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May 13, 2014
I worked at The Option Institute full-time
Pros
Beautiful location. International atmosphere with clients from all over the world. Some good food. Some nice, liberal, open-minded staff. Some of the teachings of the Son-Rise Program are helpful and sweet.
Cons
I would not recommend working for this company. Essentially, the founders and family are making out financially (and through people's misery) while everyone else is hardly paid (and continually made to feel bad that they are not working hard enough). Unless you agree with all the teachings, you are on the outside and will never be accepted. The teaching roster consists mainly of the Kaufman family without any outside sources coming in to teach. Because of this, they are considered a cult and I would agree with this statement. Barry Neil 'Bears' Kaufman wants to be venerated and worshipped - you practically have to eat out of his hand when he enters the room (or be treated cruelly by him for the rest of your time there). He uses his power to tear people down only to build people back up the way he wants to. He incarcerates and ensnares the weak with his manipulative tactics and narcissistic antics. His wife is not much better. They are sham artists who clearly don't care about people as they treat their employees horribly (hardly paying them, asking them to work continuously, making them feel bad about themselves by verbally attacking them), while by comparison the guests and participants are treated very well. These are not do-gooders, rather they are powermongers who just want to be idolized and venerated.
I have personally encountered Bears Kaufman calling people morbidly obese (fat-shaming is one of his favorites), stupid, and lazy, for all intensive purposes. He says it all under the guise of 'wanting to help them and love them by speaking from an authentic place.' I really do not know how this guy does not get sued every day.
They are constantly attempting to downplay their 'cult' reputation by spinning damage control. Even if you look at the reviews on this site, you will see that clearly that employees were told to write good reviews at a certain period in time. They were contracted in January of 2014. It is obvious. The reviews are mostly from current employees and are flowery in description. In my mind, this is not professional in the slightest. If you treat your employees well, clearly you would not have to do co-erce employees to show their respect for your company online and contract them to do so.
Not a place I recommend to work. I wish I could say the opposite was true.
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Advice to Management
Interdepartmental communication and ability to access feedback from employees. Departments do not communicate well and are fragmented.
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he Option Institute Response May 21, 2014 – Chief Operating Officer
It would be challenging for OI to 'prove' that what this person is saying is blatantly false, but there is one place where I can easily show this person to be untruthful.
That area is regarding positive reviews on glassdoor. Below, is an excerpt from the Jan. email I personally sent to staff requesting they help us by writing glassdoor reviews (see below)
As you will see, no one was told to write 'good reviews'. Instead, I made it explicitly clear that I wanted real reviews, with real pros and cons.
I hope that you readers out there realize if an ex-employee would claim false things that are so easily fact checked, this person is clearly on a mission not to inform the public of the truth, but to villify our work, for another purpose.
On January 8th, Christie Ellis wrote:
Hello lovely managers!
.... As you may or may not know, www.glassdoor.com is a site widely used by job seekers to evaluate what it’s like to work at various companies.
Currently, on our own glassdoor profile, only former employees who really did not enjoy their time here have written reviews. So here is what I would like to ask from you:
1) Would you please consider taking an anonymous survey of your own experience? Please speak from the heart and provide the pros and cons you see. It is completely anonymous – read through glass door’s info and you’ll see this.
2) After completing, would you please ask a few people in your department to also take the survey?
Everything we can do to show potential candidates why OI is the place they want to work will help me get your teams the people they need.
Finally – this really is just a request – not a requirement. But I am begging you, pretty please, with sugar on top. It will take you less than 10 minutes.
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The Peace Education Program has a proven track record and is enjoyed at various facilities in more than 25 countries world-wide. In North Carolina, this successful program is currently being held for male and female inmates at the Buncombe County Detention Facility, and at the Black Mountain Women's Substance Abuse Treatment Center. Past programs have taken place at Western Carolina University for a class of senior criminal justice students, a Veteran's program, and the Southern Correctional facility for Women in Troy, NC.
