ce399 | research archive

Sin Espíritu, Corazón y Mente Invertida (ce399 artwork)

Sin Espíritu, Corazón y Mente Inversa_ce399. 2009

No offense to horned creatures.

Wikipedia Removes A Course in Miracles "Controversy and Criticism" Section

Reunifying psychology of forgiveness and atonement

ACIM postulates that reclaiming the awareness of unity, which it terms “salvation,” is the one viable solution to the only actual problem facing seemingly separated minds, the problem of believing they are separate from each other and from God. This awareness dawns through the process of forgiveness, making up an overall plan of atonement, two concepts that ACIM redefines from traditional Christianity.

ACIM proposes forgiveness as the solution because, it explains, seemingly separated minds in the world feel guilt and fear of God stemming from the mistaken belief that they have offended or attacked God by separating from Him. These minds close off from the awareness from love, and love’s absence is felt as fear. They instead engage in judgment against the illusory world and against others, allowing psychological projection of the fear and guilt felt inside them outward onto seemingly external forces and actors. They believe that what is really coming from inside them is instead coming at them from outside, and so believe that problems are myriad, random, and unrelated, as opposed to there being only one problem, centered on belief in separation. These minds invariably become angry at these perceived external threats and attempt to attack them and defend against them, when in truth, ACIM claims, anger is never justified, attack has no foundation, and real strength lies only in defenselessness. These minds are locked in a cycle of experiencing imagined victimization and seeking impotently for solutions outside themselves, which is not where the true problem is, inside themselves. The solution to all this, ACIM concludes, is atonement, achieved through forgiveness.

Forgiveness in ACIM is not the letting go of actual slights and injuries inflicted by others, but is instead the recognition that others have not and indeed cannot harm or wrong the mind of the individual perceiver. This unorthodox outlook is possible, ACIM explains, because it is the mind of the perceiver, rather than anyone or anything else, who actually determines all the experiences that he will receive, and also because his mind is still as God created it, meaning that the events that seem to befall him in the world do not actually affect or change him in any real way.

ACIM takes its title from its notion that forgiveness and atonement are accomplished with, and accompanied by, miracles. ACIM defines a miracle more broadly than does traditional Christianity, as essentially being any change of a mind away from fear and separation and towards love and unity, although ACIM’s definition does include traditional miracles like those found in the Bible, such as healing the sick and raising the dead.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040629140800/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles

--

Controversy and criticism

While less controversial than many new religious movements, ACIM has encountered controversy and criticism in several areas.

[edit]

External critical views

ACIM has attracted attention in Christian apologetics and countercult groups due to its use of Christian terminology and concepts. Citing the philosophical differences between ACIM and traditional Christian doctrine, such groups have usually labeled ACIM as a heretical Christian counterfeit and demonically inspired. A similar view was voiced in an Internet essay by an exponent of The Urantia Book, who viewed ACIM's de-emphasis of sin as specially benefiting, and therefore likely authored by, the Devil. Skeptical groups look askance at the material's origins in channeling allegedly emanating from Jesus. Author James Hillman at one point made a statement to the effect that he "hated" ACIM, but such words may simply have been uttered in haste, as he later declined to elaborate on that statement when pressed by author D. Patrick Miller during research for the book, The Complete Story of the Course.

[edit]

Foolish or subversive doctrine

In common with other spiritual doctrines asserting that the world is illusion and that internal thought rather than external physical factors determine what befalls each observer, ACIM doctrines can be viewed as foolish or dangerous to the adherent. ACIM denies such obvious and self-evident commodities as physical laws, sickness, tragedy and death, which denial most all rational quarters would regard as ludicrous. Rationalists may fear, for example, that ACIM's premise that only defenselessness confers true strenth will lead adherents to harm through foolhardy strategies of utter pacificism in the face of aggression (see "turn the other cheek"). ACIM's doctrines may also be seen as subversive to the proper functioning of a rational society. ACIM advises adherents to not bother attempting to change the world, but instead simply to change their thinking about the world. The concern may accordingly arise that ACIM will breed "discerning zombies" who retire from the politics of the world rather than remaining active within it. ACIM's doctrines further run contra to certain core principles upon which societies have always been founded: ACIM would replace punishment with absolute forgiveness, and do away with the concepts of sin and guilt. The adept, according to ACIM, will never even see any attack or offense in the first place. It may easily be argued that human society as it has always been understood would crumble without retributive justice.

The impact of such doctrines appears limited, however, as very few ACIM adherents have taken these doctrines to heart in such a radical, literal way. ACIM has spawned a wide spectrum of interpretation from the radically literalist to the mildly allegorical, with popular ACIM proponents such as Marianne Williamson far more strongly aligned with the latter than the former. Current evidence does not suggest more than a small minority within the ACIM community adhere to literalist interpretations that would deny what is broadly known as "common sense" and attempt to apply ACIM doctrines to radical or subversive effect in the world. Further, there has been no compelling evidence to suggest that any of the few who do interpret ACIM radically have succeeded in producing any significant outcomes. This is perhaps not surprising, since "the razor's edge" to be trod by any who would literally deny injustice, sickness and death in favor of miracles would be sharp and difficult indeed.

[edit]

Group controversy

One group in particular, the New Christian Church of Full Endeavor, along with its teaching arm, Endeavor Academy, has generated pointed controversy both inside and outside the ACIM community. The group is headed by an American, Chuck Anderson, who is referred to by himself and his followers as "Master Teacher." The group has established intentional communities in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin in the USA, Byron Bay in Australia, and Wusterwitz in Germany. These communities have come under criticism of cult behavior, including brainwashing and psychological and physical abuse of members. Ex-members of the Australian community for a time published a newsletter entitled "Holy Smoke," detailing their claims of abuses occurring at that location. The larger ACIM community has hotly debated whether some of the more unorthodox doctrines of this group are in fact consonant with the teachings of ACIM.

[edit]

Shallow or waning influence

In common with many other religious and spiritual groups, ACIM has generated a great deal of materialist by-product. Books, seminars, tapes and other merchandise have generated a substantial amount of revenue for popular ACIM proponents, with the accompanying charge that ACIM is actually "big business" driven by profit motive rather than any true spiritual insight. It may also be questioned whether ACIM has made any significant difference in the world: While personal testimonies from adherents are legion to the effect that ACIM has changed their lives and transformed them for the better, at the same time attacks, quarrels, and legal actions rage within the ACIM community, and there is little compelling evidence to suggest ACIM's influence has rendered its group of adherents substantially less aggressive or more peaceful than any other group, spiritual or otherwise. Further, it is unclear whether the large initial circulation of the ACIM text can be followed by sustained, long-term significance in the spiritual community. The original channeler of the ACIM material has died, and no centralized church has grown up around the material to perpetuate its doctrines. It has been suggested even by as prominent a proponent as Hugh Prather that ACIM's influence is on the wane.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040918000537/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles#Controversy_and_criticism

--

Criticism

Some Doctrinal Christian apologists have considered it heretical or counterfeit.^[25] Author and Yogi, Joel Kramer, states that the Course could be considered a classic authoritarian example of programming thought to change beliefs.^[26] Anton van Harskamp, a Dutch scholar of religion, says that the Course contains, "...endless variation on some universally meant insights in life..." that, "...brings readers of the book, [or] in any case this reader, [to] a mood in which bewilderment and boredom take turns".^[27] Long time teacher of the Course, Hugh Prather, notes that some of the ACIM students that he knew personally had become, "far more separate and egocentric," with some of them, "[losing] the ability to carry on a simple conversation". He admits that he and his wife Gayle, "...had ended up less flexible, less forgiving, and less generous than we were when we first started our path!" However, he attributes these behavioral shortcomings to the ego, not to the ACIM philosophy. Throughout the cited article Prather expresses admiration of the tenets of ACIM. His conclusion of the article contains the following statement "A Course in Miracles can survive in the 21st century, in fact it can transform the 21st century, if those who see the Reality it points to choose to extend themselves beyond their ego boundaries and make the interests of another their own". ^[14]

^--

Critical reviews

While less controversial than many new religious movements, ACIM has encountered controversy and criticism in several areas.

[edit]

Some negative critical reviews

Some conservative Christian reviewers have expressed concerns that the doctrines of ACIM may incorporate some cultic tendencies. Citing the theological and philosophical differences between ACIM and traditional Christian theology and philosophy, such apologists have sometimes labeled ACIM as heretical, counterfeit, and as possibly even demonically inspired. ³ Some skeptical groups look askance at the material's origins in channeling, allegedly emanating from Jesus. Some such reviewers hold that ACIM's doctrines are subversive to the proper functioning of a rational society, as nowhere does ACIM encourage its students to actively attempt to improve or change the world for the better, and instead ACIM teaches that the material world is merely an illusion.

Noted psychologist and author James Hillman has described the philosophy of ACIM as fascist. He has claimed that: "The roots of fascism exist within... [ACIM] philosophy.... Everybody would make the world as he or she would like it. But trying to get the power to make the world that way is a form of insanity. This is also what Moussolini and Hitler had: omnipotent fantasy." He has also described ACIM as, "Republican right-wing politics in the guise of spiritual reformation." However when asked on numerous occasions to explain the basis for this claim, he has replied only that "I have no answers to your questions and do not have the interest to pursue them." ⁴

^{http://web.archive.org/web/20051001230600/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles}

Plan 156 from Intra-Space

Balok

Plan 93 from Outer Space

"Like a vast network , the iridescent tendrils of our occult complex spread across the land, linking such centres as are located in California, Florida, North Carolina, Chicago, and New York. These dynamic centres of Thelema receive their vivifying current through our World centre in England." Such was the message of Janice Ayers in 'Sothis' I;2, in September 1977.

...

Crowley's erstwhile secretary Kenneth Grant (who claims to have formed a link to his 'angel' Aossic, and so calls himself Aossic, Ossik, or A'ashik) has - together with his followers - developed a more or less comprehensible outline of a 'new' cosmos on this basis. Interested readers are referred to Grant's books, many of which remain in print. [7] In this article we shall be concentrating on Grant's resulting theoretical expansion of Crowley's demonology. The latter never seems to have regarded angels or demons as very definite beings; for him, they ruled the material world, and were useful for things like getting hold of money. Under Grant's influence they were elaborated into complex transcendental schemes of alternate dimensions outside the circles of space and time. "The terrestrial vehicle is an outcropping in three dimensions of the Angel: the Angel is the fountain of living waters which empowers the terrestrial vehicle." [8] Through contact with this fountain, the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) opens the gate of remembrance of our supernatural reality, what Grant calls "the continuum often glyphed as the Goddess of which we are terrestrial facets." [9] Grant and his adherents 'remember' the origins of Be-ing [10] and have constructed a remarkably complicated collection of metaphors drawn from sources such as the Qabalah, H.P. Lovecraft, [11] Salvador Dalí, Michael P. Bertiaux, Austin Osman Spare, [12] Lemuria, Atlantis, extraterrestrial visitors from Sirius, the promotion of at least one new 'New Aeon', and a whole shoal of 'revelations'. 

Grant placed great emphasis on the development of a IX° 'dream-control' technique, borrowed from Thomas Lake Harris, and introduced into the Crowleyan O.T.O. by Ida Nellidorf under the name of "eroto-comatose lucidity." Before going to sleep the sexual energies were first raised by constant sexual stimulation without orgasm, and then concentrated onto a talisman bearing a requisite symbol, so that in its dreams, the aroused libido would copulate with a dream-partner. The talisman would thus become magically charged, and would make a particular wish - be it for gold or Gnosis - come true.

...

The Cult of Lam and Michael Staley, Grant's London amanuensis.

