It is the belief, indignantly repeated in complaint, of some disappointed persons who have lost money and years or failed to regain health by following such leaders or teachings, that their aspiration and faith should have protected them. But they do not see that behind the deception or incompetence of the leader, or error of his teaching, was the fault of wrong judgement in their own mentality which led them to him. Merely to have prevented them from giving their allegiance would not have removed this fault from them, and would have hidden its existence from them. One day it would have led them into the same mistake again. If their aspiration for self-improvement was quite earnest and their faith in the higher power quite sincere, then a warning against the attachment they were about to make must have come to them through some person, book, happening, or inner feeling of doubt and unease, but they disregarded it.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 3 : Uncertainties of Progress > # 145
