- Posts: 52
- Joined: 26 Apr 2011
21 Jul 2011
Well we all must adhere to one form of tyranny or another it seems concentrated in the hands of the few who seek to gratify their tendency for control and dictate what is acceptable - even on this forum. The irony and the parallel is sublime : ) No place for rebels trying to rock the boat of the precious little enterprise. cannot have that can we.
I think the question of what attracted people to the BKs is extremely valid.
There seems to be multiple layers to this. We might talk about personality factors, or previous life experiences, or the effects of prior psychological damage that render people vulnerable to seduction techniques like the ones the BKs use.
Many of the people I knew and some I still know from my time with the BKs were seekers in some form. A large contingent seemed to have traveled through life asking all those imponderables like why are we here? is their a greater purpose? is their a God etc. I knew many who had studied kabalah, mysticism, occultism, a variety of religions including the nature mysticism like Druidism, once condemned as the sign of a Copper Age soul by Janki. So one motivating force, and I guess equally a vulnerability factor in some people, was this business of seeking a kind of truth, answers to bigger questions.
It's strange to look back and recognise now how this quest for answer was the very thing that rendered them vulnerable to the BKs because on the surface these were the answers they were providing. Or so we thought. I was one of these seekers from an early age and i met many like-minded people in the BK movement. They had a lot of intellectual curiosity I remember. I was personally attracted to the BKs because I was a seeker and they seemed to be offering answers.
Equally I met others who for me felt somewhat displaced and lost. Ships adrift at sea looking for friendly shores. These people tended to talk about themselves as people alienated from mainstream society, misfits in a way or akin to Colin Wilson's 'outsiders'. they seemed to crave a sense of belonging and interconnection with others who perhaps appeared more like themselves. A variety of experiences seemed to have fed the sense of dislocation from others and their state of vulnerability was often clear to see. A lot of these dreamed of living in centres and getting close to the Dadis and others, and fed off the family feeling almost desperately. I am sure some of them genuinely felt they had found a niche, a place of belonging in a larger society in which they felt out of place or did not like. This was there vulnerability.
Then there were the clearly damanged personalities i met. Some of these appeared to be looking for ways to heal or escape painful experiences and situations. They seemed to cling to meditation and lose themselves in the experience in order to bandage the raw wounds life had dealt them. I guess this particular vulnerability attracted them to the BKs.
Some I met when I look were clearly sincere in their motivations and genuinely motivated by a desire to help others and cater for human welfare. I remember their enthusiam and innocence which was often nice to be around. Despite the machinations of the Seniors, these BKs were real in most respects though obviously misguided. I saw the energy and enthusiasm of these people sapped by the BKWSO as they were milked of every drop of good intentions. Strange how even the desire to do good can make a person vulnerable to cults like the BKs but easy to understand.
Others in my view needed psychiatric help. a few I met were clearly disturbed and wild-eyed. The incoherence of their thoughts and speech seemed to be made worse by the struggle to integrate with the BKs and comprehend the philosophy. I noticed these few often ended up avoided by most other BKs. No mystery what made this group vulnerable to them.
Others appeared attracted via negative motives though I wonder how aware they were. Usual stuff ... power, influence, status seekers etc. We all spoted them as they sought status within the organisation, sycophants and boot lickers in love with their own egos and reflections. Lovers of their own voice. Again their own corruption made them suckers for the BK indoctrination.
A variety then of personality factors, unconscious desires, hopes, aspirations, injurious experiences, boredom with life, quests for answers, malajustment, disturbances and authentic good intentions render people vulnerable to the BK seduction. I am sure there are many more we could identify along the way.
Another interesting factor for me was meeting people in the BK movement who had previously felt there was something profoundly wrong or amiss with the state of the world. This is not so easy to express but I remember discussing this with several BKs at the time.
