It Would Help If We Could Find A "Chakra" Too

Man, for a mere exercise, Yoga sure does keep popping up in the weirdo spiritual world. As a reader reminded me, there's those cultists that gassed everyone on the subway in Japan - a Yoga cult:

"Aum Shinrikyo/Aleph is a composite belief system that incorporates Asahara's idiosyncratic interpretations of Yoga with facets of Buddhism and Christianity, and even the writings of Nostradamus.

In 1992 Asahara published a book, within which he declared himself 'Christ', Japan's only fully enlightened master and the 'Lamb of God'. His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world. He claimed he could transfer to his followers spiritual power and ultimately take away their sins and bad Karma. He also saw dark conspiracies everywhere promulgated by the Jews, Freemasons, the Dutch, the British Royal Family, and rival Japanese religions.

Ultimately, Asahara outlined a doomsday prophecy, which included a Third World War. Asahara described a final conflict culminating in a nuclear 'Armageddon', borrowing the term from the Book of Revelation. Humanity would end, except for the elite few who joined Aum. Aum's mission was not only to spread the word of 'salvation', but also to survive these 'End Times'. Asahara predicted Armageddon would occur in 1997. He named the United States as The Beast from the Book of Revelation, predicting it would eventually attack Japan.

History

The movement was founded by Shoko Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya ward in 1984, starting off as a Yoga and meditation class known as Aum-no-kai ('Aum club') and steadily grew in the following years. It gained the official status as a religious organization in 1989. It attracted such a considerable number of young graduates from Japan's elite universities that it was dubbed a 'religion for the elite'."

All the way up to that cultist in Yogaville who killed his yogi:

"Testimony: I had a horrible experience with Andrew Cohen. He presents himself to be a teacher of enlightenment and meditation, neither of which he really is interested in.

I met him first at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York City when he gave a lecture. After the lecture I met with him privately and asked him several spiritual questions that had been on my mind. He responded to my questions telling me that I should not worry about practicing celibacy and that my Yoga and meditation teacher in Virginia and the man who built the center we were standing in at the time couldn't even keep his vows as a monk. I smiled and nodded and left the room. Later I would be absolutely appalled at what he had said, insulting Swami Satchidananda in such a way and after being invited into his institute, but at the time I was eerily nonchalant and calm.

I attended a retreat soon afterwards and had an absolutely horrible time. He sat upon his platform and embarrassed and ridiculed people in the name of spirituality and enlightenment, I wanted to leave all week it was truly one of the worst retreats I had ever been on. Strangely a year later I went on another, longer retreat with him. I suppose that I had forgotten the horrible experience that I had.

When I arrived at this retreat I remember feeling that there was something really strange about all of the people that were there. There seemed to be this look on their faces of exhaustion. They all seemed to have dark circles around their eyes. I just remember having a really bad feeling."

Weird, huh? It seems like, the more cultists keep claiming there's one thing going on with Yoga - like exercise - the more evidence emerges that there's something else going on.
It definitely ain't proper stretching - unless you're trying to develop an "open mind" about joining a cult or killing someone.

Monkey See Monkey Do (Not Much Of A Plan)

Sorry, lazy, but to party with this post you've got to click the links and fully read what's there as well.

Yea, get that shit: I'm actually trying to get you to understand a much more convoluted point than usual.

Don't worry - if all goes well, you'll have an enjoyable time, and it'll end with your aha! moment and everyone satisfied.

What have you got to lose?

And why do I hear Heart singing "Magic Man" right here? Anyway:

Did you know there was a Yogaville? I didn't know there was a Yogaville. Or a "New" Berlin. At least not until somebody killed a yogi there:

"NEW BERLIN — A St. Louis man saw this bucolic community as the perfect stage to carry out his assassination of beloved yoga master Sudharman, court documents show.



Joel Robert Snider, 33, was arrested in Maryland on Wednesday and charged with one count of felony criminal homicide in the shooting death of Sudharman, once known as Joe Fenton, in what appears to be an assassination plot that spanned from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts.

State police Trooper Matthew Burrows said Sudharman's death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy revealed that the 70-year-old man had been shot multiple times with a small-caliber weapon. His body was found on the floor of his living quarters wrapped in two sheets and a comforter, and bound with duct tape. He had at least one gunshot wound to the neck.



