Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

for ex-BKs to discuss matters related to experiences in BKWSU & after leaving.
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tinydot

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Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post31 Mar 2010

Letting Love In ~ an evening with Lucinda Drayton
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ex-l

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Re: New Retreat Center? Anubhuti

Post01 Apr 2010

tinydot wrote:Letting Love In ~ an evening with Lucinda Drayton

It seems Lucinda is out in the USA promoting herself and 'Blissful Records USA'. As "letting love in" account for leaving the Brahma Kumaris, stopping following the Maryadas (celibacy) and taking a new lover, I wonder is she will be teaching that by example to the Brahma Kumaris ... or has she re-joined them?

More likely ... are the Brahma Kumaris are just using her and her "fame" in the New Age circle to draw people in to the center, and she using them to promote her career? I wonder ...

More curiously ... she is apparently still teaching "Raja Yoga", see here: Maryna and Steve Barker's Be the Change Energy Center.com. Do they allow that now!?! A center which charges $50 per month for 1 class per week. The usual BK co-prosperity business get a link to, here and Discovering and empowering the authentic self, here, Price £120.

She quotes, "To believe in something and not follow it is dishonest - Gandhi". Is she still following the Brahma Kumaris? "The Simple Truths" looking "Awfully Familiar" to BK taught meditations. So what is going on?

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vianne

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Re: New Retreat Center? Anubhuti

Post10 Jul 2010

How strange, I hadnt realised till I just looked on her website ... it looked ... different and also then I noticed this page where shes talking about finding a new teacher and her foundation being built on quicksand.

http://www.blissfulmusic.com/the_real_x_factor.html

and promoting her own course called the real x factor, supported by some counselling service ... but then on the same website, there's a section on Cool Resources which mentions Raj Yoga meditation.

http://www.blissfulmusic.com/everything_lucinda_resources_3.html

She sounds rather confused to me!
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rayoflight

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Re: New Retreat Center? Anubhuti

Post17 Jul 2010

Of course she is confused. She is searching for herself and making a business out of it. But BKs (and confused unsure if they're ex or not BKs), as well as people who have never even heard of the BKs, are doing it as well. It goes along with the whole "reality show" and everybody's personal life and spiritual development is suddenly interesting to the world.

I joined the BKs because I was confused and needed answers but after a while I became more confused than I ever thought possible.

Lucinda (and others) think that their search for "Truth" is unique and that they are interesting enough to have people listen to their stories about their search.
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tinydot

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Re: Lucinda Blisset selling Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post19 Jul 2010

Some people are confused. In fact, when it comes to religion or answering those existential questions, most of us are in doubt, or at least have our own understanding which gets challenge once in while.

However, some people have a way to directing these questions into making money. The spiritual or religious aspect of life is one thing, business is another thing. I met few people like this who can separate the two. Trust me, they know how they can make business out of it.

So, in making money, there is just this thinking of the mind to just to do. There is no confusion in this. There is just the question how can one make it.
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ex-l

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Re: Lucinda Blisset selling Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post19 Jul 2010

tinydot wrote:However, some people have a way to directing these questions into making money. The spiritual or religious aspect of life is one thing, business is another thing. I met few people like this who can separate the two. Trust me, they know how they can make business out of it.

So, in making money, there is just this thinking of the mind to just to do. There is no confusion in this. There is just the question how can one make it.

And the rule of Sanskars suggests that the more you do it, the better you get at it and the more it becomes a habit.

Which make you wonder about the world the Seniors really live in.

Yes, in the USA, there is huge market for New Agey "searching" products and a well established circuit of events and venues promoting them. It is a multi-million dollar business that the Brahma Kumaris are tapping into with their book stores and shops selling ... what exactly? Watered down derivative "products". How is it any more than just making money when contrasted with the original purpose and aim?

But what I don't understand is why, when the likes of Lucinda has left and is no longer following the keystone of celibacy etc, can she or they allow her to still teach the meditation and use knowledge? Is it an absolute contradiction of what they are about ... or was "making money from religion" at any cost of integrity what they were always about in the first place?

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Mr Green

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Re: Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post19 Jul 2010

I knew her a little bit, nice girl really, it is a bit **** that she's trying to make a buck from raj Yoga, but she will be aware of that, she probably would openly admit it if you asked her. I mean why not if you've got the gall to do it, why not? Her music used to be her only source of income when I knew her and her husband (also a lovely bloke). They worked hard and attempted to sell their music in any way, and through any avenue they could, which is completely normal in the music industry. As a sort of musician myself ... I knew it is very tough to make a good living.

But they were also smitten with Dadi Janki and they received a lot of special treatment. They both took it seriously as I remember after attaining the old blissfull experiences in y o g. A was still really well into it all last I heard. Good luck to them.
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alladin

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those sickening contradictions

Post21 Jul 2010

Hi, spiritual family of the ex-BK forum. How depressing to read these posts full of truth! Nothing new.

The "contradictions" of which the BKs are full and that they don't want to be exposed, their double standards, by which some low rank BKs should just labour as karma yogis and shut up, renounce their education and settle down for a low paid simple job so that worries, responsibilities, traveling, overtime hours and higher education do not clash or interfere with a yogi life or service, whilst others get the green light for going to university, pursuing a career or even selling Gyan whilst they are still BKs or after they left, are so crazy making that one day someone, with some ethics or trying to make some sense into the gap between "Baba's directions" and the reality of what members do, will snap and say "enough of this nonsense".

Should we be surprised about these activities of "angels " and ex such? Ordinary folks they are.

