WHAT enlightenment??!

From Rude Boy to Nice Guy?

2012-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

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

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*Editor’s Update: Will wonders never cease?

Well, imagine our surprise when after our post noting the recent removal of Andrew Cohen’s “Declaration of Integrity” from his blog, the attempted takedown of the “Criticsms” section on his Wikipedia page, and the concurrent disappearance of the Cohen apologetics blog, “Guru-Talk.com”, we got an email from “Guru-Talk” founder, Pete Bampton, claiming that his site was not intentionally taken down, but had according to him been “hacked into”. So what’s next? Will Cohen’s “Declaration” make a sudden reappearance? Who knows? Nevertheless, we welcome back online our WhatEnlightenment??! ‘counterpart’, “Guru-Talk”, or as we affectionately call it, “Kool-Aid Talk”.

Welcome to What Enlightenment??!

2011-01-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

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.

*************************************

4/19/11 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

2010-07-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T23:29:00.073-07:00

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

2007-04-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

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!

Deja Vu All Over Again

2007-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

By Anonymous

I came across this blog surfing on various spiritual topics. I recently met a creative (and quite successful) entertainer who told me he lives in Andrew's Community. I later recognized Cohen's name from the "What Is Enlightment?" magazine I'd see on the stands.

I once belonged to a major meditation sect for nearly a decade, living and working in their largest US community for several years. While followers were never physically violated, the familiar financial, mental and shame pressures were all there. The movement later ventured into politics also (but often with laughable results).

After reading just a few cross-postings here, I just got cold shivers of recognition. I recognized the same two roles, played over and over again -- no matter which particular group or leader it is about. I know this since I played both roles over time.

I was once the bright, angry apologist whose eager, dismissive counter-attacks barely hid my own insecurity and indignation. I relished jumping on any dissenter to pick apart his story and credibility. After all, I was defending the "perfect." And it is only a doubter's own, personal failure to recognize it as such.

Then I became the burnt-out, disoriented, ex-member who was trying to make sense of their positive experience while raising uncomfortable questions about all the logical disconnect. I would come across similar stories on ex-member sites, only to recognize their names as those who once vigorously defended the Movement (and sometimes help keep me in line!). What a shock! And then I'd read the same, predictable, snide responses to them from the faithful.

These templates, and the types of people who fall into them, never seem to change -- just the labels.

Will we ever learn?

Andrew's Ever-Changing FACE*

2007-03-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

We received this submission from an anonymous former student of Andrew Cohen, who, having recently left Andrew's tutelage, goes by the name of freeEvolutionary. He seems to have his finger on the pulse of current changes being made in Andrew Cohen's organization and public presentation:

A large part of Andrew's appeal is that he is addressing some of the deepest concerns and yearnings of people today. There's enormous potential here but Andrew has centered it so much on himself and has created an authoritarian organization that directly contradicts his call to autonomy and freedom.

Jeff Carreira (Andrew's assistant and Director of Education) is out there creating new ways to push Evolutionary Enlightenment and get new people involved with EN. He's already trained dozens of people to deliver the EE course and hundreds have taken it around the world. After the retreat Andrew's currently giving they will be training many more people at Foxhollow and by teleconference to deliver a 2 hour intro to Evolutionary Enlightenment.
For the first time Andrew's students are starting to aggressively go out there to push his message and get more people involved. There is a deliberate strategy to downplay Andrew's role as guru and master so as not to scare people until they are really involved. Did somebody say cult?

I would hate to see some of the incredible ideas that have been generated by WIE be destroyed by Andrew's need to control. I'd invite anyone who wants to open the discussion of Evolutionary Enlightenment beyond Andrew to post to my blog.

http://freeevolutionary.blogspot.com/

We thank freeEvolutionary for this recent insider news flash. The point being raised here about the shifting public persona of Andrew Cohen and his sangha is a good one. It seems as if, when the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship changed its name to EnlightenNext®, along with its new branding came the attempt to present a new and improved guru -- One without the nasty teeth that Andrew had used to bite so many of his students in his constant efforts to maintain complete sway over every aspect of their lives. (One can read on this blog in detail about the lengths he’s gone to in this regard, such as slapping and other physical abuse, and numerous other psychologically manipulative boot-camp type tactics). Once proud of his so-called “crazy-wisdom” practices, Andrew now avoids any honest and specific accounting of his actions, sticking instead to a spin of generalities and angry attacks on those critical ex-students (“failures,” he calls them) who have committed the apparent sacrilege of leaving him. (See his recent Declaration of Integrity, for example). It seems the former “rude boy” guru is now the “who me?” guru. And his current student-defenders seem to use the same avoidance-by-obfuscation and vicious attacks on critics as their teacher does. This sad trend can clearly be seen on a recent Zaadz Integral pod thread (more on this troubling phenomenon at a later time)

Andrew is now attempting to paint a new picture of his students, too. His more deeply involved devotees are no longer called “formal” or “committed students” -- they are now “Evolutionaries”. These individuals are clearly intelligent, sincere, and dedicated. But the new attempt to create a public impression of them (particularly, his newly-trained "Evolutionary Enlightenment instructors") as autonomous, free thinking, self-directing and in independent control of their lives appears to be more spin than fact. Recent insider reports from Foxhollow confirm that Andrew is still very much in charge of everything, and that longer-time resident “evolutionaries” still require the approval from Andrew for major life decisions. Cohen has partially adopted and adapted the thinking of people like Ken Wilber (AQAL) and Don Beck (SD), but as freeEvolutionary has indicated, behind the face of the forward-looking, collectively-conscious WIE magazine is the antiquated and problem-ridden model of one man at the top. Ask any ex-“committed student” and they will likely tell you that life inside Cohen’s community is more like Jesus Camp than an Integral think-tank.

