Not an “evil cult”
August 20th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
By Ben Garfinkel
“GOD IS HERE,” proclaims an intricately patterned blue flyer posted to several campus bulletin boards. Group (sect? church?) “Centers of Light” has been posting advertisements around Yale that invite students and other passersby to “find the truth” and “come [to the Center of Light] to be inspired, uplifted, and deepened.”
The front of one flyer features a contemplative about 30 women in a floral dress meditating on a bustling city street along with the tagline “Take Out the Trash In Your Mind,” and another features a highway road sign photoshopped to say “Truth Next Exit.”
One sheet advertises a twenty-five dollar “spiritual meditation seminar” that took place on Aug. 12, but new flyers are being continuously added: In just a single one-block area at least five materialized, as if by magic, at some point between 9:40 this morning and 12:45 p.m.
Each of these flyers gives the address of their website, which features a series of videos with names like “Experiencing God,” “Quieting the Mind,” and “Is this a Cult?” — in which purpled-robed members of the group go to great lengths to explain that they are not an “evil cult” of “deranged crazy people” and thus do not tolerate hypocrisy, sexual abuse, theft, or weapons stockpiling. In the video “What is Mysticism?” they describe themselves as Christian mystics, or simply the Christian equivalent of Sufis and Kabbalists.
The importance of meditation, self-reflection, and “submission to a ‘Spiritual Teacher’” are frequently stressed.
