Cults Quotes

“Professor Langdon,' called a young man with curly hair in the back row, 'if Masonry is not a secret society, not a corporation, and not a religion, then what is it?'
'Well, if you were to ask a Mason, he would offer the following definition: Masonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.'
'Sounds to me like a euphemism for "freaky cult." '
'Freaky, you say?'
'Hell yes!' the kid said, standing up. 'I heard what they do inside those secret buildings! Weird candlelight rituals with coffins, and nooses, and drinking wine out of skulls. Now that's freaky!'
Langdon scanned the class. 'Does that sound freaky to anyone else?'
'Yes!' they all chimed in.
Langdon feigned a sad sigh. 'Too bad. If that's too freaky for you, then I know you'll never want to join my cult.'
Silence settled over the room. The student from the Women's Center looked uneasy. 'You're in a cult?'
Langdon nodded and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. 'Don't tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh.'
The class looked horrified.
Langdon shrugged. 'And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy Communion.'
The classroom remained silent.
Langdon winked. 'Open your minds, my friends. We all fear what we do not understand.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“As hatred is defined as intense dislike, what is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion, if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?”
― Rowan Atkinson

“Don't tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh. ...And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy Communion.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Scientology always has been a game of power and control. L. Ron Hubbard was the ultimate con man, and it's hard to figure out how much of Scientology was an experiment in brainwashing and controlling people, and how much of it was truly intended to help people.”
― Jenna Miscavige Hill, Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

“Obviously, there must be some connection between the subordination of actual individuals and the grotesque exaltation of symbolic ones like Kim Il Sung.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“I was hungry when I left Pyongyang. I wasn't hungry just for a bookshop that sold books that weren't about Fat Man and Little Boy. I wasn't ravenous just for a newspaper that had no pictures of F.M. and L.B. I wasn't starving just for a TV program or a piece of music or theater or cinema that wasn't cultist and hero-worshiping. I was hungry. I got off the North Korean plane in Shenyang, one of the provincial capitals of Manchuria, and the airport buffet looked like a cornucopia. I fell on the food, only to find that I couldn't do it justice, because my stomach had shrunk. And as a foreign tourist in North Korea, under the care of vigilant minders who wanted me to see only the best, I had enjoyed the finest fare available.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“Among [Applewhite's] other teachings was the classic cult specialty of developing disdain for anyone outside of the Heaven's Gate commune. Applewhite flattered his would-be alien flock that they were an elite elect far superior to the non-initiated humans whom he considered to be deluded zombies.[...]Applewhite effectively fed his paranoid persecution complex to his followers to ensure blind loyalty to the group and himself while fostering alienation from the mundane world. This paradoxical superior/fearful attitude towards “Them” (i.e., anyone who is not one of “Us”) is one of the simplest means of hooking even the most skeptical curiosity seeker into the solipsistic netherworld of a [mentally unbalanced] leader's insecure and threatened worldview.”
― Zeena Schreck, Straight To Hell: 20th Century Suicides

“[Cult] members learn a new vocabulary that is designed to constrict their thinking into absolute, black-and-white, thought-stopping clichés that conform to group ideology. (“Lock her up” and “Build the Wall” are Trumpian examples. Even his put-downs and nicknames—Crooked Hillary, Pocahontas for Elizabeth Warren—function to block other thoughts. Terms like “deep state” and “globalist” also act as triggers. They rouse emotion and direct attention.)”
― Steven Hassan, The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control

“No, seriously," Mark continued. "Once you've been involved for a while, do your charity work in some third world toilet, they start letting you in on some of the bigger secrets to Responsivism, and how the knowledge will save you." "Go on," Juan said to indulge him. Murph might be flakey, but he had a topflight mind.

"Ever heard of 'brane theory?" He'd already talked with Eric about it so only Stone didn't return a blank stare. "It's right up there with string theory as a way of unifying all four forces in the universe, something Einstein couldn't do. In a nutshell, it says our four-dimensional universe is a single membrane, and that there are others existing in higher orders of space. These are so close to ours that zero-point matter and energy can pass between them and that gravitation forces in our universe can leak out. It's all cutting-edge stuff."

"I'll take your word for it," Cabrillo said.

