Cults: an overview of the main articles to date

As my articles about cults are attracting a respectable number of readers, I thought that, while this blog does have Labels and a Search facility, a summary of the main cult-related articles to date together with some links might be useful.

I intend to keep this article updated with links to any new cult articles of significance.

I noticed retrospectively that many of the articles can be grouped according to their main cult-related theme; this is how they are referenced here.

Attributes of cult members

Most important are the basic informational articles. These give general warnings about what to expect when dealing with cult members. For example:

They will lie to you and may leave you stranded.

Their ‘friendship’ will be conditional and could end at any time.

They will sooner or later behave as if you are theirs to command.

They will expect more and more from people and give less and less in return. 

Their values may be inverted.

Independent and analytical thinking is discouraged, so discussions with cult members can be frustrating as they just mindlessly repeat robotic slogans and the official party line. Their access to reading material may be restricted, so discussions may also be difficult and unrewarding because of their ignorance. 

The cutting of connections by cult members is a topic that has generated a four-part article. 

In addition to all that, be prepared to deal with the sole supplier syndrome, the unpleasant and unjustified superiority syndrome and, worst of all, the dreaded attack-dog syndrome!

Never forget that, as Alexander Herzen said, they will commit all kinds of crimes in the name of their cause.

And never forget either that they are all in on it!

August Strindberg and his Inferno

Colin Wilson’s book The Occult provided the lead for a series of articles about the string of misfortunes that the playwright August Strindberg brought upon himself by consciously and deliberately using occult techniques in an attempt to influence his family remotely.

Although there are a few more misfortunes still to come, I have taken time out to cover a few associated points and issues. 

One very obvious question to ask is how much of what Strindberg wrote in his book Inferno is actually true. There is also the problem of the accounts of his experiences getting changed or lost in translation.

Problems with the Inferno book

Colin Wilson gives a good summary of some of the incidents; his account made me want to read the whole story for myself. I was delighted to find Inferno available in the public domain on Project Gutenberg. However, there are some drawbacks that other people interested in going to directly to the source should be aware of.  

August Strindberg was Swedish; he wrote Inferno in French; there are many different English editions and translations available, with a variety of introductions.

Inferno is a novel. It is autobiographical, but Strindberg’s stories about incidents in his life may have been invented, exaggerated or distorted, possibly for concealment or for dramatic purposes.

Strindberg jumps around in time and from place to place and country to country, so it is not always easy to see when and where an incident happened and whether or not it can be directly connected to his evil action against his family.

Strindberg sounds melodramatic and paranoid for much of the time. He frequently mentions a ‘Hidden Hand’ that he believes guides events and intervenes in his affairs, for good and evil. He was an absinthe drinker and is said to have suffered from schizophrenia. This makes it difficult to take some of his ramblings and ravings seriously; it also makes it difficult to determine whether or not something actually happened, and if so whether or not it had any real significance.

Maharishi Yogi: cult leader

The first article in the series inspired by author and journalist Joyce Collin-Smith’s autobiographical book Call No Man Master covered her experience of cult leaders in general.

It was followed by a series of articles based on Joyce Collin-Smith’s account of her dealings with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his organisation.

This final article contains some miscellaneous material of interest, starting with some of the attributes that Maharishi Yogi had in common with other cult leaders of various kinds.

There is a lot of repetition here, but it is a good way to get ideas across. Despite the huge amount of information available, people are still becoming enthralled by cult leaders and falling for their propaganda and manipulative techniques. People are still joining sinister organisations.

Cult leader characteristics

The Maharishi Yogi had some messianic - and to anyone with any common sense completely unrealistic - ambitions, both worldly and spiritual. His modest plan was to regenerate the entire world in three years via his Transcendental Meditation techniques. He wanted world peace; he wanted to create heaven on earth.

Unlimited ambition and a global mission are often found in cult leader types.

He also displayed the Sole Supplier Syndrome. His was the only way; only he had the answer to the world’s problems:

“It was clear that at this time he had not considered that it might not only be the absence of ‘methods’, ‘practices’ and ‘ways’ to higher consciousness that kept the world in its present unhappy state…entirely sure of his success no matter what had been the fate of other teachings.”

