CULT ENTRAPMENT BY PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL MEANS My researches based on long experience by Robert Priddy From my former deep engagement in Sathya Sai Baba and his works, at least I have learned very much through personal experience about how the mind works and can project so much outwards, even when one is initially very critical-minded and well-versed in science and philosophy. Once the investigative plunge into belief is taken, an almost irreversible process starts... and then such human needs for greater meaning and purpose can be manipulated very subtly by people like Sathya Sai Baba, using all the tricks of Indian religious traditions accumulated through centuries, bolstered by blind followers and authoritarian-cultish organisations run by unscrupulous fanatics.

'Spiritual Doublethink'	Conformity to the core belief system	Fundamentalist guru trap exploitation	Gurus and Authoritarian Power
Personal Disempowerment	How traditional gurus operate	What point in tests of faith?	More tests of faith and trials
The 'Mirror Trap'	The psychology of belief and doubt	How perceptions of Sai Baba develop	How the form binds & stunts
Beguiled by Sathya Sai Baba	Is Sai Baba only as one imagines him?	Complex confusion - the labyrinth trap	False promises of health & protection
Dreams of Sai Baba	Hidden fear of Sai Baba as 'the Avatar'	Induction through singing bhajans	Realised persons' qualities
Reactions to this crisis of faith	Escapism in a spiritual guise	The Nectar that turns into Opium	Indoctrination by design
Misunderstood Self-denial	‘Group think’ & Psychic Manipulation	Projecting one’s inherent power onto the guru	Conformity to core beliefs

Monkey Minds?

The nature of 'brainwashing'

Positive suggestion & charismatic attraction

On self de-programming