Despite shifting appearances to the contrary, EnlightenNext seems to still be the authoritarian power-locked regime of an old-style autocratic guru with no external or internal checks on his governance save a growing presence of vocal ex-students. In this light, one can't help but worry about what Cohen’s latest proclaimed interest in providing objectively verifiable criteria for enlightened behavior will mean for those under his thumb.

But there does seem to be one silver lining here. Recent former insiders report that, since the public disclosures of questionable and abusive conduct emerged on this blog and elsewhere, Andrew seems to have moderated his more aggressive behavior toward his students. And this is a testimony to the value and grass-roots power of the internet, when used by people brave enough to speak out, to expose and bring to awareness the actual non-public practices of misguided spiritual leaders like Andrew Cohen.

The WHAT enlightenment??! Editors

*FACE

Andrew Cohen and Donations Under Duress

2006-12-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

By Jane O’Neil

[Editors' Note: This is Jane O'Neil's second feature article on the What Enlightenment??! blog. Her first article was "Andrew Cohen and the Corruption of Power."]

Simeon Alev's article, "A Revolution in Finance," is a brilliant and articulate analysis of Andrew Cohen's financial wrongdoing, and a call to action that I sincerely hope Andrew and his students will take to heart. In response, I feel compelled to reveal some more of the details surrounding my donations to Andrew and his organization.

But first, regarding Simeon's article, I was unaware and surprised to hear of the teacher training courses that Jeff Carreira is leading. I knew Jeff well while I lived at Foxhollow; he has a heart of gold and I know that left to his own devices he would have tremendous integrity. That said, and having myself been one of Andrew’s personal assistants for more than a year, I can testify that those close to Andrew employ tactics against fellow students in the name of evolution and ego-death that are potentially very damaging. Tough love? The techniques used under Andrew’s direction would not pass the smell test of your average intelligent person in the street, to whom they would appear as damaging as boot camp under the command of a pathological CO. In a similar way, I am sure that those responsible for the tactics used at Guantanamo Bay considered themselves comrades in a fight against evil, trained to use any and all means necessary to destroy it.

On the subject of Andrew returning donations solicited under duress, I obviously would be profoundly grateful if he would return the $2 million dollars that I gave him toward the purchase of Foxhollow. I have certainly asked, but so far have heard nothing.

Andrew always tried to maintain a cloak of secrecy around his securing of donations from students. Andrew’s desire for secrecy regarding his strategies to secure donations from students is related to the most critical issue surrounding them: whether the student, under immediate duress or otherwise, has the awareness and the objectivity to say no. In my case, there were tremendous secretive machinations behind Andrew’s solicitation of the largest of my donations (the $2 million for Foxhollow). The worst aspect of the situation was the fact that my communication about this decision was severely restricted in terms of the number of people I was in a position to discuss it with.

When I met Andrew in 1993, I had been seeing a psychotherapist four times a week for eight years. Andrew and many others in his community knew this. It’s clear to me in retrospect that in making my $2 Million and other donations to Andrew I was acting out some of the self-destructive issues that I had long been in therapy in to deal with. When I told my therapist about meeting Andrew, she warned me I that was vulnerable to potential brainwashing. In contrast, when I revealed to Andrew the insecurity and anxiety I felt about the prospect of joining his community, he told me how intelligent and bright I was, and how fully capable I was of making a mature decision on my own. Who was I going to listen to—someone who told me I was weak (my therapist), or someone who told me I was strong (Andrew)? At the time, the choice seemed clear, however misguided, and I left my therapist and fell deeply into the vortex of Andrew’s community—the amazing people, the happiness, the feeling of belonging.

Early on in my life as his student, Andrew benefited from my endless and ridiculous need to prove my love for him through gifts, both personal and to his Moksha Foundation. Before the end of my first four months as his student, I had ‘donated’ my house in Mill Valley, California, then worth over $300,000, to his community (after which I felt so sick that I promptly threw up at the Marin County Civic Center). I feared I would not be able to sustain the feelings of happiness I had discovered and remain in my ordinary life. I believed I had to give it all up for his world. During my first two years in his community I showered him with exquisite Tibetan rugs, furniture and clothes (Loro Piani, Armani, any beautiful and expensive Italian clothes that I thought would suit him), none of which he refused or seemed to regard as anything less than his due. I also bought a $4000 display system for trade exhibits of his books and a computer for his Marketing Department. Calculating the receipts over the years, these purchases amounted to well over $150,000 in gifts to Andrew and his Foundation.

