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Showing posts with label cults. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cults. Show all posts

12.11.16

Religious and secular cults

Going Clear was a book that my brother brought to the breakfast table and that reminded me of  a great thing about Scientology--that it is a secular cult.  So by study of Scientology one can come to grasp the characteristics of  cult without any religious overtones. But to get a clear view of what a cult is, I also found a certain Hindu religious cult to be helpful - that was Adi Da. 

I have mentioned before that to see what a cult is (and especially to see if the religious group one is involved with is really a cult), the best thing is to study these two groups, and the writings of people that were brave enough to leave the cult after being enslaved for many years.

[An important factor for me is that I can stomach them to some degree. Other cults are so bad that I simply can't read about them. Other cults also have religious overtones for me that are too close to my own beliefs, so I can't look at them objectively.]


 In Torah. there is  are  some mystic things going on. The best parts of that aspect also seem to be in the Middle Ages with  Avraham Abulafia. and later  on around the 1500's with Isaac Luria. Those two seem the best. There were two pretty great people after Isaac Luria which developed that tradition Shalom Sharabi and Yaakov Abuchatzaira. That is the basic outline of the best parts of those two traditions. 

The trouble with the mystic tradition is it fell into the Dark Side; and thus the world of Orthodox has a great deal of trouble because it mainly consists of cults that are claiming some exclusive access and knowledge of Isaac Luria. 

I do not know how to deal with these problems except by private prayer towards God--to pray and ask help in one's on language t be save from what one needs to be saved from. And to learn Musar. That is Torah books from the Middle Ages before the Dark Side gt to be  a part and almost the whole of Orthodox. 
 
I have to mention that God does not seem to answer prayer unless it comes with a change in deeds. Therefore I believe if you see God is far, then you need to try to determine what it is in your life not as God wills it, and to make a commitment to change.  

Not to take some good thing and accept it, but rather something that you already have good reason to believe is Gods will for you personally.
Personal failings you think you need to correct-the best thing is to make a commitment (without an oath) to correct.


That is there are things which are good to do as a general rule: learning Musar of Reb Israel Salanter, learning the books of the Gra, learning the Av Ezri of Rav Shach. But when I say to make commitments to act right I am referring to things you already know you need to improve but are simply lacking the will power. I believe doing this can make a breakthrough in you life and brings you wishes and needs before God. Commitments have to be possible to keep. The only thing in the way is lack of desire or willpower.
Still there are general things which are important to do even without making a specific commitment. That is to learn Musar. The reason is that Musar [books of Torah ethics written during the Middle Ages] give the most straight and simple way of keeping the holy Torah. That is why all teh cults ignore Musar. They are afraid people will read Musar and discover what the Torah really requires of men and women. And that is not what thy cults say.






8.5.16

Howard Bloom has made a  point considering the super-organism and its effect on each person. This is in his book the Lucifer Principle. He takes this super organism as a kind of being in itself.

The point is hanging around in with people you recognize are a cult is a bad idea. If the whole group does not have the kind of character traits you think are admirable, you should leave. The Rambam made a similar point that a person is drawn in his traits and charter by the group he hangs out in.

Howard Bloom brings from the idea of hard wiring a computer. Once the circuits are set, that is it. It only takes a short time for the groups dynamics to get set inside ones cerebral cortex, and then get hard wired.


I think there is a difference between groups behavior individual behavior. There is such a thing as a Bell curve. While individual can rise above the group norms, that is still no reason to ignore the fact that there are groups norms. And the group norm is what one will be dragged into if he stays.