Images and Voices of Hope goes "independent"?

Give a BK a potential donor and the donor will be courted. I recall a Senior Sister saying to me, "He is a businessman, he might give Baba some money" ... The BK are very focused on money.

Anyone's money ... having gone from individuals and families up to governments for sponsorship (and, remember, they took money off the British government right back to the time of the Partition in India), now they are after the money of charitable foundations.

Remember when they used to say they only took money off individuals that have "benefited" from the teachings? I suppose that seeing the three aspects of time, they now know in advance how funding their projects will benefit those foundations. Recently the "Images & Voice of Hope", which is now a stand alone 501(c) not-for-profit organization with its own managing team, listed funders giving credibility to the service programme.

Can anyone tell me that the IVoH is not a BK service programme and if it is not a BK service programme why does it have access to the BKWSU's facilities like Peace Village etc? How many of the managing team knows what the Brahma Kumaris agenda really is?

Funders

The Fetzer Institute: Sponsor of the International Dialogue for Thought Leaders in Media
The Carnegie Corporation: Contributor to the International Dialogue for Thought Leaders in Media
Kalliopeia Foundation: General Support

They say that "Images and Voices of Hope was created through a partnership between three not-for-profit organizations, each of which holds as a core belief that our thoughts generate our world." Those three organization were; The Visions of a Better World Foundation (VBWF), The Center for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve University, The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (BKWSO).

But if we break that down bearing in mind that early the BKWSU said, "A major focus of The Visions of a Better World Foundation is a project called Images and Voices of Hope" and it was registered at the address of BKWSU member and IVoH director Rita Cleary who gives talks for the "BK Learning Centers" as they are now called in Boston.

• The Visions of a Better World Foundation was not an "outgrowth of a United Nations Project entitled the Global Cooperation Project". It was not actually a "UN programme" but, of course, the second big Brahma Kumaris service programme, "Global Cooperation for a Better World" which began as 'The Global Cooperation Bank' and formed the basis for 'The Peoples' Visions' as early as February 1989.
• the BKWSO is, of course, the BKWSU in the USA, and
• surely "Case Western Reserve University" means a leading light of both the VBWF and the IVoH, 'Brahma Kumari Judy Rodgers' who is, of course, Executive Director at the Institute of the Business as an Agent of World Benefit Center there and the co-owner of Appreciative Inquiry Consulting (although I cant find any reference to "The Center" existing right now).

So does not that approximately equate to BK Judy Rodgers and the BKWSU, BK Judy Rodgers and the BKWSO and BK Judy Rodgers at Case Western funded by non-BKs? Confused ... nevermind. May be you are meant to be. It all seems a bit mixed in with professional interests to me ... who is using who?

When they write, "in 1998, the BKWSO worked in partnership with the Visions of a Better World Foundation and Case Western Reserve University to develop and convene a national conversation called "Images and Voices of Hope: A Question of Choice" in New York City." Do they really mean Case Western Reserve University or do they just mean "Judy"? The IVoH is "Media as an Agent of World Benefit" ... at Case Western it is "Business as an Agent of World Benefit" ... at the BKWSU the holy ghost says, "BKs bring World Benefit".

The spiritual component offered to IVOH programs are:

1. Individuals who are media professionals and who experiment with the BK knowledge and practice in their personal life as well as the integration of the spiritual dimension in their work lend their experience and thought partnership in the development of the IVOH program;
2. Senior yogis of the BK community with 30 years and more of spiritual practice in the realm of the transformative properties of silent reflection and meditation are offered as spiritual resources to help the IVOH community explore the subtle dimension of silence and to tap into the spring of their inner resources; and
3. Safe spaces are opened for respectful and appreciative conversations.

Acknowledging IVOH's 501c3 not-for-profit, tax-exempt status, the BKWSO wishes to continue to offer its support to IVOH in the following ways:

BKWSO will appoint, by October 2008 a liaison responsible for the BK/IVOH Relationship in the USA and worldwide.