The 1919 portrait of Lam drawn by Crowley came into Grant's possession in 1945. Crowley never published any explanation of the image, and this allowed for the development of a distinct 'Lam cult'. For this article, Michael Staley provided the following detail in June 2001: "The point is that Crowley says nothing about Lam in his published writing; whether or not there is anything unpublished, I don't know. Interestingly, I have come across an account by an American visitor to Crowley's flat in Jermyn Street, London, in 1941 or thereabouts, who says that the portrait [he doesn't say who it is, but his description of it - he found it repulsive - leaves no doubt] was on Crowley's wall. When the visitor asked who or what it was, Crowley said that it was a portrait of his guru."

In the 1990's this cult (described as the "quintessence of the Typhonian O.T.O. tradition") was supposed to be a manifestation of the Hidden praeternatural/supernatural God or Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), who united the natural with the supernatural. Contact with this HGA was identical to an entry into the Aeon of Ma'at, or the extra-terrestrial continuum. [17] "In my view Lam is the mask of a dynamic state of [extra-terrestrial] [18] gnosis, rather than simply an entity." [19] Staley interested himself in Lam as a state of Gnosis, although he admitted that this state could sometimes also take the nature of an entity's mask; but he would break through these masks.

Crowley's (feminine?) Hoor-paar-kraat (Set) was again understood as the HGA; in the Tetragrammaton YHVH Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Horus) corresponded with the Vav, and Hoor-paar-kraat to the Heh final. "This identifies Hoor-paar-kraat with the Aeon of Ma'at." [20] Lam 'sits' in the Muladhara Chakra's Bija-Mantra, where the Fiery Serpent (or Kundalini) waits to uncoil. The 'optical' union with Lam took place in Lam's eyes, the region of the Ajna-Chakra (and also the seat of the will). [21] According to Crowley this corresponded to a sex-magical act in which one became conscious of the Ajna and Muladhara Chakras during orgasm. [22]

Contact with the HGA was defined as the stage of "reaching critical mass" after doing intensive Abramelin or Liber Samekh exercises. The HGA is the sum total of experience, gathered into this critical mass and then able to take on spontaneous form. [23]

This contact with the HGA - whether experienced in concrete exterior form, or as the aspirant's spiritual Higher Self - corresponded with the start of 'occult puberty'. [24] For an occultist, it meant that there was no longer any distinction between inner and outer. Evolution demanded that one cast off such old mental habits, [25] and that humanity should become non-human, as in Crowley's A*A*, where a kind of superman hatched from the Egg or Babe of the Abyss (that is, the concept of dissolution in occult Qabalah, the bridge between human and divine).

Freed of Ego, only this new human creature can help human evolution, and perhaps even that of the universe. ['Babe of the Abyss'; the whole point being that the Kabbalistic Abyss is the ultimate womb from which the soul is born before progressing to the Supernal Triad of sefiroth (Kether, Chokmah, and Binah) on the Tree of Life. After being born from the Abyss, it first reaches Binah, the 'Magna Mater'.]

For Staley, magic is primarily a matter of communicating with non-human entities. However, such entities are not to be found outside human beings, as man and the universe are one - both are aspects of the universe. [26] Staley found better comprehension of this through the Sanskrit concept of Advaita or "not-divided", and in the Prajnaparamita-Buddhist "Sunyavada". At one stage Staley worked with a Lam-Serpent Sadhana, in which the Lam-Serpent was visualised as the Kundalini surmounted by Lam's head. [27] This Lam-Serpent uncoiled itself along the sushumna, while the chakras were visualised, and the Bija-Mantras were vibrated. According to Staley the 'secret' of sex-magic resided solely in the fact "that matter is malleable and can be influenced by sustained, intense visualisation; the potency of this visualisation can be increased by the directed sexual current." [28]

The HGA functioned as the mediator and boundary station between the terrestrial and the infinite. With the HGA projected as the Egregore outside the individuality, the HGA can be used to communicate with the 'Secret Chiefs'; using the occult technique of 'Assuming a God-Form' one becomes an angel/egregore among other angels/egregores.

...

26. In Thelemic terms, the magician expels his blood into the chalice of Babalon. Babalon (or Venus, see Crowley's "Vision and the Voice", 1909) has been the (sometimes masculine) Scarlet Whore of Revelation; her number, 156, is equated Kabbalistically with 'constant copulation' and 'samadhi'. 

(excerpt)

Full Article and Hyperlinks:

http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/lam.htm

Related Archive:

Double Helix Codiscoverer James Watson's "Pretty Women" Revisited

Thelemic Ideas Integrated into Structure of American Society and Government

Warren Buffett: "first stimulus was like taking half tablet of Viagra" 

High-Tech Reaches a New Age of Style

1987: Chaos Magic, SDI, Prozac, GMO Crops and the Human Genome Initiative

"Erase This God Damn Thing"

Unprecedented Look Inside Scientology's Culture of Violence

This account comes from executives who for decades were key figures in Scientology's powerful inner circle. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the church, are speaking out for the first time.

Two other former executives who defected also agreed to interviews with the St. Petersburg Times: De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, and Amy Scobee, who helped create Scientology's celebrity network, which caters to the likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

One by one, the four defectors walked away from the only life they knew. That Rathbun and Rinder are speaking out is a stunning reversal because they were among Miscavige's closest associates, Haldeman and Ehrlichman to his Nixon.

Now they provide an unprecedented look inside the upper reaches of the tightly controlled organization. They reveal:

• Physical violence permeated Scientology's international management team. Miscavige set the tone, routinely attacking his lieutenants. Rinder says the leader attacked him some 50 times.

Rathbun, Rinder and De Vocht admit that they, too, attacked their colleagues, to demonstrate loyalty to Miscavige and prove their mettle.

• Staffers are disciplined and controlled by a multi­layered system of "ecclesiastical justice.'' It includes publicly confessing sins and crimes to a group of peers, being ordered to jump into a pool fully clothed, facing embarrassing "security checks'' or, worse, being isolated as a "suppressive person.''

At the pinnacle of the hierarchy, Miscavige commands such power that managers follow his orders, however bizarre, with lemming-like obedience.

• Church staffers covered up how they botched the care of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after they held her 17 days in isolation at Clearwater's Fort Harrison Hotel.

Rathbun, who Miscavige put in charge of dealing with the fallout from the case, admits that he ordered the destruction of incriminating evidence. He and others also reveal that Miscavige made an embarrassing miscalculation on McPherson's Scientology counseling.

• With Miscavige calling the shots and Rathbun among those at his side, the church muscled the IRS into granting Scientology tax-exempt status. Offering fresh perspective on one of the church's crowning moments, Rathbun details an extraordinary campaign of public pressure backed by thousands of lawsuits.

• To prop up revenues, Miscavige has turned to long-time parishioners, urging them to buy material that the church markets as must-have, improved sacred scripture.

Church officials deny the accusations. Miscavige never hit a single church staffer, not once, they said.

...

"But I believe these abuses need to end … This rot being instigated from inside Scientology actually is more destructive to the Scientology movement than anything external to it.''

BEATINGS: Random, whimsical

At 49, Miscavige is fit and tanned, his chiseled good looks accented by intense blue eyes. His frame is on the short side at 5 feet 5, but solid, with a matching, vise-like handshake.

The voice, resonant and strong, can transfix a crowd of thousands. Many call him "COB," because he is chairman of the board of the entity responsible for safeguarding Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954.

"He is one of the most capable, intelligent individuals I've ever met," Rathbun said. "But L. Ron Hubbard says the intelligence scale doesn't necessarily line up with the sanity scale. Adolf Hitler was brilliant. Stalin was brilliant. They were geniuses. But they were also on a certain level stark, staring mad."

Rathbun, Rinder, Scobee and De Vocht say they participated in and witnessed madness, from musical chairs to repeated physical abuse.

What triggered Miscavige's outbursts? The victims usually had no clue.

"If it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, he'd lose it," De Vocht said. "If it was contrary to how he thought, he'd lose it. If he found it to be smart aleck, or it was a better answer than he had, he would lose it."

Rathbun and Rinder list the executives they saw Miscavige attack:

Marc Yager: At least 20 times.

Guillaume Lesevre: At least 10 times.

Ray Mithoff: Rathbun said Miscavige "would regularly hit this guy open-handed upside the head real hard and jar him. Or grab him by the neck and throw him on the floor."

Norman Starkey: "Right in the parking lot, (Miscavige) just beat the living f--- out of him, got him on the ground and then started kicking him when he was down,'' Rathbun said.

He said he saw Rinder "get beat up at least a dozen times just in those last four years … some of them were pretty gruesome."

Said Rinder: "Yager was like a punching bag. So was I."

He added: "The issue wasn't the physical pain of it. The issue was the humiliation and the domination. ... It's the fact that the domination you're getting — hit in the face, kicked — and you can't do anything about it. If you did try, you'd be attacking the COB.

"It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment.''

Scobee said Miscavige never laid a hand on her or any other woman, but she witnessed many attacks, including the time the leader choked Rinder until his face turned purple. Rinder confirmed that account.

De Vocht estimated that from 2003 to 2005, he saw Miscavige strike staffers as many as 100 times.

Rathbun, Rinder and De Vocht admit that they, in turn, hit others. In January 2004, Rathbun pummeled Rinder and had to be pried off by several church staffers.

"Yes, that incident happened," Rinder said. "It wasn't the only time that Marty or I was involved in some form of physical violence with people."

He recalled holding a church staffer against a wall by the collar and pressing into his throat.

Rathbun said he attacked many people, many times, including throwing Lesevre across a table, boxing Starkey's ears, and tackling Yager down a flight of stairs — all, he said, on Miscavige's orders. He said he threw another staffer against the hood of a cab at Los Angeles International Airport. As a crowd gathered to watch, he cocked his fist and told him to improve his attitude.

De Vocht said he "punched a couple of guys" during one of many sessions where managers confessed their wrongdoings to their peers, a gathering that got raucous and physical. Embarrassed about it now, he says he easily rationalized it then: "If I don't attack I'm going to be attacked. It's a survival instinct in a weird situation that no one should be in."

The four defectors each said the leader established a culture that encouraged physical violence.

"It had become the accepted way of doing things," Rinder said. "If COB did it, it was okay for everybody else to do it, too."

Rinder said Rathbun was Miscavige's enforcer. "If Dave didn't want to go do any dirty work himself, he sent Marty to do it for him."

Rathbun doesn't deny it. It's difficult to get the truth, he said, "unless you talk to somebody who's got some dirt on their hands. And I freely admit I got dirt on my hands, and I feel terrible about it. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing."

Rathbun wasn't exempt from Miscavige's attacks. "He once grabbed me by the neck and banged my head against the wall.''

Nobody fought back.

(excerpts) 

Full Article:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece

Uri Geller, Judith Skutch (ACIM), Targ, Puthoff, SRI, Scientology (again)

 

From A Course in Miracles legal documents. Download: Oct_24_2003.pdf

Link Between A Course in Miracles and the Stanford Research Institute

Remote Perception at Stanford Research Institute

...

Our observation of the phenomena leads us to conclude that experiments in the area of so-called paranormal phenomena can be scientifically conducted, and it is our hope that other laboratories will initiate additional research to attempt to replicate these findings.

This research was sponsored by The Foundation for Parasensory Investigation, New York City. We thank Mrs. Judith Skutch, Dr. Edgar D. Mitchell of the Institute of Noetic Sciences - as well as our SRI associates, Mr. Bonnar Cox, Mr. Earle Jones and Dr. Dean Brown - for support and encouragement. Constructive suggestions by Mrs. Jean Mayo, Dr. Charles Tart, University of California, and Dr. Robert Ornstein and Dr. David Galin of the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute are acknowledged.

Russell Targ
Harold Puthoff
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory,
Stanford Research Institute,
Menlo Park, California 94025

http://www.urigeller.com/sria.htm

The publisher of the Course was the Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena. Some observers wonder whether this may have been funded by members involved with or employed by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Menlo Park, California, which at the time was home to the Remote Viewing project - itself sponsored by the CIA. One of the people with connections to SRI was Judith Skutch, the president and founder of the foundation.

