The Gnostic Movement

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When I was in the bay area, I became involved with the Gnostic Movement, which was guided by a man by the name of Mark H. Pritchard, who claimed that his heavenly name was "Belzebuub". I went to the gnostic church for the sake of taking meditation classes. At 1st it seemed open-minded, but the more I went, the weirder it became. I'm glad I'm not going there anymore.

I hate to be offending people with this thread and I'm not totally against all gnostic beliefs, but I'm concerned that Belzebuub, AKA Mark H. Pritchard might eventually lead a cult, and I'm wondering whether or not he might become involved with a cult that is dangerous. Here are the reasons why:

At 1st, the only thing discussed in the classes was meditation, and it didn't seem like I would need to fear people trying to convert me. Then, later on in the classes the teachers discussed there philosophy. Their philosophy was in order to reach enlightenment your mind needs to be silent. According to their philosophy, if your mind is silent, then you can see the "truth" in each situation. And even later throughout the year, after their major opening, I went to the 1st day of their 2nd set of meditation courses. Instead of going into meditation like what their flyer said, there was a TV recording of Belzebuub himself. People treated him like a Jesus - like figure.
When he talked about his gnostic movement, he presented it as the lost teachings of Jesus. He claimed that long ago there were 2 branches of Christianity, one based on dogma and strict bible study, and another one based solely on spiritual development which, supposedly was the core of the gnostic movement. He claimed that the gnostic movement didn't discriminate based on sexual orientation, but I've heard some criticisms on the Cult Education Forum that in his books he did. Also, on the Cult Education Forum, it was stated that his books were Eurocentric and filled with hate/anger. I believe it because when I bought a couple of his books, I had seen contradictions different from what we were being told at the church meetings.
1st of all, he complains about other branches of Christianity having narrow-minded dogma, but his gnostic organization, now that I come to think of it, has the same dogma expressed in another way. Instead of saying that non-believers will go to hell, it's implied that the gnostic movement is the only right path to enlightenment, and that other beliefs are incorrect. Also, in one of his books I looked at, he talks about the importance of becoming aware of and eliminating the "egos", which are considered emotions. Anger, jealousy, lust, and pride are considered some of the inferior emotions. I find the issue with him considering pride to be bad an ironic coincidence, because he seems to be filled with it because he acts like he's similar to Jesus. Also, in the church meetings we would eat vegetarian, but in his book he keeps on emphasizing that people are superior to animals, because animals are driven by their emotions and people are able to respond with logic. Also, something that offended me was that he considered classical music superior to all other forms of music. In one of the questions and answers sections, someone stated that they had abandoned a lot of their friends to go the "correct" path of enlightenment, and he stated that it was a good choice to make.
When I talked about the Gnostic church I went to with one of my friends, she stated that it sounded like a cult because of the fact that they talked about their philosophy of how to live life along with having the meditation classes. She said that it wouldn't have been eerie if there were just meditation classes without much talk on their philosophy. Also, on the Cult Education Forum, someone said that cult watch organizations say that it's not a good sign if an organization that doesn't disclose much of its philosophy in the beginning slowly discloses more as things progress. Also, cult watch organizations say it's not good if the leader presents themselves as a godly figure and discourage people from thinking critically.
It was hard for me to find the real name of Belzebuub because it isn't written on all of his books. That, in its own right makes me wonder if he's hiding a criminal history. I couldn't find any history about the author. On Wikepedia, I tried doing a search under the name Belzebuub, and the closest I came was finding the word Beelzebuub, which is a word that later on became associated with the devil.
What do you guys think?

That name is from ancientient Sumeria. Ba'al Zevuv or Ba'al Zevuvim. It means lord of the flies. It is one of the Canaanite
Ba'alim or Lords which the Canaanites worshipped. This is pre-Abrahamic stuff.

ruveyn

And considering the design of modern trousers it becomes very Freudian.

