One of my best friends has gotten involved with a group called the ‘Michael Students’. It all sounds very cult-ish to me, and I have definietly noticed HUGE changes in her personality since getting involved. Here is a web site devoted to the group:
She has been getting more and more absent minded, forgetting simple things. The other day, I mentioned wanting to see the movie Avatar and she began a speech on how that movie will make me ashamed to be a human, how it is full of deep meaning, etc, and I simply said ‘I don’t look for deep meaning in EVERYthing, sometime I just want to see a good movie’, and she has not spoken to me since. (we do not live near one another, but talk on line and on the phone)
I feel like she is being brainwashed; she is NOT the same person I have kbnown and loved for many years. It makes me very sad.
Anyone have any experience with this group or an opinion?
sigh Yeah… I’m not impressed with them either. The only luck I need personally is in the loss of my dear friend… I wouldn’t touch this group with a 10 foot pole.
That’s the 1st thing I thought of and I went to the website just to check it out since new water-brothers are always welcome
I got as far as, “The Michael teachings explore the spiritual philosophy of the mid-causal plane entity Michael” before deciding that waiting wasn’t filled yet and praying that it would never be.
I guess I’m just very sad seeing an old, dear friendship falling apart because she chooses these fruitcakes over me. She IMed me today that she has some ‘thinking’ to do, and I know in my gut it’s a very good chance that her ‘chaneling’ has advised her to cut ties with me, the ‘non-believer’.
I miss the person she was before she got sucked in so badly.
Hey I was poking around the site and went to the photo gallery but when I tried to click on the link to view photos it took me to some black page that said “Saudi Arabia Hackers”. Weird.
But I guess not as weird as the rest of the stuff I read!
Yeah, I got the same thing.
I read the book “Messages From Michael” in the early 90’s and didn’t really consider it much since then. It’s about a group of people who play with a ouija board and allegedly contact Micheal, who is:
I didn’t see anything potentially harmful in the ideas presented in the book. I’m not familiar with who these people are or what their aim is; harmless teachings can be used by ruthless and evil people, but I didn’t get that impression of the people in the book. “The Michael Teachings” might not be the source of your friend’s personality changes, but just part of the pattern.
Most of the “Michael” stuff is sort of like another personality classification scheme (the “Overleaves”), except a complex one with millions of possibilities instead of just 9 like the enneagram or in Astrology with your sun sign. I agree that the information itself is harmess. I have some interest in it along with other things and have met others who have as well.
That said, one of the problems with any sort of group is the tendency to think that it answers everything. If it’s implied “Michael” can answer everything, including theoretical physics questions or how we’ll get world peace, then there’s a problem. Or thinking that “channels” of Michael somehow are more evolved or have access to infinite wisdom such that you give your power away.
At the very least, what I’ve noticed myself is that there exist some people heavily into that tend to look at everyone in terms of “Overleaves” and get obsessed with it to the point of having to speak only in that language. Mind you, I’ve noticed some PhDs in Psychology can only speak in PhD research paper goggledigook and have a hard time making real connections and being happy, which theoretically they are helping others do. Imbalances can happen with any passion. That said, I didn’t see anything particularly wrong with the Michael folks that isn’t in most of the rest of society in a different form. Some are kooky and some are obsessive, but the group as a whole is not like Scientology.
I consider this spirit ‘Michael’ as a particular entity with the desire to be god, and is actually a lesser god, but very very strong, probably the strongest of the lesser gods of this world. The counter of this IMHO is found in Jesus alone. Michael’s ways are that of war and domination, the way to overcome is the path of Jesus, peace, Love and willingness to die for the person you Love.
I went to a weekend Michael retreat in '90. I was visiting a friend in Seattle just out of high school, and her mom was planning to go to this retreat while I was there, so she took us along. It was led by a channel, and there was a lot about personality type, and what lessons your soul had set out to learn in your life. It was in line with most New Age philosophies, and they emphasized that they weren’t trying to say that this was the “One Truth”, only that it was one of many belief systems and you can choose to believe whatever you want.
The channel did “readings” of everyone there, and he was pretty much on target about my personality, and how my life had been. That can be chalked up to being a good judge of character. He also said I would meet my “soul mate” when I was 26 and there would be an instant recognition. One of the ideas is that everyone is part of a collective conscience that is divided over and over until you get a single soul. Your soul mate or twin would be the one other soul that came from that last split.
Thing is, I met my wife when I was 26. She had a love at first sight type of experience when she saw me. The channel had mentioned her body type and was correct about that as well.
I don’t know that I believe any of it, but I do agree that “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio…”
Agree 110% on this, and while it’s sad for the OP to lose an old friendship to a group that peddles this treacle, I wouldnt want someone who buys into this kind of loosebrained nonsense as a close friend, myself…
I tend to extend a general truce to Christians on a “we irreconcilably disagree but that’s your right as a thinking person” basis, but is your gut reaction to reading about this group really to assume “Michael” is probably AN ACTUAL GOD and just isn’t as good as Jesus?
This sort of thing is always sad. If you were closer, I’d advise you to try and spend a lot of physical time with your friend ASAP, and try to open up to her and get her to do the same.
Cults seem very alluring to folks who feel lonely or like they need big answers.
typoink, meet kanicbird! He’s not like most Christians…
The Michael teachings don’t seem especially pernicious. But some of the franchise holders might be better than others. (Yes, it’s apparently a franchise.) And the teachings might affect some folks in odd ways…
