Brahma Kumaris (BK) is a dangerous brainwashing cult and if your loved ones are engaged, prepare to lose them forever if you cannot get them out of it completely. Hate to see it happen, but if you do not take any action, unfortunately I told you so, and I hope no one has to feel this way. Please see the below for a brief but detailed summary of what to expect from this organisation. (Have lost 2 family members to BK)
BK is an organisation that was started by a business man who eventually disappeared with millions, who did not follow his own rulings of the religion. Specifically, targeting weak and vulnerable, it started with a following of women or widows who would eventually, after years of practice and belief, give their time, wealth and assets to the organisation in the name of god. (welcome to do your own research). On initial looks, it seems like harmless teachings, all positive thoughts, meditation etc but this is far from the truth. You may feel it's all harmless if you have just a slight interest, but if you become devoted or look at this regularly, you will be fall victim to their beliefs.
The process:
Generally, someone is weak, vulnerable, possibly suffering from mental health, or is looking for some form of motivation/inspiration to help them with their lives. Predominately women, or widows but can be anyone. They come across BK and spark an interest and become more and more engaged as they believe it's helping them.
Signs to look out for
- They start daily meditation at abnormal times (sold to do at 4am as you will have a 'better connection with god' but this is intentionally done as you are at your weakest and can lead to sleep deprivation - which is a massive factor for mental health issues and enhances vulnerabilities)
- Dressing in all white
- Only eating food cooked by themselves or another BK member or drastically changing food habits
- Celibacy (no natural sexual acts/behaviours including kissing) and or change in relationships. Especially between wife/husbands. Although devoted BK members seem peaceful and spread positivity, there is a weird connection or relationship that is missing and almost robotised with a loss of normal human emotion.
- Reading Murlis (their religious daily reading/scripts) daily the throughout the day (training your brain for BK beliefs)
- An inability to have an open mind or believe anything different to what is learned via BK
- They will try to spread thier teachings to others, especially those closest to them
If the above starts to happen they are already in the process of losing themselves and become reliant of the teaching to live their daily lives, and will go against anything that could dispute this. The problem exists within the murlis, video calls and teachings in person at the centres. As mentioned, the teachings may appear to be harmless, but to be able to 'read between the lines' or identify the underlying messages, you need to become devoted to really understand, but run the danger of being brainwashed. Factually incorrect teachings have been found in the Murlis, however they have been continually re-written by BK over the years to take out anything that can be disproven. For example, approximately every 30 years they believe the world will 'end', last one being in 2012 and when this doesn't happen, they push it forward another 30 years and have done so several times. The current belief is now somewhere in the 2030's the world will end.
Some of the underlying beliefs - this world is temporary and restarts every 5000 years, so people stop living their lives and helping their own future with family and finances and health. It makes you believe you have a higher spiritual connection that any non-believers and have the ability to connect with the afterlife and god. Also believe any sexual contact is a sin - (however the human race will become non-existent if that was the case and then there wouldn't be any BK followers, and even the founder of the religion was not celibate himself)
As a cult, they take everything off you mentally when you are weak and looking for something to help you with difficulties in your life. Once you have been engaged for a while, you volunteer and work for free for the organisation taking your physical aspects of your life. And lastly, they take everything financially. You will never see it written, or ever hear someone ask you for money, however via the long-term messages in the scriptures, they put you into a place where you will give your inheritances, assets or money to the organisation for the name of 'god', and the members believe the world is temporary so it works. The organisation generates no income or asks for any money, yet the founder was a millionaire/businessman and they have large properties in all the major cities in the world. Majority of high senior members do not work or earn income in their lives, but their personal lives are built of the wealth of donations. Those that have been brainwashed are put into a position where they would want to pro-actively give thier wealth to the organisation.
My mother joined BK around the year 2000, around the age of 30 after facing difficulties with her young marriage, having kids, and financial issues. She then joined BK to help with the problems she was having in her life, however this did the opposite. She practiced for years, but kept it to herself, and would rarely speak openly about what she was doing as it caused issues with her husband. Therefore, she got deeply involved, waking up everyday at 4am to practice, and then reviewing the thoughts hourly, everyday, to help retain, this is what is taught and leads to brainwashing. But at the same time tried to live the rest of her life normally to hide it. Overtime she put herself in a position to believe, she was previously a founder of BK, and this theory was supported by senior members of BK to encourage her, she believed she was not the true mother of the 3 children she had (she was) and stopped being a wife to her husband, and become his 'sister'. She also believed she could communicate with ghosts/the afterlife but had a direct connection with 'baba' thier version of god/the founder. This god, was telling my mother, via thier spiritual connection through medidation, that all her family and friends and work colleagues (every single person she knew including her parents, siblings and her children were spying and conspiring against her from a specific location). Regardless of undeniable evidence which easily disproved her theory, such as CCTV, locations, or things that are physically impossible, she wasn't open to anything as she felt this was true from god. My father got ill due to stress about the marriage with several unexplained diseases and this led to his death last year. After his passing and once my mother had received his inheritance and the house, (potentially being encouraged to leave all to her and nothing for the children), she started accusing everyone around her, every individual she knew of being in this conspiracy, isolated herself, cut off all communication.
When this happened, we managed to get her to see health professionals and a psychiatrist, who diagnosed her with psychosis immediately due to her wild beliefs from BK. However, any professional help could only be done with her consent, and after being diagnosed, she withdrew and also accused the health professionals of conspiring against her so they were unable to intervene further. And how do we know this isn't just the case of one individual with mental issues and BK is not the influence? Apart from being able to find hundreds of similar stories online, it is because my brother, also found himself in a vulnerable position and practiced BK for a few years. He was groomed by my more experienced mother, and also believed the conspiracy, because he believed everything she said. He also cut off all communication from everyone but we were unable to get him assessed by a health professional. If this happens to anyone you know, the NHS or any health professional will not be able to assist you due to restrictions with the law. These types of beliefs fall into a grey area and therefore it is common to allow people to live like this without any support from the NHS, government or lawyers. You will be on your own trying to fix it if you do not intervene at the first occasion of any knowledge of BK engagement and restrict them completely. They are currently living off my father's inheritance together, and have restricted any inheritance from non-believers, including her 2 other sons. This was my father's intention to support all 3 children, however was not stipulated in the will and as it is in my mother's name, all the inheritance is now only being used by them and BK members, and not to any non-believers even if her children, her siblings or parents.
Whatever is it that you or someone close to you can get from BK from a positive aspect, look for a different source. Our widespread family has been devasted by this and completely restricted to help as its not seen as clear exploitation, but more so religious beliefs to those that do not truly understand what BK is all about. Do everything in your power to completely avoid anything to do with the organisation, regardless of how harmless it may seem at the beginning, its just the start. I have written this to protect others about the harm following Brahma Kumaris will bring to you and your family.