Well, basically...I'm usually a little sceptical when people refer to a new, minority or alternative religion as a 'cult', because I've heard too many people from more conventional faiths use it just to label any movement they don't like or agree with. I've read a huge amount of crap about Wicca and paganism as so-called 'dangerous cults' over the years, for instance, by people who clearly never had anything to do with them. And in my experience, 'anti-cult' websites often have some kind of axe to grind themselves. Not always, but often.

That said, there are some characteristics that strike me as 'cult-like' about certain organizations. Treating a human leader like he's some kind of a god. Claiming to be the only way and that all outsiders are ignorant, evil or even subhuman. Targeting people who are emotionally or psychologically vulnerable (depressed, bereaved, addicted) and claiming to have the answers to all their problems. Isolating followers from outsiders, restricting their sources of information, demanding money or sexual favors, laying down strict laws which often the leader doesn't have to follow. A big one is if they make it difficult to leave. Any of those should ring alarm bells, and your guy definitely sounds dodgy in a few ways.

(I would guess the use of the name Beelzebub, BTW, is in line with the Gnostics believing that if the Old Testament God was an evil charlatan, anyone depicted as opposing him was worthy of reverence. There was one Gnostic sect that honored Cain as a heroic figure, for instance. I personally find Gnosticism fascinating, but you have to remember that they've historically been freethinkers who would have abhorred the idea of anyone demanding their conformity to a strict dogma. Or like Brian says in the Monty Python movie, 'You've all got to work it out for yourselves!')

For me personally, this -

- would be a clincher. I like classical music, actually, but if a spiritual teacher suddenly starts describing rock 'n roll as 'on a lower plane', I'm straight out the door. But that's just something that particularly annoys me about a lot of New Age gurus (the other being the whole Secret thing, but don't get me started on that...)

I've never heard of anything about Belzebuub in connection with Gnosticism in general. It sounds more like you wandered into a cult.

It's generally connected with the writings unearthed outside of Nag Hammadi (the Nag Hammadi Library) which included not only the Gnostic Gospels, but anything else that the gnostics thought might be destroyed by the early Catholic church-- including Plato's Republic.

Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels is a good place to start reading if you want to learn about Gnosticism.

I have heard a few stories about other groups that use free meditation instruction as a way of attracting recruits to their group. If you think that someone is doing that, the best thing to do is to walk away from it, and ask lots of questions (which you have done). I don't know anything about that person, but do have an overall suspicion of those types of things.

There are books and tapes that are assuredly not part of a plan to rope in converts - visit a bookstore or library to get one of these, and practice on your own.

John Kabat Zinn is one name that has widespread recognition - he has developed a mainstream method of mindfulness meditation in conjunction with a medical school, and it has been tested for pain control, anxiety, and other conditions. Many libraries have his tapes or CDs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn

Dr. Herbert Benson has researched and written a great deal about the relaxation response - his website provides the basic steps for that form of meditation - very simple to do, the only difficult thing is to practice it once or twice a day to become proficient in that method:
http://relaxationresponse.org/steps/

Edgar Cayce Institute has several meditation/self-hypnosis tapes available that are pretty good. Edgar Cayce claimed to be a psychic/healer ... I am kinda skeptical of those claims, but I have used his tapes and don't think that it matters if one believes or disbelieves in that stuff ... meditation is a simple practice that works regardless of the ideology or dogma that some have built around it.

AYP (advanced yoga practices) also has a good tape that costs $10 to download as mp3s. Their website has a forum, and they sometimes go into rather esoteric practices that I have no interest in, but simply listening to their tapes doesn't put one in danger of being recruited for a cult.

As i understand it, Gnostics are actually from early Christian Egypt, and believe that there is 'hidden' knowledge that wasn't contained in their own 'Gnostic' Gospels. They even have their own alphabet.

Beelzebub, is actually a pun in Hebrew; it sounds like 'Lord of the Flies' (with or without Pinky... in Hebrew. And actually, Beelzebub is considered a demon (like every non-Christian god) or 'malevolent entity from Hell' (wouldn't that look good on a Passport?...

If you're getting weirded out this bunch, there's no harm in bugging out. Freedom of religion is a right of conscience, so no one can force you to believe.

Pritchard's site:
http://www.belzebuub.com/