Premie reviews: faithful or fearful?
			Archive

Posted by: Nigel ® 02/03/2006, 16:41:31 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin

A recent post by premie-spouse commented on the fear she has often noticed in the eyes of real-life premies. Her observation rang a bell, and I wondered whether that’s how we all used to come across to non-cultist outsiders? Maybe jonti can comment on this… I wouldn’t be surprised if we did seem a bit paranoid, as I remember well the anxiety I always felt about saying the wrong thing on Maharaji’s behalf – an anxiety largely brought on by M’s repeated taunts to premies who thought they ‘knew’ or ‘understood’ something about K. But if you don’t understand then how can you propagate? If you can’t propagate, then how can you follow agya? – a classic cult double-bind. (And if we don’t understand anything yet, then what does that say about our teacher?) You can catch a whiff of that same fear in premie reviews of Clarity on Amazon. I have just wasted a sick-making half-hour downloading the 50 reviews which have received a 5-star approval rating from other readers. (Yeah, I know – every forum has its resident nerd.) Then I put these into a single text file and ran a piece of content-analysis software that examined vocabulary by word frequency. Top results as follows…  word no. of mentions in 50 reviews unique 5 wisdom 5 light 5 focus 6 shine / shining 6 compelling 7 love 7 experience 7 gift 7 perspective 7 warm / -ing 8 within / inside 8 profound 9 good 9 deep 10 wonder / wonderful 10 understand /-ing 10 peace 11 remind / reminder / reminding 11 message 12 feeling 14 joy 14 know / knowledge 22 inspiration / inspiring 25 beauty / beautiful 26 heart / -felt/ -warming 29 word / words 36 clarity / clear 36 simple / simplicity 41 life / alive 50 Note that few of these reviews are more than 5 lines long (why not?) None analyse any poem in detail (why not?) None suggest some poems might be a bit better or worse than others (why not?). None hint this book might be a teensy bit less adorable than it could have been (why not?) Above all, why do all premie reviews cling to this near-identical, stunted vocabulary like infants to a security blanket? One possible answer is fear. Look at the top ten most frequently-used words (from ‘feeling’ onwards), as cited in every other five-star review. These are not the reviewers’ own natural vocabulary; they are ‘safe’ or ‘safe enough’ expressions, clipped and pasted from Prem Rawat’s addresses and poetry. Anal, self-censoring, near-Aspergic in their one-pointedness… There used to be a premie song that ran: ‘Who can free you from your mind, when you dwell beneath its shadow?’ These reviewers are not remotely free from their minds. Far worse than that: their minds are in chains.

Previous

Recommend Current page

Next

Replies to this message

Fear and propagation Re: Premie reviews: faithful or fearful? -- Nigel Top of thread Archive Posted by: Moley ® 02/03/2006, 16:57:46 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin But if you don’t understand then how can you propagate? If you can’t propagate, then how can you follow agya? – a classic cult double-bind. (And if we don’t understand anything yet, then what does that say about our teacher?) Yeh, I remember the hideous 'propagation' days - a bunch of us in a park, entertaining innocent passers-by with devotional songs inexpertly strummed on a cheap guitar (well, we'd sold the good ones to raise the cash to get to the 'festivals'). And what I remember most is Rawat's assassination of our efforts...when he said (anyone remember when?) that if he had one (and only one) devoted, practising premie in each quadrant of the planet, everyone on the planet would come to him. That was shortly after our picnic in the park. So - it was all our fault. We weren't devoted enough. We weren't practising knowledge properly. We were all in our minds. Buggered, basically. PS. Who can use Nige's word list and, using the least number of additional words, come up with an ode to rival Rawat's oeuvre? Modified by Moley at Fri, Feb 03, 2006, 16:59:51 Previous Recommend Current page Next Ode to the oeuvre Re: Fear and propagation -- Moley Top of thread Archive Posted by: jonti ® 02/04/2006, 03:08:59 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin And without repetition, deviation or hesitation I guess. OK, using the premie buzz words largely in order of popularity we can derive ... The simplicity and clarity of Rawat's heartfelt beautiful words are an inspiration to know joy. Feeling his message reminds us to understand that wonderful, deep, good, profound and warming gift of compelling, shining love within. Focus on the light with the unique wisdom of the author. Anyone want to post it Amazon? I am sure it will be accepted ... Modified by jonti at Sat, Feb 04, 2006, 03:11:34 Previous Recommend Current page Next Nice one, jonti... Re: Ode to the oeuvre -- jonti Top of thread Archive Posted by: Nigel ® 02/04/2006, 14:08:19 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin ...not only will it be accepted, it will be rated as 100% 'very helpful'!  (Anyone want to try another one using the words in ascending order?) There's some kind of organised premie-spam thing happening since this time yesterday as there are now 62 five-star reviews.  And the new ones follow the same robotic pattern: >Whenever I read this book, I realise how much I need clarity in my life and how the simple, yet profound, words here remind me of something very beautiful. Life is busy and hectic but when I take time to enjoy and appreciate these expressions about life and its simplicity for every human being, I am grateful that someone is writing these words which deeply inspire me and encourage me to stop and feel life, not just rush through it.This is a very special and inspiring book. QED, M'lud. Modified by Nigel at Sat, Feb 04, 2006, 14:33:25 Previous Recommend Current page Next Key words Re: Nice one, jonti... -- Nigel Top of thread Archive Posted by: 13 ® 02/04/2006, 14:12:30 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin Sounds like a key word spamming scam to catch the attention of the search engines. That would be a logical explanation. A more unsettling one would be that these words are genuine, each set from a real devotee. It would demonstrate what little circles their thoughts follow. Previous Recommend Current page Next The tragedy is, 13.. Re: Key words -- 13 Top of thread Archive Posted by: Nigel ® 02/04/2006, 14:51:31 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin .. I don't think any key-word conspiracy is going on, beyond the cult itself being a 'key-concept' viral infection that stops people being who they ought to be, or might have been. I'm sure that review was by a real (and probably very nice) person trying to express that elusive, whatever-it-is, nice feeling she gets whenever she feels nice (as we all do from time to time) but doing it within a cult-conditioned framework, where the Master only has to fart and the Pavlovian response is glowing gratitude expressed in correct terminology. It would be less tragic if it were just a strategic key-word scam. Modified by Nigel at Sat, Feb 04, 2006, 15:27:55 Previous Recommend Current page Next Fear in the tar trap Re: Premie reviews: faithful or fearful? -- Nigel Top of thread Archive Posted by: jonti ® 02/04/2006, 03:35:45 Author Profile Alert Forum Admin Hi Nige, the overwhelming impression I get from the premies I meet is stuck and smug. Not a nice vibe. And yes, fearful and uncertain. Especially when I ask them which premies Rawat has ever praised for realising his knowledge. "Surely someone has managed to follow the teachings aright, by now", I suggest. "Can't you name even one devotee he's praised for their success in applying his teachings? Has he really had not a single success with his message?" "How very odd." Jonti --never a premie Modified by jonti at Sat, Feb 04, 2006, 03:43:52 Previous Recommend Current page Next