 
In 1973, Skutch was one of Uri Geller's first supporters. According to Andrew Tobias, most of Geller's private demonstrations were done in Skutch's apartment and it was this foundation that put up $60,000 to pay for SRI's further study of Geller. As it is now known that funding for such experiments also came from the CIA, we can of course wonder whether the Foundation was a front for the CIA... which would mean that it was the CIA itself who published "A Course in Miracles" in 1975. That would mean that the Course was from beginning to end a CIA affair.

Related Article:

A Course in Miracles: A CIA Exercise in Mind Control

[above link contains a more cohesive reportage style and less brick-a-brack - as I've previously attempted here.]

"Miracle Studies" Dismisses Schucman-Thetford MK-ULTRA Connections as "Conspiracy Rumors"

Regarding Conspiracy Rumors about Dr. William Thetford, the CIA and A Course in Miracles

By Joe R. Jesseph, Ph.D. Author: A Primer of Psychlogy According to A Course in Miracles [Coordinator of Miracle Studies]

...

One of the more bizarre forms of controversy to develop relative to ACIM in recent years (circa 2006) has to do with the suspicion that the Course is the result of a CIA plot -- a mind-control conspiracy. As is often the case in conspiracy thinking, some people have taken certain facts, combined them and come up with preposterous conclusions. In this case certain conspiracy theorists have added the facts that William Thetford was once employed by the CIA, that the CIA has funded psychological research and that some of that research was conducted by Thetford and Schucman, to concluded that the Course, which by its very nature is deeply threatening to the ego, must have been the result of a CIA plot. Contributing to this assertion is the fact that indeed some of the psychological research funded by the CIA was directed at discovering techniques for manipulating human beings, and that some of that "mind control" research was conducted in an unethical manner.

In the fall of 2006 I was asked about these kinds of assertions as found on a Web site with the headline: "ACIM: Lie Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas! The MKULTRA Milieu Surrounding the 'Scribing' of A Course In Miracles." (MKULTRA is an acronym for a CIA program which funded the research of a very large number of prominent psychologists back in the 1960's, some of that research later found to have been conducted unscrupulously.)

The Web site in question contained wildly outlandish statements and suggestions intended to establish guilt by association -- a strategy that a trial lawyer or tabloid journalist might use, but not a very credible approach to serious, intelligent, scholarly consideration. None of us who are familiar with the facts about Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, particularly those who knew them personally, could possibly take seriously the claims made on that Web site. However, I could see how people not familiar with the historical facts about the Course and its scribing could take such claims seriously, especially if they are orthodox in religious belief, already skeptical about the phenomenon of channeling, and even more so if they are not familiar with words actually found on the pages of A Course in Miracles.

Anyone who cares to have an informed perspective on the Course should at least become acquainted with the Course itself, along with relevant portions of the following books: 1) Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles by Kenneth Wapnick; 2) Understanding A Course in Miracles: The History, Message and Legacy of a Spiritual Path for Today and the earlier version of this work entitled: The Complete Story of the Course by D. Patrick Miller, and; 3) Journey Without Distance: the Story behind A Course in Miracles by Robert Skutch. Wapnick's book is by far the most authoritative account and some important, relevant excerpts from it are available on the World Wide Web. Those excerpts are linked from a site dedicated to Helen Schucman and entitled The Scribe. Another helpful site is that of the Foundation for Inner Peace, publisher of the Course. On that site, in particular see: The Scribing of A Course in Miracles.

In addressing the conspiracy theory about ACIM as a brain washing tool and perhaps the product of brain washing, one ought to take note of a statement written by Helen Schucman herself and which concludes the first part of the Preface to the Course, which is entitled "How It Came." That statement says: "The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher" (ACIM Text Preface, p. viii; italics mine; see the entire three-part Preface here: www.facim.org/acim/description.htm).

The Course can stand on its own. You don't have to believe it was channeled from Jesus to make use of it, and you don't even have to believe in Jesus. Neither do you have to believe in the phenomenon of channeling.

It has always been clear to me that the Course was not intended to be the basis for a religious organization of any kind. For one thing, such organizations are rife with ego specialness, hierarchies of power and attempts to tell people what to believe rather than helping them to "find their own Internal Teacher." The Course actually dismisses the phrase "formal religion" as an oxymoron:

In this world, there is an astonishing tendency to join contradictory words into one term without perceiving the contradiction at all. The attempt to formalize religion is so obviously an ego attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable that it hardly requires elaboration here (ACIM Psychotherapy Pamphlet-2.II.2:2-3).

In other words, spirit is formless while the ego's attempt to formalize spirituality is an attempt to imprison in form what is formless; to elevate the importance of form, which is an illusory projection of the ego thought system, at the expense of an awareness of content -- mind and thought -- which is reality because mind is a dimension of spirit.

The Course does not encourage proselytizing or even setting up study groups. What it means by "teaching," is not formal didactic teaching (or preaching), but teaching love and forgiveness by example; something I think the CIA would have little use for, especially back in the 1960s. That said, it is true that for most of us the Course material is not easy to understand, integrate and apply in spite of the fact that it continually says it is a "simple course." So a teacher and a study group can be helpful. In this regard, the only teacher of the Course in whom I have complete confidence is Kenneth Wapnick, who was intimately associated with Bill and Helen, having first met them in 1972 and then working closely with them to prepare the Course for publication in 1976. When one reads his autobiographical accounts (see links at: the Website dedicated to Ken), it is evident that Ken's own spiritual journey had led him to a place of knowing the message of the Course before he ever read it. He, too, had experienced an inner presence that he recognized in the voice that speaks from the pages of the Course itself. In effect, Ken became Helen's designated teacher of ACIM, while she and Bill preferred to stay in the background after the Course was published. And Ken, who knew Bill and Helen very, very well, just laughed when I told him about the CIA conspiracy theory regarding the Course. He thought Bill would be quite amused and no doubt have some clever remark to make, since Bill had a very good sense of humor. Helen, on the other hand, would probably not have been amused at all. She was very intelligent and could be scathing in criticism when she was so inclined. One can obtain a very helpful understanding of Helen, Bill and their relationship by reading Ken's book Absence from Felicity, which I've already mentioned.

Nevertheless, even a glass of water can be misused, let alone a spiritual document. So, in spite of its intent, it is true that the Course has been misrepresented and misappropriated, sometimes with very unfortunate consequences. The Course, like the glass of water, can serve a constructive, helpful purpose or a harmful one, depending upon who is making use of it and the purpose they wish to serve. Obviously the same is true of the Bible, the Koran, and countless other spiritual writings. Likewise, psychology can be misused, which brings me to the CIA and MKULTRA.

According to John Marks in his book The Search for the Manchurian Candidate2, back in the Cold War era of the 1950s and 60s the CIA had an interest in being able to make use of the scientific knowledge and professional techniques of psychology. They sought to have rapport with a wide range of psychologists to whom they could have access for information, consultation and research. Consequently, a large number of research projects of various kinds were funded by the CIA through MKULTRA, and a very long list of some of the most distinguished names in psychology benefited from this funding, most of them not having a clue about the nefarious activities of people like Drs. Gottlieb and Cameron which were discovered later. It was not until the Church Committee3 investigations of Congress beginning in 1975 that the unconscionable activities sponsored by MKULTRA funding came to light. But, the mere fact that a particular psychologist's research was funded by the CIA through MKULTRA should not be used to incriminate that psychologist. Neither should the fact that a psychologist was employed by the CIA be used to vilify that person. Back in the fifties, there was a lot of concern about Russia and communism, and there was a high level of public confidence in the CIA. What we've learned since then should not serve to discredit every one of the distinguished psychologists who received funding through MKULTRA, or who was employed by the CIA. The practice of guilt by association, which the Web site in question attempts, is reminiscent of another phenomenon of the late 1940's - early 1950's: McCarthyism.

Among the psychologists whose research was funded by the CIA through MKULTRA was the widely known and beloved Dr. Carl Rogers, who was instrumental in the development of what became known as "humanistic psychology," and who founded the "Person-Centered Approach" to psychotherapy. His goal was not to manipulate, brain wash and deceive people, but to free them from their conflicts so that they could become "fully functioning" persons -- "self-actualizing" human beings. One of Roger's most famous books was entitled On Becoming a Person4 wherein the second major section was titled "How Can I Help?" Yet Rogers received funding for some of his research through the CIA's MKULTRA program, just as did Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman.

In his book Marks discusses and quotes Rogers as follows:

Although he says he would have nothing to do with secret Agency activities today, he asks for understanding in light of the climate of the 1950s. "We really did regard Russia as the enemy," declares Rogers, "and we were trying to do various things to make sure the Russians did not get the upper hand." Rogers received an important professional reward for joining the Society [for the Investigation of Human Ecology, later called the Human Ecology Fund] board. Executive Director James Monroe had let him know that, once he agreed to serve, he could expect to receive a Society grant. "That appealed to me because I was having trouble getting funded," says Rogers. "Having gotten that grant [about $30,000 over three years], it made it possible to get other grants from Rockefeller and NIMH." Rogers still feels grateful to the Society for helping him establish a funding "track record," but he emphasizes that the Agency [CIA] never had any effect on his research (brackets mine).

It is common for psychologists to seek government funding for their research projects, and in the "publish or perish" climate of prestigious universities like Columbia it is not surprising that some of the work done by Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman received funding through MKULTRA. But it is hardly accurate to characterize that research as being directed toward "brain washing," any more than it would be accurate to characterize Roger's work that way.

My principle point here is that it is important to understand the historical context for the MKULTRA funding as well as to realize that not all of the psychological research funded by the CIA was of the dishonest and inhumane sort carried out by Dr. John Gottlieb and others. For an extensive discussion of this and of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology see "CIA's Behavior Caper" by Dr. Patricia Greenfiled, professor of psychology at UCLA.

Another example of legitimate psychological research funded in part by the CIA is Dr. John Gittinger's "Personality Assessment System," or PAS. This system was of particular interest to Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman for very sound professional reasons, and it utilized one of the intelligence and personality assessment tests which has been a standard in the psychology profession for decades: the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS) which were a refinement of the earlier Wechsler-Bellview Intelligence Scales. Gittinger began his work on the PAS in 1948-49 when he was a psychologist at Central State Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. To this day, the PAS is utilized by professional psychologists who are responsible for psychological diagnosis in connection with mental health treatment. Following are some excerpts from the PAS Website:

Psychologist Dr. John Gittinger conceived the fundamental idea behind the "Personality Assessment System", or PAS, many years ago when he observed that our personalities are shaped, to a large extent, by the way we use the several components of our intellect. He realized that each person learns to cope with life by using (or not using) the intellectual strengths and overcoming (or not overcoming) the intellectual weaknesses that she or he may have learned or acquired by genetic endowment. He saw that, over the period of our maturation into adulthood, this process produces what we call each person's "personality." The result, in other words, for each of us, is a coherent pattern for how to "do" life....

Even John Marks, in his anti-CIA book, In Search of the Manchurian Candidate, recognized and reported that the most positive development during the 1950's and 1960's in the CIA was the Personality Assessment System....

After Dr. Gittinger’s retirement from government service in 1978, many of the psychologists with whom he had worked developed university affiliations. Students at such prestigious institutions as Cornell University, The Ohio State University, The University of Missouri, and American International College are among those who have been provided with an opportunity to learn to analyze and interpret PAS profiles. Further, the Gittinger Assessment Center, established at Hocking College in 1984, serves as a site for training, resources, information, data collection, and future development of the PAS. (For the full account see: Originator: John Gittinger and for a complete explanation of the PAS see: Non-technical Overview.)

