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"Re: The tale of a paranoid psychotic" Some very good points there John. Thanks for your thoughtful and insightful observations. I too was mystified how Chapell could have found such delightful and wholy innocent people to be in any way covert or threatening. The truth is he didn't, but it suits his purpose very well now to revise history for insidious dramatic effect.

"In need of help" This guy needs some serious help. The numerous spelling and grammar errors could be forgiven if this "Arthur" had something to say that was worth reading.


From the hilarious to the utter nonsense this is a narrative constructed by a feeble minded individual with too much free time in his hands, an obsession with UFOs and cults, and follies de grandeur. Dunno if to laugh, or to fell sorry for the poor guy.


(He even goes and write about himself in the third person in the description... As if it is not clear that this is a self-publishing platform, LOL!)





I guess that wonderful tools such as Lulu opens the stage for people as Mr. Chapell's diatribes. Nevertheless, I think it is actually great: let these people be judged by their own words.





:: Mia ::

".... more than just a victim?"
Oh my ....

As someone who works closely, with folks trying to recover from alcoholism and drug addiction, the tenor of Arthurs book is patently familiar to me. I did read the preview, as far as it would let me, but the Autobiography sketch on page 3, says it all; “Arthur writes to prove that he is more than just a victim...”, the operative word here being “victim”. Anyone in the helping professions knows exactly what I mean.

Arthur was a victim before he met the “divine lighters”, and if he hadn’t met them, he would have sought refuge from his inner demons, at the next bus stop, or the next one after that. That’s what... More > victims do. Just working the numbers, it is a fact that there was a quite a few folks back in the 70’s and 80’s that were “religious fanatics” looking for something to make a religion out of, whether it was a spiritual movement, or a historical re-enactment society. (Which is also a “cult”ure, by definition.)

I have had more than my fair share of interractions with “ex cult members”, and almost without exception, they have all shared perceptive pathologies that, if you remove the drugs or alcohol, appear exactly like the alcoholic or drug addict, who wants to blame “them” (as in everbody else. “It’s not my fault!”)

I have to say, I don’t intend this review to be unkind, and I mean that. That said, it never fails to amaze me, when someone has the audacity to call hogwash “a true story” (page 1), and even more so, when they direct their distortions at another with the intent to lay blame. But forget about that for a moment! Golly dang dude, didn’t you even consider getting some help from a real writer on this? (I’m sorry. It’s just really bad.)

I sincerely hope Mr. Chappell, eventually, some sunny afternoon when the weather is just right, has an Aha! moment, and realizes what we all know, or should know. The only singularly clear fact, about all the troubles he has ever had, is that he, himself, was always there. If such a thing could happen, Mr. Chappell can graduate from the ranks of being a “victim”, move on, and as a collateral benefit, his life would get better than he can imagine as a result.
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"WTF?" This guy has "degrees in literature and philosophy"? British academe must be in disarray.

"Re: Re: Brainfart!"
The still practicing members are making it clear who they are for sure. One sentance criticised as being by me above is actually a quotatation from a journal article on cults. The moment of self delusion when I considered getting the Knowledge to expose the cult is described as a means by which I talked myself into staying in the cult in the early days despite having found out a number of criticisms that were being levelled at me about them by my family and other outsiders.
The criticism above implies that I must have stayed in the cult for from 1981 to 1985 as part of some kind of undercover investigation. The book plainly makes such an interpretation... More > impossible.
The digs at my current interest in historic re-enactment are mildly amusing, but irrelevent to the features on cults in the book here - some of my history and re-enactment articles may well appear elsewhere on Lulu soon, but they have no relevance in the cult studies otherthan to show that I escaped with the freedom and preservation of mind to go on to do other things with my life. There is a huge difference between staged and pretend violence in the interests of educational entertainment and the real thing. George C Scott played General Patton. He didn't actaully kill anyone inorder to do so. The assumption that in re-enacting the past I must somehow delude myself that I am actually in the 1640's is incredible. Myself and any other re-enactor know full well that what we do is not real. Our wonderful audiences are invariably intelligent too, so they know that passing aircraft don't belong in our pageants, but geting airlines to divert due to the Battle Of Naseby being restaged below would not really be an option. itwould be an expensive cost. At one show we did, a Lancaster Bomber that shoud have taken part in the preceeding WW2 demonstration (by other re-enactment groups) arrived late and strafed us with gunfire instead. Both the audience and the actors appreciated the surreal humour of the event. Maharaji's followers are living for the moment, and trying to put their leader's past behind them, as his history, as my book right here shows, is not one that he can be anything but ashamed of. When people like myself remind the people of the present about how their leader was even denounced as a phoney by his own mother, (a well documented occurance), the practicing members find themselves trying even more to stay in that present moment.- hence the disregard shown to my interest in three dimensional history drama. < Less