The Macrobiotic Faithful Swans

May 6, 2013

How George Ohsawa envisaged the global spread of his macrobiotic spiritualism is confusing to say the least. This is because in his frequent rants about education, he says that schools and professional education itself are "the makers of slaves," as their didactic methods are the "cause of all misery and unhappiness." As an alternative he suggests that solutions should emanate from within, not from teachers. But of course Ohsawa sows confusion among his intuitive disciples by dictating that they can only reap the benefits of macrobiotics "by complete and strict observance of its fundamental directions" for ten days (if not for the rest of their life). Consequently, many of Ohsawa's followers misunderstood him on whether they should think for themselves or follow their guru. In light of this confusion, the forth edition of Zen Macrobiotics (1995) actually includes a footnote which warns readers to develop their own "judgment in order to gain complete freedom from following any diet prescribed by others, including Ohsawa himself." The implication being that once one has memorised, or internalized Ohsawa's macrobiotic principles, your "judgment and understanding" will have been "deepened to the point" that you can eat whatever you like "without fear or ill effect." (1) In Ohsawa's case this meant he was able to occasionally indulge in Coca-Cola, Scotch whiskey, cheesecakes and doughnuts, and daily treat himself to cigarettes. The latter being considered by Ohsawa as more of a treatment than treat, as in his book Macrobiotics: The Way of Healing he claimed that tobacco smoking could both prevent and cure cancer. (2)

Despite such contradictory advice on the need to educate oneself about macrobiotics, on the closing page of Zen Macrobiotics Ohsawa calls for fellow self-taught enthusiasts to take up the cause of macrobiotic evangelism. For those who would prefer not to "educate" their friends about the "superiority of the macrobiotic way to health and happiness" he threatens that if they fail to do so they won't achieve the full benefits of macrobiotic therapy. Such a failure to teach others how to eat means, in Ohsawa's mind, that: "You are still exclusive, antisocial, egoistic, and arrogant; you will surely fall ill again." And woe and behold if you suffer from exclusivity as it "is both the most difficult disease in the world to cure and the origin of all unhappiness." (3)

Education and schooling in macrobiotic ideas were, as it happens, key to the spread of Ohsawa's ideas. The formation of macrobiotic retail outlets and restaurants likewise played a central role in the dissemination of his faddish dietary regime. So, when against the macrobiotic ideal, Ohsawa somehow succumbed to heart disease in April 1966, his unexpected death only seemed to provide further fuel for his eager disciples, who in that same month formed a macrobiotic and natural food store in Boston, Massachusetts. Named Erewhon, this shop was founded by Michio and Aveline Kushi, but by August 1967 the management of the small but growing retail store was taken over by Paul Hawken. Hawken quickly expanded their business model, and in the process changed the stores name to Erewhon Trading Company.

Prior to joining Erewhon Hawken had been an active member of the San Francisco Calliope Company, a psychedelic theatrical group -- headed by Hawken's housemate Bill Tara (a man who would come to play an important role in the macrobiotic movement) -- which had worked producing shows for local rock acts like the Grateful Dead. (4) Hawken's subsequent decision to leave the Calliope Company and work full-time at Erewhon was proceeded by a profound spiritual revelation while experimenting with Ohsawa's macrobiotics with his good friend Tara -- a transition that came to them fairly naturally given their obsession with Eastern philosophy and psychedelic drugs. One should add that this natural, not drug-induced, mystical moment of clarity was a byproduct of Hawken's five-week fast that was augmented only by brown rice and water; that is, the macrobiotic cereal diet. Hawken was trying this diet in a bid to cure his asthma, and as he recalled about his life-changing moment: "I could fully experience in that one moment the indivisibility of consciousness and body." (5)

With Hawken now fully converted to the macrobiotic faith things went from strength-to-strength at Erewhon Trading Company. In June 1971 Hawken married Dora Coates, and succeeded in persuading her father to leave the motorcycle industry to help him set up a base for Erewhon in Los Angeles. The following year, financial backing for this extension, to the tune of $150,000, was provided by Hawken's close friend and macrobiotic fellow-traveler John Deming. As luck would have it, his friend was independently wealthy, living on a trust fund derived from his family's history as wealthy oil barons, with Deming having already used part of his inheritance to set up a commune in the Californian wild lands. Macrobiotic circles were tight indeed, and polygamy was not abnormal, (6) and so it is not surprising that Hawken had become close to Deming in part because prior to marrying Dora he had dated her sister, Judy Coates, who had gone on to marry Deming in 1972.

Deming and Hawken eventually left Erewhon in the early 1970s, and both were soon broadening their spiritual horizons in the organic realm. In this regard, Hawken was first off the mark and he set off for Britain on an epic pilgrimage to the biodynamic Findhorn Garden in Scotland, a transformative story that was later recounted in The Magic of Findhorn (Souvenir Press, 1975). After returning to America from his initial foray, Hawken spread the good word about Findhorn's anthrosophical angels. He then returned to Findhorn in November 1972 for just over a year, accompanied this time by his wife, her sister, and her husband. Deming's prior experience of working the land on his commune proved useful in his latest organic adventure, and for part of his stay in Scotland he served as Findhorn's head gardener. But while Hawken emphasized the other-worldly gardening that took place at Findhorn, Deming corrects the misconception that magic was involved. Instead Deming recalled: "We trenched down about 3 feet and put in this incredibly powerful, all natural compost of seaweed and manure. I don't think it was the elves and fairies that grew those huge vegetables. During the summer the sun is in the sky almost 24 hours a day for 2-3 weeks." (7) Here it is interesting to note that another interesting person involved with Erewhon Trading Company during its early years, and with the Sams's brothers Seed Restaurant in the UK, was Eric Utne, who later founded The Utne Reader. Eric is now an influential anthroposophist, whose wife Nina will be introduced later. (8)

Around the time that the Soil Association's Wholefood Baker Street shop was taking off in London, American macrobiotic diet enthusiasts Craig and Gregory Sams arrived on the scene, opening the Seed Restaurant in Paddington, London, in 1968. (9) Regular customers at their restaurant included counterculture celebrities such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Yoko Ono, and many others. A few years later the exceedingly driven macrobiotic brothers formed Ceres, the UK's first natural food shop, on the Portobello Road. This shop soon became the center for macrobiotic food supplies, and in 1970 the brothers followed this success by founding Harmony Foods (now known as Whole Earth Foods). These natural food outlets meshed well with the countercultures' oppositional dietary needs, and when the first Glastonbury Festival took place in 1971 the only food available at the festival was the macrobiotic fare of the Sams brothers. Consolidating their influence in Britain further still, in 1971, Gregory and Sam, with their father's support, launched Seed, a monthly magazine of the alternative and complementary health movement. Seed "contained many elements of what would come to be known as 'New Age' thinking, and was often distinctively pagan in tone." (10) Notably, in 1972 Seed's secretary was Sue Coppard, which is significant because the year before, while working as the secretary at Resurgence magazine, she had founded Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms with help provided courtesy of John Davy's biodynamic farm (at Emerson College). (11)

This now brings us back to Paul Hawken's friend, Bill Tara (whom we met earlier). Having gained a macrobiotic apprenticeship by working as a manager of Erewhon in the United States, Tara set off to Britain in the early 1970s with the intention of creating an Erewhon-style operation overseas. But when these initial plans fell through he did the next best thing and took over management of Ceres -- the Sams brothers' food shop. Spreading the macrobiotic word came naturally to Tara, and soon he teamed up with Peter Bradford -- who had just returned to England from a period of macrobiotic study in Boston -- to form Sunwheel Foods in 1974: a macrobiotic food company modeled after Erewhon, and set-up in competition with Harmony Foods. Another important person who helped found Sunwheel was Bob Harrop, and when their health food enterprise was sold on in 1983, Harrop continued working with Bradford running the Freshlands shop in the City of London. When this shop was sold to the Fresh & Wild chain in 1999 Harrop became the accounts/HR director of Fresh & Wild, which in turn was purchased by the American natural food empire Whole Foods Market in 2004. At the present time, however, Harrop is the finance director of the London-based macrobiotic food distribution company Clearspring Ltd. The owner of Clearspring being Chris Dawson, a man who after studying biodynamic farming at the Rudolf Steiner Emerson College, had founded the East West Natural Food shop (in Old Street, London) in 1977.

