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GTD 'cult'
duus | Sep 5 2006
so a friend of mine sent me this message. I am a big fan of GTD and find it very useful. I'm just puttin' this out there. [INDENT] Uh-oh. "J-R" seemed like it might stand for John-Roger -- the controversial cult leader and spiritual guru. And it does. http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/msia.html David Allen, his wife, and many of his employees are ministers in the MSIA (Movement of Spritual Inner Awareness), John-Roger's church: http://www.ndh.org/template.php3?ID=65 http://www.davidco.com/coaches_corner/Ana_Maria_Gonz%E1lez/article14.html (employee quoting John-Roger) Anti-cult websites accuse GTD of being part of a program to recruit people into MSIA. Their view seems paranoid to me, but you can read it for yourself: http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=2193 http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?p=15025&sid=e3195755a2185f9b4710580921d3f527 Now, I'm not saying that Getting Things Done isn't a good book about priorities and organization. David Allen may have very good advice about that stuff. But I am saying don't go to a David Allen seminar, get mixed up with the David Allen Company, or get too involved with the hard-core GTD crowd -- at least not without taking some anti-brainwashing measures. Seriously. This John-Roger character and his followers are not a joke. I learned about John-Roger a long time ago, as it happens, because in high school I read a self-help book called "Life 101" that he "co-wrote" with Peter McWilliams, the poet and anti-drug-war activist. In 1994, not long after I read "Life 101," McWilliams wrote an expose called "Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You." McWilliams left MSIA in 1994 after 15 years of being brainwashed. It turned out that John-Roger manipulated him into giving him co-authorship in return for keeping McWilliams alive. You see, John-Roger had the power to keep McWilliams alive because -- and this will surprise you -- John-Roger claims to be the incarnation of God on earth. John-Roger has also made headlines in connection with Arianna Huffington -- who admits to being a close friend and who has been accused (though she's never admitted it) of being an MSIA minister as well. [/INDENT] 72 Comments
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 To jump into the fray...Submitted by mdl on September 21, 2006 - 9:26am.
To jump into the fray once again... I'd completely agree that one can separate the GTD methodology from the Mystical Church of the New Astral Symbology or whatever the hell it is that David Allen subscribes to. Use the system as a tool within your own priorities, belief system, etc. That said, I do think it's necessary to be critical any methodology when adapting it to one's own beliefs. What, if any, are its unspoken assumptions? What will I gain/lose by adopting this method? The reason it's important to be critical is that both GTD and most New Age stuff is firmly ensconced within the logic of global capitalism. Achieve you full potential! Settle for nothing less than absolute self-fulfillment! Tap into the global consciousness! (Some of this message is in GTD, though thankfully it's pretty muted compared to Deeprak Chopra or even Stephen Covey.) Usually, the message promises to reduce any friction one might feel in one's interactions with the economic and social world. In my opinion, "global consciousness" or "awareness" in New Age spirituality is actually a fetish that obscures the more traumatic aspects of economic globalization--that makes them seem palatable, even positive. It is both an expression of Western privilege, as well as a therapy for coming to terms with a system that is at its heart brutal and dehumanizing. I mean, not to be too harsh on DA or anything, but the GTD stuff does seem to have a pretty uncritical attitude towards economic success. In interviews, David often talks about his beautiful house with its beautiful garden in beautiful Ohai, California, where his success allows him to spend much of his time serenely pruning his Bonsai trees... Now, I'm all for techniques to cope with our fast-paced lives. I understand the need to compete in our challenging times. Otherwise, I wouldn't have sought help in GTD. I'm simply suspicious of any message that tells us that we can and should achieve happiness and self-fulfillment within the current system--that we can and should completely adapt to the demands placed on us. Rather than accepting insane levels of productivity as a noble and positive goal, shouldn't we reach a point where we say enough is enough? Here, a little good old-fashioned resistance, rather than the happy "flow" of self-help methodologies, might be in order. Anyway, that's my rant of the day. » POSTED IN:
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