Ritual interviews in Damanhur
Ritual interviews in Damanhur are worse than the Catholic confessional, the most feared are those with Airaudi’s official companion, S. they command a certain respect but also strike terror, because if you make a mistake you do not ‘pass’ to the next esoteric grade.
Everyone knows her way of asking how you are, how much you feel for Damanhur, what you want to do for Damanhur, all about your personal and private life; she even asks about other people and for information on things that have happened.
She takes down notes of everything you say and after years and years of these interviews you feel really ‘small’ as regards the Damanhur organization. If something happens you are immediately called for an interview and you feel really bad, she can suspend you and then everyone knows that you have done something wrong!
Quite a few people work in the Meditation School office but these people are not treated very well by S. because they have very few rights and she is a Higher Grade. She can easily create problems for them and tell Airaudi.
After a few years these interviews become ‘normal’, in the sense that you have to do them otherwise you are not considered in line with the School. The interviews are not the free choice of the individual, they are a system of ‘constant control over people’ even though it is said that they are for your spiritual growth and that you can ask for help if you need it.
There are also other interviews and reports that you have to do in continuation all of which create dependence and subjection. Probably the intention was good at the start but now it has become an instrument of power that is completely out of control.
S. should go and live and work outside Damanhur to test herself and compare herself against others in the real world, people who know how to love and no longer use antiquated methods of communicating. Perhaps then she would learn to treat the people who work ‘for her’ a lot better.
Luciano
Posted 04/07/2008 19:44 to the Damanhur Forum of www.cesap.net under the title ‘Colloquio a Damanhur’.
Damanhur Inside Out 
S. sounds like she garnered experience in interrogation from a’communist’ -type world.
Frankly, I am shocked by the viciousness of such a system, but it is clear that it is all geared to keep Airaudi’s (and S’s) status quo, financial security, and just plain old POWER, in place. As they say, ‘it’s all about power’.
sophia ithothe
November 30, 2009 at 6:37 pm
A very good friend of mine is going to Damanhur soon to work there for Crotalo and Shama.
She has been to Damanhur several times.
I talked to her about it and expressed my doubts, but unfortunately I had to realize that none of my arguments brought her to think about this. The practices of Damanhur are already work on her I notice. I’m really worried, do you have any idea what else to do.
Bruce
May 22, 2019 at 2:12 pm
Stand by your friend. If she has been convinced that Damanhur is an authentic spiritual path, she is already lost and nothing you can say will change her mind. That is how it works with cults. The best you can do is stay her friend and be there for her when she wakes up and realises how she has been conned. It could take years and it will take most of her money. DIO
damanhurinsideout
July 15, 2020 at 3:33 pm