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Is this a cult?

Leafy

Patron
I stumbled upon a group, possibly a brand new baby cult, or maybe a fetus of a cult, starting only late last year.

They have got a lot of good culty ingredients going strong right away out of the gate:

  • Charismatic leader - brilliant guy, fascinating, dominating, massive personality, manipulator, loves to play at the edge of sanity.
  • Followers, called liberators, take on aspects of leader's personality.
  • Liberators utilize a formula in dealing with others.
  • Critics are demonized, called "malevolent," etc., followers who do not agree with leader's philosophies are rejected and demonized as critics.
  • Any competing schools of thought are demonized as well.
  • Liberators are degraded if they are not tough enough in "freeing" new people or tough enough in dealing with critics.
  • The group keeps a list of "freed" people, and each liberator keeps a tally of his or her successes.
  • Liberators compete for "scalps," i.e., raw meat targets and successes.
  • Liberators target online communities as hunting grounds, often targeting individuals - "so and so is MINE. I will free him!"
  • The group is web-based and I've heard that none of them make efforts to "free" people in the real world, only online, targeting any Eastern Tradition or New Age spiritual groups in hunting activities.
  • "Ends justifies the means" mentality, any dishonesty in accessing targets is excused by the "for the good of humanity" nonsense.
  • The group and its activities, as well as much of the leader's writings, are framed in terms of battle, war, conquest.
There's probably more that I'm not thinking of right now.

Here's the real kicker: this group offers something that is real and true, something that bat shit Hubbard never dreamed of - a state of no-self, freedom from ego, resulting in wide-open perception and dissolution of anxieties, worries, all kinds of stuff. Some of you may be familiar with this state through Buddhist teachings. This is anatta, Essence of Mind, Buddha-mind, no-self, the Void, and other terms.

I have experienced this myself, although not through this group (thank goodness). It is a profound shift in perception that changes life completely. This guy is literally streaming people through this gate of no-self perception by the dozen. It's truly amazing. Never seen anything like it.

This shift in perception is a real experience, something Ron might have stumbled onto himself if he wasn't so in love with his own ego. Rather than offering freedom, he created for himself and followers a SuperSelf, trillions of years old, superpowers, you all know. But I believe Ron likely experienced glimpses of anatta and misinterpreted it as self with godly powers or something and then proceeded to distort it into what we know of as OT, i.e., a solid path away from anything like true freedom.

This is why some scientology processes offer relief, although not freedom. In scientology, any relief or increase in awareness, as you all know, is captured through attests, thanking Ron, and other things so that the person's gratitude and feeling of freedom is funneled straight into the cult's aims.

This group does something similar. After the moment of shift in perception, the newly enlightened are nurtured by this aggressive group and are encouraged to read all the leader's philosophical work and to go out and share freedom with others, using the same quick and dirty method that they underwent. If they do not begin liberating others, they are berated and called malevolent, etc., suspended or kicked out altogether.

Anyway, yeah, that gem of truth they offer is real. The rest is quite disturbing.

Your thoughts?
 

Leafy

Patron
Wildcat, ruthless truth dot com.

I don't want hits on the site showing as coming from here. Some of them have connections to a certain underground hacker group.

The method is to look and see that there is no self.
 

Krautfag

Patron Meritorious
oy.

I hadn't seen those people before.
Their forum looks.....as if would contain an enourmous amount of potential lulz. :coolwink:

Apart from the lulzy selfimportance they seem to heavily tend to self-denial ("there is no I") with a naturalistic explanation for being ("life lives"), overall a little like Philipp Buonarotti meets the Green Party.
 

LongTimeGone

Silver Meritorious Patron
If it looks like a cult, smells like a cult and tastes like a cult, it probably is a cult.

Be careful you don't step in it.

LTG
 

ClamSource

Patron with Honors
A group that offers freedom from ego has its members competing between themselves for new recruits? How does that work? Quite apart from the cult aspect, I can't see this as a workable group dynamic, based as it is on such a fundamental contradiction.

Is it a cult? Depends what you mean by a cult obviously, but I'm not seeing the systematic denial of access to information or the right to free association. Sounds like there may be aspects of thought control. Of course there are many groups that wish to spread their ideas, and this alone doesn't make them a cult. The need to surrender ego should raise red flags whether or not this is a cult. This can be a road to taking advantage of people.

My prognosis? Doesn't sound like it has enough of the cultic milieu elements to create a self sustaining cult dynamic. Unless they truly have something to offer, can't see it will amount to anything.
 

Leafy

Patron
Which country are you writing from?
USA, but the group is web based with members all over the world, I think mainly UK and USA.

A group that offers freedom from ego has its members competing between themselves for new recruits? How does that work?
I know right. lolz.

I'm not seeing the systematic denial of access to information or the right to free association.
Big plus, yes.

My prognosis? Doesn't sound like it has enough of the cultic milieu elements to create a self sustaining cult dynamic. Unless they truly have something to offer, can't see it will amount to anything.

They do truly have something to offer. That's the problem.

We shall see, though. I'm thinking it will morph into something less aggressive eventually. Keeping my eye on it.
 
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