Although the founder passed in , the community in Florida remains active today. The Kashi Ashram website is aesthetically pleasing, with the main focus being on yoga. Kashi offers retreats, yoga classes, and teacher training. A section of the site is dedicated to Ma Jaya, explaining who she was and her teachings. The contact details include an address, phone number, and an email address.
There is a section for visitors, volunteers, and interns to apply. The community is based in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec, Canada. There's no shortage of controversy with the Apostles of Infinite Love and its leader since the late s, Jean Tremblay , who proclaimed himself as pope. They have been accused of rape, sexual abuse, illegal confinement, and kidnapping over the years.
There isn't too much information on their website and according to the Montreal Gazette , membership seems to be declining since Tremblay's passing in However, there are articles available to read in French or English, a mailing address, a phone number, an email, and of course, a donation option. About This Cult: The Creativity Movement is a white separatist religious group that was founded by Ben Klassen, a one-time Florida legislator and the inventor of the electric can opener, in The group believes that the white race is naturally superior and the most creative and that it's their job to safeguard white people and act in racist ways towards others.
It is only a spiritual or religious group in so much as they believe that race is their religion. To this end, they have acted in violent and hateful ways. Klassen died by suicide in , and after a few years of internal conflict, Matt Hale took over, transforming parts of the group into the World Church of the Creator.
Hale was arrested in and eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison for soliciting the murder of a federal judge and committing other felonies. Despite Hale's incarceration, members continued and some formed a new group called the Creativity Alliance. According to researchers at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Creativity Movement appears to still be going strong.
Their website includes a library with many books available for download. It also has a blog, contact addresses, emails, and a membership page, which states all of their rules to join, along with the group's message:. The Golden Rule of our religious creed is as follows: What is good for the White race is the highest virtue; what is bad for the White race is the ultimate sin. What is good for White people is good. What is bad for White people is bad. Heaven's Gate. The Family International.
The Twelve Tribes. Happy Science. Jesus People USA. Kashi Ashram. The militant frenzy of the Collective subsided, and the community was placed under the administration of the Indian government. Kapur and his wife, after nearly twenty years away, returned there to live. Kapur gives too sketchy a portrait of present-day Auroville for us to confidently judge how much of a triumph the town—population thirty-three hundred—really represents, or whether integral yoga was integral to its success.
The silos of political groupthink created by social media have turned out to be ideal settings for the germination and dissemination of extremist ideas and alternative realities. To date, the most significant and frightening cultic phenomenon to arise from social media is QAnon. According to some observers, the QAnon movement does not qualify as a proper cult, because it lacks a single charismatic leader.
Donald Trump is a hero of the movement, but not its controller. Q has not posted anything since December, but the prophecies and conspiracies have continued to proliferate. Liberals have good reason to worry about the political reach of QAnon. We harbor a general sense of superiority to those who are taken in by cults. Some cults, including Aum Shinrikyo, have attracted disproportionate numbers of highly educated, accomplished recruits.
Yet our sense that joining a cult requires some unusual degree of credulousness or gullibility persists. Few of us believe in our heart of hearts that Amy Carlson, the recently deceased leader of the Colorado-based Love Has Won cult, who claimed to have birthed the whole of creation and to have been, in a previous life, a daughter of Donald Trump , could put us under her spell.
Perhaps one way to attack our intellectual hubris on this matter is to remind ourselves that we all hold some beliefs for which there is no compelling evidence. In recent decades, scholars have grown increasingly adamant that none of our beliefs, rational or otherwise, have much to do with logical reasoning.
Not all delusions are mystical. What makes them work is not their plot but their promise: Here is an answer to the problem of how to live. Or: Here is a way to become rich beyond the dreams of avarice. In both cases, the promptings of common sense—Is it a bit odd that aliens have chosen just me and my friends to save from the destruction of America? Is it likely that Bernie Madoff has a foolproof system that can earn all his investors ten per cent a year?
And, once you have entered into the delusion, you are among people who have all made the same commitment, who are all similarly intent on maintaining the lie. Here, Hassan explains the warning signs that you or a loved one may belong to a cult, and why we're all more vulnerable than you might think. That depends on who you ask, though Merriam Webster defines a cult as both the "great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work" and as "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.
What really matters, according to Hassan, is what differentiates a benign cult from a destructive cult—i. Destructive cults often don't fit the common stereotypes of communes and matching robes. Then it's a two-week course, a six-month course. And then they want you to divorce your wife, give over your assets, and work for no money.
While no two cults are exactly alike, there's significant overlap in the methods they use to burrow into people's lives and become their primary influence. Based in research and theory from leading expert psychologists and scholars who've studied brainwashing, "BITE" stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control.
Here's a small sampling of the many practices that are listed under each subcategory; read Hassan's full BITE Model here. Any group member who encourages or enforces these behaviors should raise major red flags. Conduct your own research, and train yourself on how to spot disinformation online. Remember that Wikipedia is not a reliable source, because interested parties can edit an entry with false information. Another common cult tactic, Hassan says, is to deflect skepticism over their beliefs by placing the burden of proof on others to dis prove it.
But the believer is the one who needs to provide proof, instead of sending others into reaction mode. Not every cult has one leader at the top of the pyramid, says Hassan, but you should know the answer to some basic questions about their background.
Do they go by their birth name?
0コメント