stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

MAKE IT BETTER 501
nical authoritarianism” brought out later by the closed, hierarchical
environment.
The dismal degree of practical understanding of even the most
basic aspects of freshman social psychology—literally, Psych 101—
exhibited by these “experts” is truly astonishing, isn’t it?
* * *
If all of this seems too cynical, simply compare the reported behaviors
we have seen herein with how any sensible and self-honest
person would behave. Couldn’t you (outside of the eventual, perspective-losing
effects of imperial role-playing) do better than every
one of the respected spiritual figures evaluated here, in guiding
other people’s evolution, regardless of whether the enlightenment
claimed by each of these so-called sages is real or imagined? Even
if your every hidden indiscretion was made public, wouldn’t you
still come off looking like a better human being than any of these
bozos?
Then, factor in the orders-of-magnitude difference between the
disinfected, hagiographic versions of the lives of undisputed “sages”
such as Ramakrishna and Krishnamurti, versus their real natures.
And in doing that, never be so naïve as to imagine that the
distortions, cover-ups, group-think, wishful thinking and outright
fabrications applied to any claimed saint’s daily behavior by his
vested-interest disciples would not be effected just as much with
regard to his or her visionary experiences, other “miracles,” and
overall “compassionate” nature.
I would personally still like for most of the fairy tales told in
the name of spirituality to be true. The problem which I have by
now in accepting any of them is not that I would a priori or “scientifically”
find it difficult to believe that human volition can affect
the behavior of matter. Indeed, I would still actively prefer for
auras, chakras, subtle energies, astral travel, manifested “loaves
and fishes” and their ilk to exist. The issue I have by now is simply
that the sources of information in all of those “miraculous” and
mystical regards are so unreliable as to be less than worthless.
Further, the claimed phenomena fail uniformly, on every point on
which they have been properly tested, to stand up to simple rational
questioning and reproducibility.
Believe it or not, back when I was loyally following Yogananda,
and up until I began the intensive, year-long research for the
present book, I was actually of the opinion that no one could be so