MSU Intelligence: BK Mike George's new book

Leading Brahma Kumari adherent, and member of the BKWSU Co-prosperity Business Wing, Mike George carries on his cottage industry of selling every so helpful New Agey books as stand alone products apparently separate from BKism.

Of late we had, The 7 Myths of Love ... Actually, tapping a romantic vein of love lost ladies no doubt after a Hollywood movie with a similar title (the BKs despite being told the cinema is "the gateway to hell" by their god spirit, love Bollywood and Hollywood songs and references). Now we have
The Immune System of the Soul offering cures for ADDICTION, BLINDNESS, HEART DIS-EASE, PARALYSIS, INSANITY, DIABETES, Being CRIPPLED, ALLERGY, INCONTINENCE, INDIGESTION, ARTHRITIS and ASTHMA.

Of course, "meditation" comes up as the cure and we can guess whose meditation that is as Mike's business is hosted and promoted by local BK centers all around the world.

Indeed, his

The First Practice – MEDITATION
The Second Practice – CONTEMPLATION
The Third Practice – APPLICATION
The Fourth Practice – CONTRIBUTION

Sound awfully like the Brahma Kumaris' "Four Subjects" which they have been preaching for decades ... only with new labelling. That's Yoga, Gyan, Dharna and Seva to a BK. Nothing new there folks.

I have not read the book so I cannot make a fair criticism of it, however, it all appears to follow the traditional BK mould so well ... e.g. the use of guru word play (disease becoming dis-ease), the promotion of soul consciousness as part of the cure (although again with the BK terminology hidden), catch acronyms (art becoming "A.R.T equals Awareness Realization Transformation") ... and I suspect the public events will follow the norm for a Brahmakumari event in the West ... i.e. a vague New Agey lecture followed by chit chat and an "experience" of a vague BK meditation at the end ... which is what it is all about. Mike writes, "We live in the most health conscious era in history" ... what that means in BKSpeak is, "This is the Confluence Age, the only era when our God Baba comes".

Well, that and selling books and CDs now ... Mike's another one of those BKs who was smart enough to see what the Kirpalani Klan's main priority was ... pulling in the cash ... and the problems within the organisation, and decided just to cut a share of the cake for him rather than surrender to them.

The BK leadership has seemingly accepted it too, as is good for their business and give them something to promote seemingly separate from enculting individuals. They can promote him not as they used to, a mere BK, but as a Bestselling Author". At the core of his book is pure BKism, the idea that all we have to do to become pure and perfect again is to regain our original perfect soul conscious form albeit stated in more acceptable modern language.

Healing in this sense means restoring the energy of consciousness to its 'true' state or vibration. This is confirmed by the disappearance of the dis-ease and the feeling of peace/contentment/caring that results.

Mike started life as an advertising copy writer. It's really not that hard to recycling a product like this. He now appears to be building a "best selling" business as a New Age author selling books of what we used to give away for free as "service" at PR events promoting BKism.

It just surprises me how they've forgotten to credit Brahma Kumaris as the source and goal of the effort in the advertising of it.

Mike George brings together emotional/spiritual intelligence, leadership development and continuous 'unlearning'. He facilitates awareness retreats worldwide as he mentors and coaches individuals on how to re-awaken their innate wisdom and restore their self mastery.

It always interesting me, how despite the BK principles or Maryadas encouraging adherents not to discuss business with each other, how we find members of the BK Co-Prosperty Business Wing recycling each others business, e.g. here at another BK related personal business Spain.

In essence, a "seeker" could get all that Mike offers for free and its pure form as their local BK centre.

Here is Mike again ... actually ... at the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat summer party.

MIKE GEORGE Immune System OF THE SOUL.jpg (40.63 KiB) Viewed 20086 times

Dyeing your hair is not very soul conscious, Mikey boy!

Actually Mike's alright. He never got the promotion and internal publicity that the girls get, so he is making a living for himself out of their hogwash. He gets the more commercial bits puts them together and sells it for his own profit.
He can call it seva to the Dadis, I shared a bhavan with him for a bit, he's OK ... not really a contributing BK, lol.

