Cultic Gurus Using Their Laughing Audience For Social Control

Cultic Gurus Using Their Laughing Audience For Social Control

"People don't remember what you say, they do remember how you make them feel"

- advice getting along in life.

"Feelings, they're just feelings..." Popular song.

We need to examine the use and abuse of laughter and giggling by gurus.

Years ago, there was a disastrously narcissistic man in our social circle.

Women really fell for him. Then, when they realized the awful truth, they
could not get away fast enough.

Part of what made this guy so seductive was that he had cultivated
a most beguiling giggle.

Giggling is a common guru trick.


It is disarming when a power holder giggles.

Getting people to laugh disrupts their doubts. A laughing audience is also a
fearsome audience. You want to stay safe, laugh with the crowd, not find yourself the butt of the audience's and the guru's - laughter.

The Laughing Audience as Accomplice to the Guru

A thought question. Just what would Moo be without that laughing audience as his accomplice, eh?

Giggling is also a space filler, a useful way to dodge questions.

Maharishi was a giggler. One guy at a cult recover conferance told us that
during his time in TM, he said he estimatd that through his unpaid labor, he'd earned a hundred thousand dollars for TM and its giggling guru. (His words)

It is disarming when a power holder giggles.

Giggling is also a useful way to dodge questions.

A list:

Poonja (aka Papaji)

Search term:s Poonja laughter

[www.google.com]

Search terms: Poojja giggling

[www.google.com]

Quote

When she returned to Lucknow she shared how difficult the journey was in satsang with Papaji. He smiled and replied, 'I wondered why you wanted to teach in Bodhgaya,' as his famous giggle echoed around the satsang hall.

[kosi.co]

Maharishi Maheshi Yogi (TM) He was known as the Giggling Guru. It may be that other gurus have appropriated his technique.

[www.google.com]

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Art of Living -- he stole his modus operandi from Maharishi)

[www.google.com] is a common guru trick. It is disarming when a power holder giggles. Giggling is also a useful way to dodge questions.sri+ravi+shankar+giggling+laugh&oq=sri+sri+ravi+shankar+giggling+laugh&gs_l=psy-ab.12..33i160l2.36482.38809..41336...0.0..0.165.869.0j6......0....1..gws-wiz.......33i299j33i22i29i30.SLjo506q5-I

Rajneesh (renamed Osho after his scandalous downfall)

This dude played satsang audiences like a violin.

Quote from transcript:

[www.oshoworld.com]

Quote

I have known one person who does not need to be tickled. Just from far away you make the gesture, and that is enough. Here there is also one person, everybody knows her. She is sitting so buddha-like, but just if I do this right now…

(The Master jiggles his fingers in a tickling gesture towards Avirbhava, who shrieks in surprise. Each time he "tickles," everyone roars with laughter, and the Master himself is chuckling behind his sunglasses. He alternates his tickling gestures with a series of hand movements to calm us down…Until the next outbreak of laughter.)

And where is Anando?

(The Master, spotting Anando, begins to jiggle his hand in her direction and is laughing himself. More waves of laughter.)

That is Anando, I could see.

This is the only way buddhahood arises: the master has to tickle. Now do you see the effect? I have not even tickled Avirbhava, neither have I tickled Anando, and you are all laughing!

(More "tickles" and more laughter ensue.)

This tickling is called, in the sutras, The Great Transmission. I have not even touched…

(He "tickles" several people, laughing, and everyone is carried along with him again.)

The master can only create a device. The device has no logical connection. Now do you see why you are laughing? Of course Avirbhava, at least, is tickled from far away—remote control. But why are you laughing? I have a remote control…

(The Master demonstrates his remote control on Avirbhava, and we all laugh some more. He laughs, and then motions to her to be still.)

Calm down. Just sit like a buddha…close your eyes (He giggles)…look inside.

(Another burst of laughter.)…

You have just seen it. Do you want to see it again?

(The Master begins to "tickle" again provoking waves of laughter, with a few chuckles from him.)

I have two remote controls—one for Avirbhava and the other for Anando. Wherever they are in the universe…just tickle and they will laugh. And with them, others will laugh for no reason at all.

I want you to understand: enlightenment is so light, so loving, so peaceful—just like a laughter. The theologians have made it so heavy, so burdensome, that people ignore it. Enlightenment should also be entertainment at the same time.

Corboy moralizes) "Entertainment". Disciples' children neglected. Antelope Valley Oregon intimidated. Salad bar poisoned with bacteria by Raj disciples to sway election turnout in favor of the ashram. Entertainment, indeed.

An anecdote by a man who visited Muktananda - and had the independance not to be intimidated.

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[www.kundaliniconsortium.org]

I can’t remember if he asks for questions, I just remember my hand being in the air at a particular moment and his pointing at me. The noise level drops to zero as I stammer forth. Can’t remember my exact words, only a paraphrase:

“I recently spent one year in isolation, meditating. During this time hidden channels in my body were awakened…and eventually energy streamed into a place…a location in my head…that I can only call the third eye. Now, it continues on its own without my intervention, and my head cracks while it does…”

The Guru interrupts me. His acolytes turn their faces expectantly, as if ready to savor his reaction. My fellow floor sitters turn to stare at me.

“It is not possible. The head does not crack. There are no muscles in the head…” replies Muktananda.

Giggles and titters, as if the crowd were saying, “You don’t know that, stupid? Everyone knows that!”

“Then something is cracking in every room I’ve occupied…”
“It wasn’t your head.”

“It must have been the radiators then,” says someone in the crowd.

More derisive laughter. I’m not so much annoyed by people laughing at me as by the complete refusal to accept the possibility of a head cracking. That’s what growth is all about, from infancy to maturity—the head changing imperceptibly over time.

“That is impossible; the skull cannot crack,” he continues.
“But can it change its shape?”
“That is another matter.”

He whispers to someone behind him in a light green robe. Everybody rises. Question time is over.

In his denial, is he saying that it didn’t happen to him so therefore it couldn’t happen…period? I don’t put any limits on the power inside me.
Obviously, once maturity is reached, cracking might be difficult, but not impossible. Being him, I would have wanted to hear more. Being me, I believed he could look at me and see my inner workings, and therefore know I was telling the truth.

So, I am disappointed, but not much. It only reinforces what I’ve learned. I figure I need a few experiences like this to learn to ignore conventional wisdom.

(deleted for brevity - Corboy)

Good for you, I say to myself while walking into the bistro across the street from the ashram. You got laughed at and you deserved it. Now wake up, continue on your way, and forget conventional wisdom—even from the mouths of the so-called enlightened.

Muktananda

[www.google.com]

Gurumayi

[www.google.com]

Frederick Lenz III (aka Zen Master Rama)

[www.google.com]

Amma Ammachi

[www.google.com]

Andrew Cohen

Quote

The "A" List of Andrew Cohen: A Catalog of Trauma and Abuse, Hal ...
www.integralworld.net/blacker3.html
Jul 18, 2013 - Read also: "Andrew Cohen and the Fall of the Mythic Guru in an Age of ..... ridiculing, laughing at, insulting and dismissing other teachers, ...

Quote

What Happens When Your Guru Disappears? - The Daily Beast
[www.thedailybeast.com]
Mar 27, 2015 - The controversial American spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen did just that about ... accompanied by his particularly annoying, cackling laughter.