The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

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Pink Panther

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The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

Post22 Mar 2016

Oscar Wilde said that a second marriage is ”the triumph of hope over experience”.

The once-divorced reformist BKs (divorced from their pre-BK life and now ”married to Baba”) at More About Brahma Kumaris .Org seem to share those qualities that Wilde observed in the similarly afflicted, continuing to work hard to ”reform” the recalcitrant BKWSU (a.k.a. PBKIVV) despite decades of experience and history as a hierarchical, parochial, imperially inclined closed society , expecting them to become transparent, open, democratic, honest and ethical in their activities.

From their pages is this very revealing article. It contains some new information on topics previously covered on this web site.

THE TRUMAN SHOW?
NOT AT ALL!
"THE CHARLIE SHOW" : TALES FROM BEYOND THE GHADDI ...

Hello dear and patient readers.

It is now well over a year since chats and letters began between Mr Charlie Hogg, director and vice president of the company Brahma Kumaris Australia, and myself, regarding some aspects of governance within BKA. My suggestions for discussions leading to possible improvements in governance, citing examples of what I saw as questionable practises, were dismissed out of hand by Divine Brother Charlie + FLAMBOYANT ZALI!.

As a result, I passed my concerns on to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission (ACNC) for their consideration. In turn, the ACNC gave certain information to the NSW police. ACNC informs me that although some of the concerns fall within their (limited) purvue, ACNC will not necessarily take any action: I am told that government instrumentalities are wary of becoming involved with religious groups. Fair enough.

So over the next week or two, as promised, I will briefly share some of my concerns, as brought to the attention of Divine Brother Charlie ... as well as to the BKA board and BK senior management, who have also not responded to my concerns. I do so in the interests of BKA stakeholders, and perhaps the wider public if they chance to come across this site. CHAPTER 1 is below CHAPTER 2, which promises to be even more diverting, will follow shortly ... and perhaps CHAPTER 3 if you are still around.

CHAPTER 1.
    PART 1. A certain BKA board member, with a very credible career path, used his/her credibility and his/her position on the BKA board, to obtain substantial funds from BKA stakeholders for ‘investment’, for which he/she had questionable qualifications, and clearly as a BKA board member it was a quite dodgy thing to do. These funds were apparently ‘embezzled’. A number of people lost substantial sums, but fortunately others who were approached to ‘invest’ declined the offer. Funds were eventually returned to one BK associate, who threatened to make a big fuss if they were not: the others, rather more docile, as per BK culture, did not, and have suffered. The ‘investor’ continues to hold his/her position on the BKA board, however.

    PART 2. Australian Dr Wendy Sargent, official BK historian, pointed out significant errors in the BKA promoted backstory: "the real story is quite different" she wrote in her unreleased report to management. Mr Hogg, ignoring Dr Wendy's research, says that "original documents do not reveal significant errors in the history" ... Dr Wendy rightly observes that, "decisions will have to be made about about how to deal with factual discrepancies in present BK books DVDs and so forth". Charlie recently appointed an untrained BK, with little interest in the true tale, to make a further report attempting, rather clumsily, to discredit the late Dr Wendy’s fine academic work + DR WENDY SARGENT.

    PART 3. Brahma Kumaris and its ‘Centres for Spiritual Learning’, are recognised as schools in Australia, and as such are allowed attractive taxation concessions. However, the schools do not provide access for teachers and students to any documents outlining the real ideological history of BK. In fact, the true story of how BK came to understand that The One True God of All Religions Has Descended into Our Ashram is deliberately with held. As well, the schools teachings are heavily redacted by leadership, but BK teachers and students are unaware of this.

    Mr Hogg claims these redactions are ‘minor edits’ which is untrue as the teachings are now half the length they were as printed originally. The complete texts are nowhere available for the teachers to teach from, or for the students to study. In present day Australia, this is not acceptable scholarly practice. The ideology presented in the schools is highly controversial, and very much at odds with current thinking, so the schools need to be clear, open and honest about the BK ideological story, as well as their teachings, to avoid accusations of acting covertly to attract students, and misleading taxpayers.

    PART 4. Some years ago accusations were made by an 18 year old attending a BKA school, of male rape committed by a resident senior BKA teacher. The matter was hushed up by BKA and the alleged perpetrator sent to another country. The alleged victim appealed to Mr Hogg to be allowed to speak to Seniors in the BK headquarters, and seek redress. Mr Hogg reportedly refused to facilitate this. The alleged victim reportedly went on to spend thousands of dollars in counselling.

    While out of Australia, the teacher reinvented himself with a spurious biography claiming he worked in a senior post at the UN, was a counsellor to Bali bombing families, counsellor at Ground Zero, etc etc. So convincing was the teacher, that he soon became a major speaker on the BK world stage, appearing with BK leadership, even financially supported by a senior Australian diplomat on a speaking tour, who believed the teacher’s fictions.

