Cult Bible

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Leaving Alf T

Leaving Alf

IN psychoanalytical theory there are many mental processes and formations that make the mind able to reach compromise solutions to problems that it is unable to resolve. Such largely unconscious compromises tend to involve hiding from oneself internal drives or feelings that threaten to lower self-esteem or provoke anxiety. The psychoanalyst views defense mechanisms as part of every neurotic structure. But defensive activity is in itself considered no sign of pathology. [Ebu "defence mechanism"]
Idyllisation suggests one is sustaining a wrong notion that a situation is pleasing or good (idyllic), while it is far from it. Opposed to it, "moving on" serves some, but there are good ways to do it and other ways. Moving on has been an issue for some QUAG serfs (devotees) and friends of Sir Alf. Attachment - for example to QUAG - can be hard to deal with, and that is one more basic problem to many.
Most of these gleanings are from the QUAG related SRF Walrus discussion board. In the clippings that are brought into system below, the "move on"-emphasis has been added for easy identification. Comments are added.

You are to drop the emotional attachments to Sir Alf the sooner the better

A. Stop drawling "move on" indiscriminatingly

Dwapara Yuga keeps moving forward inexorably. [Should Free (1/20/02 11:41 pm)]

COMMENT: The post has a rather fatalistic ring to it. It presents the concept of time periods, eras, or yugas. There is no particular good reason to think the Bronze Age (Dwapara) is here now; nor is the Age of Aquarius.
Moving on means many different things. Some drop QUAG but stick to Sir Alf, and some leave both QUAG and its hovering Sir Alf.
Guilt or no guilt: leaving one's identity-fostering group, like QUAG is a guilt issue.

B. Maybe moving on does not work

Could you please post the contact info for the Pasadena therapist . . . ? He/she is obviously familiar with QUAG and the many issues that have arisen for those who struggle to move on. [InSearch (1/12/02 7:34 pm)]

It just may be that the QUAG environment just did not work for many people, monastics and lay members, alike . . . As the former Sister Dhriti allegedly said to her fellow nuns, "I am leaving because I can no longer grow spiritually in this place." [chuckle chela (10/29/02 7:48 pm)]

I have moved on to another guru, but I am still working all this out in my head, trying to understand it all. [nagchampa2 (2/11/04 5:28 pm)]

COMMENT: A cult may cause or aggravate many problems for members who (a) did not adapt full well in the large society, and (c) did not adapt full well in the cult setting.
Some say that a person is mentally healthy if he is able to function reasonably well. Others, like Adler, say good adaptation is marked by the ability to enjoy and work. Others say that a person is healthy mentally if he behaves like most of his fellows. That view is likely to be unsound where the conformism is dangerous, harmful. Also, according to Abraham Maslow, common people are rarely a good yardstick of man's inherent capacity, for many live unfulfilled lives. Maslow sought out the hallmarks of the elite instead, and was happy so far.
Health concerns mind, body, and adaptations in the environment. Now compare the saying, "Cheat me once, shame on you. Cheat me twice, shame on me." The planet is not well run by and large. It suggests that mankind is footlose and needs a sound, inner foundation.
Just to move on without enough regard for the holistic health and our common foundation, the sustaining planet, may do more good than harm - or more harm than good - depending on one's luck and other factors, unforeseen ones included.
Those who defend moving on by lack of (registered) spiritual growth, have to deal with the official attitude of QUAG in the matter: that spiritual growth is not always easy to note, not always easy to become aware of, that it may take time to some, and so on. This line of thinking serves to comfort some. But the same argument is valid for spiritual retrogression and degradation too. The impoverishments deep inside can be so subtle and devious that the victims of a groaning fare do not become aware of them for tens of years, even. It is a theoretical possibility.
You can help yourself to keep your soundness by many means. They include dream interpretations, and feeling deeply into subjects - Carl Rogers' method - as they come your way. Knowledge of what marks moral development could also be a help, even a comfort. Maslow finds, again, that the common man and woman are not the best witnesses around. The best witnesses distort less and register more true to fact than most people. They are more clear-headed. They look like Winners in Transactional Analysis (TA). Maslow thinks that