In order to support IVOH growth and expansion, the BKWSO will liaise with the recognized IVOH associate or focal point as well as encourage other supporting organizations and professionals in the media, to take leading roles and assist with resources where appropriate.

BKWSO is willing to respond to requests to use their facilities within the USA and worldwide.

If a BKWSO Center or member receives enquiries about IVOH, the enquiry will be referred to the recognised IVOH associate or focal point for the city, or to the BK/IVOH liaison.

BKWSO may support, if requested, IVOH activities in countries where there are no authorised IVOH associations. The BK National Coordinators in those countries, as well as IVOH should be consulted. It must be ensured that the approach, methodology and spirit of IVOH are maintained, as well as the principles contained within the IVOH guidelines.

If a BK Center is asked to use its local address as an official site for IVOH activities, this must be put to the BK National Coordinator or the National Board of Directors/Trusteess of the BK in that particular country for approval.

If and when requested, BK members may provide spiritual guidance to IVOH participants. This would be regarded strictly as a BK activity, separate from IVOH. IVOH participants, activities, and mailing lists are not considered or approached as a means to disseminate BK teachings and practices.

Traditionally the annual IVOH Global Summit is held at Peace Village in Haines Falls, NY. BKWSO will consider continuing to host it upon the request of IVOH.

So, "no mailing list to disseminate BK teachings and practices" but everyone coming is initiated into a relationship with their channeled entity, gets zapped by their "Godly vibrations" and given toli.

If and when requested, BK members may provide spiritual guidance to IVOH participants. This would be regarded strictly as a BK activity, separate from IVOH. IVOH participants, activities, and mailing lists are not considered or approached as a means to disseminate BK teachings and practices.

AHAHAHA! Should we cry or laugh?

I agree, this is the best part and the comment my mind instantly made to such hypocritical statement was, "what the hell are they doing it for, then?"

Well, those who do not know the BKWSO cannot really be blamed for being naive.

Another front, another way to spread their tentacles and to do very beneficial "incognito service", to draw in $, to pull professionals into their web, to feed the giant Octopus. I imagine that there will be some job for slave/volunteers in the background also!!

Not everybody can be a PR, a speaker or a facilitator. But the beauty of this sect, is that according to the truth they spread and that keeps unwise people entangled, like in most religions, you have to feel honored to serve the "Godly task" in this life, even whilst cleaning toilets for the VIP guests, and gain a "high status in Paradise".

Sordid, is not it?

Sordid, is not it?

Spiritually sordid? I think so. My question is, "who do they think they are fooling?"

Funding foundations, obviously.

But why should they fund BKWSU evangelism by stealth?

The BKWSU response would seemingly be ... well, they have to allow the poor, ignorant souls some manner in which to earn their fortune. And don't they have the monopoly of the highest spiritual fortunes?

Are these new vehicles just for the wannabe, demi-BKs, are they the personal ambitious of the leading BKs (I have noted how close to the professional interests of the individuals the IVoH is) ... or are these IP and VIP non-BKs just the "subjects" of the BKs (as the spirit channelled messages of the Murli says, "go create your subjects ... can you hear your worshippers call you ...")?

So, back to the question, who does the BKWSU think they are fooling? All the paperword really seems to say, like with some of the values programmes, is that, "we do not give permission for EVERY BK or EVERY BKWSU center to get involved with this VIP service (... in case they screw up by going on too much about Destruction/Gyan etc). Its about excluding BKs NOT excluding Brahma Kumarism.

Quite to the contrary, it is about ensuring that given their investment, they are seen exclusively as the spiritual source (as per the BKUN directives) and get to use the IVoH to do service when ever they want. Are they honestly going to ring fence the IVoH and say, "we will never ask any VIP coming through the IVoH to come to Mount Abu or one of our programmes". Of course not! Its a filtering system to refine their connections to bring the microphone and VIPs "closer to Baba", as they call it. Who "recognizes IVoH associates" ... the BKs that run it?

