BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Pagan New Article - UPG

This week's article explains the acronym UPG. Have you had positive or negative experiences with people bringing their UPG into groups and claiming it was "from the Gods"?

UPG - Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis

Really good article, Trish. I did at one time know a woman who controlled a whole group of people in just about every aspect of their lives by her channeling and visions. I never truly believed she was really adept at those efforts and only used it as a facade to control others. She even went so far as to break up relationships because they were "not right" and led the people to other matches - it was really sad. Most of those people in the group would not or could not make any major decisions without her. Needless to say, I did not stay within her "circle" and left a lot of friends there whom I really thought were good people, just lost. For me, it is easy to spot someone who is not authentic.

Thank you Phyllis. I'm so sorry you went through that experience. It can be so disheartening to join a group for spiritual purposes and see others manipulating this need for spiritual fellowship for their own gains.

Sometimes I think they are con artists, but sometimes I think they really buy into their own delusions.

I was lucky in that the one group that I was with that had this kind of character pretty much thought she was a flaky as I did. She did have a knack though for picking out younger people (in their early 20s) to latch onto. I was one of them originally but learned quickly that she was a control freak. I moved on a little wiser for the experience.