A former member describes the mind-control aspects of
Aesthetic Realism
written by a former AR student, Dec. 16,
2000
originally published on Steve Hassan's Freedom
of Mind
reprinted here with permission of the author
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“It is not so much the philosophy itself
that I find fault with; rather, it is the fact that
they are a mind-control cult.”
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I am writing to share my views on the Aesthetic Realism
of Eli Siegel. It is not so much the philosophy itself
that I find fault with; rather, it is the fact that they are
a mind-control cult. I "studied" with these people for
several years, and while I learned much that was useful, I
was always wary of their worship and adoration of Eli Siegel
(which Siegel himself demanded while he was alive). Siegel
and his followers claim that Aesthetic Realism is so
"beautiful" that one should "respect and be grateful to Eli
Siegel and Aesthetic Realism without limit". This is a
dangerous concept, for it can mean anything they want it to,
and can be used to justify anything in the name of "justice
to Eli Siegel". The main purpose of this phrase is to get
people to give up their individuality and devote themselves
exclusively to the worship of Siegel. The members and
"students" are all encouraged to speak and write in exactly
the same way. If you read the various articles and
testimonials on their website or in their publication
("TRO"), you will quickly see what I mean. They all sound as
if they had been written by the same person. They all
include statements of "profound respect", "deepest
gratitude", etc. In effect, they are all testaments to the
"greatness" of Siegel, and the relative insignificance of
the author.
In addition, they try to instill a sense of "deep
regret" (read: "guilt trip") in everyone because of the way
they "met Aesthetic Realism". In other words, upon first
learning about Aesthetic Realism, a person is supposed to
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“Upon first learning about Aesthetic
Realism, a person is supposed to instantly know
that it is 'true', 'more beautiful than anything in
the world', and be instantly 'grateful without
limit'.”
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instantly know that it is "true", "more beautiful than
anything in the world", and be instantly "grateful without
limit"; if one has any doubts, or simply doesn't understand
something, then one is having "unjust contempt", and one
must regret this for the rest of one's life in order to "be
completely fair to Eli Siegel and Aesthetic Realism". Of
course, this is just another mind-control technique. I'm
glad to say that I never bought into this, and refused to
express feelings I did not have.
They claim to be about ethics and not politics, but in
fact they are rabid left-wing extremists, completely blinded
to the injustices and human rights violations of communist
(or other anti-American) dictatorships, but always eager to
rail against the actions of our government. They are highly
critical of the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the West's
intervention in Kosovo, but have never once criticized the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Tienanmen Square
Massacre, or the murderous ethnic cleansing of Milosevic.
They claim that Hussein's invasion of Kuwait was justified,
because the world's resources should belong to all the
people (I guess Saddam was going to share all the
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“[They] never admitted they had
been wrong. Then again, they never admit to being
wrong about anything.”
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Kuwaiti oil with all of us, out of the goodness of his
heart). I was "studying" with them when communism collapsed
in Europe; just a few months before that happened, they were
writing in TRO about how happy the people of Eastern Europe
were with their economic system. After these happy people
overthrew their wonderful system, Aesthetic Realism never
admitted they had been wrong. Then again, they never admit
to being wrong about anything.
I could write much more, but I think I've gotten my main
points across. In conclusion, I would like to say that I
think Siegel saw some things about human psychology that
would be valuable additions to that field; however, by
demanding to be worshipped and robbing people of their
individuality, he only managed to render himself, and
therefore his knowledge, highly suspect and ultimately
useless. He may well have started out with good
intentions, but ended up just another egomaniac. We should
welcome all contributions to the knowledge of mankind, but
if we should worship anything, it is the Source of that
knowledge, and not the people who are able to perceive
certain bits of it. Siegel himself said that all men are
equal; too bad he felt this didn't apply to him.