In 1975 the macrobiotic crew that had coalesced around the charismatic Tara organized a new venture known as the Self Health Center. Although initially established as a squat on the Caledonian Road, when they soon obtained permanent premises on Old Street (in London) this enterprise evolved into the Community Health Foundation -- formed with the express purpose to promote macrobiotics and other holistic and spiritually-oriented teachings. (12) Using his stellar contacts in the United States, Tara then arranged for Michio Kushi to travel to England to speak in London, and keen to spread the good word Tara soon organized Kushi's first European tour. Fellow macrobiotic leader, Simon Brown, served as the CEO of the Community Health Foundation between 1986 and 1993, and Brown's work clarifies the strong connections between macrobiotics and Theosophy. In his book Macrobiotics for Life: A Practical Guide to Healing for Body, Mind, and Heart (North Atlantic Books, 2009), Brown highlighted the impact of both Western and Eastern thinkers on the evolution of macrobiotics history, naming nine individual European thinkers that he considered to have influenced macrobiotics over the past few thousand years: Brown suggested that the three most recently lived of these nine people were Theosophists (these being Madame Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, and Annie Bessant). (13)

As this article has demonstrated (so far), food fads that may at first glance sound healthy and wholesome are not necessarily so. Macrobiotics will never the source of world peace, any more than the ridiculous ideas of the Theosophists or Anthroposophists -- whose ideas are so intertwined with the macrobiotic community's -- will ever point the way forward toward a more healthy and equitable future for all. Global peace will not be associated with a flight from reason. Quite the opposite, social movements will need to be built that expressedly engage in rational and democratic debate, not irrational flights of fancy into the spiritual realm of the infinite consciousness. So it is that macrobiotic harmony seems able to only strengthen, and profit from, the very real health inequalities that are fueled by capitalism's relentless search for profits. Capitalism is presently in crisis, and we must now seize this moment to start planning for how all our planet's citizens' dietary needs can be met under alternative political arrangements. Romantic and sometimes reactionary food faddists stand directly in the way of the type of clear thinking that will be required to create this better future. Nevertheless in such times of crisis many people will still be drawn to irrational solutions to the world's ills. This makes it all the more important that we fully understand the history of their ideas so we can propose alternatives that are capable of nourishing a socialist alternative.

 Notes

1.  George Ohsawa, Zen Macrobiotics: The Art of Rejuvenation and Longevity (Oshawa Foundation, 1995 [1960]), p.10, p.49. p.52.  (back)

2.  Jack Raso, Mystical Diets: Paranormal, Spiritual, and Occult Nutrition Practices (Prometheus Books, 1993), p.27.  (back)

3.  Ohsawa, Zen Macrobiotics, p.168.  (back)

4.  The person who turned Bill Tara and Paul Hawken on to macrobiotics was Roger Hillyard (who was also doing light shows in San Francisco). Hillyard later worked with Tara and Hawken at Erewhon and in 2011 retired from the natural foodstuff industry to live at the San Francisco Zen Center.

In 1965 Hawken and Tara had lived with the Calliope Company in a warehouse in San Francisco known as The Russian Embassy. Although Hawken had previously worked as a photographer for CORE in Mississippi, he soon adopted an altogether more New Age approach to social change. As Tom Wolfe notes in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Black Swan, 1989 [1971]) -- a book that is largely about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters -- Hawken, in 1965, now had "a withering attitude toward all those who are still struggling in the old activist political ways for civil rights, against Vietnam, against poverty, for the free peoples. He sees them as still trapped in the old 'political games,' unwittingly supporting the oppressors by playing their kind of game and using their kind of tactics, while he, with the help of psychedelic chemicals, is exploring the infinite regions of human consciousness..." (p.316)  (back)

5.  Like so many nice-sounding mystical enterprises, the workers employed at Erewhon were often mistreated by their macrobiotic peace-loving bosses. For example, on 27 April 1979 the "workers in Erewhon's production, trucking, shipping, and kitchen departments voted 42-19 to form a union affiliated with Local 925, the Service Employees International Union... Erewhon employees cite as a major reason for the unionizing effort -- in addition to concerns about wages, working conditions, and medical benefits -- their feelings that behind Erewhon's New Age image lay the reality of an uncaring and unresponsive management willing to exploit them just as any 'straight' business might." As one might expect, "Management refused to deal with this group..." and Michio Kushi and his fellow macrobiotic managers "all worked to stop unionization -- but they failed." William Shurtleff & Akiko Aoyagi, History of Erewhon -- Natural Foods Pioneer in the United Sates (1966-2011): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook (pdf) (Soy Information Center, 2011). p.130.  (back)

6.  In June 1967 Bruce Macdonald "moved to Boston, and began to live in the University Road study house. After four quick affairs with lovely young women ('I was really yang'), Michio called him over to 216 Gardner Road and asked him to 'chill out' (calm down) with these girls, since Michio was 'involved' with the same young ladies. Michio and Aveline had initially gotten together in a marriage arranged by George Ohsawa, who sent Aveline to America to marry his best student. Michio and Aveline had an 'open marriage,' and both of them had affairs with younger people of the opposite sex the whole time that Bruce was in Boston. This was well known in the upper echelons of the still small macrobiotic community." Shurtleff & Aoyagi, History of Erewhon, p.194.  (back)

7.  John and Judy returned to America after the summer solstice in 1974. Hawken had two children with Dora Coates before obtaining a divorce soon after returning to America: they are Iona Fairlight Hawken (a girl) and Palo Cheyenne Hawken (a boy).  (back)

8.  The close links between biodynamic and organic farming become apparent when Hawken sourced rice for Erewhon from Carl Garrich of the Lone Pine Rice and Bean Farm, in Lone Pine, Arkansas, who proceeded to use a biodynamic compost to grow the first crop of rice. In addition, during the late 1960s it is notable that Alan Chadwick taught biodynamic gardening at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Chadwick would eventually leave the university in 1973 "to start new gardens in Marin County (at the Green Gulch Zen Center), Saratoga, and Covelo, California, and New Market, Virginia." One might add that Chadwick was famous for working the land using only a Bulldog spade and fork that Paul Hawken's later business, Smith & Hawken, "would one day make popular." Moreover, as Julie Guthman observed: "The decidedly counter-cultural milieu" of Chadwick's agricultural programme at University of California at Santa Cruz "set the idiomatic tone for organic farming for a long time to come, as many farmers were apprenticed in this programme." Shurtleff & Aoyagi, History of Erewhon, p.255; Julie Guthman, "Fast food/organic food: reflexive tastes and the making of 'yuppie chow,' " (pdf) Social & Cultural Geography, 4(1), 2003, p.47.

Like Paul Hawken and John Deming's connection to the biodynamic community at Findhorn, Wendy Cook, author of The Biodynamic Food and Cookbook: Real Nutrition That Doesn't Cost the Earth (Clairview Books, 2006) recalls that Hawken had first turned her on to macrobiotics while both were resident at Findhorn; although she subsequently decided that Rudolf Steiner's biodyamic movement offered the best spiritual alternative. (p.15) Similarly, Kristina Turner, author of The Self Healing Cookbook: A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole, Natural Foods (Earthtones Press, 1996), first worked at Findhorn before going on to commit her life to macrobiotics.  (back)

9.  Craig Sams recalls that when he first came to Britain in 1996 he "imported the books and pamphlets published by The Ohsawa Foundation in Los Angeles and sold them through the Indica Bookshop (part owned by Paul McCartney and also by Barry Miles, who wrote the definitive McCartney biography a few years ago)." Sams presently serves on the certification board of the Soil Association and is the chairman of Slow Foods UK.