While I cannot hold Andrew responsible for this behavior, I do believe it is reasonable to ask whether a truly enlightened person would have failed to question—rather than perpetuate—the illusion that being showered with extraordinarily expensive gifts was about love and devotion rather than (as would have been obvious to any normal, sensitive human being) a symptom of a personal problem that needed to be addressed. The sad truth is that Andrew didn’t care one iota for my wellbeing, my ambivalence, or the general state of my mental health at the time. He cared for one thing and one thing only: to take advantage of an obvious weakness of mine and a clearly twisted situation. Why address these issues if it might ultimately mean gaining less than every possible advantage from the loyalty of a wealthy and gullible student? Thus the stage was set for the reeling in of the big bucks.

After learning from his close student Michelle Hemingway, in whom I had confided, of the imminent potential of a large family trust being dissolved and distributed to me five years earlier than scheduled, Andrew quickly communicated through her that he wanted these assets. Michelle, who at that time I regarded as a trusted friend and colleague, knew me well—my doubts, my aspirations, my plentiful neuroses and weaknesses, including my profound fear of being valued, by friends who knew of my wealth, for my money alone. Michelle was well aware of my fear that Andrew, too, valued me more for my money than for anything else. Acting on his orders, she sat me down in an office at the community’s headquarters and, vacillating between a nervous giggle and a serious tone, told me that Andrew needed this money for the purchase of a property in Massachusetts to establish a worldwide center for his teachings. I remember feeling sick again. She told me that she knew this pricked my deepest fears about Andrew ‘wanting me’ only for my money, but that I must ‘trust his vision,’ because it was for ‘the greatest good.’

By this time I had been a student of Andrew’s for three years and was now a formal student, a status in the community characterized by unconditional commitment and devotion. My life was completely consumed by Andrew and his teaching. His community represented my work, my friendships, my living situation, my inner life and my sense of self-worth. Without the real freedom to deny his request, I was suddenly and profoundly at risk of losing everything that, at that point in my life, I really cared about. Even I knew that Andrew had now gone too far. It was perfectly clear that there was no chance I could stay with him if I were to refuse. I was tormented; I didn’t believe for a second that I could say no and remain his student.

As I wrestled with this dilemma, the only people authorized by Andrew to speak with me about it were Michelle and Mimi Katz, and I was instructed not to discuss it with anyone else. Mimi was a close friend of mine as well as a Moksha Foundation board member co-responsible for its accounting office. After learning from Andrew that he had had Michelle solicit the donation, Mimi had advised Andrew that he had to be willing to accept no for an answer. I talked through the predicament I was in with Mimi many times. This ultimately led to her receiving a severe dressing-down from Michelle, who believed (along with Andrew) that in these conversations Mimi had given me ‘too much rope’ to indulge my doubts about donating the money. They must have feared that I was close to saying no and, not wanting to risk this, now closely choreographed who got involved. I was coached daily by Michelle, a few others, and on a few occasions Andrew himself, about how to proceed with the manipulation of my uncle, via my sister, to convince them of my urgent need for this money. At that point, the trust had not yet been dissolved; I didn’t have the money, nor had I yet consented to donate it. But the pressure was on because a suitable property, Foxhollow, had been found.

I couldn’t sleep. I was a mess. The formal students went on a retreat for a weekend in Marin County and I sat in my bed in the middle of the day, crying hysterically. I ran from meetings, unable to complete a thought or find my way. I was desperate. I didn’t know what to do or how I would survive the loss of this life that I’d found, which had brought me my first experience of real happiness, but suddenly none of my community friends seemed even to care enough to ask me how I was doing or why I was so obviously upset. I felt abandoned by them. I learned only this week—ten years later—that everyone had been told to steer clear of me, to refrain from speaking with me about this mysterious ‘personal problem’ I was having. God forbid that someone might actually reinforce my doubts and insecurities, or strengthen my inclination to say no.

Obviously, I did, in the end, say yes. By the conclusion of the retreat, no longer able to bear the separation and isolation to which I’d been subjected, and feeling so alienated from everyone that I simply wanted to be welcomed back into the arms of the community, I finally consented to the ‘donation’ of my inheritance—which, in case I haven’t made it clear already, had never been my idea in the first place. The condition I made with Andrew, communicated through Michelle and Steve Brett was that it remained anonymous (Andrew, the board of directors and the few responsible for securing the property were the only ones to know). I did not want my peers treating me differently. Andrew personally apologized for having told two editors of his magazine by the time he learned this and promised no one else would know.

After I consented I was welcomed back with an overwhelming sense of acceptance. And now Andrew himself and a few others carefully coached me in my dealings with my uncle. As the Foxhollow purchase documents were to be signed within weeks, the daily pressure to get the funds released was immense. They were pushing so hard for the liquidation of the trust that my uncle and sister became suspicious and there appeared at one point to be a ‘risk’ that he might change his mind. Once the trust’s assets were released to me, under continuing pressure, I was subsequently forced to sell the underlying assets at a considerable loss, incurring a huge tax liability that fell on my shoulders. Once the Foxhollow purchase had been finalized, Andrew then decided that it would be best for me to move to the London community! Why? So as not to raise suspicion among my family members that the timing of the community’s relocation to a new $3 million property in Massachusetts was in any way connected with the release of my inheritance.

