The most important thing I learned about the science method, was to know with surety that I really knew nothing about science ... and to admit it to both myself and others. To stop spouting nonsense I knew nothing about.
In a sense, the question I was asking was even more primary than "peer review" ... as in what is the processes by which an idea/a theory even gets to the point of being considered sound enough to be proposable.
The BKs use scientific words and ideas like a sort of seductive poetry as best - "The Law of Karma" being a perfect example (karma is not a law); and, at worse, to bolster up their delusions.
I admit that I did so too during my BK days. I was guilty of using words and ideas - "talking with authority" - that I really did not understand, and had not done the hard work to 'own' or 'earn' the right to do so, in order to sell BKism.
In short, all I really learned from the so called "Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University" was to "baffle with bullsh*t".
Post-BK I continue to educate myself informally and at least I know enough now about the scientific/academic process to be able to say "I don't know" and not to make or support unsupportable claims. To know the difference between 'knowledge' and 'beliefs'.
There's an old saying that, "An expert is someone who has written a book and traveled 5,000 miles". Velikovsky went to America to become famous, and to a part of America with a lot of Jews, where Jews had a lot of influence in the media and education, and to where the Zionist Jews (
not all Jews support the Israel project) were attempting gaining power and influence.
In my opinion, when you study such examples that fringe BKs often use -
generally Western BKs attempting to bolster up the desparately leaking ship of the BKs' misappropriation of Hindu beliefs - you see certain patterns to the, (
excuse me being so blunt), confidence trick, e.g.
a foreign sounding name that knowing makes 'the knower' sound more intelligent by using,
an unchecked qualification (just because someone has a PhDs does not mean they have not gone crazy, nor are lending it to some other cause; just because they have a PhD in one subject, does not actually mean they can tie their own shoes laces in another)),
a published book,
some celebrity value.
It's not a unique strategy. In fact, it's commonplace amongst petite bourgeoisie social climbers ... and con artists.
Both of which I would accuse the Brahma Kumaris leadership of being.
BKism actively encourages such ungrounded fallacious thinking. The ungrounded fallacious thinking that any serious "scholar" would have intellectually beaten out of them in their first few weeks of study, I suspect. The BKs do so by using a sort of uncritical accommodating response to any absolute nonsense an adherent might come up with ... partly, I suspect, because they require their adherents to uncritical accommodating their own absolute nonsense.
And in that, perhaps, lies part of the core relationship between adherents and the cult?
They have no interest in checking the veracity of the claims, nor in doing any primary or experimental research at all. All that interests them is the ideas' marketing value, for re-selling their own cult. In short, intellectual in asset stripping.
The BKs just don't any primary or experimental research because,
a) they cost real money and anything that costs them cuts into their profits that are only invested into property and PR, and
b) such research are likely to debunk, rather than bolster their own beliefs.
Remember, this is a cult whose Number 2 soul's highest cultural achievement (Om Radhe) was to be able to sing, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in a second language (English).
As Rajneesh, who we were discussing recently
once said of the Brahma Kumaris ...
I know these fools because I have been visiting Mount Abu for almost twenty years.
India has given birth to two of the most stupid religious movements. One is Hare Krishna - that has become worldwide. The other is these Brahma Kumaris, it has not reached the whole world, it has remained confined to India.
They talk utter nonsense, and they talk with authority. And they go on saying everything.
It's worth re-reading what his complete response regarding them.
Just as an aside, the most recent archeological work being carried out in Israel turns out not to support the Biblical version of history either.