Stripping the Gurus (Book review)

note: I’m not promoting this book or its author, just the free flow of info. – Michael

FROM “STRIPPING THE GURUS”
By Geoffrey D. Falk.

CHAPTER I
SPEAK NO EVIL

http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/speaknoevil.asp

“The wicked are wicked no doubt, and they go astray, and they fall, and they
come by their desserts. But who can tell the mischief that the very virtuous
do?” — William Makepeace Thackeray

………….

ONE WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE that our world’s recognized saints and sages have
the best interests of everyone at heart in their thoughts and actions.

One would also like to believe that the same “divinely loving” and
enlightened figures would never distort truth to suit their own purposes,
and would never use their power to take advantage (sexually or otherwise) of
their followers. They would, that is, be free of the deep psychological
quirks, prejudices, hypocrisy and violence which affect mere mortals.

One would further hope that the best of our world’s sages would be able to
distinguish between valid mystical perceptions and mere hallucinations, and
that the miracles and healings which they have claimed to have effected have
all actually occurred.

Sadly, none of those hopes stand up to even the most basic rational
scrutiny.

Thus, it has come to be that you are holding in your hands an extremely evil
book.

It is so, simply because it attempts to expose, to a wider audience, the
worst of the alleged abuses which various “god-men” have reportedly visited
upon their followers, and on the world at large, over the past century or
more.

In tracing that line of degeneracy more or less chronologically, from the
introduction of Eastern philosophy into Western thought and action up to the
present day, we will meet the following “saints and sages”:

* Ramakrishna, whose worship of the Divine Mother did not exclude comparable
ritual veneration for his own penis, or an equal interest in fondling the
genitals of his male followers

* The brothel-visiting Vivekananda, Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, who first
brought yoga to America via the 1893 World’s Fair, and thus paved the way
into the West for all following Eastern teachers

* Jiddu Krishnamurti, the Theosophical Society’s eagerly anticipated “World
Teacher,” who later broke from that organization, fully repudiating it, and
then embarked on a quarter-century affair with a woman whom he believed to
be the reincarnation of his late mother

* Japanese Zen masters and scholars, whose support of the use of Zen
principles in the training of the Japanese military during times of war, and
reported physical abuse of disciples in times of peace, will give us serious
pause

* Satchidananda, the “Woodstock Swami,” who repudiated drugs and rock ‘n’
roll, but reportedly retained a fondness for sex with his female disciples

* The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, famed for his involvement with the Beatles, his
alleged failed attempt at seducing Mia Farrow, and his efforts at teaching
the “real magic” of levitation to the late magician Doug Henning, among
others

* Swami Rama, renowned for his purported demonstration of parapsychological
abilities under Elmer and Alyce Green in the 1970s, as another “holy
celibate” who apparently couldn’t keep his robes on

* Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who reportedly once admitted, while sniffing
laughing gas to get high, that he was “so relieved to not have to pretend to
be enlightened any more”

* Satya Sai Baba, whose claimed “miracles” have included raising people from
the dead, producing streams of “sacred ash” from his hands — a feat easily
replicated by secular magicians — and allegedly molesting hundreds of young
boys

* Sri Chinmoy, the “stunt man of the spiritual world,” whose disciples to
this day periodically canvass campuses across North America with flyers
touting the purported benefits of meditation under his guidance

* Buddhist monks in Thailand, who have been known to proudly exhibit
expensive collections of antique cars, and to don disguises, sneak out to
local karaoke bars, and be caught with pornography, alcohol, sexual
paraphernalia, and more than one woman at a time

* Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, whose FBI files contained the
observation, “appears mental”

* Werner Erhard, originator of est group training, who brought us the
phrase, “Thank you for sharing”

* Yogi Bhajan, the claimed “only living master of white tantric yoga in the
world”

* Chögyam Trungpa, who brought Tibetan Buddhism to America, and proceeded to
drink himself into an early grave

* Swami Muktananda, whose ashram living quarters in India reportedly
contained a well-used secret passageway to the adjacent young girls’
dormitory

* Muktananda’s name-changing disciple Adi Da (Da Free John, Da Love-Ananda,
etc.), whose “crazy wisdom” exploits propelled him to exile in Fiji in the
mid-’80s, following allegations of sexual abuse

