Some of my many journals with course notes, date from 1986 to 2000. My Journals are a whole other pile.
I hope you enjoy the redesigned website; I enjoy having professionals help to keep it going. It remains vital that this site continues to positively impact the people who have come in contact with RJ and The Welcomed Consensus, his children, and current recruiters. Truth About RJ has taken on a life and meaning of its own, and its impact has grown beyond just the immediate community surrounding the WC. Huzzah for unintended consequences!
I’m doing well and looking forward to the Fall season, my favorite of them all. RJ and this whole mess take up very little space in my head these days, which is a relief. Enjoying life is easier than ever. Still hard to read the news, but I’m more resilient now and can live with my emotions as they come. My life with RJ seems like a different life lived by another person. Maybe not another person, but unformed in some way and stunted. The inability to see RJ’s impact on my life also cut off vast parts of the world from my view and understanding. Learning, changing, and growing is a slow, painful task, and literally why so many fall into the traps that cults lay in the first place. These groups answer why you feel the way you do and why others act the way they do. They supply a community to belong to and a higher purpose of service to a belief.
I still believe that service to others is essential, as I still believe in many things I learned along the way. Vic Baranco and Lafayette Morehouse wrote courses; the information that changed mine and many other people’s lives. Countless people who heard the information took what pieces they liked and disregarded the rest. Many still incorporate it into their teaching or coaching while never citing their sources or acknowledging the harm they witnessed or participated in. I get it; it is hard to disseminate the beliefs and the dogma. It’s much more comfortable to let knowledge settle in snuggly to that place in your brain that’s always seeking confirmation of rightness. I’ve come to understand that life is like yoga. To be in the present moment is to know the difference between discomfort and pain. You’re not working the edge of your possibilities if you are too comfortable for too long.
Information, data, language, etc., are not harmful. Although the information has been “weaponized” today, it is neutral. When information is manipulated, as with the Bible, Quran, Buddhism, cults, news, political platforms, education, and even the yoga sutras, it produces the intended harm for the manipulator.
Said no women ever.
Manual stimulation of a woman’s genitals is not inherently abusive nor, sadly, a given in a sexual relationship. Like any sexual act, you’d hope it is done carefully and with consent. Part of the thrill here is to look someone in the eye while your hands are on their genitals and for us both to speak clearly about what we feel. Yes, it is confrontational when you start, but it also builds compassion and intimacy in a relationship. The practice of DOing or OMing is delightful, but these people and groups turn it into something dark. Orgasm and sensual experience, for women and men, make us biologically and socially vulnerable for a complex myriad of reasons, but once again, I’m sorry life isn’t easier.
Awareness is the only way to protect ourselves and society from people like RJ, The Welcomed Consensus, Nicole Daedone, and One Taste. Critical thinking and education are a way of life in our world today. Information is now tuned to grab us on an emotional level thanks to the algorithms we participate in every second we are connected to the internet. Although RJ may not have the savvy and the resources to jump on board, Nicole clearly does, and what are the chances she is the only one?
I hope this hasn’t left you feeling bleak and exhausted. When I get there, I remember to look away from the information and feel my body touching the ground. I ask myself, what do you need right now? My authentic self, not all the parts of me living in the past and future who crave distraction and numbness. Then I do whatever that is, usually pay attention to my loved ones, go outside, or pet my dog, and it’s glorious.
Thanks for reading. Now walk away 😉
Doris Lake, OR 2022
