APPENDIX ONE

SOME COMMENTS BY CONTROL-PSYCHOLOGYEXPERTS (Control psychologists study the phenomena of cults and fanatic group behavior)

The excerpt on the following several pages is taken from The GURU PAPERS: Masks of Authoritarian Power, by Dr. Diana Alstad and Joel Kramer, pp 121-125, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1993.

NOTE: Dr. Alstad received her doctorate from Yale University in 1971. She taught in the humanities and initiated and taught the first Women's Studies course at Yale and Duke. Joel Kramer did post-graduate work in psychology and philosophy and was a resident teacher at Esalen Institute (1968-70). The author of The Passionate Mind, he is also an internationally acknowledged adept of physical and mental yoga. Dr. Alstad and Kramer have written and led seminars together since 1974.

EXCERPTS FROM: THE GURU PAPERS: Marks of Authoritarian Power, pp 121-125

On Channeling Disembodied Authorities

Channels, channeled writings, and the spirit entities that supposedly speak through them are part of a trend that includes giving credence to different kinds of otherworldly, non-material, or other-dimensional, super-human intelligences. These presumed entities all function in a similar way in that they make themselves manifest by talking to or through someone they choose, who then becomes their channel. Why the entity chooses a particular person remains mysterious, as is the process of channeling itself. Becoming a channel is also a new frontier of esoteric activity. Anyone who hears a voice inside that is not consciously willed can assume something external is doing the talking and thereby take on the identity of channel.

Turning to disembodied experts is not a surprising progression. In recent years, the godlike stature of many gurus evaporated in a mire of corruption, deceit, and abuse of power. In contrast, incorporeal entities seem free of corruption, as corruption makes little sense without a body to profit from its results. Also, these spirit authorities do not take their followers over in the total way that gurus do by demanding their prime emotional allegiance. This makes involvement with the teachings safer.

The assumption that the spirit and channel are separate entities means incongruities between the channel's behavior and the channeled words are not seen as significant or relevant. A channeled message can never be questioned or challenged because of the impurity of the messenger. "Spirits" are assumed to be pure, or at least the purveyors of pure truth, whereas their vessels for this truth are "only human" and do not need to claim or manifest infallibility or purity. Thus being a channel for otherworldly wisdom is less dangerous and confining than being its source, as with gurus. The channel can get drunk even if the "spirit" disapproves, while a guru would at least have to hide or justify the discrepancy between words and actions. The channel is not necessarily even supposed to be the entity's best student or exemplar, unlike those in the guru's inner circle.

Of course, many are exploring these hermetic realms out of an understandable curiosity. Some approach channeling as potentially useful information that emanates from the channel's unconscious, involving possibly some form of extra-sensory perception, or a particular kind of sensitivity or gift of insight. They are more concerned with how astute the information is than with the nature of its source, utilizing only what makes sense to them. In contrast, regarding a channel as merely a passive vehicle enabling a superior, otherworldly intelligence to expound makes it difficult not to be swayed by the channel's input.

Assumptions about Channeling

There is no way ultimately to prove to everyone's satisfaction where a given voice comes from. So, the most revealing and also resolvable questions on channeling involve what the voice is actually saying; the implications of what is said; and whether the voice is assumed to have a direct line to the truth, making it unchallengeable and therefore authoritarian. What mainly interests us are why people consult channels, and the assumptions made about the presumed entities and their channeled messages. Some who call themselves channels may be merely milking the gullible; but we assume that many who channel believe in what they are doing. It is only the latter who interest us. Those who believe an external intelligence is the source of the voice or writings make at least some of the following assumptions:

1. Being disembodied makes the entity a pure (or purer) voice of cosmic wisdom and spirituality.
2. The entity not only knows more, but can access information otherwise inaccessible, or at least exceedingly difficult to get on one's own.
3. The entity tells the truth.
4. People's well-being is the entity's basic interest.
5. The entity knows what's best for a given human or humans in general.
6. These entities would not be motivated by power or wrongly manipulate those who come to them. In short, they have no self-interest.
7. One is better off getting the information than not.
8. The fact that most channels put forth a similar message and share a similar worldview is sufficient proof that what they say must be for the most part true.

The thread running through these assumptions is that disembodied entities are reliable, trustworthy, benevolent authorities with a deeper understanding of the nature of things. Here channeling, like gurus, creates a context of privileged knowledge that essentially cannot be challenged.

Though therapists are also assumed to know more, good therapists are knowledgeable and careful around transference issues, meaning they are alert to the dangers of becoming an unconscious parental authority for their clients. They also know that even if they see something about a client they're fairly sure of, clients are far better off finding it out for themselves than being told. Channeled "spirits" (or the channels themselves) are also subject to transference, as are gurus. Imputing a different and higher order of existence to be the source of information makes such projections inevitable. (See "Gurus, Psychotherapy, and the Unconscious" for more on transference.)

Should one give disembodied entities any credence at all, the drama and excitement of a supposed spirit entering a mortal to reveal deep, hidden truths evokes a seductive, magical aura of seemingly ultimate cosmic portent. Wanting to believe that spirits have a direct line to the truth ties into a deep yearning for something truly pure one can trust. When values of purity have been implanted, it becomes difficult to trust oneself as one is never pure enough. So looking for someone or something more pure fits neatly into people's deepest "pure-itanical" conditioning, which instills self-mistrust. (See "Who Is in Control? The Authoritarian Roots of Addiction" on the nature of this conditioning.)

Hearing an inner voice or voices that seem to be coming from outside oneself is neither new nor historically unusual. When the voice urged doing something considered bad or hurtful, it was attributed to possession by evil spirits or the devil; when it voiced values of purity and selflessness, the spirit was assumed to be a messenger of the sacred. Attributing purity to another realm and to the information that supposedly comes from it is part of the age-old split between the sacred and secular created by renunciate religions. (See "The Power of Abstraction: The Sacred Word and the Evolution of Morality" on the origin and nature of this split.)

Channeling is an ancient phenomenon necessary for any revealed religion whose unchallengeable dictates have to come from God. God's wishes can only be known in three ways: either God has to speak through a person or assume a human form, or a person has to become godlike (the East's enlightenment paradigm). Thus many writings that are the foundation of traditional renunciate religions, such as the Koran and much of the Old Testament, were considered to be channeled from God by prophets and holy men. They contain the rules for staying in God's good graces. Most sacred texts from all religions are considered to be channeled (divinely revealed).

Eastern religious worldviews are more generous than Western ones in bestowing infallibility through mastery. It is then not surprising that most modern channels espouse a worldview containing elements of Eastern mysticism, usually including the Oneness perspective, with karma/rebirth presented as a given. Not insignificantly, the alignment with Eastern tradition is used as validation. There are other enticing messages: "If you only knew enough, you would see you are perfect". All limits are in the mind and can be transcended". These temporarily empowering beliefs are very seductive. What is channeled largely accentuates the positive: beauty, transcending fear, loving yourself, and intimations of immortality within an unlimited universe of plenty. Many channels, either directly or indirectly, put forth the appealing notion that "You create your own reality". What this means, or is taken to mean, is that if you do it right you can create anything; conversely, everything negative that occurs you have really chosen in order to learn a needed lesson. To make this belief work, a theory of karma/rebirth is necessary, for without past lives and karma, it would be hard to explain why one "chose" the particular painful lessons one needed to learn, and why one needed to learn them. ("Do You Create Your Own Reality?" describes this New Age adaptation of karma.)