I wanted to offer my own traslation ...

• The BKWSO take leading roles and assist with resources when no one else, including wealthy BKs, will pay for or give them for nothing, and when its suits the BKWSO ambitions. When it does not, it wont.
• The IVoH is will use BKWSO controlled facilities within the USA and worldwide.
• If a BKWSO Center or member receives enquiries about IVoH, the enquiry will be referred back to the hush-hush VIP team just to make sure the VIP contact is not screwed up.
• BKWSO will use the IVoH idea in countries where there are no non-BKs involded.
• The BK National Coordinators ensured that the IVoH is controlled and maintained as a exclusive VIP service project.
• Any BK center-in-charge or center asking to to be an official site for IVOH activities must be OK-ed by the BK National Coordinator or the National Board of Directors/Trusteess of the BK in that particular country for approval.
• BK members will spiritually initiate IVOH participants and do "BK service" by leading meditations when ever they can.
• The annual IVOH Global Summit is held at the BKWSU "Peace Village" center".

I go back to the question again, who do they think they are fooling?

"IVOH participants, activities, and mailing lists are not considered or approached as a means to disseminate BK teachings and practices."

Merely coming into contact with "contact souls", grooming them gently, "taking their pulse" as to how far they can push "The Knowledge" for the sake of expansion, has been the mainstay of BKWSU evangelism in the West for at least the last 20 years. And, of course, "The Knowledge" has been taking an increasingly distant back seat for a long time. Its been a long time since the "gave the Trimurti lesson" to a non-BK and "Destruction" has been officially relabeled "Transformation". Having a new agey chit-chat, and then being able to "give Baba's introduction" via a guided meditation ... IS ... BKWSU Western evangelism. So what are they talking about?

The whole think strikes me as a way of keeping dough-ball or Hindu BK followers likely to spurt out something like, "God has come ... the bombs have been made and they will be used ... and it will all happens like it did 5,000 years ago"!

They probably only give pictures of Lakshmi and Narayan because Janki Kripalani tells them they have to (and Ramesh Shah got a good price on a job lot they are trying to clear out).

It reads like a protection for non-BK IVoH directors or servant souls to stop the IVoH from being yet another BK front ... but really what it is, in my opinion, is a protection for the investment of those BK directors involved.

I mean, putting the main instrumental BK AI corporate consultants aside ... look who they have involved;

• the number one Brahma Kumari United Nations heavy hitter,
• the long-term committed cultie who put 'the nun' into Brahma Kumaris (and to whom God talks to personally and guides on daily basis)
• some utterly safe, pure and innocent, surrendered and perfectly-conditioned Indian kunya (to report back to the Seniors in Hindi perhaps?)

Tell me where I am wrong please? Do these people know about Destruction and the death of 6,000,000,000 and what this whole thing is really all about? And ... as alladin points out ... if it NOT about BK stealth evangelism and "giving Baba's introduction" ... why are the most committed BKs and BKWSU centers doing it? Is that not bad karma, sticky attachment and against Shrimat?

I mean ... look who they have involved.

Oops ... missed one.


David L. Copperrider confirms that Meredith Porte, a producer and host at WLRN-PUBLIC TELEVISION Channel 17 for over 25 years, is also a Brahma Kumari ... and amongst our old friends at the BKWSU Tampa/Miami who you will remember playing such a vivid role during the legal action etc.

The IVoH appears to me to be a BKWSU front to suck people in. It was also the conduit through which Miami based celebrity 'BeeGee' Robin Gibb and his wife Dwina passed into the hands of BK Janki Kripalani ... going on to become regular BKWSU financial supporters, as reported by the tabloids, or VIP 'demi-BKs' despite any rock and roll lifestyle.

