Bentinho Massaro: NEW AGE CULT LEADER

[WalterBosley]

Exactly right.

Posted by Wind (here)
Can someone of the mods please post the link to the other thread about this guy? My intuition is one of my main tools in life, I’m familiar with psychology and the human psyche so I read people with ease. I said my thoughts already there in the other thread, but to say it shortly again... People like these are dangerous and certainly not only to themselves. True spirituality is not about being under the illusion some self obsessed cult leader. True spiritual path is a journey within. Never give your power away to someone else, that’s a recipe for a disaster.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WLzJAebfEIg

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Wind (here)
Can someone please post the link to the other thread about this guy? I couldn’t find it.

My intuition is one of my main tools in life, I’m familiar with psychology and the human psyche so I read people with ease. I said my thoughts already there in the other thread, but to say it shortly again... People like these are dangerous and certainly not only to themselves. True spirituality is not about being under the illusion of some self obsessed cult leader. True spiritual path is a journey within. Never give your power away to someone else, that’s a recipe for a disaster.

People like this will suck your energy and give worthless dross in return.

C. Goode and B. Massaro – buyer beware alert

[bluestflame]

Posted by Wind (here)
Can someone please post the link to the other thread about this guy? I couldn’t find it.

My intuition is one of my main tools in life, I’m familiar with psychology and the human psyche so I read people with ease. I said my thoughts already there in the other thread, but to say it shortly again... People like these are dangerous and certainly not only to themselves. True spirituality is not about being under the illusion of some self obsessed cult leader. True spiritual path is a journey within. Never give your power away to someone else, that’s a recipe for a disaster.

People like this will suck your energy and give worthless dross in return.

" where there are no leaders there can be no followers "

[uzn]

Narcissist is just a modern mainstream name for them, they are also known as psychic Vampires. They feed on the dreams and hopes of others. They have an outstanding psychic ability: They can tell someone exactly what they want to hear. On a personal level and on a group level. That is what makes them so attractive to people in search for something. But make no mistake about it, they feed on their victims (followers), not only moneywise also on a spiritual level.

[Wind]

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
C. Goode and B. Massaro – buyer beware alert

Thank you, Paula.

[GroovieBean]

TONIGHT COMPLETE WALK THROUGH AND MY EXPERIENCE FROM WITHIN
pass it along ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7raPDaHeA

[Wind]

I noticed that Bentinho has released one hour long response video to counter the accusations.

In case someone wants to listen to it, here it is. I can't stomach it.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zK6ZDIGqW1s

[Mike]

Ah man - I was looking forward to disliking this guy even more, but he disappointed me by appearing sort of reasonable and even (gulp) likeable in a few instances...(in Wind's video)

Well here's the deal with this dude...
He knows when to push the accelerator and when to lay off. His natural tendency is to be confrontational and belligerent; it takes a conscious effort for him to remain calm and diplomatic like this. I think he even admits it somewhere in there. He is quite able to play both roles, with equal skill.

Is this a manipulative tactic? Or a sound teaching strategy? This is the question one has to answer for oneself.

He's a smart guy. He knows people. He knows his audience. In this video he was playing the patient guru role because circumstances dictated it. Again, there is an art to knowing how to deal with people, especially groups, and he's quite good at it. Is this disingenuous or manipulative? I dunno. You decide.

We all do this to some degree. It's an adaptive technique.

He is able to explain away the accusations against him calmly and reasonably. One might then say a master manipulator would easily be able to do such a thing, and that I have been fooled. Maybe they're right. Not sure.

I've written 2 posts on this guy. In the first I kind of defended him. The second I kind of laid into him. And now that I've got all that outta the way, I think I'm ready to offer a sort of balanced opinion.

First of all, I think Benitho is a little disturbed. There is something there in the eyes that gives him away. There is a very thin wire between disturbed and eccentric, and he's just barely balanced on it. Truthfully, I think he's going back n forth between the 2, minute to minute. It's hard to pin him down because he vacillates a little. Like most eccentric, charismatic, intelligent people, there will always be a touch of madness there. Shall we forgive him this? Do the ends justify the means? You decide.

Having said that, I think there is a little witch hunt-y vibe surrounding the accusations. People in the community are so defensive and sensitive to these new age guru types, and it results in overreactions and nit picking imo. Some of the accusations against him annoyed me to be honest, with certain groups wanting special treatment and so forth. I have to say, I would not have handled that situation with as much patience as Massaro did.

So, I see some manipulation, some sincerity, some real desire to reach people, some desire to be admired, some desire to be liked, some ego distortion, some of this and some of that. In other words, I see a human being. All these characteristics are revealed in different proportions and at different times, making him hard to pin down. Sometimes i almost like the guy, sometimes i can't stand him, sometimes i understand his aggressive approach and sometimes I wanna punch him.

