A fertile new ground for “cults” and/or “cult like” groups seems to be business training through seminars, courses and/or workshops.
What could be more profitable than marketing a group’s beliefs and spiritual solutions, with the spin that they somehow have a profitable business application?
An apparent example popped up in a Phoenix newspaper this week in the form of a “workshop” called “The Invincible Salesperson,” offered by a controversial organization named 3HO led by Yogi Bhajan.
3HO didn’t clearly identify itself within the business blurb.
The “Darshan Khalsa workshop” includes “six private consultations” for only $345, according to The Phoenix Republic calendar.
However, 3HO and its guru are more readily known for yoga, meditation and wearing white. And their past pupils have been busted by the FTC for fraud, not to mention the criminal enterprise of drug running.
Never mind.
It seems that some groups called “cults” feel marketing their beliefs as a business course is good for their “bottom line.”
A similar spin has been used by Scientology, though a closely related enterprise called Sterling Management, which essentially touts its founder L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings as a “technology” with applications for business.
But all these courses and seminars ultimately appear to lead participants to the same conclusion.
That is, the sponsoring group’s religious beliefs and practices are a means to improve business.
What’s wrong with that?
Well, this isn’t exactly “business” training, but more like proselytizing and religious indoctrination accomplished through the facade of business training.
However, salvation to a for a business and/or a professional isn’t really based upon subjective beliefs, but rather the objective reality of making money.
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