They gave voice in their own way to a sense that the existing society or system, the way people lived and the way the world was, was somwehow 'wrong'. They lived with this feeling and did their best prior to the BKs to conceal this view and just get on and manage as best they could. Looking back these BKs were not sure why they had this feeling and, of course, had no alternative but to continue to be part of that world they experienced as wrong or faulty. They seemed attracted to the BKs due to the promise that the world could be put right or made better. A new future which would feel right.
Others were clearly passing through ... travellers unable to settle in one place where they took a taste of the BK experience and quickly moved on.
Of course there are many cults around the world and other hazardous organisations likely to cause injury to visitors and members. My own braoder view is that the world in which we live, the current system fosters a variety of psychological and emotional problems in human beings. It is a toxic system which injures, abuses, disturbs and renders masses vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation. It rears an ever increasing body of dysfunctional people who experience harm at some level from it and experience a host of vulnerabilities both unconscious and conscious which render them vulnerable to organisations like the BKs.
This is the broader canvas discussed by many psychologists and mental health practioners these day - how does society make people ill? As the saying goes, 'To be extraordinarily well adjusted to a sick society is no measure of good health'. I would alter this slightly and say that we have an unwell society which creates an ever growing proportion of dysfunctionality in which people remain extraordinarily badly adjusted to it.
What I'd like to see if a society which is far more nurturing of good psychological health and adjustment which in turn would render less people vulnerable to the likes of the BKs. That is a positive view and one I and others hope the system can be encouraged to move towards.
In the past, I used to carry out official stress audits for large companies and organisations. Often what we found was not shocking to me but seemed shocking to the senior managers and directors. We are not just talking about optimum stress levels in employees here, likely to bring out the best of them, but chronic stress which overwhelms in the long term employees ability to cope and perform well at their jobs.
The pace of work, the level of demands, the alienation experienced from decision making and involvement, low moral, depression, psychosomatic ailments etc, all contributed to excessive stress levels which were adversely affecting a huge proportion of staff either physically, psychologically and often both. You gain an insight into just how prevalent the toxic effects and practices of the system are on people.
Of course, Seniors managers were often shocked at the results of our audit and ignored the recommendations which usually focused not on helping people adjust to a toxic system via therapies etc but on systemic change in a benevolent direction.
Their answer would often be 'We cannot change things this way because this is the only way we can survive'. A toxic system produces toxified people - simple.
I think the question of what attracted people to the BKs is extremely valid.
There seems to be multiple layers to this. We might talk about personality factors, or previous life experiences, or the effects of prior psychological damage that render people vulnerable to seduction techniques like the ones the BKs use.
Many of the people I knew and some I still know from my time with the BKs were seekers in some form. A large contingent seemed to have traveled through life asking all those imponderables like why are we here? is their a greater purpose? is their a God etc. I knew many who had studied kabalah, mysticism, occultism, a variety of religions including the nature mysticism like Druidism, once condemned as the sign of a Copper Age soul by Janki. So one motivating force, and I guess equally a vulnerability factor in some people, was this business of seeking a kind of truth, answers to bigger questions.
It's strange to look back and recognise now how this quest for answer was the very thing that rendered them vulnerable to the BKs because on the surface these were the answers they were providing. Or so we thought. I was one of these seekers from an early age and i met many like-minded people in the BK movement. They had a lot of intellectual curiosity I remember. I was personally attracted to the BKs because I was a seeker and they seemed to be offering answers.
Equally I met others who for me felt somewhat displaced and lost. Ships adrift at sea looking for friendly shores. These people tended to talk about themselves as people alienated from mainstream society, misfits in a way or akin to Colin Wilson's 'outsiders'. they seemed to crave a sense of belonging and interconnection with others who perhaps appeared more like themselves. A variety of experiences seemed to have fed the sense of dislocation from others and their state of vulnerability was often clear to see. A lot of these dreamed of living in centres and getting close to the Dadis and others, and fed off the family feeling almost desperately. I am sure some of them genuinely felt they had found a niche, a place of belonging in a larger society in which they felt out of place or did not like. This was there vulnerability.
