In Reply to: Re: Putting a damper on Rampa posted by Paddy on December 06, 2002 at 17:01:12:
Of course we are all entitled to our views and I wish you the best. However, as we are here and this is a discussion forum, hey, let's pull up a chair and discuss.
You said, "He also told us that he had taken over the body of the plumber, in a strange manner, authorised by the spirits of the next world." This sounds exactly like Berg used to describe his spirit helper, Abraham the Bulgarian gypsy, taking over his body.
You add, "We, in the West, may scoff at this idea, but can anyone prove that it didn't happen?" Having spent many years abroad in Asia and elsewhere, I do not consider myself to have a "Western" mindset. Most exmembers of the cult have never fully integrated back into a western way of thinking. Also, I'm no stranger to amazing spiritual experiences. I've astral projected several times out of my body.
I don't scoff at Rampa's ideas because I was raised in the West, nor because I think bizarre spritual things don't happen -- only because my many years in the cult have made me extremely cynical of religious charlatans. And when someone like 'Rampa' claims to be a Tibetan incarnation halway through his life??? Give me a break! I can understand someone who beleives in reincarntion arguing their points, but what this is describing is not even reincarnation, but spiritual possession.
"He also described life in Tibet when he'd never been there in his life, and several authorities on Tibet, agreed that his descriptions were true." I've read than many of his descriptions were accurate, most likely because he read widely on the subject without ever having gone there, but I've also read that if you're looking for an accurately detailed life of someone who actually grew up in Tibet, his books are not it.
"I, personally, am able to accept that a major change came over him and the spirit of the Llama took over his body." And this of course is the freedom we have, to believe what we wish. But I guess reading too many highly unusual books as a teen, having experiences with evil spirits while out of my body, then spending years believing that drunken Russian architects and drunken Bulgarian gypsies were going in and out of Berg's body, have left me hardened to people making easy claims. As I say, I've left my own body, so I know the experience is real, but as Cat Stevens sang in his song "Wild World," .... "Please take care, there's a lotta bad people out there."
I frankly do not believe that the British plumber was possessed by a Llama or even by any other spirit. I think he spent a lot of time in the "Tibet" book section of the London library.
Think of how much MONEY the plumber made from selling one "Rampa" book after another. Sounds more like a money-making scheme than a spiritual leader taking on an incarnation in England.
Best wishes to you too.