Craig Sams notes: "In 1990 my kids launched Gusto, the world's first energy drink, based on guarana, ginseng, Siberian ginseng and 'Free and Easy Wanderer', a Taoist herbal formula dating back to the 12th C. It was the spiritual descendant of the macrobiotic 'beer' that Ohsawa was working on for the 1966 Spiritual Olympics and which his wife Lima thought reactivated the filariasis he contracted at Albert Schweitzer's Lambarene institute and killed him. ... I am also working, with my son Karim (who produces Soma organic smoothies) on a new range of unique and yummy macrobiotic products..." Paul Hawken and Dora Coates son Palo Hawken (born 1972) has likewise adopted the New Age capitalist sensibilities of his parents and is known as the "beverage innovator" behind the anti-oxidant Bossa Nova Superfruit Juice and Zico Chocolate Coconut Water.  (back)

10.  Philip Conford, The Development of the Organic Network: Linking People and Themes, 1945-95 (Floris Book, 2011), p.232. "Seed's 'alternative' stance was thoroughly pragmatic, placing faith in the established channels of media power as a means of spreading its message." (p.235)  (back)

11.  Sue Coppard recalled that while working at Resurgence: "A friend suggested that Michael Allaby, editor of the Soil Association journal, might know of a suitable farm, and he put me in touch with [John Davy at] Emerson College in deepest leafy Sussex, the training college for the application of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical philosophy -- including bio-dynamic agriculture on their 200-acre farm." In Autumn that year Coppard then founded WWOFF with her initial volunteers working at Emerson College, and to aid with the promotion of her new venture she spent the next year working as the secretary of Seed. (Notably, issue No.2 of Seed, published in 1972, led off with the eco-mystical story titled "Diet and ESP," (pdf) which argued that it is possible that an organic diet might help you develop a sixth sense.)  (back)

12.  Tara recalls that: "An American guy I had met was working for a group in London that was developing biofeedback technology" gave them the "lease to a building on Old Street in London..." He (the St. Lukes Trust) then leased them the space to set up the Community Health Foundation.  (back)

13.  Brown, Macrobiotics for Life, p.256.  (back)

http://www.swans.com/library/art19/barker131.html

The 21 Principles of Persuasion - Forbes

Jason Nazar
3/26/2013

How is it that certain people are so incredibly persuasive? Can we all harness those skills?  After  studying the most influential political, social, business and religious leaders, and trying countless techniques out myself, these are the 21 critical lessons I’ve identified to persuading people. This is an overview from a talk I’ve been giving to thousands of entrepreneurs for a few years now on “How to Persuade People.” More detailed examples are explained in the links below.

THE BASICS

1. Persuasion is not Manipulation - Manipulation is coercion through force to get someone to do something that is not in their own interest.  Persuasion is the art of getting people to do things that are in their own best interest that also benefit you.

2. Persuade the Persuadable -  Everyone can be persuaded, given the right timing and context, but not necessarily in the short term.  Political campaigns focus their time and money on a small set of swing voters who decide elections.  The first step of persuasion is always to identify those people that at a given time are persuadable to your point of view and focus your energy and attention on them.

3. Context and Timing - The basics building blocks of persuasion are context and timing.  Context creates a relative standard of what’s acceptable.  For example the Stanford Prisoner Experiment proved that overachieving students could be molded into dictatorial prison guards.  Timing dictates what we want from others and life.  We chose to marry a different type of person than we date when we’re younger, because what we want changes.

4. You have to be Interested to be Persuaded  -  You can never persuade somebody who’s not interested in what you’re saying.  We are all most interested in ourselves, and spend most of our time thinking about either money, love or health.  The first art of persuasion is learning how to consistently talk to people about them; if you do that then you’ll always have their captive attention.

GENERAL RULES

5.  Reciprocity Compels  –  When I do something for you, you feel compelled to do something for me.  It is part of our evolutionary DNA to help each other out to survive as a species.  More importantly, you can leverage reciprocity disproportionately in your favor.   By providing small gestures of consideration to others, you can ask for more back in return which others will happily provide.   (TIP: read  ”Influence” by Robert Cialdini)

6.  Persistence Pays - The person who is willing to keep asking for what they want, and keeps demonstrating value, is ultimately the most persuasive.  The way that so many historical figures have ultimately persuaded masses of people is by staying persistent in their endeavors and message.  Consider Abraham Lincoln, who lost his mother, three sons, a sister, his girlfriend,  failed in business and lost eight separate elections before he was elected president of the United States.

7.  Compliment Sincerely  - We are all so positively affected by compliments, and we’re more apt to trust people for whom we have good feelings.  Try complimenting people sincerely and often for things they aren’t typically complimented for, it’s the easiest thing you can do to persuade others that doesn’t cost anything but a moment of thought.

8.  Set Expectations - Much of persuasion is managing other’s expectations to trust in your judgment.  The CEO who promises a 20% increase in sales and delivers a 30% increase is rewarded, while the same CEO who promises a 40%  increase and delivers 35% is punished. Persuasion is simply about understanding and over-delivering on other’s expectations.

9.  Don’t Assume   - Don’t ever assume what someone needs, always offer your value.  In sales we’ll often hold back from offering our products/services because we assume others don’t have the money or interest.  Don’t assume what others might want or not want, offer what you can provide and leave the choice to them.

10.  Create Scarcity  – Besides the necessities to survive, almost everything has value on a relative scale.  We want things because other people want these things.  If you want somebody to want what you have, you have to make that object scarce, even if that object is yourself.

11.  Create Urgency  –  You have to be able to instill a sense of urgency in people to want to act right away. If we’re not motivated enough to want something right now, it’s unlikely we’ll find that motivation in the future.  We have to persuade people in the present, and urgency is our most valuable card to play.

12.  Images Matter  – What we see is more potent that what we hear.  It may be why pharma companies are now so forthcoming with the potentially horrible side effects of their drugs, when set to a background of folks enjoying a sunset in Hawaii. Perfect your first impressions.  And master the ability to paint an image for others, in their minds eye, of a future experience you can provide for them.

13.  Truth-Tell  – Sometimes the most effective way to persuade somebody, is by telling them the things about themselves that nobody else is willing to say.  Facing the hard truths are the most piercing, meaningful events that happen in our lives.  Truth-tell without judgement or agenda, and you’ll often find others’ responses quite surprising.

14.  Build Rapport - We like people who we are like.  This extends beyond our conscious decisions to our unconscious behaviors.  By Mirroring and Matching others habitual behaviors (body language, cadence, language patterns, etc.) you can build a sense of rapport where people feel more comfortable with you and become more open to your suggestions.


PERSONAL SKILLS

15.  Behavioral Flexibility - It’s the person with the most flexibility, not necessarily the most power, who’s in control.  Children are often so persuasive because they’re wiling to go through a litany of behaviors to get what they want (pouting, crying, bargaining, pleading, charming), while parents are stuck with the single response of “No.”  The larger your repertoire of behaviors, the more persuasive you’ll be.

16.  Learn to Transfer Energy - Some people drain us of our energy, while others infuse us with it.  The most persuasive people know how to transfer their energy to others, to motivate and invigorate them.  Sometimes it’s as straightforward as eye contact, physical touch, laughter, excitement in verbal responses, or even just active listening.

17.  Communicating Clearly is Key - If you can’t explain your concept or point of view to an 8th grader, such that they could explain it with sufficient clarity to another adult, it’s too complicated.  The art of persuasion lies in simplifying something down to its core, and communicating to others what they really care about.

18.  Being Prepared Gives you the Advantage - Your starting point should always be to know more about the people and situations around you.  Meticulous preparation allows for effective persuasion.  For example, you dramatically improve your odds in a job interview being completely versed in the company’s products, services, and background.

19.  Detach and Stay Calm in Conflict - Nobody is more effective when they are “On Tilt.”  In situations of heightened emotion, you’ll always have the most leverage by staying calm, detached and unemotional.  In conflict, people turn to those in control of their emotions, and trust them in those moments to lead them.

20.  Use Anger Purposefully - Most people are uncomfortable with conflict.  If you’re willing escalate a situation to a heightened level of tension and conflict, in many cases others will back down.  Use this sparingly, and don’t do it from an emotional place or due to a loss of self control.  But do remember, you can use anger purposefully for your advantage.

