Empowering Survivors to Find Their Voice

Great site. I hope it empowers more survivors to find their voices, and rediscover their essential dignity.

A book that many Cohen survivors may find helpful is 'Prophetic Charisma' by Len Oakes (he reviewed Andre Van der Braak's book).

If you've ever wondered why so many gurus sound alike and seem to have attended the same training camp, 'Prophetic Charisma' is a must-read. Oakes interviewed twenty charismatic leaders and many of their followers, and was once a member of a group led by such a leader.

What Oakes learned was that none of these charismatics was capable of ordinary, intimate relationships with peers. They all had some form of narcissistic personality disorder, and compensated for lack of intimacy and lack of empathy by becoming avid students of social manipulation and communication arts.

Another feature Oakes observed was that the leaders often learned to have 'canned' responses to any situation, and knew how to ruthlessly exploit the slightest sign of self doubt or hesitation in an adversary...

You can order a copy from amazon.com

There is another article, by Arthur J Deikman, available at his website and is excellent. His take on the mark of a genuine spiritual teacher is the ability to create conditions that support spiritual development. An authoritarian, anxiety ridden community would undermine such development, not support it. http://www.deikman.com/eval.html

-letter from a reader