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Hi Kelly, I read your
post a few days ago and I don't know if you've got
your
answers yet re what was the KIT training all about,
but I can pass on to you
what I know as well. (I took the training myself
last year and that's what
blasted me straight out of the cult real fast and
for good.)
(Warning - to anyone who happened to read my
earlier posts the beginning of
January, this will be a re-read for you. A friend
said I should re-post it
so here it is (and with a bit more 'edge' this
time).
You've probably seen MJ's presentation in
Atlanta over a year ago to
coordinators and instructors on how to talk about K
to newcomers (how
redundant can you get - some of these instructors
have been around since
when? early 70's). But everyone in this insulting
presentation thought it
was great and started yet another phase of
introducing the POSSIBILITY of
Knowledge.
MJ's wishes (as of January 2001) were to have
all the communities run by
teams of people rather than single coordinators.
Our community coordinator
resigned a year ago. Then came the First Class
email announcing the new
national team for Knowledge introduction; then came
a visit from the national
coordinator seeking volunteers for our own
community's team (Knowledge
Introduction Steering Committee). Each city's
committee's main task was to
draw up and implement a Knowledge Introduction
Plan. These plans clearly
show this is active recruitment (which, by the way,
discredits EV's FAQ
statement that EV is not a cult involved in active
recruiting of members) --
each committee picked a yearly goal number of (say
300) people to introduce
to Knowledge.
What a joke. That included inviting the speaker
to come speak in our
community, and the second-hand-clothed church
ladies have to buy the speaker
the best cold weather gear obtainable. (Hello? He's
been invited so many
times we've lost count; and you know he'll never
come - he hates the cold;
and our small community has only ever had maybe 1
or 2 new aspirants a year.
Besides, he's rich enough and old enough now to do
his own shopping for a
change.)
Our own committee actually started
're-recruiting from within' by sending
letters to all the old premies who had ever lived
in and passed on from the
community decades ago to advise them of the
'current resources available
(satellite broadcasts, videos, publications, etc.)
by which they can enjoy
the speaker's message'. (First of all, why is it
that cult members never
bother to ask people who've left why they left, but
still think they're doing
them a favour by 'paving the road from their garage
doors straight to the
video hall' (so to speak), as if they've forgotten
where to ask should they
want to ask! Du-uh! I guess they'd rather assume
the reason for leaving is
they're 'in their mind' or 'derailed off the track
somewhere'; therefore
they'll be good samaritans and try to save them by
facilitating their getting
reconnected?) What another, typically cultish,
joke.
Okay where was I (excuse the meditation side
effect). Oh yeah, the KIT.
Well these steering committees hosted the Knowledge
Introduction Training in
their respective cities by inviting the main
facilitator (instructor from
Washington, DC) and the regional instructor,
billeting them and taking care
of all the logistics. A minimum of 20 people was
required for the jam-packed
2-day session at a cost of $150 per head. The
workshop material/content was
the DVD of MJ's Atlanta session, follow-up group
exercises that emphasized
teamwork and actually mocked individual
thinking/decision-making or
independent action. Of course there were countless
reminders to never forget
who the number one boss is we're doing this for!
(Yea right, as if we'd all
forget already again). And then there was the
old-school guilty behaviour
conditioning - we were each asked to think about
and express weaknesses we've
displayed in the past (unhelpfulness; answering
questions poorly, etc.).
There was also a series of filmed 5-min. shorts
(yet another Dunrite
Productions video) of different takes of a coffee
break conversation with a
pwk telling work friends all about her trip to see
the speaker over the
weekend. The only differences in the approx. 6
takes were very minor
variations in the lines she delivered each time. A
number of people even
missed the variations - I guess they were
mind-numbed :) Of course, it was
the usual politically correct but deceptive spiel
in that she wasn't exactly
saying she went to see the Perfect Master over the
weekend! The whole series
was quite the stretch.
Then there was the simulator Q&A session
where a volunteer would go into a
sideroom with a camera-video feed to the main hall
where the rest critically
observed his/her responses to some unknown pretaped
questions (some of them
quite challenging) from either (1) a newcomer
first-time introduced; (2) an
aspirant trying to get some things cleared up
before asking for K; or (3)
person just received K asking why he's not
experiencing anything, and other
'mind' stuff. There were 4 pretaped endings
(depending on your answers)
varying from 'Thank you, I enjoyed talking with
you; you've helped me' to
'What is this shit - you're crazy; I'm out of
here'.
I actually volunteered; I was curious to see how
I'd do and also wanted to
find out whatever crappy ideas I might still be
carrying myself. But
ironically more than that, I was about to discover
that the last question
would expose the ancient program gears of a cult I
didn't know I was trapped
in. The question was easy; heard it MANY times
before:- 'Can I still
practise this meditation and follow my own religion
as well?'
I could've caved and hauled up one of MJ's
quotes like 'Check others out
first and if still not satisfied, keep me in
reserve' or 'Yes, if you like to
mix ice cream with your pasta' (which don't say
anything either way, as do a
lot of his answers). But I was deliberately
exercising my ability to dig down
deep for the most intelligent, honest and
satisfying answer possible. While
I was verbally stumbling through the
honest-premie-answer,'Yes, it's
possible, but it would be hypocritical if you did',
my mind was SNAPPING (per
Cynthia's book) with 'Not really; this is another
religious cult'.
Then the last 'Thank you....' ending was played
and I returned to the room
where everybody was supportive and said I did well!
But I felt like a subtle
liar in the middle of a deceptive, bullshitting
cult whose disguise was
'standing on and living from your own understanding
and inner experience'.
This dogma was the very tie that bound me
blindfolded inside its walls and
made me refuse to see it as a cult for that very
looped reason. Over the
next few days (with the help of EPO) I finally saw
past it - it's based on
centuries-old techniques handed down through the
generations, not even
exclusively owned by the speaker. (I can just
imagine everyone here
thinking 'yea, I figured that years ago :)
Amazing. It took 27 years for that simple little
lightbulb to go off -- such
was the deadly disguise, like a wolf in sheep's
(no, make that, 'lord's)
clothing.
Then the instructor went on for several minutes
with the simplistic
instruction that if there's a question I don't have
the answer to, and I
won't always have the answer to everything, then
just tell them to watch a
video of MJ talking about it. Of course this was
just not good enough for
me. After 27 years, I'm trying to draw from and
stand on my own experience
here. Besides, who has the time to search the video
library for the
appropriate video?! Du-uh, brilliant. It all
smacked too much of being
programmed, like an idiot with a run-home-to-mama
button, to sell Knowledge
without looking or sounding like you're selling
Knowledge - neither
intelligent OR honest.
I excused myself at the break (both days) saying
I had some important things
cooking at home. It was a total waste of my
weekend. Actually IMO the
workshop should be illegal - it's a deceptive cult
recruitment training
session. But everybody thought it was fantastic and
inspiring! Holy
mackerel. When I left the first day, the instructor
said 'Okay, but you
gotto' come back tomorrow - we're showing the best
part of MJ's Atlanta video
tomorrow morning!'
My thoughts throughout the session was this will
be the last training session
I attend; enough of the child's play; and the
emphasis on
no-thinking-through-for-yourself was a real
turn-off for me.
So Kelly, I hope this answers your questions re
what the KIT was all about.
If not, then you'll just have to GO SEE THE *****
VIDEO!
Cheers,
Chris
PS: The KIT was held on our 'Thanksgiving'
weekend - HA! (Lord, thank you
for delivering me from the hands of a deceptive
cult.)
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