A person expressed interest in learning more about the techniques used by fraudulent teachers in order to better equip oneself against being adversely affected should one encounter techniques of manipulation. The following response was given.

First, to focus on techniques of manipulation is to engage the central issue at an oblique angle rather than head on. More specifically, the 'technology' of manipulative techniques is always changing and, therefore, while coming up with a list of various processes involving manipulation may be of some assistance, nevertheless, oftentimes, this not only prevents people from being able to see the forest through the trees, so to speak, but, as well, the incompleteness of the ever-expanding list of techniques makes people vulnerable to the creative inventiveness of evil - for, in learning a list many individuals will feel they are safe in what they know, only to be blind-sided by a new wrinkle in techniques of manipulation. In reality, what makes all techniques of manipulation effective are the lies that form the core of the intention or niyat through which such techniques are given expression.

If one person can induce another individual to accept -- that is, to trust -- one or more lies about the nature of relationships, circumstances, teacher authenticity, mystical potential, methodology, purpose, meaning, understanding, or spirituality, then, the essential ingredients have been established through which an environment of abuse may be nurtured, much as one cultures bacterial growth by providing the appropriate set of conditions which enable the organism to take hold and survive, if not flourish. Although some individuals may want to continue to live with lies because the transition to a life based on truth is too traumatic, there are very few people who wish to be lied to up front, and if a person accepts a lie as truth, this is not because that individual is necessarily foolish, gullible, naive, indiscriminate, dishonest, stupid, asking to be lied to, or deserving of lies, but, instead, may be because they are relatively sincere, honest, open, and not given to manipulating other people and make an assumption - which, if they are lucky, they will discover is not always true - that other people operate in a similar fashion.

Lying is not a rule-based activity. Lying is rooted in principles of deceptive, insincere, abusive intention. Spiritual abuse is a function of malignant niyat, not particular techniques - indeed, the techniques are just the tools that are used to implement problematic intention.

The Stanley Milgram study on obedience/compliance, to which several people in this group have made reference, was set in motion through a sequence of lies which started with an ad that was placed in a New Haven paper inviting citizens from the population at large (and not from the student population as one individual mistakenly indicated) to participate in a learning experiment. Further lies were told at the time of the actual experiment when someone would respond to the ad and come for an interview concerning the 'study on learning'.

Everything which was told to a subject (i.e., anyone who showed up for an interview) was a complete lie. The prestige of science, scientists, research, academia, and learning were leveraged by Milgram to induce subjects to trust the lies which they were being told. Qualities of steadfastness, consistency, duty, obligation, responsibility, and dependability in the subjects were called upon, referred to, alluded to, and invoked by the experimenters in order to get subjects to stay the course of the experiment - all the way to the bitter end (which over 66% of Milgram's subjects did, and this percentage of compliance was even higher in some countries where the experiment was replicated).

But, the engine which drove the mechanism of manipulation in the Milgram experiment was lying. Similarly, the engine which drives spiritual abuse is the way truth is veiled through the constant use of lies -- even desirable qualities, purposes, goals, meanings, values, and methods can become poisoned and corrupted through the presence of malignant intention which veils the truth.

In fact, precisely because of the capacity of malignant niyat to poison the well of spirituality, then, processes, circumstances, qualities, behaviors, purposes which, on the surface, seem constructive and innocent can be used to camouflage evil. This is another reason why coming up with lists of things to watch out for does not offer the best, most direct way of understanding the nature of spiritual abuse.

Just as Milgram leveraged the prestige of science, academia, research, scientists, and learning to induce trust in the lies inherent in the experimental design, so, too, spiritual charlatans leverage the holy longing of individuals, their belief in Divinity, their faith in a purpose that transcends the machinations of worldly affairs, their recognition that they are in need of spiritual assistance, their vulnerability - all of these factors are used to induce faith or trust with respect to the alleged truth of the lies which are being told. Moreover, just as the people who responded to Milgram's overture in the newspapers never could have seen what was being intended for them, so, too, many, if not most of the people who respond to invitations to spirituality do not see the evil character of the intention to which they are being introduced.

