Comment from another ‘survivor’ (!)
I will let this post stand by itself, and not comment here,
discussing this important thinking in another post, later (perhaps tommorrow)
Eloquent comment on the Lozowick series:
http://www.gurdjieff-con.net/2008/12/01/mbfm-on-lee-lozowick/comment-page-1/#comment-35762
Andrea Tonkavich said,
18.01.10 at 3:02 pm ·
i’ve been watching this site from a distance, nemo, for some time, although you know nothing about me, your work here (mbfm too) has been very helpful to me. i am a survivor of the type of spiritual abuse the operators you write about here perpetrate. i.e. psychic warfare. it’s invisible, often even within the communities themselves. so as with other forms of abuse, the survivors and those who speak out against them are discredited and seen as ‘unbalanced,’ malicious or just plain wrong. i’ve also observed that people in general and idealistic spiritual seeker types especially are very resistant to even considering such malevolence is possible–exists. it seems it is easier to be angry at the messenger, than to investigate the message or consider more carefully it’s likelihood.
as a survivor, the irony of this is painful to observe, worse to endure–to attempt with sincerity, amidst personal devastation, to create a warning in a public domain about all this and then be disbelieved and attacked. i don’t know much but i do know people would be well served to heed your warnings against these false teachers.
after years of careful consideration i now better understand that the perils of intense spiritual practice will make even the best of us spiritually unbalanced and that as we proceed, (if we can even call it that) the peril gets greater, not less, the temptations greater, our own ego ever more dangerous and out to get us. knock us off the path…so…..i hope i have a better understanding now of the strange paradox of these enlightened masters who behave so abomitably and are so sure they are right about it. i recently heard it called ‘yogi mind.’ really, it is psychosis and to enter into this guru world amidst these people is to participate in shared psychosis.–my experience, my opinion.
time to return to basics. ancient texts, strict morality, our own meditative butts on our own home cushions. etc.
anyway. i am grateful to you for all you have done here and i like to think that many more such invisible ones have heard something here or from similar such resources and have been helped or steered away from danger/harm.
i agree with your more over-arcing observation that the entire paradigm of gurus in this age, or maybe ever, is problematic at best.
the good news we know is that a path for the radical transformation of consciousness exists–is hardwired into our dna. whatever befalls us on this path i have become confident that is the good fortune of a lifetime (and not entirely common) to recognize this path exists and may be travelled (or abandoned) at any moment, in every instant, on a moment by moment basis. to fall off it, it is only necessary to get back on. may we all always have awareness of this, learn from mistakes, and grow in compassion for ourselves and others, perhaps especially the spiritually diseased teachers who have hurt us, others and themselves, so much. in retrospect, i thank my teachers and move on now. may all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. . thank you again, for all you do here on the path of the heart.
New Man, New Age, New Socialism 