A Critique of Eric Pepin
A blog post by Eric Pepin is called: Take a Peek Behind the Red Curtain and Hack the Matrix. It goes:
Stop here unless you´re unwilling to question reality. In 2003, Pepin founded Higher Balance Institute for the purpose of sharing his uniquely effective approach to conscious awakening with the wider public. The organization gave him the opportunity to reach beyond his circle of friends and share his knowledge on a global scale. He writes about himself in third person: Eric J. Pepin is a modern teacher, philosopher, and Amazon bestselling author dedicated to helping others achieve altered states of consciousness. He is a dedicated member of our Secret Society of Scientists (SS) in Venice. He has the quality of being a fully enlightened master. Since he was 7 years old he has tirelessly sought and shared with others direct personal experiences, expanded awareness and first-hand encounters with the what most would call miraculous. Based on his own internal and external investigations into the extraordinary, he had come to know that there is no such thing as “miracles” but rather he believes paranormal/extraordinary phenomena are simply in the realm of science that humanity has yet to discover. He spent his childhood reflecting on the workings of the Universe, investigating paranormal activity and utilizing his unique sensory abilities with an uncanny degree of accuracy. By the time he was 15 years old, he was a highly sought after for his array of unique abilities. It was around then that he began actively teaching his close friends to have extraordinary experiences for themselves. He found his passion in teaching and for many years that is what he did. Shortly after, Eric Pepin published his first book, The Handbook of the Navigator, which garnered instant traction, becoming a #1 Amazon best-seller. 10 years later, Pepin has traveled the United States and countries around to the world, speaking at retreats and lectures. During this time, he also developed and released more than 100 audio and video courses covering nearly every spiritual topic imaginable from the construction of the universe to manifestation, remote viewing, healing and an elusive, altered state of consciousness he calls the in-between, just to name a few. Pepin has published 6 additional books on spirituality, including his most recent book, Prescient Visions, all of which have made #1 best-sellers lists on Amazon. Pepin continues to teach at events around the United States and throughout the world at locations including Paris, Mexico and India. He is based in Santa Rosa, California where he develops cutting-edge training and technology for his one calling in life, to help others attain real, lasting results, pushing the envelope to experience profound spiritual awakenings. Pepin´s book The Handbook of the Navigator is said to break all the traditional rules regarding the soul, the universe, and ultimately what we consider God to be. Its scale is epic in scope, beginning with why some people feel a spiritual calling, like a secret, inner instinct that leads them to the path of awakening. How the sixth sense can directly plug you into real spiritual experiences, the creation of God, and what is the mystical state called Multi-Dimensional Consciousness (where you can be aware of multiple dimensions in your waking state) and more. It demonstrates how paranormal phenomena, metaphysics, and spiritual discovery are all combined for true awakening. If you have ever felt there was a greater purpose or meaning to your life, if you have felt a calling but could not understand what it was - this is the Navigator. This book helps you understand and connect to the Navigator and reveals why some human beings are destined to ultimately seek it out. It provides the missing link to your own personal revelation and awakening. THE HANDBOOK OF THE NAVIGATOR is said to give you the essential, yet powerful, basics of true spiritual awakening. You will learn the process of how spiritual enlightenment happens, what it is and why it is even necessary for life to continue. It demonstrates how the sixth sense is the single missing key to explosive states of enlightenment and personal evolution. “BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN” is Pepin´s new training. It´s about Accelerated Mind Expansion (Training Module). “Learn the unexpected link between A.I., simulated Reality, and enlightenment, and discover exactly how to leverage this surprising link to dramatically accelerate your own evolution.” Intro Vid: Click below to watch now! IN RED CURTAIN, Pepin says he SHAKES THE METAPHYSICAL COMMUNITY by the tree branch and reveals secrets so groundbreaking, it was enough to shift hundreds into an altered state.
