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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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 Serious Question...Submitted by Lachia on September 28, 2006 - 2:45pm.
I'm not trying to be rude or start anything in the asking of this question, I'm simply genuinely curious about ya'll's feelings... If indeed GTD was conceived, implimented and marketed with the intentions of drawing people into the MSIA cult, how do we, as conscientious individuals avoid becoming prey within the trap? Are we already doing the right thing by initiating and continuing within this discusion, by not hiding our worries... or do we need to do more to get the word out and then discuss strategies for keeping ourselves seperate from the MSIA/ J-R cult while still using a system we've come to enjoy? I'm not saying that this is indeed true, and I don't know that we can determine the true nature of the relationship of GTD with MSIA without getting litterally into DA's head... I'm just want to be sure that we talk about how we would avoid such a pitfall if indeed the GTD system is sprurious by design. And this is true of any other situation in which we are being deceived by "marketing". What do you think? PS, please feel free to move this post to a separate thread if you're worried this may derail what I think is already a very interesting and necessary thread. THANKS!!!! » POSTED IN:
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