Zoroastrianism, Lev Tahor, Ideal Human Environment, Gaslighting, The School of Chung Moo Quan
BBC: Tomorrow's Gods: What is the future of religion?
BBC: Tomorrow's Gods: What is the future of religion?
"Before Mohammed, before Jesus, before Buddha, there was Zoroaster. Some 3,500 years ago, in Bronze Age Iran, he had a vision of the one supreme God. A thousand years later, Zoroastrianism, the world's first great monotheistic religion, was the official faith of the mighty Persian Empire, its fire temples attended by millions of adherents. A thousand years after that, the empire collapsed, and the followers of Zoroaster were persecuted and converted to the new faith of their conquerors, Islam.
Another 1,500 years later – today – Zoroastrianism is a dying faith, its sacred flames tended by ever fewer worshippers.
We take it for granted that religions are born, grow and die – but we are also oddly blind to that reality.
We take it for granted that religions are born, grow and die – but we are also oddly blind to that reality. When someone tries to start a new religion, it is often dismissed as a cult. When we recognise a faith, we treat its teachings and traditions as timeless and sacrosanct. And when a religion dies, it becomes a myth, and its claim to sacred truth expires. Tales of the Egyptian, Greek and Norse pantheons are now considered legends, not holy writ.
Even today's dominant religions have continually evolved throughout history. Early Christianity, for example, was a truly broad church: ancient documents include yarns about Jesus' family life and testaments to the nobility of Judas. It took three centuries for the Christian church to consolidate around a canon of scriptures – and then in 1054 it split into the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches. Since then, Christianity has continued both to grow and to splinter into ever more disparate groups, from silent Quakers to snake-handling Pentecostalists.
If you believe your faith has arrived at ultimate truth, you might reject the idea that it will change at all. But if history is any guide, no matter how deeply held our beliefs may be today, they are likely in time to be transformed or transferred as they pass to our descendants – or simply to fade away.
If religions have changed so dramatically in the past, how might they change in the future? Is there any substance to the claim that belief in gods and deities will die out altogether? And as our civilisation and its technologies become increasingly complex, could entirely new forms of worship emerge?
To answer these questions, a good starting point is to ask: why do we have religion in the first place?
Reason to believe
One notorious answer comes from Voltaire, the 18th Century French polymath, who wrote: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."Because Voltaire was a trenchant critic of organised religion, this quip is often quoted cynically. But in fact, he was being perfectly sincere. He was arguing that belief in God is necessary for society to function, even if he didn't approve of the monopoly the church held over that belief.
Many modern students of religion agree. The broad idea that a shared faith serves the needs of a society is known as the functionalist view of religion. There are many functionalist hypotheses, from the idea that religion is the "opium of the masses", used by the powerful to control the poor, to the proposal that faith supports the abstract intellectualism required for science and law. One recurring theme is social cohesion: religion brings together a community, who might then form a hunting party, raise a temple or support a political party."
"A Lev Tahor cult member was arrested in New York, Wednesday [July 31st] night, and is being charged with kidnapping. Mordechai Yoel Malka was arrested upon his arrival at Newark Airport, as he arrived on a flight from Guatemala.He was expected to be charged with identity theft, as he allegedly used a fake passport to fly to the United States, and kidnapping charges. Malka was allegedly the Michallel Shabbos who drove 14-year-old Yante Teller and her 12-year-old brother Chaim when they were kidnapped from Woodridge early on a Shabbos morning in December of 2018.The two children of the Teller family had recently escaped from the cult in Guatemala and were spending Shabbos in the Catskills, when the kidnapping occurred.The mother had been a member of Lev Tahor – her father, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, founded the sect in 1994 – but fled the group last year after its leadership, which include her brother Mayer Rosner, became increasingly extreme, according to the FBI."
"A well-established Australian cult that has been operating for about 30 years, and even hosted Prince Harry, is likely to continue in its quest to create the ideal human environment, despite its leader being jailed.
The group of about 30 members — now based in remote Western Australia — has strong business ties across rural Australia, including a law firm, clothing label and pastoral business.
