Keraveltheint you seem like a reasonable person. I am genuinely surprised that you seem offended by what I wrote. I never accused The Lubavitcher rebbe of saying he is mashiach. I said I will assume he didn’t say so. In wich case I never said that there is anything illegitimate about the rebbe or else that he want a gadol. All I said was that if he said he is mashiach than he would be automatically disqualified. This should not be objectional to you as you don’t believe he said he is mashiach. Great!
Regarding what you wrote about controversial gedolim, none of the holy people you mentioned where rejected by all gedolim or virtually all gedolim. So my way of defining how to know if a gadol goes off doesn’t apply. If you disagree with my answer that’s fine. But I think it is a very relevant question. Since we established the yetzer hara can get anyone at any stage in life how do you think we would know if someone went off? What is your answer? (once again I think this is a extremely rare occurrence and they certainly have a strong chazaka. but this is a very important question to answer.)
In terms of your most recent post with this whole rebbe influence thing,that you replied to rso. It sounds very reasonable and like you may be referring to how rebbes interact with people through their (the rebbes) mitzvos. but I think you might mean after they die wich sounds strange again. Am I correct?
If you do mean when they’re alive and like I just explained than for once I have no objection with with your rebbes influence understanding.