There is that characteristic mentioned in the many posts here quoting research into the types for people that are drawn to cults - that characteristic of being intelligent but feeling oneself is underachieving, or unrecognised, or insecure, or compensating for some other psycho-emotional need.

People like Mike George, Strano etc are intelligent.

Their so - called ”churnings’ and writings could be seen as their reiterating, retranslating for themselves continually new versions of the archetypal story (the BK Gyan is straight off the”hero’s journey” template) because their retold version makes more sense than the straight original BK dogma.

The BK Gyan is a most simplistic version of the hero’s journey and has the attraction of convincing people they can ”be heroes by just sitting there and imagining themselves as a top-knot spiritual hero!

The true hero’s journey can only be completed alone. One must eventually leave the mentor and the helper behind. The BK narrative's entrapment is believing the "transformation/apotheosis" and eventual return won't ever happen in this life, the challenges and obstacles are for the rest of this life so, BKs, do not venture beyond the threshold of what we tell you, do not let go of mother’s skirt or old Father’s constant re-telling of his journey to self-hood, i.e the BK Gyan is about Lekhraj’s journey and he tells everyone to ”follow Father” - which keeps everyone else in an infantile state.

Yes, George and Strano and others are intelligent."Intelligence" etymologically means the ability to make connections between seemingly disparate or distant ”genera”.

The human mind sees patterns and relates new phenomena to what is already known, seeks to make it fit into pre-existign patterns. Strano and George made a career of pointing out similarity of patterns, but as they became hooked on the BK honey drip feed, became unwilling to distinguish between literal and metaphoric, or consider that the ”original dogma" is itself just another manifestation of age old human patterns and not their source (as it hubristically claims thousands of years after the fact!).

Both George and Strano got caught in the Maya of their ”role” - to use that jargon - and to walk away is hard, an admission of long term voluntary self-deceit. Very humbling thing to do.

Best selling author? Compared to ...? Other BK authors?

C’mon guys, the (humble) pie is actually very nutritious. Builds the immune system.

The Immune System of the Soul offering cures for ADDICTION, BLINDNESS, HEART DIS-EASE, PARALYSIS, INSANITY, DIABETES, Being CRIPPLED, ALLERGY, INCONTINENCE, INDIGESTION, ARTHRITIS and ASTHMA.

It is a big joke. Was Mike a Stand up comedian earlier? Let me put a question for him. Mike, are these diseases of soul or body? Immune system is present in soul or in body? Senior BKs who died due to heart diseases, why did not you offer them this immunity technique, do you think they never needed (heart diseases just came up in last moments from somewhere) & it's only the follower who require?

, "We live in the most health conscious era in history" ...

but as far as facts are concerned BKs, live in the most wealth conscious era in history. And, for non-BKs or rest of the world the fact Mike discloses does not hold true. There is increase in counts of patients, deaths due to diseases, new types diseases, health problems etc etc everywhere. What does that mean that there is hardly any health consciousness? It is but in very short measures. Was Mike talking about some Alien planet or this earth ?

The Fourth Practice – CONTRIBUTION

Oh ... that is definitely the part of every BK book, preaching, teaching. Contribution in form of donations, increasing followers, donating properties to make it a BK center, etc must be the only contribution they talk about.

Now it appears there is another way of earning through CDs, DVDs, books, other materials. That's business. Do they ever distribute books & other things for free? If no, then how is it a contribution or service? Every senior BK is writing some non-sense book describing his own philosophy coping it mostly from Bk-ism core beliefs. So, the strategy for old & perhaps educated followers to earn money is writing a book, making a movie or doing anything which brings bulks of cash in return.

Mike started life as an advertising copy writer.

OK, so he was not a comedian. He is a perfect choice for BKs to promote their cult.

Mike George brings together emotional/spiritual intelligence, leadership development and continuous 'unlearning'.

A new synonym of Brainwashing is here.