I regard him as a novelty. For me he is harmless. But I know there is legitimate concern about his ability to manipulate the gullible and the vulnerable, and people are concerned. I get that.

So lets keep an eye on him. See what he does next. But I just can't find it in myself to tear him down, or get too excited about these accusations. Not yet anyway.

[Wind]

I'm still inclined to think that he is a master manipulator with narcissistic, if not worse tendencies. Such types are usually dangerous.

Just my two cents. I hope to be wrong, but I think I'm not.

[Mike]

Posted by Wind (here)
I'm still inclined to think that he is a master manipulator with narcissistic, if not worse tendencies. Such types are usually dangerous.

Just my two cents. I hope to be wrong, but I think I'm not.

Hi Wind,

Very well could be! I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

The problem, for me anyway, is that i'm a Gemini...and I'm cursed with this mind that almost always attempts to see both sides, even long after that approach is productive. I feel almost powerless to do anything about it. It's just how my mind works.

That may sound lame to many, and i get that, but I believe it to be true.

But I'll say this, just to be clear: even the small part of me that sympathizes with the guy wouldn't attend any of his lectures or retreats or whatever. I have no interest in him as a person or teacher. What does interest me is other people's reactions. I've always been fascinated by human behavior in that way. In many ways I regard myself solely as the observer. Maybe that explains my impartiality a little.

[The Moss Trooper]

New Age Conspiracism is a rather cult-like social phenomenon.

Its self-appointed gurus promulgate fifth-rate mysticism, quasi-religious sentiment and sci-fi fantasies that masquerade as fact. They become mini-celebrities gathering small legions of fans, whose outlook is dominated by the gurus' bizarre narratives. They delude themselves into imagining they're going to transform the world, and buy up books, videos, one-to-one sessions, workshops, conferences etc, talk in buzzwords and obscure jargon about 'waking up', leaving behind 'the matrix' and so on and so forth… JUST… LIKE... A …CULT.

[Wind]

Posted by Mike (here)
The problem, for me anyway, is that i'm a Gemini...and I'm cursed with this mind that almost always attempts to see both sides, even long after that approach is productive. I feel almost powerless to do anything about it. It's just how my mind works.

That may sound lame to many, and i get that, but I believe it to be true.

Ha, nothing wrong with that, buddy. It's just a quality that you have. My Mercurial Virgo mind likes just to focus on the minutiae all the time...

But I'll say this, just to be clear: even the small part of me that sympathizes with the guy wouldn't attend any of his lectures or retreats or whatever. I have no interest in him as a person or teacher. What does interest me is other people's reactions. I've always been fascinated by human behavior in that way. In many ways I regard myself solely as the observer. Maybe that explains my impartiality a little.

I tend to observe things and people too as I've always been quite fascinated with (weird) human behaviour. I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt. Then I observe, research and use my intuition. If I see others being hurt, or even if there is the possibility of others getting hurt then I feel the need to speak up about it. When someone elevates themselves to some grandiose type of level I get wary. There are teachers and then there are predators disguised as "teachers".

When you are at the position of leadership or mentorship, you are equipped with power. That power should be handled with responsibility, but I believe that power can ultimately corrupt if your ego is not in check. It's the rock star syndrome I suppose, it's just much worse with certain type of people... Like politicians. A horrible drug.

Then again, I've always had more or less problems with the concept of authority because I don't really believe in those kind of things. I'm a sovereign being and I don't give away my power freely and neither should anyone else. No one is above us, no one is below us. There are only people on their individual journeys sharing their lives. Some are worth our trust, some are not.

[WalterBosley]

People in leadership or authority positions who leave others with a negative view of leadership and authority are doing it wrong. We have to keep in mind that there are numerous people in such positions every day doing it correctly and who grossly outnumber those who do it wrong, so these concepts are not something to be tossed out. Holding individuals accountable is a better expression of resistance to bad leadership and misuse of authority than rejecting the principles. In the case of this insidious maniac Benthino 'Massaro-lini' (Has anyone else noticed the similarity between this guy's name and the infamous fascist boob...?), he needs more of the uncomfortable spotlight of serious scrutiny.

[Jayke]

I don’t see the kid as any different to any other frat boy philosophy student trying to carve out a niche for personal profit on the net. There’s nothing new or profound about anything he teaches (or that I’ve seen him teach so far), just the same old “do as thou wilt” sense of delusional grandeur that got old after Crowley’s devotees started abusing the idea for personal gratification masquerading as awakening. Even if Bentinho does care about other people’s awakening as strongly as he says he does—more than he cares about his own ego and making a profit—I’d put him in “the path to hell is paved with good intentions” category.

I mean, I hope I’m not the only one disturbed by his opening story in the video Wind posted above. The story where he describes torturing a kitten when he was 8 years old and then proceeds to rationalise that unethical behaviour as going through a “psychic attack” i.e. negative entity possession.

