Real Sorceror said:
Unless of course it actually is a cult. As everyone has pointed out, you have to pay quite a lot of money just to learn about the supposed religion.
I can see your point, and would tend to be suspicious of anything that was 'designed' that way.
Also, their belief that deseases and disorders don't exist is a very, very dngerous idea.
There may well be some truth in that - don't knock it.
Excluding fractures of bones from an accident, and other physical accidents, the mind is reponsible for a lot of ailments.
When you aren't happy, your immune systrem suffers; when that happens, you are far more at the mercy of viruses than you are when you are happy.
I have heard stories about cancer sufferers - now, I understand that the reason for the number of cancer sufferers is due to a surge in carciniogenic materials, and foodstuffs; however, the way a patient reacts to medication and cure is very much dependent on their mental attitude.
I have a book (which is not new - it was written at the beginning of the last century) - and it is in French (so I can't quote anything from it).:cover:
Basically, it examines the ailments of old age - that is one section of it.
To give an example - Loss of hearing (in the elderly) - sure, there are some who have had their hearing ruined by events (such as many soldiers from the two world wars whose hearing was damaged due to constant shelling) - well, my Dad was one of those.
But there are others, where it is suggested that they no longer like what they hear, and therefore the mind (acting as a safety mechanism) helps the person
not hear as well as he/she used to ; the other common one was with eyesight degeneration; for the same reason - because the elderly don't really want to see what is going on.
I could go on, but that was the essense of the theory - and believe me, I can see some aspects of that type of "mechanism" in myself (not that I am elderly) - but in that my disabilities are - to a certain extent - explainable by my mental processes.