Despite an overwhelming sense of approval from Andrew and all the thrill that comes with proximity to him, I felt utterly traumatized. I left the community the day after the purchase was complete, until I was manipulated into returning for what turned out to be another two years of community life. A great deal more transpired subsequently in my life with Andrew, much of it no less outrageous, which I intend to document in some other forum. During this time, Andrew continued his careful orchestration of appearances, doing everything he could to prevent my family from discovering his despicable conduct and taking legal action. Details of these efforts will also be fully documented elsewhere. But more to the point of this discussion is the fact that during the remainder of my time in the community I was to witness countless additional demands for money, no longer from me personally (my well having pretty much dried up, providing only what I needed to pay my Foxhollow room and board, student dues and the like) but from groups of students collectively after each alleged ‘screw-up’ that Andrew accused them of.

Andrew’s words, ‘put your money where your mouth is,’ accurately characterize the venal pattern of manipulation that permeates the culture of his community. Whether to prove one’s love and devotion, or to make up for some individual or collective infraction of the code of guru worship, the injunction is always to ‘pay up’—pay whatever you can, as much and as often as you can—and it has taken me years to see through this. If you are currently in Andrew’s community, then I entreat you to watch out, because it really can take years for the fog to clear.

And in the meantime Andrew has his arsenal waiting. Whether it is a gag order or multiple copies of devotional letters stored in several places as ‘proof’ of consent, Andrew has covered his bases. Further, he will ensure that his legal counsel (one of whom advocated on behalf of Japanese cult criminal Aum Shinrikyo) also have such letters on file to ‘prove’ in the event of litigation that your donations were given rather than extorted. Because of the devotion expressed in my ambivalent parting letter, written before I fled Foxhollow for the last time, Andrew is known to have had it photocopied and secured at several secret locations as insurance against a lawsuit.

On the issue of Andrew's promise of confidentiality, as I and others on this blog have described, Andrew spoke publicly of my contribution two days after I left the community for the second and final time. This betrayal of confidentiality burned. But not nearly as painfully as learning from an ex-formal student who told me he had known about the donation within a year of the Foxhollow purchase when Andrew told a large group of men in the sauna at Foxhollow. It was his understanding that all the men had known. Andrew claims in his "Declaration of Integrity" that he has never lied to his students. Really? I consider this a lie; a violation of a clear, perhaps legal, agreement; and generally something a "mensch" would NEVER do. He lied to me and he had a dozen or more men lie to me for many many months.

When I consider how behavior of this sort appears to the average person, I now have surprisingly little trouble arriving at the conclusion that Andrew is simply clueless as to what this all looks like in the real world, and how staggering, according to any standard other than his own, his compromises of integrity actually are. And I am quite certain that sheer momentum will keep him successfully peddling his teaching to individuals who don’t bother to concern themselves with these issues. A lot of folks can ignore the blatant character flaws of a messenger and listen only to his message, but I for one can not do so.

Our Readers Are the Bomb!

2006-12-20T12:45:00.000-08:00

[Editors' Note: We just received this comment that we thought was so uplifting and fitting for the holiday season, that we thought we'd feature it. You folks are great and we want you to know you shine so bright that people everywhere can see it.]

The collective dignity of Cohen's students is indeed the most impressive thing that emerges from these pages like sunlight breaking from dark clouds.

Given the pressures reported by the many who have borne witness on this blog, let the record reflect that no one could live for years at a time under such reported pressures without having been an unusually strong person, and unless endowed with unusual physical and mental stamina.

Persons who get panic attacks when yelled at, who get quickly and seriously ill when suffering chronic anxiety and lack of sleep would not have been able to last longer than a few weeks, possibly a year at most, under the conditions reported on this blog.

Those who spent 5 years or more--you're strong, not weak. Your unusual physical and mental stamina probably enabled you stay as long as you did.

More sensitive, vata-predominent persons, who quickly generate high levels of adrenaline/cortisol (aka 'yin deficiency) when under ordinary stress--they would not have been able to remain for very long.

In hurtful organizations persons in the leader's inner circle may seem enviably privliged but may actualy incur levels of abuse much worse than anything visited upon peripheral members.

Those on the periphery are apt to get their bliss experiences and rarely think to ask whether those blis experiences have been purchased at the cost of other people's pain.

(In new age circles it is rare to question bliss itself.

These days, we are learning to select coffee and chocolate based on whether these have been grown by persons fairly paid and compensated, vs coffee and chocolate grown by persons tormented in slave labor or debt bondage.

Its time to educate the new age to ask if its bliss or transformative experiences originate from organizations that are honest and non-coercive)

Because peripheral members/bliss beneficiaries never directly witness the abuse meted out to inner circle members, they have no frame of reference when the full news is reported and they go into shock--and hasten to defend their bliss, because the alternative is painful disorientation.

Meanwhile abused inner circle members have often been persuaded that they were selected for such treatment because they are tough enough to take it. Americans have a horror of admitting to weakness, so few would say, 'I am too weak to put up with this horror--I'm outta here.'

Being sensitive, easily fatigued and requiring lots of sleep may actually be a blessing if it saves a person from being able to endure chronic abuse as an inner circle member.

This difference between the segregation of abuse between inner circle members who suffer the leader's shadow side and peripheral members who enjoy only the sunshine of the leader's sunny side is not confined to just one group.

A former Morman gave a twenty point list. Here are two:

19. Witness and Accept the Leaders' Faults

Once they reach the highest levels of the cult pyramid, members are privy to their leaders' darkest actions. Members must also come to terms with the abusive behavior of their leaders.

