Coming to terms with stupidity

Discussion of the SES' satellite schools in Australia and New Zealand.
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Cousin It
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Location: Australia

Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Cousin It » Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:30 pm

Bravo "not convinced yet".

At last I have found someone who is prepared to engage with the material in a questioning way. When I look back on my 20 odd years in the school the comment of my mum is most apt. She says: "What were you thinking?" She is amazed that I did not question the bunkum that was served up week after week.

It seems to me that there are 2 basic truths about what the school teaches:
1. Don't worry about the past or the future.
2. Pay attention to what you are doing right now.
ALL the other stuff is rubbish. The Hindu mythology especially.

Personally I'd love to open a debate about the material. I think it would be cathartic and enjoyable.
Cheers,
Cousin

bluemoon
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby bluemoon » Thu Jan 14, 2010 12:55 pm

Notconvincedyet wrote:

I would appreciate it if the person who had written some notes on her experience within SES could share them with me?


I am holding back at the moment on giving them out as explained under the topic: 'SES Philosophy - what it's like and what to watch out for'. I will get back to you about it though, give me a week or so, or I'll send them as a PM when I'm ready.

My experiences are of course as a woman in the London SES for about 20 years. As you mention, I also learned a lot which is why I stayed so long. However I also observed what appeared to me to be a 'hidden agenda'. But it may be that my experiences are a bit unique since I did challenge them almost from the beginning about gender issues - the dress code for example (and I am sure it is no coincidence that the most ever people on-line per day on this forum was on 12.3.06 - 75 people - and the dress code was changed at the beginning of June 2006 - the forum was getting thousands of hits at that time). In other words sometimes what you think is general practice is actually designed for specific people. Just before I left I spoke to my level head and mentioned that whilst I had resisted being in an all female group for almost the entire time I was there I was very happy in the all female group I was in for about a year (I think) before I left. But as I said to him we were a group of all independent minded women. His response of assent with a wry smile told me that he knew that, and perhaps it was designed that way? They do hand pick people for groups and levels. You are expected to 'cotton-on' as it was put to me once by the Principal at the time. My notes indicate the different treatment of women as compared to men, as well as a general outline of how things move on in the organisation, which you will be well aware of from your own experiences.

With best wishes,

Bluemoon (previously stiltrubld and trublshtr)
Last edited by bluemoon on Thu May 24, 2012 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
SES London, 1990-2009, Female

carlynnm8
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Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:30 pm

Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby carlynnm8 » Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:45 pm

Dear not convinced yet,

Could you explain why you decided to leave the school again - and was it the same reason you left the last time?

Thanks

Carlynn
><strong>Joanna Eberhart</strong>: If I am wrong, I'm insane... but if I'm right, it's even worse than if I was wrong. >more famous quotes<Stepford Wives

bluegreen
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby bluegreen » Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:05 pm

