An interview with a former monastic about entering and leaving Self-Realization ashrams. Here we talk about the traps of reliance on external authority.
Below is an interview with Scott of Skeptic Meditations. It was originally published in Canadian Atheist and is republished below [with my additional edits] with permission by the author.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen of Conatus News and Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: With regards to the tactics to keep members in a cult-like organization, what seem like the more prominent examples?
Scott from SkepticMeditations.com: There’s many tactics that cult-like groups, like Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) Monastic Order, use to trap followers. First, is the ideal of renunciation, which is unrealistic and unlivable. The ideal of renunciation of self is a trap because its irreconcilable. No human can ever be totally selfless. Nor can they ever be perfect. Despite the claims by SRF members who idealize their supposed selfless yogi-guru and SRF founder Paramahansa Yogananda.
“I killed Yogananda long ago. No one dwells in this body now but God.” proclaimed Paramahansa Yogananda.
Another tactic used by cult-like groups is the practice of meditation techniques. Meditation is often prescribed as a means to enlightenment. Or, the path to some kind of exalted state of spiritual awareness. Why? Meditation is supposed to still thought, to quiet the mind, which is a way to kill the ego, to become selfless. Ultimately, disciples of SRF are indoctrinated that they ought to become like Yogananda or God-conscious. It’s another tricky psychological trap for followers.
Jacobsen: What runs through the mind of a believer to keep them bound to the cult or cult-like organization?
Scott: People in cult-like organizations are trapped in a double bind. The get trapped inside the prison of beliefs built with no-win communications designed to keep followers obeying the authority figure. (Remember the examples above of unlivable ideals of renunciation and irreconcilable beliefs in selflessness?)
Cult-like organizations, like SRF, implicitly or explicitly communicate to their followers:
“You are asleep or ignorant. Meditation is the path to awakening or knowledge of God. You are asleep or ignorant, so keep meditating.
You are ego/self-centered. Meditation is the path to ego destruction/self-transcendence. If you are not yet egoless or selfless, keep meditating.
You are racked with desires. Meditation is the path to fulfillment of all desires. If you are not yet desireless, keep meditating.”
The double bind is the inability to see the traps, for instance, that desiring to be desireless is desire.
In each of the above examples, the cult-like group keeps you psychologically trapped in the double bind. You keep meditating. You keep trying to follow the given techniques for enlightenment but do not still your thoughts or become enlightened (beyond a momentary and temporary experience). The teachers, teachings, and techniques are never to be blamed for fault, say the group. Your ego got in the way and that you just need to keep trying more. Essentially, followers in these groups are tricked into thinking they can attain some unlivable ideal and they keep going in circles inside the double bind. Filled with self-doubt and mistrust in self, what do you expect followers to do? They tend to surrender and follow even more the external authority–the guru and his cult-like group.
Jacobsen: How is the inculcation of self-doubt and reliance on an external authority part and parcel of the maintenance of the follower mentality in a cult?
Scott: Mental or psychological control is easy when people doubt themselves.
Cult-like groups and gurus use many methods to to instill self-mistrust in followers. They patronize followers (treat them with kindness while betraying superiority). Or, they assume superiority (claim to know what’s best for followers). Or, they use methods that instill fear, guilt, or shame in followers which fill them with more self-doubt and self-mistrust.
Cult-like groups label independent thinking as “ego” and also devalue reason, analytical thinking, and personal feelings. Whereas, it is supposedly superior for followers to give blind obedience and selfless service to guru or external authority versus taking care of one’s self-interests, such as family.
In cult-like groups, if followers question any abuse they are told that it is spiritual “training” and it is beyond understanding in a rational way. “God works in mysterious ways”. And of course, they assume the leader of the group is attuned or at-one with God. So no one can question the guru’s or the group’s abuses without being ostracized or even excommunicated from the spiritual community.
The SRF monastic ashram environment is very closed. Everything the monks did had to be approved by the monk’s spiritual counselor or by the ashram superiors. Everything offered inside the ashrams the monks were expected to accept as if it was coming from Guru, from God. If you question or resist anything (even moldy cheese served in the dining room), then you’d be labeled as disloyal, egotistic, or self-centered. In this setup the SRF leaders and monastic superiors could do no “evil”, abuses went unchecked. Victims of physical and psychological abuses, like myself, endured for decades in the name of “training” wondering what the hell was wrong “with me”.
For years allowed the abuses because I too believed they were “training” for my own good. Eventually I saw through the control and manipulation and left the ashram. Though I’d left physically the abusive monastery, psychologically I’d retained many of the manipulative double bind beliefs in spiritual external authority.
Jacobsen: Even if there aren’t formal methodologies on some levels for the individual follower, how does the follower make excuses for the abuse and bad behavior of some of the leaders of some cults and cult-like organizations?
Scott: There are formal rules and vows of the SRF Order. I’ve shared these on my website. In addition, the SRF Lessons–which are available to the public for a nominal subscription fee–contain 100s of “official” SRF rules and procedures regarding “how to live”, such as following a strict vegetarian diet, abstaining from sex, and practicing esoteric meditation rituals.
There’s something called the “sunk-cost” fallacy. When we invest so much of our time, energy, and possibly money into something that is failing and we tell ourselves we can’t give up or we can’t cut our losses now. We try to convince ourselves if we persist in our efforts and beliefs (despite the evidence) that we will make a successful comeback and be a hero or a saint. Psychological investments, including attachments to the people inside the community, also plays a huge role in why followers have a difficult time escaping the traps of abuse in cult-like organizations.
Jacobsen: What is the general marketing that cults or cult-like organizations present to the outside world, i.e. the warning signs and signifiers of a potentially harmful organization?
Scott: Eastern, Hindu- and Buddhist-inspired, groups often use meditation techniques as a way to entice and keep followers. Meditation is scientized. That is it is promoted as a practical and scientific method. Meditation practice is supposed to bring the faithful practitioner peace, material success and happiness, and ultimate enlightenment.
Cult-like ideologies also promote their unlivable, utopian ideals. Which are appealing to people who may be suffering or looking for something to fill the existential vacuum in their lives. People who are most vulnerable are those who are going through a challenging life transition. That’s why you often find young, college-age disciples who join cults. During college is when I first was attracted to SRF. By escaping into an idealized model of the world as “spiritual training” gives meaning to people who are confused or suffering.
Also, cult-like leaders and groups often claim to have special dispensations from God. Of course, each particular cult-group claims to have the “right” answers. Groups like Scientology often charge exorbitant fees to clear themselves of evil thetans through a method Scientologists call auditing. I recommend watching the documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. Many of the psychologically controlling and cult-like behaviors and tactics used by Scientology are also used by other cult-like groups, like SRF. The groups don’t differ in kind but only in degree of attempted control over followers.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Scott.
Scott: Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences about what I believe is an important topic.
By Scott Douglas Jacobsen of Conatus News and Founder of In-Sight Publishing and In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal.
Image attribution: Inger Klekacz, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0