From Rude Boy to Nice Guy?

Dear Readers,

There appears to be a curious online trend occurring with Andrew Cohen and his cohorts at EnlightenNext. Here at WhatEnlightenment??! we have observed with interest the following events:

First, Andrew’s infamous "Declaration of Integrity" (reposted here), his bombastic and scathing blog rant from 2006 against his critical ex-students has quietly disappeared from his own blog. Simultaneously, the gushing student-run Cohen-apologists’ blog, Guru-Talk.com has likewise been taken down in its entirety without so much as a peep. (See a reposted entry here) And even more, around the same time, someone going by the user name “Kosmocentric” attempted to remove the entire “Criticisms” section from Andrew Cohen’s Wikipedia page. (It has since been restored by someone else).

So what is going on here, folks? Dare we infer that there is a slippery and concerted effort on the part of Cohen and his students to remake the "rude boy" guru’s online image?

Stas Mavrides’ recent article, I Love Him, I Hate Him, I Love Him Again suggested that Andrew did a pubic about-face on his critical, angry stance toward his former teacher, in part per his PR consultant’s advice that he needed to make some specific image changes in order to help his fundraising efforts. (There are indications that Cohen’s group is in difficult financial straits – In 2011 it officially ended publication of its magazine “EnlightenNext”, and listed its Foxhollow property for sale, selling off a portion of the estate to a development company.) We believe that Andrew’s disingenuous re-creation of himself as a "kinder, gentler" guru described in that article is continuing with the above-mentioned "disappearing" of his angry and arrogant "Declaration", the silent takedown of his students’ apologetics website "Guru Talk", as well as the attempted removal of the "Criticism" section of his Wikipedia bio.

We also believe these numerous actions have a common theme, which is to defang his “rude boy” guru image, as well as to hide cultic public displays of student adoration in an attempt to appear more compassionate, less pompous and even humble to potential new students and donors. These days Andrew speaks to large Integral audiences like the “Integral Spiritual Experience” convocation held in California earlier in January. His “abusive-guru” baggage, if discovered, would most likely be a liability in trying to reach these new, discriminating Integral students.

There are many in the Integral world who are disturbed by the endorsements given to Cohen by various Integral teachers, especially Ken Wilber. Given that, it would seem by removing earlier internet testaments from himself and fawning students it might help him forge his new image as a likable ‘Integral-friendly’ leader; an image that belies the character of an abrasive, even abusively autocratic guru, a man to whom his inner circle of students have surrendered control of their lives, yet secretly fear displeasing.

And so we say, “Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing!”

The WhatEnlightenment??! Editors

(Commenting has been enabled)

Welcome to What Enlightenment??!

A Guide to the Facts and First-hand Experiences of Former Students of

American Guru, Andrew Cohen.

An active blog from 2004 - 2007, What Enlightenment?!! is now closed for commenting, but remains as a resource for factual information. It is periodically re-opened and updated whenever new, relevant information is brought to light.

If this is your first visit to this site, it would be useful begin here with

Breaking The Code Of Silence by Hal Blacker

Thank you.

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4/19/11 NEW ARTICLE:

“I Love Him, I Hate Him, I Love Him Again”

Devotion, Deception and Opportunism
in Andrew Cohen’s Re-found Love
for His Guru, H.W.L. Poonja

by Stas Mavrides

Those of you who tuned-in to the latest online offering from Andrew Cohen/EnlightenNext on March 26, 2011 — Awakening to Your Highest Self — a lengthy guru love-fest billed as his “Gift to the Cosmos,” may have been surprised to hear Andrew effusively celebrating his formerly reviled teacher H. W. L. Poonja and their relationship. As a close senior student of Andrew’s for 15 years, I know I was. For over a decade while I was in Andrew Cohen’s inner circle, the only comments I heard from Andrew about his former Lucknow, India Advaita teacher “Poonja-ji” (also known as “Papaji”), were disparaging, disrespectful and vituperative.

Read the full article at INTEGRAL WORLD, and comments to the article HERE.

