Hi PapajisaysNO,
Thank you for sharing your very in-depth account of your time with Moo. I can relate to everything you have written. I never went to Monte Saharja, but I did get intensely involved with the online Moo Sangha, there for a while.
It's fascinating that some people, including Khrishnabai, believe that Moo is God. Strangely enough, I can understand it, because that is what he seems to be promoting himself as, although he never comes right out and says it, of course.
But once you are in such a state where you are effected by his trance-like monologues.... You are very, very open to suggestion and Moo subtly hints that he is all-wise, all-knowing, and that he alone has the power to reveal the real truth.... the Ultimate Truth. Of course, if you did believe in God to begin with, you could easily start to associate Moo with God. It is not such a big leap of faith, really.
I see how it could happen.
What most concerns me about your testimony is the level of fear you describe in the Moo compound. People feel afraid to leave... and so they stay. People feel afraid to speak the truth in front of Moo, and so they tell lies. It must be a very unsatisfying way to live.... It must be like being in a psychological prison.... which is what a cult is, I suppose.
People describe staying in cults even when they absolutely knew for certain that all kinds of abuse was being perpetrated. But they were able to somehow justify the need for such abuse.... After all the leader was God-like and God would know what was good for them. The cult members know longer knew what was right.... Or wrong.
You see it again and again, where ex-cult members say that their Guru did some pretty weird stuff, but they dismissed it as being necessary to "wake them up". This creates a culture where the leader, the "Guru" (or whatever he or she might call themselves,) can do no wrong.
The cult members live in absolute fear of putting a foot wrong, but the Guru is always in the right.
Thank you for sharing your very in-depth account of your time with Moo. I can relate to everything you have written. I never went to Monte Saharja, but I did get intensely involved with the online Moo Sangha, there for a while.
It's fascinating that some people, including Khrishnabai, believe that Moo is God. Strangely enough, I can understand it, because that is what he seems to be promoting himself as, although he never comes right out and says it, of course.
But once you are in such a state where you are effected by his trance-like monologues.... You are very, very open to suggestion and Moo subtly hints that he is all-wise, all-knowing, and that he alone has the power to reveal the real truth.... the Ultimate Truth. Of course, if you did believe in God to begin with, you could easily start to associate Moo with God. It is not such a big leap of faith, really.
I see how it could happen.
What most concerns me about your testimony is the level of fear you describe in the Moo compound. People feel afraid to leave... and so they stay. People feel afraid to speak the truth in front of Moo, and so they tell lies. It must be a very unsatisfying way to live.... It must be like being in a psychological prison.... which is what a cult is, I suppose.
People describe staying in cults even when they absolutely knew for certain that all kinds of abuse was being perpetrated. But they were able to somehow justify the need for such abuse.... After all the leader was God-like and God would know what was good for them. The cult members know longer knew what was right.... Or wrong.
You see it again and again, where ex-cult members say that their Guru did some pretty weird stuff, but they dismissed it as being necessary to "wake them up". This creates a culture where the leader, the "Guru" (or whatever he or she might call themselves,) can do no wrong.
The cult members live in absolute fear of putting a foot wrong, but the Guru is always in the right.