It may be seen as rather superficial and subjective,
but it is still useful for both educating people and
confirming what they already suspect or know.
Although her main interests and involvements were
in the areas of consciousness raising practices, spiritual development
movements, esoteric sects and Eastern religions, much of what she has to say
can be applied to cults and cult leaders of any kind.
I am particularly interested in Joyce
Collin-Smith’s account of her dealings with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the
Transcendental Meditation man who was spiritual guru to the Beatles. I can see
some very familiar syndromes and connections in this case.
Before we get to the Maharishi, here are some
commentaries and ideas inspired by other material of interest in this book:
Call No Man Master
Joyce Collin-Smith chose this title after
having spent much of her very long life investigating groups and cults and in
the company of various messiahs, spiritual teachers and gurus.
She became disillusioned with most of them, and
with good reason.
Many were found to be hypocritical, self-indulgent and a
danger to their followers.
Joyce Collin-Smith said that real Masters are
very rare. She never encountered one, although at first she thought that she
had. No real Masters in a lifetime of seeking and moving in the right circles? That speaks for itself.
Perhaps we should assume that most of the
real Masters keep a very low profile, so we may never encounter or even get to
hear about one either.
Worship no one
Joyce Collin-Smith’s book provides yet more
independent confirmation of a lesson that needs to be learned: we may respect
and admire charismatic and extremely accomplished people, we may realise that
they are far above and beyond us in many areas so there is a lot we can learn
from them, but we should not worship them as gods.
They are only human, and many of them do not
bear close inspection. Some of them have a very dark side.
As she said, we should seek teachers and
advisers, not dictators. We should not give our power away to others.
We should take responsibility for ourselves, live
our own lives and function from our own creative centres.
Learning directly from others is not
essential; there are many helpful books in existence, we now have the Internet
and we may even find our Master inside ourselves.
Question everything
We should ask ourselves why people who claim
to be very spiritual seek attention and publicity, demand huge amounts of
money, want to control every aspect of their disciples’ lives and are
indifferent to the devastation their teachings cause.
The ‘spiritual’ wife of one of the gurus Joyce
Collin-Smith followed for a while used to shoplift small items such as
jewellery and scarves that took her fancy out of feelings of entitlement and
being above mundane rules.
Would a really spiritual person do that?
I would avoid anyone who promotes their own ideas
and practices as the only true version of The Work, The Method, The Path, The
Way, The Truth, The Answer etc. as many of the people Joyce Collin-Smith
encountered did.
Would we find the sole supplier syndrome in a real Master?
A final warning
Learning from painful personal experience as
Joyce Collin-Smith did is not compulsory. Although learning things the hard way
does enable us to speak with authority, surely it is better not to get involved
with cults or fall under the spell of their leaders in the first place.
Look very closely at anyone suspected of being a cult leader. Not just
their words and actions, but their faces too.
Joyce Collin-Smith believed that only some
people have souls. She was able from childhood to discern the presence or
absence from their eyes.
I have often thought this myself, or maybe it
is more a case of what type of soul a person has. I have seen pictures of some cult leaders and
wondered why their followers can’t see the the arrogance and contempt, cunning, unpleasantness, degeneracy or even evil in their
faces.
I once felt an inclination to go and hear a revered Sufi leader speak;
he had very kind eyes and did not talk down to everyone. I felt as drawn to him
as I was repelled the first time I saw a picture of Maharishi Yogi, who will be
the subject of the next article inspired by Call No Man Master.
Joyce Collin-Smith was born in 1919 and died in
2011.
Call No Man Master was first published in
1988.
