Cult Mind Control

Documentary on Rajneesh cult:

 

This is a smash hit new documentary on Scientlogy.

 

personally, I think that the freedom to question the leader, holding him accountable and scrutiny is a legacy of our predecessors. How can we forget that no less than Sayyiduna 'Umar (raDyiAllahu'anhu) was asked to clarify his decisions more than once.

yet, when it comes to traversing the spiritual way, by a qualified mureed, who has already surpassed the majority of his fellow human beings and is on the level of a muttaqi, that is, he is poised at the door of suluk and has the entry pass, then and only then, and I can't emphasize this more, is he required to shut his eyes and suspend his critical thinking, and, in the famous words of Imam al ghazzali, become like a corpse in the hands of the washer. It is for such a mureed that the shuyukh have said, "whoever asks his shaykh 'why' shall not succeed".

Now apply the above conditions to a mureed doing bayah of barakah and lo we have a cult masquerading as a tariqah. the article posted in #248 has some good points.

 

great post by moriarty. however, i think some of the stuff mentioned is ideal world scenarios from the glory years of the ummah

most popular tariqahs with large mureed counts (valid in themselves as tariqah's) administered by pious Sunni shuyukh would find it difficult to cross out everything on that list mentioning the qualities of a cult. (notwithstanding more points to be listed out later)

although keller's cult would easily be able to tick just about every point regarding cult. (as would the cults of jifry, nazim, faraz, hanson etc.)

maybe going by the 80-20 rule is the best we can ever get in these times. if a tariqah manages to cross out 80% of the traits of a cult, it could probably be counted as a valid traiqah or at least as trying to make a genuine effort to be one.

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i do acknowledge that there would be still pious shuyukh whose mureed groups would be able to cross out all the points mentioned as traits of cults, but most certainly not the groups administered by popular shuyukh (whoever they may be) with large mureed counts.

 

Differences Between a Valid Tariqah and a Cult Claiming Tariqah.

Valid Tariqah: You are not a slave of the leader but of Allah.

Cult: You are a slave of the sheikh as well as Allah.

Valid Tariqah: You can question the income of a Sheikh in order to determine his legitimacy.

Cult: Everything is a mystery and to question anything is against the rules.

Valid Tariqah: There is transparency and openess.

Cult: Questioning is looked down upon. In fact those too critical will be shunned.

Valid Tariqah: The concern is for the welfare of the wider Ummah.

Cult: First concern is the leader and whatever he says is important.

Valid Tariqah: A person learns much about Islam.

Cult: A person learns more about the leader and his miracles.

Valid Tariqah: Less emphasis on formalities but more on obligations.

Cult: Emphasis on superficial things like uniform and body language.

Valid Tariqah: The leader inculcates true love and people feel relaxed.

Cult: The leader inculcates anxiety, suspicion, rivalry and superficiality.

Valid Tariqah: Only allow initiates wgo are ready for 'suluk'.

Cult: Recruit anyone and especially target the rich and influential. (Imam Zarruq mentions this.

Valid Tariqah: A person will have repented for his sins before entering.

Cult: A person will join sinning and remain in their as a sinner even for years. All the while he will be told he is doing 'suluk'.

Valid Tariqah: A person is free to leave if they want with no reproach.

Cult: Former members are shunned and treated like renegades.

Valid Tariqah: The sheikh is not above Shariah and far fetched interpretations are never made.

Cult: Lip service is made to Shariah but practically there is nothing.

Valid Tariqah: Money and worldly things are not the emphasis. Neither is recruiting.

Cult: Charity is the main concern. A blind eye is turned to the obvious.

Valid Tariqah: Everything is clear from the outset. Beliefs, practises and teachings.

Cult: Certain beliefs and practises are introduced once the person is initiated. This is what leads to weird behaviour which others will notice.

Valid Tariqah: There is no marketing.

Cult: There is an emphasis on the marketing and an emphasis on certain things to attract recruits.

Valid Tariqah: There is no exaggeration and lies.

Cult: Everything is exaggerated and there is hyperbole.

Valid Tariqah: People become more humble and knowledgeable. They co operate with the wider Muslim community.

Cult: People only study what tge group emphasises abd become elitist. They become arrogant, condescending and self righteous. The priority is the work of the cult.

Valid Tariqah: Actions are done for Allah.

Cult: Actions are done for the leader. Or even his captains who will report back to him.

Valid Tariqah: No manipulation or mind control is used.

Cult: Playing on peoples emotions and insecurities.

To be continued...