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The fact that Rawat, et al, are going after people who are in prison validates what all the cult experts say about cult leaders going after the most vulnerable in our society.
I don't know how the "peace education program" works, but my guess is that they show videos of Rawat speaking. Those prisoners willfully will walk into a room where the Rawat programs are held but it's still a bait and switch, and not much different from when I walked into a satsang room and felt good. PEP is another deception because of Rawat's long history of being a personality cult leader.
He's a toxic person. It's still a personality cult with Rawat at the top, whether or not overt worship is displayed anymore.
And the knowledge meditation is horrible for people who have mental illness issues. It's a mind-stopping meditation and that's not what anyone who sufferes from mental health problems needs in life. It can cause people to suppress the depression (or any other troubles they might have). That's bad for people. Prisoners need a way to become independent, trained in trades or professions, not how to meditate on a bleeping light, breath, music, or snot, while listening to a moron.
Roark, it's still a personality cult that's toxic. I find it hard to grok that you have a blind spot regarding the meditation and the connection to Rawat personally, that is a major piece of the Rawat religion: we were taught to believe our experience came directly from Rawat himself, as the Lord of the Universe.
He has a lot of nerve to insinuate himself into institutions like prisons. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. It's fraudulent and premies don't know because they are still stuck in their Rawat toxic belief system.
Thats why it's so wrong.
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He also claims his highly enlightened state absolves him of all responsibility for his actions. (He screams insults at anyone he wants, saying it's "out of love," and truly enlightened people would recognize that.)
But worst of all, Massaro's begun forcing his followers to "dry fast," directing them not to eat or drink anything other than grape juice — for months at a time. Many believers have complained about chronic health problems from these fasts, yet they continue to submit.
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Massaro basically preached that everyone should think positively, use the Law of Attraction to get what they want and manifest their dreams. Pretty run-of-the-mill, inspirational-poster type stuff. Until he started to gain more and more followers. He has around 300,000 now, and his beliefs have started to sound a little crazy. Now he claims to have supernatural powers. He professes to have the power of telekinesis and says he can control the weather with his mind.
He also claims he has the ability to be physically in two places at once — bilocation — and the power to teleport. Massaro says that humanity has already established slave colonies on Mars, that we will meet aliens (and they'll look just like they do in the movies), and that we haven't needed fossil fuels for 80 years because the Nazis won World War II. Um, OK.
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The reviews are widely staggered between high and low, with some lower-scoring reviewers suggesting the higher ratings have been posted by Osho followers, but we'll take a peer through some of the best available.
A recurring theme of the reviews is the costly nature of the commune.
According to several reviews, visitors are forced to buy maroon clothing, and one went as far as to say "if they could charge you for air, they would".
"If you cannot afford this place or you think that that being spiritual is love compassion and all that nonsense KEEP AWAY," one miffed user writes.
Another user warned to "visit at your own risk".
"...they make you feel extremely awkward at every step you take there: you must BUY overpriced marron and white robes to circulate in there, if you want to use the swimming pool, there's an extra charge, and you can't leave the swimming pool and come back on the same day without paying again, and you must also buy marrom swim wear. The main meditation auditorium is heavily air-conditioned, but you can't bring your own jacket, towels or blankets inside: you must BUY the appropriate colour in the boutique. The meditations itself are interesting, but the people seem a bit brainwashed. The general energy I felt there was more towards desperation and robotic, rather than peaceful and loving. i couldnt wait to get out of there. Visit at your own risk."
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The series briefly mentions how David Berry Knapp, aka Swami Krishna Deva, aka K.D., the outspoken mayor of Rajneeshpuram, was one of the only Rajneeshees to flip on the cult and give testimony to the FBI in exchange for a more lenient two-year prison sentence. Knapp, who was interviewed by the FBI several times at their Portland office between Oct. 29, 1985, and Nov. 7, 1985, provided what the bureau called “essential” information concerning the various criminal activities conducted by the sannyasins of Rajneeshpuram, including poisoning officials, immigration fraud, assassination attempts, you name it.