"Mormon missionaries also experience this cult phenomena first hand. True Believing Missionaries in the field think their assignments are inspired and the Mission President is a prophet.

"Those who end up working in the office learn the President has a dark side that is petty, arbitrary and cruel. Yet those exposed to this still propagate the myth that the President is divinely-inspired leader. This is also common in ward and stake leadership.

20. The Cult Leaders Are Perfection

"The final stage of cult indoctrination is to accept the leaders as the perfect center of the universe, from which all else derives. The "fully evolved" cult member thus understands all the pain and suffering as resistance to the cult leaders' divinity. The leader is the single point of entry for God and perfection in the otherwise imperfect universe.

....Thwarting one's natural tendency toward self-preservation becomes a pleasurable, almost fetishistic obsession. "

http://www.i4m.com/think/recovery/mormon_indoctrination.htm

Amy Wallace's memoir of her life as a member of Carlos Castaneda's inner circle 'Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda.' gives a description of her experiences as a member of an abused inner circle who encountered utter incomprehension from those who had been on the periphery of the group.

What was good in the organization was your own goodness, in aggregate. There are events, such as the old California AIDS Ride, where that kind of collective goodness, centered on a clear goal, generated that same splendor.

Its yours. Its not as obvious when you're at home by yourself, but you each still have that inner pilot light. It is still there. No one can take it away from you. You can be distracted from it if suffering terror, or shame, but your original goodness is still there, waiting for the clouds to pass.

A Revolution in Finance

2006-12-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

By Simeon Alev

[Editors' Introduction: The following piece is by a former Andrew Cohen student and editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine. This is Simeon's third contribution to the What Enlightenment??! blog. His previous articles are "A Response to Andrew Cohen's 'Declaration of Integrity'", part 1 and part 2.]

I was very moved by Jane O’Neil’s post, and would like to follow up with some additional remarks of my own.

The greatest mystery, for those of us who have embraced an ‘absolute view’ in the context of a relationship with a charismatic teacher, is confronted when we realize a) that its powerful appeal to our idealism is at least partly illusory, and b) that the teacher’s own adherence to such a view is a manifestation not of goodness but of pathology.

After an investment of years in a spiritual subculture based on an absolutized understanding of human motivation and behavior, these are shocking recognitions that require time to accept, absorb and appreciate. Only with time and distance does it eventually become clear to us what we have gained and lost through submission to a teacher who falsely professes perfect purity, and what the defining dynamics of our relationship with him actually were. But once these questions have been wrestled with, it becomes apparent that a human being who is less than perfect—who has faults and shortcomings—can still be a force for good in the world and make useful contributions to others. At first, it hardly seems possible to us that this could be the case—that the collective evolution of humanity does not depend on the attrition and eventual destruction of one’s ego—but it turns out that in fact it doesn’t, and that the acceptance of our complex wholeness doesn’t remotely resemble the ‘compromise with evil’ that Andrew’s ‘absolute view’ represents it to be.

Despite all this, the opportunity to strive in an environment that calls for ‘ego-death’ may still prove in retrospect to have been incredibly instructive and useful for our development—but only to the extent that it has not been irremediably damaging; and even so it may appear to have entailed an investment of time far greater than the benefits of such an experience will ever justify. This is the ‘burn’ of re-evaluation, and if in addition to our time and energy we have also been prevailed upon to ‘contribute’ large sums of money, the process is potentially even more infuriating.

The principal factor in my own decision to undertake a real reckoning with the facts and implications of my involvement with Andrew was the ever-expanding reservoir of evidence (in my own often repressed experience) that his conduct and underlying motivations are in reality far different from his own understanding of them, and that his capacity to comprehend their probable origins and tangible effects is, shall we say, less than adequate. To the extent that Andrew requires an illusory perfection of himself in order to deserve the adulation and respect he seems to crave, he most certainly has my sympathy, and I do mean that sincerely. But to the extent that he is driven to secure the collusion of others in the maintenance of this self-image through physical, emotional and financial abuses that overtly contradict it, I do not see him as entitled to my support or cooperation. Similarly, while Andrew’s deep-rooted discomfort with the status quo also elicits my genuine sympathy, I am viscerally disturbed by the spectacle of someone so busy ‘creating the future’ that he doesn’t care whose pockets he has to pick, in the present, to finance his bringing of ‘heaven to earth.’

This is not to say that I have no appreciation for the historical significance of figures like Andrew and the opportunity they represent for groups of people to gather together, perhaps at critical evolutionary junctures, for the completion of important individual and collective tasks. However (as Andrew himself points out in his ‘declaration’), the occurrence of this social phenomenon is by no means a guarantee of the ultimate integrity of the individuals involved, and with respect to corruption there have been as many permutations of the leader/follower equation as there have been leaders and followers. To go even a step further and acknowledge that Andrew and his teaching have attracted many good people, and that their engagement with his system—such as it is—has ‘produced’ many inspiring results, still leaves us with no ultimate certainty as to the wholesomeness and authenticity of his own personality and motivations. At the very least, we have to admit that there now exists a substantial body of evidence that calls these into question.

