Vineeto: As Richard explained, ‘Vineeto’ “had shifted ‘her’ familially-inculcated and societally-instilled allegiance to ‘the system’ at large over onto the spiritual commune” and therefore had no issue with real-world peasant-mentality topics such as career, status, wealth and ‘disguised slavery’ except those applicable in the commune. For instance, the ‘slavery’ consisted of doing work without pay in order to belong to a slightly more privileged ‘inner’ circle.
Kuba: I was going to write this exactly that these ‘counter culture’ values can end up working in the same way as spiritual values in that they are very slimy to get hold of. They appear to offer an escape from the grind and yet it is all the same game under a different guise. Which does make it that much harder to expose. And this has been the case exactly with me, that it was so obvious for me to release those values as they applied to working a career etc and yet those same values would leave me restless unless I was constantly progressing in my “alternate endeavours”. The hierarchy, the power, the recognition, the belonging etc it was all there but hidden. (link)
Hi Kuba,
Ha, you are so right. I remember when Richard in an early conversation in 1998 said that he could drive buses through the large holes in any religion/ spirituality, ‘Vineeto’ was flabbergasted as ‘she’ could not see any hole in any of their/ ‘her’ spiritual beliefs. ‘She’ had swallowed Eastern mysticism hook, line and sinker thanks to the powerful seductive atmosphere of divine love and compassion in the commune. People who haven’t experienced it personally usually don’t comprehend the power of these psychic vibes emanating from an enlightened ‘being’ and just deem followers as silly, while not recognizing their own entrapment.
If ‘Vineeto’ had noticed any structure and/or hierarchy of values and principles, for instance privileges for those with a lot of money, it was ok, because the goal was ‘good’. Hence dismantling it all took a while and questioning loyalty at the start made it a lot easier.
Cheers Vineeto