Snider was jailed in Baltimore County, Md., Burrows said, and would be extradited to Pennsylvania, but did not know when the extradition would occur.



Riveting court documents reveal Snider to be a disturbed individual who made no secret of his plans to 'assassinate' both Sudharman and spiritual leader Andrew Cohen.



In the months leading up the Sudharman's killing, Snider sent a series of three e-mails to Swami Karunananda. According to her Facebook page, Swami Karunananda serves as vice president of spiritual development at Yogaville, Buckingham, Va."

I know, I know: if you read this blog regularly, the only thing that stood out for you were two words:

Andrew Cohen.

Why? Because Andrew Cohen is a cult leader.

BTW, do I need to mention how I came across all this? How I was looking up something about good ol' peaceful yoga, run across a story about a murdered yogi, the crime took place in Yogaville, and - lo and behold - out comes slithering my old friend Andrew Cohen, the cult leader.

And you think your job's hard.

But of course, we know Yoga's got nothing to do with cultism, and we know this because a woman who spent 10 days with Cohen's cult (and, probably because of that, wishes to remain unidentified) told us "beliefs that Yogaville is akin to a cult,...are off base."

Isn't it funny how that kind of chatter always gets started where everyone else suspects there's cultish activity going on? Y'know, like Yogaville?

Anyhoo, Andrew Cohen's former followers say it's a cult. Another former member, Andrew Cohen's own mother, says it's a cult. But the mysterious woman who spent 10 days there disagrees - send out the reporters!

The press's myopia regarding NewAge is identical to NewAge's. They see what they want to see - or not. Look at this from the NewAge Peter and Penelope Dingle homeopathic murder case:

"Counsel Assisting the Coroner, Dr Celia Kemp, in her opening address said that the main purpose of the inquest was to find out if tougher controls were needed for the homeopathic industry. Dr. Kemp revealed that Mrs. Dingle was a long time supporter for alternative medicine and was seeing homeopath Francine Scrayen to cure her infertility. In 2001 Mrs. Dingle complained to Ms Scrayen that there was blood in her faeces for which she was advised more homeopathic treatment. Two years later Mrs. Dingle was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Cancer surgeon Dr Cameron Platell says that at that point Mrs. Dingle had a good chance of surviving with surgery.

At that time the couple sought the advice of two other doctors Igor Tabrizian and William Barnes. Dr. Tabrizian practices nutritional medicine and he prescribed a diet plan and supplements for her which she followed. She ignored Dr. Barnes advice. He is [a] general practitioner."

Just as the press will not seriously broach the topic of cultish beliefs, behavior, or even full-blown, mind's gone cults operating in our midsts.

Oh, and as you can see above, television doctor Peter Dingle has a new wife now. She's a homeopath. Those are the kind of little, small, tiny, miniscule, details that get short shrift now'a'days in the rush of journalists to get whatever denials they can find into print before their yoga class.

NewAge.

Yogaville?

You people are out of your fucking minds.

Cultish Thinking: You Deserve What You Get

"There was no single moment, [William] Yenner says, when he began to believe that the line between spiritual discipline and authoritarian control had begun to blur. But he contends that [Andrew] Cohen mandated – directly or indirectly – actions such as slapping the face of someone for showing too much ego or pride; banishing followers, at least temporarily, for alleged misbehavior; or requiring followers to shave their heads as a form of humility. In one incident recounted in the book, Yenner says a woman who spoke up to Cohen had red paint thrown in her face as punishment. To this day, says Yenner, it bothers him that he didn’t object.


'You rationalize it,' said Yenner, who writes that he was once told to perform 1,000 prostrations facing Cohen’s photo. 'You start to believe that you deserve what happens.'"

-- Suzanne Wilson, in a review for Yenner's new book, American Guru: A Story of Love, Betrayal and Healing – former students of Andrew Cohen speak out - a review which doesn't even mention that Andrew Cohen's own mother wrote a book about what a scumbag he is - making me think I should throw paint in the reviewer's face (or a cream pie - who's gonna stop me?) since she still hasn't learned to consider others, at American Guru.net.

Being A Good Listener Means Nothing Matters: Robert Wohlfahrt, Karine Brunck, Ken Wilber, And The Secret "Spiritual" Sexual Exploitations

"The hypocrisy of all this is just so disgusting…Major neo-spiritual icons like Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen gave huge face time and coverage to this guy."