Birth of a Tragedy: Andrew Cohen, Joel Snider and the Sad Death of Sudharman

What Enlightenment??! has received a document, reproduced below, that provides an important piece in the bizarre and shocking puzzle of the recent threatened assassination of “evolutionary enlightenment” teacher Andrew Cohen and the sad and tragic alleged murder last week of Integral Yoga Center director and teacher Sudharman by suspect Joel Snider. On July 5, 2010, Sudharman, born J. Joseph Fenton, was found shot to death in his home and business, the Integral Yoga Center of New Berlin, Pennsylvania. Subsequently, another Integral Yoga teacher and leader, Swami Karunananda, of Yogaville, Buckingham County, Virginia, revealed to police that she had received e-mails from Joel Snider detailing his plans to murder both Sudharman and EnlightenNext founder Andrew Cohen. Snider was later arrested in Maryland. When contacted by the press about the threat to Andrew Cohen’s life, EnlightenNext CEO Bob Voss stated that Cohen is “alive and well,” and “It is our understanding that [Joel Snider] has no real connection with Andrew [Cohen] or EnlightenNext.”

Connection Between Snider and Andrew Cohen

EnlightenNext’s disavowal of any connection between Andrew Cohen and alleged murderer and would-be assassin Joel Snider now appears to be untrue. A statement submitted by Joel Snider in 2003 to Steven Hassan’s well-known anti-cult web site, Freedom of Mind, reveals that the genesis of the plot to kill Cohen, and, possibly, the murder of Sudharman, can in part be traced to the tragic aftermath of a series of personal encounters between Snider and Cohen years ago. Snider’s statement, reproduced below, details Snider’s perception of insults, humiliation and cultic manipulation and influence from Cohen and EnlightenNext during a private interview with Cohen after a talk in New York, and during two EnlightenNext retreats with Cohen that Snider subsequently attended. During the last retreat, Snider tried to leave but met with Cohen personally first, who apparently chastised and insulted him, and persuaded him to stay for a time. Snider did leave later after learning from a voicemail message that his guru Swami Satchidananda had died. Snider reports that he returned home very upset and disoriented. Soon after, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and later attempted suicide. Now, about seven years later, Snider is accused of planning the assassination of Cohen and committing the murder of yoga teacher Sudharman.

A Piece of the Puzzle: Snider's Statement

No etiology of mental illness, or explanation of any other kind, can address the horror of Sudharman’s senseless murder or assuage the sadness of his loss to his family, friends, and the many who have been touched and inspired by his life. Our deepest sympathies go out to all of them. Nor can Andrew Cohen be blamed for this loss. Yet Snider’s statement of his encounter with Cohen—as colored as it may be by his own psychopathology—is worth considering. Its tale of descent into schizophrenia precipitated by a bad experience at a spiritual retreat with Cohen is an important piece in a tragic puzzle. While some of the events reported may be attributed to the distortions of a disturbed mind, others—the pattern of group pressure, confrontation, insults, and public and private humiliation—ring true for those, like us, who have known Cohen personally and attended retreats with him, and they are echoed in a multitude of testimonials of former students on this site. At least we can learn from this tale of sadness, sickness and horror, how important it is to be careful and kind in our communications and conduct, because we seldom know fully the vulnerabilities of the people we are affecting. This is true for all of us. But especially for those who take upon themselves the role of spiritual teacher, guide or guru, as has Cohen, a misstep can be devastating and its consequences can be more far-reaching than can ever be imagined.

Freedom of Mind Website Statement of Joel Snider, Tuesday, November 4, 2003 at 03:35:10

[Note: the following statement is unchanged and unedited, and all typos were in the original]

Testimony: I had a horrible experience with Andrew Cohen. He presents himself to be a teacher of enlightenment and meditation, neither of which he really is interested in.

I met him first at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York City when he gave a lecture. After the lecture I met with him privately and asked him several spiritual questions that had been on my mind. He responded to my questions telling me that I should not worry about practicing celibacy and that my Yoga and meditation teacher in Virginia and the man who built the center we were standing in at the time couldn't even keep his vows as a monk. I smiled and nodded and left the room. Later I would be absolutely appalled at what he had said, insulting Swami Satchidananda in such a way and after being invited into his institute, but at the time I was eerily nonchalant and calm.

