Spiritual Minds grow in Greenpoint. Golden Drum celebrates its 4th Birthday

I am one of the founding members of Golden Drum. I saw Francisco’s comment back in March and chose not to engage in comment board debates. I came across the article again and saw that the conversation continues so I thought that I would add in my piece.

First off I always find it interesting when a person decides to take the opportunity to publicly call someone a cult leader or some other name when they haven’t spent a moment with them. Strong choice of words but you have the right to say it so go right ahead. I would be the last person to stop you. After spending 7 years as Maestro Manuel’s student I know that nothing could be further from the truth so it doesn’t bother me. At the same time I like to take the opportunity to add clarity when it is given for those who haven’t had the same experience that I’ve had.

If you want to see what a cult looks like look no further than every day life. A college where teachers and board members dress in robes at a graduation where they give you a piece of paper that doesn’t guarantee you anything after years of work and thousands of dollars that you might be paying back for decades to come. Perhaps its the job that you go to where you have to work a certain amount of days a year and a certain number of hours a week regardless of how sick you get, dress a certain way, speak a certain way and in some cases are so demanding that they border on the edge of slavery just so people have the means to feed and house themselves. Why? I would say because people have decided for our culture (cult-ure) what benefits the system they’ve create and what doesn’t. If there is a group that reinforces the materialistic paradigm that we’ve created then its simply and institution, or a company, or a government. But if that group comes together to become more conscious of themselves and breaks with that system they are certainly going to be called a cult.

To add clarity to what Maestro Manuel meant when he said “Some people call me a brainwasher and to that I say, ‘Yes, I am. I want to scrub your brains because your minds are dirty…like whoa, really dirty.” He later went onto say during that lecture, “That’s why in the shamanic tradition they wash and clean because we understand that the main problem is dirt. What is dirt? “I am not able to do that. I am not capable. I can not do it. I’m ugly.” The person is not really using the mind. When you really begin to use your mind, you begin to say “Wow this is really special.” But in order to get there you need to clean it. Right now the main pollution of humanity is not the environment. It is that the mind that is highly polluted. If the mind is polluted you cannot see things properly. It is filled with all kinds of philosophies, ideas and impositions. When you act out of philosophy the mind gets really dirty. Because once you think in one way you are not using your mind. It is just a bunch of reactions based on your belief systems. Even if someone shows you the truth you are not able to see it because your mind is lost in a concept. It is not free. The reason you are not able to see all the gifts that you have is a person because the mind is polluted. You come from a particular place in society. Because of that you think that you have a great mind because you went to Harvard or something. In reality the person is not thinking. The person gets a bunch of books to memorize but the person still isn’t using the mind. Right now humanity only uses reason and intellect, but these two are being mixed down. They are mixed with instinct. When you mix the human mind down, then you have a tragedy. Then you create atomic bombs and all kinds of garbage. Instead of building with it, it chooses to destroy because the animal instinct has taken over. But when the person begins to use reason and intellect with their intuition you begin to see what is happening and where things are going. The intuition is telling you what is coming. When you are afraid don’t want to see it. The intuition shows it to you but you don’t want to see it. If the intuition is clear you can see it. ”

I hope this offers some clarity Maestro Manuel’s words. I know that Francisco is not to first and will not be the last to associate Golden Drum with a cult. Over the years I’ve learned to just accept that there will always be people who praise and always be people who blame no matter what you do. Thank you for the opportunity to share. If you’d like to learn more about Golden Drum for yourself I invite you to visit our site at https://goldendrum.org or come to some our events. Peace to you!