It is quite understandable to me that Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman would have an interest in the PAS and in conducting research with it. Certainly any psychological test (like the glass of water I mentioned) could be used for unethical purposes of manipulation and control. However, Bill and Helen, like Carl Rogers, were psychologists interested in helping people. Helen's particular interest was in children, and particularly mentally retarded children.

So, some of the research Bill and Helen engaged in was funded through MKULTRA, but it is not accurate to characterize their interest as having to do with "mind control," nor is it accurate to characterize the entire body of research funded through MKULTRA that way. Further, much of what went on under the aegis of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology was of legitimate interest to professional psychologists and that Society may even have helped the science of psychology to move in a broader, more  humanistic direction. To quote John Marks again:

By investing up to $400,000 a year into the early, innovative work of men like Carl Rogers, Charles Osgood, and Martin Orne, the CIA's Human Ecology Fund helped liberate the behavioral sciences from the world of rats and cheese. With a push from the Agency as well as other forces, the field opened up.

Summary of Dr. William Thetford's Professional Career

When he graduated from DePauw University in 1944, Bill was uncertain about what he wanted to do. He had majored in psychology but also enrolled in the pre-med program. Even though he was accepted at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, he still wasn't sure he wanted to study medicine, so he decided to apply for a job at the University and wait to make a decision about whether to enroll in medical school. The job he got involved work as an administrator with the Manhattan Project with responsibilities for supervising certain buildings and for radiation decontamination. Robert Skutch5 quotes Bill about this job:

The atmosphere in our department at the time was an extremely exciting one. There was a sense of utmost urgency and high sense of national priority to the work being done...It was the belief of the scientific community that the Nazis had already progressed very far in the development of atomic energy, and that we were in a life or death race with them.

Remember, this was before the end of World War II and the social/political climate in the U.S. was profoundly affected by that war as well as the "Cold War" which followed.

Bill finally decided not to enter medical school, but when the atomic bombs were dropped he was horrified at the devastation and quit his job. Skutch quotes him regarding his next step:

A few weeks later Dr. Carl Rogers arrived on campus. Although I knew nothing about Rogers, who even then was one of the most eminent names in the field of psychology, I signed up for his first course on Client centered Psychotherapy, simply because some of the graduate students I knew recommended that I do so.

Rogers immediately recognized a very intelligent student with keen insight into what Rogers was teaching and to Bill's dismay Rogers appointed him as a teaching assistant and then invited him to become Rogers' research assistant.

In 1949 Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago after completing research related to Rogers' theory. Again, Skutch quotes Bill:

I was intrigued with the possibility of measuring the autonomic nervous system and its functions before and after Rogerian therapy...Rogers was very impressed by this study, and I was actually stunned that I had found any significant results at all.....In March 1949, somewhat to my surprise, I received my Ph.D. However, I still had no real awareness of the field of psychology...Although I had met many eminent people during my studies...no one seemed to have any awareness of how these specialized areas of knowledge could be synthesized.

Even though Bill lacked confidence in his own qualifications it seems evident that many others were quite impressed with him. This kind of situation involving Bill's humility and the high regard of others appears to have characterized much of his early professional career. After Chicago, at the suggestion of a friend, he applied for and was accepted into a position at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago where he worked in research involving schizophrenic patients and patterns of response to the Rorschach inkblot test. This was done under the direction of Dr. Samuel Beck, a leading authority on the Rorschach, about which Bill knew nothing. But, in what by now seems to be characteristic fashion, Beck was quite impressed with Bill and even regarded his lack of experience with the Rorschach as a positive factor since it meant that he would not bring bias into his studies. Bill stayed on in this program under Dr. Beck for 2 1/2 years, and it is during this time that he was introduced to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, which was contrary to Rogers' theories. Skutch quotes Bill about this period as saying:

One thing I felt strongly about, both during graduate studies and afterwards at Michael Reese, was that I did not in any way wish to be a university professor...I had already turned down several offers...I felt I had nothing to profess. Also, I did not feel that university life was something that I would happily adapt to.

Bill subsequently moved on to enroll in the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington. D.C., because he was intrigued by the eminent Dr. Harry Stack Sullivan's interpersonal theory of psychiatry which focused upon interpersonal relations rather than the individual psychodynamics of Freudian psychology. (By the way, this kind of focus in psychological study is compatible with the study of human ecology as a psychological undertaking since it takes an interest in the environment of human relationships surrounding an individual.) This was during the period 1951-54 when, in addition to being a post-graduate student at the Washington School of Psychiatry, Bill was employed as a psychologist for the U.S. government, and this is when Bill’s association with the CIA began. I could not find details of his government employment, although one source states that during 1953 Bill served as a consultant to the Foreign Service Institute in Beirut, Lebanon. No doubt Bill was employed by the CIA at this time. Skutch quotes Bill about the next phase of his career:

When I completed the study program at the Washington School, I was undecided about what to do next. Since I had long been attracted to New York City, I decided to go there to look for a position. The head of the Psychological Placement Service at the N.Y. State Employment Service said he had absolutely the perfect job for me...What he had in mind was the Directorship of the Psychology Department at the Institute of Living in Hartford Connecticut.

The Institute for Living is a very well known mental health treatment center and hospital, which was founded in 1822, being one of the first mental health facilities of its kind in the U.S. Bill stayed there as Director of the Division of Psychology from 1954 to 1955 when he moved to the CIA-funded Society for the Study of Human Ecology at Cornell University Medical College. About this, Skutch quotes Bill as saying:

After a year at Hartford I received a call from Dr. Harold G. Wolff, one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine, a leading authority on stress disorders, and at the time Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Cornell...Dr. Wolf offered me an appointment as Chief Psychologist in the Human Ecology Study Program which he was directing. My uneasiness about becoming involved in a university position had mellowed somewhat by this time and I decided to consider an academic appointment. As a result, I accepted Dr. Wolff's offer, and before I knew it I became an instructor and a year later was promoted to assistant professor.

The idea of taking an ecological approach to the psychological study of human beings intrigued Bill and fit in with his general tendency to be attracted to unconventional approaches to psychology which emphasized understanding people in the context of their family relationships as well as their socio-cultural and natural environment, the kind of interest that had led him to the Washington School of Psychiatry. John Marks characterizes Wolff as not only being brilliant, but also as arrogant and quite interested in helping the CIA find ways to both manipulate human beings as well as train them to resist such manipulation, but there is nothing in Bill's history to suggest that he shared these kinds of interests. There is nothing in Bill's story to indicate that he himself had any interest in brain washing, hypnosis, drug-induced states or the like. Whether he had any knowledge at all of these activities being carried on with CIA sponsorship through MKULTRA is unclear to me, but I think it is unlikely that he did. Anyway, he stayed on at the Human Ecology Study Program from 1955-57, and then, upon the urging of a friend, applied for and -- even though rather unsure of himself -- took a very challenging job at Columbia University where he began in 1958 as an Associate Professor of Medical Psychology and Director of the Division of Clinical Psychology at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.

Apparently he was fascinated by his work under Wolf at Cornell, and the job at Columbia had been subject to controversy because members of the search committee could not agree upon a candidate. Thus, they were willing to consider Bill who apparently was less controversial to them. Bill told the Cornell people that he would accept the job if given an Associate Professorship, which he thought quite unlikely. But they surprised him by offering it. So, off he went.

Faculty politics can be quite conflicted and difficult. In fact, it was this very kind of difficulty that later led Bill to make his famous speech to Helen in which he said that there must be a better way for them to relate to each other as well as to their colleagues. They had been involved in some bitter, acrimonious interpersonal conflicts by June of 1965 when he made that speech, and when Helen -- surprisingly -- immediately agreed with him and said she was willing to help. This event led to the scribing of A Course in Miracles following a series of unusual dreams and visions on Helen's part during the summer of 1965.

The story of Bill's relationship to Helen began when he hired her as a research assistant at Columbia in 1958. Shortly after assuming his position at Columbia, he found that his new job was going to demand much more from him than he had imagined, or been led to believe. As he was getting himself oriented and setting some priorities, the Dean of the College notified him that the University had received a large grant from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases for conducting a cooperative study of neurological and sensory deficits in infants and young children. A research psychologist with special training and skill in working with children and in psychological testing was needed. Helen became that psychologist and seven years later she and Bill became involved with the scribing of the Course. From then on, their work with the Course was kept a carefully guarded secret, because it would certainly have jeopardized their professional status as well as their employment.

Helen herself had a very strong authoritative and assertive personality, while Bill tended to be much more passive and inwardly unsure of himself. As I mentioned, she and Bill had much difficulty in their relationship, which was one of the factors leading up to Bill's earnest plea for "a better way." Anyone who knew Helen would find it ludicrous that somehow Bill could have used "mind control" techniques to influence her!

In conclusion, I'll quote a few passages from D. Patrick Miller's first book about the Course:6

Whether one views it as happenstance or predestined preparation, several major elements of Thetford's character made him suitable to become Schucman's helper in the recording of the Course. Perhaps most significant was his reluctance to "profess" a distinct philosophy of his own. It's safe to assume that few academics of his status could have resisted the temptation to revise, add to, or even co-opt a major project on which they were assisting a junior colleague, regardless of the project's nature or origin.

Second, Thetford's intellectual curiosity and flexibility would counterbalance Schucman's judgmental tendency, and help both of them deal with a system of psycho-spiritual thought that substantially challenged their psychoanalytic training. Thetford's brush with humanistic psychology may have also prepared him for the transpersonal dimensions of the Course material.

Finally, the younger professor's passivity is probably what made it possible for him to tolerate Helen Schucman's contrariness, albeit not happily. It remains a sad irony that the tenuous balance of the relationship between the two Course recorders never matured into a healthy reciprocity. In 1977, the year following publication of the Course, Schucman was forced to retire from Columbia-Presbyterian at age sixty-eight...In 1978 Thetford took early retirement and moved to California.

Let me just repeat that revelations about unethical and illegal activities sponsored by the CIA through MKULTRA only began to surface as a result of the Church Committee investigations in 1975. The last date I see for a joint psychological publication by Thetford and Schucman is 1972, though Bill continued his role in the MKULTRA-sponsored personality research project 130 until he retired. That project was professionally sound, utilized the PAS, and would only have been of use to the CIA in the same indirect way that the research of Carl Rogers and many other legitimate psychologists would have been. I think that the reason for keeping that project classified is that the CIA hoped to prevent Russia and other foreign countries from either knowing about or making use of psychological research sponsored by the CIA in the United States.

Perhaps this background and summary will contribute to an understanding of why the allegations of conspiracy and "mind control" as being factors in the scribing of A Course in Miracles are preposterous. Anyone unfamiliar with the Course who wants to know more will have to do more reading, particularly reading Wapnick's Absence from Felicity. It might also be helpful to watch the video entitled, "The Story of A Course in Miracles" which is available from the Course publisher, the Foundation for Inner Peace. See their catalog at: https://www.acim.org/miva/merchant.mvc

_______________________________________
1See chapters 4 and 5 of A Primer of Psychology According to A Course in Miracles by Joe R. Jesseph,
 Outskirts Press, Denver, Colorado. 2008
2Marks, John. The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control. New York: Dell
 Publishing, 1988.
3Also on the Internet see this page of the History Matters Website.
4Rogers, Carl R. On Becoming a Person. The Riverside Press: Cambridge, MA. 1961
5Skutch, Robert. Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2001
6Miller, D. Patrick. The Complete Story of the Course: The History, The People, The Controversies Behind A Course in Miracles. Berkeley, CA: Fearless Books, 1997.

Full Article and hyperlinks:

http://www.miraclestudies.net/BillCIA.html

Corporate America, Mind Control and New Age Cult Groups (NY Times 1986)

Jack Rafferty (L) and Werner Erhart (aka "Jack" Rosenberg) - Erhart Seminars Training (est)

Representatives of some of the nation's largest corporations, including I.B.M., A.T.&T., and General Motors, met in New Mexico in July to discuss how meta-physics, the occult, and Hindu mysticism might help executives compete in the world marketplace.

