John wrote:Words like Brainwashing and cult are always brought up when someone doesn't believe in the particular spiritual path, they are loaded words for which your average person on the street will see in a negative manner.
I agree with both points of view.
In religious circles, the word Cult has been given a negative value; whereas elsewhere from music, sport, fashion and sociology, it has an impartial to positive meaning, e.g. "cult following". Blame the whole Moonie/Scientologist debate within the tabloid news papers for that.
On the other hand, its a subtle point but I think most of us on this forum would say that the Brahma Kumaris themselves have developed a cult following and that is separate from the "spiritual path" (...
what ever that might be ... discuss elsewhere).
With regards to "brainwashing", again there is split opinion. On one hand the sociologists working in this area consider it to be a discredited theory born out of Cold War politics; on the other the advertising companies spend Billions of Dollars each year impressing on our sub-consciousness aware that the most clever, subtle and repetitive campaigns that appeal to the customers most obvious needs are the most successful. As a balance, the psychologists looking at minority religions have developed new concepts of psychological coersion.
Whether the path within Raja Yoga is THE path and whether the god within Raja Yoga is THE GOD, I am passing no judgement; BUT most of the psychological mechanisms identified by those professionals exits within the BKWSU.
I agree 100% with John about the BKWSU using VIPs or famous people for their PR ends and especially, from my own experience, with using interfaith meetings as a service avenue. Along with the spiritualist meetings, interface meetings were the BKs first area of service.
There is a video,
click here, with one such "famous person". One of the "BeeGees" of all people. If a celebrity jumped off a cliff, would you follow them? If you were promoting purity and egoless, would you promote industries that worship sex lust and ego? I would watch it through and decide for yourself if you think Robin Gibb really knows what is going on and is comfortable with it. Its strange for me because it is not about spiritual values at all, it is "status by association" in my book. Why God's obsession with status?
One other thing to remember, is that the BKs are burying their real teachings more and more and so it is harder for those folks to discover what the BKWSU is really all about.