Like the initial emergence of such groups and leaders, their trajectory over time is also a social (and eventually a public) phenomenon, and to the participants who experience this trajectory in real time—inspired current students and disaffected ex-students alike—it’s something like watching a slow-motion ping-pong match. Even inwardly, emotions and reassessments volley pendulously back and forth, perhaps with somewhat greater intensity now that a public ‘dialogue,’ however dysfunctional, has begun to materialize.

In this public context, at the same time as there is ostensibly nothing to prevent individuals from drawing their own conclusions as they see fit, it would be foolish to suggest that the views of current students, prospective students and the interested public at large will escape the influence of the media through which this dialogue is taking place—principally this blog and Andrew’s blog, but also, and only somewhat less directly, andrewcohen.org, zaads.com, What Is Enlightenment? magazine, EnlightenNext’s new ‘Evolutionary Enlightenment’ courses, and Andrew’s retreats, interviews, public dialogues and speaking engagements. Andrew has never made a secret of his desire (or responsibility) to create a ‘revolution in culture,’ nor has he ever abjured an opportunity to promote himself (including sharing the stage with public figures that he freely disparages in private). Thus it is only natural that the resolution, or lack thereof, of issues publicly aired will also be publicly witnessed and processed. Undoubtedly, for example, expedient abuses of Spiral Dynamics for the purpose of relegating critics to First Tier and elevating navy seals to Second Tier will continue and perhaps even evolve—though for my part I would echo Jane’s hope that Bill O’Reilly will not be roused from his restless meme to jump on anyone’s bandwagon.

The vicissitudes of public opinion aside, an area that now cries out for genuinely responsible handling on the part of Andrew and his organization is that of questionably solicited donations. It is difficult to imagine that anyone making public ‘declarations of integrity’ would want to have these tainted funds in his organization’s bank account if he could possibly afford to return them. This is after all not only a practical but a moral issue whose relevance is enhanced by the imminent prospect of EnlightenNext offering ‘Evolutionary Enlightenment’ courses to the employees of major banking and financial firms. As if this were not incongruous enough, the creator of these new courses, who has publicly stressed the importance of manifesting a level of personal integrity far exceeding conventional standards—and who as Andrew’s longstanding personal assistant has presumably cultivated such himself—was on at least one occasion given the responsibility of ensuring that the details of student donations solicited under pressure remained a secret not only to the public at large but to the vast majority of Andrew’s international ‘student body.’

In a truly ethical organization, these financial issues could and would be addressed not through legal channels but directly with the parties concerned. As practical matters, they transcend differences of perspective or opinion, and protocol as well as basic gratitude and common sense suggest that donors should be taken at their word with respect to the circumstances surrounding their donations. If dealing forthrightly with such ‘disputes’ represents a threat to the solvency of EnlightenNext, there is nothing in these donors’ histories to suggest that they lack the patience and generosity necessary to negotiate a mature and mutually acceptable compromise. One would also hope that any forthcoming refunds, should they materialize, would not have legalistic, truth-defying ‘gag orders’ attached to them as they have previously.

It hardly seems necessary to point out that when such matters are left to fester, a reasonably perceptive Spiritual Teacher needn’t look very far for explanations of bitterness and ill will among his former devotees.

A final and extremely pertinent question, given the secretive and coordinated nature of the pressure exerted on Andrew’s highly vulnerable donors, is whether the ‘integrity’ of the vaunted navy seals who colluded with him in his dubious fundraising practices really does dwarf that of the miserable green losers who have left his orbit. Interestingly, everything we know—and we know a lot because we used to be them—suggests that the answer to this question is a resounding no. On the other hand, all of these students (momentarily misguided though they may have been) were simply doing their utmost to live up to a personal standard best served, in their humble estimation, by total submission to their guru.

Should this be regarded as an invitation to cynicism? Hardly, because what it actually indicates is that the line dividing ex-students from current students is an illusory one that serves no purpose other than to inhibit the very ‘coming together’ that Andrew professes to stand for. And the two-million-dollar question is: Why? Is Andrew so insecure with respect to the efficacy of his own teaching that he believes its effects evaporate into thin air the moment someone has the courage to leave his company? If so, this is a pity for him that may well speak to his own isolation and loneliness, but it doesn’t change the fact that there is an inspiring and indissoluble solidarity between ALL of us who have sought to nourish our idealism at his feet. And the fact that in the end we know our own and each other’s hearts far better than he seems to be capable of is truly a mysterious and fascinating thing to ponder.

I mean—isn’t it?

And wouldn’t it be great if somebody at Foxhollow did some meditating on this and then mustered the courage to tell Sri Andrew-ji to get with the program?

