Wednesday, December 14, 2005

WIE EDITOR CRAIG HAMILTON LEAVES MAGAZINE, COHEN GROUP

What Enlightenment??! has learned that What Is Enlightenment? magazine editor Craig Hamilton has left his position as Managing Editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, his home at Cohen's Foxhollow Lenox, Massachusetts compound, and his membership in Andrew Cohen's group.

Hamilton recently explained in a letter to other Cohen students that he decided to part ways with Cohen and WIE due to his desire to continue what he is doing on his own, and that the door is open to his return. But we are informed that other Cohen students are rejecting this attempt to put a nice face on the split, and that Cohen and others in the group have been heaping the same kind of abuse, shame, guilt and accusations of betrayal on Hamilton that they usually place on individuals who leave the sect.

What Enlightenment??! wondered if something was amiss between Craig Hamilton and Andrew Cohen when the last two editions of What Is Enlightenment? magazine failed to contain a single article bearing Hamilton's by-line. Then Craig was removed from the WIE website's listing of the magazine's staff without any explanation.

In the past, Hamilton was a staunch (considered by some an angry) critic of contributions to this blog by fellow former WIE editors Hal and Susan Bridle . Now, WE can't help but wonder whether and when he will follow in the footsteps of his WIE editor predecessors Hal and Susan (if he hasn’t been forced, like at least one other former student, to sign a gag order). Will he, like Roberta and so many other former students who have contributed to WE, have a change of heart and face the facts of Andrew Cohen's authoritarian abuse of his students--including Cohen's use of physical assaults, financial and psychological abuse and manipulation, coercion, humiliation, and brainwashing techniques against followers?

Only time will tell whether Craig Hamilton will join the brave ranks of so many other former students who are exposing Cohen's abuses and helping the students he has injured and betrayed recover and find their way. To his credit, he (like most other supporters of Cohen on WE) never denied the truthfulness of the factual descriptions of Cohen's abuses of his students—in fact, although he engaged in a deceptive sort of apologetics for Cohen, he confirmed Cohen’s abuses and serious ethical violations. But it remains to be seen whether Craig will have the fortitude to face the real depth and harmfulness of Cohen's betrayal of his students and his own stated ideals, as will be necessary for him to heal and genuinely move on.

Despite Mr. Hamilton's past hostility toward what we are attempting here, we at What Enlightenment??! wish him the best. We understand where he was coming from, and his perceived need to defend his corrupt guru, because we used to participate in this kind of self-deception ourselves. We know that leaving Cohen is difficult and takes a great deal of courage. And we hope that it does not take him too long to realize--as we and almost every other person who ever studied with Cohen have realized--that, contrary to Cohen's rhetoric, it's life after enslavement to Cohen that presents the real possibility of freedom and the discovery of truth.

We welcome any contributions Mr. Hamilton may wish to make here. But, at this difficult time, we want to say to you, Craig, we know it will likely take some time before you are ready to face the truth and speak out for the benefit of others. Maybe you'll never be ready to do that. That's ok. At this point we only hope you can slowly find your feet again, begin to enjoy your new freedom and heal.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

C H. deserves all possible assistance. For him to leave must have taken courage and a great deal of desperation. His recovery will require re-examining his relationship with his former teacher but also that he question the culture of cruelty mindset that appears to have become entrenched and gone unexamined in large sectors of the seeker’s circuit.

As soon as I learned that WIE was increasing its publication to 4 times a year, I thought, ‘Its going to get more painful for the staff. Many of the worst instances of abuse were reportedly inflicted on staff members who edited the books and the magazine. Now that the magazine has doubled the number of publication deadlines and the adverse publicity is making it harder to attract authors and interviewers, its going to become even more painful and hazardous to function as a member of Cohen’s editorial staff.’

WIE cannot be considered a cruelty free product

Wednesday, 14 December, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just checked the wie.org site and found this:

http://wie.org/bios/craig-hamilton.asp

Is there some other staff directory that he was removed from?

Friday, 23 December, 2005  
Blogger the Editors said...

Dear Anonymous,
You can see the current (post Craig Hamilton) WIE Magazine staff roster
here

thank you.
WE Admin.

Friday, 23 December, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have people seen Craig's recent autobiographical post on "Evolutionary Salon 2" on the Internet?

Thursday, 09 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon2.html#hamilton

Friday, 10 February, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What do you guys think of this????!!!!
http://integralenlightenment.com/online-course/online-seminar/

there is something kind of creepy about this super-sized info-mercial.

Thursday, 27 March, 2014  

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