As has been mentioned elsewhere, cult leaders all think that theirs is the true and only solution.

Magic and the Maharishi Yogi

This article is yet another in the series inspired by Joyce Collin-Smith’s account in Call No Man Master of the time that she spent with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1960s.

This topic for this article is the Maharishi’s magical practices; any remaining material of particular interest will be covered separately.

Levels of operation

I have described how I use a systematic, multi-level approach  when looking for causes and explanations, giving as an example someone who had behaved unprofessionally and out of character.

This approach also works well when looking for the reasons for the powerful effect that some people have on others.  People with a very strong influence, cult leaders for example, often operate on several levels.

Diana Wynne Jones’s fictional witch Aunt Maria used her powers and influence on several levels; the Maharishi Yogi is another person of interest who seems to have done the same.

Joyce Collin-Smith: leaving the cult of the Maharishi Yogi

The final stage of Joyce Collin-Smith’s relationship with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Meditation movement as described in her autobiographical work Call No Man Master is of particular interest to me.

There was a time when she felt far from being ready to abandon the Maharishi. She eventually reached the stage where she felt a deep disquiet whenever she came close to him and met his eyes, and finally there were some last straw incidents that pushed her into completely giving up her involvement with him and his movement.

There are some familiar elements and a few coincidences in what she tells us, and some of the material is useful for adding to the store of information about how and why people leave cults and what happens to them afterwards.

The course in Italy

Everything came to a head when the Maharishi hand picked some people to go on a course of advanced teachings that was to be held in Italy, in the Dolomites. By then, he was charging selected followers hefty amounts for the privilege of learning special techniques.

Joyce Collin-Smith was one of the followers he ordered to go on the course. She felt hijacked, forced into attending.

This was the last course she ever went on. There was a last straw moment or two; the Maharishi went too far and she just couldn’t take any more.

For starters, she realised that he was teaching and presiding over magical practices; not only that, the rituals were very unsafe and undesirable for westerners.

Joyce Collin-Smith: inside the cult of the Maharishi Yogi

Joyce Collin-Smith said that the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was both godlike and demonic.

To me, her autobiographical work Call No Man Master has a similar duality: it is both very interesting and very boring. Some of the content fascinates me and resonates very strongly while some of it means very little so I skip over it.

Some of the material has generated commentaries and inspired the making of some original connections while some of it is just more of the same or irrelevant so I have no inclination to say anything about it.

Cults, cult leaders, cult members and cult leavers have been covered in several articles, mainly in general terms. I found Joyce Collin-Smith’s account of her involvement with the cult of the Maharishi Yogi particularly interesting. It is a goldmine; it is independent confirmation of much of what has already been described.

This article covers my ideas about her stated reasons for joining Maharishi and for staying with him for several years despite some reservations and much disillusionment.  Another article will describe how she eventually brought herself to leave him and his organisation for good.

The Maharishi Yogi’s backfiring meditation methods

While I can’t get interested in the many descriptions of spiritual practices associated with India and Tibet in Joyce Collin-Smith’s Call No Man Master, I am very interested in her account of the negative and unwelcome side effects that the Maharishi Yogi’s Hindu meditation practices had on his followers and devotees.

These effects greatly reduced the efficiency of his disciples and prevented them from carrying out his instructions effectively.

How could this have happened to someone so knowledgeable about spiritual exercises?

I am also interested in what she tells us about the big difference between the sort of people the Maharishi wanted to attract and many of the people he actually attracted - at least in the early days of his movement.

What was going on here?

It all seems to have backfired on him; he got the exact opposite of what he wanted.

The effects on the meditation practitioners 

There are many references to the unwanted behavioural characteristics of the people around the Maharishi Yogi. These were not innate; it seems it was the meditation that changed these people for the worse.

Cult members: giving more and more in return for less and less

Something I read  in Joyce Collin-Smith's Call No Man Master  about the Maharishi Yogi reminds me of something I read in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies about the Elf Queen. 

