CULTS
A bad thing, right?
Like a lot of language, the idea of cult has kind of oozed outwards from the dictionary definition and spilled over into everyday language.
Cult Movie
Cult Band Following
Beiber-Fever??? (although to be fair…not so many Beliebers now)
There was obviously the Waco maniac, and Satanic cults tend not to have a very good press – I’ve noticed…
I’ll tell you what made me write: I used to teach Body Jam, as some of you might know. Body Jam is part of a family of Programmes headed up by the Juggernaut that is Les Mills International.
When I DID teach the programme, I was involved in all the associated FB groups – I even set one up! Quelle surprise..
Anyway what with being really busy and so on, I haven’t checked into them for a while, and I just noticed a notification in one of them yesterday..and had a flick through the posts.
Having had a bit of a sabbatical, I was actually a bit shocked.I forgot – I used to type those things, think about the events get excited by those things.
I was shocked because I had forgotten. I’d forgotten the PASSION And for a long time it felt a really bit, ‘cant do without it’, part of my life.
UPDATE 2018: I updated my training and teach it again.
Couldn’t help it.
Really hard to permanently leave a cult…
Yesterday in MY local FB group that I set up with the aim of promoting what we offer, which has gone mental enormous (and spawned another 7 sub-groups)
There was yet another ‘Slimming World’ thread.
Now I am damn sure that Slimming World wouldn’t be delighted at the prospect of people asking about Wise & Gorgeous things all over their groups.
But anyway…that’s for another time.
Upshot was: an admin removed the very long thread that had already provided SW with yet another new customer….sigh….as apart from the fact, that the answer (a voucher) had been posted but the admin said ‘kind of looks like they are taking the p*ss’..
Tended to agree. Not a biggie.
Cue: the usual spiky Slimming World goers responses and messages…(they have a tendency to get personal)
And that’s what made me think.
Why is it so personal?
Why do they care what I think?
Why do they care if I disagree?
Why do they care if I am wrong or right? (I am right incidentally)
What makes them all…spiky
n.b. You might wonder why I don’t teach Body Jam any more. It is purely because I can’t afford to.
The time taken to learn the stuff every quarter, the fact that pay is less than I earned per hour when I was 18, the losses incurred by travelling across the country to do the larger trainings.
Dammit I flew to Glasgow for the weekend a couple of years ago for it the weekend cost more than I earned teaching it for the next 6 months.
And it wasn’t obligatory!!!
(see update above – I do now because I can afford to and some of my reasons turned out to be excuses!)
But I still think that Les Mills is the MOST superb company that does what it does.
It’s training is Exceptional, the people are Incredible, the Trainers are mini-Rock Stars, and the programmes just get better.
It has it’s own language, merchandise, HANDSHAKE, greeting, clothes, feel, vibe, calendar – it’s not like Zumba (which I also used to teach) which is cool – but the other end of the attention to detail spectrum.
There is even a pilgrimage to New Zealand!
Instructors that teach LMI programmes, know they are never going to be buying a house in the country with their earnings.
If they are young and energetic enough, they can earn enough …but considering their investment of themselves, not a great deal
Let’s just say, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would get some staff free up a few days a week and get learning this Quarter’s LMI choreography. Still obviously a cult member – however lapsed. What I got from it was FUN!
Slimming Clubs have their own language; syns, points, cheats, losses, Merchandise
(I haven’t told you about the biscuits and cakes yet have I, I am saving that) ….meetings
(to be fair you don’t normally have to get to SW by plane and stay in a Premier Inn)
By the oozier definition of cultish behaviour.. all this stuff ticks boxes.
A sometimes IRRATIONAL protectiveness about the Company or Group or Figurehead.
The deliberate ‘fingers-in-ears, la-la-la, not listening’ ignoring of certain logical facts (no you won’t make your fortune teaching LMI programmes, and statistics say your Slimming Club won’t…well…make you slim)
The fact you have to PAY.
But is that necessarily BAD?
Well, I think it isn’t.
(What do I know, I am already a cult member, however lapsed)
HUMANS
We don’t work well in isolation.
And you could be cynical and say: paying to join a room of 70 people with the same problem to solve as you have, and queuing to buy ‘diet versions’ of your usual cakes and biscuits is far easier than eating good food and getting a bit of exercise under your weekly belt…
Makes it easier to justify in your mind. If all these people do it – it must be the thing to do.
Hence the spikiness if anyone dares criticise it. It’s your thing. The thing that gives you hope, or whatever other emotion it is for you.. We don’t like any one criticising our inner justification process. (We’ve worked hard at that.)