21.  Confidence and Certainty - There is no quality as compelling, intoxicating and attractive as certainty.  It is the person who has an unbridled sense of certainty that will always be able to persuade others.  If you really believe in what you do, you will always be able to persuade others to do what’s right for them, while getting what you want in return.

This article is available online at: 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/03/26/the-21-principles-of-persuasion/

Accueil - Lenvers du décor

We are a collective of authors worried about the development of serious dysfunctions in recent years within the Catholic Church which have not been taken seriously so far by the hierarchy of the Church.

Our duty of conscience, together with the prophetic mission that is attached to our baptismal vocation, obliges us to speak out against psychological, spiritual or physical abuses committed in deceptively religious communities.

Legionaries of Christ - victims of other sects (in various Catholic communities), as well as priests, nuns and people concerned have decided to create network, in order to inform and support.

http://www.lenversdudecor.org/

'Rapist' Trinidad swami has a Nagpu

Indo Asian News Service
May 25, 2007
Shyam Pandharipande

Nagpur - Every saint has a past; every sinner, a future, goes a maxim. Kripalu Maharaj, an 85-year-old Hindu spiritual guru, charged with raping a 22-year old Guyanese woman in south Trinidad Sunday, has a similar case pending against him in the high court here.

Setting up an ashram near this city in central India in 1984, Kripalu Maharaj, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, attracted considerable following in the region. All was hunky dory for the swami until an elderly man filed a complaint against him in 1991 that Maharaj had kidnapped his two major daughters.

Following the complaint, the police came to know of at least two earlier cases of rape in which complaints were not registered, public prosecutor Prashant Sathiyanathan recalls.

The police filed a common first information report (FIR) against the swami putting together all four cases of kidnapping and rape allegedly committed over a period from 1985-91, Sathiyanathan told IANS.

Sex charges against Indian swami dropped

Indo-Asian News Service
July 28, 2007

Paras Ramoutar

Port-of-Spain - A local court has dismissed rape charges against an 85-year-old Indian Hindu religious leader after police announced that there was no evidence supporting the case.

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj, who is from Uttar Pradesh, was charged in May with the rape of a 22-year-old Guyanese woman at his centre in Phillipne, south Trinidad. In her police complaint the woman said she had gone to seek spiritual assistance and guidance from the swami when she was raped.

The local court dismissed the charges against the swami after police said the case was false.

The swami was defended by one of Trinidad's top lawyers, Prakash Ramadhar.

Last month, the swami was allowed to leave Trinidad to conduct his world tour preaching Hinduism. His Indian passport had been originally seized.

He had spent several hours in police custody following the rape charges.

The swami will continue his original religious programme here for a couple of weeks before returning to India. He is accompanied by his wife and daughters.

Judge won't suppress testimony in Hindu guru's sex crime trial

San Marcos Mercury

December 16, 2010
Brad Rollins

Testimony of a woman who was allegedly molested as a teen by an internationally known Hays County Hindu leader will be admissible in court despite a missing video recording of an investigator's interview with the victim, 22nd District Judge Charles Ramsay ruled on Wednesday.

Prakashanand Saraswati, who presides over a Driftwood area ashram as the spiritual head of the JKP-Barsana Dham sect temple, is accused of molesting two then-teenagers over a three-year period starting in 1993. Hays County Sheriff's Office Det. Jeri Skrocki interviewed the woman in November 2007, but a tape of the exchange has since been lost.

Lawyers for Prakashanand asked Ramsay to suppress the woman's testimony, a rare move that could have bedeviled attempts to prosecute any of the 20 counts of indecency with a child that stem from her allegations. A jury trial on the charges is scheduled to start in February.

In a filing, attorneys wrote, "The degree of negligence is relatively high, as an essential item of evidence has been lost, and the State has not given an adequate reason to explain the circumstances that led to this loss of evidence. ... This evidence was highly significant, as it represents the primary method by which Defendant's counsel can impeach [the complainant's] testimony at trial. Finally, there is no other evidence supporting this charge other than [the accuser's] own statements and her potential testimony."

In arguments Ramsay apparently accepted, prosecutors argued that Skrocki's detailed synopsis of the interview - which District Attorney Sherri Tibbe calls "almost a transcript" - is sufficient to substitute for the tape. In addition, the witness will testify and be subject to cross-examination by Prakashanand's defense attorneys.

Loss of evidence "doesn't happen very often but it does happen and it happens in every jurisdiction. The defense has known for over a year that there were issues with this tape [and] it's an issue that is certainly there but it doesn't affect our ability to move forward with the case," Tibbe said in an interview on Thursday. She said jurors would likely be told by the defense that an interview tape is missing.

After the court ruled in September 2009 that the state must turn over the tape, Skrocki gave what she thought was a copy to defense attorneys, who said they were unable to open or view the testimony. In a hearing on Wednesday, Skroki testified that when she sought the original copy from the sheriff's office evidence room, she was told it couldn't be found.
Electronic equipment used for duplicating DVDs at the sherrif's office has since been replaced and is not available for examination, testimony showed.

"Bottom line, whether the DVD was intentionally destroyed or simply lost, it is gone - that creates a real problem for the prosecution in this case. And not only is that evidence not available, today we learned that they have either lost or destroyed the computer itself," said Austin attorney Joe Turner, one of a half-dozen lawyers on Prakashanand muscular defense team.

Ramsay also rejected the defense's motion to conduct a sworn deposition of the accuser prior to trial. The Hays Free Press is withholding the accuser's name because the newspaper has a policy of not identifying alleged victims of sexual crimes.

Dueling views of accused guru open trial

The Austin American-Statesman
February 23, 2011

Eric Dexheimer

Was Prakashanand Saraswati , the spiritual leader of Barsana Dham, a lecherous old man who in the mid-1990s groped several teenage girls who lived on the ashram south of Austin? Or was he a devout holy man who has been made the target of a malicious smear campaign?

The two dramatically opposing views were aired in opening statements by prosecutors and defense attorneys Wednesday in the trial of the Hindu guru devotees call Shree Swamiji.

The 82-year-old Prakashanand has pleaded not guilty to 20 counts of indecency with a minor by sexual contact for allegedly groping two teenage girls more than 15 years ago. Each charge carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

The Fugitive Guru

Daily Beast
June 20, 2011
Ben Crair

Prakashanand Saraswati led one of the top Hindu temples in the United States until a jury convicted him of molesting children and he took off for Mexico.

Before the guru, Prakashanand Saraswati, vanished in March-before a jury convicted him of sexual abuse; before he slipped across the border into Mexico overnight-he led the premier Hindu temple in Texas and, perhaps, the whole United States. Barsana Dham sat like the Taj Mahal in the hillsides south of Austin, a familiar sight to customers of the famous Salt Lick Bar-B-Que down the road. The Hindus there kept strictly vegetarian, but there was never any tension with the carnivores next door. "They were very gentle and nice people," says Salt Lick employee Tana Kent.

Religious compounds in rural Texas had a bad name after the Waco siege in 1993, but Barsana Dham opened itself to the outside world. The ashram offered yoga classes, concerts, and public tours; participated in interfaith circles; sheltered refugees after Hurricane Katrina; and hosted the mayor of Austin on special occasions. When PBS made its 2004 Many Voices documentary project about American congregations, producers chose Barsana Dham as their exemplar of the Hindu faith.

Barsana Dham was "very much an ecumenical mainstream Hindu organization," says Robert King, a former professor of Asian studies and dean at the University of Texas. And yet there was Saraswati, ordered to trade in the saffron robes for an orange jumpsuit. The charges were serious-20 counts of indecency with a child-but "Swami Ji," as Saraswati was known to his followers, seemed untroubled in the courtroom. Large and elderly, he parked himself in a recliner and kicked off his shoes, as though watching the afternoon soaps. (The judge had permitted him the chair due to his bad back.) Occasionally, he took a nap or picked his nose.

"He didn't really seem to be that concerned about the trial," says Hays County prosecutor Cathy Compton. It may have been because Saraswati was not used to answering to a higher authority. At Barsana Dham, Saraswati was the highest authority, a "Divine personality" by his own description. "On your own, you are helpless," Saraswati told his followers. "You need a Divine help, and only a Divine personality can give you a Divine help." He certainly looked the part, his long gray hair and beard like clouds around a mountaintop. As one follower explained the relationship to PBS: "He takes care of you when you surrender to him."