    Mr Hogg was informed of the teachers fake CV, but took no action.The teacher continued to hold unsupervised retreats for youth in Australia and elsewhere, all the while promoted and protected by Mr Hogg, with whom he shared private lodgings on his speaking tours to Sydney. The teacher held no counselling qualifications, though students were regularly sent to him by Mr Hogg for counselling, sometimes with unfortunate consequences, as reported to me in emails.

    Eventually the teacher’s bogus CV was exposed in an Asian newspaper. Divine Brother Charlie then appointed the teacher to reside and give spiritual discourses in a major BKA school. Recently parents informed me that the teacher had inappropriately touched their 10 year old child. I suggested they report the matter to Mr Hogg. However, the charismatic teacher continues to hold unsupervised classes and lectures for the public and BKA students in the BKA school, apparently with Mr Hogg’s full approval.

    The public and BKA students have no idea of their teachers backstory, or more recent events. We do note that the teacher is apparently ‘firewalled’ from giving Brahma Kumaris spiritual discourses beyond his present city.

    "ethical issues are never obvious and they never go away" ... Ridley Scott 'The Good Wife''

    END OF CHAPTER
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ex-l

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Post22 Mar 2016

Whereas Robin may not be "ripping the BKs a new assh0le" as I would ... I'd say he is being a severe pain in their existing one. And all with perfect ethical reason and intent.

The truth is, the BKs are going to have to humbled by a very big and picture fall soon rather than later.

And I am rather appreciating the gradual and persistent unravelling.

This investment fraud business is a big one ... The new sex abuse allegation can only relate to Lee James, who Captain Porridge (on this site), took down in style for his dramatic pronouncements about the End of the World etc. It seems he was actively homosexual.

It's interesting to see the BKs' MO. It is the same as the Madhuban sex abuse case ... the perpetrators were known but not removed.

I met Wendy, long time back before all this started and liked her. As a BK one was not actually allow to enjoy the company of someone of the opposite sex but she was alive and had a little sparkle to her. Her work was, of course, heavily derivative of this site and organized as a reaction to it.

Although she never actually contacted or credited us, it appears her intentions were fairly good but that the establish really just want to use the information to arrange the next cover up or whitewashing. And once she died the impetus died with her, only now to be taken up by Clan Ramsay (Motto: Ora Et Labora [Pray and work]).

Of Norman stock rather than native Scots, the Ramsays earn notoriety in the great battle campaigns of the 18th and 19th centuries on the continent of Europe and, especially in India ... Ora Et Labora on.

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GuptaRati 6666

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Re: The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

Post27 Mar 2016

I remember Charles from decades ago in Madhuban. He is Janki's favorite. In those days he seemed to think, and still may be thinking, that the Peaceable Kingdom, aka the Golden Age, will only be inherited by one ethnic group.
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ex-l

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Post27 Mar 2016

Well, we have a topic evolving at present that states just that is the current view for Indian BKs ... BK knowledge is meant for real Indians. I've seen some golden haired deities in BK symbolism ... but do you really think they are going to let in the Blacks, and low caste dark skinned races?
GuptaRati 6666 wrote:I remember Charles from decades ago in Madhuban. He is Janki's favorite.

Put simply ... he had money. He lived off an inheritance from a wealthy family.

So what we have here is a strange inter-dynastic wrangle as although the fortunes of the Ramsays have gone up and down, they too had (have?) or came from money. The Kiwi shoe polish empire whose fortunes, from memory, were made polishing the boots of the British and Americans in WWII.

Don't know where the Hogg wealth came from. Originally, it was a occupational name for swineherds.
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Pink Panther

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Post29 Mar 2016

Regarding Part 4 of the Original Post below, allegations of cover up of sexual and other abuses:

ex-l names Lee James as the probable perpetrator. In the OP, the author goes to some trouble to avoid naming the perpetrator. Someone posted a comment after the article on that site and also named him. That comment was taken down.

There may be other reasons for that, but given that the people involved are, in this particular case, in Australia and/or Australians it may be a legal precaution for strong reasons.

Running over the last year and more, and still continuing in Australia, has been the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, which has been much reported in the media. It has investigated abuses going back many decades in various religious & secular schools, orphanages, boarding schools, sports associations, Yoga ashrams and so on, with emphasis on investigating what the responsible people in those institutions knew and did about it. Some posts have been written about it on this forum here.

