Cult Mind Control

11. "The distributing of times in respect to khalwat (seclusion)."


Some false teachers claim that their spiritual work was completed years before and that all of their current efforts are dedicated to sharing the knowledge derived through such rigorous practices with the seekers after truth. Such teachers suggest that the first part of their life was devoted to practices such as seclusion, and, now, they are on a journey of return from the spiritual heights and have come back to the lowliness of the world to be with people and through detachment and service they continue to practice their seclusion in the midst of life. The return is described as a great sacrifice and service since they are depriving themselves of being totally immersed in the ways of mystical ecstasy in order to help ordinary people.

Oftentimes, the only thing false teachers are in 'retirement' from is authentic spirituality. They are in seclusion, all right, but it is seclusion from the truth of spirituality, and if a seeker does not know what the nature of mystical truth is, then, such individuals become vulnerable to almost any story a false teacher wishes to say about any aspect of spirituality.

 

10. The allowing of the student's rights.

Many people will gladly give up all their rights if they believe they will get peace, truth, knowledge, love, happiness, and self-realization in exchange. Little by little, a person can be manipulated into freely handing over every spiritual right which she or he has because that individual has been led to believe that one will get in return, things which are considered to be much more important than such individual rights. After all, if rule 9, noted above, indicates that a true teacher is someone who 'descends from his or her own rights', then, by emulating this rule, the student believes that he or she is on the path to having the interior spiritual states which the teacher is assumed to have, and in the interim, all of the student's rights have been given, freely, to the teacher ... the teacher hasn't had to ask for anything or lift a finger -- the student has done it all on her or his own.

 

9."Descending from his own right"

While in an authentic teacher, this quality of foregoing his or her own rights is a sign of integrity and nobility, false teachers frequently will re-frame issues to give the impression that things in which they are not interested to begin with are rights that they are foregoing out of the strength of character. There is no virtue involved when people sacrifice that in which they have no investment or to which they have no right in the first place.

Furthermore, among authentic guides, there would never be any talk about rights which are foregone. Such matters almost always are handled discretely and privately so that no one else would know either that such a right existed or that the individual declined to exercise such a right due to some higher purpose or commitment -- such as love for Allah, the Prophetic tradition, the saints, the truth, justice, and so on.

On the other hand, often times in the case of false teachers, staged 'leaks' are organized so that others come to learn about the 'magnanimity' of character being allegedly being exhibited by the false teacher. The leaks are staged so that the teacher doesn't appear to be tooting his or her own horn, when, in fact, this is what is actually going on.

 

8. "Pardoning the students blunders"

Nonetheless, if a false teacher doesn't really care what a seeker does as long as the seeker does not upset the teacher's own self-serving agenda, then, it is easy for such a person to pardon any and all acts.

In fact, a false teacher can use the foregoing 'angle' as a technique to gradually program the student to do whatever the teacher wants because the student is so grateful to have found someone who accepts them as they are -- warts and all -- that they are prepared to do almost anything for such an individual ... not seeming to realize there is a difference between being accepted by someone for what one is and being used in certain ways because the individual's weaknesses are of value to the false teacher's master plan. Some false spiritual teachers even make use of the 'weaknesses' of some of their students and get the latter to serve as pimps for the teacher by instructing such students to seduce people and, then, bring the ones so seduced to the teacher for further disposition. Some false guides even get such individuals to troll the Internet looking for those who are psychologically vulnerable and likely to succumb to emotional assaults which are designed to exploit those vulnerabilities.

 

I have had a taste of some of these tactics, courtesy a good friend. although the person was, apparently, applying them without being aware of it.

it seems to me that sometimes a person's childhood life and environment implants trickery in their subconscious and they use it on people without being fully aware of it. But if you confront them they will deny it flatly and tell you that you are falsely accusing them or being paranoid or whatever. But if they get honest with themselves perhaps they'll see it. But accepting the truth that you have (ab)used someone requires a man's heart and so many people just live in a denial about it all their lives.

such people could prove to be very dangerous, because if they are not aware of their actions, they can not weigh their consequences!

Isn't there a hadith which says, " Protect yourself through suspicion" ?

 

7. "Speaking ambiguously"

Sometimes, seekers become so hyper-vigilant when it comes to the teachings of the spiritual guide that they see themselves in everything the teacher says. This is especially the case when it comes to faults, weaknesses, sins, errors, blunders, and so on.