-- Deitybox, mentioning Bill Clinton's ever popular cult leader - and a favorite of TMR's "Dr." Robert Wohlfahrt - while commenting in 2006 about multiple cases of "spiritual" sexual abuse by Mordechai Gafni (the founder and chief teacher of the Bayit Chadash in Israel — a community dedicated to the spiritual renewal of Judaism), on a blog called Jew School.

"I would like to lend my support to Dr. Wohlfart especially testify  his great ability to listen that is becoming increasingly rare in a world wide communication. I hope he can soon  return to work and to thank him for all patients that accompany them."


-- Written on the French blog, Pumpernickle, by: Dorette Schneider | 01.01.2009

"I would give my support to Dr. Wohlfahrt for what he has to make some very hard, it's a man to help others, listen, I wholeheartedly hope that he can resume his work and that it can continue to help people. We are missing, you should let it go back to work we need him."

-- Written on the French blog, Pumpernickle, by: Sylvie Schleifer | 09.01.2009

Dear Karine,

After you left, I went to convince [your husband] that you were not at home. He was with Sandra who had the air completely taken out with its history and its drama. I flipped out completely with him saying to me that you had lost 40 pounds, that you had been taken in a cult and he had to save you. The poor devil really believed what he said and he made me nauseous. Sandra asked me for the authorization to look around the house so that they could see we were not hiding you.

Michael did not let [your husband] break his ears with his stories of cults,...

In any case, he did not get any information and I told him quite simply that I had not seen you since yesterday, that you had not made me lie,....

I hope that your connection with your "Love of Your Life" is beautiful and well,...

Good luck.

I think of you and telephone me as soon as you can.

North winds,

Emmanuelle

-- An amused e-mail from Emmanuelle Taijmans (seen, above, with the self-proclaimed "God," Karine Brunck) where this fellow NewAger states she was deceptive and made "nauseous" - because a frantic husband was concerned for his wife's well-being - allowing the very-spiritual "Dr." Robert Wohlfahrt (who killed Karine's mother) to further break his medical oath and happily dissolve a marriage of 20 years.

Thanks to Emmanuelle Taijmans' efforts, Karine Brunck - and the homeopathic "Dr." Wohlfahrt - later killed two more people, using quackery. Since then, "Dr." Wohlfahrt has been stripped of his medical license, and Emmanuelle Taijman has been stripped of any credibility. As far as we know, Karine Anne Brunck - the four-eyed and gold toothed, former-wannbe model (and, now, self-proclaimed "god") - marches on to kill again.

The first 2006 comment, from "Deitybox," was in response to a letter by someone named "Mobius," who wrote words that remind TMR, very much, of the ugly Karine Brunck/"Dr." Robert Wohlfahrt situation that inspired this blog:

"I hardly need to say how sad, how angry, and how betrayed Gafni’s behavior makes me feel — And how much it raises questions once again about how to walk that thin line between spiritual ecstasy and the domineering frenzy that is not only damaging in itself but sometimes even leads to sexual abuse,...The fusion of spiritual power and sexual abuse is liable to create,...a situation when even people who might be thought to have every reason to reveal violations feel so overawed or so 'beloved' by the abuser that they do not define what is happening as abuse, or are unwilling to talk about it.

So that means it is a lot harder to get the,...evidence."

Yea, Buddy, ain't that the truth: we know exactly what you mean,...

The Macho Response: Luna Tarlo

The Mother of God, by Luna Tarlo, relates the story of the author's three-and-a half years of harrowing spiritual bondage to her own son, Andrew Cohen, a well-known American guru. The book describes her travels in India, Europe, and the United States with Andrew and his earliest disciples, and reveals in stunning detail her parallel inner journey from loving observer, to slave-like disciple, to a final wrenching assertion of autonomy.

This book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the preservation of human dignity in the face of constant manipulation by the various "powers to be." It will be of particular interest to every individual who has ever been harmed by the influence of a guru and also to those individuals' greatly distressed families.

The abuse of power, the incessant fear, the psychology of obsession are all explored from an intimate perspective. Since brainwashing cults and their grandiose gurus are proliferating in this country and around the world, this book is not only a mother's lament, but also a finger pointing to the growing appeal everywhere of authoritarianism and absolutism.

Everyone should read that last sentence again - twice.