Mythology and cognitive dissonance in Adidam
Posted by Broken Yogi on Aug-22-03 8:04pm
Well, Jeff, at least you are abandoning the pretense of knowing about Adidam’s
finances.
But we are talking about two matters here. The first is what the actual
financial picture of Adidam is. That’s what you started out trying to explain.
When you say “it is a useless effort”, I don’t think you are referring to that.
You can, I’m sure, get the real numbers and figures on that, what actually comes
in and how it is spent. That’s not easy, I’m sure, since there are so many
people devoted to hiding such information from you and me and everyone else both
in and out of Adidam. But it’s definitely possible, and not a useless effort to
make. That you don’t wish to make it is another matter.
So the first matter is getting the facts straight and telling the truth. As for
interpreting those facts, that’s a different story. If you believe in Adi Da as
Krishna and the Gopis, fine, that’s your business. If you think you are trying
to provide “balance” here, I think you need to examine yourself again. I don’t
think that’s your agenda at all. I think you are dealing with these issues
yourself, and trying to resolve something in you about Adidam that you never
really got to the bottom of. Playing that out here is part of your process. Fine
enough, but it’s important for you to recognize that and realize that primarily
you are dealing with an imbalance in yourself, not in others. Not that this
place is terribly balanced, but your motive is about yourself.
I know about this. Adidam itself is an extremely imbalanced place, and our years
of involvement, even though mostly ended in your case, leaves an imbalance in us
all that needs to be addressed. This is part of the cognitive dissonance issue I
brought to you before but which you ignored. I think you should pay more
attention to it.
One of the most significant cognitive problems in Adidam is the whole matter of
recognizing “Who Adi Da Is”. You repeat the standard Adidam line by describing
Adi Da’s relationship with his devotees as “Krishna and his Gopis”. That is of
course a mythical reference, since Krishna and his Gopis are mythical
characters. So right off the bat you are mixing the human world with a mythical
one, and using mythical explanations to make sense of human relationships, since
Divine or not, Adi Da and his devotees are humans. That is one example of
cognitive dissonance. It is of course a huge one in religions in general, where
say the human person Jesus is mixed up with all kinds of mythical ideas and
traditions, creating an image in the mind which cannot be reconciled with the
real human person of Jesus. So it is with Adi Da - a mythical explanation is
given for the life and teachings and relationships of a real human person. That
is an example of cognitive dissonance.
What occurs is that by creating this mythical “Adi Da” who is of course an
Incarnation of “Krishna”, and by seeing themselves as archetypal devotees, who
are all incarnations of “Gopis”, one creates a cognitive problem, since neither
Adi Da nor his devotees actually act like Krishna or Gopis in the real world
sense. The actual fine details of their lives and interactions falls far short
of that mythical ideal. Instead, what we have is a horse of a very different
color, and it’s not deep blue. And yet, the mind likes the ideal, mythical
figure of the God-Man far more than it likes the real life person of Adi Da.
Likewise, devotees like the idealized vision of themselves as being “Gopis”,
rather than the real life bozos that they are. SO the mind rejects the actual
bodily reality of what goes on with Adi Da and his devotees, and substitutes
instead an idealized version of both. Real events that take place between the
two are similarly mythologized and transformed into archetypal moments of
“Divine Revelation”. And yet, none of this is actually happening as advertised,
so the truth has to be kept secret and only the advertising slogans and images
are allowed to be acknowledged as “real”. This creates further cognitive
dissonance, which manifests as stress and tension within the community and in
relation to the world outside, which does not see things through Adidam’s
mythical archetypes.
What occurs over time is the substitution of mythical images and archetypal
fantasies for the bodily reality of what is actually going on. This is what
Narcissism boils down to. It is a fascination with images over reality, with
mind over body, a substitution religion. Adi Da himself used to refer to it as
the “fourth stage error”. Apparently, that only applies to other religions. But
it is absolutely necessary for most devotees to maintain that mythical image and
archetypal explanations, even devotees such as yourself who have distanced
themselves from the obvious dissonance in functional matters in Adidam. You, for
example, have distanced yourself from the management problems there because you
see devotees operating from a false and deluded premise about basic matters of
life and business. What you fail to see is that they, and you, are also clinging
to fall and deluded premises about the more esoteric matters of Adidam.