Spiritual frauds know this, and by speaking ambiguously, they induce most of the people in the group to begin to seek to change in whatever way is being hinted at in order to please the false teacher, and the seekers assume that the indicated changes are part of the spiritual path when, in truth, the changes are according to whatever agenda the false teacher may be promoting. A great deal of mental and emotional programming of seekers goes on in this way during the public sessions which are held by a sham spiritual guide.

 

6. "The purifying of speech"

There are all kinds of predators in nature who imitate what is considered by some other species to be 'tasty', safe, or innocuous, in order to make breakfast, lunch, supper or a snack from the unsuspecting 'victim'.
Among human beings, sociopaths are extremely adept at imitating the surface features of emotion, etiquette, and socially approved behaviors in order to set up a situation which will be to their advantage.
Spiritual frauds are experts in knowing what linguistic and verbal buttons to push in order to program people they meet to believe that the former are good, decent individuals. Spiritual frauds are artists in getting people to feel guilty or ashamed for harboring even the least kind of negative suspicion concerning the actual motives of the alleged 'teacher'. While most of us try to say what we mean and mean what we say, the spiritual fraud takes this general principle of behavior and induces us to believe that he or she operates according to the precise same principle, when, in fact, something other is the case. Spiritual frauds rarely say what they mean or mean what they say, and in our desire to think the best of people who carry the label 'spiritual' we are reluctant to suppose otherwise.

 

5. "Concordance of deed and word in invitation."

Fraudulent teachers can mislead people by using esoteric meanings, or even the story of Moses and Khizr (peace be upon them).

Fraudulent teachers can take this teaching and convert it entirely to their own unsavory purposes and, nevertheless, come off smelling like a rose because the surface acts which "appear" reprehensible are really being described as mere camouflage for an underlying and hidden principle which serves the truth and God. They will say "If Moses (peace be upon him), as great and knowledgeable as he was, wasn't able to fathom the truth when a servant of God (namely, Khizr -- peace be upon him) was performing in front of his eyes with God's sanction, then, how do the rest of us, who are far removed from the elevated spiritual condition of Moses (peace be upon him), know how to differentiate between apparent discrepancies involving words and deeds which can be reconciled on a deeper level of truth?" Real discrepancies between words and deeds which cannot be reconciled on a deeper level but are passed off to us as if they could be so reconciled if we only 'knew' what the fraudulent spiritual guide allegedly knew and which sometime, perhaps, when we become spiritually mature, we too, will have access to such secrets ... but not just now.

There is no difference between deviant 'sufis' and mind control cults. They operate in the same way. Human psychology is universal. Jehovah's Witnesses, Qadiyani Movement, Tablighi Jam'at, deviant 'sufis', the Vassarion all operate using the same human psychology.

 

True say!

 

It's interesting you've made the association between WLSIS and that blog. What's your proof that the two are linked? Unless you know them personally. The author of the blog is anonymous, surprise surprise. The heads of WLSIS are not.

 

4. "Delights of offering and of severing attachments are incumbent on the shaykh."

This means that the real shaykh offers the aspirants gifts..

False teachers often are very good at giving things away as a means of priming the pump of material goods and/or service, so that this pump will begin to function 'properly' -- that is, so that followers will freely give back to the teacher without the teacher having to say much, or anything, except receive what is offered.

Thus, a false teacher might give, for example, a hundred dollars to someone in need, knowing that, in time, either that individual and/or those to whom the needy person talks to about the gift, will interpret the gift-giving as indicating that the false teacher is a humble, charitable, compassionate, loving, selfless individual who is sacrificing his or her own meager resources for the good of others. Or, a false teacher might arrange to underwrite the expenses of a trip for someone far away to come and visit the teacher (and, more often than not, the money does not come from the teachers own resources but from the resources of someone whom the false teacher controls), and to the recipient of such a seemingly generous and selfless act of friendship, the offer and arrangements are overwhelming to such an extent that the recipient has great difficulty even considering the possibility that something evil or untoward or unsavory may be behind the offer -- which is precisely what the offer has been intended to do ... misdirect attention away from the actual motives to making someone feel guilty or ashamed for being so cynical as to suppose that the offer is not entirely sincere.

In addition, a fraudulent spiritual guide can put on great performances in the public sphere about severing attachments with issues of power, sex, money, property, comfort, control and so on. However, because most of the seekers have no clue about what actually goes on outside of the domain of publicly viewable events, it is the publicly consumed events which shapes people's opinions, attitudes and judgments of the teacher.

