SES is an organisation, not a cult

Discussion of the SES, particularly in the UK.
Saint James
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Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2006 9:42 pm

SES is an organisation, not a cult

Postby Saint James » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:02 pm


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erikdr
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:14 pm
Location: Amsterdam

Wiki

Postby erikdr » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:58 pm

Well it looks at least to some extent balanced.

Further on in the story you get an overview of main criticisms, clearly mentioning the word Cult and the HounanHogg book and some government research. Wiki will always allow suggestions to change the text, but with keeping it in SOME way balanced. Do look at Wiki items like Jehovahs Witnesses or Hare Krishna to get an idea what is possible...
With folded palms,

<Erik>

NYC
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:17 pm

cult, midcult, cultish, or just a social/spiritual org?

Postby NYC » Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:08 pm

Here's a link to a Boston-based blogger, hosting something called "One Smoot Short of a Bridge" (a smoot apparently is "a unit of measure used to mark off Harvard Bridge.")


you can post a comment at

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com/2006/01/school-of-practical-philosophy.html

here's a sample...

For some reason, the ads all over the T for The School of Practical Philosophy are really raising my skepticism flag. For people who haven't seen the ads, they're offering a free 10-week course exploring how people can discover their purpose in life and find happiness. I've looked at the website, and the school is chartered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, which would suggest that it pretty much has to be a legitimate organization without an "agenda" per se.

I don't know though; there's just something about the school offering a free course and the ads purporting to help people find happiness that feels kind of cult-like to me. Especially given that the site states that "The School of Practical Philosophy is staffed and cared for by its own students on a purely voluntary basis, without remuneration. Its tutors are all students of the school who have studied their subject for many years." A philosophy school using only philosophers from its own school seems to go against everything I learned in philosophy courses. It would seem to me that a philosophy school, by nature, would need to be composed of teachers from diverse backgrounds and schools of thought.

I don't, of course, mean "cult-like" in the sense that I think the organization is recruiting hostages and cutting them off from their families, but there's just something that rubs me the wrong way about groups advertising that they can bring people happiness. Sure, there are plenty of mainstream activities (religion, education, hobbies) that people pursue primarily to find answers and happiness, but I guess something about ads blatently advertising happiness just creeps me out.


This was posted Jan 2006...Apparently after Dr Lehrman (sp?) pulled away from the main org, somebody is interested in building up Boston membership...has the introductory session ever been offered for free before?

HoHumBug
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:31 pm

'Free' Boston Part 1

Postby HoHumBug » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:03 am

No, the courses have never been offered for free. Indeed MacLaren was against that, maintaining that whilst the teaching should always be free and work should be voluntary, the running costs of the premises etc. should always be paid for by the students.

What is happening in Boston is like the early days of Wal-Mart. When it wanted to push its way into smaller US cities Wal-Mart deliberately sold goods at a loss using profits from the organisation as a whole until the local stores folded and it got control.

In Boston multi-millionaire stock market speculator William Fox II, formerly a member of a third tier group in the NY SoP hierarchy and one of the foremost exponents of the 'Buy your way to Heaven' approach to liberation is 'doing a Wal-Mart' by subsidising the SES Boston rescue operation to try to muscle out Lehmann.

Fox II bought his way into becoming leader of the Toronto school by offering to fund the downtown Toronto operation which was in serious debt in the late 80's. He paid for a number of expensive advertising campaigns to 'get the numbers up' as the jargon goes.

Within a year, he also funded, in cash, the purchase of a fancy country estate on the South side of lake Ontario to make Toronto a fully accredited SOP school with all the trimmings. He also covertly funds the outwardly unconnected Renaissance Education Trust presided over from time to time by Debenham, Sinclair and his son William Fox III - v. original name that.

The Boston 'free' classes, no doubt with accompanying Toronto style expensive advertising campaign, are a pure Fox entrepreneurial Wall Street power game seeking to crush the 'opposition' (with the miffed and bedazzled Lambie's full backing) to maintain control of this wayward branch of the SES tree.

Advaita? - in your dreams, buddy. This is about KEEPING CONTROL.
Last edited by HoHumBug on Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Free Thinker
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Location: USA

Postby Free Thinker » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:47 am

Thanks HHB for the Boston info. I asked a while back if people had more info on the Boston thang but no one had replied.


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