I won’t pretend to know the final truths about Adidam, or anything else for that
matter, but I do know when I don’t know things. And I’m fully aware that most
people’s involvement in Adidam is based to one degree or another on a bluffing
game. People get a few amazing spiritual experiences around Adi Da, and they
make all kinds of assumptions about him, and themselves, and the whole glamorous
meaning of it all, and yet they never actually verify any of it. They simply
tell themselves, and one another, that they recognize Adi Da as “Krishna” or
something similar. Well, why presume that to be any more based in reality than
the delusions they have about their finances and growth and all kinds of other
shit that is presumed in Adidam? The fact is, people simply don’t recognize Adi
Da, either as “Krishna” or as the Divine Incarnate in some other form, they
simply like the sound and feel of that kind of presumption. It makes them feel
better about themselves. Which, truth be told, is what most of religion is
about. But that’s not what our consideration here ought to be about, thinking
certain things are true because it feels good to think that way.
You claim that Adi Da is like Krishna and his devotees are like Gopis, but what
does that really mean except that it’s a pleasant thing for you to believe? If
you were to really examine those traditions you’d find something very different
going on, I’m sure - unless you simply don’t want to look to closely, as is the
case with your “examination” of Adidam’s finances. The real truth is much harder
to take. Not only are there real contradictions, but there is a general
“dissonance” to devotees’ cognitive ability to examine those contradictions.
There’s a kind of brain death that suddenly overtakes even the brightest minds
in Adidam that prevents them from examining any matter which might contradict
the mythical image Adidam has created around Adi Da and his devotees. This is
why we get only the most whitewashed “leelas” coming out of the editorial
process. They are terrified of letting facts leak out that make our cognitive
dissonance obvious. That is also why no one in Adidam will actually address
these issues on this forum or any other place. Unless they are able to control
the premises of the conversation, they will stay away. Who is left to defend
Adidam? Poor guys like you, who aren’t even under vow or practicing or a formal
member. Guys like BSM also. In both cases, people who are wrestling with their
own cognitive dissonance and projecting it onto others so that they can battle
it out of their system. Don’t think I don’t know a thing or two about that!
I know plenty of good, honest, dedicated people in Adidam. The guy you mentioned
is probably a friend of mine. I’ve got nothing against those characters as a
personal matter. There’s much to praise about them. But it isn’t true that they
don’t care what others think. They most certainly do. They care what Adi Da
thinks, to begin with. And they care what the RSO thinks, and the Adidam
leadership, and their group leaders, and their friends, and most of the people
in Adidam. They may not care much about what people outside Adidam think, but
that in no way makes them immune to the influence of others. In fact, they are
highly suggestible people, because they care so much what Adi Da and their peers
in Adidam think of them. They are constantly modifying their behavior, their
thoughts, their emotions, their lifestyle, etc., in order to gain or keep the
approval of these people. Adidam is a highly conformist society, not a group of
free-thinking individualists who don’t care what other people think of them.
They would like to think they are free-thinkers, but it is about as shallow as
hippies in the 60's rebelling against society and somehow ending up all wearing
the same clothes, the same hair, thinking the same thoughts, taking the same
drugs, etc. Originality is simply not allowed in Adidam. The guy you mentioned
may have a high IQ, but a high IQ is not itself a defense against suggestion or
peer pressure or cult-mind. In fact, studies have shown that high IQ people are
actually more susceptible that the general population to such forms of thought
control. It may be that such people actually tend to be more emotionally
insecure than others, and thus look subconsciously to conform and gain
acceptance from their peers.
