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GTD 'cult'

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]
I was excited to sit down to read "Getting Things Done" today. It's a great gift. I was so excited that I even read the acknowledgments, to be complete about the whole thing. At the end of the acknowledgments I noticed that David Allen thanks someone named "J-R" for being his "spiritual coach."

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]

FreeWilly's picture

Dr. Phil on cults

There was an interesting Dr. Phil show about a religious cult.
http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/756

What was interesting here is that a large part of this cult was about regulating and controlling and managing their members behaviors.
Its all about CONTROL, behavioral and cognitive.

This is why so many cultish groups gravitate to so-called "time management" type systems. Its the perfect tool to begin to Influence a person on a daily basis, or even an hourly, or minute by minute basis.
Or even to get deep into people's moment to moments "thoughts" to "clear their minds" and reach an alleged "euphoria".
That is exactly what GTD amounts to.

The bottom line, even though there are those who are trying to ignore the basic facts, and to be MSIA Aplogists, and to try to pretend that somehow GTD is neutral...are that...

-MSIA is literally a New Age religious cult, run by a psychopath by the name of John-Roger, who has a horrendous record.
-David Allen is a long-term serior Minister and member of MSIA going back to the beginning of it, almost 35 years.
-David Allen is a massive supporter and WORSHIPPER of John-Roger and MSIA, ot the point his ENTIRE LIFE is dedicated to MSIA and "spreading the message" and "Ministering to the Business Community"..
-every coach and senior member of DavidCo is a member of MSIA, which is not disclosed.
-they actively try to cover-up the fact that MSIA is behind DavidCo, and is likely running DavidCo, and financed it.
-basically every person thanked in David Allen's GTD book is a senior MSIA person.
-MSIA runs Insight Seminars covertly, which was used to recruit for MSIA.
-David Allen worked for Insight, and still works with all the Insight people right now.
-Jason Womack and other coaches refer clients to books and materials by John-Roger and MSIA.

Its just goes on and on.
So beware the apologists for MSIA, that deny, deflect, censor, attack...etc.

There is a very serious Buyer Beware warning on David Allen. He has a slick public image, and a good sales pitch, and lots of MSIA followers to pump him up in the blogosphere.
But there are some very serious warning signs around all of this.
The people who have designed GTD, and the entire system, know exactly what they are doing to people, and how to send out the hook, land the fish, and then real them in.
And if you think you are above being had, or are "too intelligent" to fall for it...

...those are exactly the type of educated white-collar folks they are targeting.
And GTD Connect is going for those with senior positions in companies...as if you can get to the Leader, the herd will follow.

There is a weird cult-like obsession, and herd-mentality with all the GTD hype, and now we all now why.

 
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