The way that people judge things or just out and out lie about things to attack someone when they are upset about something and don't understand it now-a-days is pretty extreme compared to what it used to be. Do you know what I mean?
Recently an article was published that attacks the school I go to.
My school is The Modern Mystery School International where I study healing arts, metaphysics, meditation & personal empowerment etc. This is an excellent school where I have studied for over 14 years and where I continue to study. It even attacks the character of many teachers in the school and these are all people I know. It's truly awful when really good humanitarian-minded people are targeted by those with agendas.
The whole article is poorly written, not backed by anything but rumor and hearsay and for anyone who actually knows the school and is a stable individual... it's simply ridiculous.
The article tries to paint a picture without anything substantial, a fabricated spooky shock story like the meme of a charlatan cult religious leader sex orgy scandal, the problem is that after years of them trying to gather "evidence" the story isn't actually there. They use all the typical imagery and insinuation tools like asking questions when they don't have any actual information, to drum up ideas of a group of spoon-fed true believers who idolize their cult leaders and believe whatever they say from a place of blind faith because they can't think for themselves. And when all that fails to be shocking enough they resort to making stuff up.
Like many articles these days, it's very biased, plays on fears and it in no way resembles quality journalism and what it is supposed to be.
I am going to tell you something that isn't a story or a cancel clickbait smear campaign: My direct experience.
First of all, I have been here for 14 years and I have seen no orgies. Zero. Kinda Disappointing if you're trying to be a spooky cult.. you really ought to have some orgies. But alas none. The story is Ridiculous. it's made up.
The people I have worked with have been all very respectful and have good healthy boundaries. The closest thing to an orgy I've seen is the empowering message that you don't need to be ashamed of sex. And you should learn to love and care about yourself.
Second thing is the school is attended by plenty of very strong-minded people who are highly-educated extremely intelligent and definitely think for themselves. Any kind of cult-like "putting a guru on a pedestal" or even "telling students what to think" approaches in this mystery school is definitely not allowed. I know scientists, doctors, Physicists, PhDs, etc. personally who are students. Not peripherally, I've known these people for years. These people are not "follower" types. There is zero chance these people are going to give away their power to a cult leader.
They are satisfied students getting value from excellent training and effective tools and they respect but do not bow down to the teachers. No teacher in this school would ever allow that. People have tried to put our teachers on pedestals, but it's not allowed or in any way encouraged because the school is not about that. It's about empowering the students.
Some new people coming in are often disillusioned because they actually want spoon fed answers. They want it be a cult that it isn't. This is a cult of people who think for themselves. It's an anti-cult. They are disappointed. They are bringing cultishness with them. They don't want to be responsible for their own lives. Some people hold onto this "desire for answers" tightly. They want to be told what to think and how to act and are actually upset when they are not told what to think, like they are often taught in school, but are instead are given tools to learn about themselves clear out their own illusions and find their own answers.
If you are going to accuse my school of something then get it right... It's the antidote to people addicted to cult-like mindsets.
This school helps its students develop discernment first and foremost.
Often People do not like it when they have to face their own stuff and learn to harness their own will and have their own discernment. They want a cult but can't find one. The shocking thing that they encounter instead is people who don't buy into cult training as a means of learning. People who actually care about empowering you to be you and come to your own answers.
Doesn't make much of a shock story though.
Another problem with the article's "tarts & vicars scandal" structure playing on peoples fear of religious authority...
a Mystery School is not a religion or a charity organization, it's not a church model.
That is just not the model of a mystery school. A mystery school is not that kind of spiritual organization.
It's more like a university model where people become valued healing professionals.
The article talks sooooooo much about money as if to imply financial exploitation to try to make that a shocking thing that a religious organization is asking for their money rather than a donation. However....Anyone going to a school gets that it costs money, especially to learn a valuable skill. It's not called a mystery church. It's a mystery school. They also don't bother to mention that people in the school as they become professionals they can make money doing things that actually help people. It's just not the cult model or a tainted religious model... We are actually very reasonably priced for a university or professional school model.
Oh no! I know how to make more money for myself. Oh no! I can use more awesome tools that help me and others practically in the real world. Yeah super culty... riiiiiight! Sorry I don't feel financially exploited at all.
In case it isn't clear yet, the students and practitioners at MMS aren't like that. We don't get together to bow down to cult leaders. Nonsense. People come to learn healing arts and to heal themselves and get tools and teachings they can use to become more empowered in their own lives. And this is exactly what happens. It's valuable and it works. That's why we keep doing it for years.
They try to make it sound all manipulative and culty...