It is not difficult to imagine how such reverence might invite abuse. Still, Saraswati had been preaching in the U.S. for nearly 30 years when, in 2008, three women accused him of molesting them as children. Each alleged that Saraswati had kissed, groped, and locked them in his room. The statute of limitations had expired for one of the women, Kate Tonnessen, but her younger sister, Vesla, and a third woman named Shyama Rose pushed ahead with the charges. (All three women came forward publicly with their identities after the trial.)

Saraswati's lawyers successfully delayed the trial for three years, arguing that he was infirm and unfit to show up in court. In the meantime, however, several adult female devotees reflected on their own experiences and arrived at the conclusion Barsana Dham had worked so hard to avoid. Says Karen Jonson, a former devotee of 17 years: "I came to the conclusion that I was in a cult."

Saraswati called his central teaching "divine love-consciousness," a constant awareness of God maintained through chanting and meditation. Born in 1929, he had learned it in India after meeting his own spiritual guru, Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj-a man whose own allegedly checkered past would set in motion a process that ended in Saraswati's conviction.

"This divine-love-consciousness grows in the heart of the disciple on the basis of his dedication and service to his Spiritual Master," Saraswati preached. There was nothing inherently suspect about the "dedication" Saraswati demanded. Hinduism directs its followers to spiritual teachers, who, according to traditional belief, are a necessary connection to God. "Guru are worshiped in a manner barely distinguishable from divine worship," Arthur Koestler observed in The Lotus and the Robot. "It is therefore unimaginable to question the [guru's] character or to disobey his whims. … He represents the will of God and God himself."

Hinduism is, however, an enormous religion without any central authority to say who or what exactly a guru is. Consequently, the saffron robes-meant to signify, among other things, the guru's chastity-have sometimes made a fine disguise for scoundrels. "By holding gurus as perfect and thus beyond ordinary explanations, their presumed specialness can be used to justify anything," Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad write in The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power.

After traveling the world to spread his message, Saraswati established the International Society of Divine Love in the U.S. in 1981. "We believed that he descended from the divine abodes onto this earth," explains Joe Kelly, a cult-exit counselor who was an ISDL devotee from 1983 until 1988. Saraswati found an audience, in particular, with disgruntled Western practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, the '60s movement of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

Prakashanand Saraswati

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati or Swamiji is a spiritual leader from India who founded Radha Madhav Dham in the United States. He is a convicted felon for 20 counts of indecency with a child. He jumped bail and is a fugitive wanted by US Marshals. Wikipedia

Born: 1929, Ayodhya

Books: The true history and the religion of India: A
Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism

Motilal Banarsidass Publ., Jan 1, 2001 - Religion - 800 pages

ABOUT THE BOOK: The True History and the Religion of India, A concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism is one of the most comprehensive books on human civilization. It is an authoritative view of the history of world thought. 

Two more babies stricken with herpes after ritual ultra-orthodox Jewish oral blood sucking circumcision in New York City

• Since 2000 13 known cases of herpes have been contracted from the religious practice
• Two deaths and two babies suffering brain damage have resulted
• Department of health warns there being no safe way to perform the ritual that dates back more than 5,000 years

By Nina Golgowski
DailyMail
April 6, 2013

Two more infants have been infected with a deadly herpes virus in the last three months after undergoing a controversial religious oral circumcision in New York City.

The latest cases bring the count to 13 infants since 2000, two of which suffered brain damage and two died from the virus which can rapidly spread throughout its body.

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh requires a practitioner to orally suck the baby's penis to 'cleanse' the open wound following its circumcision, making them susceptible to the virus.

Contraction: The ultra-Orthodox practice of metzitzah b'peh requires a
practitioner to orally suck the baby's penis to 'cleanse' the open
wound following its circumcision, making them susceptible to the virus

The department of health says one of the latest infants to contract the virus developed a fever and a lesion on its scrotum, seven days after the procedure. The boy later tested positive for HSV-1. That virus differs from HSV-2, the genital herpes, which is contracted during sexual intercourse.

'A herpes infection in a newborn baby has the risk of leading to severe illness and death,' Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told ABC News.

'The reason is that the baby doesn't have the same fully developed immune system as an adult. Instead of staying in the genital area, it extends throughout different organs in the body,' he explained.

He said it's too soon to tell whether the boys will suffer permanent effects.

The identify of the rabbi who performed the circumcision is being withheld by the boys' parents, preventing the health department to step in, they said.

The religious practice that dates back to more than 5,000 years defies warning by the city's department of health which says there is no safe way to perform the oral suction on an open wound.

More modern Jewish practices use a sterile aspiration device to clean the wound or a pipette opposed to the oral sucking.

But some rabbis stand grounded behind the practice, calling it a religious freedom while noting its long history.

In September the department voted to require parents to sign forms consenting to the risks of the practice after the death of two children who contracted the virus through the practice.

The parents of those newly infected boys are said to have not signed those forms.

According to Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, two-thirds of boys born in New York City's Hasidic communities are circumcised in the oral suction matter.
The health department claims they've had complaints in past by parents who say they weren't made aware that the oral practice would be performed on their child.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304793/Two-babies-stricken-HERPES-ritual-oral-blood-sucking-circumcision-New-York-City.html

Scientology-linked nonprofit buys Larry Hagmans Ojai estate: Ventura County Star

By Stephanie Hoops
April 5, 2013

The Ojai estate actor Larry Hagman dubbed “Heaven” has been sold to a nonprofit Scientology group.

The 32-acre property atop Sulphur Mountain sold for $5 million cash to Social Betterment Properties International, a nonprofit that states its mission is to “develop and maintain buildings and other real estate utilized by social betterment organizations carrying out programs that utilize technology and methods developed by L. Ron Hubbard and that are associated with and supported by the Scientology religion.”

A phone call left at the nonprofit’s Los Angeles offices was not returned. It isn’t known what’s planned for the estate, which the Hagmans opened to the community, hosting politicians from either side of the aisle, charities, fundraisers, weekend getaways and Ojai Music Festival events.

The Hagmans moved to the home in 1991 and while the sanctuary is isolated behind two electronically-monitored gates, they became an integral part of the local neighborhood.

Larry Hagman died in November and his wife, Maj Hagman, has Alzheimer’s disease.

Their Realtor, Andrea Cope of Prudential California Realty’s Brentwood office, said the couple were discerning about selling the property.

“It took awhile emotionally to release the property,” she said. What they wanted was to sell to a buyer who was “going to love and make use of the place in the way that they could hope someone would because they called it Heaven.”

Maj Hagman built the stunning 23,000-square foot Tuscany-style house with its nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms, five fireplaces, three pools, a 28-foot ceiling with retractable roof, gym, creek and other amenities.

After Maj Hagman was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s the couple spent more time in Santa Monica and Hagman realized he had to sell Heaven. It took more than three years for him to separate himself from the estate, Cope said.

“That’s what had to happen before he could commit to selling the house,” she said.

It was originally listed for $6,495,000 and they did a price reduction, selling for $5 million cash in a quick escrow, Cope said. The sale closed March 5. In 1999 the property was valued at just under $3 million.

Social Betterment Properties International has received grants and renovated properties in use for combating literacy, improving morality and exposing “abusive and dangerous psychiatric practices,” according to a 2007 tax filing.

The nonprofit has also owned property in Oklahoma that’s been used for a controversial drug rehabilitation facility. According to The Tulsa World, the facility, Narconon International, uses non-drug paths to rehabilitation that focus on three activities: exercise, vitamins and sauna sessions. Several deaths have been related to the facility, which has been sued and investigated by Oklahoma state officials, according to The World.

Robert Cialdini's YouTube animation of his criteria for Influence: the Science of Persuasion.

This animated video describes the six universal Principles of Persuasion that have been scientifically proven to make you most effective as reported in Dr. Cialdini’s groundbreaking book, Influence. This video is narrated by Dr. Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin, CMCT (co-author of YES & The Small Big).