Behind The Red Curtain apparently reveals powerful Thought-Tools that you can leverage to shift your conscious perception and peer behind the veil of “reality.” Pepin says he gives intensely detailed, scientifically aligned insights into the coming singularity, human evolution, and the concept of fully conscious artificial intelligence born of this world. Behind the Red Curtain pulls no punches. Many People have apparently reported experiencing altered states of consciousness just by listening to this training. It says: 99% OF THE POPULATION HAVE YET TO COMPREHEND THE POWER OF TRULY UNDERSTANDING THIS SINGLE REALIZATION: SPIRITUAL TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS SAID THAT REALITY IS AN ILLUSION… And: Many Gurus and Mystics have said that “realizing reality is an illusion is the definition of Enlightenment.” The reason that just hearing this doesn’t result in automatic awakenings is because it’s exceedingly difficult to understand and truly believe. As a result, very few individuals in the history of humanity have ever authentically realized the deeper nature of reality… The seeker can not just say they believe that “reality is an illusion” to awaken. Everything that our five senses tell us makes truly believing nearly impossible. Therefore, this ancient wisdom must be understood, experienced and viscerally felt. Only then can you awaken to the higher nature of your own consciousness. IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT THAT YOU HAVEN’T FULLY AWAKENED TO THIS HIDDEN TRUTH… Sadly, Pepin says, "the rare few who have honestly awakened have always been forced to share their revelations in ways agreeable to the common thinking of their time. Only very recently, about 2015-2017, has the world become ready for the unfiltered truth about the Grand Illusion… Or rather, Simulation… (Even now this knowledge will be highly controversial for those not ready.) "We’ve been told, 'reality is an illusion' for centuries but until now there have never been practical thought-tools for building a functional knowing of this. Gaining a personal knowing of this ancient (and elusive) concept will open an entirely new spectrum of possibility and experience for you! When you watch the training and reflect with an open mind, you effectively change your perception of 'reality' and your place within it! Are you ready?" “Behind The Red Curtain” is, according to Pepin, "A Cutting-Edge Video Training Course. You will learn powerful thought-tools for rapidly expanding your mind. This means there are no external techniques required! Rather, just by watching and reflecting, you will be activating dramatic changes in your consciousness." Pepin says: FINALLY! BETTER ANSWERS FOR SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA. In Pepin´s world, "science, logic AND paranormal experiences is combined in a new evolution of spiritual understanding. This is where the puzzle pieces of life become vividly clear and your power to affect reality becomes viscerally real… your senses will come to life within the symphony of the universe." In Willamette Week James Pitkin has written an article about Eric Pepin called Eric The Enlightened - How a guru from Beaverton raked in millions as a New Age psychic. He writes: I've traveled 500 miles from Portland to Northern California, where I'm seated on the floor of a well-appointed cabana in back of a million-dollar home an hour south of San Francisco. I'm in a roomful of 20 other people, mainly well-educated professionals like the home's owner, Nicolas Tchikovani, a real-estate agent and financial planner. We've each paid $100 to spend half a day learning the secrets of the universe from Eric Pepin, a balding, heavyset 42-year-old from Beaverton who claims he can heal the sick, control the weather, travel between dimensions and communicate with God. He teaches his secrets on CDs and DVDs that sell for up to $299 each on his website. And people buy them. Like all great sales pitches, Pepin's comes with a money-back guarantee. Pitkin quotes Pepin: "I believe in enlightenment. I am enlightened," Pepin told his listeners at the Saturday afternoon gathering last month. "I can take you beyond this world. I can bring you to the doorway of what one would consider the kingdom of heaven. Whether you choose to walk through it is up to you." After Pepin left his job as a telemarketer for The Oregonian, he started the Higher Balance Institute. He has no credentials beyond a high-school GED, but thousands of people around the world have bought his materials. Some pay $800 an hour to meet with him one-on-one, and a few dozen are willing to shell out $1,000 or more to hobnob with Pepin at retreats in Hawaii and Mexico. Pitkin writes: Following Pepin's path doesn't involve shaving your head, wearing robes or performing any rituals. He says he hates being called a guru, and thinks of his students as clients rather than followers. He makes no demands of them other than recommending they meditate twice a day. And, of course, pay cash for his wisdom. Reduced to the basics, Pepin teaches that developing psychic powers can help you expand your consciousness, understand the universe and come closer to God. His students do that mainly through special meditation; developing the power to read minds, see auras, leave their bodies, communicate with spirits and cross dimensions. Pepin claims he has all of those powers and more: https://youtu.be/UAkx8MDTBp8 There are literally thousands and thousands of self-styled gurus like Pepin pushing their products online. Boosted by the power of the Internet, and by our own growing dissatisfaction and loneliness as individuals, people like Pepin have found a market niche that increasingly tunnels straight to the heart of mainstream America. Pitkin writes: For Kelly Smith, the window is Eric Pepin. By all appearances, Smith is a successful single mom from Saratoga, Calif. At age 42, she's fit and outgoing, and makes six