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The rescuers had rappelled from a helicopter, swaying in the brisk April winds as they bore down on a cave 7,000 feet up in a rugged desert mountain on the edge of this rural hamlet. There had been a call for help. Inside, they found a jug with about an inch of water, browned by floating leaves and twigs. They found a woman, Christie McNally, thirsty and delirious. And they found her husband, Ian Thorson, dead.
The puzzle only deepened when the authorities realized that the couple had been expelled from a nearby Buddhist retreat in which dozens of adherents, living in rustic conditions, had pledged to meditate silently for three years, three months and three days. Their spiritual leader was a charismatic Princeton-educated monk whom some have accused of running the retreat as a cult.
Strange tales come out of the American desert: lost cities of gold, bandit ambushes, mirages and peyote shamans. To that long list can now be added the story of the holy retreat that led to an ugly death.
The retreat in which adherents communicate only with pen and paper was designed to allow participants to employ yoga and deep meditation to try to answer some of lifes most profound questions. Mostly, though, it has only raised more questions.
Was it a genuine spiritual enclave? What happened to drive Ms. McNally and Mr. Thorson out of the camp and into the wilderness? And just why, in a quest for enlightenment, did Mr. Thorson, a 38-year-old Stanford graduate, end up dead, apparently from exposure and dehydration, in a remote region of rattlesnakes and drug smugglers?
you arent forced to go to these things...people pay them for this....i read about this story and didnt find much to blame but two people who got in over their heads
well the cult comments.....everything can be called a cult...well did koresh have a compound yet bill graham has a retreat...the power of semantics
cant people just be fucked up with the partisan crap
well the cult comments.....everything can be called a cult...well did koresh have a compound yet bill graham has a retreat...the power of semantics
The semantics were deliberate, but I am not blaming the retreat for the deaths, just using the power of words to challenge people to think.
cant people just be fucked up with the partisan crap
Yep...But of course people like QW cannot apply logic like that.
you arent forced to go to these things...people pay them for this....i read about this story and didnt find much to blame but two people who got in over their heads
Where did I blame anyone?
well the cult comments.....everything can be called a cult...well did koresh have a compound yet bill graham has a retreat...the power of semantics
The semantics were deliberate, but I am not blaming the retreat for the deaths, just using the power of words to challenge people to think.
Maybe you should try thinking.
cant people just be fucked up with the partisan crap
Yep...But of course people like QW cannot apply logic like that.
Right. I am so stupid that I actually believe that a Bhuddist retreat is a right wing cult.
The semantics were deliberate, but I am not blaming the retreat for the deaths, just using the power of words to challenge people to think.
Maybe you should try thinking.
Maybe you should pay attention to everything in my posts.
Fracking right wing cults letting people die in the desert.
The rescuers had rappelled from a helicopter, swaying in the brisk April winds as they bore down on a cave 7,000 feet up in a rugged desert mountain on the edge of this rural hamlet. There had been a call for help. Inside, they found a jug with about an inch of water, browned by floating leaves and twigs. They found a woman, Christie McNally, thirsty and delirious. And they found her husband, Ian Thorson, dead.
The puzzle only deepened when the authorities realized that the couple had been expelled from a nearby Buddhist retreat in which dozens of adherents, living in rustic conditions, had pledged to meditate silently for three years, three months and three days. Their spiritual leader was a charismatic Princeton-educated monk whom some have accused of running the retreat as a cult.
Strange tales come out of the American desert: lost cities of gold, bandit ambushes, mirages and peyote shamans. To that long list can now be added the story of the holy retreat that led to an ugly death.
The retreat in which adherents communicate only with pen and paper was designed to allow participants to employ yoga and deep meditation to try to answer some of lifes most profound questions. Mostly, though, it has only raised more questions.
Was it a genuine spiritual enclave? What happened to drive Ms. McNally and Mr. Thorson out of the camp and into the wilderness? And just why, in a quest for enlightenment, did Mr. Thorson, a 38-year-old Stanford graduate, end up dead, apparently from exposure and dehydration, in a remote region of rattlesnakes and drug smugglers?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/u...ds-in-a-grisly-death.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
The semantics were deliberate, but I am not blaming the retreat for the deaths, just using the power of words to challenge people to think.
Maybe you should try thinking.
Maybe you should pay attention to everything in my posts.
Just a friendly jab at all the people who think Buddhism never kills people.
The monk who ran the retreat, Michael Roach, had previously run a diamond business worth tens of millions of dollars and was now promoting Buddhist principles as a path to financial prosperity, raising eyebrows from more traditional Buddhists.]