Then there were the clearly damanged personalities i met. Some of these appeared to be looking for ways to heal or escape painful experiences and situations. They seemed to cling to meditation and lose themselves in the experience in order to bandage the raw wounds life had dealt them. I guess this particular vulnerability attracted them to the BKs.
Some I met when I look were clearly sincere in their motivations and genuinely motivated by a desire to help others and cater for human welfare. I remember their enthusiam and innocence which was often nice to be around. Despite the machinations of the Seniors, these BKs were real in most respects though obviously misguided. I saw the energy and enthusiasm of these people sapped by the BKWSO as they were milked of every drop of good intentions. Strange how even the desire to do good can make a person vulnerable to cults like the BKs but easy to understand.
Others in my view needed psychiatric help. a few I met were clearly disturbed and wild-eyed. The incoherence of their thoughts and speech seemed to be made worse by the struggle to integrate with the BKs and comprehend the philosophy. I noticed these few often ended up avoided by most other BKs. No mystery what made this group vulnerable to them.
Others appeared attracted via negative motives though I wonder how aware they were. Usual stuff ... power, influence, status seekers etc. We all spoted them as they sought status within the organisation, sycophants and boot lickers in love with their own egos and reflections. Lovers of their own voice. Again their own corruption made them suckers for the BK indoctrination.
A variety then of personality factors, unconscious desires, hopes, aspirations, injurious experiences, boredom with life, quests for answers, malajustment, disturbances and authentic good intentions render people vulnerable to the BK seduction. I am sure there are many more we could identify along the way.
Another interesting factor for me was meeting people in the BK movement who had previously felt there was something profoundly wrong or amiss with the state of the world. This is not so easy to express but I remember discussing this with several BKs at the time.
They gave voice in their own way to a sense that the existing society or system, the way people lived and the way the world was, was somwehow 'wrong'. They lived with this feeling and did their best prior to the BKs to conceal this view and just get on and manage as best they could. Looking back these BKs were not sure why they had this feeling and, of course, had no alternative but to continue to be part of that world they experienced as wrong or faulty. They seemed attracted to the BKs due to the promise that the world could be put right or made better. A new future which would feel right.
Others were clearly passing through ... travellers unable to settle in one place where they took a taste of the BK experience and quickly moved on.
Of course there are many cults around the world and other hazardous organisations likely to cause injury to visitors and members. My own braoder view is that the world in which we live, the current system fosters a variety of psychological and emotional problems in human beings. It is a toxic system which injures, abuses, disturbs and renders masses vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation. It rears an ever increasing body of dysfunctional people who experience harm at some level from it and experience a host of vulnerabilities both unconscious and conscious which render them vulnerable to organisations like the BKs.
This is the broader canvas discussed by many psychologists and mental health practioners these day - how does society make people ill? As the saying goes, 'To be extraordinarily well adjusted to a sick society is no measure of good health'. I would alter this slightly and say that we have an unwell society which creates an ever growing proportion of dysfunctionality in which people remain extraordinarily badly adjusted to it.
What I'd like to see if a society which is far more nurturing of good psychological health and adjustment which in turn would render less people vulnerable to the likes of the BKs. That is a positive view and one I and others hope the system can be encouraged to move towards.
In the past, I used to carry out official stress audits for large companies and organisations. Often what we found was not shocking to me but seemed shocking to the senior managers and directors. We are not just talking about optimum stress levels in employees here, likely to bring out the best of them, but chronic stress which overwhelms in the long term employees ability to cope and perform well at their jobs.
The pace of work, the level of demands, the alienation experienced from decision making and involvement, low moral, depression, psychosomatic ailments etc, all contributed to excessive stress levels which were adversely affecting a huge proportion of staff either physically, psychologically and often both. You gain an insight into just how prevalent the toxic effects and practices of the system are on people.
Of course, Seniors managers were often shocked at the results of our audit and ignored the recommendations which usually focused not on helping people adjust to a toxic system via therapies etc but on systemic change in a benevolent direction.
Their answer would often be 'We cannot change things this way because this is the only way we can survive'. A toxic system produces toxified people - simple.