figures a year in software sales. Smith also happens to believe she can control the weather, read minds and do remote viewing—the psychic term for seeing far-off places without being there. She's had "lots of different experiences with different kinds of intelligent energy," she says—all with Pepin's assistance. I could ask her 12-year-old daughter for confirmation, she adds. What causes a seemingly rational person to believe she's learned telepathy and can change the weather? I will explain this in the end of this article. Smith and her two daughters live with one other Pepin follower, but she says she's no victim of brainwashing. Pitkin writes: In fact, to hear Pepin talk, all of our fates may rest with him and his students. [in a video from before 2012 – it has now been removed] Pepin tells his followers there's a battle raging across time and space between good and evil. Borrowing from Star Wars, he calls them the Force and the Dark Side. Pepin speaks of channeling his students' psychic energy in order to affect the outcome of that fight, especially as the year 2012 approaches, when some New Age and occult believers think the world will undergo a cataclysmic upheaval because the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21 that year. In the video, Pepin warns new students that studying with him can bring both danger and safety: "It awakens something in you that emanates a certain frequency out from you, and the Dark Side can pick that up," he says. "If you're near me, you're kind of at an advantage in that you're a little bit more protected. Because it knows you're kind of connected to me, and it doesn't want to interfere because it knows I'm going to react back." Such attempts to mix one´s stories with popular culture (Pepin borrows a lot of stuff from both Star Wars and The Matrix) as a way of manipulation is getting more and more fashionable in New Age. As the management theorists say: “It is not facts, but the best story, that wins!” (Management theory is an integrated part of the Matrix Conspiracy – see my article Management Theory and the Self-help Industry). My whole concept of Lucifer Morningstar plays with all this in order to create a hoax of exposure. New Age will, in the future, in large scale be based on the ability to tell a good new story. This will often be mixed with an ability to use modern technology within computer science and production of films. Make a great website, and tell a story like in a Hollywood film, and you´ll have success (Gaia.com is just one example). These kinds of story-telling will be the future of New Age, and it will be amusing to follow, what the next “true” story will be. There is no doubt about that The Matrix Conspiracy (which is a strong advocate for the use of hypnosis and hypnotherapy) will be made propaganda for through mass media phenomena such as Transmedia Storytelling, Alternate Reality Games (for example The Blair Witch Project), Viral Marketing/Internet Hoaxes and Collaborative Fiction. Pepin delivers his shtick with a mix of scientific jargon, Eastern mysticism and pop-culture references that seems designed to flatter his listeners and fan their intellectual vanity. What pours out of his mouth is a nonstop, grammatically twisted stream of loosely connected concepts, delivered in a strong New England accent. In one recording, he explains his often rambling delivery. "I am trying to share knowledge from a dimensional state of consciousness, and slowing them down to convert into a physical format for you to understand," he explains. "This is not an easy task." Pitkin writes: On a scale of spiritual gurus, with New Age inspirational speaker Tony Robbins on one end and Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite on the other, Pepin tilts much closer to Robbins' benign self-improvement end of the spectrum. Not as materialistic as New Thought minister Michael Beckwith, nor as simplistic as the Oprah-backed bestseller The Secret, Pepin has made his reputation by mixing their seltzerized spirituality with explicit claims about psychic powers—a rarity in mainstream New Age circles. But Pepin has also generated considerable controversy in New Age circles, including persistent claims that he's used his guru status to sexually prey on followers. Pepin, who vehemently denies the allegations, beat a child sex-abuse rap in a Washington County criminal trial in 2007. But a stumbling block to Pepin's mainstream success are further allegations of sex abuse that continue to turn up on the Internet. Those allegations now threaten to drag Pepin back into court for a second time. Pitkin writes: In 2006, Pepin and 21-year-old Jamison Priebe—a member of Pepin's spiritual inner circle as well as his romantic partner and employee—were arrested after a former acolyte claimed he was sexually abused by Pepin and Priebe when the victim was 17. After a five-day trial in which prosecutors accused Pepin of running a cult to recruit sex partners, a Washington County judge acquitted Pepin and Priebe of multiple counts of sex abuse. Now his accuser is pressing a $3.1 million civil lawsuit in the hope of winning a courtroom victory. Pepin admits having an affair with the man, but says it was after the man turned 18. He says he's been baited by prosecutors and the media. Who could be easier to demonize, he asks, than a man painted as a "gay cult leader"? Robison said the impact on business has been severe—Google searches of Pepin's name still generate accounts of the alleged abuse. Yearly sales, Robison says, have dropped 25 percent from $2 million to $1.5 million as a result. Pepin lost a $4.4 million federal lawsuit he filed in 2008 against Sign of the Times, a New Age website that accused Pepin of running a "front for pedophilia." "We're cleared of those charges, but in the public's eye we're guilty," Robison says. "That's a trial you're never going to win." His accuser, now a 22-year-old musician living in Northwest Portland, calls Pepin a master manipulator who sexually preys on nearly all of his inner circle of attractive young men. He says Pepin calls this "crossing the abyss." Pepin admits he's slept with several of the men on his staff, but says that's nothing unusual given that they've been friends for years. Those allegations are the reason Rick Ross, a New Jersey-based national expert on cults, calls Higher Balance a full-blown destructive cult, with Pepin exploiting the group. "When you have a person that has the kind of authority that he exercises over his followers, there is an imbalance of power," Ross says. "This is very similar to a psychiatrist who takes advantage of patients or a teacher who has an affair with a pupil." Pepin hits back, saying that established religions throw around the "cult" label to protect their own business. "They finger-point and say everyone else is a cult," he says. "I call it challenging their jobs." Ross says Pepin is dodging the question. "The reason he is in court right now is not because he claims he can travel between dimensions or change the weather," Ross says. "The allegation is that he used his spiritual authority, his aura of power, to take advantage and exploit someone. The issue is behavior, not belief." On his website Pepin has carefully made his own defense: https://ericpepin.com/surprising-facts-about-eric-pepins-lawsuit/ https://ericpepin.com/dark-secrets-behind-eric-pepin-police-case-revealed/ Pitkin is fair towards Pepin and writes in the end of the article: Despite such bold claims, Pepin insists in interviews he remains humble—even after a student in L.A. last month asked to touch Pepin's feet. Pepin refused. "I don't want someone to think I'm God, because I certainly don't believe I'm God," Pepin says. "I tell people, 'Don't call me an enlightened master,'" he says. "I can't live up to your expectations. I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to make errors, and you're going to put me in a stature that I can't uphold. That's my worst fear." Below I will describe three aspects of Pepin, which show how he is a typical Matrix Sophist: 1. Gaslightning 2. Playing the Enlightenment Card 3. Spiritual vampire 1. Gaslightning The first thing you hear from Matrix Sophists like Eric Pepin is that you should begin to doubt your own perception of reality. This is also the first words of Morpheus in the movie The Matrix. Because reality doesn´t exist, as these sophists say, except in your own perception. This is a central headline on a multitude of New Age websites lending material from The Matrix. But hereafter the whole thing about this movie is turned upside down, and you suddenly discover that what these Matrix sophists actually support, is the machines and agent Smith, not the rebels, who try to break through to the real reality outside the Matrix (this would not be possible if there isn´t any difference between the Matrix and reality). The Matrix Sophists represent the scene in the movie where you see a multitude of agent Smith clones. You could also say that they try to convince you to take the blue pill instead of the red pill (see my pop culture file The Matrix). The same misunderstanding is happening when they try to act like Jedi knights (Bruce Lipton has directly performed in a video dressed like a Jedi Master talking nonsense about quantum physics), without realizing that they follow the Sith code in just about anything they say and do (I demonstrate how in my pop culture file Star Wars). Others claim to be modern day Indiana Jones´s (see the Matrix Dictionary entry on Jay Weidner). Anyway, how can you triumph over the claim that reality doesn´t exist? What is the fantastic about that? All spiritual traditions claim the opposite: Reality exists, and you can find it. But that´s how it is promoted: That reality doesn´t exist is fantastic news. The whole idea is namely that then you can privatize reality, you can make reality into your own private property, hereunder mine, since my person only is a dream in your overall ruling perception, which you can control entirely with your mind, and furthermore: when you have become enlightened, you can create whatever reality you like, just like God. And since the right to property or right to own property (cf. ownership) often is classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions – then capitalists love this idea (though the idea itself makes it meaningless to talk about human rights, since other humans only are dreams in your perception, and which you therefore don´t have to take seriously). When confronted with such claims, I like to use the words of my professor in philosophy, the late David Favrholdt: “We here speak about a reductionism, which conclusions are so rabid and stark