tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post4750341202424665711..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: You Know, Nobody Is Forcing You to Stay in Your Idiotic Robot CultDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-21519006498657129942011-09-20T08:57:53.234-07:002011-09-20T08:57:53.234-07:00> Nobody is forcing you to be members of a Spec...> Nobody is forcing you to be members of a Special Movement. . .<br /><br />Ah, that's a deep and subtle question. Of course, no particular<br />person (at least in the vast majority of cases) is forcing<br />anybody to be a member of a Special Movement.<br /><br />There are nevertheless powerful social and psychological<br />forces that lead people to wind up in such movements<br />(and to resist strongly being disabused of their cosmic<br />significance).<br /><br />from _Dream Catcher: A Memoir_ by Margaret A. Salinger<br />[daughter of author J. D. Salinger]<br />(Washington Square Press, 2000)<br />http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671042823/<br />----------------------------<br />Human beings, when chartless, seek a stable point of<br />reference. . . This is true whether they be wise men<br />in the desert or thirsty fools who pass by an oasis<br />in pursuit of a mirage -- reckoning dead wrong.<br /><br />A few years ago, my mother sent me a book, _Cults and<br />Consequences_ [Rachel Anders and James R. Lane, eds.,<br />Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles, 1988] in<br />response to my questions about my father's involvement<br />in and donations to everything from Zen Buddhists,<br />Vedanta Hindus, Yogananda's Self-Realization Church,<br />Christian Science, L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology,<br />followers of Edgar Cayce, George Ohsawa's macrobiotics,<br />Eastern medicines, and a hodgepodge of practices<br />including drinking one's urine, speaking in tongues,<br />and sitting in a Reichian orgone box. This book<br />proved an invaluable starting place for unraveling<br />the mystery of my father's journey's through the<br />looking glass.<br /><br />What I began to understand is that the content of<br />what my mother called isms doesn't matter, it may<br />be truth or absolute rubbish: it's what a cult<br />does to the mind of a believer as well as the way<br />in which the believer embraces the belief -- the<br />particular characteristics of the relation between<br />believer and belief -- that earns it the designation<br />_cult_ rather than _religion_ or _belief_ or<br />_philosophy_. . .<br /><br />The existential state of the typical person who, upon<br />encountering a cult, is likely to become a follower<br />reads like a description of most of my father's<br />characters, and indeed, or my father himself.<br />Many studies of cult phenomena have found that the<br />appeal of the cult depends "largely on the weakness<br />and vulnerability that all of us feel during key<br />stress periods in life. At the time of recruitment,<br />the person is often mildly depressed, in transition,<br />and feeling somewhat alienated." [Robert W. Dellinger,<br />_Cults and Kids_] One study, in particular, of<br />those who become involved in cults, speaks directly<br />to the vulnerability of my father and his characters<br />who "just got out": "Leaving any restricted<br />community can pose problems -- leaving the Army for<br />civilian life is hard, too . . . many suffered from<br />depression . . . loneliness, anomie [Margaret Thaler<br />Singer, "Coming out of the Cults," _Psychology Today_,<br />January 1979], or what can be referred to as<br />"future void." They're standing at the edge, as Holden<br />[the protagonist of Salinger's _The Catcher in the Rye_]<br />said, of "some crazy cliff," looking for a catcher. . .<br />Many of those who join cults find "close relationships<br />with like-minded others" [A study conducted by the<br />Jewish Community Relations Committee of Philadelphia<br />asked former cult members to list their reasons<br />for joining. The committee found that, in order<br />of relative importance, the number one reason was<br />loneliness and the need for friendship. "More than<br />any other factor, the desire for uncomplicated<br />warmth and acceptance . . . leads people into<br />cults."] . . .jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com