Ultra-Orthodox, Israel, University Bible Fellowship (UBF), Patricia Hearst, Gaslighting, China, Religious Discrimination, MSM, Canada, Legal, Transcendental Meditation
"Moshe Lifshitz says he always felt motivated to serve in the Israeli army even though, as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, he was entitled to a military exemption."“I don’t know where my desire to serve in the IDF came from, but I’ve always felt it,” said Lifshitz, who spent three years in a combat unit and still performs yearly reserve duty.“My father didn’t serve and neither did my nearly 100 cousins, not that I hold it against them.”Lifshitz is one of a growing number of ultra-Orthodox — also known as haredi — men who have defied expectations and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. They join despite often intense pressure from other haredim to study sacred texts full time and avoid the military.
A list compilation of press releases of UBF ex-members and press articles.
"Patricia Hearst has spoken out against two new projects about her high-profile kidnapping and ordeal with a guerrilla group, Deadline reports.""The heiress was abducted from her apartment in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Over a year and half later, she was arrested with other members after participating in some of their crimes. Hearst served time in prison, though she maintains she was brainwashed by the group (she was eventually pardoned in 2001).""Her case is the subject of an upcoming CNN docuseries – The Radical Story of Patty Hearst – and an unnamed Fox 2000 film starring Elle Fanning, based on Jeffrey Toobin’s recent unauthorized book, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial ."
BBC: Cheating and manipulation: Confessions of a gaslighter
"Greg, a Canadian lawyer, is 28 but he's already had 11 serious relationships. He says each of those relationships ended with infidelity, on his part, and severe self-doubt on the part of the women. He is a self-confessed "gaslighter"."
"Chinese police officers demolished one of the country’s largest evangelical churches this week, using heavy machinery and dynamite to raze the building where more than 50,000 Christians worshiped.""The Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi Province was one of at least two Christian churches demolished by the authorities in recent weeks, part of what critics describe as a national effort to regulate spiritual life in China.""Under President Xi Jinping, the government has destroyed churches or removed their steeples and crosses as part of a campaign that reflects the Communist Party’s longstanding fear that Christianity, viewed as a Western philosophy, is a threat to the party’s authority."
A B.C. man and an Alberta woman face dozens of Food and Drug Act charges related to the promotion of a so-called miracle tonic touted as capable of curing everything from AIDS to autism."The charges against Stanley and Sara Nowak follow years of Health Canada warnings about the sale of sodium chlorite, a bleach that a global community of believers is convinced can eliminate pathogens and poisons from the body when diluted with water."
Transcendental Meditation Initiation Puja
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi recalls visiting Kerala in 1955 and instituting the puja ceremony in order to teach meditation:-'And now I remember when I begin to look into the past, what I, what happened. the first such thing happened somewhere in Kerala, where I went from Uttar Kashi to Kerala, dakshina [Hindi for 'south'] .. South India, and people wanted to learn this practice of meditation.I thought: "What to do, what to do, what to do?" then I thought, "I should teach them all in the name of Guru Dev. I should design a system, a system of puja to Guru Dev."And in that puja the reality came out, the reality of Guru Dev, the totality of Guru Dev and what it was:"Gurur Brahma", the Creator, "Gurur Vishnur", the Maintainer"Gurur Brahma", the Creator, "Gurur Vishnur", the Maintainer, the Administrator,"Guruh Sakshat Param Brahma", totality of knowledge, totality of enlightenment."Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Gurur Devo Maheshvarah", silence, "Shiva","Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Gurur Devo Maheshvarah", "Shiva", silence, eternal Purusha."Guruh Sakshat, Param Brahma", transcendental "Brahma".Totality of all, infinite diversity, that is the guru - "na guror adhikam*", "na guror adhikam" - "there is no one greater than guru", guru is everything, Creator, Maintainer, Sustainer, everything is the guru, the guru, the guru.I formulated the puja to Guru Dev, I started through that instrumentality to transfer Guru Dev’s reality to the one who wanted to teach meditation [Maharishi himeself]. So what flowed was, totality of Guru Dev, flowed through the puja.'- transcript of Maharishi speaking on 21st October 2007