About Robert Cialdini:
Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University has spent his entire career researching the science of influence earning him a worldwide reputation as an expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation.

Dr. Cialdini’s books, including Influence: Science & Practice and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, are the result of decades of peer-reviewed published research on why people comply with requests. Influence has sold over 3 million copies, is a New York Times Bestseller and has been published in 30 languages.

Because of the world-wide recognition of Dr. Cialdini’s cutting edge scientific research and his ethical business and policy applications, he is frequently regarded as the “Godfather of influence.”

Atlanta megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long ‘preyed upon investors’ faith’

Religion News Service
March 9, 2013

Atlanta megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long is facing a suit from former parishioners who say they lost more than $1 million after he encouraged them to invest in a company that was operating an alleged Ponzi scheme.

A dozen former members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., contend Long’s assistant had been warned that businessman Ephren W. Taylor was running a $3 million capital deficit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

After Long introduced the businessman as his friend, the former New Birth members lost their money investing with the self-described social capitalist.

“If Bishop Eddie Long hadn’t endorsed this they wouldn’t have invested,” Jason Doss, attorney for the former members, told the Journal-Constitution.

Long’s church has urged Taylor to repay investors with interest.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Taylor in 2012 with running a Ponzi scheme, and a civil case against him is pending. SEC officials said he promised to use investments for charity and to help economically challenged areas but instead diverted the funds from members of churches to pay other investors and finance business and personal expenses.

“He preyed upon investors’ faith and their desire to help others, convincing them that they could earn healthy returns while also helping their communities,” said David Woodcock, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office in Texas.

Being banished from Westboro Baptist Church ← cult recovery 101

Being banished from Westboro Baptist Church ← cult recovery 101

Research on TM and Other Forms of Meditation Stinks

Scientific American

John Horgan
March 8, 2013

In response to my last post, which proposed that Transcendental Meditation and other cults might be exploiting the placebo effect, some readers cited studies supposedly showing that TM has therapeutic benefits. Well, sure. There are lots of studies showing that lots of forms of meditation can yield lots of benefits. But the research is unimpressive, to say the least, and is corrupted by the “allegiance effect,” the tendency of proponents of a treatment to find evidence that it works. (The term was coined by a Lester Luborsky, a prominent psychotherapy researcher.)

For a critical overview of meditation research, see a 2000 article in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, “Meditation Meets Behavioral Medicine,” which I discussed in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism. Author Jensine Andresen, now a religious scholar at Columbia, reviewed more than 500 papers and books on meditation published over the last half century. Andresen cautioned that there are thousands of techniques that could be categorized as meditation; it is virtually impossible to define the term in a way that does justice to this vast diversity.

Not surprisingly, she said, attempts to measure meditation’s neurological effects with brain-wave monitors, positron emission tomography, and other techniques have yielded widely divergent findings. Meditation has been “prodded and poked by a variety of technological apparati, with inconclusive results,” Andresen commented. For every report of increased activity in the frontal cortex or decreased activity in the amygdala, there is a conflicting finding.

Investigations of meditation’s therapeutic benefits have been equally inconclusive. Meditation has been linked to a dizzying array of benefits, including the alleviation of stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, substance abuse, hostility, pain, depression, asthma, premenstrual syndrome, infertility, insomnia, substance abuse and the side effects of chemotherapy. But many of these studies have been poorly designed, Andresen remarked, carried out with inadequate controls or no controls at all.

Andresen noted that meditation has been linked to adverse side effects, too, including suggestibility, neuroticism, depression, suicidal impulses, insomnia, nightmares, anxiety, psychosis and dysphoria. In an implicit reference to the cultish context within which meditation is often taught, Andresen added that meditators may become vulnerable to “manipulation and control by others,” including “unscrupulous or delusional teachers.”

A similar picture emerges from the 2007 peer-reviewed report “Meditation practices for health: state of the research,” by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The report analyzed 813 studies of meditation and concluded that most were of “poor quality.”

The report stated: “Many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence.” If your particular form of meditation makes you feel good, do it! But don’t kid yourself that its medical benefits have been scientifically proven.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/03/08/research-has-not-shown-that-meditation-beats-a-placebo/

SSPX expels Bishop Williamson

CatholicHerald.co.uk

The Society of St Pius X has confirmed that it has expelled the English Bishop Richard Williamson.
Bishop Williamson, 72, one of four men illicitly ordained in 1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Écône, Switzerland, has been a controversial figure, particularly for his views on Jews, who he has called the “enemies of Christ”.

In a statement the society said: “Bishop Richard Williamson, having distanced himself from the management and the government of the SSPX for several years, and refusing to show due respect and obedience to his lawful superiors, was declared excluded from the SSPX by decision of the superior general and its council on October 4 2012.

A final deadline had been granted to him to declare his submission, after which he announced the publication of an ‘open letter’ asking the superior general to resign.

“This painful decision has become necessary by concern for the common good of the Society of Saint Pius X and its good government, according to what Archbishop Lefebvre denounced: ‘This is the destruction of authority. How authority can be exercised if it needs to ask all members to participate in the exercise of authority?’”

Bishop Williamson, who was educated at Winchester, has denied that millions of Jews died in Nazi gas chambers and believes the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be authentic.
A television interview in which Bishop Williamson denied the Holocaust was broadcast in January 2009 on the same day that Pope Benedict XVI lifted the automatic excommunications of the four bishops, causing the Vatican embarrassment. Bishop Williamson apologised to the Pope but did not retract the statement.

Superior general Bishop Bernard Fellay subsequently banned Bishop Williamson from speaking in public.

Making Sense of Post-Cult Trauma: the Relational System of the Traumatizing Narcissist

My Thirteen Years at EnlightenNext

by William Yenner

This paper was presented at the October 2012 conference sponsored by the International Cultic Studies Association, in New York.
See the video.

THE BEGINNING

On a snowy night in 1988 in Amherst Massachusetts, an old friend told me a remarkable story. H.W.L. Poonja, a mystic sage in India, had transformed a young Westerner in a matter of weeks into a powerful guru who he had charged with inspiring “a revolution among the young.” The Westerner’s name was Andrew Cohen. Within a few days I hurried to attend my first of countless of Andrew’s teaching or satsang. That evening, Andrew sat in the front of the room, eyes closed.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and said, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Many people did.

“What is the true nature of freedom?”

“What are the obstacles to achieving it?”

I was struck by Andrew’s serenity. He spoke broadly about spiritual freedom and urged us to abandon the notion that we are not free. His talk cast a spell, and I felt connected to my passionate desire to attain freedom.
I returned nightly, sensing a mystery that defied expression or comprehension.

My own exchanges with Andrew fed my deep yearning for freedom, which had been the object of my many years of spiritual practice.

Andrew wove the non-duality teachings of Indian Advaita Vedanta into his discourses. I became more convinced that I could attain the highest spiritual goal: enlightenment.

Inevitably my gravitation toward Andrew strained my marriage, which soon broke down and I moved into one of Andrew’s group houses and embarked on what was to be a thirteen-year career as a devotee. From that moment forward, my life and Andrew’s—his teachings, wishes and priorities—were profoundly intertwined.

HEADING WEST

Within months Andrew moved his community to California where the closeness and trust between community members grew. He founded EnlightenNext Magazine, and increasingly relied on his students for (un-remunerated) creative and managerial support.

Andrew instituted weekly gender-segregated meetings, where members could “investigate the teachings.” These meetings gradually took on another purpose: targeted criticism of a fellow student, ostensibly to free that student from the influence of the ego. Such meetings could be grueling affairs; if an individual did not humbly and sincerely embrace the offered criticism, they were subjected to protracted attacks on their character by other students.

On one occasion I was the focus of one such session, having been accused of undermining a fellow student. I became frightened and defensive and I was subjected to several hours of intense and escalating pressure intended to humble me.

The day after my ordeal, which had concluded at 3 A.M., I received a directive from Andrew to shave my head. This was Andrew’s remedy for pride or vanity; and it was typically prescribed for a year at a time. Often, however, a perceived offense—a display of pride or aggressive behavior, for example—would result in a “renewal of vows”: another year with a shaved head. My “vows” were extended in this fashion three times.