My dad is occasionally on some kind of mission to awaken me to spirituality and all things supernatural . Every now and again I feel like he's trying to convert me, and I rise to it, as if I could have any more luck making him see things my way. I give up eventually and nod smilingly, and escape quickly when I am reminded that people with funny ideas see them as proof of themself.
Anyway, he and mum went to some SES talk in Birmingham the other day, and dad saved the notes for me because he thought that the scientific approach which had been taken in "Peering beneath the Skull", about the effects of meditation on the brain, would appeal to me and give me definitive proof that I ought to be meditating. I was quite interested because I thought that these were probably intelligent people (or my intelligent parents would not be still involved after all these years), and I have done some meditation sometimes for circular paranoid thought patterns before now and found it helpful, so my mind is open to the benifits of it, and also because it was about the brain and I am interested in human biology and because I have never seen any SES material before.
Well my husband and I had such a laugh. The first 4 pages were taken from a biology text book, talking about the brain, neurones and dendrites etc. Pages 5 & 6 were from a 1992 SES lecture which talked about the different functions of the 2 halves of the brain, ie Left -logical; Right - creative etc and added 'Left -Active; Right -Still'. It went on to say that the left hemisphere could be represented as a horizontal line and the right, a vertcal line.(???)It goes on to say that "this still finds us living in 2 separate worlds... which obviously need to be unified. This is provided by knowledge. Now the diagram looks like this..." And there is a picture of a cross. It says, "this was christs meaning when he said 'Take up thy cross and follow me'." WHAT??? Then more stuff from a textbook on brain activity during mystcal experiences and finally a summary from the Shankaracharya about the benefits of meditation.
I said to mum later "were you guys wanting feedback on my revelations regarding the SES notes you saved for me? If you want to know, I was totally baffled. I'm not clever enough for this stuff I'm afraid. I missed a connection somewhere, I guess you had to be at the meeting". She was rather embarrassed and said she didn't think the notes were very good and didn't know why dad saved them for me.
He loves telling me this story about how the Shank cast out something from a rock once infront of some people and said it was the soul of Attila the Hun (or somesuch) who had been trapped in a rock and he was just freeing him now he's served his time. This is what dad tells me when he's trying to prove that there's something in all of it and I'm living a shallow incomplete life being atheist.
St James Girls School 1977-1981

joeblogs
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby joeblogs » Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:36 pm

Hi Bluegreen.
That's really funny. I'm sure Jesus used to draw confusing diagrams on a chalk board for his disciples in his spare time. I think the SES really does look for proof of them being right everywhere. But there are a few contradictions. They are so prudish and scared of sex and yet they love Shakespeares plays which can be extremely violent and are full of lust and sex just because it says 'To thy own self be true' in Hamlet! I honestly think that if you went through a Stephen King novel, you could find lines that would please the SES. 'I came into the present and all my focus was on the present moment, as I raised my knife and slit her throat.' They'd just say, well at least he was in the present when he did it. I heard memebers of the school describe 'What the f*@k, down the rabbit hole' as 'pure Advaita'. I don't think so. Advaita is pure advaita, 'What the f*@k, down the rabbit hole' is a film about metaphysics- not the same thing Im afraid. But they are always so proud when they find some new reference to what they believe!
I think my parents would like me to return to the SES fold, but they never mention it, which I am very grateful for as I hate the place and can't think of a nice way to say that to my folks. I still have a few friends in the school, but I try not to talk about it with them as its not worth it. They just know they are right and there is no room for discussion. Same as yours maybe. Its funny how the SES people people in the occult, and spirits too. This relates back to Gurjieff I think who thought that spiritualism, when someone talks to spirits and passes messages onto people in an audience by saying 'I feel thre presence of someone wit a name beginning with C? Or maybe D?' was real. If the spirit can say his name begins with c, why can't he say hi whole name? The guy was a nutcase! And so are the rest of the SES.

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Cousin It
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Cousin It » Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:28 pm

Hi Joeblogs,
I like your thinking. The SES has a very narrow world view that they support by cherry picking various sources.
My favourite bit of SES stupidity is the way we used to hang on the words of the Shankaracharya and MacLaren. In hindsight they are just massively flawed individuals.
Cheers,
Cousin

Tootsie
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Tootsie » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:38 am

Amen to that Brother! That's why the Shankaracharya got the chop. Real holy men do not retire, they die with their boots on.

Tootsie
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Tootsie » Wed Mar 31, 2010 3:52 am

Recently saw the movie Up in the Air with George Clooney. He was addicted to frequent flyer miles. Wonder who got MacLaren's frequent flyer points or maybe he was just addicted to the cheese they serve in first class.

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Cousin It
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Cousin It » Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:31 am

MacLaren used to fly first class? Wow.
Who paid for that?
Makes a bit of a joke of the way they used to whip the hat around to support the ashram.
Cheers,
Cousin

Tootsie
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Tootsie » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:21 am

Read Dorine Tolley's book The Power Within. Its quite funny what she says about flying with Leon first class. Old dude young chick, you can imagine what the flight crew thought! Anyway flying first class is only one of the perks of office being GOD.

