Joining the Culture

Something that seems to be a buzzword that is being thrown around at the moment is the word “cult” – as derived from the word culture. There is a big “oohing” and “aahing”, when someone points a public finger at an organisation to call them one. I came across a post on social media where the question were asked: “What is something that looks like a cult, but is not called a cult.” In the comments section were 705 comments which ranged from the following:

• Religion
• Climate zealots
• CrossFit exercise
• Hollywood
• Christianity
• Congress (governments)
• Taylor Swift
• The Education System
• Politics
• Astrology
• Kabballah
• Scientism
• LGBTQO+ community
• Essential Oils
• Karen”s
• Tesla
• tree planting
• capitalism
• Alcoholics Anonymous

By looking at this short extraction, one can derive that pretty much anything these days can, and will be, labelled as a cult. Whether justified or not. It’s like, if there is a lack of understand something, or if people can not be bothered to get an understanding of the landscape (context) of an existing group, it becomes easier to bash them by name calling and pointing the finger at them publicly.The the accusation of something being a cult, has become a very low frequency slur, flung around by people who are not actually prepared to put the time in to properly investigate their assertion.

Name calling, without evidence, is nothing more than slander. In my view, it will reflect more poorly on the prosecutor in terms of their maturity, tolerance and understanding of diversity. It won’t deter people from belonging to that organisation (otherwise conspiracy theories would have changed the world by now!). After all – is this not what a court of law is for? To settle disputes in private and fair manner, with an unbiased referee who can screen evidence or witnesses as being credible or not? Mob justice is not justice.

My point is…. will someone’s public outcry stop any of these organisations, individuals or brands from existing? Probably not. What it will for sure do, is cause more division, as you can be sure that the bulk of people will not be coming over to the external view of their accusers.

Also, by simply calling something a cult, doesn’t make it one either. I’m sure that if you ask most of the people in these organisations, they will quickly correct you, and say that they are NOT in a cult. Denying that you are in a cult, does not mean you are in a cult. Only denial with isolation, controlling people’s movement implies the group can be a cult. For instance in the groups above, people will probably tell you that they are free to come, go AND LEAVE, as they please!

Does making you loyal to something make you part of a cult? People call people who are loyal to an organisation “brainwashed by a cult”. Based on what evidence? Organisations, mostly have a leader (or leaders) and they normally have ground rules or group norms for the members to follow or gain the best results. There are normally natural consequences for not following the rules or norms –  and doesn’t all have to be sinister! How else would a group exist? Groups normally have an agreed set of rules, goals or norms. Otherwise what would unite or bind them? But having rules in a group, hardly constitute it being a cult. And it most certainly doesn’t prove mind control, or control against their will? Like if you do CrossFit, and you don’t stick tot the recommended regularity of exercise, you will not see as quick growth progress in your physical body, as what you would have, if you followed the instructor’s recommendation.  Are some people die-hard CrossFitters – FOR SURE! Are they loyal to their exercise program and the box where they exercise? FOR SURE! Do they prioritise their exercise above other important things like relationships, children, work. I’m SURE! But these are also indicators of an individual that doesn’t have balance and has nothing to do with the organisation. Does it make CrossFit a cult? Absolutely not.

Are there some leaders who exert some kind of control over people in groups? I’m pretty sure there are!  But accusing every Tom, Dick and Harry that they are in a cult is not fair and factually correct.

Calling someone a cult has seemingly become almost like a right of passage for organisations! They are clearly doing something RIGHT in order to get noticed! I think the problem is then when the group becomes too “strong” or big for some people’s liking or agenda. They start to throw derogatory slurs out to try to hurt the name of the group. That is hardly productive, and it will most certainly not change anything positive in this world.

Words are creations and if what you are saying publicly is creating a shadow on what someone else worked hard to build with integrity for years, there is sure to be a bounce back or karma. This is true for life in general.

Most of these organisations or groupings that I saw in the comment section, does not fit the text book OR legal definition of a cult. Therefore, the accusation will not hold up in a court of law, nor will it ever gain enough momentum to stop people from belonging to these organisations. It is not fair or kind to accuse people who are part of these groups or organisations of being naive, brainwashed, overly committed or unintelligent. You have to ask yourself: “Have I personally met every member of the group to be able to assert a claim like this?”.

It’s become a CULTURE to accuse everyone of being a cult or at least IN a cult. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

What is still unclear to me, is why people are completely ignorant of the fact that their assertion or labelling of the group, will also be an infringement on the current members’ free will to choose? If you, with your own agenda, try to stop someone from exercising their right to choose which organisations they want to belong to, are you a good person? How do you know what lessons they are supposed to learn in life? How can you be the judge and jury of their path? Unless an organisation or people in the organisation is committing a crime, and there is proof thereof,  can it automatically be labelled as an bad organisation? Even then, if one or two people made some mistakes in the organisation, is the WHOLE organisation bad? There are MANY organisations in the world, in which some individuals (some in high positions, some not) have been found guilty on some or all of the above. They continue exist? Why? Because individual people sometimes make mistakes, they do wrong things. But does this mean the whole organisation is “bad” or “evil””? No!! And making claims without evidence, proves nothing.

I think everyone wants to be the next David that takes down the so called “goliath” and in that means a lot of unfair punches and miss fired shots are thrown out at innocent people at times. And you have to ask for which agenda and to satisfy whose ego?

Sometimes people get so emotive and swept up what is no more than in drama, gossip, false accusations and sensation. They completely loose objectivity. Worse, these flames are almost always fanned by their own agenda and gain. Media makes a lot of money out of sensation. So much so that they sometimes completely leave their objectivity and critical thinking behind.  I’ve seen this happen with highly qualified academics. No one seems to be above loosing their objectivity. With the right stakes on the table, people can become incredibly triggered and unreasonable with the opinions they throw out into the world.

Sometimes, it is easier to throw mud at organisations who are stepping up to make a positive change in the status of the world, than what it is to step up to personally create change that is so needed.

People have read claims on the internet that the Modern Mystery School is a cult. I am here to publicly say from my own experience of 14 years, that I believe it is not. It’s an organisation that when you get to know it’s people, its inner workings and it’s mission, you might find yourself quite surprised at what they actually contribute to the world. The Mystery School has got a brilliant culture of light (you can read Sovereign Ipsissimus’ article on the matter here), but a cult in the traditional or criminal sense of the word? No, my first hand experience is, that it’s not a cult.

Love and Moonlight,

Leonie