The core of Brahma Kumarism is, they claim, the "spiritualist mediumship" of deceased or otherworldly spirits to which the adherents are encouraged to surrender their minds, body and wealth. Retrospectively, some time after 1950, the Brahma Kumaris claim their founder was possessed by another spirit and this spirit was the god of all religions.
At the time when the "possession" was supposed to start, Lekhraj Kirpalani family thought he was having a mental breakdown and he and they recall him doing many strange things which could clearly indicate so if someone else did so today. Obsessions with symbols, drawing on walls, claiming to be gods etc. His neighbours reported his earlier meetings to be dramatic with many hysterical responses from the women.
Our opinion of Lekhraj Kirpalani today is very much different now we have learned that there was no mention of a possessing God Shiva until after 1950, that from 1932 Lekhraj Kirpalani and his followers had thought he was their god, and that the BKs are encouraged to live and believe in a false history. Perhaps possession by a god was the idea best explanation where there was no other explanation to the strange individual and group happens. It is a way of think towards mental illness still prevalent in India today?
A number of academic books and papers exist corelating spiritualist mediumship and a psychological state called dissociative identity disorder, e,g, Do Religious Mediumship Dissociative Experiences Conform to the Sociocognitive Theory of Dissociation? by Negro Jr MD, PhDab, Palladino-Negro MDc & Louzã MD, PhDb. It is a discussion which has been going on for at least 100 years and there are even power struggles between competing explanatory models, e.g. Nineteenth Century Pioneers in the Study of Dissociation: William James and Psychical Research by Alvarado, Krippner.
Mediumship might just be a taught and learned tendency invoking a state of dissociative identity disorder (experience of "dissociation").
We know the Brahma Kumaris are busy training up new mediums to take over when Gulzar dies. Although the BKs are secretive about this, some books document how it happens in other traditions, e.g. Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa by John Beattie, John Middleton.
The BKs are secretive about the mediumship element of their practice and by encouraging their followers not to think, not to question and not to look beyond their walls, perhaps they keep from their adherents how common the phenomenon is?
Was Shiva and are BapDada other 'spirits', or are they just other 'parts' of the BK so called spirit mediums and, if so, how do we explain all the seemingly strange or wonderful experiences individuals have?
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities (one may be the host) routinely take control of the individual's behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness. It is a controversy topic.
Different schools of academic thought approach mediumship differently. Some just consider it an impossibility and a fraud, others study it as a social phenomenon not questioning what it might be.
Here is an interesting bundle of papers discussing thoughts around the subjects from the The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research 32nd Annual Convention.
At the time when the "possession" was supposed to start, Lekhraj Kirpalani family thought he was having a mental breakdown and he and they recall him doing many strange things which could clearly indicate so if someone else did so today. Obsessions with symbols, drawing on walls, claiming to be gods etc. His neighbours reported his earlier meetings to be dramatic with many hysterical responses from the women.
Our opinion of Lekhraj Kirpalani today is very much different now we have learned that there was no mention of a possessing God Shiva until after 1950, that from 1932 Lekhraj Kirpalani and his followers had thought he was their god, and that the BKs are encouraged to live and believe in a false history. Perhaps possession by a god was the idea best explanation where there was no other explanation to the strange individual and group happens. It is a way of think towards mental illness still prevalent in India today?
A number of academic books and papers exist corelating spiritualist mediumship and a psychological state called dissociative identity disorder, e,g, Do Religious Mediumship Dissociative Experiences Conform to the Sociocognitive Theory of Dissociation? by Negro Jr MD, PhDab, Palladino-Negro MDc & Louzã MD, PhDb. It is a discussion which has been going on for at least 100 years and there are even power struggles between competing explanatory models, e.g. Nineteenth Century Pioneers in the Study of Dissociation: William James and Psychical Research by Alvarado, Krippner.
Mediumship might just be a taught and learned tendency invoking a state of dissociative identity disorder (experience of "dissociation").
We know the Brahma Kumaris are busy training up new mediums to take over when Gulzar dies. Although the BKs are secretive about this, some books document how it happens in other traditions, e.g. Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa by John Beattie, John Middleton.
The BKs are secretive about the mediumship element of their practice and by encouraging their followers not to think, not to question and not to look beyond their walls, perhaps they keep from their adherents how common the phenomenon is?
Was Shiva and are BapDada other 'spirits', or are they just other 'parts' of the BK so called spirit mediums and, if so, how do we explain all the seemingly strange or wonderful experiences individuals have?
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities (one may be the host) routinely take control of the individual's behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness. It is a controversy topic.
Different schools of academic thought approach mediumship differently. Some just consider it an impossibility and a fraud, others study it as a social phenomenon not questioning what it might be.
Here is an interesting bundle of papers discussing thoughts around the subjects from the The Incorporated Society for Psychical Research 32nd Annual Convention.