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What do people find appealing about spiritual leaders?

In order to be popular as a spiritual leader you just have to understand thoroughly what people think spiritual is and pretend to be that. That is the appeal. A real spiritual leader is a different matter. How would we know one. Here is advise from one:

IS THERE AN INFALLIBLE METHOD OF RECOGNIZING A PERFECT MASTER?
Meher Baba

An ordinary man may not be able to discriminate satisfactorily between the different stages of spiritual attainment up to the sixth plane. He may be able to know that such souls are advanced, but not the extent of their advancement. But when a sincere and patient seeker of Truth comes into contact with one who is spiritually perfect, he will observe certain outer signs that are inseparably associated with inner spiritual perfection.

The most important of these signs are three: firstly, Perfection is not only "Oneness with God," but the continual and uninterrupted experience of "Oneness in everything." A Perfect Master continually, without break, experiences and realizes his own Self as the Self in all. This inner experience objectively manifests itself in the spontaneity of love that such a one feels or expresses towards all Creation. To him nothing is attractive or repulsive. Good and bad, saint and sinner, beauty and ugliness, wisdom and idiocy, health and disease -- all are modes of his own manifestation. When embodied Perfection loves, fondles or feeds any living creature, it feels and enjoys as if it were loving, fondling and feeding its own Self. In this stage no vestige of "otherness" is left.

The second sign is the atmosphere of bliss that Perfection radiates in its immediate vicinity, an atmosphere that a stranger in search of it cannot help feeling. A Perfect Master not only enjoys infinite bliss but also experiences universal suffering. The acuteness of suffering however is nullified or subdued by the overwhelming feeling of bliss. Hence Perfection can outwardly appear blissfully calm in the face of every kind of suffering and persecution.

The third sign of Perfection is its power to adapt itself to any level of humanity. It can be as nonchalant on a throne as in a gutter. It can very naturally be thrifty with the poor, extravagant with the rich, regal with kings, wise with the learned and simple with the illiterate and the ignorant. Just as a Maser of Letters teaches English in different ways to beginners and graduate students, so also a Perfect Master adapts himself to the level of those whom he wants to uplift spiritually.



 
Easy... charisma. Charasmatic leaders range from Hitler to Jesus Christ. It's all in the delivery and taking advantage of those who will listen.
 
Because most people are weak minded nitwits that want to be told what to believe/think/do. That way they don't have to think for themselves.

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
-Kierkegaard
 
I think that first of all, a spiriutal leader has to be human. If the leader were God, then it wouldn't be a leader it would be a diety.

What people find appealing about spiritual leaders is charisma. There's "just something about him/her" that draws people to them. Another key to being a successful spiritual leader is being a speaker. The ability to communicate effectively and in an appealing manner is a must.
 
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