"Anyway, "brane theory started to get traction among theoreti cal physicists in the mid-nineties, and Lydell Cooper glommed on to it, too. He took it a step further, though. It wasn't just quantum particles passing in and out of our universe. He believed that an intelligence from another 'brane was affecting people here in our dimension. This intelligence, he said, shaped our day-to-day lives in ways we couldn't sense. It was the cause of all our suffering. Just before his death, Cooper started to teach techniques to limit this influence, ways to protect ourselves from the alien power."

"And people bought this crap?" Max asked, sinking deeper into depression over his son.

"Oh yeah. Think about it from their side for a second. It's not a believer's fault that he is unlucky or depressed or just plain stupid. His life is being messed with across dimensional membranes It's an alien influence that cost you that promotion or prevented you from dating the girl of your dreams. It's a cosmic force holding you back, not your own ineptitude. If you believe that, then you don't have to take responsibility for your life. And we all know nobody takes responsibility for himself anymore. Responsivism gives you a ready-made excuse for your poor life choices.”
― Clive Cussler, Plague Ship

“The thoughts of hatred were so old they had become instincts. That was not something he could cure overnight. Like Nina with the parem, it might well be a lifelong fight.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“Many followers tend to join in their teens or early twenties, when they are still unformed adults—individuals not yet fully at ease in their own skins, seeking a sense of identity and security which the cult is able to provide.”
― Kathleen Taylor, Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control

“There may still be people who think of Carl Gustav Jung only as a distinguished psychiatrist who enlarged our understanding of the mind and who also made important contributions to psychotherapy. He did both, but his variety of analysis is not simply concerned with the relief of neurotic symptoms; it promises a secular form of salvation. Jung was a spiritual teacher as well as a physician.”
― Anthony Storr, Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus

“You'll go to that cult over my dead body.”
― Val Agnew

“Make No Sect of Me (The Sonnet)

Don't you dare pledge obedience to me!
Don't you turn me into another religious band!
I want you to endeavor into unknown,
I want you to explore and expand.
My work is with human nature,
I know how things are gonna turn out.
Many will come and peddle me as savior,
They'll thrust me as society's way out.
By not addressing it all my predecessors,
Inadvertently became fodder for sectarianism.
True Naskareans of earth are them alone,
Who ain't no Naskarean but plain human.
To make a sect of me is to dishonor me.
Dump all glorification, and be light to humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“...There were dozens of construction projects where members were coerced into working in dangerous conditions for free...We were paying for the privilege of being forced to build for Sharon and others. The projects always involved impossible deadlines set arbitrarily by Sharon or other leaders...I'll never forget the sight of 65-year-old Joni, with her chronic illnesses, standing on a 10-foot ladder at 2:30 AM with a paint roller in her hand, furiously painting the ceiling before the 3:00 AM deadline.”
― Spencer Schneider, Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival

“Euphoria is addictive.”
― Bibiana Krall, The Hive

“Extremist groups rarely consider the endgame. They’re so emotionally entrenched in the crusade; they fail to realize their extreme conceptions precludes normalcy in their lives.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 2018

“Mother Susan died on the temple steps, in hearing distance of her husband’s Sunday sermon. Uncle G shouted about the sin that had been committed against their land of refuge, and against the children of God who lived within its borders. As his voice rose to preach the need for a blood atonement, his wife lay bleeding on the concrete landing outside the temple. The irony was lost on Grace until much later.”
― S.M. Freedman, Blood Atonement

“I am naked, and the moon is me and I am it since no one is there with us, we're married and the same".”
― Xavier Navarro Aquino, Velorio

“They don't want to sell you pills. They want to sell you a key to enlightenment they don't actually possess”
― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

