An Open Letter to My Ex-Guru

1 Comment » // September 25th, 2009

The friend that I mentioned a couple of posts ago – my sister in cult survival and recovery – has been corresponding with our ex-guru recently. The guru had a possession of my friend’s so my friend emailed the guru’s business and asked for it back. It surprised us both that our guru complied with the request. But it should not have surprised us that she took a verbal shot at my friend during the correspondence, saying that in spite of her (my friend), God lives.

The reference to God is the usual clap-trap about how anyone who doesn’t follow this guru, and particularly those who used to follow her but left the group, does not know God, cannot know God and works for the Devil. I’m not exaggerating. If you know Robert J. Lifton’s Eight Criteria for Thought Reform you know Criteria #8, Dispensing of Existence:

“Since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not saved and do not have the right to exist. …if one leaves the group, one leaves God.”

So I’m here today to respond to that verbal shot. My friend didn’t ask me to do this. I just got pissed off enough that our former guru would take a shot at her that I decided to use my power and might as a blogger (I say that ironically) to respond. I can almost guarantee our ex-guru will never read this blog, but that doesn’t matter. I still feel the burning desire to defend my friend, myself and anyone else who has left our guru’s clutches, or has left the grasp of any guru, anywhere.

So, here goes:

To My Ex-Guru and to all Cult Leaders everywhere,

First of all, the crazy illusion that you live with and that you have convinced others of, that you are the ONLY person on the planet who has a connection with God is so beyond ridiculous that I can’t believe I ever fell for it.

Secondly, the fact that you use God’s name to coerce, manipulate, and abuse people makes me physically ill and feels like the ultimate tragic paradox. God is the universal power of love, of all that is good and kind and compassionate. The fact that you can twist people into believing that God would not only condone but instruct you to have people stand naked in front of you and several others to be humiliated or… work until their fingers bleed or… live in a root cellar under a fishing lodge because their “energy is bad” or…work for no wages, 365 days a year or…abandon children to be raised by their grandparents or… I could go on and on. The fact that you do all this and so much more and use God’s name to do it fills me with rage and almost inconsolable grief. God is the opposite of all this. Love does NOT hurt. And God is, if anything, love with a capital L O V E.

Your brand of evil has been causing wars and ruining lives for thousands of years. You make everyone wrong but you. You teach people to ignore their own needs, their own thoughts, their own feelings, and worst of all, their own precious connection with the divine, which is, I believe, the most sacred thing each and every human being possesses. It shouldn’t be possible for you to touch that in someone, but you are an evil genius and you do. You spiritually rape your followers each and every day, over and over again. And you tell them this is what “God” wants.

I don’t know what awaits you once you’ve finished ruining lives here on earth. I’d like to say that there’s a special seat in hell waiting for you but I don’t believe in hell…except the kind that you and others create here on earth by being power-hungry, lie-spewing, manipulative sociopaths. If reincarnation is real then I’m sure you’ll return to earth as a form of bacteria that only exists in septic tanks. But even that would be too good for you. Maybe you’ll be Jabba the Hut’s bitch. I can only hope.

The only good that comes from someone like you is that you teach us what God isn’t. Surviving your brand of crazy, pathological lies made me more compassionate, more seasoned in life, less trusting, more generous and a lot more clear about what the truth is. You can take your Truth – the half-baked, moving-target, Sisyphean-quest-for-perfection kind of truth – and jump into a volcano with it. (Although, even the volcano might spit you out, you’ll taste so bad.)

So, on behalf of all my fellow survivors and friends, and anyone else who has ever endured your brand of abuse and believed it was their fault that you abused them, we say, “Despite YOU, God lives”.

And finally, Lady Guru, for the record – you can kiss my lily white ass.