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Psychological Freedoms Information Dialogue Support Since 1995 make a micro-donation? thanks to our donors search browse faq help contact us media info counseling resources free lists links links to us stats awards & reviews about register Register your email address with URL-MINDER to receive automatic notification when we update trancenet.net. your email: A MOTHER'S BETRAYAL BY THE NEW CAN Editor's Note:Since Scientology has taken over the old Cult Awareness Network, parents have contacted us with allegations and horror stories like the one below. My daughter is in a controversial New Age group. Everyone else in the family thinks that she is just exploring a new dimension in her life and that she will come out of it. They trust her intelligence and think she will be able to get the good from this experience and emerge when she wants to. Since it is vision work and clearing out the past, they think growth can come of it. I used to think this too, until she broke from me and her mail and phone calls were blocked. I am reading a lot about cults, particularly Steve Hassan's book, and I know she is being subjected to mind control techniques and hypnotic regression therapy. There have been abrupt changes in her life: She quit her job, sold her old truck and got a car payment, moved into the community, works for the community, is planning to have a child by artificial insemination, entered into a committed but not sexual partnership with another woman in the community, is a coach for others in this process, runs workshops, may be earning money now, but I'm not sure if she gives her money to the community. I visited this Spring. People were gracious and I saw some good things in the community. I was unable to confront her, actually found myself getting sucked in. The people have cold eyes. They think they are going to change the world and everyone in the world should do this training. They have clear energy for their committment, but irrational thought to get there. After I returned, Ellen cut off talking for a month so that she would not have to continue to "take care of me" or relate emotionally. When I looked for help, I recently experienced a betrayal from the Cult Awareness Network [CAN] in Chicago. [Important Note: We do not recommend contacting the Cult Awareness Network, or CAN. An extraordinarily courageous and useful organization in the past, CAN was recently forced into bankruptcy with the help of the Church of Scientology, who now owns their records and mans their phones.] This is the way they operate: The hotline operator makes sure she gets the name of the organization the caller is worried about. Her tone of voice changed to one of urgency, but I was too emotional to notice that at the time. I was told: that the organization changed hands because of a lawsuit about a forcible deprogramming, that deprogramming is illegal, and that there is 100% recidivism rate, that mediation is recommended and that I would receive a phone call from a mediator. Thus they got my name and phone number. No mediator called me. In the meantime, CAN called the organization in question and disclosed that they were the Cult Awareness Network and that a complaint had been lodged. Since this is a new, small organization and I was the most recently aggrieved parent, they all knew I had made the phone call. I was still in contact with members of the organization and they told me about the call. Obviously my position became tenuous and a complete cut-off of all family soon occurred. When I learned of the betrayal, I called the hotline and complained. (I obviously had not done my research on the Internet yet. I got the listing from Gale Research Co, Encyclopedia of Organizations. I have contacted their editor about omitting the listing.) The executive director called me back and I, still believing this was a bona-fide organization, angrily told her how their policy of calling the organization was insane and how it had damaged even further my relationship with my daughter. She seemed to be genuinely emotionally shaken. She promised that a psychologist employed by CAN would call me. Obviously no one phoned. Then I turned to the Internet and got the real story about the takeover by Scientology. I hope that is all the harm they can do. Spread the word. Member of the Internet Link Exchange Please address any questions or problems you encounter on this site to jmknapp53@gmail.com. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of trancenet.net, all-info.org, its staff, volunteers, or donors. Please send letters to the editor to jmknapp53@gmail.com. All editorial correspondence becomes the property of trancenet.net -- unless requested otherwise -- and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space. trancenet.net relies sole http://www.trancenet.net/trancenet/levels.shtml. Except where noted, entire contents Copyright ©1995,1996, 1997 John M. Knapp. To comment on this or any other trancenet.net page, go to trancechat. This page was last built with Frontier on a Macintosh on Fri, Jul 18, 1997 at 3:06:24 AM.

Creation has two sides: intelligence, which is the cause of everything, and the manifestations of intelligence, which are the physical and psychological features of the everyday world. Because Transcendental Meditation directly approaches intelligence, rather than the manifestations of intelligence, it solves problems by introducing harmony and well-being at the most basic level, and not by dealing with problems themselves. That's why it is so effective. Consider this example: The gardener supplies water to the root of a tree. That water, that nourishment, then reaches all parts of the tree - leaves, branches, flowers, fruit - through the sap. We can think of the sap as analogous to intelligence and the green leaves or yellow flowers as analogous to the manifestations of the intelligence. The leaves and flowers are the intelligence of the sap, after it has been transformed. So intelligence - like the leaves and flowers of a tree - appears as the many different forms of manifest life. Those manifestations include every aspect of existence, from the material and physiological, through the psychological, intellectual, and spiritual. All of those features of life come from transformations of intelligence. In meditation, we directly meet this essential intelligence. Therefore, we have the possibility of nourishing all of its other levels, and thus all levels of manifestation, in a way that is harmoniously related to the whole universe. How is Transcendental Meditation different from the various other forms of meditation? Maharishi: The basic difference is that Transcendental Meditation, in addition to its simplicity, concerns itself only with the mind. Other systems often involve some additional aspects with which the mind is associated, such as breathing or physical exercises. They can be a little complicated because they deal with so many things. But with Transcendental Meditation there is no possibility of any interference. So we say this is the all-simple program, enabling the conscious mind to fathom the whole range of its existence. Transcendental Meditation ranges from active mind - or performing mind - to quiet mind - or resting mind. In this resting mind, one has purity and simplicity, uninvolved with anything other than the mind, uninvolved with any other practice. In Transcendental Meditation, because we deal only with the mind, we nourish all expressions of intelligence. The mind meditates, gains Transcendental Consciousness and brings about transformation in different fields of manifestation. All fields of life, which are the expression of intelligence, are nourished or transformed and made better through experiencing Transcendental Consciousness. The mind, of course, is always concerned with other aspects, such as the physiology of the body, the environment, and the whole universe for that matter. But since Transcendental Meditation deals only with the performance of the mind, from its active states to its settled state, it remains unconcerned with those other aspects, though it deals with them all, because intelligence deals with them all. -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, unknown interview, copyright presumably held by Maharishi Vedic University, The Maharishi Foundation, or another group within the TM family. Cults come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Categories of cults that are recruiting successfully today include: Eastern meditation: characterized by belief in God-consciousness, becoming one with God. The leader usually distorts and Eastern-based philosophy or religion. Members sometimes learn to disregard worldly possessions and may take on an ascetic lifestyle. Techniques used: meditation, repeated mantras, altered states of consciousness, trance states. Religious: marked by belief in salvation, afterlife, sometimes combined with an apocalyptic view. The leader reinterprets the Scriptures and often claims to be a prophet if not the messiah. Often the group is strict, sometimes using physical punishments such as paddling and birching, especially on children. Members are encouraged to spend a great deal of time proselytizing. (Note: included here are Bible-based neo-Christian and other religious cults, many considered syncretic since they combine beliefs and practices). Techniques used: speaking in tongues, chanting, praying, isolation, lengthy study sessions, many hours spent evangelizing, "struggle" (or criticism) and confession sessions. Political, racist, terrorist: fueled by belief in changing society, revolution, overthrowing the "enemy" or getting rid of evil forces. The leader professes to be all-knowing and all-powerful. Often the group is armed and meets in secret with coded language, handshakes, and other ritualized practices. Members consider themselves an elite cadre ready to go to battle. Techniques used: paramilitary training, reporting on one another, guilt, fear, struggle sessions, instilled paranoia, long hours of indoctrination. -- Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, Lalich and Tobias, Hunter House, 1993.