“The moment truth is organized it becomes a lie. Jesus and Buddha never created any organized religion. An organized religion becomes politics. It becomes a manipulation, control and exploitation by the priests. You don't have to be Christians or Buddhists, because your own potential is to be a buddha. Buddha taught you to become a buddha. The people who were with Buddha were not part of any organized religion. They were free and independent individuals. Buddha did not want to be anybody's guru, he simply wanted to be a friend, a fellow traveler on the spiritual path. He wanted to create as many individuals in the world with absolute freedom in their soul with no chains to Christianity or Buddhism and with no scriptures, no teachings, except for awareness. He taught spirituality, not religion. Spirituality is not a membership of any church or cult, but a quality that transforms your being and makes your inner potential blossom. Buddha was available to help his people to become buddhas. He wanted a world of buddhas, who were free from organized religions and cults, and who would find their own wings to fly in the sky. Truth brings freedom, freedom from religions, cults and scriptures. Truth brings a silence, a peace and a sense of eternity, and immortality and deathlessness. But it has nothing to do with organized religion and cults.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“My path in life in life has always been to trust myself; my path in life has always been to trust my intuition, to trust my heart, to trust the inner true voice, to trust my inner source of love, truth and wisdom, which is already in contact with the Whole. I have always listened to other people, and to what situations in life can teach me, but then I have always listened to the silent whisperings of my heart.There is always a meaning with whatever happens. It is basically a question of perspective; it is a question of seeing a situation from the perspective of the limited personality, or to see a situation from the perspective of the unlimited inner being, from the perspective of the soul. It is a question of seeing the creative potential in every situation, to see what we can learn in every situation, and to be open to see how life will solve this situation.When we see the situation from the perspective of the soul, it is like watching the situation from the summit of the mountain, instead of seeing the situation from the perspective of the personality, to see the situation from the foot of the mountain. When we see the situation from the perspective of the soul, we can also see that both good and bad situations, both positive and negative experiences, are teachers in life to learn to create a greater understanding of the Whole.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten

