Secret AOL Knowledge

Let’s ponder about why so much knowledge is “secret” in the Art of Living. Not just the techniques, that people are told to sign contracts of non-disclosure towards, before learning. But also the secret knowledge that only the chosen few are privileged enough to hear from the Guru, in private settings or at Teacher’s Refreshers Courses.

The official bullshit explanation is that “higher knowledge” can be dangerous to people who are not yet ready to assimilate it. In their ignorance they will misunderstand it, and it will lead them astray. You need to be properly devoted and humble to the Guru, and of course your “system” needs to be “cleansed”, in order for it to handle the extreme amount of “shakti” that the knowledge contains.

A much more plausible explanation is that the so-called higher knowledge is so absurd that no-one will believe it without some preliminary brainwashing, after which it is handed out in small morsels to the ever-hungry devotee, who gobbles it up, thinking that the Guru’s insane ramblings are the Word of God. Secret Knowledge becomes a way of controlling the devotees; I remember clearly the Teacher’s Refresher Meetings where senior teachers would ask us to please cultivate our minds and stop asking questions, so that the guru would start giving secret, sacred knowledge. Never did anyone ask the guru this simple, scientific question: How Do You Know?

If knowledge -even absurd, clearly wrong knowledge- is power, then AOL and RS are clearly abusing that power. Enough now, with secret knowledge. Information wants to be free! Let’s deflate that insane AOL bubble of privileged bullshit information.