Prerna wrote:How did you recover? When was your realization and how did it struck you that you are being under bad influence and under some evil control? Did your family help you?
I left long before the internet. There was no help, no information, no exposés of their wrong doings, no research into their historical revisions and covers or crimes etc, no therapists or anything. It was difficult and took a long time ... and, I suspect, it is still that way for most Indians. You are luck we are at least here to share and so much work has been done on them.
It is true to say I not only destroyed my career and education, my social life but I was trapped for about 10 years -
not progressing - in a mental prison based on not quite the fear of "Destruction" but a sort of nihilistic hopeless caused by the thought normal life was somewhere between entirely futile and negative (that is what they teach).
Indeed, it was only coming back to review BKism decades later, learning about all their money/business corruption, and doing important research into their early history that really opened my eyes to them. It is strange but not even hearing about the child sex abuse cover up, nor the suicides of a beautiful and talented young woman and her Brother I knew within the cult really shocked me ... I was so conditioned by them to accept those.
It was waking up to and learning about their double standards, classist (caste), money and power grabbing that finally did it.
Please, though, let me address one thing first. I think Pink (above) and I disagree about one thing and it is the question of whether there are such things as "spirits" and "psychic" influences. Now, clearly within BKism there is. BKism is full of references to spirits and spirit influences both literally (dead or disembodied human beings) and metaphorically ("vices" as "evil spirits"). I chose to accept what BKism teaches and work within it.
BKism teaches their god spirit and deceased leaders still exist in a bodiless state but with the capacity to influence and overpower followers, also that its living leaders have the power to travel about in a bodiless state and overwhelm or influence followers at a distance. Also that there are ghosts and bad spirits influencing people that, again, they have the power to cure.
Your Father if he does not already believe in this, will be being encourage to believe it, then - as a self-fulfilling prophecy - will become susceptible to such suggestions. He will, for example, start to believe he is being guided, inspired and controlled by the BK god spirit (they call it "touchings").
Now, the chances of all that being true - as said - is very small ... but it is something that we hear of, or people report feeling, arises again and again. And, ultimately, it is something that no one can say is or is not true ... so it remains a possibility for me. I cannot say that it is *literally* disembodied spirits - this idea is not acceptable to modern science, but I would go as far as to say it affects people as if it was.
It could just be the BKs "group energy" acting upon individuals, it could just be neurotic psychological projection, it could be all three. No one can tell ... but we need a working theory to progress, and we need to work within the BK mindset to confront or address them, we need to understand BKism as they teach it, so we need to accept and use their ideas.
Is their god spirit real? Are their living or deceased leaders directly influencing followers and their families? I cannot tell ... but I can say it certain feels as if it is that way.
For me, it was the social climbing and vulgar stupidity of their top leaders (Dadi Janki mostly), and the expectancy that we all bow and compromise to her/them that finally woke me up. Their conceit ... their perpetual self-advertising and social climbing instead of actually serving humanity. It repelled me. But if someone shares those values, eg social climbing and feeling important by knowing famous people, then it will take longer for them to free themselves because BKism feeds it and offers a platform for egotism (the opposite of real spirituality).
I was young and fooled by their false advertising.
Now, like your Father, BKism appears to attract more older people, eg mid-life crisis or retirees looking for something to do types. And, of course, their core membership ... women who are sick of their husbands or don't want to get married. We were of the "spiritual seekers" generation. Now they seem to attract middle management, business and administration types. Bizarre ... (but better paid for more donations).
What we can do now if pile up evidence upon evidence beyond any doubt that raise serious questions about the probity of their god spirit and their leaders, and ask the question, "If this was really 'God come on Earth' (which is what they claim), would he really allow and accept all of this?".
Unfortunately, we've found it is quite difficult to wake people up again ... that they desire to return to normality and the real world has to come from within them. But I think we can really dent or puncture their delusion ... and, yes, attacking the BKs and the local centre (not your loved one) with bad PR, and attacking their financial income, is the quickest way to get them to respond.
Not have real jobs of their own to live off, there is nothing more vulnerable to the BK Sisters than their bogus PR facade and financial income through donations. If you can get media stories published exposing them, you would be doing a good thing.