Disdain for the «uninitiated»: how New Acropolis treats those who are not members of the organization
Foreword
The public face of New Acropolis is openness, fraternity and respect for all people regardless of their beliefs. The organization's official charter proclaims “the union of people on the basis of the ideal of universal brotherhood, regardless of their faith, race and social belonging.”
But the organization's internal documents reveal a fundamentally different view of people outside its ranks. For “true acropolitans” the outside world is a corrupt, hopeless space, inhabited by “mortal fragments,” “enemy brothers” and spiritually empty people who “coo in their chaos.” Only the acropolitan is the bearer of the “seeds of the new world,” a representative of the “Sixth subrace,” chosen to save civilization. The rest are material or an obstacle.
1. “A completely corrupt world” — a view of humanity from outside
In its internal directives HAL unambiguously describes the outside world as spiritually degraded and doomed:
“So we find ourselves in a completely corrupt world, whose mortal fragments fight among themselves. I want all the acropolitans of the world to be aware that we carry the Message of the Sixth subrace, which precedes the Sixth race, the Message of the New Man.”
— Jorge Angel Livraga, Bastion No. 60-1: New Year’s Message. January 1982 (source)
Humanity outside New Acropolis is described not as equal people but as “mortal fragments” senselessly fighting one another. Against that backdrop acropolitans are a special missionary community that carries the “Message of the New Man.”
2. Doctrine of the Sixth subrace — acropolitans as the “chosen”
At the root of the contemptuous attitude toward non-members lies the eschatological doctrine of the “Sixth subrace.” According to it, acropolitans are the seed of a future new race of humans that will replace the current one (the “Fifth Race”), which is doomed to vanish. In one directive document HAL describes acropolitans as those who save the embryos of the new world from the storm:
“Many shipwrecked survivors cling to the ever-ready steps of our unsinkable ship, and we grow ever more numerous. The storm will not overcome us. We carry within us the embryos of the new world; that Sixth subrace which we must lead to a safe place, beyond the raging whirlwind and darkness. This is the Fifth subrace that will perish in the icy beginnings of this Age of Aquarius, but it cannot prevent the coming of the New Man.”
— Jorge Angel Livraga, Bastion No. 77: Sailing in the storm. July 1977 (source)
The present human (“Fifth subrace”) is doomed to die. The acropolitan is the bearer of the new humanity. This division of the “chosen” and the “doomed” is the foundation of the contemptuous attitude toward everyone outside the organization.
3. “Enemy brothers” — non-members as natural enemies
HAL describes the nature of relations between an acropolitan and the “outside” humanity through the archetype of brother-enemies — Abel and Cain, Osiris and Set:
“This is a human being, by his essence esoteric and magical. All the ‘Hidden’ interests him... Because the Inner Voice tells him that he is under threat, like a small child, and that other people are to some extent his enemies... His ‘Enemy Brothers’, as in the old myths of Osiris and Set or of Abel and Cain.”
— Jorge Angel Livraga, Bastion No. 44-3: Sketch of the relations of New Acropolis and the 6th subrace of the 5th race. June 1980 (source)
A person outside the Acropolis is an “Enemy Brother,” and the acropolitan himself is under “threat,” surrounded by enemies. This forms a siege mentality and justifies detachment from the “outside” world.
4. The only channel to the Teachers — the rest cut off from God
One of the sharpest manifestations of contempt for non-members is the doctrine of New Acropolis’s exclusive spiritual mediatorship. According to the head of the Russian branch, Olena Sikirić, at a closed session of the Living Forces, New Acropolis is the only possible path to the mysteries for all humanity:
“Now, although we don’t tell members this, so it doesn’t look like we are vain and so on, in the 20th century the only channel to the Teachers is the Acropolis. Just as in the 19th century it was the Theosophical Society. This is our ‘family’. The only channel and the only ones at all who were given the right to go through the trials to deserve the esoteric school are the Acropolis. And if someone of the 4–5 billion people who live on Earth wants to get into the mysteries, he must get into the Acropolis.”
— Olena Sikirić. Summer practice of the Living Forces, 1999. Fragments of the audio transcript (source)
According to this teaching, the billions of people outside the Acropolis are simply excluded from the possibility of spiritual development — at least until the next “cycle.” Sikirić says the same openly when predicting the mission’s failure:
“The impulse of the Sixth race will wait again God knows how long. People will again be cooing in their chaos, in bewilderment, without criteria, without many things...”
— Ibid. (source)
“To coo in their chaos” — that is how the fate of all humanity is described if the Acropolis does not fulfill its mission. This is not compassion — it is superiority.
5. Contemptuous description of those who leave the organization
The attitude toward former members and those who choose other spiritual paths is described in HAL’s directive texts with noticeable contempt:
“They are not few who begin to criticize the whole cause of New Acropolis and its middle echelon of leadership, or leave our Movement to give themselves up, captivated, to pseudo-Orientalist currents that are in fashion, with rattling tambourines on corners, and with languid incense lit by adolescents with dirty bodies and bewildered souls, who cover their apostasies with the name of some fashionable Guru. And some even fall straight into the claws of atheistic communism.”