Moreover, in most cases, the only people who are permitted to get close to the teacher are those (1) who either have been so corrupted that they have vested interests which parallels those of the teacher and they will not blow the whistle on what is going on and, thereby, undermine their own advantages in the overall set-up; or, (2) those who have become so mesmerized by what is going on that they are ready to re-frame anything which the teacher does -- no matter how destructive and reprehensible -- as being something other than it is; or, (3) those who, however vaguely, do see what is going on, but whose psychological and emotional vulnerabilities are so intense that they cannot bring themselves to act upon what they know and, thus, suffer in silence, not knowing what to do about such knowledge, and experiencing a great deal of anxiety, stress, and fear as a result.

 

3. "The shaykh must show no greed for the property or service of the student."

Fraudulent spiritual guides are very adept at using a technique which is known as "re-framing". We are all familiar with the fact that how one frames a photograph or painting will determine what will be seen and what will not be seen in relation to that painting or picture.
One can select frames which hide certain things (say, flaws in the original) as well as frames which tend to bring out certain colors or features of a painting or photograph. One also can select frames which dominate a painting or picture and take attention away from what should be the center of focus. In addition, one can choose frames which either complement a given painting or picture, and, therefore, leave one with a sense of harmony, or one can select frames which are discordant with the subject matter of a painting or photograph and create a sense of discord.
The possibilities for re-framing things in the context of human interaction are enormous and very complicated. Among other reasons, this is because we human beings have within us a great many weaknesses which are very vulnerable to being influenced by the manner in which things are presented to us -- quite independently of issues about the actual intrinsic value of what is being presented for consideration ... and smart sales professionals and advertisers have known this for centuries.

Yes, an authentic shaykh should show no greed for the property or service of a seeker. If I am a false spiritual guide and I wish to utilize this rule for my own self-serving purposes, what this rule says to me is this: as long as I don't do anything which "shows" that I have greed for either the property and/or service of my followers, then, I can actually have greed for their property and/or service -- all I have to do is convince them that things are other than they actually are through the art of influence, manipulation, hypnotic suggestion, and re-framing.

For example, if a false teacher can induce someone to believe that, say, serving the teacher is good for the spiritual condition of a seeker, then, even without asking for service, the false teacher can command service because the whole situation has been re-framed -- from one of greed for service on the part of the false teacher, to that of a seeker feeling that it is incumbent on her or him to serve the teacher and, thereby, make spiritual progress through such selfless devotion. The false teacher, through writing, discourses, stories, and so on, indirectly plants in a seeker's consciousness that serving the teacher is a good thing, a noble thing, an act of love, and, consequently, lo and behold, without having to ask for anything, the teacher is served in more ways than one can 'shaykh' a stick at.

Now, lest anyone get the wrong idea, service to others is a good thing when it has a proper niyat, or sincere intention, behind it. But, an unscrupulous teacher can take advantage of this and make it appear that his or her desire for the property or service of others is not present and that, instead, what we are dealing with here is merely the wish of others to serve and give to the teacher -- in fact, from time to time, the false teacher can even put on a big show about how he or she wished one's followers wouldn't do these things, but, in the end, bow in humility to the offer of love which is being made to the would -be teacher and accept the gift of property or service with a 'well, what can one do' shrug of the shoulders ... which will endear the false teacher to his or her followers even more so.

Sometimes competition in a cult makes people give money, or ostentation rather than sincerity. The followers would want to impress the leader or buy closeness to the guide. Unsurprisingly the closest mureeds to a shaykh are in the main part the affluent and rich..

 

2."The shaykh must regard the capacity of the student."

To begin with, if a seeker knew what her or his spiritual capacity actually was, then, someone with that much understanding of one's own spiritual condition likely would not be in need of spiritual guidance for such a person already would be in direct contact with that for which one steps onto the spiritual path to discover -- that is, the realization of one's unique, essential spiritual capacity.

Lack of knowledge is one of the things that sets us in motion to seek a teacher -- someone who, hopefully, knows what we do not, and someone who will be willing to share with us what she or he knows so that our lack of knowledge can be lessened to whatever extent this is capable of being done. So, when we try to select a teacher who will help us in this respect, we are looking for someone who, as Shaykh Suhrawardi (may Allah be pleased with him) points out, has a knowledge of the spiritual capacities of the seekers who come to him.

But, knowing this rule doesn't help a seeker one iota, because the seeker really doesn't know what such knowledge looks like -- that is why he is called a 'seeker' rather than a 'knower'. A charlatan can say whatever he likes to in this regard, and the seeker won't know the difference.

