Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are outed

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ex-l

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Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are outed

Post05 Jun 2015

It seems the Brahma Kumaris are targeting mental health victims again ... but were outed by a patient support group.

From a recent 'Southwark Mental Health News' (... SMHN can now expect a visit from a sweet BK Sister or spin doctor inviting them to a free retreat at their big mansion in the country!!!). The Brahma Kumaris have been found to been targeting mental health services users again ... this time from a new shop in South London ... and were outed by activists.

"End of the world" ... "cult" ... "privileged elites" ... "cover-up of child sex abuse" ... "suicides" ... "acquisition of properties and financial exploitation" ... "secretive structure of control" etc. It's all there.

Seems like the Brahma Kumaris have a new property/shop in Brixton, South London.

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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post06 Jun 2015

If BK administrators had any basic understanding of the varieties of mental health issues people had, they would know that introspective meditation is the last thing many sufferers need.

If they understood anything about mental health, they would go and get therapy themselves!
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Mr Green

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post06 Jun 2015

When you're a member of the BKs you shut your own mind off to any possibility of there being anything wrong with BK practises, simply because you believe that God is working through the BKs, and all of them are soul conscious instruments. So those challenging anything, they must be in the wrong as they obviously either have Maya or are lost in the sleep of kumbakarna.

They're too busy spinning the Swardashanchakradari in their intellects to acknowledge anyone getting hurt or needing help.

It really stinks, the whole thing.
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ex-l

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post06 Jun 2015

I wish I had more, independent impressions of Lekhraj Kirpalani. I am given the impression that much of the religion is based on an institutionalised version of his personality disorder.

He's portrayed as a saint, but I really wonder.

Yes, fair enough, weird and wonderful psychic things *did* happen, and he was super wealthy enough to afford to keep them all for years so they could have a party but ... come on ... how many people and what state of mind of people believe they are god for 20 years, responsible for WWII and the End of the World happening etc.

At the very least, delusions of grandeur and folie à plusieurs ("madness of many") ... Shared Psychotic Disorder or Induced Delusional Disorder.

That delusional state is what is "correct" to the BKs and try to keep alive, e.g. accepting verbatim what Lekhraj Kirpalani believed.

Read the definition below and tell me it does not almost absolutely match the Om Mandli.

(There some interesting discussion of cases around the internet).
Shared Psychotic Disorder Symptoms

The essential feature of Shared Psychotic Disorder is a delusion that develops in an individual who is involved in a close relationship with another person (sometimes termed the “inducer” or “the primary case”) who already has a Psychotic Disorder with prominent delusions.

The content of the shared delusional beliefs may be dependent on the diagnosis of the primary case and can include relatively bizarre delusions, mood-congruent delusions, or the nonbizarre delusions that are characteristic of Delusional Disorder.

Usually the primary case in Shared Psychotic Disorder is dominant in the relationship and gradually imposes the delusional system on the more passive and initially healthy second person. Individuals who come to share delusional beliefs are often related by blood or marriage and have lived together for a long time, sometimes in relative social isolation. If the relationship with the primary case is interrupted, the delusional beliefs of the other individual usually diminish or disappear.

Although most commonly seen in relationships of only two people, Shared Psychotic Disorder can occur among a larger number of individuals, especially in family situations in which the parent is the primary case and the children, sometimes to varying degrees, adopt the parent’s delusional beliefs. Individuals with this disorder rarely seek treatment and usually are brought to clinical attention when the primary case receives treatment.

Specific Symptoms of Shared Psychotic Disorder

A delusion develops in an individual in the context of a close relationship with another person(s), who has an already-established delusion.

The delusion is similar in content to that of the person who already has the established delusion.

The disturbance is not better accounted for by another Psychotic Disorder (e.g., Schizophrenia) or a Mood Disorder With Psychotic Features and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition.
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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post07 Jun 2015

We are all sharing in some level of delusion or other. The question is whether the delusion is beneficial or malicious, whether the deluded person is hurting themselves or others, helping themselves or others, or neither.

Most things are rarely ”either/or" . It may be there is both benefit and harm. Most importantly we should ask, is our current delusion-to-reality ratio greater or lesser than what it was in the past? Which do I aspire to grasp and which to let go?

Even the BKs have had to regularly adjust their delusions as undeniable realities knock them for six. As they adjust, collectively they face a more acute crisis of identity, struggling to differentiate themselves from other groups and paths and what face to present to the world. Individually, BKs struggle to rationalise which other of their past beliefs will be challenged next by new realities, how to convince themselves they are indeed different to every other deluded fool who believed truth was exclusively theirs and its the ”others” who are deluded. They'll cling harder to the differentiating markers, they'll selectively pick from the world around them whatever bolsters their delusions. These are the pivotal delusions that need examining to truly ‘liberate' themselves. It is not just BKs. It is the dynamic of ego and super-ego* and these need to be examined constantly.

