ex-l wrote:OK, to put it simply, you're talking about premonitions? I think you make a good point about re-interpreting common archetypal images, e.g. spiritual Father figures, points of lights and so on. No, I was thinking of your experience in the shower.
PREMONITION!!! That’s the word that was eluding me!
Umm, the meditation in the shower thing - yes, I was going to go into a description of a specific vision that arose in that situation which then happened a few months later after I had become a BK - but as I wrote it I decided not to go there in full (and the relevance was probably lost in how I left it ... soz, never enough time for redrafting etc -).
Offtopic: Lucky smiler - I am a bit of a forum slut myself. I get involved on non-BK, non-spiritual discussion sites too when I get the time or the subject interests me. What you consider negativity here (even the worst I have read here) is really pretty mild. Anyway, sticks and stones these are not.
OK, in the New Age, spirituality circles much emphasis is put on ”nice”. The best way to adjudge what is said by anyone anywhere is to firstly determine how straightforward and honest it is.
A hard honest ”I don't like you, p*ss off” is better than a pretend ”I like you, come hither” - only to find they were ”being nice” or not wanting to hurt your feelings or to fill in their time, or be taken for a ride or sold something. (Most thieves I have ever encountered usually have some justification they tell themselves).
Secondly, people can be sincere and straightforward and genuinely lovely, but be deluded. So ask, is it true or not? Is there more than meets the eye or what’s felt in this moment?
When these come together - delusional self-belief and justification, personal disciplines and ideology. ”niceness” & ulterior motives (aka "Godly service") , people enter real cognitive dissociation - not even realising (even denying the possibility of) how their values & decisions are manifesting, unable (unwilling?) to empathise with those ideologically separate, labelling them in many ways - in religious terms, blasphemers, heretics, infidels; in BK terms - new birth/late birth souls, karmically indebted, locked intellects, agyani (ignorant), body conscious, lokik, Shudra, lower caste, subject souls etc (have you learnt all the jargon yet?).
So, take anything that you read here that you’d prefer ”otherwise” as people mostly being honest, or hard hitting for a reason (and using their right of free expression) . The BK new agey Niceness is something that many adopt who fear assertiveness, shy away from hard challenging truths (you will not exist one day) , or who can’t deal with hard-nosed vulgar speech (note: vulgar just means, literally, the language of the common people) .
Some people here have been seriously hurt or had their lives seriously waylaid. The whole idea of expressing doubt, displeasure, criticism (let alone anger) is anathema to the BKs. Having a forum where people can be angry, amongst people who understand what they are angry about, is highly valuable.
Some who haven't felt able to express their feelings during or after involvement in the BKs (some were ”in” for very long periods and reached fairly high levels in the organisation) have topped themselves, or had serious mental health issues, or found their lives completely turned inside out and upside down.
As to Jayanti, DJ and others being charismatic or powerful or lovely or whatever well (sorry Godwin) they said the same about Adolph. But seriously, see my "secondly" point.