Andrew Cohen and the Corruption of Power

2006-12-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

By Jane O'Neil

[Editor's Introduction: The author of this piece, Jane O'Neil, is a former close student of Andrew Cohen. It was her devotion to him and her contribution of $2 Million that made possible the purchase of Foxhollow, Cohen's residence and the headquarters of EnlightenNext in Lenox, Massachusetts. After she left the group, Andrew Cohen betrayed his promise to her to keep her contribution confidential by publicly discussing it while severely disparaging her for leaving him. This part of her story is briefly recounted in Dr. Andre van der Braak's book Enlightenment Blues (page 210-211):

"In December 1998, Andrew is in Amsterdam again for his semi-annual visit….During his talk Andrew gives an example of the viciousness of the ego by talking about another student of his that left him a few days before, a rich American woman. He calls her a narcissist and speaks about how she once gave him two million dollars for his Foxhollow center, but was unwilling to give up her ego. I am shocked and upset by his derisive and aggressive tone of voice. He's throwing a tantrum in public at a student who gave him two million dollars! I find the whole thing unbecoming, to say the least. As a matter of fact I know the woman in question, and a few days later I manage to speak with her on the phone. She is devastated and outraged by Andrew's public treatment of her, not only because of the humiliation, but in particular because she had believed and trusted that Andrew would keep the two million dollar donation confidential. Listening to her story, a chilling picture emerges. Andrew had actually solicited the two million dollars from her, which amounted to over 80% of her total assets. She had been deeply upset and confused about what to do because she felt she could no longer continue to be his student if she said no. She loved the community, Andrew, and the spiritual path. Two of Andrew's students had talked to her repeatedly over several weeks. Finally she had given in and promised to donate the money. She believed it would be serving the world, since the estate of Foxhollow would allow others to have access to Andrew's teachings. Complicating matters, the money was not immediately available from a family trust. Andrew exerted pressure on her to rush the donation as he had already proceeded with the purchase of the property. The rushed transaction resulted in a loss of a great deal of money and she seriously risked losing her family relationships. In retrospect she described his request as a corruption of power. It's a story that makes me nauseous."

This is Jane's first contribution to the What Enlightenment??! blog.]

A flood of responses to this blog, its articles and to its subject lie inside waiting to explode out of me.

It is important to have a venue for individuals like us to express our perspectives on Andrew. It seems this blog has provided a valuable forum for that. However, what has made me reluctant to jump in and join the dialog has been the various personal attacks on the people who chose a life with Andrew. We are all complex individuals with very mixed experiences. It is discouraging to read over-simplified gross generalizations and assumptions about both students of Andrew's and former students. It is also a bit unnerving to hear about the angle of “taking Andrew down” via Bill O’Reilly and Fox News. Why, because it is not a simple matter to understand and dissect the complexity of a situation like this. I think those looking at students or ex-students from the outside need to have a bit more openness and compassion for their experiences. And I am pretty sure the sensational media outlets are not the answer. Looking from the outside, in, the world will have a difficult time understanding or appreciating the context that we lived in.

I left Andrew's community over seven years ago. I was a student for only five years. Though I have been gone longer than I participated, I don't think I have really even begun to unravel the complex motivations that led me to him and kept me there for five years. Nor have I unraveled what the truth is about what I discovered and experienced there. I do know that my experience can shed further light on Andrew's corruption of power.

I am moved by the courage of those who have written of their experiences in his community. I think it is important for each individual to discover their own path to bear the light of truth on the situation.

Andrew is the most masterful individual I have ever known-a master of discerning the hidden and not so hidden weaknesses and character flaws of all those that come to him, and he exploits them, knowingly or not, always and ultimately to his own advantage--serving to feed his endless hunger to perceive himself as a great master.

Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

I look back on my 5 years in his community with mostly shame and regret. I recall the amazing people, some of the most talented and intelligent people I have ever known. Many of whom I miss deeply. It has become very hard for me to maintain any contact with those who are lucky enough to have left. I have wanted to move on with my life, put the past behind me. But the fact is, I really hope that there is some way I can have an impact. I would love to prevent someone from following the path I took. Though, at the time I joined Andrew's community, there was virtually nothing anyone could have said to me that could have moved me away from the momentum I was on. But perhaps as some of you have done, I may be able to reach someone who is not as easily blown away and sold a fantasy of Andrew’s enlightened teaching.

I remember when Andrew asked me to read Luna’s book [The Mother of God, by Luna Tarlo,] Andrew Cohen's mother, not long after she wrote it and tell him what I genuinely thought. At the time, I was so blinded by his perspective, I am sure I wasn’t particularly objective. But what stayed with me was a moment of clarity I had. He was wondering how she was able to get the media attention with her book at the time. The Boston Globe, LA Times and quite a few London tabloids were writing about him. I sat with him and remember telling him that even Jeffrey Dahmer’s mom stood by him, telling the world she supported him. It was newsworthy that a woman was calling her son a monster, and particularly newsworthy that he is theoretically a spiritual leader.

I used to feel ashamed that I fled before any really heavy pressure was put to bear on me. I fled in the darkness of night (a hard thing to do, given I was scheduled to begin my one-thousand daily prostrations to Andrew’s picture followed by 3 hours of meditation with a whole crew of others—mostly women). It was the departure of another Formal Student that influenced me to flee that way. I did not want to go through the humiliation, interrogation and virtual house arrest the other woman had experienced. Not two days after leaving, Andrew attacked me (my name/intentions and motivations) publicly in a 20 minute unleashing of accusations in an Amsterdam teaching calling me the essence of ego, the essence of evil.

What is evil is the misogyny and inhumanity that underlies Andrew’s world view.