Deluded academic philosophers used to tell their students to ask the question ”Is it better to be a discontented Socrates or a contented pig?” (i.e. is it better to become wise if it leads to discontentment because you now see through delusions or to stay in the ”animal-bliss" of ignorance). They are making the basic error of confusing their metrics. The question of course has to be ”Is it better to be a discontented Socrates or a contented Socrates” . It may be that the way one moves from contented pig to contented Socrates is by passing through the stages of discontented pig and discontented Socrates to achieve both wisdom and contentment?!

When CG Jung was examining medieval alchemy as a cultural expression, he saw it as a metaphor of the innate human aspiration to higher consciousness, as well as symbolic of the dynamic path taken in therapy. He drew a diagram that shows how the base state (ignorance) transforms by ”purification” ( ”pyrric" - i.e. fire, applying the blowtorch of analysis and therapy) which takes one initially through the negrido (the blackening. burnt, even lower, dark, depressed confused state ) which, if the process continues, then becomes the ”albido” or whitening, entering a high, an ecstatic, idealised transcendental state after ”insights” and realisations and thinking one has somehow uniquely worked it all out - but unfortunately this state is ”in the clouds” , still incomplete. The Eagle has not yet landed.

The process is only complete when one reaches a ”rubido” or red state, i.e. come back to earth, enlivened and living more fully in the real world, ”on the level”, equanimity.

This process of healing parallels the path of the Hero’s Journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell, where the ”innocent/ignorant" leaves the known, ordinary state, enters dark realms (inner or outer), faces the various crises and is transformed by them, finding inner resources and becoming heroic, a ”higher being’ who then returns to live an ordinary life more contentedly and whole, often not recognised as anything different in his homeland.

There is no contentment for a conflicted unfulfilled ignorant youth, an unexercised, unresolved potential hero or the impractical, unrealistic idealist perpetual warrior who can’t see when victory is won and creates more battles.

The BKs want to keep their people in a state of perpetual battle with themselves and the world, they feed off the dynamic of the ups and downs their beliefs create, a perpetual cycle of small and big victories & defeats in a war that won’t end whilst one is alive. ironically, despite the jargon, one never "goes home" as long as one is a BK.

The resources to win are not to be found within oneself but are, according to BK doctrine, supplied from outside, from identifying them with the BK god and the BK collective. i.e. the person is neutered and made dependent.

The BKWSU, like the academics of real universities, present clever sounding abstract choices which are actually false dichotomies. It serves them. They'll present the BK ”student” with a world view that is a false dichotomy, one is either an ignorant b.c. Shudra or an elevated Gyani Brahmin, which requires a lifetime of ”effort” i.e always discontented and distasteful of what is because it is ”b.c." and ”Iron Aged".

A number of ex-BKs have agreed that in BK life you create bonds & friendships like soldiers do with those whom they fought alongside ”in the trenches”. They’ve shared intense experiences. You could say BKs are cannon fodder for the military-industrial complex of religion, which makes huge profits by creating enemies and perpetuating discontent. Peace, contentment, family, love between people, a fullfilled life can only be had ”in the next life”, that what is 'here and now' is dirty and impure, that your very skin and skeleton is the enemy. That’s no message to instil in the mentally ill.

Southwark mental health news has done its readership and their circle a huge service.

* Super-Ego is the Freudian term for what beyond oneself one identifies as - social group, clan, family, nation, football team, religion - and which of these is integral in a good or bad way for the person.
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ex-l

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post08 Jun 2015

Related ... but probably deserves its own topic. Do BK adherents even recognise they are being manipulated by their leaders again and again?
A great deal of psychology research has shown that we tend not to have a good insight into why we make certain choices. In one of the many studies in the area, Lars Hall and colleagues gave people a survey about their moral beliefs but used sleight of hand to change the choices they had originally made.

When asked to justify the beliefs they hadn't endorsed, more than two-thirds of people did not notice the switch and happily gave reasons for why they supported the opposite of their original position. Folk psychology tells us that we can accurately explain our actions and, consequently, many people think that these well-validated psychological effects never apply to them or simply don't exist. Suggesting that someone may not fully know their own actions and that their post-event justifications might be improvised simply won't wash in everyday conversation.

From ... Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey by Lars Hall, Petter Johansson , Thomas Strandberg.

Again, one of those papers BKs should read and question themselves on the basis of the findings.

I would guess any mentally vulnerable individual, wanting to fit into and be accepted by a community, would be even more prone to such justification.