* Andrew Cohen, whose own Jewish mother has regarded his closed,
authoritarian spiritual community as embodying a “fascist mind-set,” with
its members behaving like “Gestapo agents.” (Such closed communities are of
homogeneous beliefs, have little exchange of ideas with the outside world,
and possess no option of questioning the leader while still remaining a
member in good standing. Further, to leave the community is typically
claimed to be to throw away one’s only “chance in this lifetime for
enlightenment” [van der Braak, 2003].) She has further rejected Cohen’s
claims of enlightenment, comparing him instead to the “cult” leaders Jim
Jones and David Koresh, and even to Adolf Hitler

* Ken Wilber, the “Einstein of consciousness studies,” who has at times
spoken with unbridled enthusiasm for the effects of discipline under both
Adi Da and Cohen

* Yogi Amrit Desai, formerly of the Kripalu yoga center, whose followers
there, when news of the claimed sexual activities between the married Desai
and his devotees surfaced, displayed unique discrimination in reportedly
forcing him to leave the center he himself had founded

* Assorted sexually active Roman Catholic priests — pedophile, ephebophile
and otherwise

* The Findhorn community in Scotland, which actually functions without a
guru-figure, arguably doing more good than harm for exactly that reason

* Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic Autobiography of a
Yogi, whose troubled ashrams the present author can speak of from first-hand
experience

With only a few exceptions, the above figures have taught authentic Eastern
philosophy of one variety or another. They have further been widely
recognized and duly advertised as possessing high degrees of spiritual
realization. Indeed, one can easily find loyal followers singing the praises
of each of these individuals and paths, in books and sanctioned websites.
(Both Steven Hassan’s http://www.freedomofmind.com site and the Rick A. Ross
Institute at http://www.rickross.com have many such links to “official” websites.)
To find the reported “dirt” on each of them, however, requires a fair bit
more effort. Nevertheless, it is those alleged worst aspects, not the
often-advertised best, which leave formerly devoted disciples picking up the
pieces of their shattered lives, and wondering aloud how they could ever
have been so blind as to buy into the “perfect master’s” propaganda in the
first place.

This is, therefore, a very “dirty” book. For, it presents not only the
representative (and, after a while, completely unbelievable) claims to
perfection or God-realization of each of the forty or so major and minor
“authentic” spiritual figures considered herein, but also the alleged
shortcomings of each, as those have affected their followers. Obviously,
then, to cover all of that in a single text requires that only the most
grandiose of the claims, and the worst of the foibles and alleged abuses, of
each “sage” be mentioned herein.

Unless one enjoys seeing other people suffer — or effecting or reliving
one’s own process of disillusionment — however, this is not going to be
pretty. For, in probing this lineage, we will find legions of alleged
emotional, physical and sexual abuses perpetrated “in the name of God,” by
persons neither impotent nor omnipotent, yet claiming to be “one with God.”

By the end of all this unpleasantness, then, at least one thing will
undoubtedly be clear. That is, that with “gods” like these, we do not need
devils. For, every evil which one might otherwise ascribe to Satan or Maya
has allegedly been perpetrated by one or another “God-realized avatar” or
ostensibly “perfected being.”

Of course, the forthcoming shocking disclosures will predictably result in a
good amount of “wailing and gnashing of teeth” among obedient followers.
Indeed, that is to be expected particularly among loyal adherents to each
path for whom the “perfection” and infallibility of their own leader is not
open to questioning, even if they may allow that none of the other “sagely”
individuals considered herein are what they claim to be. (Part of the value
of grouping all of these pretenses and alleged abuses together in a single
book is exactly that one can see that the “unique” claims of one’s own path
are also being made, equally untenably, by numerous other paths.)
Nevertheless, if we are really interested in truth, we should still welcome
having the hypocrisies and (alleged) abusive evils of persons in positions
of spiritual authority be laid bare to the world. Exposing them to the
public eye, after all, is the only way to get them to stop.

Thus, “onward and evil-ward.”

Read complete book online:
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/

Download a copy (pdf):
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/ebook/download.asp