Feet of Clay

Feet of Clay
Anthony Storr

There are many reports of strange cults which enthral their followers and cut themselves off from the world. Invariably led by gurus, or "spiritual leaders", the fruit of these cults are mass suicides in the South American jungle or the self-immolation of hundreds in besieged fortresses.There are said to be at least six hundred New Religious Movements in Britain, and many more in other parts of the world. They range from benign, charitable organisations to corrupt, dangerous cults which may end in murder or mass suicide. Since cults have a special appeal to the young, anxious parents have prompted a good deal of research into who joins cults and why. Less has been written about the gurus who institute and lead such movements.Gurus are extraordinary individuals who cast doubt upon current psychiatric distinctions between sanity and madness. A guru convinces others that he knows – a persuasive capacity which can bring illumination but which may also and in disaster.Anthony Storr’s book is a study of some of the best-known gurus, ranging from monsters such as Jim Jones or David Koresh, to saints such as Ignatius of Loyola. It includes both Freud and Jung because, as Storr demonstrates, what ostensibly began as a scientific investigation became, in each case, a secular path to salvation.'Feet of Clay' is one of Anthony Storr’s most original and illuminating books. It demonstrates that most of us harbour irrational beliefs, and discusses how the human wish for certainty in an insecure world leads to confusing delusion with truth. No-one knows, in the sense that gurus claim that they know. Maturity requires us to be able to tolerate doubt. The book ends with reflections upon why human beings need gurus at all, and indicates how those in need of guidance can distinguish the false and dangerous from the genuine and good.

ANTHONY STORR

FEET OF CLAY

A STUDY OF GURUS

Copyright (#ulink_ec914746-435d-5e97-8aac-2739d47d34f4)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers 1996

Copyright © Anthony Storr 1996

Anthony Storr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006384236

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780007382026

Version: 2017–01–05

Dedication (#ulink_276b50de-d02c-5806-8330-a0367cc6f0cb)

For my friend and colleague Kay Redfield Jamison,

and in memory of our mutual friend and publisher Erwin Glikes.

Epigraph (#ulink_e1be9e5e-3985-5c59-bea2-adb25a30cc66)

The wisest men follow their own direction

And listen to no prophet guiding them.

None but the fools believe in oracles,

Forsaking their own judgement. Those who know,

Know that such men can only come to grief.

EURIPIDES, Iphigenia in Tauris

Contents

Cover (#u49d50226-fc28-54f5-9966-9a1c082187c8)

Title Page (#ubc83e203-dd0f-5d73-9c63-1a6ac7b08153)

Copyright (#ulink_fa43ea6b-9f88-5f3d-960a-f56c8d042d34)

Dedication (#ulink_5f263bc1-217e-5346-831a-105019c8d7a9)

Epigraph (#u4a675521-002f-512e-a4f6-375b88988a4b)

Introduction (#ulink_7ea631cd-f94a-5e88-ba62-c569fc696373)

I: Paranoid Enclosures (#ulink_f7b5742b-f335-5d02-8db4-af1638bae6ad)

II: Georgei Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (#ulink_8ccba8ec-3685-51d1-a963-f6f221b1089e)

III: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (#ulink_f7ed9f86-f41b-5eef-a397-04f1e8f3739f)

IV: Rudolf Steiner (#litres_trial_promo)

V: Carl Gustav Jung (#litres_trial_promo)

VI: Sigmund Freud (#litres_trial_promo)

VII: The Jesuit and Jesus (#litres_trial_promo)

VIII: Sanity and Insanity (#litres_trial_promo)

IX: Chaos and Order (#litres_trial_promo)

X: Delusion and Faith (#litres_trial_promo)

XI: To Whom Shall We Turn? (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

References (#litres_trial_promo)

Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)