Ditto, any criminal types like, as we read recently in another topic, "I am becoming pure and perfect ... but it's OK for me to steal from my employers, accept bribes and not work hard because 'it's not royal' as one BK once told me".
Abstract

Every day, thousands of polls, surveys, and rating scales are employed to elicit the attitudes of humankind. Given the ubiquitous use of these instruments, it seems we ought to have firm answers to what is measured by them, but unfortunately we do not. To help remedy this situation, we present a novel approach to investigate the nature of attitudes. We created a self-transforming paper survey of moral opinions, covering both foundational principles, and current dilemmas hotly debated in the media. This survey used a magic trick to expose participants to a reversal of their previously stated attitudes, allowing us to record whether they were prepared to endorse and argue for the opposite view of what they had stated only moments ago.

The result showed that the majority of the reversals remained undetected, and a full 69% of the participants failed to detect at least one of two changes. In addition, participants often constructed coherent and unequivocal arguments supporting the opposite of their original position. These results suggest a dramatic potential for flexibility in our moral attitudes, and indicates a clear role for self-attribution and post-hoc rationalization in attitude formation and change.
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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post08 Jun 2015

Do BK adherents even recognise they are being manipulated by their leaders again and again?...
...many people think that these well-validated psychological effects never apply to them or simply don't exist
..one of those papers BKs should read and question themselves on the basis of the findings

Q. How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Only one, but the lightbulb has to want to change.
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Mr Green

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post09 Jun 2015

Q. How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Only one, but the lightbulb has to want to change.

I did laugh.
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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post10 Jun 2015

Hey Mr Green,

This one is a little out of date but maybe you can rework it into a BK context.

Q. How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. None. They declare darkness is the new standard.

leonard

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post10 Jun 2015

I think you are being hoodwinked about this topic. I have searched Southwark Council site, especially mental health news and past issues, and only referals are to 'Inner Space' Covent Garden holding programs in Bermondsey etc. No mention of Brahma Kumaris at all is there. Also copy of publication claimed to be ' Mental Health News' of Southwark Council, at top of this topic thread is scrappy and unprofessional with no letterhead of council etc. Excuse me but I think is fake.
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Pink Panther

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post10 Jun 2015

I think ex-l has been remiss in not referencing the exact publication and date but i doubt he went to the trouble of preparing a magazine forgery to photograph - after all, there’s enough to criticise about the BKs without having to make things up!
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ex-l

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post10 Jun 2015

leonard wrote:I think you are being hoodwinked about this topic.

You should know better than throw such accusations at me, Leonard.

It's from "'Southwark Mental Health News'", not 'Southwark Council Mental Health News'.

I can take a picture of the front of the magazine if you want. I cannot remember who publishes it right now, but it came from an official funded project for mental health service users.

And, for the record, I did not get it in Southwark. It's available all over London.

Where in your befuddled, insulting mind did you get the idea it was related to the Council?

You owe me an apology.

leonard

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post11 Jun 2015

Befuddlement is always there I can say : but not insulting please. ex-l skills would be very greater than mine, but when I type in 'southwark mental health news' on Google; I am taken immediately and automatically to 'Southwark Council mental health news'. So this is conundrum. Apologies for any upset but befuddlement continues.
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ex-l

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post11 Jun 2015

Ah, but it was telling what conclusion you jumped to ...

I have a fearsome reputation for the accuracy of my research and knowing how the BKs wriggle when confronted with the truth, I never stray from supporting evidence to make things up. It's my only defence.

The truth is, I don't need to make things up. There's so much terrible stuff already out there ... and we only get to hear about a tiny fraction of it all.

I am sorry Leonard but the BKs invoke themselves by making such audacious claims about their own divinity ... and then making such ridiculous/ugly mistakes in the next breath.

But thanks, by accident, to the link for the BKs latest expansions efforts. They're still at it ...

Free Speech

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Re: Brahma Kumaris target mental health victims ... & are ou

Post11 Jun 2015

Most Stable Mind On Earth. I know I am the one everyone is looking for....haaa. Before paying attention to yourself, I think BKs should first check the mental stability of BK-leaders. A crone declared herself most stable. If you think they felt ashamed of their dishonest lie, you are wrong.

Today, I came across this documentary "Heaven On Earth" produced by BK cult being aired on "Peace of Mind" channel (which is a potential threat to BKs mental health if they see it beyond an extent). The documentary shows who is most stable mind on Earth - none other than BK mastermind Janki.

Actress Priyanka Chopra can be seen shaking butts with Janki & others in this documentary. What upsets me about 'stable mind' claims is the injustice that is happening towards much bigger intellectuals of our time. If you say Isaac Newton or Einstein was most stable mind, it could be undeniably accepted but WTH, an old woman who lacks sense of human values (yes I do see all those heads of bkism as real murderers, thieves or oppressors) is still shamelessly showcased as most stable mind on Earth.

I don't have any problem if she is considered "Most stable mind among all BKs."
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