, who's a Baptist minister.” Religious philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_philosophy Religious philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_philosophy Religious philosophy is philosophical thinking that is inspired and directed by religion. There are different philosophies for each religion such as those of : View on en.wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_philosophy Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : this one is good too PAPERMAG: Danny Masterson Tells Us About His Life in the Church of Scientology http://www.papermag.com/2015/02/danny_masterson_scientology.php http://www.papermag.com/2015/02/danny_masterson_scientology.php PAPERMAG: Danny Masterson Tells Us About His Life in... http://www.papermag.com/2015/02/danny_masterson_scientology.php Pre-order the issue here View on www.papermag.com http://www.papermag.com/2015/02/danny_masterson_scientology.php Preview by Yahoo From: "LEnglish5@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2015 12:57 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Maharishi School retrospective PAPERMAG: Growing Up in Fairfield, Iowa -- America's Transcendental Meditation Mecca http://www.papermag.com/2015/03/fairfield_iowa_maharishi_transcendental_meditation.php http://www.papermag.com/2015/03/fairfield_iowa_maharishi_transcendental_meditation.php PAPERMAG: Growing Up in Fairfield, Iowa -- America's... http://www.papermag.com/2015/03/fairfield_iowa_maharishi_transcendental_meditation.php Among the white barns, brick silos and verdant farmlands of Middle America is the city that Maharishi built.