I attended a retreat soon afterwards and had an absolutely horrible time. He sat upon his platform and embarrassed and ridiculed people in the name of spirituality and enlightenment, I wanted to leave all week it was truly one of the worst retreats I had ever been on. Strangely a year later I went on another, longer retreat with him. I suppose that I had forgotten the horrible experience that I had.

When I arrived at this retreat I remember feeling that there was something really strange about all of the people that were there. There seemed to be this look on their faces of exhaustion. They all seemed to have dark circles around their eyes. I just remember having a really bad feeling.

As the meditation sessions progressed, I was appalled as he not only embarrassed and ridiculed people, insulted biblical scripture, but made fun of people who had had emotional breakdowns and even some who had killed themselves after his retreats. I remember calmly sitting directly in front of him feeling very torn as to whether I should leave or not. Looking back it was as if I was drugged or hypnotized or completely nuts. He was saying things completely against so many things that I held sacred and hurting so many people but yet I sat there quietly, not challenging him and not resisting what was being said at all.

One of the strange things that I also remember about the retreat is the way the meditation sessions always began. We would be sitting in the meditation tent and about ten minutes to the time it was to start you could actually feel this heaviness come over the entire group of 100 or so people. It was eerie like this blanket kind of descended over everyone and it felt like I was rooted to the floor. Sometimes I would look around and see everyone with their eyes closed, meditating without any prompting from anyone at all. In this retreat there were mostly new comers to meditation so I thought this was interesting that a group of 100+ mostly newcomers to any spiritual path could go so quickly from talking and being so excited to being absolutely silent, eyes closed and motionless. I have been meditating for a while and know that this doesn't happen with groups easily at all. Very interesting and then when you combine the feeling of heaviness that I had you start to wonder what was going on.

I have been an avid meditator for several years and the only time I have fallen asleep meditating was probably within the first month when I started. I enjoy it immensely and have been able to find profound calmness and peace and stillness during my sessions again, rarely if ever falling asleep. As the meditation sessions went on I began getting weird flashes of light behind my eyes, strange sounds in my mind and confusing thoughts..sometimes I felt as if my head were between vice grips and incredible pressure was on my head, I would get extrememly uncomfortable and increasingly more often I would jump as if startled finding that I had been asleep or passed out or something for who knows how long. All extremely weird for me. In the Five years I had been meditating I had never experienced this...and it wasn't only me. I remember a guy sitting next to me asked Andrew about this, saying that in the beginning meditation had been great but now, 5 or so days into the retreat, the experienced was extremely difficult and almost unpleasant. Andrew answered, "That's very interesting, probably something you should really look into" He was constantly ridiculing people for falling asleep and one woman even passed out and fell out of her chair. Odd.

The strangest thing of all happened when I actually tried to leave the retreat. I came to a firm decision that I was leaving and that I didn't want anything more to do with him. I went to tell one of his higher level students in order to be polite, and before I knew it I was up in his room sitting before him on the floor. He insulted me telling me that I was a big problem and that I had a very destructive nature. He told me that if I wanted a relationship with him that it was going to be on his terms and that I wasn't leaving the retreat. All of a sudden I felt something hit me right between the eyes, as if struck by some invisible blast. I shook my head and remember being sort of stunned. He then said I was not to say anything to anyone about this and that I should concentrate only on studying his teachings and keep my mouth shut. I stood up wobbling as if I was stunned or intoxicated and had incredible trouble simply opening the door to leave his room. They laughed as I stumbled out of the room. I sat down on a log outside of the building for about an hour, confused and extremely dazed.