People try to make a living in any possible way, selling their bodies, harmful substances, trampling on other, destroying the environment, doing yard sales ... you name it. I think that some BKs are not totally convinced that this Gyan is THE Truth and that studying, implementing it and spreading it for free will be satisfactory enough and represent a valuable guarantee.

They want to turn it into cash to buy fame and facilities with. Forget about the few square meter and 2 chapatis a day that a Yogi can live with!

Those who left, and don't fall into the category of post BK suicidal" what am I gonna do with my life now?", often feel that they wasted time and precious time whilst in the organization, and think it is never too late. They have to make up for the loss and devise a way to recycle Gyan, invent some course and start selling the spiritual merchandise, so that they can get compensation ...

After all they could not get it by banging at DJ's door screaming, "I want my time, $ and energy back!!!"

because.parmeshwar

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Re: Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post21 Jul 2010

Those who left, and don't fall into the category of post BK suicidal" what am I gonna do with my life now?"

interesting ... those who are not bold enough make up the compensation are regretting ...

Should start a new topic how exs are coping up with their lives after getting out ...
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ex-l

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Re: Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post21 Jul 2010

because.parmeshwar wrote:interesting ... those who are not bold enough make up the compensation are regretting ...

Should start a new topic how exs are coping up with their lives after getting out ...

They go back to be ordinary people and dealing with ordinary things who sleep more. They get to enjoy simple pleasures like eating out and eating with friends without being afraid the End of the World is going to happen. They seeing new places and doing new things. They don't have not to worry any more about what a load of old women dressed like piles of white laundry think about what they are doing and saying.

More over, they start to learn their own lessons in life, do their own good, live their own lie. Many start families and become interesting, caring, not so selfish people.

Only a tiny few try and make some kind of business out of Brahma Kumarism.
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alladin

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Re: Lucinda Drayton teaching Raja Yoga post-BKWSU

Post21 Jul 2010

They get to enjoy simple pleasures like eating out and eating with friends without being afraid the End of the World is going to happen.

The fact that simple things become hard to practise once you have been through the BK training, proves that that programming runs deep and is difficult to erase, (not impossible!), as it has been widely illustrated on this site, especially without the support of other escapees.

Mainly due to the guilty complexes that have been instilled and the information and lifestyle that aim to turn the BK member into a total misfit in "normal" society.

BKs live in a parallel dimension, a bit unreal, like a drug, and I think it gives addiction. IMHO, it is important to preserve the magic and extraordinary side of life, in a personalized way, purging it from all the dogmas and dependence from the organization, to "own it".

If spirituality is part of a soul, it is very damaging to renounce that, to throw away the baby with the dirty water. One has to make some gradual transition towards The true self and cherish the principles that one appreciates.

One doesn't cease being spiritually aware just because one leaves the BKs! Possibly it is the other way around: thinking outside the box means expanding one's consciousness, but it takes courage to do that and a strong sense of self preservation.


Often my ethics in fact clashed with the BK's, so I ended up thinking that I am better off and less torn apart without them. I want to love myself, and especially give oxygen and a voice to my Higher Self, and if the BKWSO becomes a hindrance to my spiritual development, then it is a matter of life and death to get out.
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ex-l

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Re: those sickening contradictions

Post22 Jul 2010

alladin wrote:They have to make up for the loss and devise a way to recycle Gyan, invent some course and start selling the spiritual merchandise, so that they can get compensation ...After all they could not get it by banging at DJ's door screaming, "I want my time, $ and energy back!!!"

Do anyone of them make that much money from it? Is it about the money or just being the center of attention?

I suppose in Lucinda's case, she could make some extra pocket money off selling the CDs at her spiritual gigs but I have to wonder if anyone them make much at all. All the same, being the center of attention, having a slightly privileged experience to others, being invited for free to nice, interesting places (retreats) in the country or abroad is pleasant enough.

Its a wonder some of them don't cash in on our experiences and do "ex-BKWSU" retreats ... or may be that is what they are doing? Oh, leading "original star" Robert Shubow became Guru Shunyamurti in his own right and founded his own "Free Transformational University" ... then why not? He probably is the most genuinely qualified of them all. But it does seem to lean heavily on what he learn in the BKs and who here would buy, "ten years spent in a formal Raja Yoga monastic order" without crediting the BKs?
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howiemac

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no credit

Post18 Sep 2010

ex-l wrote:who here would buy, "ten years spent in a formal Raja Yoga monastic order" without crediting the BKs?

I find the Shunyamurti teachings interesting and often helpful, as they seem to resonate more with my own post-BK churnings than do the BK official lines. His style is way too intellectual for my taste, but the essence is generally enlightening and/or uplifiting. I say good luck to any ex-BK who wishes to teach spirituality - why not? The world needs more spiritual awareness, and anyone who is contributing to that should be encouraged, especially when they are aiming above the standard Californian new-age-guru "buy my new book" approach.

But, like you ex-l, I find it odd and disconcerting that he should clearly have gained so much from his BK experience, and yet never give the BKs so much as one name check or credit. Did they do a real nasty on him at some point? Or does he simply not want to draw attention to how derivative of BB and the BKWSU his whole approach is - in case some of his followers decide to transfer their allegiance to the "real deal"? I would have expected a more honest acknowledgement of his sources of learning and inspiration, but maybe I expect more honesty than I am likely to get....

Anyway, good luck to Lucinda too - if she has found a new love and life beyond the BKs, without throwing away the baby along with the bathwater, then well done :D

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