Truth is that people in the school think for themselves, and the longer they stay in, the more they think for themselves. No-one has to train farther than they want to. No one is forcing people to do anything. On the contrary, I see people come through the school and become less culty and more discerning and also more uniquely themselves than when they entered.
I love the tools and the teachings because they work. Any school should be valued for the quality of it's teachings and tools to prepare people for living in the real world and for becoming more capable in skills that matter in their lives and contribution to humanity. This is what happens.
The teachings while broader and definitely different than in a regular school and using different methods are ultimately practical, knowable, applicable and grounded by being usable in reality. The teachings provide expansive, spiritual and archetypal contexts and reflections that help a person understand who they are. Some people don't get that. I don't care, it works.
In this article it attacks several people who I know, Founder Gudni Gudnason and Ipsissimus Dave Lanyon
Anyone who actually knows them, knows the attack on their character is fake. It tries to paint them as making money off of students like in some kind of needy dodgy cult leaders in a pyramid scheme.
My experience of them is that they are clearly not the cult leader types.
First of all they work way too much to be called cult leaders! They directly do way too many things to empower others...When are they going to have time to manipulate people like stereotypical cult leaders? People who teach in the school do the most work, not the least. It's the opposite of the pyramid scheme story where their is a lazy person at the top. Neither of them needs money from students. They are already financially successful. They have no need for any of that. The typical cult leader has to subsist on donations from devotees. The idea that Founder Gudni or Ipsissimus Dave are cult leaders is pure nonsense. They wear nice clothes. So maybe that's the objection? Professional empowerment teachers are supposed to be poor I guess and not afford nice things? Are they a bit eclectic? Yes, they think for themselves! Talk about weird stuff? Yes... So what...? Reality is weird. Quantum Physics is super weird and thats science's best model for reality so far... Consciousness is super weird.
Have you tried to study consciousness at all?
Come on... get over it people.
The other hilarious thing is the very sort of sexist assumption/ projection about the school or its leadership manipulating women in any way. First of all Founder Gudni and Ipsissimus Dave have always been super respectful to women. I have never seen otherwise.
And Second of all...
This is so ridiculous if you knew the powerful women in this school you would be rolling on the floor laughing if you knew how completely false this is! First of all, the women outnumber the men in the school by a lot. And the women are super empowered in the decision making in the school. And as far as being women who could be manipulated... Hah... They would be more likely to march into battle than be influenced by some guru type. Such nonsense! The women in our school would never allow such things to happen.
I know Ipsissimus Dave and Founder Gudni, I have taken classes with them for years. They are really good men. The tools and teachings I have learned from them have been hugely valuable to me. Worth ten times over and more what I paid for it. They have been nothing but respectful and empowering to me and the women I have seen them interacting with. They're examples of having really good healthy boundaries and great integrity. Time and again this is what I see consistently from them, year after year. What I have learned from them has brought nothing but good into my life. There are plenty of men out in the world who are not examples of having healthy boundaries. But It is ridiculous to try to pin that on these guys.
I have been around for years and some of the people supposedly supporting this article's very one-sided biased attack on the school are actually people I met personally who dropped out of the school many years ago. I know some of those circumstances and it is not what's being represented at all. It's like reading a soup of lies mixed with caricatures and then heavily slanted with all the worst parts completely made up. It's like the writers or those interviewed had to try super hard for a really long time to paint a picture that wasn't... actually... there... and then when it did not fit or make sense for their agenda... frustrated... they just lied, twisted and added in things to make it sound shocking and like something that would sell to people who don't know any better. So... much... agenda...
I guess their quota of cult-bashing stories was down so they had to make something up to what... stay edgy? Someone has some trauma around cults? Who knows? But there is zero substance to what this guy is saying.
Sad... I actually thought their brand's writing is usually a lot better than this. I would think they would do some sort of fact-checking not based on a witch-hunting agenda. I have heard tales from more than one person interviewed by them saying that the interviewer misquoted, twisted their words and misrepresented what they were saying completely.
Cancel Culture... It seems unlikely that it will ever happen to the people you know until they come for your friends or your school, or your healing method or empowerment teaching or belief. You may know the integrity of your people, but people can just lie and say whatever they want even if it hurts good high-integrity people if they have a big enough platform. Can we agree this kind of nonsense has gone too far? Are we going back to witch hunts? Really people? This kind of nonsense is not new it's just worse with "cancel culture" in place.
So... This very biased article blatantly makes completely false accusations and insinuations about people who I know without a doubt to be of strong moral character. It's shameful that they are attacking people who have brought so much good to the world and clearly did not do the things they are being accused of. Their are so many women who have stood up to these horrible accusations and called them false. Including some of the women who were supposedly supporting the authors agenda.
