To answer starchild, from the topic called
Classes (click for link).
starchild wrote:I joined in the eighties, and I never knew about the 1976 predictions until I read about it here. In fact, I never heard about any date of Destruction predictions. On the contrary, I remember that we were told that, "'Baba' would not give an exact date because then we would be conscious of the date and not concentrating on effort", or something like that.
That is the "party policy", devised by the Seniors to cover themselves and repeated by the parrots in the middle management of the BKWSU ... and we know it is untrue.See the post above for specific details,
here.
It is true to the extent that Lekhraj Kirpalani, BapDada or who ever never said, "4th March 1985". They can tell a 'white lie', or do their usual trick of answering a different question from the one asked. But it is untrue to the extent that "God Brahma", Lekhraj Kirpalani or "ShivBaba" specifically said WWII, 1950, 1976, mid-1980s, mid-1908s to mid-1990s ... and then the senior pushed Year 2000. Now they all seem to be a buzz about 2012. Jayanti Kirpalani's line was always "2 to 3 years".
Were the date predictions official, or was it more of the the speculations of the followers? I remember so much of this bizarre speculation, and so much time taken up asking Seniors to verify (or not) these idiotic ramblings.
This is the other 'party line' the Seniors and middle management spout, "It is not Baba's fault but the followers".
Again, this is not true.We have the original posters they printed now including both the WWII, 1950s and 1976, elsewhere we have quoted the original Murlis regarding the 1976. Of course, none of us knew that the Murlis were being re-written and re-edited by the organization either! Om Radhe writes that the satsangs started in 1932, not the 1936 date used later.
It came to my mind that when I was teaching the course, a lot of people came for the seven days, said "thank you very much", and never came back ... how many of us would have stayed had we been shown video of Dadi Gulzar in a trance in Madubhan? I am trying to remember when that was introduced to me but I think they wait until we are well hooked in before introducing 'God's visits.'
My point is that we may have had to be suitably programmed. When we were, we would accept anything including prediction dates that did not transpire.
Very interesting questions. It makes you wonder how and why they even stuck the course out. In a way, we were abusing their good faith right from the beginning. They came to learn "peace of mind" or meditation, we were programmed to encult them into a bizarre 'End of the World' sect.
I stopped giving the course when I began having doubts. I did notice that many would do all sorts of service but never give The Course. In fact, at GCH at that time, they had great difficulty getting people to teach the course. Which leads me to conclusion that a lot of them had doubts but were completely hooked in to the lifestyle, the Seniors and the 'buzz'.
Change is difficult enough once you have invested so much of your life into anything, e.g. even changing the football team you support. Psychologists, sociologists and cult leaders all know this. They call it the "
Stockholm Syndrome".