Brahma Kumaris: On Anger and Passive Aggression

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ex-l

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Brahma Kumaris: On Anger and Passive Aggression

Post05 Jan 2014

In 'The Psychology of Death in Fantasy and History', Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, Israel described the Brahma Kumaris as wearing a mask of love and kindness behind which hides a "seething aggression" that wishes the world utterly destroyed by a nuclear holocaust and civil wars which they will inspire ... literally "giving courage" to the scientific architects of it.

Even to this year, BKs cheer at the thought of their god spirit "hitting the button" to start the total annihilation they called "Destruction".

Beit-Hallahmi points out how the BKs generally keep this secret from non-members and we know how they have even cynically re-marketed it, not Destruction but "Transformation" to outsiders ... the terrible death of all 7 billion wicked non-BK human beings. He writes how it was revealed to him by accident during a visit to Mount Abu and how jarring it appeared, especially given the passive and feminine nature of the religion. Presumably his was a VIP invitation that went wrong, as he went on to document how eager BK adherents were to comment on both world politics and military strategy.

We know how in their early days, they actually wrote to "military marshals" and political leaders encouraging them to enact martial law and literally carry out scorched earth tactics on humanity (see below).

Beit-Hallahmi points out how typical this is in eschatological dreams (eschatology being theology concerned with the end of the world or of humankind) and correlates it with the total suppression of sex and aggression within BKism. He writes how classical psychoanalysis assumes that aggression is a permanent instinctual force and finds outlets either in fantasies or causes serious personality imbalances, and asks whether the BKs' secret fantasy and wishing for total Destruction is a mechanism for maintaining psychic balance under the influence of all the cult control of their behaviour?

I, personally, would ask an even more intrinsic question and go right back to the initiator of their apocalyptic fantasies, Lekhraj Kirpalani, and ask what was raging so much inside him that he had to not just imagine such things but believe he was the cause of them, and to be so sure in his wrong predictions of it happening so many times.

Was it that an otherwise so financially success but lower caste and uneducated Lekhraj Kirpalani was raging at both the Western World (the "science proud Christian cats" and Yadavas) and Indian elite castes (literally calling them "devils" (kans), "traitors" and "the crow race") ... social worlds above him that he did not understand and aspired to but which rejected him?

Could it not just have been an infantile rage of ego rejection from a man who at the time thought he was God, and surrounded himself with young women who believed it too? I think we have to study his psychology more, now his followers have turned it into a religion, and tie together the pieces.

This led me to thinking about "Passive Aggressive Behaviour"

In a popular article, Andrea Harrn (MA, MBACP, Counsellor/Psychotherapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist) describes passive aggressive behaviour as a "non-verbal aggression that manifests in negative behavior ... a creation of negative energy in the ether which is clear to those involved and can create immense hurt and pain to all parties". She writes that it happens when, "negative emotions and feelings build up and are then held in on a self-imposed need for either acceptance by another, dependence on others or to avoid even further arguments or conflict".

Examples of passive aggression:
    Non-Communication when there is clearly something problematic to discuss
    Avoiding/Ignoring
    Evading problems and issues
    Obstructing deliberately stalling or preventing an event or process of change
    Fear of Competition and avoiding situations where one party will be seen as better at something
    Being cryptic, unclear, not fully engaging in conversations
    Being silent, morose in order to get attention or sympathy
    Chronic Forgetting, showing a blatant disrespect and disregard for others to punish in some way
    Fear of Intimacy
    Victimisation or self-pity, turning the tables to become the victim and will behave like one
    Blaming others for situations rather than being able to take responsibility
    Withholding usual behaviours, etc
Passive aggression, she writes, is a defence mechanism, often stemming from cultural backgrounds and early experiences ... patterns of unassertive and passive behavior learnt in childhood as a coping strategy possibly as a response to parents who may have been too controlling or not allowing their child to express their thoughts and feelings freely. (To a child ... or a BK ... there is no worse punishment then rejection, and asserting oneself is often the quickest way to ensure it).

We've often analysed the Brahma Kumaris from the point of view of cult stereotypes and note how will they fit into the model. Almost perfectly so.

I am thinking it's worth reviewing their response and especially reaction to unaccepting critics, from the point of view of passive aggressive behaviour. They will, I presume, deny they have any in their peaceful souls.

Many people, BKs and ex-BK have noted and been effected by passive aggressive behaviour within the Brahma Kumari community from "difficult" Sisters, to Dadi Jankis turning her back on them and pretending not remember who they were to play with their emotions. Many small BK centers in particular go through very sick periods when individuals are not getting on but are not able to discuss or express it, and many BKs are not even able to respond and react to the outright abuse of themselves by bossy and manipulative center-in-charges.

Only rarely, does the atmosphere explodes as a very last refuge of sanity. Mostly BKs just self-destruct and leave ... sometimes even dying (suicide) ... and are left on their own to pick up the pieces of losing their entire life.

How much of the BKs facade is merely self-control and how much of it masks other psychologies? How much of BKism is a massive passive aggression toward the entire "impure" rest of the world which they want dead, destroyed and out of the way so they can rule a heavenly world of unquestioning and adoring sub-servient automatons?

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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris: on Anger and Passive Aggression

Post06 Jan 2014

ex-l wrote:In 'The Psychology of Death in Fantasy and History', Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, Israel, described the Brahma Kumaris as wearing a mask of love and kindness behind which hides a "seething aggression" which wishes the world utterly destroyed by a nuclear holocaust and civil wars which they will inspire ...
Looks like an interesting book. Glancing through the available previews, before the BK section is the amazing story of the American Indian ”Ghost Dance” cult, a tragic tale.

Then further in, after page 97, I came across a section about conversions, revelations and rebirths - processes which give ”permission" to cut off from (whatever) and ”start again”.

The example given is story of H, described as handsome, confident, articulate, athletic - he’d been severely wounded as an Israeli soldier, became physically disabled and psychologically damaged to the point of suicide etc. He hits bottom then has ”revelations" based Hindu and Jewish teachings, and now looks at the world as divided between those who can see ”truth" (the ”spiritual" dimension) - which includes himself- and those that can’t, eventually becoming a spiritual teacher himself and has a successful life.

The psychologist he deals with states that H displayed all symptoms of the narcissist but that a ”dose of narcissism may be good for you, especially when faced with the trauma that H once was”. I see that in many BKs, trauma survivors, with narcissism as the form of ego that allows them to keep going.

Back to passive aggression, I often felt/feel that many BKs' passive-aggressive nature resembles that of any dependent (children, addicts, financially dependent women etc) . They like the benefits of what their dependency brings them - whether psycho-emotional, removal of pain, feelings of security, social power or position, etc - but they simultaneously resent the restriction their dependency places on experiencing their full autonomy, freedom and potential, so they divert their emotions - which is really directed at themselves for ”giving in” to their dependency - towards others.

Andrea Harn’s list is almost perfect: - non-communication, evasion, obstruction, avoiding, silence, etc - all ”yuktis” in the BK toolbox often misused, and the appropriate tools not even included - frank and honest non-judgemental disclosures, healthy debate, freedom of expression, freedom to question, to disagree, to oppose on personal principle, to openly criticise. Yes, anyone is free to do any of these, but one risks endangering that which they are dependent on (for acceptance, identity, security, position, psycho-emotional experience, social regard etc)

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