Many feel Janki took advantage of his grief around the time of his twin Brother's death, gave him special treatment because of his wealth and status and hid from him the truth of the Brahma Kumari religion. Robin Gibb performed at the 70th Anniversary JAM concert and was reported to be an all round general Janki Bhagat. Dwina regularly cooperating elsewhere.

... So I think that proves the theory of how successful a evangelistic medium, or funnel, it is for the BKWSU. I just hope Robin does not believe that everyone enter the BKWSU is treated the same as him.

The history is all detailed rather well in the book, "Constructive Discourse and Human Organization" by David L. Cooperrider (see paper; 'Appreciative Inquiry in Transformative public dialogue' by BK Judy Rodgers), where you can start to understand how it so neatly segues into advancing Judy's professional interests ... what is for Baba's service and what is for Judy's? I cant tell. I wonder how much business goes back the other way, like with Brian Bacon, to Judy?

I am not sure how committed a BK Meredith Porte is now or ever was ... she is also connected through marriage to powerful East Coast Jewish (or even Zionist given the UJA's history) circles, but David's word is good enough for me. That makes at least 4 Brahma Kumaris so far. May be more to come. As seen on BKWSU websites listed as IVoH or Producer/Director instead etc.

You can see how BKWSU services programmes are listed in her CV without being listed as some cultie religion. So, perhaps, IVoH is just that ... a professional front for the BKWSO/BKWSU that allows BK professionals to do "Baba's service" without being embarrassed by the connection to the mediumship, historical revision, 5,000 year Cycles and "Destruction" of being a 'special child of god'?

What I wonder is about this "Appreciative Inquiry" (AI) stuff that they are using to such good effect. Its not Baba is it? It did not come from Baba ... it came from an impure Shudra non-BK ... how does that fit into the theology fed to the rest of the follower and funder caste BKs? Reading the rhetoric, it is all just the much as stuff you get at "normal" BKWSU evangelistic gigs.

With Brian Bacon and Self-Management Leadership product, there was a straight cut business deal. With some "Values education" programmes (health), there was reported to be a commission paid back to the BKs. I wonder what it is for the BKs doing this AI or IVoH stuff? Or is it just American and 'Brahma-Kumaris America', inc are just more corporately orientated?

As usual, I flag up the apparent caste system which appears to exist within the Brahma Kumari movement.

More info over here; The Inner Work of the Journalist

Over the eight years that I have been supporting Images and Voices of Hope, I have been thinking about how the individual journalist can be face to face with some of the most difficult stories of our time and not become burdened by that experience ... How can they experience the stories of our time and not take on sadness and anger within themselves? ... The attitude of a detached observer - having love for the people and the situation, but remaining detached enough not to take sorrow from the situation - is such a critical ability. It allows us to witness something difficult and yet not be affected by it, even if we can’t change it or find any positive way to describe the scene.

Yes, like the Brahma Kumaris telling the Jews that The Holocaust was their karma ... "be stable in drama" ... and not telling anyone that "world peace" is limited to 900,000 faith BK followers whilst the rest of the world will experience Nuclear Holocaust and sinking continents?

Meredith Porte has been a producer and host at WLRN-TV
Channel 17 for 25 years. She currently produces and hosts the weekly arts and entertainment program on WLRN-TV entitled ArtStreet. Some of the personalities she has recently interviewed include Madeleine Albright, Peter Max, Yanni, Jane Seymour, and Lynn Redgrave. Meredith has also produced many specials including the National Pledge Special for Public Television with Co-author of the Best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul books Jack Canfield. This National Television Special which is a self-help program was called “Making your Dreams Come True with Jack Canfield,” and ran on PBS stations across the country.

Meredith also produced Memories of the Night: A Study of the Holocaust which is the first Holocaust Education video for educators from multi cultural backgrounds. This program recently received a film and video award in the documentary category from the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center.

