In and Out of the Vortex

I enjoy this blog. I was on the fringe for about four years and didn't get close enough to see what was really going on at higher levels.

A few of us did move in together and I found that really interesting. My husband and I moved in with life-long friends who we thought we knew really well. What a surprise to find that we didn't really know each other or ourselves at all. The first few days so much came up for me because there were all these other "eyes" present when my husband and I interacted. This enabled me to see from another perspective and I was shocked at what we were doing as a couple. Also, having a couple of men and a couple of women discussing everything was very liberating. The men told us women things they had not felt strong enough to tell us individually and vice versa. Especially interesting were our discussions on sex. There was a lot of hidden stuff going on there.

We of course watched Andrew's videos, were doing some practices like chanting and meditating and really exploring living in our mini "unauthorised" community. Then one weekend we all attended sessions with Wayne Liquorman. After that everything just exploded. It was funny because none of us thought anything much had happened but the following Monday when we went upstairs to chant and meditate,the words sounded hollow and we didn't want to say them anymore. A couple of days later my friend came to me and asked if I had noticed things were different. There was a deep sense of freedom and suddenly all the AC terminology was meaningless to us.

We continued living together for a few months but without the framework of Andrew's teachings it just wasn't the same. Our friends moved to Mexico and we all felt happy to be living on our own again.We don't have any regrets or anger now but at the time our male friend was very angry in the letter he wrote to Andrew. We all wrote letters but never really heard anything back, except for a telephone call from our contact person telling us to be "very very careful about what we were doing".

Some time later we encountered Eckhart Tolle and in his presence we experienced a complete release and came to the end of our "search". We have been living in peace ever since. There is no outer connection and nothing to join with Eckhart and we are content to just live and be present with whatever arises in this moment.

When Andrew came back to our city we went to see him just to find out how it would be. As he spoke and brought the whole room under his spell we were surprised that we felt nothing. His words just passed through us and there was no response at all to what he was saying. We drove home knowing that it was definitely over. I would describe our view as that of seeing our experience as a past chapter in our lives. We had some incredible experiences and were able to let go of some very fixed ideas that I'm sure would not have dropped otherwise. It was like a thrilling romance. We loved Andrew and really let ourselves fall into the vortex of passion that was swirling about him. We had great trips to California and met incredible people. Two trips to India felt like full-blown acid trips to heaven and hell. It was quite the experience!

I feel lucky that we were spun off the ride before any of the abusive aspects touched us.

We read Enlightenment Blues with wide-eyed shock and very deep gratitude that we had escaped unhurt. We had previous experience with another spiritual teacher and had suffered the same kind of treatment so we recognise the scenario.

Thanks to all who post here. We are watching and send our love to you all.
- a reader