u/Ok_Dream_921

i finished a session with a Reiki healer and it wasnt bad but then she stated some controlling things, like:

- dont wear black - wear light clothing

- you are what you eat - eat only healthy green and light-colored foods to stay in the light / have a higher vibration

It isnt really sitting well with me. she's also texted me asking about my diet and then provided input on sugar intake in the yogurt I like to eat and the granola she specifically eats with her yogurt.

This is not great for me and I told her I have food trauma, and dont eat meat vegetables or fruit as a result - but she has carried on like it doesnt matter

So, just wondering about this. Is this acting as a nutritionist commonplace?

I also wear a lot of black on a day to day basis.

is it common for reiki practitioners to not wear black and encourage others not to do so?

EDIT: thank you all for your responses. I will be seeing a different practitioner going forward.

i recently got into a data analysis (quantitative analysis) MS program then learned that the classes for the online option for the Masters courses are completely asynchronous.

they'll be all online, with no actual class time... would you do this?

it looks like a really good program at first, but I an balking at the idea of an MS with no actual class time.

thoughts?

I've been in a christian program for the last six months. It's largely there to help people with addiction, but I participated for other reasons. It was bible-based, and the program seemed to have a good relationship with the nearby Seminary (both are Baptist)

I've now graduated the program, am working in the ministry that conducts the program, and am continuing to live on-site at the program. I attend christian counseling at the nearby Baptist Seminary. After hearing about some of the things that occur from me and others she has spoken to, she is convinced I am in a cult.

1. the pastor confessed his sins to the entire congregation during church (he confessed to looking at girls bodies on instagram), cancelled the church service, and had a day where all congregation members confessed their sins to each other from the podium.
   (my counsellor said this constituted spiritual abuse because people didn't have the right scaffolding to confess in a safe way in which they were held)
2. We had a deliverance where we were praying over a girl and the pastor put his hands over her and kept saying, "get out" "get out" and the group was convinced there was a demon in her and then she threw up. Afterwards, there was question and answers, and one girl asked "where are the demons going? are they going into other people?" to explain what the group thought about this.
   (this seemed to really bother my counsellor too)

I tend to maintain my distance, and am present and not always fully believing in what occurs here. I haven't known what to fully think about these occurrences - and going to a counsellor at the seminary is meant to fill in some of the gaps. However, it just seems to be uncovering some of the problems at the program.

I really don't know what to do. I'm actually rather mad at my Seminary counsellor, because now she wants to make it part of the treatment plan to identify the cult and what makes a relationship "safe" vs "unsafe" etc. She made me take an assessment for "high-control groups" and it's all starting to feel really class-based. When I was taking the assessment, it was hard to differentiate between her religious group and mine. Yet, she is coming from such a different place from the people I am with - where the people I am with have really known poverty, are often from the country, and have dealt with addiction all their lives, compared to my counsellor's higher-education self. I fear this is informing my counselor rather than a nuanced understanding of what is "safe" for me and or what I am okay with in my life right now.

(like, no - things aren't really okay for me, but I'm making do, and this is a scenario that is making my life livable right now, so there is some good in the community / people here)

What is this sounding like to the outside?
Am I in over my head with this?
Is it really a cult?

We're allowed to seek outside work even if we choose to keep living here, and allowed to attend a different church (even a different sect) and I do that to get out of the "bubble" created by living and working in the same place, so I'm not fully enclosed in.

I recently got into an academic program, and the pastor told me he thought not enough time had passed from when I went into the program to starting outside work. "All your needs are met here" he said - and "this is on God's time - not yours" so he wants me to wait 6-8 months before starting the academic program, and it is his recommendation I wait 18 months before seeking outside work, though he has also made it clear he is not forcing me to do anything and I can do things on my time as well, that felt a little icky, too.

But is this cult-like, or is this christian religion and really the distinctions are obscure to me.
Like, I'm in a cult because I'm in a high-expectation christian program, and the overlap is there?
Still processing a lot -

Right now, my abusive and rich parents have me under a guardianship to force antipsychotic medication. They say they care about my health, but are unaware of the side-effects, and don't really seem to care about them, despite my poor quality of life on them. They put western doctors on a pedestal (even psychiatrists) - and say if I don't align with these doctors I'm going against medically accepted standards of care - denying me the right to choose my own care team or how I want to seek care in the first place.

I've always been the "problem" - eldest daughter who's too sensitive and who gets denied her needs in lieu of the family system's needs.

My 1.5 yrs younger sister is estranged from me alone, as she blames me for her poor childhood. I have always held myself accountable and tried hard to understand her distance, as much as it hurts - but I also view this as unfair, as my parents refuse any culpability in the situation, or what their role was as parents when we were children. So, I haven't been part of the family system for some years now, then a forced guardianship on top of this when I start pushing back.

I was diagnosed with autism at the age of 30 (my parents denied me an ADHD diagnosis when I was 8 - the quantitative data indicated a diagnosis, but my mother's denial and qualitative data did not indicate a diagnosis) - and ever since the autism diagnosis my parents have said I have to be schizophrenic. Wouldn't believe I was autistic, which explained a lot about me to myself.

I spend my time daydreaming about saving enough to get away from them - and looking at what it would actually take to go no contact. They have shown me they will seek legal intervention if I am not performing to their standards. Finding a supportive work environment is hard as an autistic person, so I have been known to take low-paying positions, which also makes them think I am sick. So, I am thinking of leaving the country to get out from my parent's grasp. That's my dream of estrangement. If I didn't leave the country, there is always the chance they could find me and take away my rights again once I left. They will never accept they are the problem.

Right now I'm fawning to get out of the guardianship, it's been in place for two years now.

I was on Invega forcibly for three months.

Now I've been off it for three months.

Still have no period and severe migraine headaches that result in nausea.

I think it's my body sensing something toxic in me (invega through injection) and making me vomit to try to get it out (or at least that's one idea). But then the headache is mystifying. I can't believe it's been two months off the medication and this is still happening.

I can't find a lot about invega causing headaches. Has anyone else experienced this (from invega sustena injections) and do the headaches ever go away?