An old story but one that I had not read before. Why a famous musician, frontman Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners, left the Brahma Kumaris after objecting their apocalyptic teachings. The story is the same as ever ... BK exploit low point in individual's life, attracting them in with misleading marketing and dangling the "peace of mind" that they seek, then 'slow cooking' them with meditation and drip feeding indoctrination.
As an interesting aside, relating to a point Pink Panther has often made, Rowland speaks about his already guilt-ridden Catholic upbringing and and how the BKs "just doubled the load" ...
As an interesting aside, relating to a point Pink Panther has often made, Rowland speaks about his already guilt-ridden Catholic upbringing and and how the BKs "just doubled the load" ...
""I don't really want to talk about the Brahmas because they did my head in. I was already a guilt-ridden Catholic and this just doubled the load."
Kevin Rowland Left Religious Sect Because Of Apocalyptic Beliefs
Dexys Midnight Runners frontman Kevin Rowland left a religious movement after objecting to apocalyptic teachings.
The Come On Eileen singer, 62, battled drug addiction and faced bankruptcy after the break up of the band in 1987, and joined the Brahma Kumaris movement in 1991 in a bid to overcome his problems.
Brahma Kumaris, a religious sect founded in India in the 1930s espouses a strict regime of vegetarianism, meditation and celibacy.
However it has also attracted controversy as its teachings include the belief that a series of cataclysmic events will bring modern human civilisation to an end.
"It was 1991 and I was really down," he tells British newspaper The Times. "I was trying to give up drugs, I was trying to feel better, and then I saw a poster in Willesden (northwest London) offering meditation. I went to a stress management course in this building that seemed really peaceful and clean, which was appealing because I was living in a dump at this point. I was in trouble."
And Kevin says that although the group's focus on meditation was initially helpful to him at a time when he was struggling to quit drugs, he failed to embrace their belief in a forthcoming apocalypse and had to leave.
Kevin adds, "I got some help, and one of the ways I was trying to find help was the Brahma Kumaris. At first I thought it was amazing. I loved the meditation. But then they taught me all this stuff about the world being about to end.
"I don't really want to talk about the Brahmas because they did my head in. I was already a guilt-ridden Catholic and this just doubled the load."
In 2008 the group, whose leaders dub it a 'World Spiritual University', boasted 825,000 members in more than 100 countries.
Since overcoming his drug addiction and leaving the group, Kevin has returned to music, releasing a solo album in 1999 before reforming the band in 2003.