Here is Mike again ... actually ... at the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat summer party.

This is what he wants actually, someone to hear him, someone to nod his head & sing songs in his praise or perhaps Baba's praise. BKs are busy arranging source for their appraisal by these mediums. And they call it contribution.

dyeing your hair is not very soul conscious Mikey boy! ... he's OK ... not really a contributing BK lol

Oh yes. Now he is contributing & may be, earlier, he had higher self respect which prevented him from becoming servers of Dadis, babas.

Their so -called ”churnings’ and writings could be seen as their reiterating, retranslating for themselves new versions of the archetypal story (the BK Gyan is straight off the”hero’s journey” template) because their own version makes more sense than the straight original dogma.

And that's why they are selling it. He may be now nominated best hero award. Go for Oscar man.

Best selling author? Compared to ...? Other BK authors?

Yes, I did not see his name anywhere in best selling author list. Can anyone tell in which year, he was known to be best selling author, who were his contender then other than BKs?

Could just be the best selling author in the BKs' own bookshop ... but he has sold a lot of books. I seem to remember a couple of hundred thousand being banded about some time ago which, if he receives an average commission could equal £1 per book, therefore he has made £100,000s out of BK Gyan and avoids the hell of having to go and do the crappy, soul destroying job many BKs end up in.

How active is he in helping other BKs to make a buck out of BKism, and what's his position regarding all the corporate coaching, SML stuff? Was he part of it?

I cannot find any "authors' league table".

My point would be that it is really just all BK service taken, developed and modelled on BKism and the type of service programmes we used to put on. Indeed, I don't remember Mike really being that active in doing grassroots service during my time ... but I may be wrong.

Mr Green would know.

We were talking about BKs crashing in on the Buddhists' Mindfulness practise ... here is an interview of George in that area, Learn Mindfulness: Shamash Alidina interviews Mike George.

Mike George

Mike George is a best selling author, international speaker and spiritual teacher. He guides, coaches and facilitates the personal and spiritual development of people in communities and companies in over thirty countries. As a management tutor he brings together the three key strands of the 21st century; spiritual/emotional intelligence; management/leadership development and continuous 'unlearning'. As an inspirational speaker, experienced facilitator and meditation teacher each year he leads a series of Awareness Retreats worldwide

Based in the Cotswolds in England, Mike ‘plays’ a variety of roles including author, spiritual teacher, coach, management tutor, mentor and facilitator. Mike brings together the three key strands of 21st century – emotional/spiritual intelligence, management/leadership development and continuous unlearning. His website is relax7.com.

No mention of Brahma Kumarism or his roots in the BKWSU.

is not that rather grabbing Baba's glory?

Or is celebrity the new egolessness?

Shamash Alidina scratches Mike’s back and has his back scratched in return.

He gets suitably themed content for his blog, gets BKs and others clicking through (like me, just now!) who see the ads for his own books, he gets his name out there, and all it took was a mutual suck up.

There's a new acronym or book title for Mike then ... "MSU intelligence".

"The Art of Mutual Sucking Up ... actually". The BKs have been doing it for decades which is why I say that is all his books are about. BKism under a disguise.

What's interesting about him is that he's taken control of his own life within BKism and not, it seems, given away everything to the Kirpalani Klan like so many others who ended up with nothing.

At any point, he could step out of BKism and have some kind of career or track record of his own ... his own brand ... therefore he has more power and a better negotiating position with the Kirpalani Klan.

It interests me how it came about and why they allowed it, just as they did with Brian Bacon and the SML venture which he is/was hiving off business from too.

Look at this link at MBA Friends

Mike George is a lecturer at COTRUGLI Business School, Director of the Spiritual
Intelligence Unit in London, and a Lecturer at Oxford Leadership Academy.

What is "the the Spiritual Intelligence Unit in London"? Is that a new name for the BKWSU?

Or try Experience Executive MBA: Liberating Leadership ... for 1,000 EUR + VAT. He even puts on a dark suit rather than his BK beige for the dough.

