At 6' 6", big BK Martin Damo was an early and notable Western BK, now ex-BK, but what do we make of his current position? BK for 35 years, now with a wife ... was she another BK and also bailed out? ... Martin presents himself still at ease and still doing PR for the Kirpalani con.
My only recollection of Martin was his outspoken, nay nigh racist, tirades aimed at Indian BKs.
Voluntary work? Hmmn, I don't know if I can accept that. What he did was work for the BK promoting them for nothing. The BKs don't exactly do voluntary work and certain did none for at least the first half of his time with them.
It was all just evangelist PR and enculting others. If he spent time in NYC, it was working the United Nations from their hired office there. And he's still exaggerating the standing of their "consultative status". It does not mean they are "consulted", it just means they can attend meetings, watch and hand in pithy opinion pieces.
I'd call it more "keeping up the facade" some ex-BKs do to sustain the concept of social value in the BK myth as an alternative way to explain what they did for 35 years ... rather than just run a crazy End of the World cult.
So what trend do we recognise here? Is it going to be something like when the parents of childless mature BKs die off and leave them their estate and money, they are finally going to be able to finally leave the pay and pension free BK lifestyle? Or, like others, do they have to start looking for wealthy partners?
(A general question, not aimed at Martin).
And what does, "where selflessness had been a key value, he felt too many people became selfish" refer to?
2011 minus 35 years puts him back to around 1976 and that day of Destruction.
"No regrets"?
Perhaps "no regrets" is a better attitude, or perhaps it just indicates that he did OK out of his BK experience ... was he on the BK payroll at any time? But should we have regrets, at least for encouraging others into the system? Or for what else we could have made of our lives and done for others during that time? How does he feel about pulling his younger Brother - now also ex- I understand - in as well.
Lives wasted?
It's certainly better for the BKs if we don't, and an attitude they would hope we adopted. Or perhaps it's also part of the message we have to live with and repeat if we still want to drop in and out of making use of their facilities?
An enviable retirement lifestyle I would say, however, strictly speaking he has "destroyed his fortune" for all eternity - according to the BKs and Lekhraj Kirpalani and will receive a lower status in the forthcoming Golden Age! From here.
My only recollection of Martin was his outspoken, nay nigh racist, tirades aimed at Indian BKs.
Voluntary work? Hmmn, I don't know if I can accept that. What he did was work for the BK promoting them for nothing. The BKs don't exactly do voluntary work and certain did none for at least the first half of his time with them.
It was all just evangelist PR and enculting others. If he spent time in NYC, it was working the United Nations from their hired office there. And he's still exaggerating the standing of their "consultative status". It does not mean they are "consulted", it just means they can attend meetings, watch and hand in pithy opinion pieces.
I'd call it more "keeping up the facade" some ex-BKs do to sustain the concept of social value in the BK myth as an alternative way to explain what they did for 35 years ... rather than just run a crazy End of the World cult.
So what trend do we recognise here? Is it going to be something like when the parents of childless mature BKs die off and leave them their estate and money, they are finally going to be able to finally leave the pay and pension free BK lifestyle? Or, like others, do they have to start looking for wealthy partners?
(A general question, not aimed at Martin).
And what does, "where selflessness had been a key value, he felt too many people became selfish" refer to?
2011 minus 35 years puts him back to around 1976 and that day of Destruction.
"No regrets"?
Perhaps "no regrets" is a better attitude, or perhaps it just indicates that he did OK out of his BK experience ... was he on the BK payroll at any time? But should we have regrets, at least for encouraging others into the system? Or for what else we could have made of our lives and done for others during that time? How does he feel about pulling his younger Brother - now also ex- I understand - in as well.
Lives wasted?
It's certainly better for the BKs if we don't, and an attitude they would hope we adopted. Or perhaps it's also part of the message we have to live with and repeat if we still want to drop in and out of making use of their facilities?
The early 1970s was a time when university students in Australia, like Mr Damo, were experimenting enthusiastically with mind-altering substances, looking for enlightenment and a "higher understanding". Somewhere in there, he tuned into meditation and left what he terms "the herbs and spices" behind.
Finding Brahma Kumaris
"I ended up staying there for 35 years. We did voluntary work all around the world — China, Africa, South America, every continent — spent a lot of time in New York. They have centres all over the world," Mr Damo said.
"They have consultative status with the United Nations as an NGO, so they're quite up there. It was a big organisation and it gave me the opportunity to go to a lot of countries and help out.
"It's most closely connected to Hinduism but their tenants are no false gods, no worshipping; the theory is good but unfortunately human beings tend to relapse back into their original ways of thinking.
"But I must have liked it, I don't think you can do something like that for 35 years if you did not. There was a lot of discipline, getting up at quarter to four each morning, then meditation, then a class, then breakfast..."
Landing in Wilmot
Mr Damo eventually tired of the system he was in, saying the organisation just got too big and where selflessness had been a key value, he felt too many people became selfish, at least in attitude.
He eventually left Brahma Kumaris in 2011 and moved to Wilmot in 2012 with his wife Margie who has family in Tasmania.
Mr Damo said the life at Wilmot is the best he has ever known but has no regrets about the time he spent saying "omm".
"But being here, seeing Mt Roland every day and having these beautiful animals around is pretty unbeatable," he said.
An enviable retirement lifestyle I would say, however, strictly speaking he has "destroyed his fortune" for all eternity - according to the BKs and Lekhraj Kirpalani and will receive a lower status in the forthcoming Golden Age! From here.