Anyway, I know some people like that in Adidam, who idealistically go out to
make more money for Adi Da’s purposes. What exactly does that prove about Adidam?
You bring it up as if it confers some kind of legitimacy on Adidam, whereas for
many people all that does is confer suspicion on the real-life intelligence of
your friend, regardless of his high IQ. There are all kinds of deluded pursuits
out there which attract very intelligent people. You are trying to confer
legitimacy by association, rather than by looking at the nuts and bolts of
Adidam itself. You might as well claim that Scientology isn’t a cult because
John Travolta and Tom Cruise are members. Big Fucking Deal. Plenty of very smart
people were Nazis too.
You are right that most long-time devotees don’t care if there is a Church or
Institution. Most actually wish there were no such thing, since it just gets in
the way. But guess who insists there be one, and insists it be as confusedly
structured and idiotically run as it is? One hint: it’s not the devotees.
When you say that the brainwashing explanation is “too easy”, you somehow think
you have made a real point. All I can say is, your dismissal is way too easy a
thing to say. You have to actually examine what brainwashing is, examine what is
actually going on in Adidam (not what you are supposed to believe is going on)
without imposing an instant interpretation, and compare the two. I say that if
you look at the facts of what is actually going on, there is indeed a great deal
of literal brainwashing going on in Adidam. I think that almost any sane,
intelligent person who studies the subject and Adidam with any objective
intelligence will agree, whether they are a devotee or a dissident or somewhere
in between or just don’t give a shit.
So to me that is virtually a fact of knowledge that anyone can gain by studying
the matter. It doesn’t mean that it is the only fact that is true, but it does
mean that you can’t simply contradict it by claiming that “love” is the
explanation. There need not be only one explanation for the phenomena we call “Adidam”.
What is important is to examine what is actually going on and see what is real
and what is imagination and differentiate between the two.
I think you will, indeed, find some real love and devotion going on, but in
almost every incident you will also find it colored and distorted by
brainwashing, cultism, cognitive dissonance, and plain old dishonesty and
corruption. The love is indeed there, but it is not the dominant part of the
living reality. What dominates, as far as I can see, is the distortions and
dishonesty. And you know what, Jeff, I think you actually agree with me there,
which is why you are not involved in Adidam, and the most you can do is donate
some money here and there and engage a few internet debates. But you and I both
know that actually getting involved in Adidam and engaging these matters on a
life level would not be “Divine Distraction,” but would simply be a
disassociation from reality.
When you say devotees have “left”, I assume you mean the world. But that is a
romantic fantasy that can only be entertained by people like yourself, who are
not involved and yet like to think that something magnificent is going on in
Adidam. I know from first hand experience that what you are describing is not
actually going on in Adidam. The people you romanticize generally have horribly
stressful lives and self-destructive addictions to the cult which they simply
cannot break free from. They are frequently very miserable people, but they
believe that their misery is in a good cause, like medieval monks wearing their
hair-shirts. Everyone in Adidam believes that to be the case because they have
to. They can’t even dare to think that their miseries are simply fruitless and
stupid delusions that they could easily do without and be much happier and
spiritually awake for having renounced. There are plenty of good people, to be
sure, and they bear up well for periods of time before burning out.’
It’s not as if I think there is no basic wisdom to be found in Adidam, or even
Adi Da himself, or the community, etc. But one must pick and choose with great
care, always being cognizant of what is real, rather than what we think we are
supposed to believe is real. And yet being involved in Adidam is a tremendous
headache because it is structured to insist that you go along with the
brainwashing program at all costs - even at the cost of your own spiritual life.
You asked me what I am doing spiritually now, and I will tell you that my
spiritual practice has grown in so many ways since rejecting the Adidam
cult-game. I went through some awfully difficult crises along the way while
washing that stuff out of my system, but I feel much stronger for it now. It has
not left an empty place in my spiritual life - quite the opposite. I feel more
filled with Spirit and clarity than ever before.
Maybe that is the kind of balance you wish to have?