The Enlightenment Trap
In 2012, thirty-eight-year-old Ian Thorson's search for spiritual transcendence ended in tragedy on a remote Arizona mountaintop. His wife, a woman anointed as a goddess by an eccentric Buddhist community, held him in her arms as he slowly died from dehydration and dysentery. For Carney, a journalist and anthropologist who lived in India for six years, Thorson's death was just the most recent iteration of an unspoken epidemic that connected intensive meditation and mental instability.
The Enlightenment Trap explores how Tibetan Buddhism in the West morphed from its roots in the Himalayan foothills into a fundamentally new American religion. For Thorson the entry point into this new faith was Geshe Michael Roach, the supreme spiritual leader of Diamond Mountain University.
Carney unravels the cult-like practices of Diamond Mountain to illuminate the uniquely American tendency to mix and match Eastern religious traditions like LEGO pieces. The result is that for some, enlightenment is a synonym for almost god-like powers and achieving it can become more important than life itself.
Aided by Thorson’s private papers and cutting-edge neurological research, the book reveals the profound impact of intensive meditation on the brain. Carney exposes stories of miracles and black magic, sexualized rituals, and tantric rites from former Diamond Mountain acolytes. The Enlightenment Trap is a gripping work of investigative journalism that reveals how the path to enlightenment can be riddled with danger.
Download the audiobook (or get the print book) for The Enlightenment Trap at https://www.scottcarney.com/the-enlightenment-trap
Subscribe to my newsletter
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/h1g1p6
Remember to subscribe, like and leave comments! I read them all.
©PokeyBear LLC (2023)
#enlightenment #spirituality #wimhof
-
0:59
Scott Carney
10 months agoHenry Kissinger left a terrible legacy. Never forget how he almost nuked the planet in 1972.
80 -
17:51
Degenerate Jay
14 hours agoThis Is Ruining Superhero Games
2043 -
10:48
Adam Does Movies
14 hours agoThe Penguin Episode 2 Review + Recap - Let's Dance!
242 -
12:00
Bearing
21 hours agoAngry Feminist Clementine Ford's 'Bizarre' Taylor Swift Tribute Show - Audience DEMANDS REFUND 🤣
1.56K16 -
3:02:53
Fresh and Fit
9 hours agoAfter Hours w/ Girls
79.3K103 -
3:27:42
Tate Speech by Andrew Tate
7 hours agoEMERGENCY MEETING EPISODE 78 - OVERTON WINDOW
233K300 -
14:49
Colion Noir
10 hours agoTim Walz Says I’ve Become Friends With School Shooters During Vice President Debate
55.8K47 -
1:22:45
Kim Iversen
13 hours agoIsraeli Hasbara Or Iranian Propaganda, Who Is Telling The Truth?
124K232 -
1:55:23
Glenn Greenwald
14 hours agoTim Walz Again Defends State Sponsored Censorship; Julian Assange Recognized As Political Prisoner; Post-VP Debate Interviews | SYSTEM UPDATE #345
122K280 -
40:50
Candace Show Podcast
14 hours agoKamala’s Family Reaches Out! | Candace Ep 77
241K993