Thanks, I read about 60 pages of the book you sent a link to... Saints and Psychopaths.
It's a good read.
I think the spiritual community just attracts a lot of people who are interested in exploiting others for their own gain. I suppose you could say that genuine seekers open themselves up to getting ripped off, because spiritual belief systems are very open-ended and vague things....
You can't prove you have had a trancendent experience, for example. You only have to be a good actor, and a certain number of people will believe you, simply because they want to believe in something.
I think things like spirituality are really easy to fake. No-one can test you or do any experiments to find out if you are spiritual or not. The whole thing hangs on people "believing".
It's very concerning.
It's a good read.
I think the spiritual community just attracts a lot of people who are interested in exploiting others for their own gain. I suppose you could say that genuine seekers open themselves up to getting ripped off, because spiritual belief systems are very open-ended and vague things....
You can't prove you have had a trancendent experience, for example. You only have to be a good actor, and a certain number of people will believe you, simply because they want to believe in something.
I think things like spirituality are really easy to fake. No-one can test you or do any experiments to find out if you are spiritual or not. The whole thing hangs on people "believing".
It's very concerning.