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August 18, 2013 ·
What chance is there to discover the final Truth?
Here, with me, every chance, because I don’t accept you in the way you present yourself. This self-portrait I disregard. It is a poor work of art or heart.
You want to be here as Miss and Mr Sannyasin, Miss and Mr Hormone, Miss and Mr Spiritual, Miss and Mr Special, Miss and Mr Chosen, Miss and Mr Yogi...
I am sorry... not here. I have no space for you.
Try again another time.
When you run out of titles, come back.
But who will take this risk?
~ Mooji
18th of August 2013
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While in India, many of these
Ibiza-based expatriates have become sannyasins, following Osho to Oregon
and then back to Pune. As sociologist Danielle Rozenberg states, Ibiza is
an ‘island of sannyasins’ (Rozenberg 1990: 82).
During the 1980s, while participating in Ibiza’s nightlife, they have
imported various New Age techniques from the US, including the use of
MDMA for therapeutic, meditational and recreational uses. In their interactions
with British and German clubbers on the island, sannyasins have
inadvertently contributed to the emergence of the rave movement, a culture
centered on electronic dance music and digital art. Techno then rapidly
flowed into the mainstream explosion of rave parties and corporate nightclubs
in Western Europe, thus delineating one countercultural genealogy
that runs from Pune, to Oregon, to Ibiza, to London, and to cosmopolitan
segments of the global youth.
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https://forum.culteducation.com/read.php?12,139575,139583#msg-139583
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In informal conversations, sannyasins circulated rumors about visitors,
usually first-timers, who developed some emotional disorder during a
workshop or who were sanctioned by a director.12 The subtle impression
was that this paradise was not as harmonious as the magazine Osho
Times intended to convey. Visitors were pounded with the idea that they
ought to express their feelings and opinions, as a proof of inner authenticity.
However, expression was conditioned by a system of expectations,
rewards and sanctions that delimited the scope of permitted behavior,
with very little margin for dissent. As previously seen, even within the
therapeutic setting, self-expression was monitored and even shaped according
to the therapist’s intentions.
Global Nomads, p 159
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As a consequence of Osho’s critique of civilization as repressive, the notion
of ‘expression’ gained a central role among sannyasins, often more emphatically
so than the notion of ‘witnessing,’ the core category of his spiritual
philosophy. More than a therapeutic procedure, being expressive was
highly valued and pervasively expected. Therapists urged and sometimes
coerced participants to be assertive (or leave the group). As a source of
jokes and anxieties, visitors often reported the awkward situation in which
they ‘did not have anything to express’ during a cathartic exercise and
wondered, ‘Do I have a problem?’. Spontaneity, flamboyance and even
some bluntness were seen as desirable traits. In tandem, formal politeness
was seen suspiciously as a symptom of repressed personality. ‘Politeness
is a repression from your parents,’ I once heard during an argument. On
a different occasion, Git Prem (a German expatriate from Ibiza) introduced
me to an acquaintance in Pune who plainly refused to shake my
extended hand. Finally, a temporary flatmate, whom I had never spoken
to, angrily demanded that I kept the toilet seat up (rather than down).
As such, ‘being in touch with oneself’ could trigger episodes of sentimentalism
or hostility, which were, at least in theory, accepted by
sannyasins. Their interactions tended to be candid yet intempestive, either
affectionate or aggressive, resulting in that minor confrontations over
minor issues marked much of their ordinary life in Pune.
As a consequence of such ideological pressure, exerted in a bubble-like
environment in a remote country, most visitors reported some form of
emotional hardship during their stay. This was particularly noticeable
during midweek afternoons, when cathartic workshops were peaking.
