For those interested in Cassiopaea, Laura K-J

[theeKultleeder]

Oh! I get it. I read DE's post here twice more just now. It's a cultural engineering thing.



I finally get it. No wonder I didn't understand before.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Whatever went on with DE post Duncan, I for one am glad he did all that SRI stuff.

Its really useful for putting the finger on things that always seemed there just below the surface.

I am all for spiritual development, but without some sort of community something, and the ability to get off your arse and put it on the line, its not worth alot in a police state.

And its not just New Agism and spiritual development that brings these problems. The whole therapy based self improvement, heal your inner child, 12 step bullshit industry is up to the same cultural engineering tricks.

The epidemic of depression sweeping the western world?

Well for the last 15 years we have been warned we were on the edge of, beginning, and now in the middle of one of the biggest extinction events in Gaia's history. despite our self image (as non neocolonialist, decent humans) the rest of the world is screwed and by us. Blah blah blah.

The solution?

Prozac and self help.

Not dealing with the problems that have a bit to do with our feelings. Not demanding an end to pointless exploitation and consumption of resources.

Not organising movements for change.

Not doing the things that were done in Eastern Europe just under 20 years ago. (No psychotherapy or new age movements in E. Europe back then.)

No populations on the street demanding and achieving some sort of change.

[JoseFreitas]

Eliade was a fascinating writer and thinker. I studied history in particular, and found his take on the recursive and "mythical narrative" nature of history (his theory) very interesting. Since he was something of a traditionalist, and close to some esoteric study groups, he generally comes on as more of a conservative than a liberal, politically. I don't know whether he was close to the Iron Guard or not (it was a parapolitical, para military group in pre-WW2 Romania), but I know he lived as a refugee in Portugal during WW2. He lived in Chicago later. Amongst other things he organized and edited a wonderful Encyclopedia of Religions, and wrote an excellent three volume series on the History of Religions, from the perspective of shamanism. I think it's pretty easy to state he wasn't a Nazi or Fascist, and probably wasn't anti semitical.

I like his stuff a lot. He doesn't postulate a linear, easy to follow thread to history of the development of ideas. His studies on Shamanism remain fundamental. He is better known in the french speaking world, though, and some of his followers have been surrounded in controversy re. his heritage.

[theeKultleeder]

... I for one am glad he did all that SRI stuff.

Its really useful for putting the finger on things that always seemed there just below the surface.

Could you explain to me then, what were/are the main projects, and what is it they did?

[chiggerbit]

One thing I've never quite understood is how to tell the difference between a cult and a religion. Seems to me to be a difference between whether the original cult leader is alive or dead.

And are cults born as full-blown cults, or do they develop over time? From the ones I've read up on, there seems to be a degree of narcissism involved in most cult leaders. Are narcissists born or do they develop due to too much attention of the wrong kind? Is it that symbiotic relationship between leaders and adherents that moves a group from a movement into a cult?

[chiggerbit]

Here you go, tKl, Mircea Eliade's fascism :

http://tinyurl.com/34ro29

[theeKultleeder]

It's a good thing I haven't absorbed his work or used it in any of my own thinking. Otherwise, I would be bummed out.

On a philosophical note, I have a huge respect for certain sects of Mystical Judaism, but I put the bulk of all three of the "Religions of the Book" in the "brainwash" pile.

Kabbalah, Sufism, and Gnosticism would be the interesting Abrahamic strains to me.

Thanks, chig.

[LilyPatToo]

Joe Hillshoist said:

Whatever went on with DE post Duncan, I for one am glad he did all that SRI stuff.

Its really useful for putting the finger on things that always seemed there just below the surface.

I am all for spiritual development, but without some sort of community something, and the ability to get off your arse and put it on the line, its not worth alot in a police state.

And its not just New Agism and spiritual development that brings these problems. The whole therapy based self improvement, heal your inner child, 12 step bullshit industry is up to the same cultural engineering tricks.

The epidemic of depression sweeping the western world?

Well for the last 15 years we have been warned we were on the edge of, beginning, and now in the middle of one of the biggest extinction events in Gaia's history. despite our self image (as non neocolonialist, decent humans) the rest of the world is screwed and by us. Blah blah blah.

The solution?

Prozac and self help.

Not dealing with the problems that have a bit to do with our feelings. Not demanding an end to pointless exploitation and consumption of resources.

Not organising movements for change.

Not doing the things that were done in Eastern Europe just under 20 years ago. (No psychotherapy or new age movements in E. Europe back then.)

No populations on the street demanding and achieving some sort of change.

That was worth saying again, IMO. The induction of passivity via navel-gazing is a modern plague upon educated humanity and most of it seems to emanate from the NewAge (rhymes with "sewage") crowd. 99% of them may be earnestly trying to better themselves and have no ulterior motives at all, but their mass effect is to subvert political activism and starve social justice/peace efforts. They spend millions of dollars annually on books/etc. that would support PACs and charities and too many of their gurus encourage them to avoid political discourse altogether.

The 1% who are working for the "social engineering" mass mind control effort are ensconced near or at the top of the NewAge pyramid, smug as hell as all the programmed Useful Idiots far below them obediently labor to support their lifestyles

The links to DE's great blog articles on SRI's are broken--I get "error 500 server not found" messages when I click on them. That was why I previously mentioned how really sad I was to see him take down his blog. I archived his site as soon as I heard he was about to do it, but I really wish he'd asked wombat to post them online in the meantime. And I say that despite his rude, dismissive treatment of me, personally. That blog was a great resource over-all, though some of you may have issues with some of his research or conclusions. It was a great place to send people who were parapolitical newbies for a crash education in what's been going on behind the curtain here.

LilyPat