In the middle of posting this, someone just told me that many previously colonized countries have to outport their goods at an uneven exchange, and India has their culture as a product. Is there a lot of white washing disrespectful appropriation? Are there lots of cults too?
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In hippy-ish baby boomer and millennial circles, portraits of hindu figures can be common. I would see them on random people’s social media pages after they got into psychedelics. When I was a kid, I overheard the beginning of two adults, who just met, discussing their own seperate trips to India. I didnt hear beyond a few sentences since I minded my own business and left.
This all gives me the impression that interest in India is common. Idk if many foreigners to India actually travel to India. Perhaps I’m wrong.
Only the top like 5% of hippies travel to India. I think the peak of Indian spiritual export to the US was in the late 60s/early 70s. You had a lot of people looking for answers outside of their cultural norms. They did sex, drugs, rock and roll, and “eastern spirituality”. A bunch of Indian “gurus” capitalized on this interest and established branches of their cults in “the west”. Many persist to this day, though they mostly fall off pretty hard once the old Indian guy dies.
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I had a ram dass period myself after my first acid trip but at least he was most wanted number 1 in the US and dealt LSD with the hells angels.
But otherwise the only people i know who actually went were either for business or part of a tantric sexcult.
Was Ram Dass a cult leader or not? My online searches are not clear.
Cult as in “fringe religious movement”, maybe, but I never heard of full on abuse or manipulative technique. They do sponsorship and stuff but its not worse than any youtuber these days. He was hardly charle manson, did work with prisoners and cancerous people.
I mean i found myself in a tantric “retreat center” in portugal one time, when some “angel of loves” offers you to “work through your issue” and “stay as much as you want”, you know it’s time to bug out ahah
Ram Dass sounds like an okay guy.
About the other actual cult you’re mentioning: The part that bugs me is “the angel of loves” part. They’re just people, and to me it’s weird to regard people as angels on any official level, especially in a structure. This sounds like the fetishizing of sex workers that may be brainwashed into being there.
The cult experience had nothing to do with ram dass, if I haven’t made that clear.
But yes, it was exactly what it was. The whole thing felt gross. I just wanted to do yoga for a weekend, not get manipulated into living there. Don’t get me wrong, I had retreat where it was just a bunch of middle age lady doing meditation and silent walks without any expectations.
I’ll keep in mind that “Stay as much as you want” could be a cult thing.
Religious messaging saying that that’s a follower’s job is a total breach of individual autonomy. That’s just pimping using fake religious rules.
It’s always good to be aware of manipulation / brainwashing technique. It was very secluded, huuuge land plot with tipis and domes. Paradisiac, really. But then it became apparent they wouldnt let me alone lmao
interesting experience tho
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