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Former members describe Aesthetic Realism
- The ULTIMATE statement by a former member. Wow. A former Aesthetic Realism member who was involved for over ten years and into the 1990's sent us this incredibly detailed account of what life inside AR is like. This puts to rest once and for all any lingering question about whether AR is a cult - it is. The AR people will not be able to "counter" this on their Countering the Lies website because this account is from one of their own, and because it's so exhaustively detailed.
- A tale of getting sucked in. Another former member shares his experiences. This story is unique because he describes exactly how he initially got drawn in, and how he then kept getting more and more involved.
- Aesthetic Realism ruined his marriage. "[It] introduced a level of stress in my marriage that had not previously existed....I consider my 'study' of Aesthetic Realism to be one of the factors that led to the eventual breakup of my marriage, to my eternal sorrow." This former member also wrote about AR on Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind.
- On having all the answers. A former member explains how AR members think they have all the answers, and feel qualified to lecture others about how they should view personal tragedy.
- Kicked out for remaining gay. A former student describes how he was kicked out of AR because he couldn't change from homosexuality. Powerful stuff.
- "If I disappointed them, then I now consider that a badge of honor." A former member tells how AR try to change him from being gay, and convinced him not to spend Christmas with his family.
- "This is merely one example of the way people were controlled and humiliated if they stepped out of line...". The experiences shared with us by a member from 1974-80, now a Fortune 100 executive.
- "I want Ellen Reiss questioned!" A former member tells her story, and wonders why there hasn't been a class-action lawsuit against the foundation yet.
- They took his consultation tape. A former student describes how AR people kept his consultation tape with his most intimate thoughts on it, and told him he couldn't study any more unless he incorporated AR more radically into his life.
- "I personally know at least half of the contributors to AR's Countering the Lies website and know them to either be fibbing or having a long-term memory problem.". A former member
from 1971-80, confirms that AR students don't see their families, are discouraged from attending college, and shun other members. He also offers that he was mistaken when he was involved about thinking that AR had changed him from homosexuality.
- Michael Bluejay's description. This whole website is my statement about Aesthetic Realism. But in this article I describe my family's involvement in more detail.
- Members interviewed in Jewish Times. This lengthy article in Jewish Times quotes former students of Aesthetic Realism extensively.
- NY Post article. A series of articles in the NY Post quotes many former members who are now critical of the group.
- Aesthetic Realism debunked. A former student explains the cult aspects of AR. Posted on Steve Hassan's Freedom of Mind website.
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Aesthetic Realism at a
Glance |
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Name |
The
Aesthetic Realism Foundation |
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Founded |
1941 |
|
Founder |
Eli Siegel, poet and art/literary critic.
Committed suicide in 1978 |
|
Purpose |
To teach Siegel's philosophy of aesthetic
realism. |
|
Philosophy
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The key to all social ills is for people to learn to like the world. Having contempt for the world leads to unhappiness and even insanity. (The slogan of their newsletter is "Contempt causes insanity".) Homosexuality is seen as a form of insanity caused by not liking the world sufficiently.
Also teaches that "beauty is the making one of
opposites". |
|
Location |
New York City (SoHo) |
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Membership
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About 103 (35 teachers, 41 training to be teachers, and 27 regular students). Has failed to grow appreciably even after 70 years of
existence, and is currently shrinking.
Members call themselves "students". Advanced
members who teach others are called
"consultants". |
|
Method of study |
Public seminars/lectures at their headquarters
(in lower Manhattan), group classes, and
individual consultations (three consultants
vs. one student). |
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Cult aspects
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- Fanatical devotion to their
leader/founder
- Belief that they have the one true answer to
universal happiness
- Ultimate purpose is to recruit new
members
- Feeling that they are being persecuted
- Wild, paranoid reactions to criticism
- Non-communication (or at least very limited communication) with those who have left
the group
- Odd, specialized language.
More about cult aspects...
