Mooji

Woebot

Well-known member
here's a scary but fascinating guy. FWIW i should emphasise that his claim of lineage to ramana maharshi is very weak...

from wikipedia: "Mooji was born Tony Paul Moo-Young in Port Antonio, Jamaica in 1954.[4] His mother migrated to the UK as one of the windrush generation when he was one year old. He was raised by his father and his mother's cousin (who became his father's lover and had more children).[3] Mooji's brother Peter went on to become one of Jamaica's top table tennis players.[4] Mooji's father died when he was eight, and he was raised by a strict uncle until he moved to London to be with his mother as a teenager.[3]

By age 30, Mooji was working as a street artist supporting his wife and child.[3] In 1985, Mooji's sister, Cherry Groce, was shot and paralysed during a police raid on her home, sparking the 1985 Brixton Riot.[4] In 1987, Mooji had an encounter with a Christian which began his spiritual quest.[5] Mooji continued to work as an art teacher until 1993, when he quit and went traveling in India. [4]"

there's a brilliant article about his portuguese ashram here:
https://gurumag.com/becoming-god-inside-moojis-portugal-cult/

and for an industrial strength dose of contemporary guru weirdness check the videos linked within the piece. this is the guru strain of bhakti yoga at its most lethal/terrifying/effective!! 🔥
 

catalog

Well-known member
Just read it now, yeah very much 'wild wild country' vibe. Very interesting, not watched the videos yet tho, too scared
 

comelately

Wild Horses
A lot of stuff about Yogi Bhajan, who created 'Kundalini Yoga', came out recently - he's dead so it's a bit late but given he's 'a religious figure considered by the United States Congress to be in the same elevated category as just three other individuals, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, and Martin Luther King, Jr.' and is credited by some scholars to have done a lot to popularise Skihism as a world religion it is kind of a big deal.
 

catalog

Well-known member
the site which matthew linked to about mooji has stuff about him. i mean you know there sonly one story with all these cult leaders. im waiting for the lynch files to be published in 20 years. altho maybe tm is not quite the same thing actually
 

Woebot

Well-known member
A lot of stuff about Yogi Bhajan, who created 'Kundalini Yoga', came out recently - he's dead so it's a bit late but given he's 'a religious figure considered by the United States Congress to be in the same elevated category as just three other individuals, Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, and Martin Luther King, Jr.' and is credited by some scholars to have done a lot to popularise Skihism as a world religion it is kind of a big deal.

was definitely quite a big thing and liked by the hippies - but not as big as many of the other seventies gurus of the guruscape...

yogi bhajan did not "create" kundalini yoga. kundalini is one aspect of raja yoga.

not sure where you got that quote about his importance but would be interested to know its source. might even be his own organisation...

was ANOTHER sexual predator. there's a book written by one of his followers "Premka: White Bird in a Golden Cage"
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Matthew, are there many examples of gurus who didn't do any of this stuff from the 70s until now? My Google for 'were there ever any legit gurus?' Didn't come up with anything
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Matthew, are there many examples of gurus who didn't do any of this stuff from the 70s until now? My Google for 'were there ever any legit gurus?' Didn't come up with anything

hey patty

it was astonishingly common.

off the top of my head maharishi yogi, osho, muktananda, chogyam trungpa, satchinananda, sai baba and bv das all used/abused their students for sex.

the impressive ones who didn't: dt suzuki (of a slightly early generation) and the american buddhist jack kornfield who actually did a big study on the issue:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...onepage&q=jack kornfield sex research&f=false
 

Woebot

Well-known member
[as the list does] seems a bit weird to "accuse" Ram Dass of bisexuality! never liked him though...
 
Last edited by a moderator:

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
[as the list does] seems a bit weird to "accuse" Ram Dass of bisexuality! never liked him though...

in 1996 no less. hmm!

it must be impossible to resist drinking your own kool aid after breaking the threshold. you're no longer gary the bongmaster in a moth bitten wooly knit round at daves house, always good for a few choice lines about the bhagavad gita. you're now gohvatsu sri sri tarematsu with a bunch of broken but highly attractive people at your feet ready to devour your every last word. and apparently there's an endless supply of those people in pretty much every country.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
in 1996 no less. hmm!

it must be impossible to resist drinking your own kool aid after breaking the threshold. you're no longer gary the bongmaster in a moth bitten wooly knit round at daves house, always good for a few choice lines about the bhagavad gita. you're now gohvatsu sri sri tarematsu with a bunch of broken but highly attractive people at your feet ready to devour your every last word. and apparently there's an endless supply of those people in pretty much every country.

very poetically put. it's true. it must be totally irrisestible not to capitalise on it.

