Ted Patrick - maybe you remember, was a 'professional' deprogrammer' - a big hunky Afro-American man who specialized in kidnapping and 'deprogramming' cult members on demand. He operated in the eighties if I remember correctly, and his customers would be parents and family of the young people they wanted to come back to the flock. His methods were brutal, not unlike - but in reverse, kind of - the methods some cults purportedly are using intentionally to brainwash novices into accepting their beliefs and severing ties with their former connections, only more extreme: intimidation, sexual or otherwise, seems to have been basic in his work.

You don't hear much from Ted Patrick anymore.

Religious Freedom Watch Info on Ted Patrick

Wikipedia info on Ted Patrick

From the first of these two links it seems that Ted Patrick is a crazy madman who can only think in terms of violent submission of others. "Deprogramming" was obviously just a rationalization, as the article makes clear.

You don't have any personal experience with Ted Patrick, Kalisurfer ? Or anyone else ?
Or maybe you know someone who does ?

I have not heard of Ted Patrick since the early 1980's, it would seem that all the legal litigations, court costs and monetary settlements have put a stop to his re-programming business. I don't personally know anyone who was kidnapped by him.

Since Ted Patrick has been out of the news for almost 30 years, what made his name come up and want you to gather information on him?

Perhaps Gaudeamus is possessed by an uncontrollable urge to agitate people...

Sometimes the world needs Futtocks, the Great Big, Fekin" Wobbly kind! If need be, I'll get rid of it and this one too ... if you think some in the world are yet unready?

Ok, I'll say it loud and clear, Ted Patrick was a Big Fekin' Wobbly Futtock !

Just had to make the statement relevant to the thread. Now we are safe from the internet fannyboz and dunderheids ... ye ken.

It's and ancient trick of the trade called implication or association by proximity. It is a guiding principle in the design of graphic user interfaces. Others use it in rhetoric to creep out opponents without ever saying one thunk they stunk.

I just remember the funny way he used to say Bhagavad-gita, Babatavida or ? hahahhaha

I think that I have been busted in the illustration of the value concerning the decompositional approach to collaborative subtasks, which may have come from just sitting too close to the computer screen for far too long, wysiwyging pixels into and out of specific grids for compositional purposes. Though I have never truly appreciated the effects of proximity on collaboration in the past, I now stand corrected in understanding that my subtle jabs at opponents are implications that technology can indeed support remote collaborative work when encoding the dialect of the Northern Isles and intersecting it with Slavic American memories conditioned by the culture of South Asia, finally filtered by Germanic examination.

The question then is whether computers can create cyber mediated work environments for collaboration that can be just as successful as physically shared environments? I think you have identified the mechanism by which proximity collaboration is easier, concentrating on the way it facilitates interpersonal interaction and awareness, in this case, the subtle implications of a graphic designer and a musician using the decompostional framework that examines how visibility, copresence, mobility, cotemporality and other affordances of media affect the important collaborative task of initiating conversation, establishing common ground, and maintaining awareness of potentially relevant changes in the collaborative environment. All of which culminated in the simple use of the term Futtocks and its relation to creeping out opponents without ever saying the inevitable putdown.

This is a revelation to me, the consequences of which is more than mere word jugglery, and more akin to simple moderation enlightenment, the kind made for heavenly planets, and for that I am in deep gratitude brother.

It is not that I want personal information on Ted Patrick, I am not interested in him personally and needless to say i don't know him, but I wanted to know if someone has had personal experience with a deprogrammer, such as Ted Patrick.

I think it is you who are in fact agitating, Aran - or am I mistaken ?
Did my thread about basic reading for being cultured cause that much disturbance in you ?

I think we are all capable of being annoyed or annoying, agitated or agitating, disturbed or disturbing. Some of us can even admit it at times, which I think is what Aran was saying, even asking that his post be removed.