Here in San Francisco, a politically conservative research center foresees an eventual alliance of conservatives, leftists of the 1960's, and Americans with interests ranging from eastern mysticism and the occult to holistic medicine.

And this November, ABC-TV plans a five-hour miniseries, based on an auto-biography by the actress Shirley McLaine that delves deeply and seriously into reincarnation and the supernatural.  These are strands in a

thread of alternative thought that scholars say is working its way increasingly into the nation's cultural, religious, social, economic, and political life.

On one level, they say, it is evidenced by a surge in interest in new meta- physical religions, mediums, the occult, reincarnation, psychic healing, satanism, "spirit guides," and other aspects of supernatural belief.

At another level, the scholars site the spreading influence of psychological self-help and "human potential groups" that operate under names such as The Forum, Insight, Actualizations, Silva Mind Control, and Lifespring. These groups' programs for corporate employees attract millions of dollars a year.

Borrowing some spiritual concepts from asian religions, the programs try to transform clients' thought processes and make them better, more creative people.

On both levels, leaders contend they are ushering in what they call a New Age of understanding and intellectual ferment, as significant as the Renaissance. But critics of these groups that many are nothing more than cults, and that others subject unwitting participants to mind control.

Professor Rashky, a critic of the trend, describes it as a "most powerful social force in the country today.  I think its as much a political movement as a religious movement," he says, "and its spreading into Business Management Theory and alot of other areas.  If you look at it carefully you see it represents a complete rejection of judeo-christian and bedrock American values."

Some who have evaluated the trend attribute it partly to a loss of confidence in traditional western ideas and conventional ways of doing things, and to a willingness to try out anything new in search of a replacement.

"Why is business rushing in to look at everything from EST to firewalking?" asks Robert S. Callodson, a business consultant who is a retired Vice President of the Champion International Corporation.  "The old ways of doing business aren't working anymore, and even the most intelligent of people feel that something's broke."

Although precepts vary from group to group, many argue that western man, partly because of scientific discoveries of recent centuries, has become disillusioned with the spiritual concepts he inherited.  Many groups are
also critical of the world's current economic and social systems, saying they have ravaged the planet.

Most argue that mankind is at the threshold of "a great evolutionary leap of consciousness to new beliefs about many things" and that there is an energy or force in the universe that will lead to a happy, peaceful, perhaps united, new world (the sort of "force" at work in George Lucas' Star Wars films.)

The purpose of many of the groups is to transform the society to prepare for this "New Age."  To get there, it is argued, men and women must first alter conventional ways of thinking and begin using areas of their minds they do
not normally use.  They must enter "an altered state of consciousness" through the use of such types of psychological techniques as meditation, hypnosis, chanting, biofeedback, prolonged isolation, and the intervention of "spirit
guides," or ghosts.

Psychologists who have studied the process say that while participants are in this "altered state," leaders of the groups are able to implant new ideas and alter their thinking processes.

Participants in various new age groups say they often experience euphoria in the altered states and cited this as one reason for their popularity. "The drug of the 60's was LSD and marijuana," said Carrie Klinger, a 29-year
old resident of Washington State, who belonged to several New Age groups before becoming disillusioned.  "I think the drug of the 80's is cosmic consciousness."

Reginald Alev, Executive Director of the Cult Awareness Network, a Chicago- based clearinghouse of information about cults, said "it's very sad what's going on.  Most of the people who get involved in these New Age groups which
are growing all over the place are intelligent, altruistic, idealistic. They want to know the meaning of life, and someone comes along and tells them they have the answer.  Then they're told they are the master of their own destiny, sort of an eastern version of Norman Vincent Peale, but they don't know they are being subjected to mind control."

Richard Wattring, Personnel Director of the Budget Rent-A-Car Corporation in Chicago, is seeking to arouse concern among his peers over how quickly Corporate America is embracing "pseudo-therapy programs."  "I really think you're going down the wrong path in business when you deal with a person's spiritual being and attempt to manipulate his mind," he said.

Graduates of such programs and former cult members are often psychically scarred says Dr. Edwin Morse, a former member of the University of Wisconson's psychology faculty who now counsels such people in Madison.  "These groups are using hypnotic procedures and people are not being told about it."  Not only do leaders of some groups convince clients that they should sign up for expensive new seminars or workshops, it is asserted, many also use the hypnotic state to plant beliefs in their mind they are unaware of.

One concept commonly transmitted in these sessions by "human potential groups" is that because man is a deity equal to God he can do wrong, thus there is no sin, no reason for guilt in life.

The Ford Motor Company, Westinghouse, and the Calvin Klein Fashion House are among scores of major companies that have sent employees for training, according to "human potential organizations" such as Transformation Technologies, Lifespring, and Actualizations, all of which include techniques modelled to a greater or lesser extent after the techniques started by Werner Erhart, the founder of EST.  "We teach new patterns of thinking," said Stuart Emory, chairman of Actualizations.

Kevin Garby, an author and researcher on New Age topics in Carlyle, Pennsylvania, cites an army recruiting slogan "Be All That You Can Be" as evidence of what he contends has been the significant influence of EST, Lifespring, and other New Age programs in certain quarters of the military. In the early 1980's, he said, officers at the Army War College in Carlyle, some of whom were graduates of EST, and were former members of The Radical Students For A Democratic Society, conducted a study aimed at creating a "New Age Army."  The slogan, a derivative of the "You Create Your Own Reality" orthodoxy of New Age groups, grew out of this work.

The study, according to participants, also envisaged training soldiers in meditation, developing skills in extrasensory perception, magic, and in "neurolinguistic training," a hypnosis technique.  Army officials say the program has been cancelled and its principle leaders have left the army. Mr. Garvy, however, contends that EST and Lifespring graduates continue to have influence in the army and other government agencies.

Politically, many in the New Age movement have said they tend to gravitate toward democrats like Edmund G. Brown, Jr., the former governer of California, and Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, but A. Lawrence Chickering, editorial director of the Institute For Contemporary Studies here, a conservative research organization, whose alumni include Attorney General Edwin Meese, and Defense Secretary Casper W. Weinberger, forsees the evolution of a New Age Right.

Mr. Chickering attributes the "rediscovery of conservatism" during the 1970's in part to the Esalen Institute, "because what they are trying to do is rediscover principles of order within a context of freedom."  In time, he said, he expected the New Age Right to form an alliance with "some of the components of the New Left of the 1960's and others in the New Age movement."

http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys4/newageci.htm

Related Archives:

Abstracts of Articles in Psychological Journals Concerning est and The Forum

New Age COINTELPRO and the Optimism Gestapo

Cult Groups

Greg Mackie, "A Circle of Atonement" and A Course in Miracles: Apologists for WAR CRIMES and GENOCIDE

This is an edited version of the class notes for a class taught at the Circle of Atonement on Tuesday, May 18, 2004.

The recent revelations of severe prisoner abuse-even torture-by American military personnel in Iraq have shocked people throughout the world. Many have asked, "How could this happen?" Yet I think in the Course's view, it is not at all surprising that such things happen. In my mind, this scandal offers us a precious opportunity to undo our denial of the ego's darkness. The Course is clear that looking squarely at the ego's illusions in the calm light of truth is essential if we want to free ourselves from the horror the ego has wrought:

No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego's thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it…Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. (T-11.V.1:1-4)

Let us, then, take a closer look at the Iraq prison scandal from the perspective A Course in Miracles gives us. We will be looking at the monstrous acts of other people, but the point is not to pass judgment on these people, but to use their example to illuminate ego dynamics common to all of us. I'm reminded of what Jesus once said to Helen before giving an account of the ego lapses she and Bill had fallen into on a particular day: "There is nothing of special interest about the events described below, except their typical nature" (Absence from Felicity, by Ken Wapnick, p. 260). The "monster" revealed by the Iraq prison scandal is all too typical, but if we are willing to look at it calmly, we will put ourselves in a position to let it go through forgiveness.

The Iraq prison abuse scandal in a nutshell

Recently released photographs revealed that some American soldiers guarding Iraqi prisoners in Abu Graib Prison were severely abusing them, to a degree that would fit any reasonable definition of "torture." Abuses included sexual humiliation, "stress positions," severe beatings, cruel mind games, and much more. There are reports of even more severe abuses in Abu Graib and elsewhere; a senator who has seen unreleased photos says, "We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges." Most of the prisoners are likely innocent of any wrongdoing-at least 60% according to American officials, 70% to 90% according to the Red Cross. The photos were apparently taken by the soldiers themselves as "souvenirs." In the photos, soldiers are clearly enjoying themselves as they are abusing the prisoners. In a sworn statement, one soldier said, "We thought it looked funny so pictures were taken."

The reaction: The monster is in others, attacking me.

A brother separated from yourself, an ancient enemy, a murderer who stalks you in the night and plots your death, yet plans that it be lingering and slow; of this you dream. (T-27.VII.12:1)

Virtually everyone in America is looking for someone to blame for these atrocities (except for those who say that the things that happened weren't atrocities). For example:

    • The accused soldiers say it's the military: They were just following orders.
    • The military says it's the accused soldiers: They were just a few bad apples.
    • Some say it's the terrorists: Those prisoners were probably guilty and deserved it.
    • Some say it's the Bush Administration: one more example of its arrogant bullying.
    • Almost everyone (in America) agrees that it's not representative of America.

Of course, a number of these things may well be true on a form level; there's a great deal of debate about just who was responsible for what. But I'm struck by what all these theories have in common: all of them say, "The monster is in someone else." These responses are representative of the face of innocence, the part of our self-concept that "believes that it is good within an evil world" (T-31.V.2:9). We are innocent victims of all those horrible monsters out there. A murderer separated from myself is out there stalking me. This, according to the Course, is the surface self-concept of virtually everyone in the world: not just those soldiers and the people assigning blame for the prison abuses, but all of us.

Think about a situation in your own life when you did something hurtful to someone else. Have you blamed external factors or other people for your "monstrous" behavior, in order to maintain your face of innocence?

The truth according to the Course (part 1): The monster is in me, attacking others.

Yet underneath this dream [of a brother stalking you] is yet another, in which you become the murderer, the secret enemy, the scavenger and the destroyer of your brother and the world alike. (T-27.VII.12:2)

In the midst of the blame game surrounding the Iraq prison scandal, a rare few are putting forth another theory about where the monster is. Who are the abusers? According to Time Magazine (May 17, 2004):

Psychologists and historians who study torture give what is probably the most disturbing explanation of all: they are us. For under certain circumstances, almost anyone has the capacity to commit the atrocities seen in the photos that have shocked the world.

Here are just a few studies that demonstrate this:

German reservists in World War II

Historian Christopher Browning researched a group of ordinary World War II German reservists. They were not Nazi zealots steeped in anti-Semitism, nor were they career soldiers out to impress their superiors. Yet they massacred thousands of Jewish villagers with little or no coercion from their officers. Browning says, "Not all the reservists went along with the killings. But the majority of ordinary people can be induced to go along with a group."

The "obedience to authority" experiments

Stanley Milgram did a series of experiments on obedience to authority at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found that most of his subjects, who were ordinary people, were willing to give apparently devastating electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim (actually an actor, who was unharmed), simply because a scientific authority commanded them to.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

In a 1971 study that the Iraqi prison scandal has brought back into the news, Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison in which some students were "guards" and others "prisoners." The guards, all students who had scored in the "normal" and "healthy" range on standard psychological tests, were instructed to maintain control of the prison, but not to use violence, humiliation, or other dehumanizing tactics. The experiment was intended to go two weeks, but the guards became so sadistic and the prisoners so distressed that it had to be ended after only six days.

