[NUKELIES]

I was raised in this cult: http://www.yogananda-srf.org/ and I've been suspicious that the cult guru - Yogananda - had most or all of his "writings" and books ghost-written for him. He was by all accounts a fairly intelligent, dynamic person. But I doubt that he was capable of writing the often beautiful English prose that has been attributed to him. Ever since I began wondering who might have written his books for him, I've imagined some New England Blue Blood waxing spiritual at a mahogany desk somewhere obscure.

FCS's remark about hick songwriters being fed unusual words for their songs reminded me of this problem. The devotees in the cult are so utterly brainwashed that they just bleat like sheep if you ask any real questions.

[rerevisionist]

Your comment reminds me of the story of Krishnamurti. There was a pre-WW1 and inter-war movement, of a sort, in Britain, to believe in eastern mystic types - there's at least one Aldous Huxley story including a female medium of this type. I don't remember much about Madame Blavatsky, but I think she was something similar, but European, or white. Gurdjieff seems to have been another, though not Indian. 'Dry Salvages' by T S Eliot includes something of the sort. This particular line in mystics seems to have dried up by the time of Indian independence, at least as far as I know, though yoga as an exercise and bodily awareness system lived on.

Anyway, one remark I read about Krishnamurti is that he may have been the product of a deliberate experiment - bring up a young person to think he's godlike, and see what happens. Obviously, he wasn't a great success, but maybe he was a successful investment, in the sense of making a reasonable return for himself or his controllers.

[NUKELIES]

That's a profound concept - raising a child prescribed for apotheosis as a social experiment. The megalomania!

Blavatsky was Russian. I recall she helped raise Krishnamurti. I read an amazing book by James Webb who supposedly committed suicide after investigating Gurdjieff and writing a book on his connections to intelligence agencies. The book is entitled "The Occult Underground," and surveys the development of the 'Flight from Reason,' beginning in England and America in the early 19th century. The New Age movement is/was the spiritual counterpart to the dismantling of Western Civilization which in other aspects took the form of degenerate Modern art, pop culture, multiculturalism, and World Wars.

This year on Winter Solstice, The New Age of Aquarius will begin. 2012. They seem to have had a successful revolution.

[rerevisionist]

Unfortunately, there is some sense in fleeing from reason. If the real world is (or seems to be) entirely populated by experts, the only way 'ordinary' people can say anything individual to themselves is to believe in what we might politely call garbage.

Cyril Burt, the discredited 1930s psychologist, told a story about a boy whose main interest was ghost stories. Burt asked him why, and the boy said "It's the only thing the schools inspector doesn't know anything about." I think this psychology applies a lot to women, who shy away from science - as this forum illustrates. My favourite author Bertie Russell said something similar - if children are brought up rationally, and want to do something naughty, they have no option but to do something that may be evil. Whereas if they'd been taught that (say) playing cards on Sunday is wicked, they could do that and nobody would be harmed.

[NUKELIES]

Whereas if they'd been taught that (say) playing cards on Sunday is wicked, they could do that and nobody would be harmed.

That sparks thoughts in me of controlled opposition and prescribed release of tension by the masses. This must be why they keep drugs illegal. I've never had any interest in drugs other than alcohol and I smoked a few cigarettes when I was a teenager. And then what about conspiracy theory? It was so harshly demonized for so long - was that part of the conditioning?

Did Huxley get his ideas from Russell? Trauma and the Feelies and all that?

--- According to Ronald Clark's biography of Russell, Russell regarded Huxley as a plagiarist of Russell's book The Scientific Outlook, which, following Russell's disillusionment during and after the 'Great War', was rather pessimistic. Brave New World appeared a bit after Russell's book and Russell thought the plagiarism applied in detail. (They were also sexual competitors or rivals, both sh*gging Lady Ottoline Morrell). - rerev added Dec 2014