MIKE GEORGE


is a best - selling author with nine publications published in fifteen languages.

He is a coach and guide for personal and executive development of managers from Mitsubishi, Siemens, Johnson and Johnson, Dupont, American Express, British Telecom, Tetra Laval, United Bank of Switzerland, KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, The Allianz Group, Barclays Bank, Royal Mail, Royal Bank of Scotland, NHS, Sheraton Hotels, The BBC, Pliva, Heineken, Agrokor, CCHBC, Dukat, Carlsberg, Zagrebačka banka, Alstom.

His areas of expertise include: spiritual/emotional intelligence, management/leadership development, personal development and continuous learning.

You will have the opportunity to understand the forces which are reshaping leadership in the 21st century, identify the appropriate leadership style to meet specific situations and develop a range of soft skills.

If you are considering Executive MBA studies as the next step in your personal and professional development, COTRUGLI Experience EMBA Program is the right choice for you because:

• You will experience two exciting days with Mike George, discuss and exchange ideas with other executive and
COTRUGLI Alumni from the region and get a first-hand experience on the quality of the program and the faculty

No mention of the BKWSU and the Brahma Kumarism it is all based upon?

I see Peter M. Senge coming back into the picture there, so there's been some MSU intelligence going on. I wonder how many of the rest of them are BK/OLA under a disguise?

So this is what elite BKism has become these days ...

I wonder which BK is working him around Easter Europe? Self Development & Personal Management is clearly the kist evolution of Brahma Kumaris service programmes through paid for Oxford Leadership Academy "Self Management Leadership" courses, to now "Self Development & Personal Management" classes.

Not a mention of his and its roots in the Brahma Kumaris.

In House program: Self Development & Personal Management, Mike George for Dukat company

On November 9th and 10th the In House modul „Self Development & Personal Management“ was delivered by Mike George. The tailor made modul was customized for management team of Dukat company, the best known brand of dairy products in Croatia and one of the leading in the region. This successful cooperation between Dukat and Cotrugli Business School has also been achieved a few times before with other In House topics.

Self Development & Personal Management course's objective is to provide participants with the insights, methods and processes required to manage time effectively, understand, manage and prevent stress, build self esteem, develop emotional intelligence and control over emotional states. It clearly identifies steps required to sustain personal development and help grasp the nature of inner resources and how to manage them with quality. The goal is to bring an understanding of how Personal Development serves as s foundation of being an effective manager.

Mike George is a lecturer of Personal Development at COTRUGLI Business School, director of the Spiritual Intelligence Unit in London and a lecturer at Oxford Leadership Academy.

Management Tutor, Leadership Coach, Mentor, Facilitator, Author.

In a unique blend of insight, wisdom and humor, Mike brings together the three key strands of 21st century – emotional/spiritual intelligence, management/leadership development and continuous ‘unlearning’.

Having worked with clients in 24 countries across 6 continents Mike understands organisational cultures, what blocks communication and innovation and what is needed to bring people together to generate real team spirit and achieve results.

He is the author of nine books in 15 languages. His experience, drawn from almost thirty years of strategic and personal coaching, enables him to assist his clients to bring the best out of themselves. Coach and guide for personal end executive development for Mitsubishi, Siemens, Johnson and Johnson, Dupont, American Express, British Telecom, Tetra Laval, United Bank of Switzerland, KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, The Allianz Group, Barclays Bank, Royal Mail, Royal Bank od Scotland, NHS, Sheraton Hotels, The BBC, Pliva, Heineken, Agrokor, CCHBC, Dukat, Carlsberg, Zagrebačka banka, Alstom.

Quote, "Cotrugli is aided by partnership and professional co-operation with the World Business Academy ..." which, coincidentally, Brian Bacon used to be president of. So more MSU going on there too.

But, they are in the money now, like the Kirpalanis, and not working for the Kirpalani Klan for free ... nor even volunteering their time to patch up and support those damaged by the Brahma Kumaris ... so who are the biggest fools?

