The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania

The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania PDF Author: Radhia Gleis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737125839
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Winner of the 2021 PenCraft Book Award, 1st Place, Non Fiction - Autobiography Radhia's personal story and comprehensive knowledge along with her authentic, and unfiltered humorous style presents a compelling portrayal of both the political and cultural dynamics of group-think and mind control. After twenty-five years of her adult life in a cult, under the influence of a narcissistic sociopath she sought to understand why she made the choices she made in her life, so she could better understand why others make their choices. The Holocaust or any genocide instigated by a narcissistic authority does not happen because of one man. It is the collective consciousness of their followers that supports and enacts those atrocities. Like Moonies under Sun Myung Moon, Germans under the influence of Hitler, or the Branch Davidians under David Koresh, a percentage of America has fallen into a cult of personality. Radhia set out on a journey to explore common traits that every human being possesses. She makes the strong parallels between her devotion to a cult leader-an authority-whose damaging behavior and influence she willfully ignored, and the followers of other authoritarian leaders. This is not about policy or political ideology or even the guru or our political leaders, as much as it is about the followers from the viewpoint of a follower. "Written from the perspective of an insider, this compelling personal story, told with both brutal honesty, and raw humor draws us into the mindset of cult followers. It shines a light on how easily intelligent questing people can find themselves unwittingly following a cult leader. As much a personal story as a probing exploration of the mental and emotional states of cult leaders and followers, this fascinating book is hard to put down." - Lorell Frysh PhD.

The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania

The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania PDF Author: Radhia Gleis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737125839
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Winner of the 2021 PenCraft Book Award, 1st Place, Non Fiction - Autobiography Radhia's personal story and comprehensive knowledge along with her authentic, and unfiltered humorous style presents a compelling portrayal of both the political and cultural dynamics of group-think and mind control. After twenty-five years of her adult life in a cult, under the influence of a narcissistic sociopath she sought to understand why she made the choices she made in her life, so she could better understand why others make their choices. The Holocaust or any genocide instigated by a narcissistic authority does not happen because of one man. It is the collective consciousness of their followers that supports and enacts those atrocities. Like Moonies under Sun Myung Moon, Germans under the influence of Hitler, or the Branch Davidians under David Koresh, a percentage of America has fallen into a cult of personality. Radhia set out on a journey to explore common traits that every human being possesses. She makes the strong parallels between her devotion to a cult leader-an authority-whose damaging behavior and influence she willfully ignored, and the followers of other authoritarian leaders. This is not about policy or political ideology or even the guru or our political leaders, as much as it is about the followers from the viewpoint of a follower. "Written from the perspective of an insider, this compelling personal story, told with both brutal honesty, and raw humor draws us into the mindset of cult followers. It shines a light on how easily intelligent questing people can find themselves unwittingly following a cult leader. As much a personal story as a probing exploration of the mental and emotional states of cult leaders and followers, this fascinating book is hard to put down." - Lorell Frysh PhD.

The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania

The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today's Cultural Mania PDF Author: Radhia Gleis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781737125846
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Winner of the 2021 PenCraft Book Award, 1st Place, Non Fiction - Autobiography Radhia's personal story and comprehensive knowledge along with her authentic, and unfiltered humorous style presents a compelling portrayal of both the political and cultural dynamics of group-think and mind control. After twenty-five years of her adult life in a cult, under the influence of a narcissistic sociopath she sought to understand why she made the choices she made in her life, so she could better understand why others make their choices. The Holocaust or any genocide instigated by a narcissistic authority does not happen because of one man. It is the collective consciousness of their followers that supports and enacts those atrocities. Like Moonies under Sun Myung Moon, Germans under the influence of Hitler, or the Branch Davidians under David Koresh, a percentage of America has fallen into a cult of personality. Radhia set out on a journey to explore common traits that every human being possesses. She makes the strong parallels between her devotion to a cult leader-an authority-whose damaging behavior and influence she willfully ignored, and the followers of other authoritarian leaders. This is not about policy or political ideology or even the guru or our political leaders, as much as it is about the followers from the viewpoint of a follower. "Written from the perspective of an insider, this compelling personal story, told with both brutal honesty, and raw humor draws us into the mindset of cult followers. It shines a light on how easily intelligent questing people can find themselves unwittingly following a cult leader. As much a personal story as a probing exploration of the mental and emotional states of cult leaders and followers, this fascinating book is hard to put down." - Lorell Frysh PhD.

