Wombat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What? Sorry, don't get it...
>
> My point was that there are a number of people in
> the word who tragically end their own lives every
> single day. In the EU it is around 11 per 100,000
> each year. The reasons are often a complex mix of
> many factors.
>
> I myself had a classmate kill herself when I was
> in Uni. We had worked very closely together. No
> one had any clue what she was going through. After
> she took her life it was not clear why she did it.
> Was the university to blame? The pressure of
> study? Was it her family? Her boyfriend? Was it an
> underlying mental illness? Some other trigger that
> no-one knew? We never knew for sure.
>
> Mooji has thousands of followers, arguably tens or
> even hundreds of thousands. YES, every suicide
> case should be looked at carefully and assessed to
> see what can be done to prevent further suicides.
> But I am not sure that 1 suicide at a place that
> has been running for 6 or 7 years that has so many
> visitors every year is proof that Mooji is a
> "suicide cult", which is how I have seen it
> presented.
>
> Anyway... you are right. This forum is not for me.
> Carry on everyone.
The suicide trap around Mooji is the same that there has always been around even notionally benign cults.
The mentally ill, despairing person in a time of psychological crisis initially finds comfort in the cult. They feel love from the guru and love from the group. Life becomes liveable!
They become dependant on the energy and love (or illusion of love) that's in the scene around the guru. They find themselves watching every video and, if geography and finances allow, spending as much time as possible on retreats or at the ashram, in the guru's energy field. The only books, the only teachers that matter for them are the ones that are approved by the guru. The only people that matter for them are other followers, other people who get it.
But then what next? Perhaps they stay in the cult forever. Great! That's quite a small life, but it may suit some people. There are closed religious groups living in isolation all over the world.
But if (perhaps due to their mental issues) they have a falling-out with the cult leader or other powerful cult members, and they are "expelled from paradise", they may well have no professional skills and no career, no money, no house, and damaged relationships with friends and family.
Or perhaps whilst at the ashram they eventually find themselves feeling as mentally ill as ever. Damned in paradise. Even the guru, even the group can't save them from their darkness.
Or maybe experiencing the intense emotions that are stimulated in individuals and collectively during satsang makes their mental illness worse, and the guru's very abstract teachings confuse their already shattered mind.
A closed-off cult can be a dangerous place indeed for a mentally ill person. As I've written earlier, it may also for a time be a liberating and useful place.
I don't know how much blame can be placed on the guru. He didn't create their illness; but he can have a powerful effect on it, for good or bad. At the end of the day they would probably be better off going to college instead.
-------------------------------------------------------
> What? Sorry, don't get it...
>
> My point was that there are a number of people in
> the word who tragically end their own lives every
> single day. In the EU it is around 11 per 100,000
> each year. The reasons are often a complex mix of
> many factors.
>
> I myself had a classmate kill herself when I was
> in Uni. We had worked very closely together. No
> one had any clue what she was going through. After
> she took her life it was not clear why she did it.
> Was the university to blame? The pressure of
> study? Was it her family? Her boyfriend? Was it an
> underlying mental illness? Some other trigger that
> no-one knew? We never knew for sure.
>
> Mooji has thousands of followers, arguably tens or
> even hundreds of thousands. YES, every suicide
> case should be looked at carefully and assessed to
> see what can be done to prevent further suicides.
> But I am not sure that 1 suicide at a place that
> has been running for 6 or 7 years that has so many
> visitors every year is proof that Mooji is a
> "suicide cult", which is how I have seen it
> presented.
>
> Anyway... you are right. This forum is not for me.
> Carry on everyone.
The suicide trap around Mooji is the same that there has always been around even notionally benign cults.
The mentally ill, despairing person in a time of psychological crisis initially finds comfort in the cult. They feel love from the guru and love from the group. Life becomes liveable!
They become dependant on the energy and love (or illusion of love) that's in the scene around the guru. They find themselves watching every video and, if geography and finances allow, spending as much time as possible on retreats or at the ashram, in the guru's energy field. The only books, the only teachers that matter for them are the ones that are approved by the guru. The only people that matter for them are other followers, other people who get it.
But then what next? Perhaps they stay in the cult forever. Great! That's quite a small life, but it may suit some people. There are closed religious groups living in isolation all over the world.
But if (perhaps due to their mental issues) they have a falling-out with the cult leader or other powerful cult members, and they are "expelled from paradise", they may well have no professional skills and no career, no money, no house, and damaged relationships with friends and family.
Or perhaps whilst at the ashram they eventually find themselves feeling as mentally ill as ever. Damned in paradise. Even the guru, even the group can't save them from their darkness.
Or maybe experiencing the intense emotions that are stimulated in individuals and collectively during satsang makes their mental illness worse, and the guru's very abstract teachings confuse their already shattered mind.
A closed-off cult can be a dangerous place indeed for a mentally ill person. As I've written earlier, it may also for a time be a liberating and useful place.
I don't know how much blame can be placed on the guru. He didn't create their illness; but he can have a powerful effect on it, for good or bad. At the end of the day they would probably be better off going to college instead.