Throughout the ages there have always been persecutions against spiritual and “knowing” people. Similarly, in modern times there are still witch hunts, persecution and oppression of people who live with their hearts open and value spirituality over material possessions. Why are the people in power so fearful of spiritually developed individuals? Why are there so many jokes about “spiritual development” in Russia? The answer is quite simple. It is because a person who is walking the spiritual path becomes less manageable. He is no longer a slave, an easily manipulated puppet. He becomes free.
Every government is interested to keep its humans in a state similar to that of robots. This is so that the humans perform certain functions that feed into maintaining the programs that are designed to secure the top ruling class. It is not in the government’s interest that the people separate themselves from this influence. How is human freedom suppressed? In Tibet many people are afraid of uttering the name of the country’s main spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, after the Chinese seized power during the so-called “Cultural Revolution”. Many Chinese people have never heard the term “Tibet” and when tour guides give tours into the residence of the Dalai Lama or other Buddhist temples, they leave out information about where the current spiritual leader of Buddhism resides and why. When directly asked about the Dalai Lama, many tour guides are scared to share any concrete information and express this fear. They prefer to conceal the truth in order not to lose their license. Fear-based manipulation isn’t only used in Tibet. In Russia this is a common practice. One example is the arrest A.B. Trehlebov, of a member of the clergy, writer and Slavinist. His was accused of using Nazi imagery (you can find more information about this case at https://koscuni.ru). The arrest of Trehlebov and many other spiritually active people working in Russia and the government’s naming of these independent organizations as sects is meant to scare away people seeking spiritual development.
Why are people who are searching for spiritual development persecuted and manipulated? Why are people who want to do yoga,
study shamanism and astrology, meditate put into jails? What kind of tactics are used to scare these people and make them stop talking about spirituality? How are these people dissuaded from urging others to seek liberation?
How are people scared into not wanting to seek a spiritual teacher? Since you can’t imprison someone for their beliefs (this is a right guaranteed by the constitution), but you can for drugs, many innocent people find bags filled with 2 grams of white powder substances in their pockets. It’s so easy to hire someone who will sign the necessary document for a little bit of money, or even cheaper, who’s scared into doing it. This is the easiest and most common method used in countries like Russia. As a result of such actions many spiritual leaders are isolated from society for many years. How many innocent people are in jail? According to Russian human rights organizations’ statistics, only 0.37% of rulings in first instance cases are justified. On average, according to experts, more than 300,000 people are serving unjust prison sentences. This is an alarming statistic! To be wrongly accused of a crime is a realistic possibility for anyone.
Another way to make someone doubt their spiritual development is through judgment. Although it’s difficult to create judgment around a person’s desire to help others (because helping others is seemingly the only purpose we serve in life), someone can create a rumor that a person is receiving monetary gain in exchange for their help (and this is judged because supposedly helping others should be a free service). The media is especially powerful when it comes to creating such rumors. Instruments of technology and politics have become quite effective in the manipulation of the mass consciousness of humanity. Trump won, even though everyone was expecting Clinton…Money, power and connections are everything in this life!
It’s easy to convince someone that spiritual services should be free and incite them to judge others who receive money for their services. What about the Church, though? Why doesn’t the Orthodox Church distribute icons and candles free of charge? They need money to survive too, but unlike other “sects”, they are sponsored by the government.
Money is usually a favorite topic during times of economic crisis. It’s easy to start a rumor that some “sect” is using its students’ money to buy cars and apartments. Let’s look at the numbers. What does a sect need to not only survive, but to help people spiritually evolve? Let’s start with books.
They are very important first and foremost as the foundation of knowledge and ideology for a particular group. How much does it cost to translate and edit books into different world languages? Unfortunately translators don’t believe that spiritually needs to be free and are going to charge for their services. The average price of translation for a page containing 1000-1800 characters is about $6-$8. To translate one book costs approximately $5,000-$6,000. And what about the artists, designers, copywriters? And think about printing? Where are the “spiritual typographies” that are ready to print for free? Can you imagine what Megre spent to publish “Anastasia. Ringing Cedars” in all of the languages of the world? Thousands of dollars? No, millions! There are so many grateful people who have found a purpose in life because of this book! By the way, the “Rodovoye Pomestye” community is considered one of the worst sects in Russia according to this list https://www.k-istine.ru/sects/anastasia/anastasia_martinovich-03.htm.
The list of where the money goes continues on. Programmers do not want to create websites for free and no spiritual school can survive without having at least a blog or a page on the Internet. Flights are also very expensive. Can you imagine how much it costs to travel to Europe or the US or Brazil to conduct a prayer-meditation ceremony for people who are sick or dying?
Here’s another question: why are sects the ones who are most concerned with the 
fact that there are wars and murders and epidemics in the world and call for people to pray against the “dark forces”? Why aren’t the politicians concerned with the fact the that Earth’s ecology is being destroyed and that the indigenous people in the US are under attack? Why don’t they care that homeless children are being killed in Ukraine, that more than half of the women in Latin America have been raped and that the youth is addicted to drugs? Why are the sects the ones praying and not governments? Why are prayers being said by the people in these so-called “sects” and all we hear from the ones in power is negativity, judgment and a call for violence?
Think about this: why do all those people that bad-mouth “sects” on the internet (from the brand Oriflame and to larger spiritual communities like the Krishnaists) do so anonymously? The people that disperse this negative information are obviously scared to reveal themselves for these lies. They are scared to reveal their names. Do you think they are hiding something? Or maybe they are scared that one day the lies will return to them. God sees all.
PS. Recently a new legislation on missionary activity has been passed in Russia. Now it is against the law to pray in a group if you are not within the territory of an official Church.
