Cults, sects, gurus…

picture taken from here.

Miller writes in “Paths of Life” in the last chapter ”Reflections” about leaders and gurus, that we see many problems in a new light when (and if) we take the childhood dimension into account in our trials to explain them. Today we live in a time (era) when dictatorships seem to be replaced with democracies.

But at the same time we see how totalitarian systems grow up in different sects, which people voluntarily enter. People who have grown up in freedom and with respect and whose individuality (distinctive character) in childhood has been tolerated and not been constricted with the help of education, would hardly voluntarily let themselves be drawn into or at least not stay, if they by coincidence or through skillful manipulations would land there.

And if you are drawn into sects or cults it’s not because you are weak or have some sort of weakness you are born with (I think).

I was tipped about “Alcoholics Anonymous as a Cult” and “Boot Camps: Children’s Gulags or Child Abuse for Fun and Profit.”

And this really made me think further…

Oh, the nature is exploding?? It has been sun and a blue sky many days in a row!

Addition: what makes people drawn to bad circumstances, that are harmful for them? Can we avoid it? Prevent it? How?

Oh, how I long for summer...

A "good" advice...

An adviser (therapist) to a client:

"You let them get power over you!!"

Yes, of course!! It is she who lets them! It's her own fault!

But why does she "let them"? Because she is sadomasochist? Because she enjoys being badly treated, ignored, made small and invisible and as nothing??

Jenson in her book about Jane at pages 27-28 a little freely:

"Jane has learned how to pose boundaries, with her husband and against his demands on visiting his family of origin every Christmas, going fishing on [his?] vacations. She has learned that the children shall have a say too in all these things. She doesn't allow her [male] coworker to put his arm around her any more, She doesn't call her mom many times a year to 'make her' go to mammography. She has created routines for how to share things in the household etc."

But despite all this she still feels hurt, angry, embittered, set aside, afraid of saying and even for thinking some things. She can't just relax and read a book or take a walk. She still belittles herself, feels insufficient as wife and mother and wonders if she is doing good enough at work. She even thinks she is mean to her husband and children and that she should have to control her temper a little better. Insights she has developed in parallel with her new understanding of herself (from AA- and CODA-groups).

Now blaming herself even more...

Addition in the evening: I searched on Psychedelic and saw it stood about MKULTRA in the Wikipedia article, the experiments Ewen Cameron was involved with… I think these things can be very damaging… And using them as a tool in therapy I don't believe in. They can cause more harm than good, and have done so.