More thoughts on this sunny Sunday
ChelseaBW
I have a friend who likes to learn reiki. She has a lot of emotional problems,
and I'm told many with emotional problems are drawn to learn reiki because it
is something they can do for themselves. The amazing thing is after a reiki
workshop, she is like a whole different person. She acts very differently and
starts quoting all kinds of spiritual truths as if she is an expert on
spirituality and a great healer to the point of annoyance. (Usually, she is
her own worse enemy, putting herself down, etc so this is quite a change of
personality.) Some of the changes are good, I must say, although because I
know her and what she's usually like, I find the changes annoying because I
don't believe them. I know they are superficial with no foundation under them,
not that they aren't real. It is like when a person goes to the ashram and
sees God in themselves, but loses touch with their humanity and their human
feelings, weaknesses. In a couple of days it will likely all wear off my
friend just like the other times. Usually I feel relieved when it wears off,
though I am uncomfortable admitting that. I'd rather have her be real than
this newfound healer I am supposed to think the world of.
It is interesting to me to see the parallel to how it is when people go to the
ashram. There is this high, this greater feeling of wellbeing and
spirituality. I think some people have weak identities and are able to merge
with a group energy and take on that energy. I think that is what happens to a
lot of people who go to the ashram and to my friend at the reiki workshop.
She starts acting and talking like the teacher of the workshop, as if that is
who she really is. And of course, she is greater than being her own worse
enemy, but I guess what is sad that I am noting is that people take on that
energy of it all coming from gm or from a reiki class, and that becomes
everything to them and they feed off it and lose touch with their own identity.
THeir own growth goes on hold while they become this other energy.
I don't trust this new person my friend becomes yet I don't want her to be her
own worse enemy which she will be in a few days. I don't know if I am making
sense here or not. I guess what I'm taking note of here is someone who needs
help, but skips the growth part and becomes this almost saint at a workshop.
And I think this happens in sy where people get their shaktipat, find
themselves in this "high state", with all this good karma that led them to this
lifetime to this guru, and then their growth stops because they get stuck on
that. They think all of a sudden they are something greater than they
previously thought (which they are), but something is missing in the picture.
And I think what is missing are the steps of human growth. It's like seeing
the potential and trying to hold onto it without taking the steps to grow into
it.
I've come to see how healthy the people are who go to these workshops,
intensives, gurus and teachers and take what they can from it, laugh at the
rest of it, and move on. Yet it's the people who get stuck in it that are
seen as having the higher spirituality.
megha...@hotmail.com
Chelsea wrote:
> It is interesting to me to see the parallel to how it is when people go to the
> ashram. There is this high, this greater feeling of wellbeing and
> spirituality.
> THeir own growth goes on hold while they become this other energy.
> And I think this happens in sy where people get their shaktipat, find
> themselves in this "high state", with all this good karma that led them to
this
> lifetime to this guru, and then their growth stops because they get stuck on
> that. They think all of a sudden they are something greater than they
> previously thought (which they are), but something is missing in the picture.
> And I think what is missing are the steps of human growth.
>
Chelsea, another great post.
I really think that this is true, and people become "split" in this way.
They have their ashram persona, and then they have the real life persona, and
instead of integrating and growing from where they start out, the real growth
gets suspended in favor of putting on a saintly persona. Then, when they
come back to real life there is still the mess to be dealth with, which makes
taking refuge in sy even more attractive. BTW, I am saying this not as a
judgemental bystander but as someone who has fallen into that very trap.
Also, I find it telling that gm is so inconsistent in her stance on therapy.
At the same time that she sends her staff members to therapy, she will often
put it down in her talks. Remember references to weak-minded and promiscuous
people who go from therapy to therapy, have their auras read, get their
chakras balanced. etc? Real psychotherapy/counseling gets lumped in with
some of the fringe new-age stuff, and thereby discredited. At the same time,
she is sending people to therapists and using the therapists as spies and
recruiters. Pretty sick.
Thanks,
Megha
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ChelseaBW
>people become "split" in this way.
>They have their ashram persona, and then they have the real life persona, and
>instead of integrating and growing from where they start out, the real growth
>gets suspended in favor of putting on a saintly persona. Then, when they
>come back to real life there is still the mess to be dealth with, which makes
>taking refuge in sy even more attractive. BTW, I am saying this not as a
>judgemental bystander but as someone who has fallen into that very trap.
>
Yes, I was speaking from my own experience (ha, ha!) also, Megha. I am so
happy about my growth since leaving sy. I wouldn't trade it for what life was
like in sy. The community was nice (what community? Oh, yeah, the illusion
of community), the idea that Jesus was alive in gm was nice (I said IDEA).
