Last Sunday, we tackled the question of: Is this something to do with religion? and it went down pretty well (I’m told)… so this Sunday let’s slay another sacred cow, eh, by answering the question:
Is this a cult?
(Funny story: the first ever paying client I had, accused me of being a cultist and asked for their money back after a few sessions; more of a reflection of my poor/dreadfully naive coaching skills than anything else, I suspect! 😂 Needless to say, I can laugh about it now.)
I find this whole area of discussion fascinating, and as always, I want to put your mind at ease about any of the questions or concerns it might come up with, and this is definitely a thing that minds get their knickers in a twist over.
(To be fair, I’ve known completely sensible people who’ve had pretty big insights around the 3Ps, have seen their life change quite dramatically as a result, but then have run in the opposite direction because they felt deeply uncomfortable with the notion of the 3 Principles and what they thought they stood for. The struggle is real, people!)
So I remain open-minded and I love watching documentaries about cults, because boy, do I know how to get my kicks.
The gold standard, that I’ve watched twice, is Wild, Wild Country, (available on Netflix), all about the rise and fall (and rise again, really) of the spiritual teacher Baghwan Shree Rajneesh/Osho in the 1970’s and 80’s. And there’s another one on BBC iPlayer, all about Gloriavale… which, at the time of writing, is an ongoing situation.
Both are highly recommended… with the obvious caveats about watching TV programmes about cults and what they get up to!
So anyway, if we’re going to establish whether or not the 3 Principles could be considered a cult, first of all we have to define what a cult is.
I asked my AI assistant to flesh this one out for me, and it came up with an 8-point list (it’s so eager to provide lists!) but in the end I thought it was better to hear directly from a real human who escaped Gloriavale—no mean feat—who described the process thus:
“We are concerned for our children’s safety, and so I cannot just sit back and go on with my head in the sand… the best and safest way to protect them would be to leave.
“But it goes waaaay deeper than just ‘get up and leave’. Because I was born and raised there; my wife was born and raised there. You are taught every day—from the moment you can understand English—that this is a place where you have got to be; this is a place where God wants you. If you leave, you’re going against God’s will, so you’re sinning. If you sin, you go to hell.
“That is just pounded and pounded and pounded for years and years and years, just ongoing… it’s a psychological barrier. There is no way to cross that line.”
Why’s he concerned, you may ask? Oh, you know, widespread sexual abuse, psychological abuse, modern slavery… and all in the name of doing ‘God’s’ work, via their ‘charismatic‘ leader, Neville Cooper.
(I did warn you.)
Anyway, absolutely determined to not let ChatGPT just sit there on its lazy arse, I asked it to examine various ‘movements’ throughout the world, past and present, and assign an ‘Is this a cult?’ rating to them all, as measured against its checklist of 8 things to look out for, which were, for the record:
- Authoritarian leadership
- Controlling or abusive practices
- Us-vs-Them mentality
- Exploitation of members
- Suppression of dissent
- Censorship of outside information
- Exclusion of all other beliefs/values
- Difficulty leaving
To put you out of your misery, the Gloriavale Fundamentalist Christian community scored 9/10 (Jonestown and Waco both obviously 10/10: textbook cults), the commune of Rajneeshpuram (Osho’s ‘utopia’) probably started at a much lower number, but ultimately became an 8/10, mainstream Abrahamic religions—all of 'em—scored between 4 and 7 (sorry; I didn’t come up with this list) and the 3 Principles was awarded a 2/10.
An important reminder:
😉
Why 2/10? Because (according to the AI):
“…some individuals or training schools within the movement may overly revere Banks or discourage questioning — but the movement as a whole does not meet cult criteria.”
Interesting!
Kind of understandable, I suppose. I myself have a quote from Syd at the bottom of each email, and I heartily recommend everyone seeks out his original materials (only because he was so damned clear about the whole thing), so that looks like reverence, doesn’t it?
But honestly, you only have to listen to about 10 minutes of Syd audio, before he’ll discourage you from being a follower, invite you to think for yourself and highlight—with absolute clarity—that all beliefs are creations of thought, and therefore, not it’.
Oh, as well as tell you to keep going to whatever church you go to (if that’s your bag) and just listen better, you numpty! 😆
Like I said last week, we are 8+ billion doorways onto the ineffable, and sometimes a lot of humans peep through one particular ‘big doorway’, because it makes sense to do so; it’s inviting to them in some way (or, more likely, their parents did and they don’t know any different)!
For me—and again, this is literally the Giles Ego Construct 📦 talking here, and it’s wrong about everything, by definition—the 3Ps are the most unassuming, take-it-or-leave-it, un-cultish, ‘big doorway’ going.
At least the way I appear to share them, anyway.
🤷🏻♂️
Giles
p.s. You know what scores zero on Chat GPT’s ‘Is this a cult’ scale? Nihilism! 🥹
p.p.s. You’re truly welcome to get in touch with me to let me know about the bad experience you had of the 3Ps or a 3Ps teacher and why you don’t like them… if you genuinely think that doing so will help you to dwell on it less!! ❤️🩹
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Giles P Croft