Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294573 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

The Sun
"A Cult Classic"

Nuts
"Nutters! Four Stars"

Boys Toys
"Praise Be!"

Customer Reviews

I'm alarmed...
... by all these reviews suggesting the need for spiritual development. The only spirit You need is the Holy Spirit of our lord Jesus and that you'll find in the Holy Bible rather than any book by Gujadereff.
Initially i bought this book expecting it to be full of warnings about dangerous 'spiritual groups' and all that alien nonsense, blasphemy and lies that sometimes goes under the name of new age 'religion'.

The first few entries i read were indeed funny and accurate, but imagine my fury when I encountered mockings of the Bible, questionings of the veracity of the TRUE word of God and gospel TRUTH, hideous, confusing, snake toungued attempts to blind with clver talk and twisting arguments and create historical LIES about the emergence of Christianity (when all you need to KNOW is JESUS!). There are other foul blasphemies too, unwarranted attacks on Christian soldiers like the good people of Christian Voice.

The Joy of Being a Non-Participator Judge
The content of this book is almost entirely derived from second hand research, including articles and media reports that have been repeated down the years (usually along with the original errors). Even the title is recycled (from Peter Occhiogrosso). There are one or two short reports of personal encounters with groups but these are mild to say the least, e.g. the author takes Scientology's personality test in their London shop – something thousands of others have done – and fails to either challenge its effectiveness or to investigate further.

This is very similar to writing a book about, say, karate without ever having actually taken it up. You may think you know what it's like from reading about it but the fact is you don't, because there will be balances, movements, sensations, combinations of instinct and mind, that are totally beyond the experience of the non-participator.

Which isn't to suggest that Jordison needs to have been a member of every group he writes about, but it would have been useful to know where he stands – if he does at all – on the issue of personal spiritual development. In other words, what has he actually done about answering the mystery of his own life? And if he hasn't done anything, or doesn't see the need to, why write a book about other people's efforts in that area? The result can only be insulting to the intelligence of those who do take the subject seriously.

Of course, stories of dodgy or mad or manipulative gurus and their followers are always going to be better sellers than accounts by those who actually learnt and grew and developed through their experiences with a group. But, come on, it's all been done before; do we really need another book like this? There was William Shaw's 'Spying in Guruland' not so long ago, for instance. And while Shaw's attitude was somewhat on the negative side, at least he put himself in the firing line and actually joined the groups he wrote about.

I suppose this book serves the superficial enquirer well. It points out the perceived wackiness of each group discussed, thereby rendering it safe, while occasionally highlighting small points of admiration which is really just damning with faint praise.

If anyone who reads this book is actually stimulated to study deeper the very complex issue of human spiritual development, I'd suggest finding a copy of Fritz Peters' two books on Gurdjieff, 'Boyhood with Gurdjieff' and 'Gurdjieff Remembered' (you can often find them in one volume). Fritz was sent unwillingly to Gurdjieff's school as a boy, and continued working with him on and off for many years thereafter. His account is a powerful mixture of scepticism and enlightenment, which it's impossible to read without questioning one's own assumptions about what does or doesn't constitute spiritual development. It's also genuinely, first-hand, funny in places and full of human warmth – two qualities Jordison's book is sadly lacking.

If only I actually had a coffee table ...
The content of this extended beer mat is mostly derived from articles and media reports that have been repeated down the years (usually along with the original errors). Even the title has been done before (by Peter Occhiogrosso).

Unlike Julian Cope's 'The Modern Antiquarian', 'Sects' contains no first hand experience. Oh, sorry, wait a minute, there are one or two reports of personal adventures (I use the term loosely). For example, the author bravely enters Scientology's shop in London and with no thought for his mental, not to mention fiscal, safety, takes their personality test. Along with thousands before him. What robust challenge does he make of his tester – well, it's hard to recall; something about him saying 'I'm not sure about that', I think. Whatever, he misses the point and shows that ultimately he is a spiritual fence-sitter. Because he should either be able to disprove the Scientology test or admit he can't and join up.

When I wanted to find out about Scientology, I drove to their UK centre in East Greenstead and got myself a one-to-one with the head person there. I put it to her that, according to Scientology's personal development path, she must be a more aware, more perceptive, more developed person than me. So, I invited her to 'read' me, and if she could – if she could see into my character in such a way that was obviously above the normal – I'd join up. Did she succeed? Well, let's just say I'm still the lowest of the low as far as Scientology is concerned. And I'm not even writing a book about it; just satisfying my curiosity.

It's difficult to know who exactly this sort of book's aimed at. It takes a predictable, slightly-mocking, tone which I suppose must reassure other bedroom wiseacres that they need do nothing other than piss-take about other people's spiritual journeys – from a safe distance, of course. Colin Wilson had problems with understanding accurately the behaviour of gurus, spiritual leaders, etc, when he had little direct experience of what they were trying to achieve, but at least he took the subject seriously enough to do some proper research in an open-minded way.

For fourteen years, I was a member of one of the groups written about here and I'm very grateful to the author for putting me right. He's managed, in the space of just a few pages to show me how I was such a fool for spending all those years believing that, despite its faults, the group was actually teaching me something. Even worse, after I left it, 13 years ago, I actually continued to use what I'd learned on a daily basis. Now I can happily put that illusion behind me and rejoin the real world – you know, the one that pays money to hacks who continue to recycle the same old lazy assumptions and misconceptions.

I guess the title of the author's previous book should have warned us: 'Crap Towns'. I'm thinking of writing a book called 'The Joy of Crap Coffee Table Books Written By Small Minded Men Desperate to Get Noticed By Poncing Off the Actual Experience of Others While Hiding Behind the Barricade of "Hey – Only Joking!" Even Though They're Not Very Funny Anyway'.