I didn’t see charm or anything endearing in that story, just the big red flag of mental illness.

Personally, I try not to interfere with a persons spiritual development, I understand how evil is part of the divine plan to wise us all up to the difference between what’s right and wrong. If torturing a kitten is something a person feels compelled to do as part of their path to wisdom, then by all means torture that cute, tiny, defenseless kitten. Rub it’s adorable bright eyes into the thorns of that prickly bush for 5 full minutes before regaining your senses and realising how utterly absurd and grotesque that kind of behaviour is.

I just implore people, that if you’re going to test out the dark side and unleash your inner Darth Vader on the defenseless kittens of the world, at least own up to it afterwards. Own those dark impulses and shine a light on them, work through whatever deep seated issues of envy, resentment or jealousy you must be feeling to inflict such pain on the beautiful creatures of the world and stop blaming youthful violence and reckless ignorance on being under psychic attack.

In psychological terms, It’s the inability of the superego to see fault in the self that leads to the narcissistic personality. In extreme cases, it can cause dissociative personality disorder. Claiming to be under psychic attack (or being possessed) indicates a deep schism, or at least a huge blindspot for owning up to our mistakes.

Based on the negative critiques he’s received for verbally abusing his attendees, it seems he’s substituted torturing a kitten for torturing anyone in his audience who questions his lack of sincere compassion. Nice to see the issues that plagued him as a child have found new avenues of influence to express themselves as an adult. It’s almost Freudian in its irony, although its generally what happens when the initial issue continues to be unintegrated and unresolved.

As Mr Bosley pointed out, its the same level of overzealous superego regulation that fascist dictators suffer from as they see themselves as divine and blessed by God, to the point that they can do no evil, even whilst committing gross atrocities on the rest of humanity in the name of whatever cause justifies their destructive, unintegrated, egoic and instinctive impulses.

Provided Bentinho can complete his own shadow work and integrate/accept his flaws without blaming “psychic attacks”, then like all spiritual teachers he has the potential to provide a positive message to the world. If he doesn’t then his planned enlightened community could easily degenerate into another obscure cult or lord of the flies situation. Even the spiritual teacher James Arthur Ray got incarcerated for negligent homicide when a student died on one of his retreats. Bentinho has 10 times the hubris and only a fraction of the wisdom James Arthur Ray did. It’d be wise to keep an eye on this kids development, to make sure the wolf guides his sheep to fruitful pastures, and doesn’t lead them over the edge of an Arizonan cliff in any future relapses of his “psychic attack” phenomenon.

[Innocent Warrior]

Tsk tsk, nowhere on this thread do I see the most important question asked yet; can Mr Massaro dance?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8SZNyDx5rZ0

On a far more serious note, what Massaro is trying to achieve is very powerful, a critical eye here is healthy.

The series Dangerous Persuasions is a sobering portrait of the brutal damage cults and abductors inflict on their victims and their families, worth a watch for anyone interested in a good overview of cults, how they operate, develop, isolate and control.

Update: I found a Dangerous Persuasions YouTube channel, it has the complete first season and an episode from the second season for anyone interested. It's the usual reality TV format for these types of shows but you get to hear from the former members themselves, so it's informative but more the sort of show you might want to watch while doing chores - https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCdBqbgeq0UMb4uZ2FKf78Cg

[9ideon]

Posted by Flash (here)
from what i see, yes, he is narcissistic

A pure representation of his generation - this is why he appeals so much to them. Talking with vulgar words to each other is typical to that generation - they all send fu c k s to each other, are quite rude to each other yet get easily triggered emotionally when they feel rejected for any given reason

Also, being polyamorous and easily transitioning from one sex to another is the huge fashion right now. Talking against this is seen as backward and racist/sexist/segregationist/ all the ist you can think of.

i have no idea where this will lead in terms of society.

I'd like to call it "false hysteria", it's an (engineered) pre-sign of what they are trying to accomplish.

What they do is come up with a concept, this concept must be accepted by certain masses, or People. Anyone who goes against it will be either demonized, ridiculed or just plainly attacked. By steering the "popular" masses to their cause they manipulate population thinking, at the same time media has been sterilized to the same way of thinking, meaning that the so called journalists are merely gatekeepers who read of an auto cue not investigating or researching any of the items they have been told to read. Even if they would, they will not be allowed to adjust any of the lines fed to them, so. The Hysteric masses will now be confirmed in their bubble thinking way of life.

When you have accomplished full control of the news, the way People are supposed to think and live, indoctrination of Children has already started since they are now being told by both teachers and print what fake news is ( I kid you not, lol), you control flow of information. In a way setting us back pre-internet era due to the fact that the net will become a controlled environment in which information is plastic and thus one will not know truly what happens on the other side of the World unless someone tells you, which you cannot post on the net cause you'll be attacked for it since it will not meet the standards of the brainwashed sheeple, now that the Kids are indoctrinated, well, I'll give it one more gen before this World is factually controlled by a so called Elite who will not be challenged by anyone because they will be seen as Superstars defending the poor.