 

@Moriarty
could you do a
"Differences between tariqah and a cult"
I understand there are overlapping aspects, I believe someone should publish a book on this aspect.

Ted Patrick, legendary deprogrammer, debates Hare Karishna members on Tv:
many aspects of ted points, basically against majority of tasawwuf points, especially when he saying about repeating God's name , dunya is great, this life is the main life , and basically every point stated by those white pundits have a point , but of course im not endorsing there hindu ways. But of course the whole monetary gain is what is the valid point

 

However he has a book on his positions, which is better than his verbal exposition:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Our-Children-Ted-Patrick/dp/0525144501

There is a documentary on him also:

 

the 'deprogrammer' was not able to back his views with proofs other than anecdotal evidence.

 

Ted Patrick, legendary deprogrammer, debates Hare Karishna members on Tv:

 

Interesting read: http://muslimmatters.org/2015/05/27/blurred-lines-women-celebrity-shaykhs-spiritual-abuse/

 

Paul Morantz talks about how cults tried killing him:

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=cv_TWPqJXX4

 

Differences between religion and a cult:

Religion: Body of knowledge is explicitly designed to inculcate organisational values.

Cult: Body of knowledge centres on changing people without their knowledge.

Religion: Limited exchange occurs; communication is one sided.

Cult: No exchange occurs; communication is one sided.

Religion: Change made through formal channels, via written suggestions to higher-ups.

Cult: Change occurs rarely; organisation remains fairly rigid; change occurs primarily to improve thought-reform effectiveness.

Religion: Takes authoritarian and hierarchical stance.

Cult: Takes authoritarian and hierarchical stance; no full awareness on part of learner.

Religion: Instruction is contractual; consensual.

Cult: Group attempts to retain people forever.

Religion: Is not deceptive.

Cult: Is deceptive.

Religion: Stresses narrow learning for a specific goal: to become something or to train for performance of duties.

Cult: Individualized target; hidden agenda (you will be changed one step at a time to become deployable to serve leaders).

Religion: Aware of differences.

Cult: No respect for differences.

Religion: Disciplinary techniques.

Cult: Improper and unethical techniques.

 

Education, conformity and indoctrination by Noam Chomsky:

http://m.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB#/watch?v=JVqMAlgAnlo

 

The sad aspect is that many people cannot function in their daily religious lives without being part of the group.

People do not know how to do simple things like ruqya (reading Quran and blowing on a patient or themselves) and therefore feel they need a guide. It is this aspect of human need which is exploited by cults.

Sufi cults will tell us Sunnis need these groups to keep the public Sunni.

In effect the cults are telling us the Sunni creed needs a cultic set up. History shows nothing could be further from the truth.

In the next post I will answer naqshbandijamaati's query about the difference between religion and cults.

 

There are a few explanations for spidermans question:

A) the dreamer is lying. This is common. Either he will lie to himself or purposefully to others.

B) he really did know of the cult leader but later lied to himself that he did not.

C) the dream is stated in the hadith to be from either the satan or an angel or from the ego. If the cult leader is a deviant then the dream is definitely fro satan.

This would explain the multiple dreams claimed by Qadiyanis and other deviants.

D) the dream is genuine and has an interpretation. The interpretation can be in many ways. For instance at the time of the dream the Shaykh could be genuine but later deviated.

The most common meaning would be, if the Shaykh is a cult leader, that the person seeing the dream will spend time with the cult leader deeming him to be genuine.
The dream would mean that it is predestined for the dreamer to spend time with the cult leader as a spiritual guide.
In many cases when people enter a Sufi group they may actually benefit in some ways. For instance a person who has never recited and memorised Quran after joining a group may learn Surah Yasin by heart. The person maybe mistaken about other things, like thinking the cult leader is ghawth or anything else, but he has benefitted in some way.

That would explain his dream if he did have any dream at all, and it was genuine.

 

someone once told me that you must keep your eyes open when you look for a shaykh and as soon as you decide on one, you must shut your eyes.

the comment might have some weight in some contexts as abu Hasan mentioned above (mustahab, or perhaps with a valid 3udhr in case of certain obligations) but in general i think this advice is ludicrous and not for these times. Allah knows if in the past some specific contexts might have justified it.

the zindiq liberal morons among us might say "who are you to judge?" and "so, you have become so bold to even judge awliya?" and "if you judge your own shaykh, what's left? tomorrow you'll judge even the sahaba" and "as long as someone dons a cloak, wears a turban, narrates some fantastical experiential knowledge about serpents and sorcerers and genies on flying carpets and and writes heart wrenching poetry, he's a sufi and a wali - and i'm deaf, dumb and blind to anything even remotely associated with Shari3ah-based reasoning" or other such nonsensical spiel.

