CULT ENTRAPMENT

INDOCTRINATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL ENTRAPMENT IN A CULTIST MOVEMENT

Exemplified on many levels by the huge personality cult around Sathya Sai Baba, through traditionalist religious teachings combined with the guru mystique based on constant indoctrination, enforcement of regulations and self-programming by those who join, whether in the Sathya Sai organisation or in the movement in general.

• WHAT IS A CULT? On the general issue of cultism and a critical discussion of the indicators of charismatic cults - political, social, and religious -and the Sathya Sai Baba sect as a cult
• THE GURU PAPERS by Joel Kramer and Diane Alstead - on spirituality and authoritarian power
• THE FUNDAMENTALIST 'GURU TRAP' EXPLOITATION Part 1 a many-sided system of control over persons exercised by gurus, swamis, godmen, masters, saints, avatars as exemplified through Sathya Sai Baba
• THE FUNDAMENTALIST 'GURU TRAP' EXPLOITATION Part 2 reference to ' The Guru Papers' by Kramer and Alstad - on gurus' narcissism, authority and power and control and manipulation (as in Sai Baba)
• THE 'GURU TRAP' AS CATCH 22, THE NO-WIN SITUATION How most traditional Indian gurus and swamis to attract, indoctrinate and entrap. Two Indian Swamis - Ambikananda and Sathya Sai Baba
• THE SAI BABA PERSONALITY CULT reasons as to why and how it operates
  
• THE TRAP OF 'DOUBLETHINK' IN SPIRITUALITY OR RELIGION How one becomes indoctrinated through a 'doublethink' system of dual interpretation - worldly vs. otherworldly.
• THE SPIRITUAL 'MIRROR TRAP' as used by Sathya Sai Baba to avert scrutiny of himself and confuse followers into self-programming of his doctrine. This idea is the mechanism of denial used by devotees - that Sai Baba is only what we imagine him to be
• SAI BABA AS AN UNKNOWABLE 'COSMIC MIRROR' His doctrine of reflection, resound and reaction.
• BELIEVERS' SYSTEMATIC MISINTERPRETATION OF SATHYA SAI BABA'S SIMPLE WORDS
  how followers learn 'correct' interpretations of Sai Baba's words and actions from others, the standard but often highly mistaken answers to all doubts
• DISEMPOWERMENT THROUGH WORSHIP OF SATHYA SAI BABA - IN SIX PARTS A series of articles studying in depth effects of mental, emotional and social dependencies:-
  1- THE NECTAR THAT TURNS TO OPIUM -   2- ESCAPISM IN A SPIRITUAL GUISE 
  3- PROJECTING ONE'S INHERENT POWERS -  4- MISUNDERSTOOD SELF-DENIAL
  5 - SAI 'GROUPTHINK' -       6- PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF FUNDAMENTALIST TENETS
• HIDDEN FEAR OF SAI BABA 'AVATAR'
• ASSOCIATION WITH SATHYA SAI BABA'S CRITICS STRICTLY AVOIDED BY DEVOTEES
  
• THE ENTICEMENT OF SINGING AND MUSIC - SAI BHAJANS and how group singing is arranged & run
  
• WHAT IS THE POINT OF A 'TEST OF FAITH' As Sathya Sai Baba practises
• MORE ON 'TESTS OF FAITH' with specific examples of Sai devotees
• ON GETTING TO THE TRUTH - how conditioning by one's own belief entraps in delusions
• A TYPICAL SAI CULT SUPPORTER - RITA BRUCE How deluded a Sai hagiographer came to be
• WHY THE SATHYA SAI ORGANIZATION IS A CULT Point-by-point rebuttal - with documentation- of Rita Bruce's arguments on the question
  
• THE CULT OF SATHYA SAI BABA How I came to break out of the subtle and widely woven web of deceptions that kept me and millions deceived, and how difficult such a step can be.
• DEVELOPING PERCEPTIONS AND 'UNDERSTANDING' OF SAI BABA Some of the ways in which one is drawn to and held by the charisma and social environment of Sai Baba, how perceptions of him are 'trained' and 'purified' to conform with group expectations.
• GENERAL QUESTIONS OF BELIEF, MENTAL TRAPS, FAITH AND DOUBT How religious or spiritual faith can mislead, induce bizarre experiences and its severe consequences like suffering, derangement, war, genocide, and debasement of the human spirit
• SAI BABA ABUSE OF FAITH That Sathya Sai Baba has seriously beguiled his followers and abused people's trust and faith in him.
• SAI BABA JUDGES OTHERS FOR 'SINS' HE COMMITS HIMSELF
• TYPICAL REACTIONS BY DEVOTEES TO ABUSES OF FAITH Three response patterns
• HOW THE FORM BINDS Comment by a mature UK ex-follower of Sai Baba
• PAINTING ONESELF IN TO THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND ITS CULT How identity becomes bound to one's involvement in the Sai movement and its aims
• WHY NOT CLEAR ALL DOUBTS Sai Baba is secretive and does not answer questions he does not like.
  

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