It's Just A Never-Ending Search Out There

I like looking at the search terms people use to get here. Today I got the normal, expected kind of stuff, like these below - click the red links to see where the search took them, or (my choice) should've:

new age and mental illness

or

landmark forum and oprah

or

elisabeth targ fraud

But what really gets me going is the stuff from out-of-left-field that makes me laugh or go "Huh?" Here's a sampling of those:

doti penis

gorgeous latina babe dancing for all you machos out there!

pathway to paradise something awful

shirley maclaine facelift [great potential band name, y'all! - CMC]

elisabeth hasselbeck urine in toilet

bad case of the space crazies

mystic porn unicorn

Good times. And a good way to empty my photo file. I'll be back,...

Believing Ain't Knowing

Alternative Therapies Debunked or Denounced in 2009 (LiveScience)

How Feng Shui Is Being Discredited in Hong Kong (TIME)

Cafe Gratitude Employees Grateful to Break Free (NBC Bay Area)

Estate of Jack Slee vs. Werner Erhard - Death During Est Training. Set a Precedent for the James Ray Lawsuits? (Horizons Magazine)

Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Religiosity (The SkeptVet Blog)

A Nation Awash In Empty-Headed Foolishness

"Self-help is not benign. The $11 billion industry can hurt you psychologically, it can hurt you financially and, as we see, it can hurt you physically. It can hurt your family and friends too.

Consider that today's increasingly popular 'large group awareness training' (LGAT) incorporates tactics more commonly identified with psychological warfare. Facilitators bully attendees verbally and sometimes physically, call upon them to relive their worst experiences in humiliating detail in front of strangers, deprive them of sleep and even bathroom privileges—all in the name of self-actualization. In expert testimony in a 1992 lawsuit against the best-known of these LGATs, Landmark Forum (long a favored choice for corporate retreats), the clinical psychologist Margaret Singer observed that Forum 'applies a number of powerful and psychologically disturbing, emotionally arousing and defense destabilizing techniques to large groups of people, in an intense, marathon-like period.' How can this not have a catastrophic effect on people in a fragile emotional state—which is surely the case with a sizable contingent of those who seek out these 'transformational' courses to begin with?

Other offerings, bracketed as 'relationships therapy' or 'assertiveness training,' can wreak havoc on existing interpersonal bonds. Stories abound of couples whose marriages fell victim to gurus who celebrated promiscuity and 'personal morality,' or who chastised participants for their codependent (that is, caring and empathetic) ways.

Apologists argue that there are bad outcomes in any endeavor, that it's unfair to single out self-help when, say, conventional medicine kills thousands each year. The difference is that in medicine, practitioners share demonstrated expertise in methods that evolved over time and have been tested and retested for efficacy. A bad outcome in a field with proven benefits is unfortunate. A bad outcome in a field with little basis for existing in the first place is unforgivable. As noted psychologist Michael Hurd told me, 'Gurus encourage these poor, already troubled souls to literally take leave of their senses, as if departing reason will somehow liberate you.'"

-- Steve Salerno, apparently unaware insanity on a mass scale is now accepted as normal - as long as enough people share in some aspect of it - and enough people share in some aspect of it, not to read The Wall Street Journal.

The Left-Wing's Absorption By Cults (No Escape)

“People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them.”

-- Jon Stewart, in an article about the lack of humor surrounding the Obama cult, in the New York Times

"The edict that you have to belong in order to work for her hasn't yet been formalised, but I suspect it will soon be."

-- Christopher Ciccone, Madonna's brother, on her Kabbalah-emphacized employment arrangements, in The Daily Mail

"Staffers are called educators, and when Chatelaine magazine exposed the company's links to the controversial Landmark Forum, it made a lot of people queasy. Owner Chip Wilson credits his success to the expensive international program, which has been criticized for having a secretive nature, boot camp mentality, and links to a former member of the Church of Scientology. Lululemon managers reportedly must take a three-day Landmark Forum seminar, though the company pays for it."

-- Ann Marie McQueen, writing about the "corporate" practices of Yoga's Lululemon, Inc., for Canada's Ottawa Sun

"According to Goldman’s complaint, three employees of 21st Century Democrats were fired after refusing to attend the Landmark Forum course. The complaint asserts that Landmark Education has “religious characteristics and theological implications” which influenced the mission of 21st Century Democrats and the way the organization conducted business. Goldman’s complaint states that in addition to himself, a training director and field director were also fired after they made it clear they would not attend the Landmark Forum."

-- Large Group Awareness Training Truth, on a cult-inspired lawsuit against the Democrats.

Cultism: You Democrats Will Never Learn

Kenneth Goldman is suing the United States Democratic political action committee Twenty-First Century Democrats (also 21st Century Democrats) and its former executive director Kelly Young. Goldman was formerly the communications director of 21st Century Democrats.

According to Goldman’s complaint, three employees of 21st Century Democrats were fired after refusing to attend the Landmark Forum course. The complaint asserts that Landmark Education has “religious characteristics and theological implications” which influenced the mission of 21st Century Democrats and the way the organization conducted business. Goldman’s complaint states that in addition to himself, a training director and field director were also fired after they made it clear they would not attend the Landmark Forum.

Goldman says executive director Young infused Landmark Education jargon terms into staff meetings such as “create possibilities”, “create a new context”, and “enroll in possibilities”. He also claims that Young “urged” staff members to participate in Landmark Education events outside of the workplace, drove employees to and from Landmark functions, and used funds from 21st Century Democrats to pay for employees to attend those functions. Goldman’s complaint asserts that he was discriminated against in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act.

