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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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 I'm simply suspicious of any...Submitted by Craig on September 21, 2006 - 10:59am.
mdl;6006 wrote: 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. Interesting post. As I see it, GTD is "goals-agnostic," though - the Things that are Getting Done are up to you. Your Thing could be climbing up the corporate ladder, or spreading the message of sustainable living, or plotting an anarchist rebellion. I'd venture to say that GTD could help any of those goals be realized, and so I don't see it as inherently capitulating to the System. I don't know much about the New Age movement, but I have started to listen to recordings of the very excellent Eckhart Tolle, who is marketed in New Age language. I can say about his message that when he talks about coming to consciousness, it is very much a seeing through the normal way of the world - not in any way greasing the wheels of capitalism. His message is not one of individualistic self-fulfillment. Humorously, he ends one of his talks with words to this effect: "So you see, this has not been a personal growth seminar. [laughter] Rather, it has been a personal diminishment seminar." » POSTED IN:
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