Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive CultLaxer, Mark E.
Religion
Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult
Laxer, Mark E.
Cults -- United States; Lenz, Frederick, 1950-
He showed us a cake decorated with the image of a frog. "You will get
some cake after the meeting," he said, as though addressing a group
of children. The decoration reminded me of Kermit. I wondered
if he had reincarnated the symbol as part of a spiritual lesson,
or if it was just icing on the cake.
A few minutes later Rama put on electronic music, picked up
the original Bliss puppet, and started to dance.
The disciples watched, their faces aglow with adoration. I wondered
if I used to look like that. "Don't watch," I thought and walked away.
In a corner of the room, I quietly danced with a Bliss of my own.
The music stopped. Rama instructed us to sit in a circle in the living room.
I hesitated. "Something about this doesn't feel right," I thought.
I sat down, nonetheless, and meditated with the group.
Roughly forty-five minutes later, Rama began to speak about the rapid
deterioration of the earth's psychic energy field. His language
sounded strange to me. Terms such as "Entities" and "occult attack"
no longer seemed natural.
Several minutes after that Rama's bright, friendly eyes
suddenly hardened. "Instead of aspiring to the higher worlds,"
he accused, "you are evolving into a horde of angry sorcerers."
"What am I doing here?" I wondered. "I don't have to listen
to this."
"You are trying to increase your personal power by attacking each other--
and me--in the Dream Plane," he charged. "I have no choice
but to disband your Circle Of Power."
"This is why he called us here?" I thought. The tension in the room
felt like nails in my stomach. I glanced at the door.
Rama explained that our final task, before he disbanded the Circle,
was to take turns confronting one another. "It is very important
for each of you to voice what is *really* going down," he said.
The people in the orginal inner circle had been through a lot together.
The first few seemed reluctant to adopt his suggested role as angry,
finger-pointing sorcerers. They said things like, "I think you may be
sending me some bad vibrations in the inner worlds."
Rama frowned. "You think you are acting like Warriors, but you
are really acting like wimps. If you don't *'fess up* now,
it will be extremely difficult for you to continue making spiritual
progress later on."
"You've been attacking me in the Dream Plane!" my brother accused
me and several others.
"You've been trying to steal my power for years!" countered Sal
when it came his turn.
"Yes," approved Rama.
Instead of listening and preparing for my turn, I recalled the way Big
Nurse inspired patients to rat on each other. "Rama is manipulating us,"
I thought. "He's getting us to turn on one another. He's dividing us.
Divide and conquer."
Suddenly it was my turn. I did not know what to say. I stood up.
The others had remained seated. I turned to Rachel. ("I have
always liked you," I thought.) I said, "We have gotten along well.
I don't see any problems between us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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