Still another series that Meredith recently produced was 'Enlighten Up South Florida", a series which focused on how people can bring more balance and harmony into their lives in a world filled with so much pressure. WFOR reporter Michele Gillen hosted this Emmy nominated series. Guests on this series included self-help author Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Deepak Chopra, and author of “Many Lives, Many Masters “ Dr. Brian Weiss.

Meredith previously produced and co-hosted the long-running series on WLRN-TV called Something on 17, the popular nightly one hour magazine talk show which ran on Channel 17 for 13 years. Other programs that Meredith has also produced and co-hosted include The Augie Awards with Davie Barry, and Arts Showcase which aired nationally.

On the personal side, Meredith has been very active with world peace in which she actively worked on the local level for the Million Minutes to Peace Appeal which received the Peace Award by the United Nations for its world wide impact. Meredith is currently very active as the local coordinator of Images and Voices of Hope, an international initiative in which journalists, educators, and community leaders come together to become more aware of the power that they have to help create a better world through the work that they do.

Born and raised on Miami Beach, Meredith attended Northwestern University, and also the University of Miami where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. She is married to Barry Fishman who is a real estate attorney. They have a [lawyer] daughter named Janna who [graduated with a law degree cum laude from Harvard].

Whilst the mother might be a 'BK', the daughter is a 'PBK' ... a 'Phi Beta Kappa', generally considered the most prestigious college honor society in the United States.

Is this the score card to date? 7 1/2 if you count David Cooperrider.

Founder and Director: BK Judy Rodgers
Secretary: BK Rita Cleary

Roberta Baskin, President
Jacqueline Cambata, Treasurer

David Cooperrider - long time BK contact soul
Jon Funabiki
Christina Caravallo Pinto
Bob Steele

Management team

BK Meredith Porte
BK Veronica McHugh 
BK Gayatri Naraine 
BK Shireen Chada
BK Wendy Bromley Bodden

Roberta Baskin
Joana Bergman 
Eli Furie Bleich   
Nancy Callaway Fyffe 
Linda Gerber
Kathleen Pearce 

Hmmn ... "Managing Director" Wendy Bodden is a BK as well. It is not listed on her IVoH bio-data.

Wendy Bodden was introduced to the Brahma Kumaris in Spring 1999, has been an active student and practitioner of Raja Yoga Meditation for the last seven years and helps run and gives talks for "BK Learning Center for Peace" in Massachusetts. She is a veteran marketing and communications and corporate sponsorship executive with extensive experience developing and leveraging strategic partnerships. Wendy "designs and facilitates personal development programs, retreats and workshops" at Peace Village and Global Harmony House, New York.

A "lipstick BK"

lipstick-bk.jpg (12.62 KiB) Viewed 12127 times

Wendy is what we call in the trade, a "Lipstick BK". A Lipstick BK describes Brahma Kumaris who exhibit feminine gender attributes, such as wearing make-up (thus, lipstick), attractive clothing or haircuts, and having other "worldly" characteristics associated with feminine "lokik" or non-BK women. They are very useful service devices for the BK leadership, e.g. no beards, mustaches or 'laundry basket' sari outfits typical of the less proud but more soul-conscious BK follower allowed.

This is who she is at the IVoH ...

Wendy Bromley Bodden

Wendy is a media and communications consultant, strategist and producer. She is a veteran marketing and corporate sponsorship executive with over 20 years experience developing and leveraging strategic partnerships, primarily within the public television and IMAX industries. She has forged alliances between Fortune 500 companies and award-winning programs including PBS' Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, and Charlie Rose, and the IMAX fim and science initiative, Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France. Current projects include an IMAX film and multi-media initiative on genetics and a multi-media, ecological oratorio.

In the strategic and communications arena, Wendy has worked with emerging non-profits and social entrepreneurs. She produces public engagement programs integrating various forms of media with dialogue and also designs and facilitates strength-based, personal development programs. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association. Wendy received her B.S. in English and studied for a MFA in Theatre Directing at Ohio State University. She received a Certificate in Appreciative Inquiry through Weatherhead School of Management.

