Although sadly many who were in The Source Family came away from the experience more traumatized or damaged than when they first joined. A perfect example were the women who lost their babies while in The Source Family, after adhering to Father Yod's edict of family members not using modern medicine, medical treatment or doctors of any kind. It is my belief that a couple of those women never fully recovered from the trauma of losing their babies while in The Source Family. But, one of the worst results of spiritual bypassing was found among a few of the men where they found fertile ground in The Source Family to view and treat women as being less than equal to them on a spiritual level, along with giving them the green light to go ahead and freely exploit women sexually, because Jim Baker drummed it into the men----his 'sons' that they were gods and deserving of being worshipped and waited on and pampered just like him.
Jim Baker didn't feel that women needed to contemplate 'spirit' or even participate in any kind of spiritual exercises, because their lives were about keeping the 'earth trip' of men together which entailed cleaning, preparing meals, serving, childcare and of course, sexual servicing. Jim Baker did not see women as being equal to the men, when it came to achieving illumination, thus cultivating and encouraging male-gender bias behind a smokescreen or façade of being 'the aquarian way.' Men who had unresolved emotional issues with women, found the social order created by Jim Baker within The Source Family helped them to bypass any much needed psychological work they needed to do on themselves: particularly their deep seated hatred or bias towards women and the servile role of women within The Source Family that was put into place by Jim Baker enabled any abusers of women to flourish.
Because Father Yod believed that men were like the sun----all powerful and life-sustaining and that women were emotional and lacking the emotional stability to withstand the vicissitudes of life, and therefore needed to serve a 'son of Yod' in order to thrive. Jim Baker expected total submission and contrition from women towards the men or 'sons' where quite often he would direct/place women to be with and serve certain 'sons'. One man flush with the idea and power of himself being a god became a bully and because of his intransigent devotion and love for his newfound spiritual leader used bullying and intimidation tactics, and continues to this day to try and bully and intimidate anyone who speaks out against his spiritual father, Yahowha; especially any of the women, whom the guy also blames for the failure of The Source Family and even worse as being abusers of the children often using the worst kind of labels to describe the women who were in The Source Family. I was willing to 'let sleeping dogs lie' and would have left this guy alone, had he done the same and left me alone to write about/express what it felt like to be a woman in The Source Family and just how awful it was being forced to perform a sexual ritual with men whom you barely knew----which is something that I feel needs to be told. Instead, this devoted and entrenched follower of Yahowha decided that he couldn't allow that. Denial now seems to be the only option left for the small handful of devoted followers of Yahowha who desperately want to silence anyone who speaks out against the ongoing promotion and perpetuation of The Source Family, especially a couple of former male members who when pressed quickly reveal their abusive and aggressive natures, because they've never dealt with their own emotional issues about women.
A couple of former Source Family members who claim to have attained spiritual enlightenment and in possession of ancient knowledge and truths are presenting themselves as being representatives of the entire defunct collective of The Source Family in order to pass if off as being ahead of its time-----which is the perfect ruse or cover for hiding their own deep-seated, underlying psychological problems in an epic display of spiritual bypassing. Even in the wake of damaged relationships and claims of abuse and misappropriation of personal items, photographs, videos and music, the former Source Family members who continue to maintain they are spiritually awakened and in possession of immense love and compassion professing love to all claiming to possess secret teachings and wisdom while using New Age saccharine platitudes are lying and deceiving themselves and others. The Source Family produced a good many of those kinds of egos----those who operate from a place of spiritual superiority/hiding behind a mask or façade of them possessing wisdom and love for all when just below the surface are the worst kinds of behavior and pathological lying that just keeps getting worse and worse as these people ignore and deny their emotional and psychological problems.
It was much easier to adopt Jim Baker as a surrogate father surrendering and handing over your personal power to him obediently following his edicts and doing whatever he instructed them to do in a childlike way. But, that kind of spiritual bypassing has had negative consequences in some former member's lives. In the sixties and seventies, many of us baby boomers were trying to self-medicate and/or heal ourselves by using either drugs or meditation to help resolve our own emotional and psychological issues (most of the time not even aware that's what we were doing) believing at the time that strict adherence to some kind of spiritual doctrine or belief system and surrendering our lives and our personal power over to our chosen guru or spiritual teacher/leader; we would gain freedom or liberation from any underlying issues or problems through that spiritual practice, but that was not what happened.
