TMR just picked up a copy of the new U.S. News and World Report special edition, "Mysteries of History: Secret Societies," and is glad to report all the winners covered on this blog are in there: NewAgers, Buddhists, Meditators, healers, The Peoples Temple, Heaven's Gate, and many, many more - including mentions of the dreaded "personality cult" - without mentioning Barack Obama's, of course, because (nothing strange here:) he's the POTUS. Everyone should pick this up, to get a superficial overview of the problem, and see how prevalent this phenomena is. It might help some of you out of your denial about what's right in front of your eyes ("One approach was to set up,...discussion groups which were not,...designated as related to [cultism] but for,...world peace and ecology." [Underline TMR's.] Wow - aren't all cultists lecturing on that?) You might even discover you're in a cult and not know it, which, as we've been telling you, is a very-real possibility.
Anyway, TMR is glad no one can claim it's just us talking about cultism in the West anymore. But our critics, of course, will continue claiming it's just us. Keep one thing in mind, though, smarty pants:
Nobody says that but cultists.
The US News & World Report article was definitely interesting
ReplyDeleteI was happy to see secret societies like the Skull & Bones (both Bush presidents + Kerry), the Masons (Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, FDR, Truman, Ford, LBJ) and the Mormons (Romney, almost) exposed
If TMR ever decides to follow US News' lead and take on people with their hands on the actual levers of power, instead of flaky middle-class housewives worshipping crystals, let me know, I'd love to check that out...
See, you snarky little bastards are who are find to be so supremely stupid - and what I find fascinating:
ReplyDeleteEveryone and everything we already know about is of such vital importance to you - why? Hasn't there been enough written and done on Skull & Bones, etc.? Are they some mystery to you? They aren't to us. But all those other folks get a pass - again: why?
And do you really think Oprah (the woman who ushered in the POTUS) Silvia Browne, Shirley MacLaine and J.Z. Knight - and their operations - are just some "flaky middle-class housewives worshipping crystals"? And let's say they were: do you think the men who have suffered from the bad "advice" they'd been ladeling out appreciate finding their lives destroyed in this way? Or you - compassionate soul that you are - so blithely blowing what's become the wreckage of their lives off, so easily because they only got fucked over by "housewives"? Sure, that makes it all better: I've got three dead people in my life, right now, because of one such housewife, so I guess I won't believe your implication that they're harmless and George W. Bush (who kept me safe for the last eight years) is somehow dangerous because he was in a Frat.
You're always with a wobbly defense of the indefensible.
I swear: you call yourself SKeptic, but you're really just another NewAge tool.
I have had some direct experience with cults and have come to some conclusions.
ReplyDeletePeople need and rely on belief systems. If they don't already have a belief system, one will be imposed on them.
One very dangerous belief system is atheism/skepticism. A true skeptic needs to be vigilant of knee-jerk skepticism and we have TONS of these reactionary drones in our society. But they are selectively skeptical and they are never skeptical of the roots and motivations of their own skepticism.
I would add to your rebuke of SKeptic that we live in a Democracy (sort of) and these people (believers) vote. Our leaders are as much a symptom as a cause.
I hear a lot of denigration of Christians and at one time I felt similarly, but these people who mock Christians and their beliefs ALSO have beliefs - lots of new age spawned ideas that they don't even know or admit are beliefs.
And to many of these leftists everything is rigged with conspiracy theories. That is, only up to the point when one of their own gets elected - then he is free and clear of behind-the-scenes cabals and manipulations and is elected by the "will of the people".
Because of our failed education system and the influence of Hollywood, the hero is worshiped. Americans now want some hero to emerge and Obama is designated as that man. They have been indoctrinated back into tribal ways - exactly what America was founded to resist.
Bush was the anti-hero. All of our problems were because of him - ludicrous on it's face. And Obama is the hero, all of our problems will be solved (or go away magically) with him in office.
