ex-l wrote:I did meet a man once whose story was that "Christ" just appeared to him in person and started teaching him ... His story was re-written for public consumption as a "sponaneous awakening" and he or the group is now worth multi-millions.
From the Wikipedia, I am guessing everyone can see parallels between this and Lekhraj Kirpalani or BKism.
Professor Paul Joosee, in his 2009 study of de Ruiter published in the peer-reviewed academic Journal of Contemporary Religion, concluded that de Ruiter’s silences can inspire devotion in three ways.First, they may elicit projection. In other words, listeners often interpret silence as understanding.
Followers may confuse an act that usually accompanies intimacy with actual intimacy and feel a loving devotion to de Ruiter.
Second, silence sometimes serves as a punitive purpose, as a display of power.
Third, combined with the act of gazing into another's eyes, silence can create intimacy of a kind usually exclusive to lovers.
Before he became famous, the story was he was a sincere seeker etc etc etc and then one day as his was driving he looked in his mirror and a man just appeared in rear seat, this being was Christ and he started to teach him. McDonald Bayne - and many others - have also claimed similar spontaneous experiences.
My position is that I don't doubt such experiences happen. I don't adopt a skeptical kneejerk that they cannot happen or that they are just mental illness - I think that's wrong too - but that I doubt they are all high and mighty beings and I observe that 99.9% of them all seem to lead to things going to crap at the end ... as Lekhraj Kirpalani and the BKs appear to be.
Ramtha - JZ Knight etc is another good example of that.