Thought this was interesting. Saw it in the March-April 2002 edition of UTNE READER (utne.com)

Taken from:

http://www.globalideasbank.org/BOV/BV-557.HTML

Please send examples of trying out the test on a guru that you know to 'Guru Quotients', c/o the Institute for Social Inventions, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 020 8208 2853; fax 020 8452 6434).

How to rate a guru?

In the wake of scandals surrounding the Bhagwan and Hare Krishna religions in the States, the Institute for Social Inventions is compiling a list of questions that a would-be disciple could ask before joining up with a guru or new cult. The total of 'yes' answers to questions such as the following could provide a rough-and-ready comparative 'rating' of gurus:

(1) Is what the guru offers free?

(2) Is the guru relatively poor? - ie not having personal control (or control in practice) over more wealth than is needed for him or her to live in normal comfort and dignity?

(3) Is it unnecessary to join the organisation in order to have access to the teachings (are there books, tapes, open meetings, etc that transmit the knowledge needed)?

(4) Is it easy to leave the guru; are ex-disciples treated satisfactorily; and are 'opponents' of the guru treated fairly?

(5) Does the guru refrain from sexual involvement with the disciples?

(6) Is free contact allowed with families and friends?

(7) Is there respect for quality in the work of the guru's organisation (no ugly architecture for instance)?

(8) Are the guru's words in harmony with past spiritual insights, such as contained in Huxley's 'Perennial Philosophy' anthology?

(9) Is the organisation non-authoritarian - are there signs of democracy, for instance, or of questioning and debate and thinking for oneself being welcomed?

(10) Is the guru's legitimacy anchored in a tradition that points back to previous gurus, rather than the guru claiming to be the sole arbiter of his or her legitimacy?

(11) Does the guru avoid claiming to be a perfect master, offering the only route to enlightenment? Is he open about his own 'feet of clay', if he has them?

(12) Does the guru recognise that his or her authority is 'phase-specific', eg lasting only long enough to bring you up to his or her level of understanding?

(13) Does the guru's organisation, in its methods and in all aspects of its daily regime, successfully avoid psychologically coercive or brainwashing-style techniques?

(14) Do the guru's or organisation's replies to these questions agree with evidence from other sources? - for instance, ask the Cult Information Centre for their perspective (Ian Haworth, BCM Cults, London WC1N 3XX, tel 020 8651 3322).

(15) Does the guru have less than 1,000 signed-up disciples? (Gurus with large followings seem to be more prone to succumb to the temptations of power.)

For instance, ask the Cult Information Service for its perspective (Box 867, Teaneck, NJ 07666 (201) 833-1212

http://www.cultinformationservice.org

'Guru Quotient' ratings table

Percentaging the positive answers to these questions - based on the available literature, with additional information from present and past disciples (and answering the questions as if all the gurus rated were still alive) - produces the following very approximate table:

- Bhagwan (Osho) 17 (out of 100);
- Maharishi 23;
- Leonard Orr of the Rebirthing movement 53;
- Swami Bhaktivedanta of the Hare Krishna movement 60;
- Krishnamurti 73;
- Stephen Gaskin (from the Tennessee farm commune) 77.

These ratings do not of course necessarily reflect what a disciple can learn from a particular guru, they are more an indication of how 'safe' the guru is. Potential disciples would be well advised to steer clear of becoming organisationally involved with 'low GQ' gurus. It is after all a very basic check-list: almost all traditional gurus for the last three thousand years would have had little difficulty in scoring in the 70s and above.

Please send improved checklist questions (or examples of trying out the test on a guru that you know) to 'Guru Quotients', c/o the Institute for Social Inventions, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 020 8208 2853; fax 020 8452 6434).

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