-- Large Group Awareness Training Truth, proving (once again) The Cult of Obama is swimming in very, very, familiar waters,...

Oh, That Little Thing? That's Our Cult's Aura,...

"It shows up like a cult because it has become a very simple concept that releases people from a lot of their blocks in life. When people are released from those blocks, it has that aura."

-- Chip Wilson, founder and chairman of Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica Inc. - on the Scientology/est/Landmark Forum cult's influence on his company - in a Monte Stewart article for Business Edge.

Check Your Self Before You Wreck Your Self

Go, Lars, Go!!!

This is Lars Bergwik, a former member of the Landmark Forum cult (formally Werner Erhard's est cult) and he's got a horror story to tell,...



Here, he's telling you what the effects of Landmark are, a bit of it's history (Scientology figures into it) what it's goals are now - and the mental problems that can result.

Oh Well, I Told You: The Yoga Craze IS A Cult

"Lululemon gets a lot of flack, mostly because their clothes are trendy and outrageously expensive. The company is also kind of preachy: Their all-encompassing corporate manifesto -- drink lots of fresh water, perspire, do one thing every day that scares you, etc. -- is pasted onto every one of their coveted and ubiquitous reusable shopping bags.

Lately, when you go to the company's website, your cursor leaves a trail of Lululemon symbols everywhere you put it. Staffers are called educators, and when Chatelaine magazine exposed the company's links to the controversial Landmark Forum, it made a lot of people queasy.

Owner Chip Wilson (above) credits his success to the expensive international program, which has been criticized for having a secretive nature, boot camp mentality, and links to a former member of the Church of Scientology. Lululemon managers reportedly must take a three-day Landmark Forum seminar, though the company pays for it."

-- From Ann Marie McQueen, writing in Canada's Ottawa Sun.

Why don't you people trust me? Don't I try to tell you the truth? Aren't I your buddy? What's wrong with you? Must you insist that anyone who isn't always "calm" with you is trying to control you? Is it really so important to you, that everyone kisses your ass, rather than tries to be your friend and looks out for you?

"Save me from the people trying to save me from myself", right?

I've heard it before. Here's a flash, Einstein:

Some of you women need saving!

None of us are smart enough to do everything on our own. Oh, so you do yoga for exercise and good health, do you? Even after I told you it's not exercise or healthy, but a 1,000 year old practice to make you stupid and controllable? Well, now it's a fact:

You ARE stupid and controllable.

Now, how do you feel? I feel betrayed. By my friends. The friends that I love. The friends who've became so stupid they'll let some bastard convince them putting their head up their ass is a major fucking achievement. Yea, I'm so impressed.

I've tried. Nicely, harshly - you name it:

I've really, really tried,...you fucking idiots.

I don't need this shit.

I hate cults.

I hate this whole damn set-up.

[Click the "yoga" tag, below, for more info. Also, if you don't click the links in each post, you'll never truly know anything.]

Laugh, Clown, Laugh

In the beginning, my wife, Karine Brunck (above) said our lives would improve because she was getting help from psychics.

Ha-ha, I said.

In the late 80's, she declared that George H.W. "Poppy" Bush was The Anti-Christ.

I laughed at that idea too.

In the 90's, she became deluded enough to let some asshole thoroughly convince her she could walk through walls.

More laughter.

This was followed by the asinine belief she could cure cancer, and A.I.D.S., with her bare hands.

Hilarity.

And finally, there was the $500.00 a session reiki training, that lasted a week - in an isolated area, with a bunch of people I didn't know - that she told me I couldn't attend because,...I'd laugh.

After each of these events, we would argue; losing sleep - and totally destroying our time together - which could be so pleasant when we were left alone to make decisions for ourselves (something I later learned was rare.).

Flash forward, to October 2005, when our marriage was coming apart (after I'd discovered a cassette of my wife - talking with Doti Boon, The California Psychic, this immoral, and evil, bitch - and learned the woman I loved had, not only, fallen under the spell of a murderous, and sexually adventurous, homeopath - who referred to my wife as his "Goddess/Whore" - but that this secretary had even made the phenomenally egotistical leap to believing - as a long-time, and self-proclaimed, "Student of the Occult" - that she was a God). I'm asking her - after 20 years of my self-sacrifice and wary, naive, indulgence - why would she drive us further into this circle of Hell, over and over again, for such an expensive list of insane nonsense, that she's never come close to proving, and knew would, eventually, drive us apart?

Becoming extremely angry because I was challenging her beliefs - again - she, then, spat out one of the most thought-stopping things I'd ever heard an adult say. She said:

"I over-estimated my powers."

That was one of the last times I laughed at anything NewAge.

Anyway, I saw her yesterday, for the first time in like a year. She was the passenger in a car, wearing new glasses and laughing, as I stood, miserable and sweating, on a bicycle - thinking of her emptying our bank accounts - and all the other terrible things she'd done prior to our divorce. Our eyes met - and she went right on laughing.

Unbeknownst to me, I was on my way to an appointment that took place in a San Francisco restaurant which is owned, operated, and staffed, by participants in The Landmark Forum cult. It was highly bizarre.

Then, after dinner, my companion and I were accosted by a guy wearing a T-Shit that screamed, 9-11 Was An Inside Job!

And later, as I sat at a Kinko's computer terminal, the graphic artist working next to me repeated the same question into his cell phone for about 15 minutes:

"You want the top line to say 'It's A Spiritual Revolution!', right?"

Taken together, I think it's no wonder my ex is the one laughing now.

This is no laughing matter, this is: