The Spiritual Psyche's Shadow: Gurus, Cults and Aliens

www.julianwalkeryoga.com

The Spiritual Psyche's Shadow

Part One is  a discussion of the issues, Part Two a brief history of gurus, cults and aliens complete with many video links. Watch and learn! Scroll down to Part Two: The Clips if you want to watch first or read my introduction if you'd like some context.....

Part One: The Analysis

The recent discussions on my blog about channeling, aliens, critical thinking, cognitive development, and the relationship between spirituality and psychology, have made me want to create a little more context around why it really matters how we think about these things and where (and that)  we draw a reasonable line somewhere.

I continue writing these posts as a way to keep formulating and expressing a set of observations that I think are crucial and that I have been fumbling towards expressing for about 15 years. I have spent that time in and around many spiritual communities and am writing from that experience, in addition to a lot of research and study. I have been extremely privilidged to get to devote a lot of time and energy to delving deep into many aspects of spirituality and psychology and I have much to share.

What I am touching on makes some people angry. Especially spiritual people. They find my words arrogant, judgmental, lacking in compassion. I disagree completely - AND I am so open to the debate. In fact I welcome it and think that zaadz is the perfect place to hash this stuff out - and that's a healthy thing. A necessary thing.  I am committed to co-creating an authentically new paradigm that has a clear-eyed realism about the problems we face in the spiritual world.

I will begin by laying out some basic ideas and then get into the video links. This post will have 20 links specifically detailing some of what can happen when critical thinking and intelligent skepticism is abandoned in the name of faith. Almost all of those links will have to do with New Age phenomena of the last 30 years or so. Along with the links I will give brief comments about Adi Da, Sai Baba,  Maharaj ji, Ramtha, Heaven's Gate, Jonestown, the latest  "second coming" of Jesus, as well as Billy Meier - the reincarnation of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Elijah and Emmanuel in one, and earthly ambassador to the "Pleiadians."

Scroll down to Part Two: The Clips if you want to watch the videos first.

Ready to think for yourself?


The Spiritual Shadow

The central point here is that what I am calling the "spiritual psyche" has a very particular shadow. This shadow of course has been evidenced in it's religious version all over the world for hundreds of years, but this post is not going to focus on missionary zeal, crusades, jihads, inquisitions,  faith-based legislation and various other overwhelming side-effects of irrational fundamentalist belief. This post is about religion's contemporary counter-culture cousin.

Please understand that I have immense awe and reverence for the spiritual impulse in human beings, as well as for human beings themselves. There is something about the spiritual impulse that can, under the right circumstances, drive us toward growth, transformation, healing, wholeness and revelation. In spirituality we can, at times, find immense inspiration and realization of our most noble, beautiful, creative, ecstatic, wise and compassionate selves. All of this of course has it's moments of expression in all spirituality and religion - even in the situations gone horribly awry that I am about to describe.

But of course there is a shadow side.

And until real shadow work becomes part of the spiritual method/philosophy itself,  we remain naively enamored of an unrealistic picture of spirituality supported by a belief system that we barely question anymore.

The drive to believe is so strong. Strong enough to convince religious zealots throughout time to kill and torture others and martyr themselves as if with some divine mandate. Strong enough to convince people that cult suicide is actually a way of going to another, better plane. Strong enough to allow people to devote their lives to gurus claiming divine identity while lying, manipulating, stealing, molesting and dis-empowering them in the name of enlightenment.

Of course the above are extreme examples. Many religious or spiritual groups will never go to these places. But I think from a theoretical standpoint it is important to note the underlying common thread and it's implications. Why do these things happen? What is the continuum along which we can understand the progression of this pathology?

There is a sickness at the center of both religion and spirituality. One of the symptoms of this sickness is a willingness to believe all manner of not only improbable but impossible things in spite of all evidence to the contrary and in spite of the extraordinarily detrimental and tragically ironic consequences of that belief.

One of the key ways in which the dialog between spirituality and psychology is so crucial is this: with a psychological awareness of the shadow of spirituality and the sickness I am describing above, we can keep evolving healthier methods, theories and practices that bring us closer to the goals and principles that get so distorted and damaged by this unacknowledged shadow.

Shadow work is one of three essential areas of focus in the quest to create a 21st Century Spirituality . The other two are cognitive development and experience-based spiritual practice. For more on this see the 21st Century Spirituality link at the bottom of this post.

Consider This: What Could Be Strong Enough?

If one of the symptoms of this spiritual sickness, this pervasive shadow, is the need at all costs to believe, what is the problem with that? Well the short answer is this: the intense need to hold unreasonable religious/spiritual beliefs is driven by existential fear. In other words our primal fear of death, the unknown, pain etc drives us to believe all manner of things that would otherwise seem foolish. So strong, so incredibly, unbelievably strong is this  avoidance of primal existential fear that not only has it shaped world history, but we are so terrified of it that we keep it largely unconscious.

