My curosity with Thomas' experience (being in a cult) is more about the relationship with other members. Was it a supported environment?
PART ONE Of TWO POSTS
Take the example of two people who fall in love. Hopefully, the relationship is marked by a deep caring concern for the well-being of the other, something that goes further than one's own validation (trophy husband or wife) or one's own gratification!
In the early days, that feeling was communal. And nearly chaste. Or maybe communal, but not chaste, but there was a real sense of 'community'. I remember a request at the end of one meeting (we were a few hundred strong by then). A young single mum with a baby had been moved into really shabby unfurnished accommodation. A call went out for any old furniture anyone could spare ... the grapevine lit up. We blitzed the flat, it was rewired, decorated and furnished over the next week. She was showered with gifts. An excess of furniture. We all believed we were in 'something special' and we were all in it together ... Having said that, there were those who treated the place like a 'knocking shop' (if you get that phrase) and this
was the 70s. Nobody's perfect.
More than I can put into words. I was introduced into 'the occult'. I got to know and work with 'presences'. I studied the divinatory arts.
I did a Tarot reading for someone once. 'Got a question?' I asked. 'Yes,' was the reply. 'Think it, don't say it'. We turned the cards and I did the reading. Throughout the reading I described her interior state using an analogy of a walled garden. I waffled on. She was in tears at the end (of release, she told me later). It turned out she had an image in her head of the place she wanted to live, and hunted for a good few years for the place that matched her dreams. 'What was it you were looking for?' I asked her. 'A walled garden,' she told me. Did I see it in the cards, the tea-leaves, the entrails (actually no ... we didn't do entrails), the crystal ball, the palm of the hand ... nope ... I cared. I listened. Nothing 'magic'. We can all do it ... if we have a true heart ... and maybe the gift of the gab.
In Turkey in the 13th century lived a Sufi we know in the West as Mullah Nasruddin. He is acclaimed by Afghans, Iranians, Uzbeks, and Arabs, as well as the Turkic Xinjiang area of western China. Since the Seljuk empire of 1000-1400 stretched from Turkey to the Punjab in India, his stories went from east to west and all points in between.
'How do you say such wise things?' someone asked him once. 'I have no idea,' he said. 'I just talk all the time, and when I see people's eyes light up, I listen to what I'm saying ...' Clever man.
Another time me and another guy were running a small group. Two women had been among the first, but they had 'history' and were gonna leave because they were 'unworthy'. We suggested a coffee and a chat. Now we were 'ushers' as the group leaders were called, and we were treated like royalty. Didn't ask for it, that's just the respect we had for the hierarchy. We were the same to our ushers (including the founder, whom was distant already), we were taught by the top guys. We had 'mystique'.
Walking out to the car, we naturally opened the doors for the 'ladies' (we were all 'men' and 'ladies'). Turned out the girls had wound up broke in Amsterdam, and earned their passage home on their backs. No-one had ever opened a car door for them before (without expecting something for it.) That simple act changed them both. They found themselves 'respected'. Job done. The coffee was just the filling in of the details. The trick with bad karma is to put it down and walk away.
Later, at another group, we arranged for one of the big names to come and spend time. 'Tell me which ones you're screwing,' he said. Our outrage was incandescent. We don't do that, 'that's well out of order' (we were Londoners). He laughed. 'You'll be the first,' he said. We thought he was joking ... sadly, no.
A strong supported communtity atmosphere?
In the early days. I remember bumping into a fellow student in the street. You have to understand we lived in two worlds. Our world, and the world. The two don't mix. But here was this guy from so-and-so's circle, while he and I were going about our daily lives in 'the world'. Can't explain it. Our world was in colour, the world was in black and white. It was like we knew we were in 'the matrix' while everyone around us had no idea. We stood in the middle of the busiest street in London, shaking hands ... for about five minutes. Just standing there, hands locked (I'm a firm handshake guy), grinning at each other.
Was participation 100% free choice.
Yes, but coercion is subtle, and even unintentional. We were ardent. Our world was all that mattered. The only one that counted.
Indeed, quite aware I am of the misdeeds of cults that make newspaper headlines - but this cannot be a fair representation of the majority? Or am I in one of my unrealistic bubbles? If so, feel free to POP it.
We (the good guys) had this thoroughly chivalric image of the feminine gender. It puts women on a pedestal, but it also put them in a box. They become idealised and even totemic – but they cease to be who they actually are, they are seen against the ideal of the 'type'.
So the men did all the 'work'. The 'ladies' acted as 'back-up'. The idea being that as well as our own processing of presences – 'being moved by it' when we were on the floor in lecture, and I lectured sometimes seven nights a week for years, the back-up ladies would process presences on our behalf for us to work with, but women didn't work direct. They could do Tarot, palmistry, herbalism and healing, but the real work was teaching, and that was for men to do. 'I have it to do' was something we used to say, very grandly!
So it was very Patriarchal with a capital 'P'. Hierarchical with a capital 'H'.
In the end the founder relocated to the US, established the group as a religion for tax purposes, and lived in a multi-million dollar mansion in Florida while people gave every spare penny they had in subscriptions ... He and his two sons were the only ones who enjoyed the financial benefit. They lived like rock stars. I was working during the day, and teaching from 7.30-11.00 at night for the love of it, and petrol expenses.
I left work Friday, went to my meeting, then a hamburger at an all-nighter, then me and my pal split an overnight drive to the North of England, hit the floor for our circle on Saturday and Sunday, then drove back through the night Sunday and went to work Monday morning ...
So the trick is you have no time for the world. You're too busy. I didn't see my mum and dad and sisters for months on end.
We got bigger. Groups in the US, Israel ... but the spirit went out of it, and it became a different thing altogether.
SECOND PART FOLLOWS