People who join cults even unwittingly who become convinced the leader of their cult has the ability to heal and transfer enlightenment to them usually end up disillusioned and victims of emotional abuse, because the cult leader or guru use their perceived power to take advantage of their followers most often taking sexual advantage of the women around them. Unfortunately, many people who got into a pursuit of spiritual enlightenment have foregone ever doing any self-analysis or psychological/emotional work on themselves. As I've stated before, the entire New Age consciousness expansion that's been going on since the late sixties is fraught with people who have never dealt with their own unresolved emotional or psychological problems, and yet they are sure they can fix everyone else, if you just listen to them and follow their lead which in the case of The Source Family meant adopting Father Yod/Yahowha as your spiritual father along with hiding behind an aquarian persona while denying that anything dark or disturbing, unhealthy or detrimental went on in The Source Family. Because denial is the only option left for the most rabid and ardent followers and devotees of Yahowha----people who condemn anyone who doesn't speak lovingly or ideally about Jim Baker or their experience being in The Source Family.
One such staunch follower and epic spiritual bypasser recently stated that anyone who doesn't come from a place of love and kindness towards the ongoing promotion of Jim Baker must surely have gone insane and that it was something that Jim Baker predicted would happen. Oh yes, how convenient to say that Jim Baker prophesied that anyone who was in The Source Family who does not go along with the continued promotion of The Source Family or does not come from a place of loving kindness (no matter how phony or contrived) cannot 'handle the energies bombarding the planet' are therefore deemed as having gone insane. Wow. That is the kind of delusional, rambling spiritual BS that is being spread around, in order to diminish or discredit any former member of The Source Family who doesn't agree with the continued promotion of Father Yod and The Source Family which was essentially a hippie cult from the seventies that failed miserably because its leader wanted to have sex with as many young women as he possibly could using spiritual bypassing to avoid facing the fact that the guy had a serious womanizing problem. A man who was continually sleeping around and could not maintain a monogamous relationship or marriage with one woman where his philandering lead to death of one man. A man who bragged about how he robbed banks in order to bankroll The Source Restaurant where in a short amount of time he set himself up as a spiritual father where any beautiful, young woman who joined his family would be vulnerable and fair game in his sexual escapades veiled behind a preponderance of spiritual teachings and claiming himself to be their 'earthly spiritual father'.
Some of the most devoted male followers of Jim Baker idolize and revere him for exactly that kind of behavior. Men who display the same aggressive, male-dominate behavior as displayed by their spiritual teacher and leader, Father Yod/Yahowha.
The Source Family was the perfect setting for encouraging male domination and female submission. Jim Baker created an unbalanced and unhealthy social order where women were expected to serve the men most of all to sexually service them, whether or not the women barely knew the men that Father Yod directed them to serve. Male domination under the pretense of being a spiritual lifestyle. So, I will not be silent or intimidated or bullied by any ardent followers of Jim Baker. Anyone who loudly claims they are doing the work of Father Yod/Yahowha and have set themselves up as being spiritual surrogates of the man, and who are intent on gathering their own followers are the greatest examples of spiritual bypassing.
Which is why I discourage anyone from listening to or following any former Source Family members who are presenting themselves as being representatives/surrogate leaders of Father Yod in order to present The Source Family as spearheading or leading the entire New Age movement in this country when these individuals hide behind their Source Family personas and façades as being loving and full of spiritual wisdom and truths when these same individuals have never dealt with their own psychological and emotional problems.
In my opinion, Jim Baker was a man who spiritually bypassed his own bleak treatment and abandonment of the women and children in his own life to create a new surrogate family of devoted followers who would never question his motives or his behavior, but only worship and idolize him. Where he could persuade his group of followers to adopt and follow his hodgepodge jumbled virtual pick and choose of Hinduism, occultism, esotericism and theology thrown in with the obsessive pursuit of raising your kundalini which helped him successfully ignore/avoid/elude having to deal with his own psychological and emotional problems. Welcome to the New Age! You too, can use spiritual bypassing to ensure that you'll never have to face or deal with any dark, disturbing underlying emotional or psychological problems in a fix one/fix all recipe concocted in varying forms by every guru/cult leader to gather their own following. That was the reality of The Source Family and that is what some diehard followers of Father Yod simply cannot come to grips with; which is why some continue using their pseudo Source Family names, because it helps them to continue in their own spiritual bypassing completely avoiding ever having to deal with their own personal stuff.
The following are a couple of quotes by John Welwood:
---Being a good spiritual practitioner can become what I call a compensatory identity that covers up and defends against an underlying deficient identity, where we feel badly about ourselves, not good enough, or basically lacking. Then, although we may be practicing diligently, our spiritual practice can be used in the service of denial and defense. And when spiritual practice is used to bypass our real-life human issues, it becomes compartmentalized in a separate zone of our life, and remains unintegrated with our overall functioning
---Others may unconsciously use their spiritual brilliance to feed their narcissistic inflation and devalue others or treat them in manipulative ways.
Here is an article about spiritual bypassing https://themindfool.com/spiritual-bypassing/.
---Others may unconsciously use their spiritual brilliance to feed their narcissistic inflation and devalue others or treat them in manipulative ways.
Here is an article about spiritual bypassing https://themindfool.com/spiritual-bypassing/.
