A witch hunt

[sarah]

Dear All,

I have received a private message asking if I am a moderator because of my thread on karma. I just had a look at that thread and there are comments about rumours that I do not exist, that somebody said in cult exit that I don't exist, and that the general feeling is that I am a moderator.

I can assure you I am a woman who recently left a BK centre after being involved for five years and I came on this forum for support. My self esteem is low enough at the moment, on the one hand I felt the BKs undermined me as an individual and gradually took away my identity, and yet on the other hand I feel lost without the meditation, the community, the positive values.

On this website I thought I had found a way to deal with this and I genuinely believed that I could say whatever I liked and be as open as I could - how refreshing it would be to be able to have the freedom not to be worried that I would be criticised for my views.

I come on this forum today having been away for a few days only to find these comments and to be directed to the cult exit forum where a whole topic in the main page is dedicated to revealing me as a hoax or in fact a 'sock puppet of the moderator'. On my karma thread on this forum I have been asked to identify myself. I would imagine that this rumour is probably from somebody trying to undermine this very site, and trust me, they have. I would feel very uncomfortable about expressing anything I feel on this forum again. To see my posts as anything other than heartfelt and sincere pleas for clarity, is to completely miss the point of what this forum is about - support, encouragement, freedom of expression, openess and informed help. I appreciate that the 'witch hunt' started on cult exit, but seems to have carried over to this site too, and members of this forum I notice have posted very angry comments about me on cult exit. I appear to have been investigated and one criticism is that I do not post from the place I say I am from? Do you know how much courage it took for me to actually come on one of these forums and speak out for the first time? Whoever started this rumour could have had the courage to contact me privately and resolve this rather than create what seems to be a modern form of the old Victorian feathering and tarring, on two major websites

I am not a moderator. I have not been planted on websites as some sort of spy and I do not waste my time pretending to be somebody I am not just for the sake of my amusement. It is one thing to start the rumour, but for those of you who added your venom, that was a bit foolish wasn't it? Maybe I should just deal with cult exit. It is just it was flagged up on my thread on karma on this forum that I am not a real person, and the debate on cult exit, in which members of this forum have taken part, is really a bit personal.

thanks and goodbye,

Sarah

[pilatus]

Dear Sarah,

Please don't let the actions and words of one idiot affect your decision whether to engage with the forum or not. I know very little (and care even less) about the mechancis of moderation. However, no-one could have really read your initial set of postings on the forum and concluded that you weren't real! Your story is very touching and similar to others we've all shared with each other over the last few years. I understand that you may now want to be more cautious about your sharing with the forum (but don't forget that you can use personal messaging directly to those you feel you can trust). Please don't throw the baby out with the bath water...

Lots of love and best wishes,

[arjun]

I come on this forum today having been away for a few days only to find a complete witch hunt on my karma thread and being asked to identify myself! I do not have to identify myself. I feel so let down. I would imagine that this malicious rumour is probably from somebody trying to undermine this very site, and trust me, they have. I would not trust this forum with my feelings ever again.

Dear Sister,

Om Shanti. I sympathise with you for the bad experience that you are undergoing due to a rumour spread by someone on some other site. As you have said, it has definitely been done by some cowardly person to undermine the growing popularity of this site. But you should not let some rumour-monger to control your life. You have given a fitting reply to the rumour monger and I believe you will definitely overcome this difficult phase of life and emerge victorious. Baba says that women are not weaker sex :( but a shakti (embodiment of power) :P and capable of working wonders :o .

So, go ahead and show everyone what you are capable of :wink:.

As regards the rumour mongers :evil:, they will try their best :shock: . In a web-world we cannot avoid them, but can definitely deal with them effectively if we believe that what we are doing is correct/true 8) .

Regards,
On Godly Service,
Arjun

[primal.logic]

Dear Sarah. I am surprised. I have never heard of something like this happenning on this site before. Maybe a new strategy from the BKs? Even that would be a surprise. But it also highglights the reason we remain anonymous.

As ex-BKs we all know what it is you are going through. We don't doubt you or your sincerity. It may be that you have been confronted by another ex-BK who is still in the angry/bitter stage (normal) and has vented on something he/she saw as pro-bk.

I think there is too much that is critical to us as ex-BKs on this site to leave. We are all here for you.

[bansy]

Sarah,

I have received a private message asking if I am a moderator

Can you tell us who has sent you whatever messages. You should not fear that, get it out of your mental block and let the world know.

Either that, or the person owns up, if you are willing to wait for that.

Thereafter, you do not need to use the member "Sarah" anymore and sign on as another new member, remain anonymous, and slowly work your way round the forum and website and find out what bits will be useful to you.

Don't let a stupid act of another take your own self respect away and the genuine help that is available. If you do leave in an unhappy way, you will be carrying it with you and you will feel it unfair (as like now). One does not need to be a BK to understand this, my mum told me this.