Though vaguely aware of a creeping authoritarianism in Andrew’s approach, I still felt trustful of his motivations, and I still considered the balance of things to be tipped totally in his favor.

FINDING FOXHOLLOW

In 1994, Andrew put me in charge of a search for a home, or ashram, for his growing community. Eventually the search turned to the East Coast where a 220 acre property was found in the Lenox MA.

At close to $3 million, the property, known as Foxhollow, required far more funds than were available. Andrew was counting on the largesse of a wealthy student, Jane O’Neil, who he asked to consider donating the money. Andrew charged a senior student who was one of Jane’s closest friends with bringing her around to donating the money.

Jane was gradually persuaded to finance the purchase, with the stipulation that the donation be kept strictly confidential, to keep her family from finding out. Andrew agreed.

Within a few months the property was officially “ours.” I have a photo of a beaming Jane O’Neil and I standing together in front of Foxhollow. Seeing that photo now I cringe at the memory of how Jane was manipulated while I silently stood by. Within two years, Jane had left the community. Days after Jane’s departure, an angry Andrew Cohen publicly revealed that she had been the donor who made Foxhollow possible.

Soon we began restoration of the Manor House, the largest of about a dozen buildings. It was one of the happiest times of my career. I became Foxhollow’s business manager and a member of its Board of Directors. I also lived in Andrew’s house, the only student other than his wife who shared that privilege.

At Foxhollow the number of practices, meetings and projects began to multiply. Andrew spoke about “an absolute relationship to life” as a feature of the enlightened condition, and as his students, we were committed to the cultivation of an “all hands on deck” attitude.

Nearly a decade had passed since meeting Andrew Cohen. Foxhollow was my home, my fellow students were my family, and Andrew was my spiritual mentor. Yet not everything was as it seemed. In addition to new rules and practices that seemed to contradict some of Andrew’s earlier teachings, money began to have a growing influence on day-to-day life. To help finance Foxhollow, Andrew instituted an entrance fee of $1000 per formal student for each year of prior participation. This fee entitled the student to participate at Foxhollow.

Thus, with the gradual imposition of rules, taxes and spirit-breaking confrontational meetings, the climate in Andrew’s community had changed significantly, and I began to witness transformations in Andrew’s personality, methods and teachings that would take me years to fully comprehend. But in 1997, with a gleaming new facility, a growing community, and my own personal sense of accomplishment, Foxhollow was still where I wanted to be. At that point, I could not see the storm clouds gathering on the horizon.

THE DARK SIDE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Some of the changes in our new environment were subtle, such as the institution of a daily exercise regime, and some, while they were closely guarded secrets occurring only behind closed doors, were not subtle at all, such as punishment in the form of physical abuse. These changes were indicative of the power that Andrew Cohen sought to exert on his followers’ lives. They were also harbingers of even more egregious abuses to come.

As Andrew’s influence over us grew, he became more controlling of our sexual and romantic lives. As a long-term member, I could only seek companionship among the few women who had proven themselves through years of devotion and service to Andrew.

One could not seek a partner outside the community, and there were no casual sexual encounters. As a result, I spent all but six months of my thirteen years with Andrew without a romantic partner. When one did manage to obtain permission for a relationship Andrew often intervened to end it. In my case, he decided that my relationship should end because my partner had been “proud.” In other words, like all relationships inside the community, mine began with his consent and ended by his decree.

Along with new rules and regulations, Andrew also began instituting punishments as well. The methods were often random, harsh, out of proportion to the alleged wrong, and questionable as educational “skillful means.” Andrew referred his new system as “Acts of Outrageous Integrity,” and it consisted of extreme “teaching methods” designed to cut through a student’s ego and resistance in order to facilitate awakening.

Cohen’s “acts of outrageous integrity” included disciplinary face slapping in which it was difficult to discern any particular “lesson” other than “Shape up!” In some cases, Andrew would direct one student to slap another; in others, he administered the slaps himself.

For some time, Cohen had also been bestowing ironic spiritual names intended to make their bearers acutely aware of their character flaws. There were Mad Dog and Raging Bull, who had tempers; Nar, who was “narcissistic”; Cas, who was “casual”; Integrity, who supposedly lacked it; and many others.

Thus an unprecedented degree of control eventually came to pervade the atmosphere of the Foxhollow community, and “groupthink” was certainly one of the consequences. It is a well-known and troubling fact that group mentality has the potential to override individual morality. I experienced this firsthand as a member of Andrew Cohen’s community—observing, participating in, rationalizing and excusing, at times, extremely harsh treatment of fellow members who had angered their teacher. When a student was slapped or evicted from a student household, for example, I told myself that it was for that individual’s own good, chalking it up to my teacher’s passionate determination to free him or her from the tyranny of the ego. I do not regard the fact that there was no forum in which to question such behavior as an excuse for my failure to have done so. Even when, later on, I found myself on the receiving end of abusive treatment, I “compartmentalized” these experiences in my own mind, suspending judgment—and my own humanity—in an effort to adhere to the party line.

Another incident involved a student (Mikaela) who had fallen out of favor by reminding Cohen that something he had criticized her for doing had been his idea in the first place. He decried her as evil and ordered that the walls, floor and ceiling of her office (which had been relocated to an unfinished basement room) be painted red to signify the spilled blood of her guru. She was ordered to spend hours there contemplating the implications of her transgression, with the additional aid of a large cartoon on the wall depicting her as a vampire and the word “traitor” written in large letters next to it. Andrew often employed red paint in this fashion to create environments designed to induce shame and guilt in students that he felt had questioned his judgment or disobeyed him.

Another female student who had displeased Andrew and, after leaving the community, had returned to help out on a weekend painting project, was summoned to another basement room. There she was met by four female students who, having guided her onto a plastic sheet on the floor, each poured a bucket of paint over her head as a “message of gratitude” from Andrew. She left the property traumatized and fell ill in subsequent days (during which she was harassed by phone calls from another student who, at Cohen’s instigation, repeatedly called her a “coward”) and never again returned to Foxhollow.


A FINAL WORD ON CRAZY WISDOM

Many of us who have left the community have often discussed among ourselves our complicity in the execution of “acts of outrageous integrity” that essentially amounted to abuse, and whether we witnessed these abuses firsthand or from a distance, we have often expressed regret over our failure to intervene or to acknowledge our part in the harm they brought to so many individuals.

Thus, while Andrew Cohen’s “acts of outrageous integrity” became a common
fixture in our community, redemption rarely if ever followed, and it was gradually becoming apparent that the guru’s renewed good graces came at an entirely different sort of price. This new “currency of forgiveness” was cold, hard cash.

THE CURRENCY OF FORGIVENESS

The practice of donating money to atone for mistakes had begun in California in the mid-1990s, and at that time had been accepted by all and never questioned.

What I witnessed at Foxhollow, and what others have also reported, are clear indications of Cohen’s recognition that he was going to have to venture beyond a purely voluntary basis for the collection of donations if his organization was to thrive: Money, not spirit, was the new coin of the realm.

Andrew let it be understood that his good favor could be had for a price. It is a testament to the faith that so many of us had in Andrew that, despite the questionable nature of these new financial arrangements, we complied—some of us taking on enormous and ill-advised borrowing.
Here are two brief summaries of financial exploitation.


Student A stated that as a result of “doing poorly” in his teacher’s eyes and feeling under great pressure to do more for EnligthenNext, he offered a check of $3000 to Cohen as a sign of his remorse. Cohen stormed into the student’s room, threw the check on the floor, and demanded angrily “Do you think you can buy me off for a lousy three grand?” Having previously heard Cohen say that any long term student who blows it will owe $20,000 in “karmic retribution,” this student scraped together what he had and borrowed the rest to present the expected amount. This student after leaving EnlightenNext asked for his donation back, which was declined.