Interesting re-hash on his years in Gyan (as a BK adherent). Mike gets lots of good reviews from corporate bigwigs for his introduction to meditations, but there's no mention of the BKs in the story, not even Lekhraj Kirpalani or Baba as his favourite "personal development writer" despite his answer being pretty much 99.9% Brahma Kumari ...

When did you start teaching personal development? What was your motivation
to start exploring this field?

Just over thirty years ago I woke up one day and realized I was very stressed in every area of my life. So I decided to take time out and see what I had to change in my life. I quickly realized that all my stress is self-created and it was time to get to know me. So I studied intensely for about a year and a half to understand why and how I was making
myself unhappy. Then I started teaching - a little workshop here, a short class there. Mostly to public audiences and mostly for free. That then organically grew into what I have been doing for almost thirty years now, which is coaching, training, teaching, facilitating, lecturing, writing etc. As you know I have ten books focused around self-understanding and self-management. I have always been self-motivated but my main interest has been getting at the truth of things. I noticed there are many myths and illusions that we inherit, many false beliefs that we assimilate and hold on to, all of
which contribute to our stress, so I set about exposing them. That has inspired most of my books and many articles.

One of the phrases by which you are known among Cotrugli students is “Detach!” - can you explain what do you mean by that? How do you practice ‘detachment’ in everyday life? Can you give us some successful/
unsuccessful examples?

If you set out to research attachment/detachment/non-attachment you will eventually come to realize that all our stress, suffering, sorrow, all our unhappiness, have their roots in attachment.

When you become attached to something or someone it’s an event in your mind. It’s when you lose your sense of self in an idea or image or memory that you have created in your own mind. You are not you mind! You don’t become attached to actual objects and people, you become attached to the ‘images’ of the objects and people in your mind. So when something happens to the object of attachment it feels like it’s happening to you. But, in reality, it’s not happening to you. We also become attached to more subtle things like ideas and beliefs and memories. So if they are challenged it feels like you are being challenged personally. But in reality you are not, because you are not an idea, you are not a belief or a memory. You are just you, just the ‘I’ that says ‘I am’. You ‘create’ these things and you are the creator, not the creation!

Do you have a favourite personal development writer (Castaneda, Deepak Chopra, Osho...)?

Not really. No one particular writer has been more influential than another. One of the reasons is that whatever you think you learn from reading such writers you already know. Their writing just serves to awaken your memory, it reawakens your own wisdom. How do you know, because you ‘recognize’ what they say and you could not recognize what they say if you did not already know it deep within your self. So don’t be impressed by any writer, any source of wisdom, but use it to wake your self up to your own wisdom. Over the years I have read bits and pieces from all the philosophers and enlightenment gurus. Essentially they all share the same message – know thy self. They just have different ways of saying it. You cannot answer the question ‘who am I’ by reading books, only by realizing for your self who you really are, which, by the way, is ‘no one’!

However ‘knowing’ is one thing but consistently putting it into practice is another. Walking the talk, as they say, is not so easy simply because of all the old habits we have developed, based on the illusions we have learned in this lifetime.

What are the tricks and techniques that you use on a daily basis, and long term, in order to keep your balance and sustain your own personal development?

Meditation and contemplation are the two main practices in my daily life. That, in conjunction with creative writing and teaching, ensures I stay aware and alert and on top of my game. Yes I am still developing my self. However, there comes a point when you realize it’s ultimately not about personal development. You don’t need to develop your self - develop new skills perhaps, but not your ‘self’. And you certainly don’t need to build another personality! You are already complete and perfect but you have lost awareness of it. You’ve become distracted by the beliefs of the world especially the one that says you are just what you see in the bathroom mirror in the morning! But that’s not true.

The true you is known when you free your self from all attachment to all beliefs.

But that’s a bit scary in theory for most people. But if you keep cultivating your self awareness, if you keep letting go, if you keep ‘seeing through’ all the myths and illusions that you’ve been taught, you will reach a moment when you fully realize that you are just the ‘I’ that says ‘I am’. Then life becomes a game, a play filled with playfulness, as it should be. On the outside nothing changes, you still eat, sleep, work, drive, partner, parent etc. But inside everything transforms and you live from the heart and not the head, your joy is no longer sourced in the world out there, but it comes from inside out, as it should.

