Grisly cult death in Arizona

[syrenn]

Oh... and sky... you got some damn thin skin. Think you can mediate that quality away......

 

[Samson]

Read what i post sky..... i said buddhist cults retreats are just that.... run of the mill cult brain washing crap.

I said.... heavens gate type of cults.... are death cults....

What happened to all the sex cults?

Now that would be a fun three year retreat!

Damn Medieval Church......ruined it for everyone....

 

[logical4u]

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 life’s 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

Another example of people searching for spirituality from anyone or anything that is not the Lord. I guess that the Lord having power over everything, but yet has the ability to love is just incomprehensible to them.

 

[Douger]

I was expecting to read about a Southern Baptist bomb shelter.

 

[Sky Dancer]

It's best if I do not comment any further on this thread.

 

[amrchaos]

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 life’s 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

Just reading the posted part of the article, I get the sense that this "spiritual retreat" was not planned out well.

Should not a spiritual retreat not stress the body, but instead calm it so that one can place focus on his inner most thoughts and being?

So the concept that it is possible to become dehydrated, starving, or in some kind of physical distress or pain at such a retreat tend to suggest the opposite.

I can understand the concept of fasting and so forth, but to do this in a harsh environment actually defeat the purpose. The purpose of "suffering" as a spiritual exercise is to experience

 

[Sky Dancer]

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 life’s 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

Just reading the posted part of the article, I get the sense that this "spiritual retreat" was not planned out well.

Should not a spiritual retreat not stress the body, but instead calm it so that one can place focus on his inner most thoughts and being?

So the concept that it is possible to become dehydrated, starving, or in some kind of physical distress or pain at such a retreat tend to suggest the opposite.

I can understand the concept of fasting and so forth, but to do this in a harsh environment actually defeat the purpose. The purpose of "suffering" as a spiritual exercise is to experience

Actually, what happened is this couple was asked to leave the retreat land because of a DV incident involving a sword where one of them was injured. The man who died, Ian Thorson, was mentally ill. From the letter I read of his wife, she is mentally ill, as well.

 

[catzmeow]

Well, this lasted all of 1 post.

 

[catzmeow]

Should not a spiritual retreat not stress the body, but instead calm it so that one can place focus on his inner most thoughts and being?

Not necessarily. Some belief systems push people to experience physical pain and deprivation to escalate spiritual experiences.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Well, this lasted all of 1 post.

 

[Sky Dancer]

I do that on purpose. Change my mind, frequently.