A quick, easy solution to loss

[I M Dex]

Well of course you have to be in agreement to be affected (or believe yourself to be affected) ... the whole point of dumping a cult is to remove yourself from the controlling environment physically, mentally and spiritually. So why do some people insist on continuing to promote the bits they like or have altered slightly to people who may not have fully grasped that fact when doing so could potentially do them more harm than good and possibly create yet another guru like figure in their already confused minds?

I still subscribe to the "logic" that Superman's x-ray vision shouldn't work under a red sun, so I'm probably not the right person to ask..

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

Maybe this part of the board should carry a sort of health warning, displayed prominently at the top of it and something along the lines of; "None of the processes and procedures that are mentioned, described or discussed in this section of the board have been endorsed by a mental health professional or are guaranteed to be safe. If you use or experiment with any of them, be advised that you do so at your own risk."

I still will experiment with processes that appeal to me, of course, but that's the way I roll; I don't expect anyone else to do the same. I believe strongly that taking that approach has worked for me in the past when nothing else (including conventional psychiatric or psychological help) would have done.

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

I think this deserves a separate post.

I don't think the problem I've just described is unique to Scientology, I think it's a peril that can be encountered in almost any spiritual or metaphysical practice which purports to offer you a way out of what some would call "the trap". Barry Long once told of an Indian woman he knew about who had completely transcended her ego, wonderful on the face of it, but there was a big downside; she was almost totally unable to function in the world and had to be protected by a posse of disciples wherever she went because she was no longer able to keep herself safe and protect herself from danger.

She had managed to free herself of the negative aspects of the ego, sure, but in so doing she had thrown the baby out with the bath water as it were and gotten rid of its positive aspects as well.

Alexandra David-Neel in her travellings through Tibet met some spiritual seekers who had apparently gone mad through practicing the Tibetan short path, and was admonished by other Tibetans for her sentimentality; she was told that this was a known risk of the Short Path and those who embarked upon it agreed to accept it in return for having the chance to attain enlightenment and liberation in one lifetime.

I have a faint memory of having said all this on the old board but at the moment I can't access that one unfortunately.