We start with an amusing anecdote from a serious book; the second extract is a serious statement from a very amusing book.  

From Call No Man Master

Joyce Collin-Smith tells us that the Maharishi Yogi started out by initiating people in return for fruit and flowers, but he went on to demand larger and larger sums of money in return for his teachings. Even the basic courses were very costly, and the lessons in special techniques became steadily more and more expensive. Some people deprived both themselves and their families to pay his exorbitant fees.

These special techniques were supposed to teach people to become clairvoyant, to manipulate the forces of nature and to levitate!

The Maharishi Yogi and some fictional characters

This article will highlight a few special connections I noticed while reading Joyce Collin-Smith’s account of the time she spent with the Maharishi Yogi in the 1960s.

Some of the information she gives us about the Maharishi in Call No Man Master reminds me of what I have written about various fictional characters, including St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre.

Some of it may be small stuff, but the devil is in the details.

The red, white and black connection

These colours of interest have been mentioned in various articles about witches, including one about Emma Cobley from Linnets and Valerians, who was wearing these colours and knitting a red scarf when the children first saw her.

By coincidence, when Joyce Collin-Smith first saw the Maharishi, he was wearing white silk robes and carrying a sheaf of red gladioli. He had long black curling hair.

He had exchanged the gladioli for a red rose when she went to meet him personally.

Joyce Collin-Smith and the special powers of the Maharishi Yogi

There is still more to say about Joyce Collin-Smith and her dealings with the Maharishi Yogi.

This article will mainly cover the Maharishi’s special powers.

In her autobiographical book Call No Man Master, she suggests that he remotely caused two deaths. In one case the motive was to remove an obstacle from his path while in the other it was revenge.

As described in the previous article, she believes that Beatles’ agent Brian Epstein was removed because he stood in the way of the Maharishi’s plans and Beatle John Lennon was murdered as a punishment for speaking out openly against the Maharishi.

What did she see and experience during the time she spent with the guru that could have given her this idea? Why did she believe that he had the power to destroy people? Why did she believe that he would use his power so ruthlessly?

Some more extracts from her book provide answers to these key questions. The incidents described may seem trivial to some people, but for me they are very significant and provide independent confirmation of many of my ideas.

The Maharishi Yogi, the Beatles and Joyce Collin-Smith

In her book Call No Man Master, Joyce Collin-Smith suggests that the Maharishi Yogi used his occult powers to cause the deaths of two men. One was the Beatle John Lennon and the other was the Beatles’ agent Brian Epstein.

She believed that the Maharishi had the ability to influence events remotely. This belief was based on her own experiences of seeing him and other people in action. I have both read about and experienced many metaphysical phenomena, some of which have been mentioned on here as have some suspicious and/or convenient deaths, so I too believe that a few people have special powers, powers that are often used to harm others. 

Joyce Collin-Smith’s account of these deaths will be followed by some supporting material from various sources.

Joyce Collin-Smith and the Maharishi Yogi

Author, journalist and seeker after esoteric knowledge Joyce Collin-Smith spent six years as secretary and general assistant to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian guru who developed and promoted the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique.

She served as his driver, cooked his food, washed his silk clothes, tucked him into his bedclothes, made his phone calls, booked hotel rooms, prepared leaflets and posters, took dictation for his books and performed many other exhausting tasks and duties, all in the name of assisting him to realise his inordinate and unrealistic ambitions.

She came to know him very well, and saw at close quarters how he operated and what effect this had on his followers.

Much of her book Call No Man Master is about the time she spent in the Maharishi’s company. Her account of her involvement is disillusioning and sometimes chilling. Casualties and broken people abound. Some damage was spiritual and emotional, but people’s ability to earn a living was also greatly impaired.

Anyone who is interested in cults and cult leaders will find it educational; anyone who is interested in unseen influences will find it fascinating. It contains many elements that have been featured in other articles.

Cult leaders and Call No Man Master

Author and journalist Joyce Collin-Smith’s autobiographical book Call No Man Master is a good source of information about some specific cult leaders.

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.