Now this may sound outlandish, and it's a short few sentences to explain a massive part of human history, but think about it's power: on the strength of belief in a completely unproven afterlife with the supposed rewards of holy martyrdom, mothers will send their teenage boys off on gruesome suicide missions to kill themselves and others.

Now, we may like to think that this level of irrationality, this perversely ironic twisting of religious ideas is just the province of extremist Islam.

Not so.

Observe. The events you are about to learn about would be humorous by virtue of their ludicrousness, were they not so uniformly tragic in their twisting of the innocent need to believe.

 Part Two:  With Video LInks

The Little Prince: Maharaj ji

Let's start with a 12 second clip from right after a Maharaj ji satsang. This is a perfect sort of poster-boy moment for what is at the heart of all of this.

Maharaj ji is an Indian man named Prem Rawat. He has been a spiritual teacher since he was a young boy. In the 70's and 80's he would address 10's of thousands of people at a time and his  organization estimates that 1/2 a million people have been initiated into his "knowledge" - a vaguely defined inner awakening that happens if you devote yourself entirely to Prem/Maharaj ji. Part of this devotion explicitly entails forgoing critical thinking in favor of the intense love you cultivate for the divine guru. One more thing -  you give all your money to him as well. He tellingly calls his devotees  "Premmies." At the height of his fame this guru owned a fleet of cars and real estate all over the world.

Prem is venerated by his followers as literally being god on earth. Here is a clip of him being introduced as "The Lord of the Universe"  at the 100,000 capacity Houston astrodome in 1973- it seems almost like a parody, but these people are very serious. Listen to the roar of the crowd, observe the elaborate costume. Here's the complete Rolling Stone story from the time. Prem Rawat continues to live in multi-million dollar opulence based on the generosity of those devoted to him completely in the way that he demands - critical thinking is not allowed. It's hard to make sense of how this stuff happens, but it does, all the time and it is driven by the existential conflict I described above. Here is a clip of the line of worshippers kissing the feet of the master.

Holy Shit, It's Adi Da Samraj!

Adi Da Samraj has gone by numerous names: Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Da Abvhasa. He claims to have been enlightened since birth, but to have chosen to forget this, so as to enter more fully into human experience and realize the importance of his mission. Da claims (surprise, surprise) to be the avatar of the age, the "only true heart master," the perfected savior sent to redeem humanity. He is a brilliant and prolific writer and was initially acclaimed early on by Alan Watts and then by Ken Wilber, who has only recently withdrawn his praise and acknowledged that, in addition to being very gifted, the man is plainly dangerous and perhaps psychotic.

Da has had to retreat to an island close to Fiji because of  literally dozens lawsuits against him claiming sexual abuse, violence, and mental cruelty. His career has been long and elaborate and his books still sell very well.

Here is a senior long term Phd.'d student talking about how Adi Da is not merely another realizer of Buddhist truths, but literally Maitreya Buddha - and beyond even that...he has been doing his divine work since "before the big bang."

Sound fishy? I sure hope so! Here's a news report from the 80's about the controversy around how Adi Da's cult was run then and what the children were being exposed to. This is part two - you can see part one in the clips alongside it. There is a lot more about Da: he has a harem of nine wives. Former devotees say they worry for their children still in the cult because "he wil be wanting younger wives soon and we were told our children were not ours." Former wives who have left talk of violent abuse, rape, transmission of STDs to followers, drug and alcohol abuse, children being indoctrinated into worshipping Da as god and given alcohol. The guru had the island  bought for him by  a follower for 2 1/2 million dollars and lives like a Buddha-king amongst his small inner circle. I personally know someone who watched Da order a group of men to encirlcle a young woman with sexual abuse trauma and force her to fellate them all as a way to "heal her."

Critical thinking, spiritual self care, psychological autonomy all sacrificed out of the need to believe. Hard to understand.

Part Three: Spaceship Suicides

Nobody Joins A Cult: The Happy People in Jim Jones' Temple

Here's a very short and comprehensive clip  advertising the documentary movie made about What happened in 1978 with another god-man, Jim Jones and his People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. Look at their happpy, mutli-cultural, loving faces! This is perhaps the most famous cult situation ever, it resulted in the suicide of 909 cult members in the belief that they were following their saviour to a better place. It's where we get the phrase "drinking the kool-aid" from.


When the Moon is in the 7th House, There's a Spaceship Behind the Comet

There have been other cult suicides in recent history. Guru's are not as popular as they used to be, and old world religion is not as much of a source of inspiration in the New Age. Recently the need to believe has shifted more commmonly to  the realm of astrology and aliens .

The Order of the Solar Temple is a secret society organized around belief inthe continuing existence of the Templar Knights.  In Quebec, the group ritually killed a 3 month old infant in 1994, believing it to be the Anti-Christ sent to obstruct their mission. A few days later, after  ritual last supper, 53 group members were found dead. 15 had killed themselves with poison, 38 had been murdered. 48 more members were found dead in western Switzerland. They believed they were heading for Sirius after death and planned the suicide murders around the equinoxes and solstices. The Temple apparently still has 500 active members.