— Jorge Angel Livraga, Bastion: Dangers of knowledge (source)
Those who leave the organization are either fanatics with a “dirty body and bewildered soul,” or victims of “atheistic communism.” No third option is allowed. The very possibility that a person might find something valuable outside the Acropolis is not considered.
6. “The weak will disappear from History” — about the future of non-members
In its internal directives HAL describes the future as a “barbaric era,” where those who have not prepared — and preparation is only possible in the Acropolis — will simply disappear:
“We must also strengthen the economic component and all possible elements of survival: we are approaching a barbaric era in which the weak will disappear from the stage of History. We must be strong and educate our people in strength and purity, because the younger ones will need these sources of strength...”
— Jorge Angel Livraga, Mando No. 52: Attention to changes and events (source)
“The weak will disappear from the stage of History” — said without any compassion. “Our people” — a separate, chosen group. This rhetoric divides humanity into those who will survive (acropolitans) and those who will disappear (the rest).
7. A privileged “spiritual family” and the exclusion of the rest
The teaching of reincarnation in New Acropolis is used to justify elitism: acropolitans are “ancient souls” who reincarnated as Egyptian priests, Greek philosophers and Roman emperors. The rest of humanity is deprived of such heritage:
“We are Thebans. [...] All our teachings, all our knowledge, all our memories, all our protection and patronage of the great entities of HAL and through HAL we brought into this world, into this age from Thebes, from Egypt.”
“In our family there were and are kings, and priests, and philosophers, and teachers, and students, and ladies, and knights, and martyrs. Marcus Aurelius is our man. The Renaissance, Giordano Bruno — that is us.”
— Olena Sikirić. Summer practice of the Living Forces, 1999 (source)
If Marcus Aurelius, Plato and Pythagoras are “ours,” then all other spiritual seekers automatically find themselves outside this circle of “great souls.” This ideology serves as psychological reinforcement: members are offered an identity as chosen souls from an “ancient family” living among spiritually inferior humanity.
8. Concealing this teaching from new members
Notably, all these ideas — about the “only channel,” the “barbaric era” and the “Sixth subrace” — are carefully concealed from newcomers. Sikirić herself explains why directly:
“And now, although we don’t tell members this, so it doesn’t look like we are vain and so on, in the 20th century the only channel to the Teachers is the Acropolis.”
— Olena Sikirić. Summer practice of the Living Forces, 1999 (source)
The construction is this: a newcomer is offered an open “philosophical school” without dogma and with “respect for all traditions.” But in the inner core it is already known that the Acropolis is the only way, the rest of humanity “coos in chaos,” and the weak will disappear from “History.”
9. Some testimonies regarding systematic contempt for non-acropolitans and inactive acropolitans.
According to testimonies No. 1–5 the leader of NA City_X systematically expresses her conviction in words: “Only acropolitans follow the correct spiritual path, and all others are mistaken.” Student_2 and Student_3 asked this NA City_X leader direct questions about this thesis and she said that she had not seen positive examples from outside, and here, in NA, she was sure that this is definitely the right spiritual path. #intolerance #isolation
In NA there is pressure on people that they will necessarily, or with very high probability, get lost if they follow their own path. This pressure is applied deliberately according to the NA instructors’ manual, which contains “anti-crisis” advice, where an internal crisis is proposed to be “isolated” and conversations with people conducted so that they “understand how much they are needed,” and that they will be worse off if they leave the organization. The very desire to leave the school is regarded as an “internal crisis.” Thus the option where a person came to NA, familiarized themselves with various teachings in the first–second course, saw that the world is more complex than it seemed and went on their way to seek truth is considered undesirable. #intolerance #isolation #manipulation
Moreover, the founder of NA HAL wrote: «нас окружают не храмы и алтари, а горы мусора и грязи» [Livraga H.A., Gusman D.S. The Hidden Meaning of Life. Vol. 2. – p.54]; «устаревшие структуры должны… уступить место другим, молодым и сильным, без комплексов и ограниченности, уже пахнущих гнилью» [Livraga H.A., Gusman D.S. The Hidden Meaning of Life. Vol. 2. – p.200]. #intolerance
Conclusions
The contempt of New Acropolis for non-members is not an isolated manifestation of arrogance, but a systemic ideological construct embedded in the organization’s doctrine:
- The external world is described as “completely corrupt,” and its inhabitants as “mortal fragments” doomed to disappear.
- Non-members are “Enemy Brothers” (the Cain and Abel archetype), natural enemies of the acropolitan.
- Only New Acropolis is the “only channel” to the Teachers and the Mysteries — 4–5 billion people outside it are deprived of any spiritual perspective.
- Those who leave the organization or choose other paths are described as spiritually bankrupt, having “fallen into the claws of communism” or having bowed to “adolescents with dirty bodies.”
- In the ‘barbaric era’ the weak will disappear — and the weak here are all those outside the Acropolis.
- Acropolitans — an ancient ‘spiritual family’ of chosen reincarnated souls: Marcus Aurelius, Plato, Giordano Bruno. The rest of humanity does not possess this privilege.
- All this is carefully concealed from new members at the initial levels of instruction.
An organization that publicly proclaims “universal brotherhood” secretly teaches its narrow membership to look at humanity as “corrupt” and doomed material that “coos in chaos” without the guide that is the Acropolis.