But remember, don’t believe a word I say!!

The echo chamber effect writ large (another way of saying MSU).

When he says he reads only enough to use things for his own books, it reminds me of the time a supermodel got herself into trouble when answering the same question - who are your favourite writers, she (less disingenuously) replied, "I only read what I write myself!" then was roundly satirised from post to post in all media.

And when he says that what New Age writers and philosophers write only impress you because it is only reminding you of what you already know - well, that’s because you’re just reading those whom you already agree with. Read those who’d question it. For example, much of Mike George’s spiel in those interviews is updated Platonism & Vedanta. Both philosophies are edifices built on false (or at the very least questionable) foundations.

Challenge yourself, read stuff that asks questions of what you already know. Debate your point of view with those who’d actually argue the toss.

Don’t just go stroking the egos of those who take you at your word and want to be told how wonderful and already perfect they are, already wise within, affirming themselves and each other with "positive thinking" slogans and faux spirituality.

It is only more MSU.

The whole business - spirituality fusion & hype, especially when fertilised by with New Age consciousness mongers, feels so trite, so bourgeois, so yucky.

How many of them "get their hands dirty” actually producing something rather than manipulating the production of others as agents and brokers? How many use ”doing service through positive thinking” as an excuse to do nothing for others practically?

Mike is not really a BK on their terms. He has detached from it all, lives in a nice cottage in the country. When he was living at the bhavan, he never went to Murli, a/v or anything really.

He is very good at talking (waffling, sorry Mike) therefore the BKs will utilise him as they will anything and use it for their ends.

There's no way MG is interested in Dadi pleasing, he's well beyond that stage. He's making a good living from peddling New Age doodaa. Good luck to him. He got his own publishing deal. Like I said, the BKs did not help him, just jumped on his success.

I knew him personally and quite liked him. Socially he was difficult and challenging but a good egg, he is not part of the evil there really. Yes, he gets called on to present talks and seminars but it's never spiritual really, just corporate gobbledygook.

He's not really part of the problem, I'd buy him a dram if I bumped into him now.

Whatever be the reason, he got much beyond what a person starting his career as copy writer gets. And he got most of it on his own, great. And it's nice that he is completely detached from Dadis but think so that he is still drawing his philosophies from same BKism.

See it's a trick, once you learn it, you can open your own shop & customer will definitely be there. This is a business world, every second businessman is conditioning & looting his customer, no offense intended though.

Big business would love to have a non-complaining, hypnotised profitable workforce. If they could only learn how cults get their workers to work for free, they'd do so too. Religion is just another business, the business of ideas, of identities, of false hopes strong enough to get someone across a hard time or two or three years down the road of life.

You are right, Save Innocents. That's all it is. BKism is a sort of multi-national, multi-level, pyramid sales or franchising operation, like Amway or Herbalife. Businesses which avoided the usual investment risk of having "shops" and instead parasitically crawled across individuals familial and social connections and operate out of their domestic homes.

But what I think is interesting about the Mike George scenario is how it exposes the BK leadership's real, not spoken, principles.

According to their word and the published principles, Godly Knowledge is free and the centers/BK family are not places to discuss business. How on earth then did all these corporate businesses and networks of BK selling Gyan evolve? We studied this watching Brian Bacon developing Oxford Leadership Academy (there are links on this site and it is discussed in academia ... albeit under an anonymous disguise).

What's interesting is that the BK elite will encourage the lower caste BKs to work for nothing and surrender everything ... but then if middle class or elite BKs break the rules, they will allow them to do so and yet keep patronising and supporting them. RelaxKids is a good example of this and the attempted (but it seems failed) "RelaxFamily" looks very much like a spin off idea ... obviously individuals are thinking a lot about money and business.