A well publicized event happened in 1997 in San Diego with the Heaven's Gate group who believed there was a mother ship coming for them hidden behind the tail of the comet Hale Bop that would take them away before the Earth got "recycled". Like the Jonestown faithful, this group drank poison and lay down to die. They believed that they would leave their "earth-suits" and go to a better place when they arrived on the spaceship wearing their uniform of black Nike sneakers. The male members had castrated themselves some time before as a way to eliminate that bugaboo of all spiritual zealotory - sexual distraction from their mission. Watch the now dead members talk about their decision to go, inter-cut with their leader explaining the rationale: "Jesus 2000 years ago did exactly the same thing.."


What the Alien-Friggin Bleep?!

This brings us to the more benign Billy Meier case. Meier claims to have been communicating with beings from the Pleiadies for over 30 years. He has produced many wonderfully improbable  photos and videos of their ships. Meier has made a long list of prophecies based on his "Plejaren" (Pleiadian) dialogs. Believers like his PR man Michael Horn claim Meier is (of course) the reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Elijah, Mohammed etc... all of whom have been communicating with these aliens all along!

His story has been absorbed into the underlying New Age belief system and, in part,  makes possible the careers of a throng of Pleiadian writers and "channelers."

It's interesting how interchangeable both the information and the performance of minor "channels" of the ilk of  say, Bashar (alien-channel) and Dr.Peebles (spirit-channnel) are. They say predictably similar and banal things with predictably odd inflections, yet still take people in.

There are also major cult leaders like Ramtha (J.Z. Knight) (watch the first video "create your day") who claim to be channels.  A key figure in both of the very successful What the Bleep and The Secret movies, Knight claims to be channeling "Ramtha" a 35,000 year old warrior king from "Lemuria" who once conquered "Atlantis". Her followers, including the makers, of What the Bleep, believe her.


Heroic Martyr

Here's a brief clip from a movie about suicide bombers. Think about the root similarity in cognition, superstition and belief with the other cult suicide groups, and how it creates a hard-to-believe (for us) inversion of values. This is an interesting overlap between extremist old world religion and the shadow of contemporary New Age beliefs.


Part Four and Conclusion: Two More God-Men

The Second Coming is Here!

Jose Luiz de Jesus Miranda is a modern day former convict millionaire preacher who claims to literally be Jesus incarnate. Miranda lives in millionaire opulence, drives expensive cars and wears flashy suits and sunglasses. He has followers in Southern, Central and Northern America - where he has 30 teaching centers. What I find almost as disturbing as his claims and the gullibility of the people devoting their lives and money to him, is that the mainstream news story never questions Christianity itself. The thrust is that this guy couldn't be the real Jesus - as if there is such a thing as the "real" Jesus. In a way this is a fascinating example of a less overtly crazy cult evaluating a more obviously crazy cult...

Miranda " If this is a cult, it's a very nice cult.  am proud to lead a cult like this - because I am teaching the truth."

The Spiritual Magician

Sai Baba is arguably the most famous and successful guru of all time. He has been estimated to have between 6 million and 100 million followers world wide - depending on who you ask.

Sai Baba's immense popularity rests on his seemingly miraculous ability to manifest ash and jewelry from the palm of his hand and his widely believed ability to heal. Of course, there are no documented cases of the miraculous healings, and the magic tricks are easily exposed with video analysis. Amongst other things, Shridi Sai Baba claims to be the reincarnation of an earlier guru, Satya Sai Baba. He has said  that his body will never grow old because of his divine identity. He also claims to "give birth" to sacred lingams through his mouth during religious events - more evidence of his god-man status

Fortunately Sai Baba is growing old like the rest of us and suffering various bodily ailments. Unfortunately, he is also at the center of two massive controversies. One involves the death of 6 people in the room of his inner sanctum. These deaths have never been adequately investigated due to the guru's influence on police and political officials in the country who believe he is god on earth.

The incident may be related to the other major subject of controversy which is that there are multiple allegations of homosexual child molestation against Baba, none of which have come to trial, observers say, because of his power and influence. There have been numerous documentaries and books on the voluminous allegations and the British and American government has issued  warnings to people with children who are going to India.


Conclusion

This has been a very brief overview of just a few of the reasons why critical thinking and healthy cognitive development combined with honest shadow work and experience based non-superstitious spiritual practices are essential components of a 21st Century Spirituality.

I hope it has been thought provoking and educational.

My point is NOT to lump all belief into one category, but it IS to assert an underlying commonality based in the existentially fear-driven need to believe at ALL costs.

21st Century Spirituality should include awareness of and medicine for this need to believe and it's underlying existential fear if it is to skillfully sidestep the above manifestations that have plagued us all along.


Open- eyed Love to you
~Julian

www.julianwalkeryoga.com