Observing the number of distressed faces wandering in the resort, Dimitri,
who regularly attended the workshops, noted:
You see all these people in the ashram. They look unhappy and miserable.
It didn’t have to be like that, but that is what they need to go
through for a while. And all these fights . . . They behave like assholes
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Eccentric behavior was accepted insofar as it did not challenge order
and authority in the resort. Those running the organization tended to overreact
against any form of unaligned or recalcitrant behavior.
For example,
a disagreement over a garment (robe) detail could lead to the expulsion of
a resistant visitor.
Yet, more worrisome is the treatment that the resort
dispenses to mentally derailed visitors. A young Spanish man told a workshop-
mate during a break that he had been brought to Pune by a ‘cosmic
conspiracy’ orchestrated by resort directors – a very unlikely claim. A day
later, while staring at a noticeboard, he froze in a catatonic state. The
gatemen took him to a psychiatrist downtown and left him there alone.
During the appointment, he recovered his mental faculties, as if returning
from a trance state. The physician said that there was nothing to worry
about, prescribed light tranquilizers, and charged Rs. 400 (US$9) for the
consultation. The young man refused to pay and angrily returned to the here because they cannot be like that at home.
So, this is a relatively
safe environment to behave like that, without suffering serious consequences.
In this sense, in order to be peaceful at home, one ought to be aggressive
in Pune.
Because of this intense emotional work, visitors developed
unusual forms of behavior, reasoning and sociability. This could be inferred
from answers given to trivial statements. For example, I invited someone
for a coffee and got a response in gravitas: ‘No, today I am connecting
with myself.’ Or, I told a volunteer at a registration desk that I was not
interested in attending workshops, and heard, ‘What are you escaping
from? . . .’.
Also, visitors often developed acute self-distrust, intensely questioning
themselves, ‘Are these thoughts mine or my parents’?’.
In various degrees, such unusual statements usually came from participants
of high-impact workshops, but excessive meditation in the Buddha
Hall triggered similar effects. Some individuals claimed to have developed
paranormal abilities, and even implied that they had achieved some form
of spiritual awakening. In concordance with this analysis of psychic deterritorialization,
a study notes that, ‘too much meditation may interfere
with logical thought process, because the whole technique is geared to
take one beyond reason and thinking’ (Basnet 2002: 59).
As an example of such transformations, a young woman from Los
Angeles (US) was visiting the ashram for the first time. Apparently sociable
and sensible, she was a dance student in college, spending her vacation
in India. She gave up traveling across the country as planned in order to
spend all her time at the resort. While attending a sequence of therapy
workshops, her behavior altered in strange ways. Wearing the ‘silence’
badge, she moved slowly, with eyes looking somehow mesmerized. She
took Sannyas, broke up with her boyfriend over the internet and extended
her stay in Pune for an extra month, to attend more therapy groups.
Global Nomads pp 161 - 162
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01438300600625457?src=recsys&journalCode=rcar20Abstract
Interrogating the fusion of ‘religion’ and ‘leisure’ in contemporary societies, this article analyses how adepts of a countercultural religiosity (Osho sannyasins) have influenced the club and rave scenes in Ibiza (‘clubbing capital of the world’), Pune and Goa (global centers of self-spirituality and digital dance). As ‘rave studies’ has concentrated on the experiential dimension of raving, this article focuses instead on the socio-economic components of a ‘nomadic spirituality’ that underlies multiple forms of digital dance culture throughout the world. It compares four cases of dance parties (exotic, up-market, underground, and resort), all of which are promoted and attended by Osho sannyasins both in Ibiza and India. Such nomadic spirituality is evinced by the conjunction of transpersonal experiences, spatial displacements and expatriate identities found among ravers and sannyasins. The article concludes that the commodification of alternative lifestyles by tourism and entertainment industries indexes not only the ambivalent desires of mainstream societies toward utopian lifestyles; it also suggests that transnational countercultures constitute a privileged analytical site that anticipates emerging social trends and predicaments of complex globalisation.