But there is so much in my life since leaving that I can't understand sometimes
in my current state of mind what it was I liked about sy.
I think in all honesty it was simply my longing for God that drew me there.
And I've still got that.
>Also, I find it telling that gm is so inconsistent in her stance on therapy.
>At the same time that she sends her staff members to therapy, she will often
>put it down in her talks. Remember references to weak-minded and promiscuous
>people who go from therapy to therapy, have their auras read, get their
>chakras balanced. etc? Real psychotherapy/counseling gets lumped in
with
>some of the fringe new-age stuff, and thereby discredited. At the same time,
>she is sending people to therapists and using the therapists as spies and
>recruiters. Pretty sick.
>
>
>Thanks,
>Megha
>
>
For some reason your comments about therapists in sy made me think of
something. As most of you know from my story I was told to go a therapist and
given the name of someone. This person did not really want me to go to him.
Although a staunch devotee, he convinced himself that gm herself was the only
real thing in sy. Everything and everyone around her (her staff) were all
corrupt, but not her. Therefore, he thought the "command" to go for therapy
was fabricated by her corrupt staff since it didn't come out of her mouth
directly. In retrospect, I think he was doing mental handstands so he didn't
have to face the truth about gm.
the nature of "therapy" revolved totally around the harassment I was
undergoing. That was all we talked about. And he kept encouraging me to try
to see that gm was omniscient, etc. and all these others including umesh might
be corrupt. At first it appealed to my need to believe in sy but over time as
the harassment got worse, and he got more and more squirmy over it, he started
to project on me that I wanted him to leave sy. (The thought never occured to
me. What occured to me was the $95 I was paying per hour for support.) When
he started falling asleep, I quit.
I sent him a letter sometime after I quit going for therapy, telling him of my
disatisfaction in the final days of him being my therapist.
By then I had left sy and felt I had found a new community of school buddies
who were not in sy. He called and said I should come in person to talk to
him, not through a letter. I really had nothing more to say, but felt
manipulated in a sense, as if he was insulting my decison to approach him in
writing, as if that showed some kind of problem in me. So my pride agreed to
go. He said to come at 1pm a couple of weeks later. He called me a day or so
later and said it needed to be 12pm so I said ok.
I showed up at 12pm and his door was closed to his office while I waited in the
waiting room. I could hear him chanting softly so I thought at first he had
a client with him. Then I thought he might be chanting by himself. Then
paranoia took over as the time ticked by 10 min, 20 min, 30 min. and I thought
he must be purifying the room. you know, building up the shakti to protect
himself from my negativity (negativity being I left sy.) This irked me and
made me want to leave but I knew he'd construe my leaving as a "problem" I had,
my pride kept me sitting there. I was just wondering what to do, whether to
knock on his door, or just get up and leave when he came out of his office.
He broke into this bizarre thing where he acted like he was in danger saying
things like, "What are you doing here? How long have you been sitting here?"
It was very dramatic. I sat there feeling like a criminal who just broke in.
I reminded him we had a 12pm appointment but he said we had a 1pm. He looked
in his book and saw me at 1pm so he said I was mistaken but that was okay (very
patronizing of him.) I insisted I was NOT mistaken; he had called to
change it and that's a fact. I told him he must have forgot to change his book
and forgotton that he had called me. he patronized me further, acting like I
had a problem insisting the mistake was his and not mine.
As I said, I had nothing to say so we sat in silence for a few moments. Then
he said, "Look, the fact is I'm not leaving sy." I don't remember my response
but after about 5 minutes I left saying I had nothing to say.
hap...@supernews.com
In article <6m6oq9$k63$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
golden...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> In article <6m67ir$m2h$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
> hap...@supernews.com wrote:
> >
> > I can't tell if you are putting down these alternative therapies or not, but
> > it sounds like you might be.
> >
> > Alternative therapies help people too. There are many good ones. Many
> > people here have gotten help from them. Some of the simplest therapies are
> > the most healing and helpful, including massage and acupuncture, and not
> > limited to those you mention above. It is not just the therapy which helps,
> > of course, but the therapist and the appropriateness of the therapy for the
> > patient/client's condition. As well as the patient/client's willingness to
> > experience change.
> >
> > -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
> > http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
> >
>
> their posts.
Don't think it's quite that, Golden. We all see the points from our own
perspectives.
You missed my point in my "talking about sy"
Well if I can find it I'll try to understand it from your perspective. I
don't remember it at this moment.
post, and you miss
> the point in this post. Her point was that there is a lack of congruity in
> what malti says and what she does. This is also known as lack of integrity.
> I don't think she was putting down alternative therapies per se. lots of
> love, Golden Eagle
>
> I think it was a combination. Why not ask. Maybe you're "right".
But thanks for bringing it up.
Happily