The next two days were complete agony as I fought the compulsion to go to the sessions in the meditation tent. I wanted to leave the retreat so badly, but it were as if an invisible force were drawing me to the sessions making it impossible to leave. I ended up going to the sessions sitting in the back wanting to run away, but couldn't. By the second day I was so inwardly torn that I was crying and an emotional mess. I remember it was time for a session and I didn't want to go, so I tried to hike up the hill to where my tent was pitched so that I could take it down and leave, but it felt as if one foot were being placed in front of another moving me away from my tent and towards the meditation tent. It was like trying to resist some invisible force that was controlling me, I was in horror. I struggled with myself and finally ended running up the hill and collapsing by my tent sobbing. I felt the session in the meditation tent begin and suddenly I found myself sitting upright in a trance. I sat that way for the next hour and though the meditation tent was a quarter mile away it was as if I knew and heard everything that was being said. Like somehow I was connected to the transmission that was happening.

When the session ended I began crying again and began to tear down and pack up my tent. Just then eerily a young woman came out of the woods by where my tent was pitched and sat down near me. She asked if I had been to the session and why I had been crying. She saw that I had also vomited and told me that it was OK because one of her friends was very upset and sick too because he wanted to leave. I told her that that was what I was doing. She began to try to persuade me to stay, singing the praises of Andrew saying that he was an angel sent to us from heaven to lift us up and that he was our savior. She was speaking to me like she was a robot or like she was high, there was the strangest look in her eyes. Unbelievably I decided to give it one more shot.

It wasn't until I checked my voicemail and heard that Swami Satchidananda had died. That I was able to summon up the clarity of mind and strength of will to get myself out of there. Instead of just leaving, I went to Andrew and told him what had happened and that I was leaving. He kind of laughed and smiled and told me to walk with him towards the tent. He continued to tell me that he was in the same lineage that Swami Satchidananda was in and that he was brother monks with Swami Krishnananda which I knew was totally not true. He took my hand and smiled as if he were about to eat me and said,‰You are welcome back anytime.‰

I hitched a ride out of town and got on the next flight back to Virginia for the funeral ceremonies of Swami Satchidananda. Within an hour of leaving the retreat it was almost as if a dark cloud descended upon me and I began having wild thoughts that Andrew was draining people of their spiritual energy and that he was somehow controlling people. It continued to get worse and worse and I kept having images of him in my mind. Very strange, dark, horrifying images of him. I arrived in Virginia and things just continued to get worse and worse to the point where I wasn‚t sleeping or eating or able to meditate or do Yoga.

Eventually I came home to St Louis very upset and disoriented, unable to get these feelings or horror and images of Andrew out of my head. My family took me to a psychiatrist whom I told what had happened and that I felt as if I were possessed by a demon or supernaturally controlled by some outside force... They called me schizophrenic, and put me on some really heavy drugs which made me sleep all day, made me gain weight and made me extremely depressed. The combination of the drugs and whatever it was that happened to me was horrible. Not only was my mind going crazy but now I felt like I was made of lead and was so drowsy all of the time and extremely depressed. Unfortunately I tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of some of the psychotropic medication and did not die but have really messed my nervous system up permanently.

I have since discovered that one of the medications side effect is suicidal thoughts, again something so odd for my personality. I now refuse to take the medicine, and my mind has become much clearer, but I still have tremors trouble with my balance and muscle weakness from the overdose.

Time seems to have healed whatever weird mind stuff was going on with me, but now I am left with not much to work with. I am only 26 and now feel like I have the body of an 80 yr old.

The point is that something more than meets the eye is happening with Andrew's group and I am sure that I am not the only one who has had an odd experience with him. I wish that I had discovered your site earlier maybe I could have found some less damaging therapy, but that is done and if there is anything that I can do to help others avoid the horror that I experienced with him it would make me very happy.

I can't really prove any of this. It is all very supernatural. I just don't want anyone else to get drawn in and hurt by him.