I was originally disturbed by your thread about basic reading lists toward classifying someone as being cultured, and I think it was apparent in my responses, so we simply differ in that opinion toward the need for such a a list, but I see little value in arguing about it or bringing it up in another thread, unless a disturbance is—what is wanted?

I have personal experience of someone who had personal experience with a deprogrammer, such as Ted Patrick.

Me too. They were funny, sometimes a lot funnier than those they tried to deprogram. It was an interesting combination, to say the least. The other party trying to lure people away from their cult via some darn good coffee, and the poor fellow being tempted, yet staying stern by chanting out loud om hrim ksraum!

But of course the deprogramming was easier in the old days. We were, after all, neophytes with no actual understanding of the shastra or the vedic culture. We were easily misled. Now the deprogrammers should do their business in another way. They must carefully study the holy scriptures so that they can make the devotee question the very basis of their beliefs. I can give you an example. Me found it by accident. Please read and think about it.

"In his reply, Brajanath das says in a few short words that Narasingha Maharaj's opinion is not correct. However, I have noted that Narasingha Maharaj has stated in his article two main points:

1) that no previous acharya has ever supported the story that Sukadeva is the parrot of Radha and,

2) that no shastra supports that Sukadeva was the parrot of Radha."

After reading that Vrindavan is never the same again.

Haha, such a coincidence, I just came across that article too. Unfortunately I am not as strong as you and I was seduced into reading the whole thing before I realised I'd just wasted 30 mins of my life and wasn't more educated or anything than before I read it....

Edit: Hahahaha, I'm still laughing about that article. But I want my revenge, so I feel like sauntering into a devotee gathering somewhere and asking some "tricky questions" just so I can entertain myself with thoughts of their bared teeth, heavy breathing and clenched buttocks...

i know that Pandapaws had experience with hard core deprogramers

Did she ever write about it here on GR somewhere? It would be interesting to hear her story, though it may indeed be something that she does not want to rehash and relive, especially if probing questions come back to find out more.

She rarely does talk about it. It was the most sad and horrible time in her life. It became so bad because her family was involved. It happened almost 20 years ago, and since that time she has not spoken to her sister.

I mentioned this thread to her, if she wants to share.

To be treated like that by your own near and dear must be a shock. I cannot even imagine how it must feel.

I am also sorry if I hurt anybodys feelings by joking about such a serious subject. Please excuse me.

Maybe this issue somehow, even if distantly, reminded me how it felt to be "rejected" by your own religious community.

It must be a horribly devastating shock, and I think some never totally recover from this. It can without doubt be fully as bad as the "brainwashing" or inhumane treatment which is supposed to be meted out to people in some cults.

There was no need to be disturbed by my thread about basic reading toward culturedness IMHO, Kalisurfer. If you were I am sorry but that was not my intention. What would I gain by writing threads intending to disturb people ?
If you see no value in arguing about the issue you are of course perfectly free to forget all about it. I however still feel it's a valuable topic and worth investigating a bit.

Good. Why don't you try my Stone Soup recipe.

Trying to be lured away with coffee. Must have been some kind of softcore deprogrammer, I suppose.

I pretty much see Ted Patrick 30 years ago as I do today, a test of a devotee's faith to see if they have the balls to become Krishna conscious. Many so-called devotees didn't have the kahunas to pass this test and so were taken once again back into the lap of the witch called Maya where they blooped once again into the material ocean of nescience. I offer my respectful obeiscances unto the lotus testicles who Panda Paws who was undaunted through this supreme test and remained staunch on the path of pure devotional service unto Krishna.

As long as you are offering obeisances unto lotus testicles you may want to keep the cajones that Ted Patrick required in your prayers. Could have been some Spanish mama you hoped you could mount or many others, you just never can tell.

I just discovered there was a topic on Deprogrammers started by Tapati in 2005, in Freedom from Faith. I didn't know about it when I started mine on Ted Patrick.

A test ?
In the sense 'walk the path, but watch the dragon, and if you perish, that's too bad' ?

Who or what would place such a test before people ?

Would 'passing the test' free them from Maya ?