Just a quick post to follow up from my earlier comments which were
Absolutely. One of the central identifying themes of such cults is that they seek to erode and even destroy people’s sense of self and personal boundaries and integrity. Important, loving relationships with others are undermined and destroyed. The only relationships permitted are those defined by the Leader.
Cults and criminals using this MO love to use certain words and phrases that indicate this, including but not limited to; oneness, limitless, lost borders, without boundaries, without limits, multiple, etc. Some of the most dangerous cults are motivated to undermine the boundaries not only of people but of nation states.
re the limitless, boundaryless issue I discovered something that readers might be interested in a fascinating organisaton called No Limits for Women, which is an organisation that is part of a network of orgaisations linked to a controversial organisation called Re-evaluation Counseling
No Limits for Women claims to be an orgnisation promoting women's liberation but I have very serious concerns about the parent organisation Re-evaluation Counseling
No time to post all of my concerns but just sharing some stuff as a foundation for further research
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No Limits for Women (No Limits) is a project of the Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) Communities. It is an international organization of women (and men who are allies to women) dedicated to eliminating sexism and male domination throughout the world. The main work of No Limits for Women reveals how women have been damaged by sexism and to helps them assist each other, woman by woman, in recovering fully from the damage.
Developing female leadership is a priority of No Limits for Women. Women leaders and their perspectives are crucially needed in order to solve the enormous challenges facing the world today. Using the tools of RC, No Limits for Women offers a system of ongoing mutual support and resource to sustain women's efforts to eliminate sexism and male domination. It is available to women, of all cultures, representing all economic and social conditions. No Limits also works with men in partnership to end sexism and male domination.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210126213733/www.nolimitsforwomen.net/" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20210126213733/www.nolimitsforwomen.net/
Criticism
Critics have said that what purports to be "Re-evaluation Counseling theory" is merely a description of Harvey Jackins' counseling practice, that RC's ideas are untested and that "there has been no independent attempt to verify or otherwise the key constructs of RC theory."[3] There have been few papers about RC in scholarly journals and RC tends not to co-operate with attempts at independent investigation.[28]
The organisation is sensitive to criticism, either external or internal, which it regards as an attack on the organization.[citation needed] Jackins believed that much criticism was inspired by the hostility of the US government to RC's "profoundly progressive nature and its effectiveness".[29] RC instructs members "to quickly interrupt both attacks and gossip",[12] which are "dramatizations of distress" and unacceptable behaviors within the RC Community. It says that "An attack is not an effective way to resolve disagreements or difficulties." The organisation requires that "People who participate in an attack must first stop the attack and apologize for having participated in it", after which they are to be offered counseling.[12] Critics who persist "should be made to leave the group and their attacks ignored."[15] Steve Carr criticized RC this prevention of internal discussion.[28]
In an article analysing RC's so-called "attack theory" Steve Carr says that "To counter attacks on RC and its leaders, RC members are instructed to interrupt the person, approach the accusation as the personal problem of the accuser, and vigorously come to the defense of the person or people being attacked."[28] Richard Childs describes how he was treated in this way and expelled from RC when he tried to discuss allegations of sexual abuse within the organisation.[30]
RC's system of centralised control has been deprecated by ex-members who would have preferred a more accountable leadership. John Heron, once an RC leader and teacher, who left the organization in 1974 to set up his own co-counseling organization, Co-Counselling International, said he parted company with RC because it "systematically conditioned its members to associate a certain kind of beneficial human development with centralized authoritarian control of theory and community policy. It was clear to me that this was pseudo-liberation." He considered that the authoritarianism of RC derived partly from the Leninist doctrines of central control that Jackins had learned in the Communist Party of America and partly from the autocratic example of his former associate L. Ron Hubbard.[31]
Re-evaluation Counseling has been described as a cult[32] or "cult-like".[3] Tourish and Irving considered that RC shared several characteristics with psycho-therapeutic cults, namely, a charismatic leader, idealization of the leader, followers regarding their belief system as superior to others, followers joining the group at times of stress, the therapist becoming central to the follower's life, the group absorbing increasing time, illusions of superiority to other groups and the group becoming suspicious of other groups. They concluded: "Given its hostility to such pluralistic notions of participation and democracy, RC has the potential to become a fully fledged and harmful cult, despite its original humanistic aims."[9]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-evaluation_Counseling#Criticism
Some recent news stories describing students being subjected to abuse and manipulation via Re-evaluation Counselling sessions in Boston via a a previously reputable organisation called Youth On Board
Cassellius said the system is ending its relationship with a group called Youth On Board, whose founder had practiced an unorthodox type of group therapy called Re-evaluation Counseling, or “RC,” which students described as a cult. RC, which is both a type of group counseling and an international organization that practices and promotes it, encourages people to relate difficult experiences and release emotions by crying, screaming, or laughing.
more here
www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/24/metro/boston-superintendent-announces-changes-after-investigation-finds-students-pressured-into-unlicensed-counseling/
and here
www.masslive.com/boston/2021/05/boston-public-schools-end-relationship-with-nonprofit-after-report-finds-students-were-pressured-to-participate-in-weird-uncomfortable-and-cult-like-counseling-sessions.html
I also found the below page from the Youth On Board website to be concerning.
I have no problem with the concept of children's rights or with giving a voice to children, however the children's rights issue has been used and abused by a variety of sinister organisations, including the PIE and I am left extremely cautious about any organisation taking the issue of children's rights to extremes.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210310142118/www.youthonboard.org/adultism" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20210310142118/www.youthonboard.org/adultism