For the information of those from non-British Commonwealth countries who don’t know its seriousness, a Royal Commission is the most serious form of judicial inquiry with extraordinary powers which requires any person who is called to testify to do so, no rights to silence nor some other rights or objections that are usual in a normal court of law. People must appear. They must answer all questions if directed, and any perjury is treated much more seriously than in normal courts. A Royal Commission is not a court of law, but the findings and any evidence can be referred to a prosecutor to begin criminal proceedings.

Recently, the former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, who is now in the Vatican in charge of their finances, Cardinal Pell, and who has been implicated in covering up abuses since the 1970s and 80s, was required to testify.

He pleaded ill health, that he could not travel back to Australia to attend the hearings so the Royal Commission arranged video conferencing from Rome. Victims of abuse felt that this gave him unfair ”cover” of distance, removing some of the pressure he would have felt in a court where many victims would be present. So the victims and their supporters raised money and about 20+ victims went over to Rome to make their presence felt whenever possible. His move was counter-productive because the hearings became international news particularly in Europe - a major story for any Rome-based correspondents, and coinciding with the 2106 Academy Award for Best Film going to ”Spotlight”, a movie about the church’s cover-up of abuses in Boston, USA.

The reason for my writing all this is that, given the seriousness of the allegations in Part 4 below and the current Royal Commission, mentioning such allegations can have serious repercussions for the BKSWU and its personnel. However, for the Royal Commission to investigate any cases requires a victim or witness to make a submission for the RC to investigate. The abuse claim and subsequent response of the people in charge in an institution would be investigated.

It may be that the author of the article has only hearsay knowledge so cannot substantiate anything, so does not want to name names. It may be the author has had direct contact with the victim of abuse and has heard their first hand account but the victim may not be willing to repeat them or make any public statements or allegations, for whatever reasons. It is a rare victim of a sex crime who can open up and revisit the violence and violations under public scrutiny.

The web site the OP was published on, http://www.moreaboutbrahmakumaris.org is run by BKs who are trying to change things. They seem to be wanting to hold the BK organisation to the values expected in a modern secular society where the rule of law is respected and applied equally to all regardless of beliefs, wealth, social standing etc.

In their articles they ask the BKWSU for openness, transparency and to adhere to the laws and to practice values at least equal to the ”lokik” society in which they operate. They have challenged the BKWSU in a kind of public debate but I wonder if they have the courage of other victims and witnesses of institutionalised cover ups, whether fiscal, sexual or workplace, to be willing to report what they know to authorities and support victims coming forward?

It is well known that many (not all) of those who sexually abuse children were themselves victims of abuse - the crime becomes an intergenerational one. It seems to be particularly so for those who've never come to terms with the abuse they suffered. They can end up carrying any or all the feelings of guilt, shame, defilement, diminished self-worth, insecurity and so on into later life, becoming unable to experience open and honest loving relationships as equals with others. They may equate sexuality and sensual excitement with suppression, secrecy, and may associate sexual feelings with their abuse, e.g. if the abuser was an older person of the opposite sex, that sort of person is what "turns them on” and will suppress while being drawn to them, i.e. for the sexual ‘frisson' it creates.

If it was a same sex adult abuser, they often only associate that frisson with similar relationships, i.e. same sex adult and child. Hence the repetition of the crime down the generations. It is not a universal outcome, nor does it excuse the crime but it can 'explain' it and it can open the pathway to rehabilitation, healing and reduced likelihood of recidivism.

I know many BKs who’ve been sexually abused. For some reason, quite a few (male and female), felt comfortable enough to share their experiences directly with me - both in the UK and in Australia. You are asked for, or at least assume, that confidentiality is appreciated by people who share such things, so I won’t name those who have told me of being victims of such crimes.

However where a crime is committed by them, although it's not really any defence or excuse, it can give context.
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ex-l

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Re: The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

Post29 Mar 2016

Personally, I know nothing of the recent allegations and base my comments purely on the previous chapter in BK history. I had heard that Lee James was deemed to have had some kind of breakdown and "placed on leave" (not a BK term for it) ... in very much the same way the Roman Catholic church did its offenders.

Following the previous failure, this latest chapter is very shocking indeed and has a high "public interest" value.

I am just more concerned by the events' reflection on the probity of the Brahma Kumari elite, and their "god spirit" who has always remained silent on all such matters. Silence to me is not "golden", it condones them.

Surely, if the Brahma Kumari's "god spirit" is the God of all religions ... he would not tolerate such cover ups nor support such leaders?

The Brahma Kumari elite allowed Lee James to run amok across their Pacific-Asian market ... playing prophet and guru to innocents and, it appears, children ... and promoted him in India using their usual modus operandi of exaggerated and even fabricated professional claims ... because they saw him as being "good for business".

This begs some very important questions about their values, "clairvoyance" and intentions.

