Re: "The Guru Papers"

The Alstads did a service when they published Guru Papers. That became
the earliest self help guide for people who were grievously wounded in
Guru led groups.

Here are some earlier articles on this message board that may be
helpful.

I highly recommend obtaining the book by interlibrary loan so you can read
the entire chapter and see if other gurus you know are mentioned.

In a later chapter, Kakar describes a visit he made to a female guru named Nirmala Devi. H

This is a brief quotation from a chapter entitled "The Way of the Saints"
from Shamans, Mystics and Doctors:A Psychological
Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions, 1982 .

Here Kakar describes the way any guru can fall into delusions of grandeur.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Powerful emotional states are generated within the highly charged communities
that condense around a guru. Any rock star will tell you what a charge
they feel from the concert audience. Imagine what the possibilities are
when a crowd of devotees have shared hopes, shared devotional exercises
where they visualize the guru, chant the same litanies, then all gather
together for darshan with the guru. Except for some infamous politicians
few secular settings come close to this.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Distortions of Gratitude

[forum.culteducation.com]