I found this information very helpful in understanding thoughts and feelings I have had exiting the organizatoin. Hope it is helpful to another. From Anatomy of the Spirit by Carolyn Myss, PH.D.
Tribal Culture
No one begins life as a conscious "individual" with conscious willpower. The identity comes much later and develops in stages from childhood through adulthood. Beginning life as a part of a tribe, we become connected to our tribal consciousness and collective willpower by absorbing its strengths and weaknesses, beliefs, superstitions, and fears.
Through our interactions with family and other groups, we learn the power of sharing a belief with other people. We also learn how painful it can be to be excluded from a group and its energy. We learn as well the power of sharing a moral and ethical coded handed down from generation to generation. This code of behavior guided children of the tribe during their developmental years, providing a sense of dignity and belonging.
If tribal culture experiences energetically interconnect us, so do tribal attitudes, be they sophisticated perceptions such as "We are all brothers and sisters" or superstitions such as "The number 13 is bad luck"
…………Our respective tribes introduce us to life "in the world" They teach us that the world is either safe of dangerous, abundant or poverty stricken, educated or ignorant, a place to take from or to give to. And they transmit their perception about the nature of reality itself, for instance, that this life is only one of many or that this life is all there is. We inherit from out tribes their attitudes toward other religious , ethnic, and racial groups. Our tribes "activate" our thinking process.
…………The tribal beliefs we inherit are a combination of truth and fiction. Many of them, such as "murder is forbidden" hold eternal value. Other lack that quality of eternal truth and are more parochial, designed to keep tribes separate from one another, in violation of the truth , All is One. The process of spiritual development challenges us to retain the tribal influences that are positive and to discard those that are not.
Our spiritual power grows when we are able to see beyond the contradictions inherent in tribal teachings and pursue a deeper level of truth, Each time we make a shift toward symbolic awareness, we positively influence our energy and biological systems. We also contribute positive energy to the collective body of life—the global tribe. Think of this process of spiritual maturation as "spiritual homeopathy."
…….From an energy perspective, becoming conscious requires stamina. It is extremely challenging, and often very painful, to evaluate our own personal beliefs and separate ourselves from those that no longer support our growth. Change is the nature of life, and external and internal change is constant. When we change inwardly, we outgrow certain belief patterns and strengthen others. The first belief patterns that we challenge are tribal because our spiritual development follows the structure of our energy system; we clear out ideas from the bottom up, starting with the earliest and most basic.
Evaluating our beliefs is a spiritual and biological necessity. Our physical bodies, minds, and spirits all require new ideas in order to thrive.
…………Seen symbolically, our life crisis tell us that we need to break free of beliefs that no longer serve our personal development. These points at which we must choose to change or to stagnate are our greatest challenges. Every new crossroads means we enter into a new cycle of change. And change means letting go of familiar people and places and on to another stage of life.
We can be stuck between two worlds; the old world that we need to release and the new world that we are afraid to enter. We are attracted to becoming more "conscious" but at the same time we find it frightening because it means we must take personal responsibility for ourselves—and for our health, career, attitudes and thoughts. Once we accept personal responsibility for even one area of our lives, we can never again use "tribal reasoning" to excuse our behavior.
purps