Just a suggestion. Anyway, whatever your choice, I do hope you find some of ways of releasing the burdens brought upon you by BKWSU. Some people, it seems, are carrying this still after many many more years, but I have been fortunate to not have had any major conflicts with BKWSU. It is not just the BKs who say so but others too, that women are the most tolerant.

[sarah]

Thanks everyone. The truth is, the person who sent me a message to let me know that I was being accused is actually a good person and somebody on this forum I trust. This person was just making me aware that there was a 'situation' and I am grateful to them for letting me know. The comments that were being expressed on the karma thread were getting carried away, but they were nothing like the comments being made on 'Cult Exit.' They made me feel quite sick to be honest. I still cannot read them and have decided to unsubscribe to that website. What shocked me the most is that members on this forum who I have got a lot of support from and had some sort of 'forum' friendship with, were posting really nasty comments about me, calling me a sock puppet and making statements such that they had been wasting their time with me on this forum if I did not exist.

It is very difficult to be able to think on continuing with this forum because it is exactly that kind of suspicion, fear and looking over your shoulder that caused me to use a pseudonym for my name and my location, which seems to be one reason why I was singled out. I live in fear of the members of the centre I left turning up and knocking on my door. Is it such a bad thing to use a pseudonym?

I appreciate the very genuine people on this forum, but I have been on the receiving end of a few people who I think may be less honest than they could be and I can only send them best wishes because it cannot be a nice place to be. It is a shame that the karma thread took the turn it did because I got a lot of support from the replies and some of them really moved me. Imagine my surprise when I go to the forum to find that I am then being accused of being an instrument of a moderator? I surely do not deserve that sort of public attack. Anyone who was worried could have just sent me a private message without choosing to take out some sort of public trial. The person/s on this forum who posts on cult exit and twisted the karma thread into a rather nasty direction knows who he is and I am going to send the person/s best wishes and blessings because they possibly need them.

[bansy]

Sarah,

I respect your decision.

The reason why I am concerned on this is that I am a so-called "moderator", which I have not qualms in letting others know about this, and others have gotten to know this over these years, not because of my limited moderator duties but through the many posts and discussions and sharing. But I would like to have my name cleared from this "moderator" finger pointing, and thereafter I can move on. Can you see why your situation anguishes me more so because I do not know who the other moderators are in this forum (does anyone know who they are?), and anyway, as I said in the karma thread, my role as a moderator is more or less defunct. I should have removed my moderator role long time ago.

I have asked you to reveal the person in public but for your own reasons, you will not, so I ask you in this thread to at least clear my name from the list of moderators on this forum. After all, you also say about suspicion and fear and someone looking over the shoulder. Well, this mishap, which it is truly unfortunate, does not apply to everyone but from that single careless person.

I leave it up to you to decide how you wish to handle the person who is causing you grief and confusion. I also leave it up to you to clear my name but you have also, unconsciously, pulled me in at the receiving end. I know you did not intend this, but all I am doing is removing any suspicion linked to me, as I hold nothing against you or anyone for that matter, but feel I deserve a fair judgement. Otherwise all the thousand or so posts I have made mean nothing.

I am sorry that this forum is not working so far for you now, but maybe over time you will realise the benefits outweigh your fears. It does take time. There is no need to apologise to me, just stating that I have nothing to do with this situation, will be enough. Can you do that? If you don't then I stand accused in your eyes.

admin,

Please remove my moderator duties. After all, I do not need them. And I am glad this has come up now so that I can eventually action it. Well, my time with this forum is almost complete. I have plenty of lokik and alokik things to do, though I continue to remain a member so as to participate in other chats and gather other useful advice when they come up. Thanks for placing your trust in me, and also thanks to many members for placing their trust in me (though actually I had little much to do).

[sarah]

Bansy, I have no idea who exactly started it, but I know for sure it was not you.

I know that somebody called Hugh Man on Cult Exit started up a thread on the main page asking for honesty from this forum due to the fact that he had heard that 'sarah' did not exist. It all became very vague with other post being added to his thread, some from members of this forum, some from names i did not recognise, but basically they were just going along with it. Some accusations were vague such as 'I know personally a person who informs me that Sarah is not posting from where she says she lives' and this sort of thing. I also read another comment from such as 'is she a sock puppet of the moderator.' It is difficult to see where it started.

Maybe I got it out of proportion but it just seemed that the level of hatred and anger coming out of comments felt like a personal attack. I don't know what caused Hugh Man, whoever he is, to start the thread and claim he had received a tip off, and I don't know why it got so out of hand. I did not see any comments from you of the nature of the above and I have only ever had support and really informed debate and advice from any comments that you have made.

Just for the record: I do not know who started it. I know it was not Bansy. I really do not want this subject to continue because it really is detracting from the good work on this site.

Sarah

[primal.logic]

Hughman made comments on another site that are his own creation based on his own speculation. It has flowed onto this site which is completely unnecessary.

What I don't understand is why EVERYONE did not see Hughman's comments for what they were - total rubbish - and just leave it at that. His ignorance and lunacy seem obvious.