The verdict: Within even ordinary, "normal" people, there is a vicious attacker just below the surface that can be unleashed simply by removing the social restraints that normally keep it in check. Not everyone will succumb to the monster within, but apparently most will. Sound familiar? The Course tells us that underneath our "normal" facade-our face of innocence-is a monstrous ego that is bent on attacking others without provocation. We aren't victimized by an external murderer stalking us; we are the murderer stalking the world. What's more, our egos don't just come out when social constraints are removed, but attack in seemingly milder forms virtually all the time. Thus, while it's true that those soldiers at Abu Graib Prison engaged in monstrous acts that revealed the darkness of the ego within them, it is not confined to them. It is something that exists in all of us.

Think of the most "monstrous" thing you have ever done to another person. You might want to write down an account of what happened, to get it clearer in your mind. Why did you do it? How did you feel about it then? How about now? Might this event be evidence that there is a "monster" in you that attacks others just because it wants to attack? Even if what you did is "milder" than what the Iraq soldiers did, might it be that you are not so different from them?

The truth according to the Course (part 2): The monster is in me, attacking myself.

Now, for an instant, is a murderer perceived within you, eager for your death, intent on plotting punishment for you until the time when it can kill at last. (W-pI.196.11:1)

Ultimately, the Course says, the target of that monstrous ego within is not other people, but ourselves. Underneath all of our attacks on others-including the prisoner abuse by those American soldiers-is an urge for self-destruction so terrifying that we project it onto the world and see our own attack on ourselves coming from outside us. This dynamic, like the others, exists in all of us. (I once had a vivid experience of this murderer within me. I wrote an article about this experience entitled "'The Ego Does Want to Kill You': An Experience of the Murderer Within.")

Have you ever noticed self-destructive tendencies in yourself? Have you done things that you knew would be harmful to you, yet you just couldn't resist doing them? You may want to write down some examples. Might this be evidence that there is a "monster" in you that is bent on destroying you?

The truth according to the Course (part 3): The monster is an illusion that, once seen as it really is, can be shined away through forgiveness.

Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the place of those you dreamed in terror and in fear of death. He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death....The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams. (T-27.VII.14:3-5, 8)

This is the good news. It is so good that Lesson 196 says of the instant we see the murderer within ourselves: "Pray that the instant may be soon,-today" (W-pI.196.11:5). Once we see the monster within us as it is, we have both the motivation and the power to do something about it. We have the motivation because we see how undesirable it is: why would we want to hold on to something that wants to kill us? We have the power because once we have looked calmly at the ego without blinders, we can call upon the Holy Spirit to shine it away. It is nothing but an illusion dispelled by the healing light of forgiveness. Ultimately, this is the way that terrors like the abuses at Abu Graib are undone once and for all.

A forgiveness exercise: "We are the same."

Close your eyes and bring to mind someone against whom you are holding a grievance-either someone involved in the Iraq prison scandal, or someone in your own life:

On the surface, this person is holding up a face of innocence. He sees himself as being unfairly attacked by the outside world. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really unfairly attacked by the outside world. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of outer monsters attacking you.

Underneath the face of innocence, this person sees himself as a vicious ego that attacks others without provocation. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really a vicious ego that attacks others without provocation. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of your inner monster attacking others.

Underneath the belief that he is a vicious ego that attack others, this person sees a terrifying murderer within him, plotting his own death. You see yourself the same way. You are the same. But this perception is not true. Neither of you is really threatened by a murderer within plotting your own death. Now that you have looked calmly upon this false perception, you can let it go. And so be willing now to let go of the illusion of the inner monster attacking you.

Underneath all these beliefs, this person is the holy Son of God, as you are. You are the same. This is the only true perception. Both of you are wholly free of illusions of any kind. There are no monsters anywhere. Now that you have let them go, you are free to embrace the truth of who you really are. And so, join with your brother now in celebration of the glorious truth forgiveness has revealed, saying together:
We are God's Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. In us is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. In us is love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite. We are the holy home of God Himself. We are the Heaven where His Love resides. We are His holy Sinlessness Itself, for in our purity abides His Own. (adapted from W-pII.14.1:1-6)

This material is copyrighted by the Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed are the personal interpretation and understanding of the author(s).

Please visit our website at http://www.circlofa.org. You may E-mail us at info@circleofa.org, or call us at 1(928)282-0790.

Dear friend: We offer the materials on this website to you in the hope that they can serve you well on your journey home. Your continuing donations support the work of the Circle of Atonement. Thank you. To make a donation, please visit our bookstore at http://www.circlepublishing.org

What the Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Reveals: Looking Calmly at the Monster and Letting It Go
Greg Mackie

Kryon aka Lee Carroll Channelling at the U.N. 2007 Re: The African Union

SEAT Logo

The Society for Enlightenment and Transformation (SEAT) is part of the United Nations Staff Recreational Council (UNSRC). This is a group of clubs that is sanctioned by the UN for members, guests, employees and delegates of the United Nations. On March 31, 2006 Lee Carroll was again invited to bring Kryon's message to this group. Having been there before in 1995, 96, and 98, and 2005, this 11-year anniversary of Kryon's first visit was presented in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium in the UN building in Manhattan. Again Dr. Todd Ovokaitys was Lee's guest speaker.

http://www.kryon.com/inspiritmag/scrapbooks/sb-UN-06.html

I want to talk about the AU. What is that? It's something in the future. I want to talk about the AU, which probably will not be seen for 50 years. . .  two generations: The African Union. You met the doctor today, The Twist Master, I call him [Dr. Todd Ovokaitys]. He is one who will help cure the continent of Africa in this generation. For when the citizens of that great continent have health, they will then have the need for normal economies. And what you do not know and the underlying support is that there are literally trillions of what you would call dollars that are sitting and waiting to be invested in their health! There are those on Earth who also see this clearly.

These are the grand cities of the future, in the African Union. It will be a conglomeration of African states much like you see in the European Union, only bigger and more powerful, with their own securities exchanges that will rival anything the earth has ever seen, even the Chinese. Because the future resources that the world will need are in Africa, including some you have not realized yet. It is the next great frontier. And in this new energy, that continent must be cured. This is in progress, and indeed, it will be.

There are three great health inventions coming to that continent, and one has been described today in technological terms [by Dr. Ovokaitys]. The other two are in progress and will also be curative. These three, all together, will entirely cure the continent. Much of this may even be in your lifetime if, indeed, this organization [the UN] can be part of it. Are you starting to connect the dots? Bring peace in Africa, UN! Concentrate on those who are against the peace and bring them the knowledge of why they should have it. Education, negotiation and reasoning alone, without the force, are such powerful things. Indeed, these new cities will create the type of civilization that this planet has never seen before. Unrivaled, it will be, one that is able to top anything that has ever existed. That is the new frontier. The very seeds of that are going to be seen in your lifetime. Watch for the funding. Against all odds, the kinds of monies that will be spent there will be astonishing. And eventually there will no longer be the tribal warfare, the corruption that is there, even within the collection of the shiny stones. You may believe me, but when it begins you will understand.

http://kryon.com/k_62.html

EMF Balancing Technique: Meditations for Kryon Seminar, Israel 2005

http://emfbalancingtechnique.com/media/audio_kryon_israel_2005.php

Related Archive:

Unity Church, Indigo Children, Implants, ET's and Eugenics

Unity Church, Indigo Children, Implants, ET's and Eugenics

"INDIGO: THE MOVIE"—THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Under cover, tonight I joined several hundred others to squeeze into a spacious Unity Church in Boulder for the much-publicized premiere screening of "Indigo," the latest release in the genre of independent "spiritual" films to be promoted through grassroots support (a la "What the Bleep Do We Know?").

Singer-songwriter-emissary-scriptwriter James Twyman has teamed up with director Stephen Simon (producer of "What Dreams May Come") and Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch to roll out the welcome mat for "a new generation of psychic and gifted 'Indigo' children" and (not coincidentally) to publicize their Spiritual Film Circle.

This low-budget feature has all the appearance of a made-for-TV feel-good film (think "Hallmark Hall of Fame"). The acting is unconvincing (Walsch is the main character), the make-up is a little tacky, the dialogue is frequently awkward, the kid is miscast, and the flashback transitions are surprisingly amateurish. Overall, I'd give this film maybe two stars (out of five). Nevertheless, the audience seemed to love this movie (it's Boulder, after all).

However, I was astonished when, as the credits rolled, people simply got up and left. I was certain that there would be some sort of discussion after the show (which was advertised), as if this was an event worth talking about. In fact, I was looking forward to hearing people's reactions. But no, people just left. Maybe they had been pleasantly entertained, had their hearts warmed, and that's all there was to it. Maybe it's just life in the spiritual suburbs…

In a 15-minute pre-film warmup, Twyman, Simon and Walsch discuss the reasons for developing this movie. For them, it's apparently all about making us humans "feel a little bit better about ourselves." Yes, you read that right. The film demonstrates "We're not so bad," Simon proclaims.

The Extraterrestrial Connection

But just who are the Indigo children? The film's press release refers to Lee Carroll and Jan Tober (authors of The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, Hay House 1999) as "internationally known experts on Indigo children" (actually, Carroll is better known as the channel for an entity known as Kyron), who blandly describe Indigos as "children who display a new and unusual set of psychological attributes" (see more here). [Note: Kyron, incredibly, encourages people to pray to be able to receive special implants that will enhance their healing/transformation/enlightenment process.]

But there's much more going on behind the scenes. Here's the quick intel rundown:

Neale Donald Walsch is possibly the biggest-selling new age author of the last 20 years, driving tiny Hampton Roads to an unprecedented level of success. Walsch's presence in the "consciousness raising" movement is ubiquitous, the influence of his books and tapes is enormous.

Given the quantity of "friendly-ET" material that HR has put out into the world in the last five years or so, it could be said that they are the Collectives' favorite publisher.

Walsch has conspicuously endorsed another Hampton Roads offering, Lisette Larkins' Talking to Extraterrestrials: Communicating with Enlightened Beings, where he writes, "Whether or not we are being communicated with from outer space is no longer the question. That question has been answered long ago. The current question is, what are we being told? What wisdom are we being given? What assistance are we being provided? What insight are we being offered and what answers are we being supplied?" Larkins' ETs have the answers, he says. (Who is the "God" that Walsch has been in conversation with? Could this be an extraterrestrial force, rather than spiritual? Would he be able to discern the difference? Would we?)

Indigos are aging (now considered to be from age 8-26), and may represent only the first wave of hybrids. Other researchers have pointed to children who exhibit even more advanced psychic skills without the Indigos' usual emotional problems. These second-wave "Crystal Children" are now generally ages 0-8, and are much more striking in appearance and demeanor (see Doreen Virtue's frequently-quoted article). Indigos are generally described as merely "psychic," while Crystals are usually referred to as "telepathic."

An entire cottage industry has grown up around the care and feeding of Indigos and Crystals (and the support of their baffled and often stressed-out parents). Just do a Google search on "Crystal Children" and note the sponsored links; my favorite is HolisticMunchkins.com.

Some alternative schools are apparently beginning to cater specifically to Indigos. The film's press release states, "Many schools throughout the world such as the Waldorf, Montessori and Rainbow Kids Integral School (founded in September, 2002 in the Miramar area of San Diego, California) are now developing curriculum to cater towards the special gifts of these Indigo Children." While this may be somewhat of an exaggeration, it is true that parents are recommending Waldorf Schools as a good place for Indigos.

A variety of intel reports indicate it is highly likely that many of the Indigo and Crystal Children are human-ET hybrids in the process of being groomed for leadership roles in our society (as Collective loyalists). Twyman, Walsch and Simon will never mention this possibility, of course.