Companionship, Group motivation, and a feeling of belonging is important. We physically need it to thrive.
Comparing your progress (and the little competitive buzz that comes with that) towards your goals – is a useful construct.
Those are the benefits of that cult
(Not the most effective way to lose weight but some people lose some). It’s not necessarily about that.
Les Mills gives its instructors, excitement, enjoyment, the pride that comes with continual improvement, it’s a bit sexy, they make their trainings feel like being at a rock concert.
Those are the benefits of that cult/group/movement. (Not the most effective way to earn money – but some people earn some)
It’s not necessarily about that.
I am a joiner.
I joined all the clubs at school (except Latin club. That was well boring), the choir, was in the school plays, went to dance/drama classes, entered competitions. Joined a church…
I loved all that.
To be honest – there would have been times that I would have been a prime candidate for recruiting into one of those weird type where you have to shave your head only eat goji berries, and stand on one leg for 6 hours a day.
I’m surprised the Moonies haven’t got me yet at the airport.
Cults or groups give you attention.
You feel important
Part of something.
In primitive times, we banded together for safety. Then we built houses and stopped being eaten by bears.
When everyone went all goth and end-timesy (just my teenage friends?) people joined together in dark smokey rooms and pledged allegiance to whatever the latest thing or book or guru was.
People flocked to the newer religions in directly proportionate panic to that currently seen in the World.
But I have a sense that there are many people NOW, who have mentally levelled up.
The science about food and health is SO compelling now and it’s not too hard to find,
that there are murmurings of disquiet.
Corruption in systems and government have meant that for once middle-class, middle-England people are losing patience with the status quo, and speaking out.
(Which was priorly the job of stripy-jumpered ginger lads sporting stinky dreadlocks who camped and staged protests rather than having proper jobs)
Jimmy Saville used to be the man that every child wrote to to make their dreams come true. We wanted to be in Gary Glitter’s band….
Shudder.
We got informed.
A rumble of Planetary intellectual level up.
The Internet means have access to information that we can check, reach the ‘Folk at the Top’ directly, and hold them accountable.
Where we used to just accept.
People used to be life-long Labour or Tory voters, (man and boy) and now people tend to like some policies of some parties.
TODAY people say they don’t know who they are voting for until they’ve heard all the manifestos.
Thinking and personal investigation of the truth has levelled up.
Still the human facts remains…
We want to do things together.
We have a tongue shaped the way it is for communication.
Babies who do not have their mothers attention..don’t survive.
It’s just that cults just won’t cut it any more.
Following blindly.
Unless we directly benefit.
Unless the deal is as good for us as it is for the folk at’top.
In LMI’s case – if your measure is NOT
‘I want to be rich’ then it delivers in bucketloads. Over-delivers if there is such a thing. But just on other things
In certain Slimming Clubs cases – if your measure is NOT ‘I want the most accurate information so I can lose weight’ then it also delivers. Just on other things.
Nowadays people prefer MOVEMENTS.
Clear-thinking, informed people like them, who, standing side-by-side become stronger than each individual.
Companionship. Friendship. Support. Advice.
Accurate Information (not Dogma or Salespitch)
Direction (not Control)
Vital.
The beautiful, brilliant, exciting parts of being a human.
Movement suggests forward motion.
Progress.
Got to be a good thing.
Look to the top.
Who is at the top of an organisation that provides you with POTENTIALLY GOOD cultish elements?
Scientific Experts? Fan Clubs?
Your local Vicar?
Multi-Million Pound Businesses?
What do they want from you?
Money? (Yeah, usually, but that’s the World.
Even UKIP Councillors have to eat.)
Votes?
A New Follower?
Exposure?
Adoration?
Notoriety?
And what do you want from them?
Does your research suggest you will you get it?
Do they have your best interests at heart?
So to those of your learning the latest LMI release, GO YOU – get all that excellent stuff, and enjoy every second. Be the best you can be. But don’t exhaust yourself, flower.
And to those of you going to your Slimming Club tonight know that just because 50 people are in the same room as you – doesn’t mean that you can’t make your own choices.
Find the fresh food choices, know that you don’t have to buy their snack bars and why you really really shouldn’t.
Educate yourself on some of the out-dated, decidedly dodgy and downright inaccurate information you are going to hear and enjoy all that companionship – and the other good bits.
Look to the Top.
Enjoy the bits that work for you.
Keep asking questions.
Love Tanya & Claire
www.wiseandgorgeous.com
xxx
Tanya doing a bit of Body Jam
Check out our training on how to break the diet cycle here… click the picture to hear…
Anna’s story