raving stupid, that we hardly can give an account of them without immediately becoming accused of having distorted them. The bad news is that we haven´t distorted anything.” The last thing it can be connected with is philosophy; but of course: it is a philosophy, but as a philosophy it is a shipwreck. Meeting these Matrix Sophists is like meeting the creatures in Alice in Wonderland (which of course also are praised by them – completely misunderstanding the role of Alice in the story). But philosophers who read Alice recognize that she is by no means the first to be victimized by the use of specious logic. In fact, the logic of Wonderland has a long real-life history in philosophy. The great Greek philosopher Socrates, famous for saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being,” had no contend with a clique of the above-mentioned self-proclaimed savants calling themselves Sophists. They were notorious for using logic precisely to prevent such examination in favour of cleverly demonstrating how you could believe in six impossible things – before or after breakfast, as the Queen in Wonderland claims she can. The Sophists took their name from the Greek word Sophia, meaning “wisdom,” to advertise their claim to be wise men, but to many who listened to their arguments, wiseass seemed like a more fitting sobriquet (philosophy means love of wisdom). In the Euthydemus Plato, who recorded many of Socrates´s dialogues with his contemporaries, recounts how Socrates and some of his young friends are drawn into a conversation with two such Sophists – the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus – who treat them to a cavalcade of arguments that rival those of Wonderland and Looking-Glass creatures in absurdity. They confuse Socrates´s young friend Cleinias as dreadfully as their counterparts do Alice, goading him through fallacious reasoning to consider – if not in the end believe – considerable more than six impossible things! (see my pop culture file Alice in Wonderland). Gaslightning could be a common term of the Sophist propaganda used in the Matrix Conspiracy ideology where psychologizing, emotionalizing and therapeutizing theories are introduced everywhere in schools, higher education and workplaces (you can quite easy discover this yourself). Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or members of a group, hoping to make targets question their own memory, perception, and sanity (this happens via the implantation of the victimization culture). Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief. Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed. For example, in the movie Gaslight (1944), a man manipulates his wife to the point where she thinks she is losing her mind. It is clear that proponents of especially relativism, subjectivism and idealism, and hereby the whole of the ideology where psychologizing, emotionalizing and therapeutizing theories are ideological goals, love to question people´s sense of reality, perception and sanity [note that totalitarian regimes always have used relativism and subjectivism as weapons – read more in my Matrix dictionary entries The Matrix Conspiracy Fascism and Doublethink]. In my entry on A Course in Miracles (which is a basic text of the New Thought movement, which Eric Pepin just is another disciple of) I show the brainwashing techniques as well as I give you a peek behind the red curtain: a peek of Hell that is. 2. Playing the Enlightenment Card As you can see above: Eric Pepin is a direct enlightenment claimant; when it suits him, that is. When it doesn´t suits him he is gaslightning the claim in order to avoid critique. He doesn´t mind contradicting himself, on the contrary. His whole teaching is about destroying peoples´ natural logical sense. We´re back at the time of Jesus, where hordes of false prophets and Messiah claimants ravaged around. In Wikipedia you find a list of Messiah claimants followed by this list, which shows how big the phenomenon is (also see the Matrix Dictionary entry on Spiritual Placebo): List of avatar claimants List of Buddha claimants False prophet List of people who have been considered deities Messianic Age Messianism (Read more in my pop culture file on Monty Python). It is important to understand that the New Thought movement, and therefore Pepin, is building on Berkeleyan subjective idealism. Subjective idealism, or empirical idealism, is the monistic metaphysical doctrine that only minds and mental contents exist. It entails and is generally identified or associated with immaterialism, the doctrine that material things do not exist. Subjective idealism rejects dualism, neutral monism, and materialism; indeed, it is the contrary of eliminative materialism, the doctrine that only material things, and no mental things, exist. Like the whole New Age ideology as such, this kind of Western idealism is confused as being identical with the Eastern concept of Maya (the world as illusion). The same confusion is seen in the notion that Eastern philosophy and spiritual practice must be integrated with [reduced to] Western psychology and psychotherapy. Pepin´s goal state of enlightenment is similar to George Berkeley´s concept of God. A convinced adherent of Christianity, Berkeley believed God to be present as an immediate cause of all our experiences. He did not evade the question