BUT ALSO to be honest there is caught up within the whole dynamic of guru worship - that spiritual high of dopamine intoxification - an entirely sexual element (albeit one that is supposedly sublimated into invisibility). it's the same thing that people feel for rock stars - even men with their beatles pinups.

what's galling though is that, as you say, spirituality attracts a lot of broken people who are taken advantage of.

if you can watch the mooji videos they give a very good example of the high and how it works.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
very poetically put. it's true. it must be totally irrisestible not to capitalise on it.

BUT ALSO to be honest there is caught up within the whole dynamic of guru worship - that spiritual high of dopamine intoxification - an entirely sexual element (albeit one that is supposedly sublimated into invisibility). it's the same thing that people feel for rock stars - even men with their beatles pinups.

what's galling though is that, as you say, spirituality attracts a lot of broken people who are taken advantage of.

if you can watch the mooji videos they give a very good example of the high and how it works.

yeah, there's a blurring of what those urges are based on. sexual desires for sure, validation, nurture? people who possess charisma are intoxifying. if they're good looking it becomes hard to remain critical. add intelligence and artistic talents to the mix and forget about it. showbiz revolves around that stuff. our brains are releasing all kinds of chemicals to direct us and no doubt dopamine and oxytocin are in there. but that's just how it is. when you think of the state of the family unit in the west nowadays, and the general psychological makeup forced on us by capitalism and just being human, it's almost inevitable that this stuff happens, right? surrogate parents. it's like those co dependent abusive realtionships that you see over and over again. as an outsider you look at it and can't understand, but there's a reason they're so common. annie lennox is singing sweet dreams in my head now.

also interesting how it takes similar forms all over the world. the aesthetics, the color schemes. is it all plush and cloud-like with lots of off whites and soft creams? or more maroons & greens with wooden seats and no cushions, just to keep you humble?

i watched the videos. classic stuff. how is it possible in this day and age though? i've been to slightly similar things, not spiritual per se, but the landmark forum, if you've ever heard of that? it takes the same form. someone steps up in front of the room, opens up about their traumas on a level we're usually too afraid to, bonus points if they cry, and then the leader offers their words of wisdom to soothe their pain. the powerful part is in that moment, it seems to work. relief on the face. then someone else gets up with an ever sadder story and the process repeats. suddenly everyone's feeling all warm and fuzzy because of the brain chemicals. communion, empathy, being understood, feeling love.

just far too easy to exploit.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Your description patty reminds me of a while ago when I was filming in a fundamental Christian church, and they had people up on stage, not quite testifying but going over their journeys, and others in the audience shouting out encouragement. And then this buzz about it where you are suddenly like 'oh, this is nice...'

This kind of truth telling, auditing or whatever, it's connected to what Luka and shiels are talkin about in the other thread, but it's also interesting how it's similar to all the self help type groups, AA and so on, popular in America, becoming more popular elsewhere I suppose. 'sharing', 'qualification' etc. I think like you've both said there's something addictive in the sharing, the validation that comes from it. It's probably very empowering in an innocent way, but can then obviously be massively exploited because others know your deep dark secrets. Scientology obviously the classic I suppose.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
that's the thing. it could be used for good in so many ways. but the way things are now, rotten at the core, it's hard to trust it.

there was an episode of the WTF podcast with a guy called Phil Stutz aka the 'Hollywood Power Therapist.' have listened to a thousand hours of that podcast, but that episode and particularly the bit where he talks about that phenomenom you're describing stuck with me. he talks about how in the 12 step program they do exactly that. they all get together in a room, drink coffee and open up. must get pretty gnarly when you're in a room full of addicts. air thickened. dark confessions, one after the other. "it's not just me?" huge relief. Stutz says, that when people engage in that way, an energy comes into the room and weilds a healing power. he says it with much more gravitas than me and goes into more detail. i guess you'd have to hear it yourself to get what i mean. but this is a highly intelligent, respected, presumably science based dude talking about esoteric, spiritual forces. it's a fantastic conversation. there's so much potential for good there.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Sounds good patty, might check it out. I got a bit of insight into the self help groups thing from this graphic novel I read recently called 'qualification' by David heatley. He's kind of an interesting guy, not well liked at all within the indie comics community, cos there's some disingenuousness there maybe, and it goes back to his previous books, I think there's a bit of jealousy cos he got a good book deal, but i found it very readable. He basically becomes addicted to these groups, keeps going to them, even when he's not got the issue the group might be discussing. He's hooked on the process. So maybe a sort of fight club type thing (tho I've never read that novel). I think wellbeing in the UK could become more like this as time passes
 

Woebot

Well-known member
the 12 step program

absolutely a cult/religion for sure. and probably in the very best sense

glad you saw those vids. and i totally get your reaction... IN THIS DAY AND AGE!!!!???!!!!

those same nerve endings still there i guess!!!
 

version

Well-known member
A while back I read something about Paramahansa Yogananda being mixed up with Luther Burbank, a Californian botanist and proponent of eugenics.
 
Top