Wendy's connection with Roberta Baskin goes back at least as far as the 'Workshop on Positive Media", around Nov 2004 she and Tom Munnecke were involved with organizing. More Case Western/Appreciative Inquiry/David Cooperrider hook ups.

Thank you for the cute definition. I came across this "lipstick" style in recent years and only now that I realized the importance BKWSO places on PR. I understand why and how some people get away with fashionable, revealing clothes and they are no longer frown upon if they show some extra inch of flesh, wear make up, high heels , etc ...

Such looks, in our days, would have been blamed harshly and gained us being treated like a piece of dirt, as obvious symptoms of the disease of "body consciousness". Well, the aim justifies the means!

So, the nun look is no longer in fashion, or more than one fashion exists, depends on the role one is asked to play.

Bad timing for me! I wish this trend would have been happening during my early days in Gyan and considered not only acceptable, but a serviceable "front". Nobody gave us an OK for being sexy, fit, friendly, feminine ... or even normal. Maybe we should consider this as an evolution, an improvement, modernization. Are we entering a new, profitable phase of broadmindeness and tolerance in the BKWSO?

Sorry but it smells artificial and "fishy". I think that the BKWSO still remains prudish and conservative at heart, and as chameleon-like, as ever.

Bad timing for me! I wish this trend would have been happening during my early days in Gyan and considered not only acceptable, but a serviceable "front". Nobody gave us an OK for being sexy, fit, friendly, feminine ... or even normal.

... and look at you nowadays, probably tanned, saronged and sun streaked locks, eh? - imagine if one did not know the difference - at least the time within the BKWSU taught us what was and what is! (Most days at any rate). Halleluhah for that, I say.

Not sure if this is the right thread but there we were in December, walking in beautiful Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand and walking down the street towards a 'juice stall' what does I see but a familiar poster with a big shiny Shiv Baba stuck on the side of the stall, (oohhh I go, "look at that"!)- and lo and behold - it's advertising a 'new film' by Eternity Ink/Films (was it Images of Hope?) followed by a "spiritual talk". --- and it was on for that very night! and it's also a "No Charge" event I read. Even better.

This was it!- "cannot miss out on this". I announce to everyone around me in my most fluent Thai. Oh boy, I was thinking, "just what I've really been waiting for", - the ideally perfect opportunity to go into a BKWSU stronghold, innocence written all over me face, and I'd be a 'complete' stranger amongst their midst - I could wear my crotch torn shorty shorts and nipple ripped Bob Marley faded black T, and wouldn't they'd have just thought "Don't look now Sistah" but here's one ripe for the picking, you go make him your eunuch.

So I went - I did! That is I went right past, and into the nearby Go Go Boy Bar and enjoyed the view there instead. Hey, after all, "been there - done that". I've got the BKWSU T-shirt. I've worn the kurtas and wrapped the shawls and I've nutting left to prove to anyone - besides those young Thai BKs couldn't have answered my questions about sex and the middle-aged anyway (unless there was a real cutie amongst them ...), so really I did them a favour when I let them off that night. Lucky people they are. And I can make my own beer-toli anway' it's less fattening.

That's the End of this holi-day story unless anyone feels the need to hear more of the rest of it, but there's no thread on this forum even close enough to what I would write, so let's not perhaps go there I am back, computer now working so should be online more regularly.

Have I misunderstood or you missed the opportunity to snoop into the BK program? No time for that, you seasoned sinner and incurable hedonist?

If so, we can forget about you playing the role of Mata Hari!! Anyway, welcome back. Hope you had good food, swam in the warm tropical waters and enjoyed every aspect of your holiday!

A little bit of satyrical humor on the subject, based on real events elsewhere ... click below. No offence intended to the unnamed Kunya (virgin). It is an allegory in the classic form about how West meets East on the BKWSU service front.

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