The insidiousness of cultist indoctrination – Sai Baba

A subtly developed  ‘delusional world-view’ is basic to cultism It depends on a number of malfunctions which are common in some lesser extent to the thinking of most people at some time or other. These become a cognitive disorder when a group of these are present at once and over time. This is necessarily the case with those completely absorbed followers of any cult, certainly also of Sathya Sai Baba.

There is no reasoning with a person who is ensnared in the system of ‘explanations’, excuses, rationalizations that surrounds Sathya Sai Baba and absolves him of everything imaginable in advance! (I was once all too accepting of this myself, as I found out to my tough edification) . To quote a well-known expert on the East, the usual Eastern spiritual ‘teaching’ contains:-

“… propaganda, so constant, so intensive, so insidious, as to leave its mark on the strongest intellect. All had been cut off… from all normal intellectual and political influences, from all valid standards of comparison. In a sense, all their minds must work along the same lines, along different lines, that is, from the Western mind. Was it altogether surprising that, with this mental background, they should at times have difficulty in distinguishing between the real and the imaginary, the actual and the hypothetical, that their faculties should become blurred, that they should lose their objectivity?” excerpt from ‘Eastern Approaches’ by Sir Fitzroy Maclean, p. 114 (Penguin books)

Liberation from largely self-induced delusional beliefs is no quick easy matter In most instances, deeply ingrained cognitive disorders are extremely hard to ‘correct’. So long as the person concerned feels comfortable with a delusive perception and ideology, there is little cause to try to change it. The surrounding cult sustains the view and the person who adopt it. Yet when major events cause the belief system to be unsustainable, to break down over some undeniable incident, proof of abuses of faith and worse, it can take years gradually to recover a saner, more down-to-earth sensible view of reality and oneself, since ‘de-programming’ of what one has programmed oneself with is almost impossible for many persons without considerable support… therapy or counselling.

When the mainspring of a cult’s faith is broken, the unfortunate followers have to contemplate having wasted large parts of their lives on the glorification of a myth. Many cannot bear the wrench and bury their heads like ostriches – in rationalizations, excuses, half-truths. This is the case with the Sai movement , which has suffered the loss of many of the most competent, honest and active partakers  followers due to the revelations about his sexual and other alleged crimes. The movement is in inner turmoil, as can be seen from much that leaks out despite the closing down of interface with the open society and the cultist licking of wounds that will not heal, whatever propaganda is created.

See a clear list of cognitive problems in cultist’s  perceptions and thinking here.