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Cousin It
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Cousin It » Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:30 am

I looked up "The Power Within" on Amazon. It seems like one of those books that deify the leaders. Thanks for the suggestion but I had my fill of spin doctoring while in the school.
When I left the school I found it very cathartic to give all such books away to friends who are still besotted by the "leaders".
My preferred reading is more along the vein of "Shame on You" by Clara Salaman. :)
Cheers,
Cousin

Ahamty2
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby Ahamty2 » Fri Apr 02, 2010 1:50 am

Cousin It wrote:MacLaren used to fly first class? Wow.
Who paid for that?
Makes a bit of a joke of the way they used to whip the hat around to support the ashram.


The tradition was that the part of the first class air fare was paid by the incoming branch of the SES. Sydney paid for the Jo'berg to Sydney leg of the journey, NZ paid the Sydney to Auckland, and New York et al paid the Auckland to America part of the journey. The funds usually came out our pockets just like the leaders trips to the UK for their annual get together. Why would Maclaren have to practice as a barrister with perks like this!

M.I.A
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Hi I am M.I.A I was sent to hellhole by my father.

Postby M.I.A » Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:14 pm

bluegreen wrote:I will say the same as ET. I was aged 4 to aged 8 at St James during the worst years, which is around 30 years ago. My memories are not reliable evidence. The only clear ones are the ones my sister and I have talked about from time to time over the years, and the ones jogged by reading Clara's book. They would not hold water in court.They seemed normal for so many years that it is still hard to get my head around what was acceptable and what was not. I don't know how abusive other schools were back in those days either. I have talked to people who went to private schools who were caned, I have talked to people who were seriously damaged by things that happened to them in their schools. No-one from a 'normal' school recognises the humiliating stuff that went on at St james' girls school as anything that went on in other schools. So I know that it probably was an unusually damaging place for children to grow up in, that I was in. But it was still normal for me and so it isn't something I can find the words to talk to non-StJand StV people about very easily. Does that make sense?
ET I sense that you think that there is a pitifully short bit about the girls school in the inquiry, and I agree. My evidence couldn't have put any flesh on those bones but it's a shame more girls who were there a long time and will have crystallised the memories, didn't step forward. Saying that, my mum took me out because I was repeatedly the teacher's chosen victim. There were only 4 or 5 of us that ever got picked on but usually the same 3 every day (or that's how I remember it). The other 22 in my class had a completely different experience of their years there. Many got good results and had happy lives. I would love to know if the other 2 or 3 victims in my class are on this site and if they remember often being punished with me, but I don't want to name names. In the brief mention of the girls school in the inquiry, he said about many girls complaining that they were smacked on the bare bottom, of which he had proof of one incident. Well that I KNOW definitely happened and I could testify that with the support of the other 2 girls, but it would not be proof. Anyway, the smack on the bare bottom was not the worst bit of that punishment. Queuing with your knickers down in front of a class full of children in detention was the bit I remember. The pain of the smack was nothing compared to the sexual humiliation. It is difficult to find proof of the stuff at the girls school. They have Mr Debenham's caning diary for the boys. Did my teachers keep a record of the times my naked (from the waist down) body was seen by a class full of people? I doubt it.

enlightened
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Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby enlightened » Mon Apr 08, 2013 6:46 am

Danny Opacic has now started his own school , its called "School for School for Self Knowledge Dropouts"........ba baaaaaa....baaaaa....baaaaa

ManOnTheStreet
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:32 am

Re: Coming to terms with stupidity

Postby ManOnTheStreet » Mon Apr 08, 2013 10:45 am

Enlightened,

1. I don't think your post has anything to do with the subject of this thread.

2. To my knowledge, Danny Opacic has not started any such "school". If you're just being facetious then I apologise for not picking up on the joke...

MOTS


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