Publish: I agree

submitButtonName2: Submit

The Truth Will Set You Free

Introduction

In June of last year, the editors of this blog were contacted by Yonatan Levy, a contributor to the Israeli online journal NRG-Ma’ariv, for an article he intended to produce on Andrew Cohen and Cohen’s organization, EnlightenNext. Levy had sought an interview with Cohen himself, specifically in order to seek a balanced perspective on the allegations against Cohen previously published on this blog. While the interview he’d requested was never granted, Levy did receive from EnlightenNext’s “Communications Director,” Amy Edelstein, a series of official written responses to questions he had submitted in advance of the proposed interview. He also received an intimidating letter from Cohen’s lawyer, dated the same day, advising him of NRG-Ma’ariv’s potential legal liability in the event of the article’s publication. These documents are available here:

EnlightenNext's responses to Mr. Levy Letter from EN's attorney

Under the circumstances, NRG-Ma’ariv’s legal department encouraged Levy to seek firsthand confirmation of any allegations against Cohen or EnlightenNext that he intended to outline in his article. It was for this reason that Levy contacted us with the answers he’d received from Edelstein—in which she declared that most of the information published by former students of Cohen on this site is simply false.

Almost a year later, Levy’s article has still not seen the light of day, and it now appears that it may never be published. However, EnlightenNext’s responses to Levy’s questions represent an historic event of sorts, as they constitute its first official denial of the events described on this blog. Although previously Cohen and his defenders had publicly taken refuge in the notion that the incidents reported here have been taken “out of context” by “a few disgruntled former students,” they have never—until now—gone on the record with official declarations that the reported incidents never actually took place.

Although it seems clear from the correspondence reproduced above that EnlightenNext’s representatives believed coordinated legal intimidation would be sufficient to keep their denials below the public radar, What Enlightenment??! has decided—in the interests of a free, transparent and open exchange—to publish them here. Doing so will accomplish two objectives. First, it will give EnlightenNext a platform from which to “go public” with its reportedly common response to the queries it receives from current and potential students about the contents of this blog, i.e., that they are mere fabrications. Secondly, it will give former students who have direct experience of the reported incidents an opportunity to respond specifically to EnlightenNext’s denials.

It is worth reiterating that the publication of these documents represents an historic moment in the public dialog that this blog was created to facilitate but could never fully accomplish without the full participation of both sides. This is why we have decided, at least for a limited period, to re-open it. It is our sincere hope that potential responses, from current and former students alike, can now begin to focus specifically on the truth and accuracy of our recollections, as it is only by these means that we can arrive at any meaningful reconciliation—or, in Andrew Cohen’s well-chosen words, “come together in the truth.”

Searching for the truth about Andrew Cohen:

A journalist's odyssey

My name is Yonatan Levy. For the last few years I’ve been a writer and editor for the spirituality section of NRG-Ma’ariv, a major Israeli media site. Nine years ago I attended a weekend intensive led by Andrew Cohen in Israel. It was my first encounter with a living spiritual teacher and my impression was positive. I was impressed by Cohen’s simple and clear meditation instructions and by his powerful personality. Soon afterward, I attended a meeting of a group of his followers, but found the atmosphere awkward and unnatural. Yet I still found the rhetoric of Cohen’s writings moving and inspiring. I was thus surprised and bewildered to discover dozens of accounts in the What Enlightenment??! blog depicting Cohen as a capricious, dishonest tyrant—especially in light of his emphasis on ethics and integrity as a crucial aspect of true spiritual evolution.

Before Cohen’s next visit to Israel, I asked to interview him, with the intention of asking about the allegations. In response, I was told that the interview would be granted on the condition that I would not ask about anything in the WE??! blog, because Cohen had not yet responded publicly to the issue as a whole, and was planning to do so on his own blog; after this, I was assured, I could ask about anything I wanted to. I was willing to wait, but all of my interview requests following Cohen’s post (“A Declaration of Integrity”) were declined. Finally, I decided to write the article without an interview. Yet I did send Cohen a list of questions concerning the issues and accounts that had been presented by the What Enlightenment??! blog, adding that if the allegations proved untrue I would call the article off.