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| What former members say... |
| They reeled me in like a brook trout... Guilt was introduced into the experience. They told me I was "not showing respect for this great education I was receiving" by [not getting more involved]. |
| If there is anything the Aesthetic Realists are good at, it is convincing people that if they think they see anything wrong with Siegel, AR, Reiss or how the organization is run, there is really something wrong with them. Any time I began to question things or think I saw something amiss, I had been programmed to think that what it really meant was that something was terribly wrong with me. |
| My new AR friends were starting to apply the hard sell a bit more so the word "cult" did come to mind , but I naïvely believed that it couldn't be a cult because it wasn't religious in nature. |
| They get you to actually control yourself. A lot of people's lives have been hurt --ruined. |
| So, there was Eli Siegel, who came up with all these rules, but to whom none of the rules applied, and there was everybody else. |
| [Eli Siegel] was a hurtful person. He was a sociopath. He was a control freak, and he was a cult leader. |
| Poor John then would be the subject of an onslaught of criticism to help him see his own contempt for Eli Siegel.... This is merely one example of the way people were controlled and humiliated if they stepped out of line or didn't conform to accepted behavior. |
| We all had to present ourselves as essentially miserable failures whose lives were in shambles until we found the glorious "answers to all our questions" in AR. |
| It was very difficult for me to surrender to AR in the total fashion they seemed to want. |
| I received a call from one of the AR bigwigs asking me to donate money to the foundation. When I told him I was low on cash I received a considerable verbal drubbing. |
| I consider my "study" of Aesthetic Realism to be one of the factors that led to the eventual breakup of my marriage, to my eternal sorrow. |
| I felt a bit raped psychologically.... if you are thinking of getting into the AR consultation process, realize that they could end it all suddenly, and that you could find your most intimate thoughts on tape in someone else's possession. |
| They flatter you to death and tell you that you're so wonderful, and you have all these qualities that others have never seen. And then there's this horrible criticizing. |
| That's when I finally knew for sure: AESTHETIC REALISM IS A CULT. I swore on that moment that if I was ever given the opportunity to tell the world what these people did to me, I would. |
| When I left I was definitely shunned by other students. I would meet people in the NYC streets -as I still do to this day - and they would turn the other way to avoid me, or some even made derogatory comments about me. |
| [New AR students] would be shocked if they knew that the lives of the people they are supposed to learn from are very different from the principles they are taught in consultations. Even though publicly the AR foundation preaches respect for people and like of the world, inside the organization the message is very different. The underlying feeling is, "People who do not study AR are inferior to us, and the world is our enemy, out to get us." We had contempt for outsiders and were scared of the world. We huddled together for safety, secure in our sense of superiority. |
| When I was studying, we were allowed to associate with our families only if they continuously demonstrated that they were grateful to and respectful of Eli Siegel and AR. This did not include going to visit them if they lived far away because then we would have had to miss classes, and that would have meant we were "making our family more important than AR." |
| Some of the students I remember going at most intensely and viciously to stop them from associating with their families, (and whom we succeeded in stopping for many, many years), are people who are now bragging on the AR website about how great their relationships with their families are and writing as though that was always the case. |
| There were even instances of students refusing to visit their parents when one of them was dying because the parents did not "express regret" and renounce their unfairness to Eli Siegel and AR. There were parents who literally begged their son or daughter to relent so they could see them one more time, but the child refused. The parent died without ever seeing their child again. Far from being criticized for such behavior, students who went this far were seen as heroes in AR. They received public praise from Ellen Reiss. |
| While I was in AR, I did believe that Eli Siegel was greater than Christ.... It would have been accurate to say I worshipped him. |
| People were told that if their families did not support aesthetic realism, they were not their families. |
| Some of the people with statements on the Countering the Lies website claiming that AR students do not shun former students have actually passed me on the street, looked straight at me, and pretended they were seeing right through me. This includes people in the highest positions in the organization. |
| More and more the AR zombies demanded that I express gratitude to ES and AR. Every paper that a student wrote had to end with the obligatory "I am so grateful to ES and AR for..." along with "I deeply regret that I have met this great knowledge with contempt..." |
| Eli Siegel was an evil person. And I don't use the word evil lightly. |
| See former members' statements in their entirety |
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