All a sham-teacher has to do with respect to the issue of 'capacity' is have a gift of gab which enables the con-artist to throw things together in a way that sounds interesting, desirable, plausible, and mysterious, and many would-be seekers get hooked -- even when they know about this second rule of Shaykh Suhrawardi (may Allah be pleased with him), since knowing about this second rule provides an individual with absolutely no insight concerning what the issue of 'spiritual capacity' really entails.

Seekers are trusting the teacher to know this. And, therefore, a seeker's trust is either well-placed or misplaced depending on the actual spiritual authenticity of the individual in whom the trust is being invested.

 

Choosing a guide is complicated and is not straightforward. Scholars like Imam Hujwiri outlined guidelines to distinguish a fraud from the genuine:

1. "The purifying of resolution and the searching for the cause. He should seek out of himself that the cause not be: - the desire of precedence; - the desire of being a shaykh, or, - the desire of being followed."

If I am looking for a spiritual guide, how do I know what is in the heart or intention of another human being? Yes, I can spend time listening to what is said, as well as watching behavior and trying to determine if I can detect any trace of the foregoing desires in the man I am considering, but if the person I am thinking of taking initiation with is clever -- and many of the spiritual frauds and charlatans who are out there are very clever, and they know the game inside and out -- then, two things are likely to be the case.

Front room behavior (to distinguish it from how people behaved when they were in 'back rooms', out of people's sight), is likely to appear exemplary. Indeed, the whole advantage that a counterfeiter has is that she or he knows -- from either reading or personal experience -- what the object being imitated (in this case, a spiritual teacher) is supposed to look like. The spiritual fraud knows, for example, that a true shaykh or teacher is supposed to be, among other things, humble, kind, generous, compassionate, loving, considerate, thoughtful, ethical, and so on. Consequently, the 'front room' or public arena in which people meet the counterfeit shaykh are often carefully managed and staged to generate exactly this kind of impression in the minds and hearts of unsuspecting individuals.

Secondly, many people who are seeking spiritual guidance will never get a whole lot of time, under a variety of circumstances and settings, to be able to form any kind of informed judgment about what the actual state of desire in a spiritual teaching candidate may be. A seeker's exposure to an alleged spiritual guide tends to be very restricted, and, consequently, information about a so-called teacher tends to be managed under highly controlled circumstances.

Someone, who was being asked for advice, once asked the advice-seeker -- who was trying to decide whether to become involved, in some way, with another individual -- if the man (that is, the advice-seeker) had either been on a journey with the other individual or had any business dealings with that person. The question was asked because such close contact often provides one with some reliable information about the character and temperament of a person under conditions which are not of a person's choosing and over which he or she tends to have little control.

Prior to making a decision about whether, or not, to be initiated onto the Sufi path through a certain individual, 99.9999% of the people doing this know, in reality, almost nothing about the actual interior state of the person with whom they are taking initiation. To be sure, a person seeking initiation may have impressions or feelings which are positive in relation to the alleged spiritual guide based on such things as: having read a book by the person, or having listened to talks by the individual, or having received the personal testimonies of other people whom one may know who also have had some exposure to the 'teacher', or having watched the 'teacher' interact with his or her followers, but all of this information is capable of being spun in any direction which an alleged teacher wishes to spin things. Politicians are managed in precisely the same way -- that is, things are done to create certain positive impressions and feelings in the minds and hearts of the electorate.

 

Well the thread is based around the phenomenon of cults, whether Muslim (like Shia, Wahabi or deviated 'sufis') or non Muslim. That is why non Muslim analysis has been gleaned.

Taking a side step onto 'sufi' cults we observe the totally misguided:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AgR3lYO0LA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvLz_j3oiKI

To the subtle abusive manipulative 'sufi' cults.

"Once tasawwuf (the Sufi path) was a reality without a name, and now it is a name without a reality." (Imam Hujwiri, Kashf alMahjub)

When an authentic spiritual guide attempts to help an individual thwart the machinations of the unredeemed nafs, this is not an expression of spiritual abuse. The practices, zikrs, seclusions, fasts, vigils, litanies, prayers, community service, and so on, which a legitimate teacher prescribes for, among other things, assisting an individual struggle toward redeeming the constructive potential of the ego, may be experienced by the individual as difficult, painful, trying, or problematic, but this sort of qualitative character does not make the experience an expression of spiritual abuse ... except to the extent that ego is being spiritually abusive to the mystical potential of the human being who is seeking release from the internal oppressiveness of the authoritarian regime of the unredeemed ego.

