stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

DA AVATAR, DA BOMB, DA BUM 147
destrians who do not join you, the pressure to look up at
least briefly will be nearly irresistible (Cialdini, 2001).
Indeed, in one experiment performed by Stanley Milgram and
his colleagues, 80% of the passersby were drawn to look at the
empty area.
In that light, one may better appreciate the importance of, for
example, Adi Da’s first “street people” disciples. For, when beginning
any movement, it is less important that the first converts be
of any high caliber than that they simply be “warm bodies.” As
soon as a small group is thus formed, others will “look up at least
briefly,” or “stop and stare” altogether, simply for having seen the
social proof of the validity of your new path in the very existence of
that group.
* * *
Da’s “sun corona” manifestation was again included as a documented
“miracle” in his (1974) self-published, and thus Implicitly-
Approved-By-Him, Garbage and the Goddess. (Nearly all of the
“enlightened” figures mentioned herein have gotten their writings
into print only via self-publication.) And if, as Lowe hints, the
“miracle” itself never happened, Da of all people would have known
that from the beginning. Why then would he have proceeded with
allowing it into print? To publish something like that in the hope of
decreasing “cult-like” following would have been an interesting approach
indeed, since it could only have had exactly the opposite
effect.
Further, since Wilber had read that book prior to writing the
above 1980 and 1985 forewords—it is listed in the bibliography for
his (1977) Spectrum of Consciousness—one must ask: Does this
mean that he was accepting that apparently non-existent “miracle”
as being valid? One cannot help but assume so, since the alternative
would be to say that Wilber regarded Da as not accurately
presenting his spiritual accomplishments, but still chose to pen his
gushing forewords.
Da’s “corona miracle” seems to have come into being not via
any trickery, but simply via an “emperor’s new clothes” conformist
mentality on the part of the witnesses in his community. Still, if
one such “verified miracle” of Adi Da, “witnessed” by all of the
members in good standing of his society, should thus turn out to be
invalid, and yet be touted as real by the guru himself, how much