You Must Not Believe in Me
Bubba Free John (Adi Da Samraj)
Originally published in
Laughing Man Magazine
Beezone note: The following articles were published and directly addressed the Jim Jones’ Jonestown Massacre, where (909 inhabitants of Jonestown (including 304 children) died of cyanide poisoning – suicide (murder?). Adi Da’s talk (You Must Not Believe in Me) was given in December 1978, one month after the massacre.
San Francisco Chronicle – Front Page – November 21, 1978
(insert by Beezone)
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No one has more thoroughly and incisively criticized cultic behavior than Master Da Free John, and the “cult” that has received the brunt of his criticism is his own following. Since the beginning of his teaching Work in the early seventies, he has steadily addressed the tendencies of devotees to relate to him as some sort of magical being who will shelter them from the vicissitudes of life. He has time and time again decried the tendency to relate to him, to the Teaching, and to the community of practitioners in superficially enthusiastic terms, as if they had “found it.” He calls cultism a beginner’s orientation to practice, describing it as “prolonged exotericism.”
The Talk
(this talk has recently been reduced to less than 12 minutes due to Adidam copyright restrictions)
Read more on what Adi Da has to say about Cultism
Cultism is the Beginner’s Level of Human Existence
Beyond the Cultic Tendency in Religion and Spirituality and in Secular Society