"People tend to start life with the view that people are basically good. If you had trauma in childhood, such as abuse, that worldview changes quickly. The people who you were supposed to trust in your life didn't protect you. If you make it into adulthood with the perception that people are basically good and then get into a relationship with a gaslighter, the view of people being generally good can change. Here's a person that told you he loved you, and then he turned into a monster. This is a person that would drop the "mask" that they wore, and what you saw underneath terrified you. You saw a person who not only didn't have your best interests in mind, they were the furthest thing on his mind.
They Erode Your Trust in Yourself
Part of a gaslighter's strategy is to make you think you are not capable of functioning without her. She will tell you that you are crazy, or that what you saw and heard "isn't really what happened." By making you feel like you're unstable, you start relying on the gaslighter to give you the "correct" version of reality. This manipulation assures the gaslighter that you will stay with her and continue feeding her narcissistic supply. You may start to feel like you perceive things incorrectly. Gaslighters will even hide your items and tell you that you are irresponsible and can't be trusted. They tell you that you are crazy, that they told other people you're crazy, and that your friends and family think you're crazy. Read "Gaslighters Tell You Other People Think You're Crazy Too." "They Erode Your Trust in YourselfPart of a gaslighter's strategy is to make you think you are not capable of functioning without her. She will tell you that you are crazy, or that what you saw and heard "isn't really what happened." By making you feel like you're unstable, you start relying on the gaslighter to give you the "correct" version of reality. This manipulation assures the gaslighter that you will stay with her and continue feeding her narcissistic supply. You may start to feel like you perceive things incorrectly. Gaslighters will even hide your items and tell you that you are irresponsible and can't be trusted. They tell you that you are crazy, that they told other people you're crazy, and that your friends and family think you're crazy. Read "Gaslighters Tell You Other People Think You're Crazy Too." "
"I met Jesse Eisenberg when I was an extra on the film End of the Tour when it was filming in Minnesota along with Jason Segel and Joan Cusack. As an extra I was instructed not to approach him, or talk to him and especially don't ask for a picture. I stood next to him. He smiled at me, shook his head and acknowledging me, said hello. That was the extent of us meeting. There are well founded reasons for this set etiquette and overzealous celebrity worshipping fans is just one of them. That is not me. Of course, most of the footage of me was cut. What neither Jesse nor I knew then, standing next to each other, is that he would portray a character with striking resemblance to my life in the film The Art of Self Defense.As a child and a teenager, I was severely bullied. When I was 16 years old I joined a martial arts school that was a front for one of the most notorious martial arts cults, The School of Chung Moo Quan. I have been outspoken about my experience there since the early 1990s and so this gives me a unique perspective to review this film. The use of answering machines and other electronics placed the film in the 1990s period. This was a time when the martial arts and a black belt still had a mystical aura around them, but that was coming to an end. In the beginning of the film, Jesse Eisenberg's character Casey Davis is targeted and physically assaulted by a group of motorcyclists and hospitalized. Casey is timid, lonely, and socially awkward. His only companion is his beloved pet dachshund. According to mind control experts, cults seek out those that are vulnerable, that are lonely and lacking direction.As Casey enters the school for the first time, unknown to him there was a hidden agenda. Upon meeting the school's charismatic and mysterious instructor only known as Sensei, played by Alessandro Nivola. He offers Casey a chance to come back for the "Free Lesson". This is common in most martial schools and in my case when I did them, they were an orchestrated part of the indoctrination process. Casey would be led into a journey of darkness that he would never had agreed to if he knew Sensei's agenda to begin with.Upon stepping onto the practice mat, Casey is still wearing his shoes. Anna, the female brown belt instructor played by Imogen Poots, is teaching the children's class. She chastises him that if Sensei sees him on the mat, he would be beaten. On the wall of the school is a list of 10 rules and the 11th rule: "Guns are for the weak." "No shoes on the mat" is rule number 1. In Chung Moo Quan, stepping into the practice area with shoes on normally would result in the student having to do pushups. At other times they would be beaten.When I tell people that I had been in a martial arts cult, they are surprised that such a thing exists. But when you really think about it, it's really not all that surprising. Martial arts have a leader, a master that is overtly praised, and rank and file observe a hierarchy created by the belts system. The myths and legends and mystical thinking of the martial arts, combined with the American ignorance of Asia, creates the perfect recipe for martial arts cults, some referred to as McDojo's. It does not require any certification to open a martial arts school. Someone can get out of prison and open a school. I think that one of the only reasons you don't see more of these cults is due to the efforts of legitimate schools to expose them."
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