Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment by Geoffrey D. Falk

Author:Geoffrey D. Falk
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: RELIGION / Spirituality, BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Mysticism, RELIGION / Cults
Publisher: Million Monkeys Press
Published: 2016-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXVII

GURUS AND

PRISONERS

AS WE HAVE SEEN, a common set of alleged problems, even expressed in nearly identical words, tend to occur in our world’s spiritual communities. Indeed, the reported characteristics observed are essentially independent of the specific beliefs espoused by the community, and of the historical time and place in which the spiritual leader and his disciples have existed.

Why would that be?

A large part of the answer surely comes from well-known research done at Stanford University in the early 1970s. There, Dr. Philip Zimbardo—later, president of the American Psychological Association—was able to inadvertently transform a group of “healthy, intelligent, middle-class” college-age individuals into “fearful, depressed, neurotic, suicidal shadows” in less than a week. He did that simply by arbitrarily assigning them (via the flip of a coin) to guard/prisoner roles in a simulated prison environment which they all knew was just an experiment.

The dozen guards were given no specific training, but were rather allowed, within limits, to create their own rules to “maintain law and order” within the prison, and to “command the respect of the prisoners” (Zimbardo, 2004; italics added).

Each of the dozen prisoners had been assigned a number in place of his name upon entering, and was referred to only by that number, in a tactic designed to make him feel anonymous and to dissociate him from his pre-incarceration identity. That is, he was not to have that past as a guide for how to behave, or as a reference for what would be appropriate treatment of himself, for instance.

Monks and sannyasis are, of course, frequently subjected to a similar change of name. In Rajneesh’s ashrams, as an extreme example, that was often effected within mere days (or less) of the individual’s acceptance of Bhagwan as a teacher, even for persons not entering into long-term residence there. (Uniforms—e.g., of Rajneesh’s saffron-wearing “orange” followers—have the same effect of “deindividuation” on their wearers.)

Living among strangers who do not know your name or history ... dressed in a uniform exactly like all other prisoners [or monks], not wanting to call attention to one’s self because of the unpredictable consequences it might provoke [with those being given as “discipline for one’s ego,” in the ashram]—all led to a weakening of self-identity among the prisoners (Haney, et al., 1973).

Following a brief rebellion on the second day of the Stanford incarceration, solidarity among the prisoners was broken. That was done via the psychological tactic of designating a “privileged cell” for “good prisoners,” whose inhabitants could exercise freedoms which were not given to the inmates of the other cells.

Comparable residence in privileged rooms/houses, or increased access to the guru-figure, is often given in ashrams to disciples who are the most loyal in following the rules set down by their guru and other superiors. Indeed, Milne (1986), Tarlo (1997) and van der Braak (2003) have all described exactly that dynamic, alleged to occur under Rajneesh and Cohen. Comparable promotions and demotions have also been reported in Adi Da’s community. In SRF, by comparison, residence in the

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