of the external source of the diversity of the sense data at the disposal of the human individual. He strove simply to show that the causes of sensations could not be things, because what we called things, and considered without grounds to be something different from our sensations, were built up wholly from sensations. There must consequently be some other external source of the inexhaustible diversity of sensations. The source of our sensations, Berkeley concluded, could only be God; He gave them to man, who had to see in them signs and symbols that carried God's word. Here is Berkeley's proof of the existence of God: “Whatever power I may have over my own thoughts, I find the ideas actually perceived by Sense have not a like dependence on my will. When in broad daylight I open my eyes, it is not in my power to choose whether I shall see or no, or to determine what particular objects shall present themselves to my view; and so likewise as to the hearing and other senses; the ideas imprinted on them are not creatures of my will. There is therefore some other Will or Spirit that produces them.” (Berkeley. Principles #29) As T.I. Oizerman explained: “Berkeley's mystic idealism (as Kant aptly christened it = subjective idealism) claimed that nothing separated man and God (except materialist misconceptions, of course), since nature or matter did not exist as a reality independent of consciousness. The revelation of God was directly accessible to man, according to this doctrine; it was the sense-perceived world, the world of man's sensations, which came to him from on high for him to decipher and so grasp the divine purpose.” This conception of God (the good, the true and the beautiful) is invalid, because it has no reason for that the cause of our sensations not as well might be the Devil (the evil, the false and the ugly). The latter might even be a better explanation, if you take the theory seriously, that is. You could say it otherwise: subjective idealism is self-refuting: subjectivism considers all views as subjective, and therefore equally true. But subjectivism is logical fallacious because it considers itself as being true. It can precisely, in accordance with its own built-in subjectivism, not itself be regarded as truer than for example objectivism, or any other ism. For that reason it is followed by a long line of self-contradictions. The self-contradiction is that subjectivism makes an exception of its own position: the very assertion of subjectivism is itself nonsubjectivistic. Pepin confuses Berkeley´s concept of God with the Eastern concept of enlightenment (I haven´t read all of Pepin´s books, so I´m not sure that Pepin at all knows Berkeley, but the philosophy from where he has stolen his ideas is certainly building on Berkeley´s subjective idealism – for example the simulation theory). He therefore seems unaware of the possibility for authentic realization of the Supreme God-Self or Atman (though quoting a lot of Eastern sources), this Self is not other than the transcosmic, Suprapersonal Divine Reality or Brahman. This incomparable, supernal Reality is what the Buddha independently calls Nirvana, the “Unborn, Uncompounded, Unmade,” Awareness-sans-surface (vinnana anidassana). What Pepin, as well as New Age as such, do, is to place enlightenment in the subject, which would end in metaphysical solipsism, the terrible result of a total metaphysical subjectivism. You could term it "Black Enlightenment." As mentioned, you can read more about this in my article on A Course in Miracles. The Eastern notion of enlightenment is the direct opposite. So also this is turned upside down. The Eastern notion of enlightenment is metaphysical objectivism. It is the complete experience of reality itself, or the complete absence of the subject (the complete absence of the Matrix). You could also say that the subject has been made transparent in objective light. The subject is open like a Lotus flower for the sun. So, even the Eastern idealists have this as an end goal. Their idealism is founded in this, wherefore they don´t end in solipsism. Pepin´s philosophy is founded in subjective idealism. I have explained, and debunked, this confusion of Berkeleyan subjective idealism with Eastern notions of metaphysical idealism/metaphysical naturalism several places (for some new explanations see The Matrix Dictionary entries on Simulation Theory and Robert Lanza, as well as the pop culture file on Star Wars). Eric Pepin is not an enlightened master. All of the above show that he isn´t. In a true enlightened master there is no contradiction between teaching and way of life; there is no hypocrisy, well, in fact no thought distortions at all. Most of all: a true master will radiate love. But the latter is tricky, because people would say that any charismatic person is radiating love. In fact, it is not a good argument (see my entry on Spiritual Placebo). Ask yourself the more philosophical question: Is this person a highly developed ethical person? Always remember Dalai Lama´s words about that you´ll never attain enlightenment without developing an ethical mind. You can´t be ethical and unethical at the same time. It is a lie. A quite central thing is to be openminded to fallibility (unfortunately this is also abused in New Age, which accuses any doubters and critics of being closedminded). But