Hasn't there been enough written and done on Skull & Bones, etc.?
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When I think of the qualities I want in a POTUS, I have to admit that participation in a secret society's occult death rituals complete with coffins and grave-robbed human skulls aren't exacly the first qualifications that pop to mind.
But if that's acceptable to you, who am I to judge?
I'm sure your exposes of the sinister rituals of suburbia's Oprah-watching soccer moms are FAR more important...
See, SKeptic, you just don't use your head. Are you going to tell me you seriously believe George W. Bush and William F. Buckley were engaged in all that - which begins with worshipping the Goddess? It's a conspiracy theory, you dope. Hardly like the stuff NewAgers are actually doing.
ReplyDeleteI swear, the problem with Leftists is they can't leave the ideology alone long enough to use their heads.
Are you going to tell me you seriously believe George W. Bush and William F. Buckley were engaged in all that
ReplyDelete-------------
That's exactly what the Skull + Bones club is about. Which doesn't mean I think there's any sort of actual "occult power" behind it. Just the "shocking" hijinx of of a bunch of spoiled rich kids networking for connections and power in business and politics when they graduate.
In fact, the only thing that distinguishes the S+B from most such fraternal organizations is their explicit commitment to getting ahead as their organzation's sole purpose - unlike the Masons, Shriners etc who at least pay lip service to "giving back to society" in some way
But why am I telling all this to a self-proclaimed cult-expert? As yourself point out, this has all been well-documented, so of course you know this all already.
;-)
Skull & Bones has nothing to do with the Goddess. It's overwhelmingly patriarchal and secretive. Goddess worship is neither (though it was for a couple of centuries during the Burning).
ReplyDeleteCMC is right about GWB having no more than peripheral involvement with the group. Criticism about the Bushes - as dynastic in the US as the Rockefellers - no doubt did have something to do with this. But, apart from networking - which is really what the masons were all about after all, I doubt his membership had much to do with his Presidency.
(and what choice in 04 when Kerry was also Skull & Bones?!)
My take: various sects, groups, secret societies such as freemasons, Club of Rome, rosicrucians, knights templar have long 'pulled the strings'. So much so that it becomes almost irrelevant to judging how a member might behave in the highest positions of power - think also of Supreme Court judges, mayors, town sherriffs, etc.
I actually like CMCs obsessive routing of New Agers as they represent something slightly different - an offer of metaphysical power to those outside the circle. The ones who don't have family connections or know the secret handshakes.
The thing I find troubling about the movement is that it is a rip-off, offering up two thousand dollar weekend workshops to learn something that your membership of a theosophical bookshop could give you for a nominal annual fee.
It also confuses and conflates diametrically opposing traditions. It doesn't care, it's faddish moneygrubbing.
President Obama is interesting in this light in that his connections don't seem to go beyond secular Chicago roughhouse politics. His Christianity seems real enough but it hardly forms a basis for his power.
Dude you're missing the point entirely - which doesn't surprise me - you say:
ReplyDelete"That's exactly what the Skull + Bones club is about. Which doesn't mean I think there's any sort of actual "occult power" behind it."
How many times must I tell you I'm an atheist - I don't believe in anyone's "occult power" - but (and here's why I'm concerned with the things I write about:) other people do believe such things. That's what's dangerous.
To say Skull + Bones is a social networking org and I should get on them is silly. Why should I care about a social networking org? My ex wife is part of a cult - groups of people who passionately believe in nonsense and kill for it - but you say I should ignore them because they're housewives with crystals: that's crazy. And you calling S+B "a bunch of spoiled rich kids networking for connections and power" just shows you've got class issues which TMR doesn't share. You're missing the plot, dude.
There's a big difference between a frat and a cult, and as a "cult expert," I could care less about one of them.
Why should I care about a social networking org? My ex wife is part of a cult - groups of people who passionately believe in nonsense and kill for it - but you say I should ignore them because they're housewives with crystals: that's crazy.