They cut out all the failed, non-commercial and embarrassing parts of the BK intellectual property; Destruction, Lekhraj Kirpalani as Krishna, the Trimurti etc ... and sell what is left. Mike can state how happy and successful he is in life now and suggest that my thinking in the way he is selling ... mainly second hand, derivate BK philosophy and techniques ... but what his actions state is, find someone who has a good business model (in this case the BKs business of ideas or religion, pirate it and resell it as you own ... if necessary, reinventing yourself and history to do so ... JUST AS THE BKs DID!

You can see how closely his model follows there and, of course, at the end of it there is "the experience" of the BKs self-hypnotic meditation and, perhaps, the initiation of individuals into a psychic connection with their god spirit or group spirit (according to your belief).

It's a business feeding on the public's curiosity of what "Spirituality" might be, and based on promising a solution to all their ails. And what experience shows ... a bit like the market for diet plans ... the market comprises mostly of the same people going round and round to new "spiritual teachers" looking for solution for the same problems.

Most dieters fail to lose weight in the same way, most spiritual seekers fail to find enlightened ... but that's great!!! They'll keep coming back for more. A new book, another course in mastery. It's a market, especially in America, which is measured to be worth billions and individuals with a background in business or advertising with registered that immediately ... and want a percentage of it. Look at the wealth of someone like Deepack Chopra or Lousie L Hay.

There's nothing new in what they are selling. Most of it is what the Buddhists used to call "dancing on books" (writing books based on what you've read in books which were written by someone who had read a lot of books).

I just laugh at the idea of "soul conscious" individuals who have found the one true god dying their hair to keep young and beautiful. Equally, I saw a picture recently of Miriam Subirana - the former fierce Lioness of BKWSU Spain - all glam-ed up in lipstick and make up.

Therefore, to summarise, if you are stupid enough to do what the BKs tell you, they will exploit you 100%. If you are clever enough to see what they are up to, and stake your own claim on your own empire, the BKs will do a deal with you and take 10%, 5%, 1% ... anything is better than nothing.

Remember how they "officially" set up a new business to carry out any corporate Self Management Leadership courses which might have come in via the centre?

The stupid BK serfs still had to do them for free - with the promise of castle of gold and diamonds in the future if they did - the BK middle and upper classes were charging for them and keeping the money ... the question being, what was the BKs' commission on the deal? 10%? That was never said.

I, personally, don't remember Mike as a "seva serf". I, personally, don't remember him running around doing all the embarrassing grassroots service programmes. I remember him more attracted to and welcomed into the middle management meeting type of activity and working on the advertising. I'd like to know more about his devolution into the corporate world and how much "traffic" he passes back to the BKWSU.

I can see how it works ... business tends not to value what it does not pay for, therefore charge or charge a lot and it will value you more. So charge. Big businesses pay consultant very high rates for doing nothing but talk. They are allergic to anything obviously cult, and so 'pay' to have whatever assets cults have but without all the cult baggage.

There's another saying, "the definition of an 'expert' is someone who has written a book and travelled a 1,000 miles".

Brilliant comparison ex-l - the diet ”industry” and the spiritual ”economy”.

Of course, those who eat well (probably raised well by sensible parents) don’t fall into the endless cycle of overeating and dieting. (BTW the word ”obesity” literally means ‘eat too much’ - so the cure is implied in the name of the condition > if you are prone to sunburn, stay out of the sun; if you are prone to overeating, eat less, do more).

Those who continue, decade after decade, to need slogans of affirmations or to be told how special they are, who seek the next prescription for how to live free of prescriptions - what can you do for such gullibles?

Fleece them, for are they not asking for it? A sucker is born every day.

A GP once told me that he tells patients if they have a bad cold or flu, that if they take antibiotics they’ll be better in a week, and if they don’t take anything it’ll be 7 days, but most still want the pills (and the bills!).

Mr Green, I knew MG well, and I agree with everything you say, except, well, he is better than this. He should, after all these years, have evolved to a deeper level. Maybe be working for MSF or Red Cross, or somewhere where his talents help real people with real needs.