Friday, February 24, 2006

New column posted

UPI Column for this week is now up.

I have another blog post all set to go for this blogger blog, but believe it or not, it is about my experiences on the Brokeback Mountain forums... and I just can't believe you can all bear more about that movie from me right now. Otoh, it is a pretty funny post...

Maybe tomorrow. :)

In the meantime, the UPI column tells about my early experiences in a cult! So enjoy.

5 comments:

Bilbo said...

Hi Julie,

I didn't join any "mock-Zen Buddhists" cults nor did I have any babysitter who used to make us play the Ouija Board " but do relate to bouncing around between the fundamentalists, charismatics, evangelicals, etc...and....particularly relate to "delegating the authority over my life to those who claimed to know more than me"...and also now feel/think that some of these groups exploit, to one degree or another, consciously or subconsciously, the situation when they place such emphasis or regularly assert that people are sinners, at their core, and thus cannot or should't trust their reason, emotions and particularly themselves in matters of religion and faith. This senario plays into the natural follow up assertion to put one's trust in an authority such as the Bible, the church, tradition, or local leadership of the church. Can't help wondering whatever happened to Luther's testimony to live according to one's conscious?... All of this does a real number on folks who are insecure of themselves to begin with or don't have a healthy support system of family and freinds. They are more susceptible to taking everything hook, line, and sinker, and bouncing around from one "cult of absolutes" to another. Encouraged to hear that you are apparently finding your "own way" through it all and appreciate you sharing your journey with us all....

David Blakeslee said...

Shortly after I graduated high school, when I was getting to know the guys with whom I would eventually form a band, I had a chance to go to an est graduation ceremony. I didn't know the guy who had just completed the seminar very well - it was a friend-of-a-friend situation - but I remember the moment when he turned to me and said with sincerity and seriousness, "Dave, I really want you to take this course." (or words to that effect.) I had just tagged along with some friends, it was something to do, but shortly after Ferd (not Fred, Ferd) offered me that invitation, I and my friends and dozens of other attendees were hustled into a room and basically given a shouted hard-sell to sign up for a seminar, basically getting told we'd be losers if we didn't. I just sat and listened... I think at some point I gave it a bit of consideration but I was just about completely broke at the time and there was no way I could realistically pay the $600 or whatever it was... completely out of the question, so I don't think there was ever a chance I would have followed through with est.

However, I did have some close encounters with the Moonies, the Scientologists and the Hare Krishnas back in the day... Bay Area, late 70's, early 80's. I spent time with recruiters from all three of these cults. The Moonie approach was the most "befriending," as they surrounded me with funky, cool down to earth people that made me feel welcomed and appreciated. The Scientologists were the most "hi-tech". I was allured in by a cute blonde girl who caught me stepping off a city bus in downtown San Francisco where I had nothing better to do than transfer to another bus that would have taken me home that evening. Instead, I succumbed to her charms, chatted her up and bit and she invited me to follow her into her lair, which turned out to be a Scientology testing lab. Of course, once inside, she turned me over to some gruff, burly 40-ish guy who told me to hold on to some electrodes, answer some questions and proceeded from there to tell me what a fucked-up mess I was, emotionally, mentally and psychologically, and how thankful I should be that the answer to my problems was sitting right in front of me, if I just had the courage and intelligence to grab hold of it. After a couple of hours of this, he told me I should go home, get whatever money together that I could in order to pay for some more auditing, and under no means should I smoke any pot or drink any alcohol before coming back for future sessions. I agreed to this, but when I got home, my roommates were getting high and I joined in and never went back. (Fortunately, the CoS never got a nickel from me.)

And finally, the Hare Krishnas were the most philosophical... I followed another girl, one that I knew, that I was actually in a band with for a couple of months, who had strong interests in Krsna Consciousness and even more in Meher Baba (Pete Townshend's old guru.) We went to their big temple in Berkeley, had a nice meal and listened politely to some talks given by their venerable old Swami (not Prabhupada, the main guy - I think he was already dead by then, but the temple had an alarmingly realistic, life-sized representation of him in its entryway, so convincing that from a short distance one would think that it was the man himself, in a deep deep trance.) As I sat at the meal, I was addressed by a young and zealous convert who apparently sized me up as the intellectual type. He went into a lengthy and detailed exposition on the laws of karma, a subject that I wasn't particularly interested in and which I hadn't solicited information about. I also remember being reprimanded for sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out, reclining on my elbows, rather than adopting the "Indian-style" (literally, in this case) position of having my legs crossed under me and my back upright. It was a hard, uncarpeted floor, for Pete's sake! I was uncomfortable and got tired of sitting like that after several minutes. When chastised, I did my best to conform, but I'm sure that my unruliness was noted and I got pushed to the bottom of their prospects list...

Anyway, that's my take on your column. I agree with what you are saying about your desire at that time of your life for authoritative absolutes. I had that same need, and in a consumerist society, one can see how such an efficient marketing approach has its appeal for people who are seriously wondering what life is about and what is going on. "Why do all the hard work yourself when we can do it for you? We've done our research and have the solution to what you are looking for!" It's understandable why these groups have arisen and prospered over the past few decades, even though it seems like more people are being attracted to more established/traditional/conformist brands of religion these days. We will probably see some future pendulum swings in the direction of innovative and esoteric groups like we saw in the 70's and 80's, but not for awhile, IMO. The temperament of the times is so intense that people are choosing up sides based on strength of numbers, in preparation for the coming apocalypse. No room or time for dabbling in itty-bitty pseudo-scientific sects or hippie-trippy mind-expansion communes!

Unknown said...

Wow, thank you both for such wonderful comments to my blog. Interesting how you both ahve California experiences to share. I'll comment more later, but thank you so much for sharing. Hope others read them too.

New Life said...

Oh yes, California... in many ways it can be good for the doors are wide open to various ideas... and then there are the far out...

Think about Christianity... folks believe that a dude from 1st Palestian was God, died on a cross, and then resurrected and somehow this makes me acceptable to God. That's kind of far out... :)

I really enjoyed this article. I haven't been a member of an "offical" cult but then again in some ways most of what we see out there is seems like cults.

People are looking to be enlightened and they follow the "new and improved" evangelical guru who usually knows very little.

I like your idea about the journey you are on... God on your terms rather than somoeone else's.

Thanks!

Chuck said...

I'm all for knowledge and truth wherever it can be found. But what ever gave us the idea we could claim to know more than we do - and guilt other people into believing it too? Even St. Paul says we only know in part, we see thru a glass darkly.