I happened upon AMORC Unmasked: The Hidden Mind Control Techniques of the Rosicrucian Order by Pierre S. Freeman in my travels. I read it with zero alarm.
Look, every mystic occult group has techniques. Every group has a personality, and every subgroup within a group has a personality as well.
I read Freeman’s diatribe with a big fucking yawn, because one of the techniques he went on about was that of self-hypnosis, as if that should raise demonic fear in the reader. Self-hypnosis isn’t always a bad thing. There are lots of useful things you can do with hypnosis, you know this.
Anyhow, I read around the net for a while looking for counter-opinions. Even on a blog soliciting opinions on AMORC from two years ago, it’s a good healthy mixed bag of opinions. I’ll quote said blog:
https://esoteric-guide.blogspot.com/2019/04/amorc-opinions.html
1) Cannot criticize the Rosicrucian Order AMORC and the teaching of AMORC and its spiritual leaders (terms use for the officer of AMORC visible and invisible).
2) Members must not read writing that is critical of AMORC.
3) Members must voice their opinion against writing that are critical of AMORC.
Honestly, if those are actually rules, then they’re asking to be roasted. Further, if a person agrees to those rules, they deserve what they get. Still further, if they agree to those rules and then abide by them, they are opening themselves to ridicule, manipulation, abuse and more. As the blog pointed out, asking someone to voice their opinion on something they aren’t even allowed to read is, well, a silly exercise in authoritarianism.
I also looked into AMORC’s origin story. Sounds like most other esoteric societies’ origin stories to me. Seeker travels, receives the light, comes back and turns the light into a beacon, and then into a living. I can’t fault any of these folks for building their little cult empires. We haven’t yet figured out how to do enlightenment for free. In America, anything that’s free is perceived as valueless. We value things often by how much they cost. When choosing between two schools of enlightenment, we might choose the one that’s more expensive because of perceived value — especially if they offer a discount where it’s temporarily (or just for you) cheaper than the normally less expensive option. We’re weird that way. We like to feel like we’re getting a deal.