Common character traits and assessing the guru's authenticity
The British psychiatry professor Anthony Storr argues in his book 'Feet of clay - A Study of gurus' that gurus (in the non-Hindu usage of the word) share common character traits (e.g. being loners without friends) and that some suffer from a mild form of schizophrenia. He argues that the belief system that gurus hold developed in some cases from a period of psychosis. The belief system was developed during the psychosis to make sense of the guru's own mind and perceptions. This belief system persists after the psychosis has gone away.
Storr also wrote in the book that the gurus who are eloquent are the ones who are more likely to be unreliable and dangerous. The scholar David C. Lane wrote that a charlatan who cons people is not as dangerous as a guru who really believes in his delusions. The 'bigger' the claims a guru makes, the bigger the chance that he is a charlatan or deluded. The history of various gurus, religions, sects, new religious movements and cults has shown that the question how to assess the authenticity of a guru is difficult especially when the guru is still young. The question is still basically unresolved. The rule of thumb that Jesus gave is that one should judge a prophet by his fruits. This rule has the drawbacks that one should know what is good and bad in the first place and that one can't possibly know all acts and their corresponding fruits of a guru.
See also Contemporary Hindu Movements, Charismatic authority, Basava Premanand
Non-Hindu gurus
External links
Other Uses of the word 'Guru'
- There is also a 1990s alternative rapper named Guru.
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