Richard Boylan is the most outspoken advocate of the idea that these unusual children have an extraterrestrial connection, although the makers of "Indigo" would probably never endorse his work. Boylan focuses on Star Kids, who he defines as children of "non-ordinary heritage" who are "the offspring of 'experiencers'—those who have been taken or influenced in some way by extraterrestrials." These children have received "a further upgrade in human genetics" from the "Star Visitors," says Boylan, and he claims that such Star Kids "have a unique and crucial role to play in our world" (see "Star Kids: Our Future Hope" for more).

Descriptions of the Star Kids and the Indigo/Crystal children are closely aligned. There is much to suggest that we are looking at a single phenomenon here.

Boylan further defines a Star Kid "a child with both human and extraterrestrial origin; the extraterrestrial contribution may come from reproductive material, from genetic engineering, from biomedical technology, and from telepathic consciousness linking, as well as from direct incarnation of a Star Visitor into a human body." The plot thickens…

Soon Boylan will be publishing his book on this subject (Star Kids: The Emerging Cosmic Generation, Blue Star Productions, Spring 2005). He has already launched a ten-year strategic plan that includes "multiple Star Kids Workshops across the United States and in strategic regions of Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Turkey," plus "establishing a Star Kids residential school, a mentor program, and a graduate curriculum, as well as training for faculty."

Why is Boylan so dedicated to Star Kids? "They are the future," he says. "If I can help as many as possible get properly launched, it will greatly benefit the societies that they're going to help shape as they come of age. Many of these special kids are now only a couple of years away from adult lives and careers that will include positions of great responsibility and increasing influence.

...

We can reasonably conclude that it is highly likely that "Indigo: The Movie"—along with the work of Walsch, Twyman and Simon—is part of an overarching strategy to welcome, support and integrate ET-human hybrids into our society.

This is precisely what abduction researchers like David Jacobs, Budd Hopkins and others have been predicting would be the result of what appears to be an aggressive alien hybridization program. In The Allies of Humanity, Marshall Summers has outlined the far-reaching purpose of this effort. Accordingly, "Indigo" can be seen as confirmation that this hybridization program is well under way, the long-range goal of which is nothing less than the installation of a new leadership over humanity under the firm but invisible and unacknowledged control of the extraterrestrial Collectives.

"In my research (described in The Threat) abductees have indicated to me that aliens and hybrids plan a possible integration or colonization of human society... I think that the problem of the 21st century will be the problem of the alien presence. This, above all, will define and drive human society and activity. I reported that abductees felt that the aliens will begin their integration program into the society within the next forty years. I still think that this is the case."—David Jacobs

http://www.cosmicintel.com/reviews/indigo.htm

"Oprah and Friends" to Teach A Course in Miracles

Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, “Oprah & Friends” will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of  A Course in Miracles.1  A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles  “Workbook.”

...

By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training”5 and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”6

Teaching A Course in Miracles will be Oprah’s longtime friend and special XM Satellite Radio reporter Marianne Williamson—who also happens to be one of today’s premier New Age leaders. She and Conversations with God author Neale Donald Walsch co-founded the American Renaissance Alliance in 1997, that later became the Global Renaissance Alliance of New Age leaders, that changed its name again in 2005 to the Peace Alliance. This Peace Alliance seeks to usher in an era of global peace founded on the principles of a New Age/New Spirituality that they are now referring to as a “civil rights movement for the soul.”7 They all agree that the principles of this New Age/New Spirituality are clearly articulated in A Course in Miracles—which is fast becoming the New Age Bible.

...

Thus the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles are about to be taught by Marianne Williamson to millions of listeners on Oprah’s XM Satellite Radio program. Listeners are encouraged to buy A Course in Miracles for the year-long course. An audio version of A Course in Miracles recited by Richard (John Boy Walton) Thomas is also available on compact disc.

Popular author Wayne Dyer told his PBS television audience that the “brilliant writing” of A Course in Miracles would produce more peace in the world.21 Williamson’s New Age colleague, Neale Donald Walsch, said his “God” stated that “the era of the Single Saviour is over”22 and that he (“God”) was responsible for authoring the teachings of A Course in Miracles.23

...

Endnotes:
1. http://marianne.com/book/index/htm
2. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume (Glen Ellen, California: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), (Workbook), p. 45.
3. Ibid., p. 102.
4. Ibid., p. 119.
5. Ibid., (Text), p. 16.
6. Ibid., (Preface), p. ix.
7. Neale Donald Walsch, Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (New York: Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, 2004), pp. 262-263.
8. Robert Skutch, Journey Without Distance: The Story behind “A Course in Miracles” (Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts, 1984), p. 54.
9. A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume, (Workbook), p. 183.
10. Ibid., (Text), p. 425.
11. Ibid., p. 52.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., (Teachers Manual), p. 58.
14. Ibid., (Workbook), p. 45.
15. Ibid., (Text), p. 147.
16. Ibid., p. 125.
17. Ibid., p. 237.
18. http://www.hourofpower.org/interviews/interviews_detail.cfm?ArticleID=3079
19. Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles A Course in Miracles (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996), p. ix.
20. Marianne Williamson, The Gift Of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), p. 5.
21. Wayne Dyer, “There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem,” Public Broadcasting System broadcast in 2001.
22. Neale Donald Walsch, The New Revelations: A Conversation with God (New York: Atria Books, 2002), p. 157.
23. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: an uncommon dialogue, Book 1 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996), p. 90.
24. http://www.rethinkconference.com (See also WorldNetDaily.com 10/30/07 “What is Robert Schuller ‘rethinking’?” by Joseph Farah and “Rethinking Robert Schuller” by Warren Smith. See also Herescope: "Rethinking Culture" and "Rethinking and Reinventing" (10/30/07)

Continues here.

Related archives:

MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory

Link Between A Course in Miracles and the Stanford Research Institute

New Age COINTELPRO and the Optimism Gestapo

New Age Fascism

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/smith-oprah.htm

"Oprah and Friends" to teach course on New Age Christ

Link Between A Course in Miracles and the Stanford Research Institute

From A Course in Miracles legal documents. Download: Oct_24_2003.pdf

Russell Targ was co-founder of the Stanford Research Institute´s CIA funded Remote Viewing program in Menlo Park, California during the 1970´s.. Russell Targ´s partner at Stanford Research Institute was chief researcher Dr. Harold Puthoff.  Puthoff was a high ranking 'Operating Thetan' for the Church of Scientology and was also working under the auspices of the CIA's MK-ULTRA program along with Targ when this meeting took place. William Thetford, the co-'scribe' of ACIM, was also under the payroll of the CIA during the same period, conducting research under MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory at Columbia University. In 1998 Russell Targ wrote a book entitled Miracles of Space. Targ and Scientology claim Targ was never a member of the ´church.´

In this particular example, a simple meeting at a luncheon does not necessarily carry with it an implication of guilt. As has been previously stated : the late investigative journalist Gary Webb once wrote that research into the spectral realms of covert operations and parapolitics (or deep politics) will, in many instances, never really yield the cut and dry empirical data as evidence required, for example, in a court of law. There is no judge or jury here; therefore, the subject of this particular investigation need not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Such is the nature of this particular Beast. Unfortunately, many 'consumers' of what basically constitutes speculative inquiry do not understand this concept.

...

...

 

Download Washington Post article: Psychic_Spying? (pdf format) August 7, 1977

also see:

Stanford, Scientology and the CIA

A Course in Miracles Legal Documents

MK-ULTRA Artichoke SubProject 130: Personality Theory

'Kenneth, What's the Frequency?'

A Course in Miracles: A CIA Manipulation Device?

MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory (ACIM, Unity Church, MK-OPRAH)

26 May 2007

National Security Archive
Gelman Library
2130 H St NW Ste 701
Washington DC, District of Columbia 20037
1-202-994-7000 (T)
1-202-994-7005 (F)

Dear

I wish to thank you again for your excellent assistance and detailed answers to my queries the other day on the telephone. Thanks again, you were very kind, tolerant, and thoughtful.

As per our conversation of Friday, May 25, 2007, please mail all available government documents (redacted or otherwise – I believe you said there were thirty-five pages in total) regarding MK-ULTRA  SubProject 130: Personality Theory, to the above listed mailing address.

You quoted me a price of $7.92 for attaining these documents. Please find attached a money order in that amount for the aforementioned documents.

The information that follows is primarily for my own personal records, but also might be of interest to you, The National Security Archive or other persons and organizations. What follows is by no means new or original research and has been documented by a wide variety of other researchers and authors in the past.  (The exception being the ACIM milleu’s connection to SRI-Scientology).

The following information essentially serves as a rough bullet point outline and should not by any means be construed as a cohesive narrative of events, past or present, regarding Dr. William Thetford or the A Course In Miracles book.

Beware, the “critique” I engage in here (especially in the latter half) is not “structuralist”. There are also the usual concerns regarding “conspiracy theories”. I have extensively studied, deconstructed and analyzed this term over the years. Please refer to the following compendium of information regarding this subject.

Most of the following biographical information regarding Dr. William Thetford and A Course in Miracles is primarily available from online Wikipedia documents. As of this revision 3/2010, Wikipedia has deleted the criticism and controversy section from their ACIM page.

http://ce399.typepad.com/weblog/2009/12/wikipedia-removes-a-course-in-miracles-controversy-and-criticism-section-.html

Dr. William Thetford, along with David Saunders, headed CIA MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory, while at Columbia University between 1971-1978.

Dr. Thetford’s Professional Vita (also available on the A Course in Miracles web site) makes reference to his involvement in a Personality Theory Research Project while Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University, though the information does not specifically cite this as a CIA MK- ULTRA SubProject. (The information might have recently been altered to reflect involvement in MK-ULTRA.)

Dr. William Thetford also directly assisted Dr. Helen Schucman as a so-called ‘scribe’ in the initial transcription (or ‘channeling’) of the A Course in Miracles book originally published in 1975 by an organization called The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena.

Dr. Thetford was working for the CIA conducting Personality Theory experiments under MK-ULTRA at the same time the A Course in Miracles book was published in 1975.

A Course in Miracles is commonly known as “the Bible of the New Age.”

The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena may have been funded by members involved with or employed by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Menlo Park, California, as Remote Viewers at the time. One of the individuals with connections to SRI was Judith Skutch, the president and founder of The Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena, which, once again, originally published A Course in Miracles in 1975.

Other researchers in this area have speculated that Judith Skutch’s Foundation for the Investigation of Para Sensory Phenomena may have even been an outright front organization for the CIA. The publishing of A Course in Miracles may have been a CIA operation from the beginning.

It has also been claimed Skutch funded many of the early experiments by Israeli telepath Uri Geller. Geller worked for SRI during this same time period.

A Course in Miracles legal documents have revealed that Skutch met with David Hurt (an engineer associated with SRI), Russell Targ, Thetford and Schucman at a luncheon in 1974. Russell Targ was co-founder of the Stanford Research Institute´s CIA funded Remote Viewing program at SRI during this same time period. Targ´s collegue at SRI was chief researcher Dr. Harold Puthoff.  Puthoff was a high ranking ‘Operating Thetan’ for the Church of Scientology and was also working under the auspices of the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program along with Targ when this meeting took place. As previously stated, William Thetford, the so-called co-’scribe‘ of ACIM, was also under the payroll of the CIA during the same period, conducting research under MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory at Columbia University.

In 1998 Russell Targ wrote a book entitled Miracles of Space. Targ and Scientology claim Targ was never a member of L. Ron Hubbard´s so-called ´church.´

According to the Washington Post of August 7, 1977, high-level ‘Operating Thetans‘ (Harold Puthoff, Pat Price, Ingo Swann) from the Church of Scientology were in charge of all Remote Viewing and other related CIA mind control operations at Stanford Research Institute under the auspices of CIA MK-ULTRA during this time period, which began sometime in 1973. (See the Washington Post article of August 7, 1977, Psychic Spying? by John L. Wilhelm regarding the connection between the Stanford Research Institute, CIA mind control operations via MK-ULTRA and the Church of Scientology.)

