MY WEEKLY BLOG<\/p>\n
I KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF<\/p>\n
If someone claims to know you better than you know yourself,
run, don\u2019t walk, to the nearest exit. Some years back, I met with a so-called spiritual\u00a0teacher who was looking for a ghostwriter. I asked her what her favorite books\u00a0were. \u201cI don’t need to read books,\u201d she said in our first (and last) meeting.\u00a0\u201cI just look at the first page and I know everything in the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why do you want me to write a book for you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know my students better than they know themselves. I\u2019m
trying to enlighten them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where\u2019s the door? I thought. I really needed to get out of there.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m suspicious when people calls themselves a spiritual\u00a0teacher. I came of age in the sixties when a number of guru types from India crossed\u00a0the ocean and claimed to be enlightened. They told whomever would listen, \u201cI\u00a0promise you that you will become enlightened, too, if you sit with me and do\u00a0exactly what I say.\u201d They were all about themselves and attracting followers\u00a0who revered them, gave them all their money and wouldn’t make a move without their\u00a0permission.<\/p>\n
I didn’t follow any of them. I\u2019ve always listened to my own inner
counsel, but I was intrigued to research them and see who they were. It was a\u00a0diverse group:<\/p>\n
An obese drag queen said he was channeling a 200-year-old entity,
a doctor, who knew all. The good doctor told you whatever you wanted to hear.<\/p>\n
A heavily bearded \u201cwise man\u201d said, \u201cYou have sex with me and\u00a0I\u2019ll lift you into the stratosphere.\u201d Quite the quid pro quo.<\/p>\n
A woman promised that hugging her would open your third eye
\u2013 the all knowing chakra. She hurt her back from so much hugging, she ended up\u00a0in the hospital.<\/p>\n
A \u201cbreatharian\u201d boasted that he didn’t need to eat. He could\u00a0live on air. His people tried to do the same until one of his hungry followers\u00a0spotted him leaving a McDonald\u2019s with a hood pulled down over his face.<\/p>\n
A mediation teacher said he had overcome anger and insisted
that his followers smile all the time or leave. One day, one of his acolytes\u00a0was in the kitchen when the anti-anger man kicked a dog who had stolen his\u00a0sandwich.<\/p>\n
I heard a Transcendental Meditation teacher tell a student
to \u201cshut up and meditate.\u201d<\/p>\n
I met a relationship expert who was on her fourth marriage
and counting. She had a\u00a0biting temper that she regularly unleashed on her assistants\u00a0and she fired any staff member who disagreed with her.<\/p>\n
In the dire extremes, a tyrant branded his female followers\u00a0with his initials and a monster forced his flock to stay inside a sweat lodge
until several of them died of hyperthermia. Then there was Charles Manson who brainwashed\u00a0his \u201cfamily\u201d to commit heinous murders and David Koresh who forced his followers\u00a0to drink poisoned Kool-Aid?<\/p>\n
The above are real people exhibiting various degrees of destructive
behavior. As I researched them, I noticed a common thread of dogma. They were\u00a0so desperate for adoration, for groups of people to hang on their every word,\u00a0they all offered a form of the same message. \u201cI know you better than you know\u00a0yourself.\u201d That idea is so arrogant and demeaning, it has become the barometer\u00a0by which I measure a teacher\u2019s authenticity.<\/p>\n
In my experience, a good teacher encourages debate, listens well,
shows patience and tolerance, admits to personal challenges and inspires people\u00a0to think for themselves and make their own decisions. If you’re not sure what\u00a0you want to do, it can be valuable to take some time and listen to the educated\u00a0opinion of someone else. But in the end, what you believe and what you decide\u00a0to do is always best for you. No one ever knows you better than you know
yourself.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MY WEEKLY BLOG I KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF If someone claims to know you better than you know yourself,run, don\u2019t walk, to the nearest exit. Some years back, I met with a so-called spiritual\u00a0teacher who was looking for a ghostwriter. I asked her what her favorite books\u00a0were. \u201cI don’t need to read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}