The answers to my questions, formulated by Amy Edelstein, perhaps with the aid of Attorney Barry Fischer, are the first detailed public response by Andrew Cohen’s organization, EnlightenNext, to the accounts of Cohen’s ex-followers. Some of the answers use juridical language, taking advantage of inaccuracies in the phrasing of the questions to evade the matter. Others seem to be blatantly counterfactual, or are so easily refuted that there is little doubt they were primarily given in order to convince me not to write the article—which ultimately did not appear on NRG-Ma’ariv for fear of a long and costly lawsuit.

As part of my research, I sought reactions and statements of verification from former contributors to the WE??! blog, whose accounts of abuse on Cohen’s part had raised the issue in the first place. Some of these appear below. In several cases, I was able to speak with individuals directly involved in incidents described on the blog, who also confirmed the accuracy of accounts that have been denied or disputed by EnlightenNext.

Here then (above), for the benefit and judgment of those who are interested in Andrew Cohen’s standards of integrity, openness, honesty and “soul strength,” are the questions I asked and the answers I received from his organization, EnlightenNext.

Yonatan Levy ~ Tel Aviv, Israel

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Selected responses to EnlightenNext's statements

from former students of Andrew Cohen:

Student #1 Student #2 Student #3 Student #4

To view readers' comments or to post one, click on the "comments" link below:

A Farewell With Deep Gratitude

by Hal Blacker

More than two years ago I decided to write publicly about what I felt had gone seriously wrong with Andrew Z. Cohen's teaching methods and his community. I had received disturbing reports from other former students that eventually compelled me to speak out. I wrote then:

…A few years ago I began to learn of things that caused me great concern. An old friend who I worked with on What Is Enlightenment? magazine called and told me she had left the community. I told her a little about my thoughts about it—how I had come to see how oppressive life in the community was, how wrong it was that there was no personal freedom or autonomy permitted, how abusive the confrontational methods used to enforce conformity now seemed, how frequently we lived in fear, and how criticism was always forcibly squelched. She interrupted me and said, “Hal, things have gotten a whole lot weirder since you left.” I asked her what she meant, and she told me stories involving the use of physical force and abuse against students. She spoke of being ordered by Andrew to deliver “messages” to fellow students consisting of slapping the student in the face as hard as she could. She told me she had been ordered by Andrew to paint messages in blood-red paint on the walls of a student’s room at Foxhollow. She described to me the conversion of the spa at Foxhollow into a kind of psychological torture chamber.

As the years passed I spoke to many other former students who confirmed these stories, elaborated upon them, and told me many more. I learned of students having large “contributions” psychologically extorted from them. I heard how a student was required to sign a “gag order” agreement prohibiting him from publicly criticizing Andrew as a condition of having his “contribution” returned. I was told the story of community women prostrating in a freezing cold lake in the winter, some suffering dangerous exposure, as a symbol of their devotion and repentance for “women’s conditioning.” I learned of a student being forced—against his will and his moral compunction—to engage in daily visits to prostitutes in Amsterdam for weeks on end as a kind of penance for past sexual indiscretions. I was told by a student how he was ordered to reveal to his estranged teenage daughter her mother’s infidelity that occurred many years in the past, in order to teach the daughter not to hold her mother, now a critical former student, in such high esteem. I heard these stories and many, many more. As the weight of the awful truth about what Andrew and his community had become accumulated, I began to feel that something must finally be said. People must be warned. At the very least, any prospective student should know what they are signing themselves up for when they join Andrew Cohen’s community.

In the more than two years since I personally "broke the code of silence," all of these disturbing events, and many more, were documented and corroborated on this blog, over and over again. Three former editors of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, including myself, spoke out strongly here about the abuses in Andrew Cohen's community. Other close students have also put their names on the line to attest to what went wrong with the community's beautiful dream of creating heaven on earth. The woman who financed Cohen's Foxhollow EnlightenNext world center wrote about how he unfairly took advantage of her vulnerability and largesse. Numerous other students have also contributed here, both named and anonymous, shedding light on the authoritarian abuses around Cohen, their causes and their harmful effects. In contrast, not one specific or credible factual denial has emerged from Andrew or anyone associated with him about what has been reported here in great detail and depth. Instead, we have only heard the refrain that we have failed to include the "context," as if any overarching purpose could justify the abuses described here and the pain they caused. No cry of "context" could obscure the devastating truth that the participants in this blog have had the courage to reveal.