Even if the nay sayers are in the plus, it will not matter, the ones that will control the media (social) will set the tone, namely, false hysteria. After comes fuedalism molded into a "Modern" jacket.

I guess Goebbels would be very proud the way this has been done.

[Smell the Roses]

When I was a member of a Sedona New Age cult in the 1990s, Dateline NBC did an undercover expose somewhat like the one described here. It alerted family members to what was actually going on there and in combination with an expose by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, ultimately resulted in myself and many others leaving the cult. It's a fine way to allow adults to decide for themselves, before getting too deeply sucked into the program.

[Wind]

Posted by Jayke (here)
I mean, I hope I’m not the only one disturbed by his opening story in the video Wind posted above. The story where he describes torturing a kitten when he was 8 years old and then proceeds to rationalise that unethical behaviour as going through a “psychic attack” i.e. negative entity possession.

I didn’t see charm or anything endearing in that story, just the big red flag of mental illness.

Animal torture is a sign of severe lack of empathy. It is known that children who have such tendencies might later on become serial killers. Of course you could ask what made them act that way and often those children have been treated poorly, most often by their parents.

When it comes to the psychic attacks... Yes, the demons or lower astral entities do prey on the vulnerable people with certain "mental conditions", which may allow them to cause them to commit atrocities because they sort of become hypnotized to so. I do believe that most murders and atroticies have been committed under the influence of lower astral forces, but that of course doesn't take away the responsibility of the individual. That's no excuse.

Yet the concept of free will isn't as simple as we would like to think. We are all the time open to all kind of suggestions and influences. If we are not mentally balanced and vigil, we might succumb to those darker tendencies. They are there waiting on and preying on humanity.

The game of life is a dance between light and dark.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Rachel (here)
Tsk tsk, nowhere on this thread do I see the most important question asked yet; can Mr Massaro dance?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8SZNyDx5rZ0

On a far more serious note, what Massaro is trying to achieve is very powerful, a critical eye here is healthy.

The series Dangerous Persuasions is a sobering portrait of the brutal damage cults and abductors inflict on their victims and their families, worth a watch for anyone interested in a good overview of cults, how they operate, develop, isolate and control.

Update: I found a Dangerous Persuasions YouTube channel, it has the complete first season and an episode from the second season for anyone interested. It's the usual reality TV format for these types of shows but you get to hear from the former members themselves, so it's informative but more the sort of show you might want to watch while doing chores - https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCdBqbgeq0UMb4uZ2FKf78Cg

Thanks, Rachel. Dangerous Persuasions is new to me. Here's a direct link to the 7 episodes.

As for Bentinho Massaro, I listened to him a while back for a couple of long minutes. I got the creeps. My label for people like this is a pretender.

In reference to Rachel's dance video from "The Next Karate Kid", it got a low rating (4.3 out of 10), but I enjoyed it.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bX1bhMAp2ws

[Shadowself]

Posted by Wind (here)

Posted by Jayke (here)
I mean, I hope I’m not the only one disturbed by his opening story in the video Wind posted above. The story where he describes torturing a kitten when he was 8 years old and then proceeds to rationalise that unethical behaviour as going through a “psychic attack” i.e. negative entity possession.

I didn’t see charm or anything endearing in that story, just the big red flag of mental illness.

Animal torture is a sign of severe lack of empathy. It is known that children who have such tendencies might later on become serial killers. Of course you could ask what made them act that way and often those children have been treated poorly, most often by their parents.

When it comes to the psychic attacks... Yes, the demons or lower astral entities do prey on the vulnerable people with certain "mental conditions", which may allow them to cause them to commit atrocities because they sort of become hypnotized to so. I do believe that most murders and atroticies have been committed under the influence of lower astral forces, but that of course doesn't take away the responsibility of the individual. That's no excuse.

Yet the concept of free will isn't as simple as we would like to think. We are all the time open to all kind of suggestions and influences. If we are not mentally balanced and vigil, we might succumb to those darker tendencies. They are there waiting on and preying on humanity.

The game of life is a dance between light and dark.

I agree with this very much but would like to take it a step further. This guy reminds me of the roll Christian Bale played of Patrick Bateman.

The analogies of Bateman and Bentinho are amazingly similar. While not on the field of high finance like Bateman...he (Bentinho) plays that character to a tee if you ask me.

Here is a pretty good summary of the movie and some of it's various nuances.

Important NOTE: Bentinho CONFESSES TO KILLING A CAT. Bateman's first kill is a cat!....now watch this and tell me he's not living out this fantasy on some level!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ByLEIKTjgtk