It has come to our attention by parents of students who attend or have attended the University of Florida in Gainesville that a group on campus and affiliated with the university is harming kids.
The name of the group is Iskcon-International Society of Krishna Consciousness-Hare Krishna, operating under the guise of Krishna Lunch and Krishna House devotees (“The group”).
We have heard from parents that their kids are being trapped in a never-ending cycle of HAZING and ABUSE. Furthermore, the kids who have always had close personal relationships with their parents, families and friends are now finding excuses at all times to distance themselves from their parents, families and friends including all holidays and school breaks.
The group first uses deceptive and manipulative cultic ploys as expert recruiters to recruit people to join the group while not being transparent about their organization or message.
The parents are hearing from their kids the wildest thoughts and beliefs. The kids now have exotic discriminatory thoughts and beliefs that never existed before the affiliation with the group.
The group will give ambiguous explanations for the most complex things in life. These deceptive teachings are all part of the group’s totalitarian worldview, indoctrination and continuous mind control methods and techniques.
The group will condition the student to think everyone (“Karmis”) and everything material (“Maya”) outside the group is bad, and everyone and everything inside the group including their teachings, beliefs and message are all good.
It has been explained that the kids have reduced their critical thinking ability and the group has all but gained control of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This also includes financially, physically and psychologically damaged through the use of mind control techniques such as sleep deprivation, insulated information, hours of chanting, hypnotic mantra meditation, isolation, hazing, information control, disengagement, continuous service, slave labor and total dependency on the group.
The kids truly do not know anything has happened to them. Unbeknownst to them once snapped they think this is their destiny in life -hook, line and sinker, be a Hare Krishna Devotee. To get out of the material world instead of being in the real world. You will hear them say “I am happy”. Of course in reality, they are suffering unhappily from thought reform, mind control and brainwashing with terrible stress and anxiety issues to follow.
One parent described it as the student being in a robotic hypnotic trance like state. Another parent described it as the student having no ability to rationalize or reason on any important life event or plan.
The hypnotic mantra gives you a nice high feeling to act as a painless inducement against modern day living. This takes you away from the realities of this world, all under the guise of transcendental spirituality.
The group has taken upon themselves to strongly manage the non-group information that their members are allowed to hear or see.
Tight information control over the outside world from TV, radio, newspapers, books, publications, media is strictly prohibited so to keep the group members from thinking critically, rationally on what’s happening in the world or questioning the group’s beliefs or see any of their criminal headlines and past history of admitted child abuse, extortion, fraud, murder or any ex-member’s frightful stories.
Instead, they strictly emphasize their own agenda, teachings through excessive long-term use of chanting and hypnotic mantra meditation sessions to get in a “no thought” state. The group uses confusing terms, jargon and language to control their follower’s minds and strengthen the group’s belief system. Repeated scriptures are mentioned during the meditation sessions to embed the information into the brain when in the no thought state.
They are asked never to question the leader/guru as the leader/guru is always right. No matter what is wrong, it’s a message from Krishna, go chant.
In keeping with their totalitarian view that promotes the goals of the group over the individual, the group embodies the totalitarian worldview by claiming an exclusive relationship with God controlling virtually every aspect of their members’ time and lives. As part of totalitarian control, the group often approves any unethical behavior through deception and brainwashing in order to foster the group’s beliefs. The group offers explanations to everything in life.
The group enforces total isolation from family, friends and society in general and emphasizes total dependency on the group. Group members are generally forced to cut ties with family and friends and replace them with their new "family." In addition to physical isolation, group members also become disconnected from their previous lives, values and beliefs.
The group believes they are an elite and secretive group that is expected to recruit and fundraise selling their books with hidden objectives and limited disclosure to protect their sacred mission. They use whatever methods are available to do this including deception, deceit and lies.
This continuous hazing, exploitation, fear, mental anguish, and intimidation deliberately and systematically inflict extreme long-term mental torture on the kids, who now are being described as radical and fanatical.
There are terrible concerns over the physiological damage being done through this continuous cult indoctrination and the long-term destruction felt by these kids. They will need the required cult counseling to let these kids know exactly what happened to them and how they will systematically tricked. Only then can be treated for PTSD and heal so they are not lost forever.