“When I was 15 years old, I came in contact with my first ashram, my first spiritual commune, in the form of Ljusbacken ("The Hill of Light") in Delsbo in beautiful Halsingland in the north of Sweden. Ljusbacken consisted of an international gathering of yogis, meditators, therapists, healers and seekers of truth. It was on Ljusbacken that I for the first time came in contact with my path in life: meditation .It was also on Ljusbacken that I met people for the first time in my 15 year old life, where I on a deep wordless level felt that I met people, who were on the same path as me. It was the first time that I met people, who could put words on and confirm my own inner thirst after something that I could only occasionally sense vaguely, like some sort of inner guiding presence, or like a beacon in the distant far out on the open and misty ocean. For the first time in my life, I met brothers, sisters and friends on the inner path. It was also on Ljusbacken that I met the mystery called love for the first time in my 15 year old life. With my 15 year old eyes, I watched with wide eyed fascination and fear filled with excitement the incomprehensible mystery, which is called woman. My own thirst after truth, together with my inner guiding light, result”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“Some years ago, I felt that Iexperienced more limitations than possibilities in a spiritual organization, which I had belonged to for a long time. It became clear for me that I was prepared to expand, and take a new step in my spiritual growth. To be spiritual does not mean to belong to a spiritual group. I felt that I had grown out of the kindergarten, and my inner tree was bearing fruit.
Too many large trees cannot grow in a narrow area.
This was a lesson to stand on my own feet; it was a lesson for me to live my own life, to live my own truth, without following anybody else. I do not belong to any spiritual group or tradition. I am only interested in exploring what it means to live with open eyes. This lesson developed and expanded my inner being.
Many years ago, when I sat and meditated by a slow flowing river in India, it taught me that if I learnt to listen to the river, if I surrendered and became one with the river, I did not need any other teacher in meditation. This river could teach me all the mysteries of life. In the same way, everything can become a door to the secrets of life, for example a man or a woman, a tree, a bird, a stone or the blue sky, if we know how ro listen and surrender. It is such a deep joy, such a deep inner satisfaction, to feel that I belong to life, that I am one with Existence.
When Buddha was lying on his deathbed, and the disciples asked him if he had any last words for them, he said: Be a light to yourself. You are born with a light within you. You are enough to yourself. You are sufficient to yourself. Listen to the still small voice within, and that will guide you. Buddha defines wisdom as living in the light of our own consciousness. Buddha's message to be a light to yourself is a message to all seekers of truth and all meditators on the path of enlightenment. You have to be silent, so that you can listen to the still small voice within you. Follow your own voice in silence, love and deep trust. You have to follow the still, small voice within you and you have to follow your being.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“There are not many things that the different approaches of modern psychology agree about, but there is one thing that they all agree about: that people in groups and organizations, simply put, become more stupid. Individually people are more intelligent, because they have to take more responsibility. But in a group, people do not have to take the same amount of responsibility. People in groups and organizations tend to get caught up in the need of the ego to create hierarchies of power, status, positions, roles, norms and conformity.
All organizations are more or less dysfunctional. The sign of a dysfunctional group is that the members of the group play three roles and positions: aggressor,denier and victim. It is always easier to follow the group without reflection or awareness, than to trust your own heart, to trust your own intelligence,truth, wisdom and creativity. It is not always easy to follow your own heart,
but it always leads your right.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“Around the center leader Muktesh Thomas Forsberg and Jivan Kavya Eva Wells at the Osho meditation Center in Stockholm have gathered people, who systematically have used their positions at the center for power abuses. By using lies and vicious gossip as a means of expressing aggressiveness  ,these people have systematically committed abuse of power and trying to dominate people.These people express envy, condemnation and domination through lies and gross slenderness. It is really the ego that wants to condemn and control.  But these women think that they are aware, but they are really just ignorant, which is the blindness of the ego.When I visited the center, which I had not visited for almost 15 years, I was met by the therapist Moa Bergmark, who told me: "You know that this is a dysfunctional group. But when I began to confront the lies and vicious rumors about me and the dysfunctional structure of the center, Moa Bergmark was suddenly very quiet. This made it obvious that Bergmark was actually a part of the collective unconscious of the dysfunctional group.
When Teresa, the center leader who was appointed by Osho himself, invited me to work with therapy- and meditation courses together with her, I felt joy and support  from Teresa. But when Teresa left the center and Muktesh Thomas Forsberg became the center leader, the joy and support disappeared, and I felt that he was just trying to control me.Anutosh Malin William-Olsson, one of the current gossip mongers at the Osho center in Stockholm heard a private conversation between me and my friend Eric Rolf, former consultant to John Lennon, during the eighties, which she had nothing to do with and which she did not understand, but she used this  to spread a lie and a gross negative slender negative rumors about me. Pradeepa Eva Tallqvist, one of the other gossip mongers said: "Giten has suchan integrity" and I thought: "Do these people have any integrity at all." Anubhuti Cecelia Lind commented on two of my students by saying in a  negative way: "Here come the disciples of Giten."
Premleena Lena Wettergran told Vanya Pernilla Mårtens that she had done a course with me and said: "It is good that we have someone like Giten in Sweden", which Vanya also turned into something negative and said that I was nothing compared to the visiting therapists. It was Premleena who told me this, but when Premleena got entangled in the involved the dysfunctional structure and the collective unconscious of the center she did not even say hello to me any longer.
The center leader Muktesh also joined in with the old woman and confirmed the gross and negative slender by saying: "Giten is so stubborn."
My former girlfriend Marga told me that Anna Ganga Hoffman was spreading lies and gross slenderabout me at the Osho center in Stockholm. Marga had been sitting together with Hoffman and the other gossip mongers at the center,and when Hoffman realized that Marga was sitting there, she wanted Marga to confirm  her lies. Marga knew that these were just vicious lies, but she remained quiet because she did not have the courage to confront Hoffman and the gossip mongers at the Osho center in Stockholm  about their sick lies and gross slender.
Prem Pathik in Nepal commented: "This must be a few people, who are really not living their lives as they like. These women who are searching  for a deeper space can never know you."
It was also these people that my friend, Eric Rolf ,former consultant to John Lennon, met at the Osho center  in Stockholm, and she commented:  "I have been around, but these people just wanted to  control me. I did not enjoy it so much."
I wrote a letter to Osho himself about the situation and the reply I receivws was: "humor is the highest state of consciousness.”
― Swami Dhyan Giten, Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine

“Olivia’s words gave him the creeps. This teenage girl didn’t sound like his bubbly warm daughter, now cold and sterile as a glinting surgical knife.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Rosie

“The blood of innocents has always been the currency of charismatic leaders.”
― Brian Herbert, The Machine Crusade (Legends of Dune, Book 2) 1st (first) edition Text Only

“I see no difference between the socially acceptable cult of Christianity and any other cult. It's just another "rescue package" to fight over.”
― Zzenn Loren

“she was going to a strange place where the damned, demented and deranged clawed and cried, where birds don’t sing, and the sun never rises above the horizon.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Rosie