This site is a great resource for any and all things cult-related.  They have an enormous database of articles posted online and also publish a print journal called the Cultic Studies Review. 

IASC Home

A friend recently pointed me to a blog that takes a toungue-in-cheek approach to discussing the various guru-scandals in the spiritual world.  “Revealing Self-Aggrandizement and Superstition in Self-Realization since 2005,” Guruphiliac is both informative and entertaining.  The Yahoo group has also recently had some satisfying discussions about topics including the real meaning of spiritual experiences.  It’s a good site for someone looking to find the pearls amidst all the trash. 

Guruphiliac Blog 

I just found this article discussing whether or not experiences of “mystical fireworks” are something that any human being can experience at any time, or if they are dependent on the support and faciliation of a guru.  While the author’s experiments into the matter are less than rigorously scientific, he was able to consistently demonstrate that the majority of his high-school students, when given brief meditation instruction combined with the suggestion of possibly seeing lights or hearing sounds did, in fact, see lights or hear sounds.  The author’s conclusion is that gurus take undue credit for experiences that he believes are already hard-wired into human neurology.

The Kirpal Statistics

I was recently interviewed by my good friend Cynthia Morris, writer’s coach, novelist, and author of Create Your Writer’s Life, about the book and the writing process.  You can check out the interview here:

Original Impulse Blog

The Cult Awareness and Information Centre is an Australian organization dedicated to raising awareness about cult-like groups.  The site contains a number of resources, including a collection of articles for people leaving a cult.  One of these, entitled The Immediate Benefits of Leaving Mormonism (though it applies to all cults), is a well-articulated discussion of the positive emotions one gets from finally letting go of the strict, confining belief systems of cult-like groups.  I thought the author’s comments on the relief one feels from no longer feeling you are superior to the rest of humanity were particularly astute.