American Cults

American Cults PDF Author: Jim Willis
Publisher: Visible Ink Press
ISBN: 1578598265
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
America has spawned hundreds of cults. Charismatic leaders periodically burst into the news for the most awful of reasons. We are awash with stories of brainwashed members’ struggles to leave. Meet the messianic leaders, see the indoctrination and manipulation, look at their beliefs, and read the stories of some of America’s most notorious, eccentric, and unusual cults! From false religions and offshoots of traditional religions to political, financial, sexual, and hate groups, American Cults: Cabals, Corruption, and Charismatic Leaders looks at 40 groups and leaders, including their histories, deceits, manipulations, and twisted ideologies. Some rely on systems of obedience, submission, and dependency. More than a few have mystifying beliefs. Others are dark and murderous. You’ll encounter curious, bizarre, and sometimes upsetting stories of … Charming, manipulative, and exploitative leaders—Jim Jones, Jim Baker, David Berg, David Koresh, and many, many others. The breakaways from traditional religions—Father Divine and the Peace Mission, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Westboro Baptist Church, the Gospel of Prosperity, and many more. Political, Ponzi, metaphysical, and science schemes—the cult of the scientific method, pyramid schemes, political cults, the Unification Church, and much more. Aliens, extraterrestrials, and the cosmos—Church of Scientology, Raëlians and Heaven’s Gate, to name a few. End-times and doomsday cults—rapture beliefs, Edgar Cayce, the Ant Hill Kids and more. Racial, radical, and social media cults—QAnon, Ku Klux Klan, Oath Keepers, Antifa, and others. Sex, perversity, and submission—NXIVM, Sullivanians, Rajneesh, and many more. American Cults looks at why America is such a fertile ground for cults, how some people got caught in their webs, and how some managed to escape! With more than 120 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography provides sources for further exploration, and an extensive index adds to its usefulness.

Theater as Metaphor

Theater as Metaphor PDF Author: Elena Penskaya
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110622033
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The papers of the present volume investigate the potential of the metaphor of life as theater for literary, philosophical, juridical and epistemological discourses from the Middle Ages through modernity, and focusing on traditions as manifold as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Latin-American.

Revolution of Everyday Life

Revolution of Everyday Life PDF Author: Raoul Vaneigem
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 1604867825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Originally published just months before the May 1968 upheavals in France, Raoul Vaneigem’s The Revolution of Everyday Life offered a lyrical and aphoristic critique of the “society of the spectacle” from the point of view of individual experience. Whereas Debord’s masterful analysis of the new historical conditions that triggered the uprisings of the 1960s armed the revolutionaries of the time with theory, Vaneigem’s book described their feelings of desperation directly, and armed them with “formulations capable of firing point-blank on our enemies.” “I realise,” writes Vaneigem in his introduction, “that I have given subjective will an easy time in this book, but let no one reproach me for this without first considering the extent to which the objective conditions of the contemporary world advance the cause of subjectivity day after day.” Vaneigem names and defines the alienating features of everyday life in consumer society: survival rather than life, the call to sacrifice, the cultivation of false needs, the dictatorship of the commodity, subjection to social roles, and above all the replacement of God by the Economy. And in the second part of his book, “Reversal of Perspective,” he explores the countervailing impulses that, in true dialectical fashion, persist within the deepest alienation: creativity, spontaneity, poetry, and the path from isolation to communication and participation. For “To desire a different life is already that life in the making.” And “fulfillment is expressed in the singular but conjugated in the plural.” The present English translation was first published by Rebel Press of London in 1983. This new edition of The Revolution of Everyday Life has been reviewed and corrected by the translator and contains a new preface addressed to English-language readers by Raoul Vaneigem. The book is the first of several translations of works by Raoul Vaneigem that PM Press plans to publish in uniform volumes. Vaneigem’s classic work is to be followed by The Knight, the Lady, the Devil, and Death (2003) and The Inhumanity of Religion (2000).

