Description:

The Guru Papers demonstrates with uncompromising clarity that authoritarian control, which once held societies together, is now at the core of personal, social, and planetary problems, and thus a key factor in social disintegration. It illustrates how authoritarianism is embedded in the way people think, hiding in culture, values, daily life, and in the very morality people try to live by. The book unmasks authoritarianism in such areas as relationships, cults, 12-step groups, religion, and contemporary morality. Chapters on addiction and love show the insidious nature of authoritarian values and ideologies in the most intimate corners of life, offering new frameworks for understanding why people get addicted and why intimacy is laden with conflict. By exposing the inner authoritarian that people use to control themselves and others, the authors show why people give up their power, and how others get and maintain it.

Author Biography:

Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad are co-authors of The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. They have written and taught together since 1974 on evolution, spirituality, relationships, values, awareness, yoga, and social issues. Their Web site is www.joeldiana.com.

Joel Kramer, the author of The Passionate Mind, did post-graduate work in philosophy and psychology and was a resident teacher at Esalen Institute (1968-1970). He is a pioneer and legend of modern American yoga whose evolutionary vision of yoga freed it from its authoritarian roots, re-visioning it for the West.

Diana Alstad, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, received a doctorate from Yale University in 1971. She taught in the humanities and initiated and taught the first Women's Studies courses at Yale and Duke. She envisioned the Yoga of Relationship and developed it with Kramer.

Reviews/Endorsements:

"Easily the most comprehensive, erudite, and timely book in print to explore authoritarianism in religion, institutions, power, the family, intimacy and sexual relations, and personal problems such as addiction....Argue[s] persuasively that any system of values that places tradition and the past above the imperative to question the present is destined to become increasingly lethal."
—Keith Thompson of The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Spells out at length the dangers of becoming addicted to another's authority in any sphere of life."
—London Times Literary Supplement

"A thorough, wide-ranging analysis of the way power has historically been maintained...Purports to be no less than a diagnosis of what's wrong with the world and how, not merely to fix it, but to save it. Its thesis is elegant and nearly unlimited in its ramifications...[Shows that] authoritarianism is not merely a political phenomenon. It's part of the way we think."
—The New Mexican

"Discusses how authoritarian leaders manipulate followers and why people surrender to them."
—Publishers Weekly

"Provocative and thorough....Unmask[s] the countless manifestations of authoritarianism in our contemporary culture. Cover[s] vast territory...rais[es] all the vitally important questions...It should definitely be placed in the hands of anyone who has been, or is, or contemplates becoming involved with a guru or cult."
—Yoga Journal

"Don't be deceived by the title. The Guru Papers is about much more than cult groups. A profoundly important critique of the covert authoritarianism of most religions...and of such cultural values as unconditional love, addiction, and twelve-step programs...Thought-provoking and radically important...Extraordinarily rich and complex...[It]can make an important contribution to [changing the old paradigms] if enough people...take it to heart and mind."
—Liberty

Preface and Map of the Book

Introduction:
Why Focus on Authoritarianism?
Authority, Hierarchy, and Power

Part 1: Personal Masks

1. Religion, Cults, & the Spiritual Vacuum
Religion and Morality
The Challenge of Science
Who Defines Reality in Religions and Cults?
Reexamining the Sacred

2. Gurus and Times of Upheaval

3. The Seductions of Surrender
Control and Surrender
Scandals, Saints, & Self-Centeredness
Recognizing Authoritarian Control

4. Guru Ploys
Inducing Surrender
Maintaining Dominance

5. The Assault on Reason

6. Stages of Cults -- Proselytizing to Paranoia
The Messianic Phase
The Apocalyptic Phase

7. The Attractions of Cult Hierarchy

8. Gurus & Sexual Manipulation
The Betrayal of Trust
Spiritual Hedonism

9. Gurus, Psychotherapy, & the Unconscious

10. The Traps of Being a Guru
Narcissism and Adulation
Deceit and Corruption

11. Jim Jones & the Jonestown Mass Suicide

12. On Channeling Disembodied Authorities
Assumptions about Channeling
An Example of Channeled Writing:
A Course in Miracles
What Are Channels Channeling?

13. Do You Create Your Own Reality?

14. Healing Crippled Self-Trust

Part 2: Ideological Masks
Introduction: The Morality Wars

1. Fundamentalism & the Need for Certainty
The Essence of Fundamentalism
The Quandaries of Revisionism
Revisionism and the Need for Identity
What's at Stake?

2. Satanism & the Worship of the Forbidden:
Why It Feels Good to Be Bad
Good and Evil
The Problem of Evil
Satanism as an Avenue to Power
The Divided Self: Good and Evil Internalized
Satanism as the Dark Side of Monotheism

3. Who Is in Control?
The Authoritarian Roots of Addiction
What Is Addiction?
The Divided Psyche:
Symptom of a Dysfunctional Morality
Taming the Beast:
The Inner Battle for Control
Addiction as Revolt Against the Inner Authoritarian
The Failings of Disease & Responsibility Models
Twelve Steps to Where?
Developing Wholeness and Self-Trust

4. Love & Control:
The Conditions underlying Unconditional Love
What Is Unconditional Love?
Love, Time, and Timelessness
Self-Sacrifice, Power, and Passion
Control and Boundaries
"Love Addiction"
Measuring and Roles
Forgiving and Letting Go
The Religious Foundation of Unconditional Love
Timeless Love through Time

5. Oneness, Enlightenment & the Mystical Experience
The Mystical Experience
Dualism and Renunciation
The Function of Enlightenment
The One-Sidedness of Oneness
Holism and Interconnectedness
Renunciation as Accumulation

6. The Power of Abstraction:
The Sacred Word & the Evolution of Morality
Abstractions and Power
From Animism to Polytheism:
The Concrete Abstractions of Idolatry
Monotheism: A Universal Abstraction
Oneness: The Culmination of Religious Abstraction
Abstraction, Either/or Thinking, and Dualism
Symbol Systems and Power
Transforming the Symbol System:
A Dialectical Perspective

Epilogue: Where to Go from Here?

Index

AUTHOR Q & A

Hear Darren Main's interview with Joel: http://darrenmain.libsyn.com/index.php?post_category=podcasts

Hear the YOGAPEEPS interview with Joel & Diana by Lara Cestone: http://yogapeeps.com/main/2007/episode-31-joel-kramer-diana-alstad/211

The Guru Papers

Masks of Authoritarian Power

Written by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad

Price: $19.95

Description:

Author Biography:

Reviews/Endorsements:

Table of Contents

AUTHOR Q & A