Saturday, March 28, 2020

NAFPS Selections: It was like being in an insane asylum

[From the New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans forum, by "Piff," November 08, 2013]:

Images above and below portray Lency Spezzano's love of Oneness University before the Great Purge of early 2014, when the University ceased being called one of POV's "two greatest inspirations."
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Chuck Spezzano says he achieved enlightenment at Oneness University in 2007. He and Lency teach Oneness practices to their own followers. Their trainers also advertise themselves as Oneness Blessing Givers.

Followers are encouraged to visit Oneness University.

Here are some quotes from someone who visited Oneness University in 2011. She was recruited by a Unity church teacher.

Quote

    After arriving in India and traveling out of Chennai my concerns began when we drove up to the Oneness University “campus” and realized that it was a locked down facility with guards at the gate and high walls with barbed wire.  It is out in the middle of nowhere, so there wasn’t much of an alternative other than to go into the campus. To me it felt like I had ended up in a minimum security prison with a few people I knew, but we were to be in silence, so I couldn’t talk to them. There were bars on our dormitory windows and guards at the entrance to each dormitory, the dining hall, and the “class room” where we had our daily yoga instruction/indoctrination.

Quote

    The circumstances surrounding the activities of the program were so disorienting that it took a few days for me to put it all together and realize that far from a healing retreat, I had ended up half way around the world, and at great expense, in the middle of a cult.  It was like being in an insane asylum.  During the yogas and time spent at the temple, many of the 200 plus people in the program lost total control of themselves and cried out loud, screamed, hit themselves, laughed hysterically, and rolled around on the floor.  Some appeared to be having psychotic breaks.  This was encouraged by the Oneness staff, and no aid was given to these people.  In addition to the chaos surrounding me, I was also dealing with the tactics of the cult designed to break you down and surrender yourself to them.

Quote

    Even after we had made it through the interview/indoctrination process (during which the Oneness US rep told us that the program was like a combination of est and getting hit in the head by a 2×4) required by Oneness for us to leave and we were able to get into the cars we had hired to take us back to Chennai, I didn’t actually know if they were going to let us out until the guards stepped away and the gates opened and the cars drove out.

Quote

    After getting home I felt traumatized and fell into a very deep depression.  I felt surrounded by emptiness.  I was sleeping about 20 hours a day, which lasted for about two weeks.  Gradually I was able to be up for a few hours more at a time. I had one chant in particular from the yoga sessions that kept repeating in my head, and I had to sing songs to myself to stop the sound of the chant. This problem with the chanting went on for about two weeks.  I had a great deal of trouble relating to anything in my life, including family and friends.  I found that the only people I could comfortably talk to were the others who went on the trip with me.  We were all very traumatized, and got together occasionally to talk about how we were feeling and to see how everyone was doing.  I talked to a therapist, and she said I had PTSD.

http://web.archive.org/web/20131023183218/http://dougbottorff.com/category/oneness-blessing-scam/
(substituted link)

4 comments:

Forrest Taylor said...

"What Is The Nature of The Relationship Between Psychology of Vision And Oneness University?

There is no relationship between the two organizations. Some of us attended healing programs there years ago, but for a number of reasons it felt true to me to distance Psychology of Vision from Oneness U. For about a year after making that decision, I stated in my seminars that I did not recommend that people attend their programs."

--Lency Spezzano

"My parents also have NO affiliation whatsoever with Oneness University. They and some of their students attended some of their courses a number of years ago, but were shocked and disgusted to learn about some of their practices. My mom actually spearheaded a campaign to learn and expose the truth about Oneness University. My parents do not support their practices, community, or methods. They have wanted nothing to do with that organization once they had an opportunity to learn more about them. They adamantly steer people away from that organization, their practices, and beliefs. They would NOT want their students to be affiliated with that organization in any capacity."

--Christopher Spezzano

Freeway of Love said...

Obviously Lency was not telling the truth about the importance and impact of Oneness University on POV doctrine.

mofferstand said...

For several years POV was basically a subsidiary of Oneness University, with Chuck and Lency themselves being cult followers rather than cult leaders for a change.

Year of the Cat said...

The POV-Oneness University-Unity Church triangle is an episode with details that remain unclear to those of us who are not included in the insular communication of the Psychology of Vision cult. POV is not exactly an example of transparency.

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