I hope it will not be regarded as overly dramatic if I say that I look back over what has occurred on this blog with awe, gratitude and humility. This blog's truly collaborative, interactive and collective nature makes it, perhaps, unique in the blogosphere, on the Internet, and, perhaps beyond. I haven't seen anything really parallel. I believe that, beyond the collaborative nature of the editorial work here, the collective intelligence, truthfulness and vulnerability of the contributions, responses, arguments and discussions have made this effort at healing and truth-telling unprecedented. I don't think that so many have spoken out before with such rawness and honesty in an attempt to warn the unwary, comfort the injured and understand humbly how something they believed in so totally could go so wrong. For this effort and honesty, on behalf of all of the editors of this blog, I bow to everyone who has participated here, whether anonymously or named, and whether former student, interested observer or friend.

While what has happened here will always remain, this seems like a good juncture at which to conclude this particular project of honesty and love. So, on behalf of the editors and administrators of this blog, I have been asked to write a kind of farewell. The discussion here could go on endlessly, or as long as authoritarianism hides behind masks of evolution, enlightenment or other ideals. This is not cynicism. I am not saying that evolution or enlightenment do not exist, or are unworthy of a life's dedication. But the capacity for deception is endless, and opportunists and the self-deluded who use and abuse high ideals, whether consciously or unconsciously, will probably always be with us. For this reason, I hope the discussion engaged in here will persist in one form or another.

But I think that this particular forum has run its natural course. The essence of what needed to be expressed has been said. Most of the former students I know have moved on, or are in the process of doing so—they have regrouped or are regrouping, they value what they learned, both good and bad, and they have ventured into productive new lives. Those lives now may be less filled with drama, buzz and high romanticism, perhaps, than their lives with Andrew Cohen. But they seem, to me, to be lives that are far more genuine, lives that are making, or have the potential to make, greater contributions to this world. The former students I know are, by and large wiser, softer, humbler and happier than they were when in the thrall of the community discussed here. They are professionals, artists, parents, workers in the non-profit sector, and many are actively engaged in working for their own and others' spiritual liberation. I think the healing that was, in part, the purpose of this blog has occurred to a great extent and will continue. And what has been written here will stand as a warning, a cautionary tale for the benefit of those who may consider taking a similar path to the one that went astray, as described here.

I feel confident that everyone whose life has been touched by this discussion has benefited in some fashion. Even those readers who chose to become involved with Cohen or to continue their involvement with him cannot help but be a bit smarter about it—or at least have an awareness of this resource for helping them pick up the pieces when reality shatters their dream. And we have heard that some of the more extreme abuses of community members have been stopped or moderated in the wake of their being revealed on this blog.

There is only one person for whom I still have great concern. I fear that he is perhaps the only one who has not been able to learn something of value here and who may be irretrievably committed to a painful and destructive path. That person is Andrew Cohen. I sincerely hope—and I think most ex-students will join me here—that some day our former teacher will find the humility to revise his own idea of himself; that he will demonstrate the vulnerability and lack of pride that he taught us but failed to live; and that he can find a way to recover his balance if and when his bubble implodes. We were mistaken in our assessment of him, but we did recognize his potential, and I think we all would like nothing more than to see that potential fulfilled in truth and humility. But that would require a difficult self-reckoning for him, one for which it is hard to find genuine reason for hope.

Still, against all reason perhaps, I believe in basic goodness. I have faith in the happy ending. No ending would make Andrew's former students happier than to see him change. And nothing is completely beyond possibility in a world where the courage and honesty demonstrated by all who participated here can manifest.

For now, WHAT Enlightenment??! is signing off. We may create a web site in the future, for the sake of posterity, with some of the articles on this blog. This blog will remain as a resource, but in a few days comment posting will be turned off.

On behalf of the blog editors, I want to express deep gratitude to everyone who has participated in and contributed to this journey of healing and truth. Best wishes to you all on your path.

May all beings be happy!