Hi Heather,
There's a lot of similarity between your cult experience with James and mine (in another cult-group 25 years ago). Fortunately in my group there was no drugging and sexually abusing people in the time I was there (later I found out that the leader did sexually abuse his own daughter (who was part of the group) when she was around 15 years old, before I joined). I was also someone with family problems, looking for a father figure without knowing it.
The leader was always talking, and the rest listened. He talked so much and so convincingly that our inner thoughts started parroting his words (and his unique lingo), and when we talked amongst ourselves (when the leader wasn't there), we were also still parroting him. The group had their own company (where I worked also) and we lived together, so the members were dependent on their position in the group for having food and shelter. This dependence makes people extra vulnerable to being mind-controlled.
It seems that the fact that James had discovered a dimension of consciousness (in India) that's mostly unknown in the West (especially back then), and that he learned a sophisticated system (vedanta) to develop that, made him extra dangerous, because he used it to manipulate other people so that he could fulfill his desires. What a wicked thing to do...
There's a lot of similarity between your cult experience with James and mine (in another cult-group 25 years ago). Fortunately in my group there was no drugging and sexually abusing people in the time I was there (later I found out that the leader did sexually abuse his own daughter (who was part of the group) when she was around 15 years old, before I joined). I was also someone with family problems, looking for a father figure without knowing it.
The leader was always talking, and the rest listened. He talked so much and so convincingly that our inner thoughts started parroting his words (and his unique lingo), and when we talked amongst ourselves (when the leader wasn't there), we were also still parroting him. The group had their own company (where I worked also) and we lived together, so the members were dependent on their position in the group for having food and shelter. This dependence makes people extra vulnerable to being mind-controlled.
It seems that the fact that James had discovered a dimension of consciousness (in India) that's mostly unknown in the West (especially back then), and that he learned a sophisticated system (vedanta) to develop that, made him extra dangerous, because he used it to manipulate other people so that he could fulfill his desires. What a wicked thing to do...