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Taking on the biographies of therapists outlined above, this group of
sannyasins also engendered their own informal networks of personal and
professional interest. In the past, they had followed Osho and assumed
Pune as their main residence. Yet, after his death, they became more mobile
and dispersed globally (Goldman 1999).
Though usually based in one
country (their native or a partner’s), they often deliver therapy workshops
within a cluster of nations, and more prestigious professionals even engage
in annual global tours. In their case, international work is a necessity since
local markets, even in mega cities, are seldom large enough. In this connection,
better transportation and communication technologies has enormously
facilitated their displacement, while practices of self-development
have entered the mainstream under variegated labels, formats and purposes,
enabling these therapists to make a living. In tandem, Osho centers
have multiplied around the world, becoming nodes of support and diffusion
of Osho’s work at a grassroots level.
Standing about 500 km apart, Pune and Goa are interlinked by ongoing
flows of sannyasins, trance freaks, backpackers and tourists, traveling on
buses, vans, trains, airplanes and superbikes. A large segment of these
travelers are young Israelis, estimated at about 20,000 per year (Jerusalem
Post 2004). In Goa, well-off sannyasins stay in the gentrified area of
Calangute beach, whereas younger backpackers and New Agers head
toward the more prosaic beaches of Arambol and Palolem. In the meanwhile,
trance freaks and rebellious sannyasins gather in northern Goa,
around Anjuna beach. As Chapter 5 will examine, Goa is a tourist coastal
state that also hosts, at its margins, the main nodal formation of technotrance
music in the world.
At a transnational level, Ibiza and Pune are interconnected in a unique
manner.
Considering the remoteness and smallness of Ibiza and Pune, it is striking
that both places have been sharing the same subjects coalescing into a
single globalized countercultural diaspora. It is also important to note
such transnational flows in their historical and cultural contexts. Expressive
expatriates have been fleeing to Ibiza in various waves since the 1930s.
There they experience the island as a utopian paradise and node of an
international circuit of Romantic traveling. While in India, many of these
Ibiza-based expatriates have become sannyasins, following Osho to Oregon
and then back to Pune. As sociologist Danielle Rozenberg states, Ibiza is
an ‘island of sannyasins’ (Rozenberg 1990: 82).
During the 1980s, while participating in Ibiza’s nightlife, they have
imported various New Age techniques from the US, including the use of
MDMA for therapeutic, meditational and recreational uses. In their interactions
with British and German clubbers on the island, sannyasins have
inadvertently contributed to the emergence of the rave movement, a culture
centered on electronic dance music and digital art. Techno then rapidly
flowed into the mainstream explosion of rave parties and corporate nightclubs
in Western Europe, thus delineating one countercultural genealogy
that runs from Pune, to Oregon, to Ibiza, to London, and to cosmopolitan
segments of the global youth.
Global Nomads 169 - 171
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The Indian PM was once described by Katrina Lantos-Swett, vice-chair of the influential US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) as the "poster child for India's failure to punish the violent".
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has repeatedly slammed various resolutions passed by the USCIRF, which criticise atrocities and violence perpetrated against religious minorities in India.
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In lock step with the HAF, and eagerly parroting their contrived equivalences, Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu-American in the US Congress, voted against House Resolution 417, which criticised India's dismal record on violence directed towards minorities - Christians, Muslims and Dalits - and called for concrete steps to ensure their security.
Yet, a few years later, Gabbard tabled a resolution that focused on the neighboring state, Muslim-majority Bangladesh, saying she was "particularly concerned over issues of religious freedom, and specifically, attacks against minority Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and others" in the country.
In recent months, Gabbard has emerged as a de facto spokesperson for Syrian mass murderer Bashar Al-Assad, vigorously defending his brutal regime, to the point where she has denied his undisputable role in the chemical weapons attack in April, killing dozens of people, an act so heinous it was condemned by hawks in the GOP.