ReplyDelete-----------
Oh wait a second, I see where the misunderstanding is here.
You posted an article about Secret Societies and gave as an example a US News Article about the Masons, Skull + Bones, Mafia, etc - male-only criminal/political/economic organizations who meet in secret in order to control people and make money.
When I realized you were really going on, like I said, about the New Age housewives with the crystals, that's a bait and switch.
The Oprah book of the month club may be silly, but I've never met anyone who has been kicked out of it, for not knowing the secret handshake or refusing orders to carry out a contract killing against a member of a competing book club.
It seems like you use a lot of terms interchangeably and that confuses your audience actually
The word cult has a lot of meanings, eg "cult movie" or "The Jonestown cult" etc
When you treat the two uses as though they are interchangeable in meaning and then conflate the term with "secret society" its renders your position incoherent
You need to learn that different words mean different things and can have shades of meaning too depending on context
Then your blog will make sense
Wrong again, Boyo - you gotta decide if you're gonna trust me or not ("bait and switch"?) to understand this:
ReplyDeleteI said the U.S. News and World Report issue was a "superficial" look at this phenomena, and I meant it. I've taken them on before, so I don't count them as any kind of authority on it. It's just interesting to me whenever anyone decides to address this *thing* we live with - which so many decide to deny. I'm impressed whenever it's addressed, even if it's in the shallow and compartmentalized fashion ("Secret Society") I've come to expect.
Look, Dude, you're gonna have to regard me as another Ted Patrick: I'm an atheist who yells at other atheists for their petty obsessions; a conservative who thinks most conservatives are whack; a man who thinks the world of James Randi - despite his biases - and likes science even though it's littered with NewAge liberals. I am my own man - and I've been introduced to a world I decided to tear apart (in more ways than one) and I won't stop until I have - and until you understand it enough to do the same.
You will. I know it. You ain't stupid. Just confused by it all. They've had 40 years to put this nonsense in our heads. To expect it to all come clean overnight, and online, is asking to much. Things on my end are improving. Give it time:
It will all make sense.
I've been introduced to a world I decided to tear apart
ReplyDeleteEver hear the one about the flea that crawled up the elephants leg, pulled out his little flea pecker and ahouted "take it all, bitch!"? Thats what you sound like.
Yea - I heard it the last time you wrote it "Anonymous." That's fine. All I know is, because of my efforts, there's a quack in France who's out of work; everyone knows he's a killer; and he can't (legally) kill anyone else. Can you claim the same?
ReplyDeleteI also know you're a NewAge apologist, which means you're goofy enough in the head to seriously believe you're a nice person while sending out these (you hope) demoralizing missives. Like all NewAgers, your hypocrisy knows no bounds.
And I know this blog has more influence than you, so who's the real flea here, Buddy?
Oh - and by the way - "tear apart" can also mean "to understand," you dipshit.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know this blog has more influence than you, so who's the real flea here, Buddy?
ReplyDeleteYou're the one who claims to be the hero, fighting to save the world from evil. Look up the word grandiose. I just know a nutcase when I see one. And it doesnt really matter how many other nutcases agree with you. You're still a nutcase.
Jesus, Anon, you are such a loser:
ReplyDeleteNot only do you turn me actually saving lives into your fantasy that I'm just claiming it but then go on to pretend you can see me - a living breathing human being - from reading a fucking blog. Tell me, oh wise one, what did I do yesterday? What happened to me? Whose life did I affect, or who affected mine, and how? Face it: you don't know shit. Like all NewAgers, you live in a world of wrong assumptions that you project onto others.
And now it doesn't matter how many agree with me, when, before, it was the claim that nobody agrees with me. I was just a loose cannon ranting to no one. Make up your mind, loser. As I keep telling your kind, you can't have everything both ways, but then hypocrisy, delusion, and denial are all you guys are good at. It's not working.
