More BK money making: fortune telling & charges for service

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ex-l

ex-BK

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More BK money making: fortune telling & charges for service

Post11 Aug 2013

From a review of a BK event in the USA, more interesting evidence for the demise of the spiritual purity of the Brahma Kumaris or the unveiling of it largely commercial interests.

This individual discusses her experience of having a " VirtueScope reading" from the Brahma Kumaris. I know this to be a service yukti they use widely on at least 3 continents in "the West". What it entails is an individual picking some cards on which positive "virtues" are written. This habit started way back in the 1980s as a bit of fun using a commercial product call "Angel Cards". It started off as a bit of innocent fun to break the boredom of BK life at BK parties with individuals picking one card for inspiration.

What's interesting now is how they have developed into a sort of fortunate telling or divination based on the Nordic/New Age system of Runes or Tarot. Note, neither Angel Card nor Rune or Tarot come from BKism, their god, their leaders or "The Knowledge". They are all external influences that are being mixed in to sell the religion and appealing to individuals superstitious desires to "know the future" or, one could argue, vanity or insecurities.

And ... needless to say ... you can buy your own set from the Brahma Kumari shop for a mere
654 rupees (equivalent £6.50). Angel Cards are a trademarked commercial product and so the BKs have made their own copy called "VIRTUE REALITY CARDS".

There are also
I dare say there are more in other languages than English too.

What on earth is going on and how are old school BKs who "gave their bones" doing service of humanity for nothing or at their own expense supposed to respond?

I would say what is going on is simple. The "New Age spirituality industry" is a huge commercial market worth, literally, billions of dollars per year. The Brahma Kumaris are now taking inspiration from it, modifying it, and sell back their own branded version of it to make money. There is less profit is selling other people's products and so they take inspiration from the market and make their own to earn more. They need products to sell to support their shops.

I would say this is not only true at this low level but also at the level of the modification of their philosophy and, especially, their self-marketing and promotion.

What amazes me is just how much time, energy and money they must be investing in developing all those products and commercial outlets.
From www.omthemoment.com.

One of the highlights for me was getting my VirtueScope read. They told me it was like reading your horoscope but it's through your virtues. The reader had me pick three cards: a foundation card (your driving force), expression card (primary way others perceive you) and outcome card (the culmination of your efforts). My cards were caring (foundation), forgiveness (expression) and cool or level headed (outcome card). The reader told me that if I focused on being a caring and forgiving person, I would remain calm and cool in every situation. I thought it was an interesting concept and would love to have a full reading one day.

BK-Virtuescope.JPG

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