 

people complicate things.

all those "rules" for murids obeying their shaykhs etc. is for advanced students/murids. such people will already have knowledge and experience to sort out a 'shaykh' who makes nonsensical claims and whether it is time to leave the 'shaykh' or continue with him.*

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for common people, it is very very simple.

anything your shaykh says or does, should be compliant with shariah. if they do something contrary to shariah, check whether it is due to compulsion, necessity or some valid excuse. and is it only in matters of mustaHabb or are they trampling on fard, wajib and sunnah?

look at them: how much do they value this world and people in this world. how do they behave in front of rich and powerful - do they seek their company or flee from them? because, if a person is himself drowned in dunya, how can he help you escape it, or at the least help you avoid the most dangerous pitfalls?

read minhaju'l abidin. if you do not recognise your shaykh in the book, he is probably a fake - or someone who is very very raw.


Allah ta'ala knows best.



*though some really intelligent and knowledgeable people choose to remain in the pit - whether it is by choice, or by circumstances we do not know. i cannot fathom for the life of me why a man like gibril haddad hangs around with nazim qubrusi party. he even has fallen to praising and finding excuses for a zindiq like tahir.

 

I have a question to which im finding it difficult to get a answer may be someone can answer. The question is that many people are not willing to leave or tolerate any negative thoughts about there tariqa, even after it becomes very clear that the certain tariqa fails to adhere to shariah.

When investigating this matter and asking many questions to different people of tariqa i get one reply. The reply that i get is that for many years they have been praying for a spiritual guide, and Allah has showed them the face of there pir in the dream without them ever even knowing about the sheikh. This then becomes a sign for them and despite what (even if sheikh/pir is breaking shariah) they are not willing to leave and will make excuses for him.

Maybe Moriarty or anyone else could answer.

@ Spider-Man , Dreams are significant and definitely have a place in Islam. They become even more significant when you take the path of Tassawwuff seriously, but one needs to understand (a) that dreams are of three types, from Allah, from the sub conscious and from the cursed one and (b) dreams require thorough investigation and proper interpretation

On that basis a person saying he saw the face of a Shaykh does not automatically constitute that the dream is from Allah and this is because the devil can take the form of shayookh and appear disguised as a Saintly man in real life and in dreams. Furthermore, for matters big or small and certainly taking a Shaykh is no small matter then the proper thing and etiquette is to do Istikhara. I am certain, that because many Muslims do not understand the true nature of dreams due to lack of education they are misled by the devil even in dreams. He is more than happy for them to be associated with misguided fake scholars as it makes his job easier.

Again-ISTIKHARA, ISTIKHARA, ISTIKHARA

 

this is not difficult to explain. deja vu for instance is something that could be termed 'eerie' - wiki, pyschology-today .

I have experienced some very-strong deja-vu moments. At that time your mind goes kind of numb, 'reeling' is another term that could describe it, and the feeling is somewhat like looking at your current situation as though looking out a window. This is my personal experience and I guess different people may get different sensations. The human mind is a vast and, quite ironically, an unfamiliar ground.

If you go through this thread you'll realize how cults deliberately employ well-known techniques of psychological/behaviour manipulation to keep their victims subjugated to and dependant on the cult master, even as a fish is dependant on water for survival. It must not be too difficult to plant false memories in the minds of their victims, who are usually the most vulnerable members of a society and therefore pre-disposed to mental suggestions subliminal programming.

read these:

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight...-memories-fairly-easy-psychologists-find.html

here's a step by step guide:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/02/19/how-to-instill-false-memories/

 

just making an attempt to answer ur question, spiderman. they are mixing truth with lies, and they are following their egos. they do not see their pir breaking shariat. due to the influence of the cult leader, they cannot think clearly becase ego is involved and devil's waswasa. The scale of Shariat is the only scale to judge buy. Since they bypassed Shariat, they have bypassed hidayat.

you can free them. hidayat comes from Allah. they came to the tareeqa for hidayat, but they still await hidayat because of shariat violation. The could also have entered the tareeqa with mixed feelings in the first place. Their being in the tareeqa might be for material gain, which is the common thing with cults. Only a few sincere ones stay in the tareeqa. Most sincere ones leave. The few who stay have turned into ego. i have seen many tareeqa members leave from various cults, for example, mr keller cult.