There’s a discussion of my extended response essay “What It Feels Like for a Cult Leader over at the Daism forum. While reading their responses, I found a great link left by “mdpc” to an essay by Dr. Arthur Deikman called “Personal Freedom”.
To state it plainly, the essay hits hard.
I just wanted to quote this [...]
Archive for July, 2007
Dependency: The Ultimate Sin
Posted in Consciousness & Alternate Perception, Mundane Poetics, Personal Speculation, but NOT The Big Something, everyday life, pointing at The Big Something, spirituality, sub cult-sure on July 24, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The True Enlightenment: There’s Cult Leaders…and Then There’s Cult Leaders
Posted in Personal Speculation, counter-initiation, mysticcult, occult, pointing at The Big Something, spirituality, sub cult-sure on July 24, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Here’s a pretty great insight (so says me) by costumeoff in the comments to the recent piece entitled “Once More with the Fellowship of Friends“:
The true enlightenment is not necessarily the state of illumination but how that knowledge and moment then informs your choices and actions thereafter. You could say that people who get hooked [...]
What It Feels Like…for a Cult Leader
Posted in Personal Speculation, pointing at The Big Something, psychology, spirituality, sub cult-sure on July 20, 2007 | 15 Comments »
Ted Heistman asks two pretty good conversation starters in the comments to the last Fellowship of Friends essay.
He asks:
Ever entertained the idea of becoming a cult leader? Or at least imagining what it would be like one?
Those are two great questions, not just for me but for all of us. Because it may require [...]
Birds Do It, Bees Do It: And We’re Not Talking About Sex, Either
Posted in Consciousness & Alternate Perception, alternative science, psychology on July 18, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Not just birds and not just bees, but insects, cows, mongoose, various primates, and goats do it, too. They all use consciousness-altering substances and not just in some oddball scientist’s lab, but out in the wild. That’s the conclusion of ethnobotanist and ethnomycologist Giorgio Samorini’s book Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and [...]
Once More with the Fellowship of Friends: An AntiClimax and Prelude
Posted in everyday life, psychology, spirituality, sub cult-sure on July 16, 2007 | 8 Comments »
The rain and the world were with me when I got lost on the way to joining the Fellowship of Friends. But if one truly desires to dive into delusions, even the guidance of saints and ancestors, friends and the elements, won’t keep one from the chosen appointment.
After the FoF encounter, I ended up, [...]
The Dream Healer at Dusk: A Morning Dream from 1/22/07
Posted in Consciousness & Alternate Perception, Dreams, Personal Speculation, but NOT The Big Something, everyday life, high weirdness, magick, mysticcult, pointing at The Big Something, spirituality on July 13, 2007 | 3 Comments »
While going through my dream journal, I came across a record from the beginning of the year. Though it had felt quite important at the time, I’d managed to let this dream slip from my consciousness until this morning. With six month’s distance, I have even more respect for the dream’s deeper possible implications:
***
At [...]
“Do Not Fear Some Old Man in a Mansion Somewhere!”: An Interview with Kent Daniel Bentkowski aka Kentroversy
Posted in 9/11, Consciousness & Alternate Perception, conspiracy poetics, everyday forteana, everyday life, high weirdness, interviews, magick, mis-education vs. raw learning, mysticcult, occult, politics, psyops on July 9, 2007 | 12 Comments »
Not too long after discovering Freeman Fly, I found Kent Daniel Bentkowski’s work at The Kentroversy Papers. The first things I read that engaged my attention concerned education, since he cited educator John Taylor Gatto, a man whose research on and experience within the “educational” system in the U.S. has influenced me greatly. [...]
The Declaration of Independence Ritual: Declare and Enact Yours
Posted in Consciousness & Alternate Perception, everyday life, history, magick, mysticcult, psychology on July 4, 2007 | 2 Comments »
On July 4th I will be continuing the tradition I began last year. I’m going to read aloud the Declaration of Independence, for the edification of myself and whoever else might be around. And it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for you, whoever “you” are, out there or in here, to bone [...]
You Don’t Even Know What or Why:Shades of Things to Come
Posted in Consciousness & Alternate Perception, Dreams, Personal Speculation, black magik, but NOT The Big Something, conspiracy poetics, counter-initiation, everyday forteana, everyday life, high weirdness, magick, mysticcult, occult, pointing at The Big Something, spirituality on July 2, 2007 | 5 Comments »
Here we go again.
***
You find yourself at John Jay College on a Saturday. You’re in a classroom filled with elderly white men, a few women, and some young, black teenagers. A man with the build of a retired linebacker gone soft plays three audio-tapes in succession. One is a speech by [...]
