One of the first books I ever read addressing revealed truth that fell outside of the Christian framework was "Autobiography of a Yoga." I was about 15 at the time with no critical thinking ability and no concept that a man called Yogananda would take the time to write a spiritual book of lies that was false, i.e., write a book as a con. As a 15 year old I had little idea of what a conman or a con was. So I sucked up what I read thinking how great it was to learn about the astral plane, astral planets, akashic records, meditation, something called Prana, etc. None of this could be proved of course. Just detected by intuition. This yoga sounded profound but had a stock answer for all questions, Love God. Looking back he was not profound. Rather a one track pony. But at first I thought this man is the read deal. There was a footnote to his book that after two or three weeks after his death the body showed no sign of decay. Wow, I thought this man's dead body has supernatural powers. Of course years later I found out the true story. The man had been pumped up with embalming fluid and showed no sign of death. Thus I learned how religious miracles occur.
Perhaps there were some relevance to you as a child, even though it might seem childish now? The embalming fluid trick is no fault of the author.
True. The followers I guess thus wanted to keep the money rolling in and the the preservation of the body presented as a miracle. Ram Dass never claimed to be a geru, but was considered to be one, but when he died his there was a lot of concern with his followers on how to keep the money coming in. And I guess to some degree it still is;
The very first rubbish book I read after the bible was "Chariot of the gods" I learned much about skepticism by debunking that book as a ten year old. I think it helps for young minds to be exposed to all these rubbish ideas it helps us develop our critical thinking skills. My daughter got into New Age Spiritualism, helping her see the obvious rubbish they write has helped her in her academic studies.