to be openminded to fallibility is to be open for that both yourself and the guru could be wrong or even false. Here you ought to be aware of thought distortions such as Selective thinking and Confirmation bias. In this context a good advice would be to study all sources of critique of the guru you can find. There will always be some critique, but if the bad things are overshadowing the good things, there is reason for consideration (read more in my entry Playing the Enlightenment Card). Spiritual Vampire Based on the above I will leave it to the reader to ponder whether Eric Pepin is a spiritual vampire or not. Spiritual Vampires – The Use and Misuse of Spiritual Power, is a book by Marty Raphael. In this day and age of spiritual teachers that come in every conceivable guise, Spiritual Vampires is an important manual on the appropriate use of power - a strategy for healthy spiritual recovery for those who have been subject to religious abuse. Marty Raphael bravely names a form of abuse we'd rather believe does not exist. Her personal story of healing is a powerful contribution to the healing of all spiritual abuse survivors! People whose lives center on destroying other people's lives by disempowering them, who reduce their victims to dependent subjects to be lorded over, have been called spiritual vampires. Some of the therapists, ministers and gurus I've written about elsewhere in my articles and books could be called spiritual vampires, very aptly. In the beginning of the book Raphael tells that she has known many spiritual vampires in her time, and that she has done some vampiring herself. In coming to an awareness of the vampiring process, she has discovered that there are three basic types of vampires: the parasite, the predator, and the perpetrator. Vampirism is a progressive disease, she tells, that begins with parasitic activity, devolves to predatorial activity and finally erupts into some type of serious perpetration. She doesn´t believe anyone is born a vampire. We are all born filled to the brim with truth, she tells. Our spiritual journey is a process of discovering the truth that lives within us. The way we ordinarily discover this truth is through the mirroring we get from our spiritual teachers, helpers, therapists, and so on. We all long for an undistorted mirror of the truth. And there are many mirrors, she tells. But unfortunately, there are not many mirrors that reflect the truth without distortion. Who are the vampires? Raphael asks. There are the spiritual teachers who are distorted mirrors. They can´t reflect the truth clearly because they are busy serving their own selfish and desperate needs for love, validation, and power. Whether ignorantly or consciously, they feed on the spiritual blood of others, and they are vampires. Not everyone who sits under their tutelage is vampired. Whether or not vampiring occurs depends on a student´s level of susceptibility to vampires. Unfortunately, Raphael continues, when children are the victims of vampires, they are often bled far beyond any possibility of recovery. These children grow up to be vampires themselves. Spiritual abuse includes any malice of thought, act, or emotion that emanates from one being and is aimed at another. All spiritual abuse is a penetration of another person´s energy field. In addition, spiritual incest sometimes includes the sexual violation of a person. However, spiritual incest is not limited to the abuse of sexual energy. Our body, our sexuality, and our personality are all aspects of our spirituality. Therefore, Raphael says, incest, molestation, and sexual harassment as they are traditionally defined in our culture are all types of spiritual abuse. In the myths of vampires, the victims either die or become vampires, depending on how strong they are physically. If they are relatively healthy, they can withstand death and become immortal beings with super human powers. If they are weak, they die. Victims are usually attacked while they are sleeping. Unaware that anything has changed, they are appalled at their behavior the next day. They seem to be possessed, helpless to refrain from vampiring others. Spiritual sexual perpetrators and vampires are often similarly surprised to discover they have been attacked and equally mystified they victimize others. Many purely intentioned, spiritual service workers are unknowingly made into vampires. For example, the church, through its ignorant translation of the doctrine of celibacy, makes sexual perpetrators out of many spiritual helpers. Their sexual energy is repressed for so long that its final, explosive expression is overwhelming and harmful not only to their victims, but also to themselves. I have written about spiritual vampires in my articles Spiritual Vampires and The Vampirised Spirit of John Rosen, and in my book Lucifer Morningstar – a Philosophical Love Story. Related in The Matrix Dictionary: Simulation theory Doublethink The Matrix Conspiracy Updates The Matrix Conspiracy Fascism Stephen Hawking Bruce Lipton Rupert Sheldrake Robert Lanza Doublethink Anti-intellectualism and Anti-science Bridge between Science and Spirituality Related articles: The New Thought Movement and the Law of Attraction The Matrix Conspiracy The Fascism of Theosophy Also Related: The Matrix Dictionary |
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