Bitte asked in the comments about the Path lessons, where they came from, and how people can be helped to leave. That's a lot to respond to. Being that I was still in the cult when the Path lessons came out, I am the most qualified of the current two writers to answer this question although comments to improve upon the timeline and facts are appreciated.
First, a little background:
When Jack came back in the late 90's, he said it was for the kids. He said he was trying to run away from his destiny like Job, and that God had punished him. He said that although it was hard for him to be back, really uncomfortable because he didn't like to teach, he had been reminded that that was the reason for his being on this Earth. He realized he had squandered his time being away, and that he had to get back to work. His time was limited. He did die 8 years later... so I guess he wasn't wrong about that.
He said the children, the youth of the first and second generations of followers, were his life's work. (creepy!)
For about 4 years, he wooed us. He set in motion a system of checks and balances. The Hierarchy has been explained in
But Seriously.
After the "dirty work" was done, he set up shop in a really nice mansion, I'm sorry, house, in the mountains of Colorado. He invited the new Priests and Kings, and people old enough to not be under separate guardianship to live with him in this house. As I understand it, it was mandatory for a few young men. No women were allowed.
To this select group of men he started teaching the Path lessons.
The Path lessons are based on the Book the Sefir Yetzirah by Aryeh Kaplan. It is Kabbalistic in theory. In Kabbalah there are ten sephirot, between the sephirot there are paths that connect the different sephira... these are the paths. The sefir yetzirah is an extremely complex way of telling you about the connections, about the paths. A person who studies Kabbalism must learn to walk each of these paths in their lifetime to attain perfection. This is usually a life long process, or one that can span many lives.
That is how Jack taught it.
If you are having trouble with the concept of the sephira... think of the "chakras", it's about the same as Traditional Chinese Medicine. There are "pools" of energy. These pools are the centers for different body organs, emotions, actions, chemicals, etc. In TCM, they connected by Meridians. These meridians end in "pressure points" or in the points in the ear, hands, feet, as in reflexology. The idea is the same as the sephira and the paths. One flows into another. A blockage in one limits your connection to another. In order to function all the pathways must be clear, etc etc.
It started in Colorado with the youth boys only. Eventually a cd was mailed to all the "youth." The adults were told this information was beyond them. They were tainted by their Lutheran pasts and would never be able to understand this information.
The youth being hand-picked by Jack in guf (the heavenly location for souls waiting to born accessed via Jacob's ladder by Jack... because he was an incarnation or emanation of the soul of Jacob) were perfectly suited to understand this information. He had to finish teaching it in order to complete our purpose. Also, we were not allowed to study alone. He HAD to study in a group, or we would go mad.
In college campuses all across America where there were any students of Jack Hickman whose parents had roped them into a cult, and told them that in order to live, in order to be perfect, in order to know God they had to listen to Jack, in those places, students got together and studied the meanderings of an increasingly confused and sick old man who thought he was a prophet. Thus the path lessons.
The path lessons were Jack's final work. There are 32 of them. Pnina is reposting the lessons as they were presented on the cd... out of order, confusing, meandering, making absolutely no sense whatsoever.
My personal favorite part is the Q & A. That's where Jack really shines.
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I hope this has explained the Path lessons and how Jack taught post 1996 for those morbidly curious. If you were a person who left on SBS, as it is called, you would not understand the context.
If you had stayed, you would have been cast aside for your children.
Many adults were enraged at being told after all those years of being faithful that they were being cast aside for their children.
In some families this made the children revered and also punished. The hopes/faith of the parents started to rest on their children, with mingled emotions and expectations of perfection and resentment.
I don't think you have to be a psychiatrist to figure out why it is so hard for people to leave when you understand the context and the immensity of the burden the children are forced to carry for and by their own parents.
There will be no leaving for the youth whose parents are steadfast in their beliefs.
You cannot argue beliefs with someone.
Therefore unless these children are willing to leave their parents behind, they are stuck. They will not and cannot leave. This is more mental and emotional than physical.
People can say "no one is making you stay."
I guess this is true.
But that is considering the body without the heart and mind. And I don't think you should ever do that.
So in the meantime the children that have left are considered the black sheep of their family, troubled, disturbed, mentally unstable. They are told they have "ulterior motives." I don't know what that means.
Do people not realize the tearing, the ripping apart that has to happen for you to leave? Do people think that was an "easy" choice?
Change is harder than constancy.
Remodeling is harder than building.
Solitude is harder than togetherness.
Being apart is infinitely harder, than playing the part.
Vader, the most epic tool