Now go whine to somebody else because I'm tired of listening to you.
Tell me, oh wise one, what did I do yesterday?
ReplyDeleteThats an easy one. You whined about the cults you see everywhere, and how badly they fucked up your life. Oh yeah- you bragged about how important you are, too. Responses you get pretty well show what a following you got.
Sure, youre tired of hearing me, cuz I say things that hit too close to the mark. So ban my comments or call me a loser. Doesnt matter. We both know the truth here, but I'm the only one telling it.
You're funny, the way you avoided the "Whose life did I affect, or who affected mine, and how?" part. You're not a truth teller, you're a NewAge apologist, and they come a dime-a-dozen.
ReplyDeleteYou're not even right about how I have, or will, treat your comments - it's all part of your fantasy world. You know, the one where you "say things that hit too close to the mark." You know nothing about me. You know nothing about how I live or what I think. If we have actually met, then you are stating how I act around YOU, and - with you being a NewAger - I'm not surprised. That's partially why I do this blog:
To describe how awful people like you are.
Okay..
ReplyDelete"Whose life did I affect,"
Fewer than youd like to have people believe
"or who affected mine, and how?"
Shit happens to everybody, but you think yours is worse than everybody elses. Most kids think that way. Most grownups know better, but some cant deal with not being "special." They get some kind of hero deal going, and some of them actually buy their own fantasy. But if you really believed the shit you spew, you wouldn't be so touchy about it. You know you're a fraud. You know that the story youre telling isnt the real one.
No, I dont know you personally, but a couple of my buds do. They think Karine was pretty shitty, but that you brought most of your shit down on yourself.
Oh, I see, so I killed her mother and those other two people? And of course, they know all about it's like to live with murder, right? Not just a divorce but murder, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd do these "friends" - who think Karine was "pretty shitty" - know of her beliefs and our home life? Certainly I, as her husband, didn't tell them, so what could they know to tell you? That she kept me up at night, trying to convince her she couldn't walk through walls, heal with her bare hands, that U.F.O.s aren't real? No - they know dick - and they know even less about me. I've heard every accusation people (so called "friends") can throw at me and none of them hold water. They don't know what jobs I held, where our money went, or how we handled our finances - all of which have nothing to do her fundamentalist NewAge approach to life, where I was manipulated for 20 years to believe she was an honest and sane person. You are hearing hearsay, and based on that and that alone, you - who admits you don't know me - think you have the right to challenge me against a "shitty" person who's killed three people?
Like I said, you're a loser.
And one more thing - about those "friends":
ReplyDeleteWhen I did venture to mention Karine's beliefs, they all - all - said they knew what she was doing (meaning they knew it was a cult) and it was a harmless and I should back off.
If that's how I "brought this down upon myself" then it's just them admitting they were a bunch of lying manipulative assholes themselves.
And, if I was so bad, why were they my friends as long as I was popular? They're just typical ruthless money-grubbing bitches themselves, hoping some of my spark would rub off on them. Well, I'm gone now. You losers in the San Francisco Bay Area can go on believing your NewAge nonsense, cheating on each other, lying to each other, and going broke right before our eyes - while claiming you're "special."
I refuse.
Two words:
ReplyDeleteProve it.
Bwwwaahahahahaha!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's you? The fucking Buddist is hounding me? Of course! It all makes sense now!
Ron, get a life, man. We were done, remember? You just can't let it go - you've got problems, man. I think it's time for you to go back to the ashram, or the temple, or whatever and meditate on the word "hypocrite" for a while.
Jesus, man, how does Connie stand you?
Crack - Sorry I was late to the party. I don't look at your blog very often, but do pop in once in awhile... probably for the same reasons some people slow down when they pass a car wreck. When I saw some of your responses - even to your friends - I had to laugh, and felt compelled to drop in & say hello.
ReplyDeleteHave a great life, man. :-)