Your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does.
Sukhraj Dhillon
I have been thinking about cults again, thanks to Netflix lol. I actually have had a fascination with cults for quite some time. I have this desire to understand them for some strange reason. My fascination and desire to understand leads me to watch these series that come up on Netflix related to them. I binge watched the series on the FLDS and Warren Jeffs yesterday and though it left me feeling a little sick inside I couldn't stop watching.
Cult Leaders
Though I have such a strong visceral aversion to cult leaders, I want to understand why people tend to follow these leaders when they seem so obviously, narcissistic and egoic. Ego and narcissism, I observe in these leaders, often goes with Anti-social personality Disorder...a lack of compassion and remorse leading to an abuse of power, a need for control and adoration, a making "right" that which could never be "wholesome" or "skillful" to suit very self-centered personal needs (greed, accumulation of the community's resources to serve self, sexual exploitation, diminishing the value of others, demanding blind obedience even if it leads to harm, severe punishment for not obeying and the abuse...sexual, emotional and physical even of minors). This type of leadership involves everything that is the opposite of "spiritual" though it is often, through the guise of faith and spirituality, that cult leaders gain their power.
Followers
Now some potential leaders have charisma ; some have a way of drawing people in with their charm , looks and personality. Obviously Warren Jeff did not have those assets to use. Yet, thousands of people blindly followed him despite how much suffering it caused them. Why? He, like other spiritual cult leaders, used the power of " belief" in others, to manipulate and control.
My mind will often judge that as "sick" of the followers and " pure evil" of the leaders, but to the followers these leaders are often viewed as "next to God" or "speaking for God". Even after they have been exposed, prosecuted by the law...these "true followers" will still adore and blindly follow these leaders. Why? Because somehow the followers are convinced that belief is more important than behavior.
The Dangerous Power of Belief
Belief is so friggin powerful, isn't it? Belief is so friggin dangerous! People are willing to give up their children for it, to allow their 12 to 14 year old daughters be raped by these leaders or other men in the community under the guise of "marriage" for it. In this case the individuals believed they would not be "lifted up" from the fires of damnation when it came...and it was coming soon...if they did not blindly follow this sick, cruel and oh so selfish, far, far from spiritual man in everything he said. Fear and belief, then, often go together.
I am sure at one time the beliefs these sick individuals exploit were also authentically and sincerely a part of their lives...at least to some degree, weren't they? Warren Jeff was a believer in what he preached was he not, at one time? He believed in the message at one point, didn't he? Or did he from the beginning only see a way to self fulfillment through the power this belief seemed to have on others in his community. Was he plotting from the beginning how he could use that fear and that belief for his own personal gain?
Reinforcing Belief
I don't know but I can see from this series and others how people were drawn in. The belief was externally reinforced and reinforced and reinforced over and over again through the visuals on buildings, walls, shoes even , "Stay Sweet!" "Pray and Obey"...it was everywhere. They sang these messages, they read these messages, they spoke these messages, they heard this message 24/7. They were hypnotized by them. And it was always followed by a big, "Or else..." which fed their fear. They were not allowed to question the message, the teaching or the messenger. Doing so meant punishment...being torn away from loved ones, being physically violated or emotionally abused. They were conditioned to obey! To believe! Believing in the message, and the selected messenger...no matter what he was like... became an external and internal law. Questioning it was to break these laws and would mean eternal damnation for self and loved ones. More fear increasing the stuckness in this cycle.
So when the unthinkable was asked of them...well not asked...demanded of them..."Become my wife number 62( come on...the rational mind would see, wouldn't it, how unwholesome and unskillful being one of 62 wives is, wouldn't it? ) Give your 16 year old daughter to that lecherous 85 year old man as a wife...don't worry, he will become young again. Marry your 14 year old daughter off to her first cousin. Bring your 12 year old daughter to me for some ritual in the sacred, holy bed of the temple." The behavior of the men in the community, I personally judged, as so outrageous but the belief was stronger. ...making it all okay.
Deprogramming
I wonder what would happen if more women, like those few brave women who spoke up, had a chance to step away from the programming, just for a month, to go to some Buddhist retreat or some ashram somewhere where they would learn to meditate and just focus on breath. If they could just create enough space in their mind between what they were taught to think and believe and their conscious mind, maybe they could just observe it all objectively. What if they could walk themselves through belief to what was on the other side, coming to terms with the question, "Who am I (besides a wife, man-pleasing sexual object, a mother" ?" ...would they be willing to be wife 62? Would they give their young daughters up to be raped? Would they follow blindly this messenger...would they follow blindly their belief? Or would they shake their heads , as if waking up from a bad dream, and say "WT Front door was I thinking?"
Hmm...
Now this cult thing is the extreme of what the mind can do and what following blindly our beliefs and the propagator of them can do. Yet...their is a lesson in there for all of us. Our beliefs are just thoughts . Beliefs then are not more important than behaviour. They do not determine our goodness. They can, in fact, get in the way of our goodness. Spirituality and true faith go beyond thought and conviction, to that goodness...that is unconditional, and not dependent on any validation from the likes of Warren Jeff. Teachers, of anything, messengers of any message...are just people with egos. Remember that!
If we can't question our beliefs, look at them objectively and ask..."Is that true for me inside? I mean should this belief dictate what I should do here? Is there a better way?" or "Is this person I am listening to right? Is he/she/they coming from a good place when he/she/they teach ? Does he let me think for myself? Is she adding fear to the message? How does their message resonate inside me? "... then there is a problem with how we believe. We need to have the courage to reexamine it all: message and messenger; belief and believer
Oh my goodness...no more shows on cults for me for a long time lol.
Netflix (June, 2022) Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
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