"serious" people are coming so close together as to suggest that they are becoming a single party of mankind, the earnest ones, the seeking, questioning, probing ones, the ones who are not sure, the ones with a "tragic sense of life," the explorers of the depths and of the heights, the "saving remnant." . . . Almost, we could say, we wind up with adults . . . [Rvl, ch 8]

Maslow sees it fit to "produce the good human being, to foster the good life and the good society. Renouncing this is like renouncing the reality and the desirability of morals and ethics [Ibid]."
You have to matter to be heard, most likely. Therefore, do not give away your hard-won assets.
Here is a deep problem: Sir Alf has tied those who swallowed his bait and became members of his QUAG church. A dreadful kriya pledge scares many from leaving, obviously. Alf says that several incarnations, at least, (in colossal sufferings too) must pass before one is given another such glorious chance as by formal entry into the QUAG Church. There are hard facts at the bottom of this. You find them if you follow the links.

Find out what suits yourself best. Soaring is not unfit for a bird of prey, and swimming and diving for a dolphin, and so further

C. Maybe you ought to move on if you are deeply changed thereby

Maybe its time to move on for your peace. [cf. premdas (2/14/02 9:19 pm)]

Some have suffered greatly at the hands of QUAG . . . I wonder how. [member108 (10/4/02 9:55 pm)]

COMMENT: Many attitudes of grumbling disciples appear to be encompassed by: "Take and grab, take and grab, not so much give and share any more." Buddha's counsels, if well followed, tends to one's worth and the building of resources both within and without so that you can live well, married or not.
QUAG nowadays seldom or never bring up that Sir Alf advocated dictatorship and hailed Mussolini in 1933, but he did. Simply, the sayings that a church endorses, are selected to not undermine that church. The Game of Selectivity is found.
Some have suffered greatly because of the QUAG cult. But maybe most of those who never get out of the cult, suffer too - within, in silence, brooding, and all that.
As for Sir Alf's favourite brotherhood colonies - meaning self-serving communities - they have been greatly abandoned by the current management.

D. Older folks may get uncovered and disturbed by moving

The teachings in QUAG [are] making subtle remarks about all the negative things that will happen if you leave the path, kriya, Sir Alf etc. . . . this is a very scary thing for a lot of people . . . [gardendiva (6/29/02 7:19 am)]

COMMENT: Asking for donations was a typical QUAG thing.
Without honesty to oneself, how can self-knowledge be?

While trying to understand scams and set-ups of others, favour yourself while you have such chances

E. Both hanging out and moving on may cost a lot

After having been involved with Sir Alf and QUAG for around twenty years, then becoming informed, disillusioned and now finally feeling like I've moved on, I now feel [something] . . . [milkherenow (11/14/03 10:41 am)]

Even though many other groups came forward with declarations against QUAG having the copyright on self-realization . . . QUAG was not able to accept it. [Pig Ma (3/9/02 7:01 am)]

COMMENT: Three approaches appear:

Move on and try to sort out things from then on.
Try to understand things before taking further action.
Move while you try to sort out things - as you are in a hurry.

Summary: Quite as in Zen training

If you can drop unsavoury id-based emotional leader attachments, go for it the sooner the better.
Find out what suits you best. Soaring is not unfit for a bird of prey, or swimming and diving for a dolphin, and so on.
While trying to understand scams and set-ups of others, favour yourself while you have those chances.

Drop leader attachments to find a deep friend by soaring or diving [= meditating] and swimming and understanding the chances of this and that too.

Ripping off the masks: As on a few previous pages, Sir Alf is Sri Yogananda, QUAG is the cult of SRF, Self-Realization Fellowship, and it is thought to be good to read the summaries first, to get an inkling of the line of thinking involved and key "pegs" for one's mental associations.

Literature
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.
Rvl: Maslow, Abraham. Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1964.

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