If the Brahma Kumari's "god spirit" is the God of all religions why on earth would he tolerate such individuals ... including that leadership which allowed it to happen.

When will the BK "god spirit" ever demand that heads roll? (That one or more of the leaders takes responsibility for the events, and is fired or stands down).

I emphasise the BKs' Pacific-Asian and Indian marketplaces because, again, I think there is a kind of pattern of "exploiting vulnerability", e.g. in the case, the value of "White Man Power" over impressionable Indians or Asians" ... and, one has to presume, Lee James's' ego tripping on it.

For me, the BKs seniority and values system are primarily based on two things;
    a) how much money you can bring in, and
    b) how many 'bums on seats' you can attract
James was of value of to the Brahma Kumaris leadership for attracting 'bums on seats' (which could later be transformed into income streams).

What the report appears to be infering is that the individual had their own attraction to them.

The first BK child sex abuse campaign took more than 5 years to work past the resistance and cover up of the leadership.

Let's see how long and how much effort this one takes to resolve.
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Pink Panther

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Post29 Mar 2016

ex-l wrote:The Brahma Kumari elite allowed Lee James to run amok across their Pacific-Asian market ... playing prophet and guru to innocents and, it appears, children ... and promoted him in India using their usual modus operandi of exaggerated and even fabricated professional claims ... because they saw him as being "good for business".

Lee James was a professional actor, one of a number of professional actors who came under the sway of the BKs in the early 1980s.

Acting can be put to many uses.
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ex-l

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Re: The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

Post29 Mar 2016

Agreed ... referring back to the title of this topic.

I noticed this tendency in other "cults" I explored, like Mukhtananda's and the Hare Krishnas - and, of course, it is present in modern Christianity. What else is being a priest but dressing up in frocks and putting on act these days?

Which I guess is why, with all due respect, traditional Buddhism categorised actors amongst classes to be avoided by arhats, along with courtesans etc.

Ultimately, acting is skilfulness in the art of pretence, deception and manipulation.
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Pink Panther

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Re: The Truman Show? Reformist BKs news site

Post28 May 2016

Two new chapters in ”The Truman Show?” section on the ”reformist BK” website: moreaboutbrahmakumaris.org.

CHAPTER 3
TODAY THE RED QUEEN ENLIGHTENS ALICE!

As we continue our chats about our BK exchanges, we see a growing resemblance to the curious world, of Alice in Wonderland

PART 1. Godly foot draggers? We did think that perhaps our Divine Brother Charlie responded rather superficially to our concerns about this, writing that "Any person who wishes to discontinue the [BK] practices is free to do so at any time...according to their own consciences ’’, which of course any person is free to do... however...

...I couldn't help feeling that Divine Brother Charlie’e observation was a little dismissive, even naive.
READ MORE

CHAPTER FOUR
UH-OH: MORE CENSORSHIP FROM THE BOARD.

THE DUCHESS in Alice in Wonderland is not one to encourage thoughtful exchange with her:"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" she demands of those who question her authority.

In Australia, as in many parts of the world, BK stakeholders, especially those who came as sparkly eyed young followers in the 1980’s, have become less sparkly eyed senior citizens of the 2016’s. So recently a Seniors Wing was started in Australia, facilitated by a senior citizen BK, with board approval. An online newspaper ‘Olde News’ was begun to help communication. Among other articles, the letter below was published:

‘Many of us who have been around since the eighties followed directions we were strongly given and never bought a house or a flat, or, if we did have one, sold it and give the money to the BKWSU. Many of us dropped out of university, or left a thriving career and, of course, did not marry ( most of us) or have children. That was accompanied by giving whatever money we did have to the BKWSU.

All of this was done with most of us thinking ... read more
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ex-l

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Post29 May 2016

Charlie Hogg is starting to look really bad.

Let's face it, his primary qualification for the job as BK leader was having inherited wealth to live off while he worked for the Kirpalani Klan for nothing.

Looks like he spent a bit on having his teeth fixed though ...
LATEST:

We understand that 'OLDE NEWS' is no longer a BKA board approved publication, and Mr Hogg and his board now plan to appoint a new Seniors Wing facilitator, presumably with a rather more pliant disposition.

Meantime, this means that articles are now free to be published uncensored, and we are happy to report that the article above was printed in the April edition. We deplore the BKA Board's action, however.

BK_Charlie_Hogg.jpg
BK_Charlie_Hogg.jpg (18.32 KiB) Viewed 15645 times
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Mr Green

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Post31 May 2016

If You have a huge ego and unstoppable confidence you are seen as a first birth soul and given free reign, no one can know your future status so why not claim to be one of the 108 and do whatever you like? After all this is what the Dadis/Seniors do!
Lee had the type of confidence that girls are attracted to and boys find annoying,

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