Aside from the fact that I know half the people in the article and also know for a fact that they are being horribly misquoted...
Is there some reason that people who are in an empowerment-based program might want to "cancel" their empowerment school?
Is there some reason why a former student might want to attack the mystery school?
Actually this kind of thing has always been around to some degree even before cancel culture and here is a reason why...
There is a striving in many of us to grow and "be better" in many of us. Mostly this can be good. But there are tough parts to this process. If part of the reason why we strive is because of a lack of self worth and inner child issues, then at some point those things need to get cleared away so that you are not coming from lack and unworthiness as the reason "why" you are doing what you're doing.
The whole way we see ourselves as being "at a certain level" and having ways and statuses etc that seem meaningful may not be true at all. We often think we are more wise and skilled and aware and worthy than we actually are. We can get attached to that. We often think our ideas, our ways and systems and methods are way more valuable than they actually are.
Part of empowerment is healing enough to see your shortcomings so you can make better choices and grow, so you are not the victim to old ego habits. Then you actually become way more capable. More empowered.
Seeing shortcomings and feeling this is not easy. It's actually super tough. There is lots of support and tools to help you through it. But many trip up here... Some people make things up when they can't stand to take responsibility for their own shortcomings and feel they can't handle doing the work to overcome. Instead of looking at that as an opportunity to grow and work through it. Instead of facing that it is a lot more work than anticipated, instead of having humility, they can't accept that and so they project authority issues. They project their fears. A few even project whole stories from their personal trauma-based illusions on those who have done the work. What they do not understand and when they will not accept the responsibility they attack. No one is forcing them to do anything. If you want training you train. If you don't then don't. One problem is when people want to train just so they can get a title and then they don't do anything or even try. If you sign up for doing something and you don't do it, it does not mean anyone is forcing you to do anything. You are choosing to do something. You can stop and do something else if you like. But if you are saying you want to do it and then do nothing you will be asked if you want to continue. You will be reminded of your commitment. But no one is going to chase after you if you don't want to do it. Do it or don't. Don't try to gain all the benefits and title of being a person who is being hugely in service for healing and empowerment and then not help anyone. This is not a school for people to pretend to be something they are not. But they just wanna have it without doing anything for it. Sorry that is not how empowerment works. You have to take responsibility to become empowered. That is just reality. Any professional healer maintains a certification. We do that in our school too. Don't get all upset if you are not maintaining your very minimal certification standards. Just train up and do better. But no they just "wanna" without any effort or doing anything. And when surprise their certification (that they are not doing anything with) is taken away (because they are not doing anything) they attack. This is just ego stuff.
There is no integrity in that. And the school would have no integrity if they allowed that.
Let's do better than this my friends. Have some discernment.
May we heal any tendencies toward this kind of "cancel laziness" in ourselves and help others to do the same. Let's stop pointing fingers and help people. That is what is important. If we are going to create peace in the world, it is not from "cancelling" things, it's from taking responsibility and making a difference.
We are also not here to here to just roll over and take a bunch of lies and a blatant attack on our school. We're not doormats.
To the article writer: Mark Wilding
I'm so sorry you had to work on this smear campaign article for so long to come up so short and have absolutely no substantial evidence of anything you claim. That must be so frustrating that you had to make up so much BS just to finish your agenda/ I mean article...
For you I just say... (Whispers hint... Perhaps if you are going to write an article to expose a sex-orgy religious cult with a financial exploitation bonus scandal with cult leaders and revealing quotes with blind faith followers that are mind controlled, you should: a) find a religious thing b) find a group that actually has orgies c) find a group that actually has cult leaders d) find a group that has quotes you can actually use rather than fabricate e) find a group of people who are actually mind-controlled & f) don't pick a group of empowered intelligent people who think for themselves. g) actually have financial exploitation happening.)
I actually used to read your brand's articles and generally thought they were much better written, less biased. I expect better... more truthful writing from your brand. Journalistic Integrity, seems it's going down hill into the "cancel sell out" zone to do the hip "polarizing" thing to drum up business. You can do a lot better. It would be great if you wrote about a cult that actually happened and did not have to lie to tell the tale.
To those who are looking for spiritual training: the Mystery School has always been here and has always had critics just like any real empowerment school does. This is not the first critic with an agenda and it won't be the last. The critic is not what counts. If you want real tools and teachings for empowerment you don't have to take anyone's word on it. You can prove it to yourself. What works works.
David Tejeda