And Bansy, why do you feel accused? Has Hughman made you feel that being a moderator is a sin? What are you guilty of that you so vigorously deny being a moderator? Nothing. But reading your post would make a casual observer think you had been accused of paedophilia!

Can we stop this now?

[bansy]

Primal, do you think I worry about the casual observer ? Anyway, yes, we can now stop this thread because Sarah has requested it. It is all so easy for me or you or for another to give comments and encouragements, but she's the one who was targeted so am sensitive to everything that is being posted. She should be the one to decide the thread to be closed, and so it will. But there is still a rogue out there, regardless of whatever rubbishy comments made, but has put a sour twist to this facade.

And whilst doing so, she has just simply reminded me of what it takes to be a moderator, which I do not have much time to do anyway since the forum has for most part in the last year been running along fine on its own, and hence there is no need for me to be a moderator anyway.

Sarah, thanks for your comments, and try not to let this get you down. Healing takes time so use your time well.

[fluffy bunny]

I have never heard of something like this happenning on this site before. Maybe a new strategy from the BKs? Even that would be a surprise. But it also highglights the reason we remain anonymous.

Well, it always amazes me how individuals will sign up to do the Brahma-kumaris dirty work for them.

Whether it is "making that telephone call" (the one the SS discussed but wont do for themselves) to banish for life a PBK or borderline BK they don't like the look of; a center-in-charge meddling in the breakdown of someone else's family and giving little yuktis (methods) how to deceive; or whether it is a BKWSU 'defender of the faith', like this one, putting the boot into some vulnerable individual trying to put their life back into order with the product of their own mental illness ... the result is the same: good people get hurt, good things are wasted, while the lords and ladies of the new world order sit back smiling down beatifically at us.

Its almost like on a psychic level 'the snake" within has to strike out and poison that which threatens it and uses weak-minded, and often dispensable individuals to do so.

I am sorry for all those involved but this is part of the reality of life in and around the BKWSU. Don't mistake the divine vision for the reality.

[alladin]

the BKs undermined me as an individual and gradually took away my identity

... and it has happened again in a different way! But we do not need other people's respect to start respecting ourselves, nor someone to tell us whether anonymity is legitimate or not, nor do we need anyone to tell us if we exist or not or how we feel!

Witch hunt? We have our flying broom ready to take off anytime and go beyond skirmishes and paranoid or venomenous people, those who are confused or have "hidden agendas" , beyond the "side scenes" that make us waste our time and scatter our energy.

Tests, especially the unpleasant ones, make us stronger, we as individuals, and the Forum, that gets practically and psychically challenged ( wars, insults, defamation, court cases, bad vibes...) all the time but still stands and floats like a raft available for wrecked from the BK ship in particular.

Sure, this is not a "cheap" Forum but, being an open space, it is vulnerable like any other Forum, at least apparently, and in it people come and go, with all sorts of intentions, lifting a lot of dust until it settles down again. Waves come, swimmers jump on the raft, some contributing, some trying to rock it or detract from it. If sea-sickness builds up, then we can take a break and go swimming, snorkeling or diving deeper and climb back on. Trouble makers come and go, it's their role, see how many good answers Gyan has, solutions we can experiment ? One more: stability! :wink:

[sarah]

The discussion on whether i exist or not is still running on cult exit in spite of my thread protesting my innocence being removed. Anyone joining that forum will assume the discussion is still current and without any 'published' protest from me being on the site any longer, will possibly still infer that I am not genuine. It may seem a petty thing, but it does undermine everything I post on this forum too and whether a test appears noble to everyone else, I still feel very uncomfortable about it.

[andrey]

For me sarah is a real person and there is no doubt about it. But if the matter of genuine and made up persons has been raised maybe there is such practice. With the risk to harm a real person but i find this odd:

http://www.brahmakumaris.info/forum/vie ... 6&start=30

it is the first post of tom, it is very ex-l style and very pro ex-l to be real.

[alladin]

Andrey, you are free to suspect that Tom is a shadow of ex-l, but it feels like a wasteful thought and I don't see the point of sharing such doubts by posting them. This practise is just diverting people's attention from topics and draining energy. As long as there are no proofs, seeds of mistrust one should cultivate them privately, if they enjoy doing that, I think! 8). Should we engage some private investigator or secret services to find out who is who, or move on constructively contributing in the innumerable ways we can choose to this Forum?

Sarah, please, do not get stuck in this stupid trap! Leave those people to their new fashion and occupation of spreading doubts and rumors!! The Forum is a goldmine of good topics and posts-even old ones, of course!!- that can nourish your intellect, stimulate your thinking, open your mind, entertain you, heal you, give you some answers and make you feel not alone at all! Let some fresh breeze fill your sails and move away from stagnation and the stench of decomposition! You have the fragrance of the open ocean available in front of you and around!

Some kids like playing with dirt: we don't have to join them! And Maya always takes new forms, doesn't it? :wink: Some shackles to hold to the ground the flying feet of the Forum and its members! Can we take a peep into negativity's hat trick and see what will be next???