The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram

The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram PDF Author: Sandra Maitri
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1585420816
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A groundbreaking exploration of the spiritual dimension of working with the enneagram by one of its earliest students and teachers in America. Here is one of the first books to explore in an authentic and comprehensive way the original spiritual dimension of the enneagram. Among the most knowledgeable teachers of the enneagram in America, Sandra Maitri shows how the enneagram not only reveals our personalities, but illuminates a basic essence within each of us. She shows how traversing the inner territory particular to our ennea-type can bring us profound fulfillment and meaning, as well as authentic spiritual development.

Passing on the Faith

Passing on the Faith PDF Author: James L. Heft
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823226492
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
From the beginning, the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have stressed the importance of transmitting religious identity from one generation to the next. Today, that sustaining mission has never been more challenged. Will young people have a faith to guide them? How can faith traditions anchor religious attachments in this secular, skeptical culture? The fruit of a historic gathering of scholars and religious leaders across three faiths and many disciplines, this important book reports on the religious lives of young people in today’s world. It’s also a unique inventory of creative and thoughtful responses from churches, synagogues, and mosques working to keep religion a significant force in those lives. The essays are grouped thematically. Opening the book, Melchor Sanchez de Toca and Nancy Ammerman explore fundamental issues that have an impact on religion—from the cultural effects of global consumerism and personal technology to pluralism and individualism. In Part Two, leading investigators present three leading studies of religiosity among young people and college students in the United States, illuminating the gap between personal values and organized religion—and the emergence of new, different forms of spirituality and faith. How religious institutions deal with these challenges forms the heart of the book—in portraits of “best practices” developed to revitalize traditional institutions, from a synagogue in New York City and a Muslim youth camp in California to the famed French Catholic community of the late Brother John of Taizé. Finally, Jack Miles and Diane Winston weave the findings into a broader perspective of the future of religious belief, practice, and feeling in a changing world. Filled with real-world wisdom, Passing the Faith will be an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand what religions must, and can, do to inspire a vigorous faith in the next generation.

The Gnostic New Age

The Gnostic New Age PDF Author: April D. DeConick
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231542046
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.

The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton

The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton PDF Author: James P. Driscoll
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813161533
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In this first extensive Jungian treatment of Milton's major poems, James P. Driscoll uses archetypal psychology to explore Milton's great themes of God, man, woman, and evil and offers readers deepened understanding of Jung's profound thoughts on Godhead. The Father, the Son, Satan, Messiah, Samson, Adam, and Eve gain new dimensions of meaning as their stories become epiphanies of the archetypes of Godhead. God and Satan of Paradise Lost are seen as the ego and the shadow of a single unfolding personality whose anima is the Holy Spirit and Milton's muse. Samson carries the Yahweh archetype examined by Jung in Answer to Job, and Messiah and Satan in Paradise Regained embody the hostile brothers archetype. Anima, animus and the individuation drive underlie the psychodynamics of Adam and Eve's fall. Driscoll draws on his critical acumen and scholarly knowledge of Renaissance literature to shed new light on Jung's psychology of religion. The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton illumines Jung's heterodox notion of Godhead as a quarternity rather than a trinity, his revolutionary concept of a divine individuation process, his radical solution to the problem of evil, and his wrestling with the feminine in Godhead. The book's glossary of Jungian terms, written for literary critics and theologians rather than clinicians, is exceptionally detailed and insightful. Beyond enriching our understanding of Jung and Milton, Driscoll's discussion contributes to theodicy, to process theology, and to the study of myths and archetypes in literature.

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha PDF Author: Daniel Ingram
Publisher: Aeon Books
ISBN: 1780498152
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 715

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Book Description
The very idea that the teachings can be mastered will arouse controversy within Buddhist circles. Even so, Ingram insists that enlightenment is an attainable goal, once our fanciful notions of it are stripped away, and we have learned to use meditation as a method for examining reality rather than an opportunity to wallow in self-absorbed mind-noise. Ingram sets out concisely the difference between concentration-based and insight (vipassana) meditation; he provides example practices; and most importantly he presents detailed maps of the states of mind we are likely to encounter, and the stages we must negotiate as we move through clearly-defined cycles of insight. Its easy to feel overawed, at first, by Ingram's assurance and ease in the higher levels of consciousness, but consistently he writes as a down-to-earth and compassionate guide, and to the practitioner willing to commit themselves this is a glittering gift of a book.In this new edition of the bestselling book, the author rearranges, revises and expands upon the original material, as well as adding new sections that bring further clarity to his ideas.