Student B related how she ran away from Foxhollow, but was found and brought back by another student. She wasn’t allowed to live in Foxhollow however, but off campus with other women who were deemed to be doing poorly. In the meantime, she was told how she had made a terrible mistake in trying to leave, and to make her way back she had to give everything. Gradually she came to understand this was meant to specifically include giving her $60,000 IRA and after a time she did turn it over to EnlightenNext. But she was told again that everything means everything, which led her to offer any future inheritance from her family. Subsequently she was allowed to return to Foxhollow; Shortly thereafter she left EnlightenNext, prior to receiving an inheritance.


***
As I will recount in more detail later, I also had the experience of buying forgiveness, when I gave Andrew Cohen an inheritance I had recently received from my father’s estate.

MY FALL FROM GRACE

By mid 1999 I was beginning to wake up to the reality of the life I was living.

That summer I rankled Andrew with my failure to congratulate him for a recently published book, and I had also organized a 5 day holiday for myself and 4 other students, something that was rarely done – vacations were normally done in conjunction with work for Andrew such as setting up a retreat. This one had no purpose other than going away for a while. My new expression of independence didn’t sit well with Andrew.

Then, after a retreat in France, Andrew casually revealed to a group of four close male students a deeply personal story that I had told him in confidence. Andrew frequently revealed information shared with him in confidence, particularly delicate information of a sexual nature. I was mortified when he revealed that I had twice in my life paid for sex. I was forced to admit to what I had done during my vacation some twenty years prior.
But my embarrassed admission was not the end of it. I was urged to elaborate on the experience and then was accused of being too revealing. Next Andrew convened several meetings of these four male students with me on the subject of my sexuality. Men I considered my brothers shouted in my face and abused me verbally. Later a fellow student slapped me in the face. She didn’t have to tell me that the blow was from Andrew.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 100 DAYS

I was then ordered to go to London, where I felt disoriented once stripped of my responsibilities.
I behaved like a jilted lover—pouting, raging—and sending expensive bouquets with letters of apology to Andrew. When another community member, likely at Andrew’s insistence, slapped me in the face, I thanked him, despite the anger I struggled to conceal.

As my situation and state of mind deteriorated, I decided to offer to Andrew the last remnant of my self-worth, that is to say all my money. In the twisted reality in which I found myself, I considered this my last, best option. I did not think, “Leave this community.” I told him that I wanted to surrender all that I had. What I wanted to give up was my $80,000 inheritance. I heard nothing immediately from Andrew about accepting this offer.

Weeks later I received instructions that I was to move again, this time to Australia to join another penitent there. My crime: “Betraying Andrew and his Teachings.” Then just six days after arriving there, Andrew ordered my return to Cambridge, where I was ordered to move into a student house, sharing a room with three other men.
My mortification deepened with each day and its attendant indignities. Community members insulted me. I had fallen very far and had done so very publicly.

Soon word came from Andrew’s office at Foxhollow to send the $80,000 that I had pledged. Despite my regret I sent it in.

Not long after I sent Andrew the money, I learned that a colleague of mine had fled the London community and was in Rotterdam. Because of the atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Andrew’s communities, students often left surreptitiously. I was given the task to retrieve the escapee; in Roterdam I did locate him but I had no luck convincing him to return. However, now my lot seemed better, and I returned to Foxhollow on somewhat better footing.

Though no longer a leader, I jumped back into work and life there, beginning each day at 3 A.M. with a three-hour practice of one thousand prostrations before a photograph of Andrew. I didn’t gain insight into why I had so precipitously fallen out of favor. Was the recent positive turn of my experience of community life “for real”? I wasn’t sure.

One day, Andrew asked me to search for a new property for his London Center. I quickly moved to London, and over the next several months I found an appropriate property and helped to arrange for its purchase.
Then, as if with the flick of a switch, I was evicted from my quarters in a student house and soon thereafter was told to return to Massachusetts to live with two other fallen male students.

I was now running on empty, exhausted. The three of us outcasts made futile attempts to win Andrew’s forgiveness. Some days later, I was told, once again, that I was no longer welcome at Foxhollow.

I felt nothing. Not yet. Not even relief. I decided to leave the community for good.

In the immediate days of my new life outside EnlightenNext I was aware that something very important was happening. I began to feel joy and liberation. I had anticipated that I might feel overcome with guilt or shame. Instead, I felt gratitude—to myself. I was back; my life was again mine. Autonomy, individuality, freedom—all of the precious things I had been conditioned to live without—were once again mine. Words of Nietzsche come to mind: “At long last the horizon appears free to us again… the sea, our sea, lies open again: perhaps there has never been such an ‘open sea.’”

LIFE AFTER ANDREW

Leaving the EnlightenNext cult has been one of the most powerful and positive experiences of my life. The sheer emptiness I felt was actually a balm to my soul, and as the first hours and days passed, I began to experience a sense of boundless freedom and joy. The relief I felt at having escaped Andrew’s grip propelled me into a nearly constant state of bliss. The recovery of one’s autonomy is the sweetest thing!

I also had my inner work cut out for me: I still had many deeply ingrained Andrew-centric ideas to purge.
Approximately two years after I’d left, in early 2003, I heard from two fellow former students each who Andrew had recently invited for a sit-down, and both reported that he had spoken negatively of his former students, referring to us as the “shadow sangha.” He had encouraged both of these former students to withdraw their commitments to attend an upcoming reunion of former students that was being planned in Costa Rica. Hearing this left me angry and determined not to allow my newfound freedom to waver in any way.

My growing sense of autonomy now made it possible for me, for the first time, to begin holding Andrew accountable for his actions. I decided that I must confront Andrew. In a letter to him, I said that it was outrageous that he would have anything other than kind words for those of us who had given years of our lives to his loyal service, and I declared that in my view his solicitation of my inheritance had been made under duress—which we both knew to be unethical—and demanded its return.

Within a couple of days I received a call from Andrew, offering to return my money as, if I didn’t want to donate it, he didn’t want to keep it.

When the paperwork for the return of the donation arrived, however, there was a string attached: a five-year gag order restricting me from making public statements about Andrew. The gag order seemed to contradict everything that Andrew had ever stood for, but I signed the papers and took my donation back.

It was an unprecedented triumph for a former student, yet only the beginning for me. I still had a lot left to process about my thirteen years of discipleship. I feel, in retrospect, that it was beneficial to have been forced to ruminate so quietly for so long. By the summer of 2008, when my gag order expired, I was well into writing American Guru, which was published the following year.

Since the publications of American Guru and other revelations of abuse online at theWhatEnlightenment blog, there has been an attempt by Cohen to moderate his public persona as a “rude guru.” Last year his harsh denunciation of ex-students in his 2006 essay “A Declaration of Integrity” was quietly removed from his blog, though it was returned months later after this was publicly pointed out. Over the same period he has revised his formerly extremely harsh appraisal of his former teacher, now replacing that with words of love and appreciation. Reportedly a PR consultant hired by Cohen advised him to improve his outreach or risk deterioration of financial support.

The lessons of the EnlightenNext story have yet to be learned in their entirety. Though I wish neither ill nor harm to Cohen’s current followers, it is my opinion that membership in his community represents an invitation to waste one’s time and energy, and possibly one’s entire life, in the service of a destructive and damaging myth, as well as a dubious opportunity to entangle oneself ever more deeply and dangerously in its creator’s elaborately constructed lies. Those of us who have left the EnlightenNext community did so for what have turned out to be compellingly good reasons: No “teacher” worthy of the name would subject his students to the kinds of mental, physical and financial abuses described here, and no “spiritual leader” who requires his followers to internalize and reinforce a fantasy of his own perfection deserves a platform for his hypocritical ideology of “evolutionary enlightenment.”

Even with the adversity that they brought into my life, I have benefited from the years I spent with Andrew Cohen. Twenty years ago, a younger man left it all to join in Andrew’s holy life. What looks naïve today was totally compelling then. From this realization springs compassion for all who participated. Even now I choose not to renounce my years of devotion. I experienced the freedom of letting go and learned about the deeper meaning of my existence. I wouldn’t be who I am today without all of it, positive and negative, and regret would take away the gratitude I have for being courageous enough to take the initial leap and wise enough to know when to call it quits. I do, however, feel responsible for hurting others through my complicity in Cohen’s’ excesses. I hope the presentation here can spare others from making the same mistakes.