ex-l wrote:What disgusts me more is the way they cherry pick other philosophers for sound bites to re-affirmation their own ideas ... because their own gurus are not good enough.
I did not know how to put that into words, so thank you. Quoting other philosophers struck me as strange, but I think you are right - their gurus are not good enough.
I remember how I used to devour the BK books because they were feeding me somehow. But it was such a lonely passion as my friends (all non-BK at the time) never "got" the intensity of the energy I was feeling from these books and CDs. But I was taken, so I kept on going. Lonely as it was.
"the They" of the BK world not being just the Janki and Jayanti Kripalanis, but also the spirit entities that are working through the Brahma Kumaris.
You know by now, ex-l, that I totally agree that the BK organization is exactly as you've described in the above quote. At times, I find it unbelievable that such an organization exists but my experience with them has helped me fine tune my BS meter. It was already good before, but now it is even much better. Please do not read into this as me giving them any credit whatsoever. It was by my own will, and my own mind, that I was able to dig a tunnel out of that prison.
I think that this kind of experience is very sobering. If I did not have my feet on the ground before, I do now. If I was naive before, I no longer am. If I was too open, I am now less so. And finally, but probably most importantly, if I needed to be loved, I no longer need it or search for it from religious cults.