All of the techniques that are used by fraudulent shaykhs and guides are employed to misdirect attention away from the lies which form the core of spiritual misguidance. In addition, once one begins to become bound to the web of deceit as a result of the lies that are being spun by the spiritual counterpart to a Sydney Funnel-web spider, extricating oneself proves to be a very difficult proposition due to a variety of emotional, social, psychological, toxic, and physical forces which, like a cocoon, tends to hold one in place as one is eaten alive spiritually.

Even though there are some individuals who become associated with fraudulent shaykhs and, due to their own malignancy of intention, they perpetuate such lies with malice aforethought because this serves the vested interests of their nafs and entanglements with dunya, nevertheless, there are many victims of spiritual abuse who are no more responsible for their inability to break free from the altered state of consciousness into which they have been drawn than is a deer responsible for being unable to break free of the mesmerizing effect of the headlights of an automobile, even though this may mean death - whether physical, emotional, psychological, behavioral, or spiritual.

Innocent people are continually being caught-up in the conflagrations of wars, political betrayal, domestic abuse, economic exploitation, automobile accidents, educational malfeasance, and murder. Life does not pick on just the guilty and the deserving of punishment - it stalks us all.

Sometimes there is no place to run and hide, or there are no safe havens, or refugee camps, or people to hear one scream from the multiplicity of ways in which 'people of the lie' (to borrow a term from Scot Peck) can bring misery into one's life. As we approach the Latter Days, we become more vulnerable because we are less equipped to cope with, and defend ourselves against, the fabric of lies which is being woven into our lives - politically, socially, educationally, economically, and spiritually, and we are less equipped to protect ourselves from the malignant intentions of an increasing number of people because spiritual wisdom is becoming increasingly absent from our midst.

Many people speak a very good game of spirituality, but in all too many instances this is rooted in an absence of heart-realized truths. Some time ago, a modern observer of the condition of the Muslim world indicated that he looked to the West and saw many Muslims, but no Islam, while in the East, he saw Islam, but few Muslims.

To whatever extent the foregoing observation is true, perhaps this is because more and more lies are seeping into our lives and being passed off as the truth. Increasingly, many people are becoming unable to differentiate between lies and the truth - indeed, there are many people who suppose they are associating with legitimate silsilahs and authentic shaykhs, but this is not always so, but such people have been induced to trust lies as if the latter were the truth.

The master of all liars - Iblis/Satan - hides his lies amidst the truth, and uses the truth to leverage trust in the lies. Lies are used to betray the truth, and the specific techniques that are employed to bring this about are less important than coming to understand and realize the presence of malignant niyat or intention - which, quite frequently, is not always an easy thing to do - especially if one has been groomed to trust lies and treat them as the truth, and having been groomed, slowly, over a period of time, this is also one of the things which makes people who have become compliant with an atmosphere steeped in lies very resistant to anyone who suggests that what is being labeled truth is, in actuality, a lie ... for, recognition that one is being betrayed through lies tends to push people into the very painful experience of dissociation out of which alienation, identity diffusion, depersonalization, de-realization, anomie, and loss of meaning and purpose arise, and people will do almost anything to avoid having to deal with the intensely painful and dislocating character of dissociative states - and among the things which some people will do to avoid dissociation is to stay in an abusive relationship ... whether spiritual, domestic, or terrorist in nature ... because they have not learned and/or have not been taught how to deal with the dissociation, essential betrayal, deep distrust, and grief which arises through abuse.

Either on one's own and/or with assistance, one must arrive at a state where the truth becomes more important than anything else. This is at the heart of any real objectivity, spiritual quest, self-realization, or moral integrity.

Authentic shaykhs help one struggle toward sincere ijtihad concerning the nature of truth in accordance with one's capacity for realizing Haq. False shaykhs will undermine this journey through a curriculum of lies, laced with just enough truth to make one believe one has discovered the mother-load rather than a salted mine of worthless dross.

The problem is that discerning the nature of truth and/or the presence of lies is not always straight- forward. Oftentimes, one needs an enormous amount of barakah in one's life to be shown what one needs in order to recognize that what one is being told is either authentic truth or lying mis-guidance.

One must have faith that the Truth/Haq will win out in the end. However, the Divine Himma is that one must struggle and have courage to seek out the reality of that which is before us and within us at all times, but from which we often are veiled and do not recognize - at least not without a fight within ourselves.