MK-ULTRA was ‘investigated’ by the US Congress’ Church Committee and the group appointed by President Ford known as the Rockefeller Commission in 1975. MK-ULTRA is now obviously a matter of public record.  As you stated, all of the scanned CIA MK-ULTRA documents are available to the public from the CIA itself on CD-ROM format.

Fast forwarding to the present: Unity Church, a ‘Christian New Age’ tax exempt organization, with locations in numerous communities across the United States, hosts many A Course In Miracles seminars on a weekly basis, and includes the information contained in the book as part of their regular ‘church services.’

I spoke with a woman named ‘Mxxxx’ at the Unity Church in Eugene, Oregon, via telephone on Friday, May 25, 2007, and she stated Unity Church holds seminars in A Course In Miracles twice a week. I requested documentation from her to this effect via regular mail. She claimed that she would comply with this request. And, I might add, she seemed quite ‘happy’ and ‘joyful’ to mail any and all material made available from the church.

Unity Church also sponsors or hosts UFO seminars with titles like: ´UFOs: Earth’s Cosmic Watergate´ and ´Flying Saucers ARE Real.’ These seminars espouse a ‘spirituality’ similar to those found in UFO cults such as the former Heaven’s Gate in San Diego, California and the Church of Scientology. Usually, the ‘information’ disseminated at these UFO seminars claims that a giant, invisible UFO mother ship – containing the spirits of deceased humans, famous leaders from history and supernatural beings such as angels or even Jesus Christ himself – is hovering just above the earth’s atmosphere.

The Scientology UFO ‘religious’ belief system is very similar, though much more detailed, complicated and multifaceted. Part of Scientology’s ‘creation mythos’ advocates passive acceptance of what basically constitutes ‘galactic genocide’ as part of its cult programming. Indeed, from the limited contact I have had with people who have been programmed by these and other similar types of off shoot UFO cult groups such as those found at Unity Church, advocacy of euthanasia or suicide are causally incorporated into their belief systems; even in their interpersonal relationships with others and are completely devoid of any critical analysis as to the larger implications of upholding such philosophies. Briefly, in this respect, similarities to Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World (1932) have come to mind.

Scientology is considered to be a destructive, totalitarian cult by the German government and other European countries and is highly regulated there.

Unity Church and A Course In Miracles are ultimately all about forgiveness and prayer; yet this forgiveness exists in a spiritual construct devoid of basic human social justice.

This construct basically constitutes the same old, repacked and regurgitated snake oil peddled by ‘confidence men’ since the days of PT Barnum. The mantra goes something like this: ‘God will take care of everything and God will forgive everything;’ and therefore, accountability, responsibility, and oversight are not necessary. Thus, the organized crooks, mass murderers, torturers, destroyers of culture, various two bit thugs and other assorted sub humans are  allowed to continue perpetuating their endless cycle of banal criminality at the expense of the innocent and the powerless. As a result,  human justice and even human memory itself has now, for all intents and purposes, been  eviscerated. This is the literal apotheosis of what the authors Gore Vidal and Studs Terkel have each separately called: ‘The United States of Amnesia‘ and ‘The United States of Alzheimer’s.‘

For example, in 2004, the A Course in Miracles website had an very interesting article regarding the Abu Graib Prisoner Abuse Scandal, in which it stated the following:

Let us, then, take a closer look at the Iraq prison scandal from the perspective A Course in Miracles gives us. We will be looking at the monstrous acts of other people, but the point is not to pass judgment on these people, but to use their example to illuminate ego dynamics common to all of us. I’m reminded of what Jesus once said to Helen [Dr. Helen Schucman] before giving an account of the ego lapses she and Bill [Dr. William Thetford] had fallen into on a particular day: “There is nothing of special interest about the events described below, except their typical nature” (Absence from Felicity, by Ken Wapnick, p. 260). The “monster” revealed by the Iraq prison scandal is all too typical, but if we are willing to look at it calmly, we will put ourselves in a position to let it go through forgiveness.

(What the Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal Reveals: Looking Calmly at the Monster and Letting It Go by Greg Mackie. Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340. http://www.circlofa.org. info@circleofa.org, 1-928-282-0790.)

This is an excellent example of what many other commentators, researchers, and authors have coined New Age Fascism (also see: From UFO’s to Yoga) and this particular type of mind control programming perfectly compliments the fascism promoted by the Christian and Religious Right or Right Wing Christian Evangelical movements in the United States. I fail to see the fundamental difference between the views espoused by Mr. Mackie above and the opinions communicated by Rush Limbaugh on his talk show. They are both essentially being apologists for the Bush Administration’s use of torture in conducting the so-called ‘War on Terror.‘

‘Students’ in A Course in Miracles programs (which evidently includes devotion to Oprah Winfrey – who has avidly and enthusiastically promoted the book on her television show) might also be involved in an experimental trauma healing treatment program called See Morg Matrix, which includes hypnosis and the evisceration (or ‘clearing’) of memories. Other research in this area has referred to these techniques as ‘pseudo-therapies’.

Involvement in the Unity Church mind control and UFO cult usually comes about through association with some form of unlicensed ‘therapist,’ healer or guru type figure. Possibly even ‘ordained ministers’ in Unity Church serve dual functions as ‘counselors’ or ‘therapists.’ In other words, possible involvement with Unity religion manifests itself as a result of someone seeking some form of psychotherapy, usually to heal childhood or adult trauma and abuse.

An unfortunate possible result and side effect of an individual being involved in this network of healing programs and therapies (and there are many more which I have not mentioned in this brief overview) can be the apparent disability of higher brain functions, including a basic inability to think clearly and engage in basic relationship psychodynamics. The book utilizes hypnotic, mantra-like repetition of concepts which are, more often than not, logically incoherent and are meant to brainwash and control the thoughts of the ‘student.’ I personally know of one person who has been reading A Course In Miracles almost exclusively, (in other words, without reading anything else – like a New York Times best seller, for example) for over twenty years. Indeed, these and other similar types of side effects are relayed in the criticism section from the A Course In Miracles web page documented by Wikipedia:

Some Doctrinal Christian apologists have considered it heretical or counterfeit. Author and Yogi, Joel Kramer, states that the Course could be considered a classic authoritarian example of programming thought to change beliefs. Anton van Harskamp, a German scholar of religion, says that the Course contains, “…endless variation on some universally meant insights in life…” that, “…brings readers of the book, [or] in any case this reader, [to] a mood in which bewilderment and boredom take turns”. Long time teacher of the Course, Hugh Prather, notes that ACIM students often become, “far more separate and egocentric,” with many ultimately, “[losing] the ability to carry on a simple conversation”. He admits that he and his wife Gayle, “…had ended up less flexible, less forgiving, and less generous than we were when we first started our path!

I believe that at the turn of the previous to the last century, similar procedures were carried out through damage to, or the surgical severing of, the nerve fibers connecting the pre frontal cortex to the thalamus of the brain. These were known as lobotomies to the functionaries at ‘Houses of Bedlam’ or asylums for the ‘insane.’ The end result of the procedures described in the above previous paragraphs is, in my opinion, basically the same as a lobotomy.

As mentioned previously, this letter is meant to be a brief overview of the connections between Unity Church, A Course In Miracles, CIA MK-ULTRA Artichoke Subproject 130 and the Stanford Research Institute.

There are many other high level individuals of dubious sanity who espouse equally unsound philosophies surrounding the ACIM millieu. Some of  these individuals include: Lee Carroll (Kryon), who apparently channels nonsense with the blessing and  sanction of the United Nations and Barbara Marx Hubbard, who openly advocates genocide. Further information about these and other caustic so-called New Age leaders is currently beyond the scope of this letter.

Though the MK-ULTRA program has been official declassified and considered terminated, the effects of the damage wrought by this program of psychological warfare (PSYOP) or ‘Mind War’ are still being felt in the year 2007.

Indeed, as I have stated in letters to Senator xx and Peter Dale Scott, among many others, I suspect a new and more high-tech COINTELPRO / MK-ULTRA hybrid domestic surveillance and harassment program may be currently operational today in the United States and is currently being used against US citizens.

One only need look at the stellar work of Nick Begich, MD, Mr. Kucinich in the House of Representatives (see HR 2977) and especially John J. McMurtrey, M.S., and his 2003 paper, Inner Voice, Target Tracking, and Behavioral Influence Technologies (see previous link), to really understand the extent of the potentially bottomless pit of a Pandora’s Box that has been opened by those Aldous Huxley called the ‘power elite.’

As a side note, John J. McMurtrey’s aforementioned paper contains eleven excellent and eye-opening pages of footnotes, with a great many US Patent Office numbers issued for related inventions, dating back to the early 1960’s. The complete document should still be available via Wikipedia, keyword search: Microwave Auditory Effect or Microwave Hearing.

All of the patents referenced in that document are readily available and easily accessible via the US Patent Office website complete with abstracts, claims and detailed descriptions.

Of special interest is Apparatus and Method for Remotely Monitoring and Altering Brain Waves, (United States Patent 3951134), which was issued in 1974, coincidentally, approximately the same year A Course In Miracles was published (1975). To the best of my knowledge, the United States Patent Office does not give patent numbers to inventions that do not work.

Similarly, Nick Begich, MD has done extensive research into the area of what the US military calls the Microwave Auditory Effect, a so-called non-lethal weapon capable of producing intra-cranial sound inside the head of a human target :

This area of research is one of the most important because it points to the ultimate weapon of political control: the ability to place information directly into the human brain, bypassing all normal filtering mechanisms.

In 1995, the US Department of Defense put forward the contract, “Communicating via the Microwave Auditory Effect; Awarding Agency: Department of Defense; SBIR Contract Number: F41624-95-C-9007″. The description of this technology, which would be used for direct communications with military personnel, is written as follows:

“Title: Communicating via the Microwave Auditory Effect. “Description: An innovative and revolutionary technology is described that offers a means of low-probability-of-intercept Radio Frequency (RF) communications. The feasibility of the concept has been established using both a low intensity laboratory system and a high power RF transmitter. Numerous military applications exist in areas of search and rescue, security and special operations.”

(Mind Control: The Ultimate Brave New World, Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 13, Number 2, February – March 2006)

In the August 28, 2005 edition of the Washington Post, an article entitled Xtreme Defense by Sharon Weinberger, stated that similar ’non-lethal’ weapons, as previously described above, are currently being utilized by private contractors and the US military in Iraq:

His latest is to use ultrasonic waves in the dazzler not just to blind enemies, but also to convey messages in their heads, similar to Gibbs’ Medusa project. Hearing voices from God is a ‘big thing’ in Arab culture according to Bitar. “We flash-blind them. And, while their eyes are shut, you could send a recorded message or deep guttural voice that echoes in the inside of their head…“

There is absolutely no doubt that these and other similar types of technologies and programs have been privatized and are being used extensively in theatre today in the Middle East to combat the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ These technologies may also be exasperating the ‘civil wars’ currently raging in Iraq and the Occupied Territories in Palestine.

Ultimately, the point that really needs to be emphasized, above any other is that which has been categorized as an ‘exotic or non-lethal weapon’ is a form of information weapon (the book A Course In Miracles serves a similar purpose – as an information weapon or a weapon of propaganda). Thus, the warfare engaged in is an information type of warfare (or PSYOP) which, by default, constitutes propaganda. Propaganda or PSYOP, by its very definition under US code is lying, speaking an untruth or distorting the truth; as such, propagandizing the citizens of the US or using PSYOP against the citizens of the US is a criminal act under the current laws of the United States of America.  [This law might have been overturned by Patriot Act Two]

Most Sincerely,

Revised 7/2010