Furthermore, the context through which such spiritual medicine of the soul is administered always is couched in properties of: kindness, compassion, love, tolerance, forbearance, insight, sincerity, honesty, nobility, generosity, integrity, humility, forgiveness, patience, empathy, as well as appreciation for the capacity and station of a seeker, in terms of how the spiritual guide approaches his or her interaction with an aspirant. I have known, heard about, and read of, a number of authentic spiritual guides who may have experienced spiritual difficulties of their own while, simultaneously, guiding others along the mystical path, but none of these difficulties ever filtered down to maltreatment of their mureeds or followers.

 

@Moriarty

It would be better if you would tell us the differences between a valid Tariqah and a cult instead of talking in such a general way about 'cults'.

 

mr keller also recommends books by the modern father of perennialism Hoosein Nasr, who is a murtad.

I believe among the worst men on earth are murtads, and they are among the worst enemies of Islam and Muslims; complete cowards with nafoos completely taken over; who massacred women and children in Algeria by the hundreds of thousands were mostly murtad Algerians. They were wearing bandanas on their foreheads with the inscription "angry at Allah". They were speaking Arabic while they were chopping of heads of babies, and squashing the heads of babies on walls, and disembowelling Muslim pregnant women and slitting their throats. These are documented facts of what happened in Algeria.

Former mureeds, now murtads, of mr keller are among such people.

 

No such insinuation has been made. It was the exact same PM I sent you or Abu Aleshba questioning you or Abu Aleshba what do you make of a particular blog? That blog was made by former members of the Yaqoubite group and now head the WLSIS. That was in context of the following thread:

http://www.sunniport.com/masabih/showthread.php?t=11118

Many 'sufi' cult leaders recommend non Muslim books on a regular basis. Nuh Keller recommends:

http://salikah.blogspot.co.uk/2006/06/sh-nuh-recommended-books.html

Endangered Minds: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684856204/qid=1149823027/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/702-3408292-0307209

Silicon Snake Oil: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385419945/qid=1149823087/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/702-3408292-0307209

I recommend: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060520221?tag=nononsenseselfde&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0060520221&adid=0DNX9M6NQR30RW738YNJ&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nononsenseselfdefense.com%2Fcultawareness.htm

Taming Your Gremlin: A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way

 

The core attraction to the cult can be many factors. One main reason is the leader. Attraction to the leader has many facets. This includes his promises to the seeker of rank with the Almighty, miracles, unveiling of the unseen, knowledge and mysticism. A factor relating to this is charisma.

In general, charismatic personalities are known for their inescapable magnetism, their winning style, the self-assurance with which they promote something--a cause, a belief, a product. A charismatic person who offers hope of new beginnings often attracts attention and a following.

One dictionary definition of charisma is "a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (as a political leader or military commander); a special magnetic charm or appeal."

Charisma was studied in depth by the German sociologist Max Weber, who defined it as "an exceptional quality in an individual who, through appearing to possess supernatural, providential, or extraordinary powers, succeeds in gathering disciples around him."

n the case of cults, of course, we know that this induction of whole hearted devotion does not happen spontaneously but is the result of the cult leader's skillful use of thought-reform techniques. Charisma on its own is not evil and does not necessarily breed a cult leader. Charisma is, however, a powerful and awesome attribute found in many cult leaders who use it in ways that are both self-serving and destructive to others. The combination of charisma and psychopathy is a lethal mixture.

For the cult leader, having charisma is perhaps most useful during the stage of cult formation. It takes a strong-willed and persuasive leader to convince people of a new belief, then gather the newly converted around him as devoted followers. A misinterpretation of the cult leader's personal charisma may also foster his followers' belief in his special or messianic qualities. Like the fact that they may term him as 'mujaddid' or 'mahdi' or something else.

In the long run, skills of persuasion (which may or may not be charismatic) are more important to the cult leader than charisma--for the power and hold of cults depend on the particular environment shaped by the thought-reform program and control mechanisms, all of which are usually conceptualized and put in place by the leader. Thus it is the psychopathology of the leader, not his charisma, that causes the systematic manipulative abuse and exploitation found in cults.

 

Moriarty, if you're trying to say turuq are cults, then I'm happily in a cult.

Most of what you've written is by kuffar, for kuffar, who are against any form of submission, indeed, even the true submission which is to Allah ta'ala and His beloved, peace be upon him. Of course, I don't mind submitting to his heirs, being anxious around them, and that jazz that you're cutting & pasting.

Yes, we all know there are charlatans out there, posing as spiritual guides. If you're trying to insinuate through your private messages to Wadood that Sheikh al-Yaqoubi is cult figure and a leader of a cult, then just say so - what are you beating around the bush for?