Liar, Liar, Pants on fire! and other strange observations.

I just wanted to hit on this point briefly. 


We get a lot of weird information when we are in a cult. I don't have the patience to go over every nutty thing and I am sure you don't have the patience to listen to all of this stuff either. 

These are just a few that come to mind.


Loyalty and our connection to God


When I was in SRF we were told that Loyalty is the highest law and we therefore MUST be loyal to SRF. We could never leave without breaking Gods highest law.


If Loyalty to a religion was the highest law my family would all still be druids or something. I mean seriously if we could never change from one belief to another or one religion to another SRF wouldn't have any members. Everyone would still be the faith they were born into.
This is told to you to scare you into staying. They don't want you to develop any Spiritual independence and move on.


Learning a meditation technique isn't a life sentence.


Postrating yourself before Gurus

I don't know exactly what is happening in this photo but I think she is touching his feet.

Bowing before pictures of the Gurus is an integral part of the SRF experience.

Consider yourself warned.

Really weird stuff in step 6 of the lessons


Lots of people who take the SRF lessons start losing interest in reading them in great detail by the time they get to step 6. If you get that far there are some really strange techniques. One is "The Tunnel to Eternity". I can't write the whole thing out because it is copyrighted but I can give you an overview;


 You sit on a blanket that insulates your feet from the pull of Gravity or world currents. Wool is the material of choice. Imagine you are a trillion miles above our big blue planet.


1) Imagine you are a "soul-chick" and you are positioned on the Earths yolk.  You are attempting to break through the shell of the atmosphere like John Glenn in the Mercury capsule.
 Your mind can travel from America to outerspace in just 60 seconds.


2)Visualize a white shell and picture a golden tunnel with a 50 foot mouth. (Your bird pilot is aiming his imaginary flying machine toward that mouth in the golden tunnel)


3)In an instant you fly through the gold tunnel, then the blue tunnel then pass through the silver star.


4) you have just traveled a million miles in less than a minute.


Congratulations! Now imagine the frequent flyer miles you have coming!


Incredibly there is an illustration of this in the lessons and it shows the "Cosmic Vitality" tunnel and the starry bliss gateway.

Soul Chick being briefed on flight instructions

SCARY STUFF: selection from the book, Mans Eternal Quest:

"There are however a few astral beings known as "Tramp Souls". They are earthbound because of strong attachments to the world, and are desirous of entering a physical form for sense enjoyments...Tramp souls do occasionally succeed in entering and taking possession of someone's body and mind, but only when such a person is mentally unstable or has  weakened his mind by keeping it often blank or unthinking. It is like leaving a car unlocked with the key in the ignition; some vagrant may get in and drive off. Tramp souls want a free ride in someone else's physical body having lost their own that they were attached to."

Paramahansa Yoganada

Always be on high alert! Do not relax or let your mind go blank! A tramp soul may jump in and take a joyride in your body. Heaven knows what kind of hot water it will get you into!

Strange Biblical Interpetations. 

Here is just one example:

Yogananda states in the SRF lessons that the true meaning of Mathew 13:13 (when they look, they cannot see, and when they listen, they cannot hear ) is that our eyes are meant to be like x-rays that can penetrate through the astral world and see saints and "fine rays dancing" and saints moving through the ether. He says that leaves turn orange in the fall because they are returning to the infinite so we can see their color with our x-ray vision. 

Ok. Well, lets look at that whole biblical verse in Mathew shall we?

 10Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you use nothing but stories when you speak to the people?"

    11Jesus answered:

   I have explained the secrets about the kingdom of heaven to you, but not to others. 

12Everyone who has something will be given more. But people who don't have anything will lose even what little they have. 

13I use stories when I speak to them because when they look, they cannot see, and when they listen, they cannot hear or understand. 

14So God's promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said,

   "These people will listen

   and listen,

   but never understand.

   They will look and look,

   but never see.

    15All of them have

   stubborn minds!

   Their ears are stopped up,

   and their eyes are covered.

( Here, I think the esoteric meaning is that Isaiah is talking about how idiotic the Aum technique is)

   They cannot see or hear

   or understand.

   If they could,

   they would turn to me,

   and I would heal them."

Alright. So the way I read this it sounds like Jesus is answering why he preaches with stories instead of using Jewish scripture. Nothing about x ray vision. What it appears Jesus is saying is if he were to stand up and teach boring Scripture like a Puritan Minister

(Here is a Puritan minister. He could preach for 8 hours straight. If a parishioner fell asleep the usher would smack them in the head to wake them up)

The people would go brain dead and nod off. Jesus didn't get up with a powerpoint presentation and bore people to death. He went the way of Spielberg. Make it entertaining and fun.

 leaves turn orange in the fall because there is not enough green chlorophyll as the sunlight diminishes and the tree begins to rest for the winter. The leaf is actually orange (red if it has more glucose) and with the chlorophyll we see green. It is not because that are going back to the infinite (although they do seem to take an eternity to decompose if I don’t rake them).

The Yogananada tree

Deck the halls with Yogananda Fa la lalala lalalala

From SRF:

Recently, scientists have discovered a remarkable physical fact about this spiritually beloved tree: It has been scientifically recognized as a unique variety never before documented by horticulturists and officially named after Paramahansa Yogananda. The name is now listed as Litchi Cultivar Yogananda Selection.

http://www.yssofindia.org/news.php?mode=detail&id=1 

Turns out Dr.Kumar needed SRF's help to save his research gardens so he did this fluff piece for them.

The Ranchi-based Horticulture and Agro Forestry Research Programme (HARP) ” under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) ” is set to lose all these if the Jharkhand government goes ahead with its plan to acquire land from the institute to build bungalows for over 115 MPs and MLAs. 

http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/1591-doomed-say-scientists-member-legislative-assembly-member-parliament-bulldozer-closes.html 

Now there are lots of sites that discuss this  self promoting species naming process but I thought this one was best:

Naming species after celebrities is one seriously effective way for scientists to draw attention to taxonomy. Giving species a famous name for more public interest is "shameless self-promotion," says Quentin Wheeler, the director of the International Institute for Species Exploration in Arizona (whose names populate four of our top-15 list). "When you are a taxonomist and are mentioned in Rolling Stone," Wheeler says, "you know you have arrived." 

Scientists are given free rein with naming, as long as they abide by guidelines set by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. The rules for patronyms—or scientific names in honor of people—do not limit which names are used. 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4323547.html 

There is nothing wrong with saving trees but to make it into a fake miracle for self promotion is kind of, well, crummy....

Peace and Best Wishes,
KD