Wendyl’s memory of that Rishikesh retreat is so much fuller than my own. But memories of the endless, obsessive, manic attempts by the group of women to reclaim some approval from Andrew came flooding back to me. And a memory of the special treatment I remember receiving despite the fact that I had committed the same “crime” of apologizing. You see, any woman that said “I’m sorry” to anyone for any reason was kicked out of the retreat to join the other women in the private hell Wendyl described. The women were desperate, doing anything that they could to get out from under the boulder of accusations of being subhuman, and “I’m sorry” is the refrain of individuals who either are wholeheartedly sorry for their behavior, trying to end a personal conflict or, as in our case at the time, in that context, and under those circumstances, profoundly sorry for our own existence.

But I was treated differently, I believe because I had given Andrew well over 2 million dollars by then-nearly all of my money.

I regret the time I spent with him, ashamed at some of the outrageous competitive behavior I engaged in, vying for proximity to Andrew. But what I regret more than anything is allowing Michelle Hemingway and Steve Brett, among others, to coerce me into giving Andrew my money. It is that act that helped give him a power base and some semblance of legitimacy. It was at the time about two-thirds of the purchase price of Foxhollow.

It is all about understanding the context as someone put it. In the context of the world outside Andrew's community or cult, what he did was illegal, something called "undue influence." It is akin to a therapist seeking sexual company from a client or a priest who manipulates a parishioner into donating to the church. I imagine if it wasn’t me, there would be others like me who would have and I am sure continue to give away their money and soul to him as I did. If someone still within the community reads this and considers giving away their wealth, please reconsider. It was the greatest mistake of my life. The genuine human tragedies that have happened in our world since then, 9/11, the human rights abuses throughout the middle east by us and others, the AIDS crisis in Africa and the world, the illiteracy in the world, the Tsunami, the flood in the South, the earthquakes…each would have been an opportunity to give my money to and actually served a greater good.

I have spent the last seven and a half years creating a life for myself. I have sought peace and truth in my life as a mom, wife, friend and ordinary person in the world. Since leaving, I considered legal action, I considered drawing the media's attention, and I considered simply writing my story. But what is the ultimate goal? Personally, I am interested primarily in gaining a full perspective on what my experience was, if possible. And I am interested in seeing if my experience could help prevent someone from walking down the same path I did, with the same consequences or perhaps destructive consequences. Even if it is simply helping a family member who has someone they love in Andrew's or any other guru's community to gain understanding and, most critically, compassion for the individuals who choose that spiritual path. But I believe it is deluded to think one can "take someone down." I also believe NO ONE could have stopped me from diving into Andrew's world at the time I did. I only wish I had had the maturity and insight to find a less destructive forum to nurture my spiritual aspirations.

I don’t know if I will write again, but thank you for the opportunity to vent.

Not as an afterthought, but I am not sure how to even begin to express my sadness at the news of the death of Caroline Franklyn. I feared there would be a tragic outcome from Andrew's behavior.

Jane

oneil.jane@gmail.com

Part 2 – A Response To Andrew Cohen's "Declaration of Integrity"

2006-11-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

Some Personal Recollections
by Simeon Alev

[Former What Is Enlightement? magazine editor Simeon Alev provides further reflections in response to Andrew Cohen's recent attempt on his blog to explain his conduct which has been the subject of widespread criticism.]

I’d like to add a little personal background to my previous post so that readers can understand the kind of perplexity produced in sincere students by some of the situations described in this blog.

I remember clearly the first time I saw Andrew Cohen instruct one student to hit another. We were seated in a circle talking with him on a beach by the Ganges in Rishikesh. A male student made a remark to which Andrew took exception, and he instructed a female student sitting next to the speaker to punch him in the shoulder. Judging by both the sound produced and the pained expression on the victim’s face, it was clearly a powerful blow. However, the student accepted this ‘gesture’ without protest, and the conversation continued as if nothing had happened. At the time, this did not strike me as so outlandish as to require rationalization, and taking my cues from the group, I allowed myself to accept it. The “contextual” presumption was clearly that the student had benefited from this skillful response to a remark that, in Andrew’s perception, was a manifestation of “ego.”

I recently recalled this ‘early’ incident while mulling over a couple of later ones that I have always found far more troubling, and the interesting thing about it is that I vividly remember both a) the negative effect it produced in me and b) my willingness to ignore it. Energetically and philosophically, the atmosphere around Andrew is dynamic and charged, and in such an atmosphere it is a given that many accepted conventions of thought and behavior are suspended. Indeed, it is doubtful that many of us would have been with Andrew had this not been the case. Under such circumstances, incidents such as this one evoked in me—simultaneously—contradictory ‘levels’ of internal response, from cognitive dissonance (‘something is wrong here’) to business-as-usual (‘everything here is perfect’).

A few years later, I was in an evening men’s meeting at Foxhollow at which everyone was supposedly “together” with the exception of one student who was expressing what was consensually interpreted as “doubt.” Andrew’s informer for that evening, having left the room to tell him what was happening in the meeting, returned to ask us if, with the exception of that student, we were all “really together.” We answered yes, then waited while our emissary went back to Andrew for further instructions. These were not long in coming: We were to gather outside, where enough vehicles would arrive to take us all down to the lake. There, we were each to punch the doubter in the right shoulder, after which he was to submerge himself several times in the cold water while shouting “Freedom has no history!”

As I was riding down to the lake in the moonlight surrounded by my ‘brothers-in-arms’ in the back of a pick-up truck, I asked myself what was really going on here. Was this what I’d signed on for when I’d become a formal student—organized group violence, torture and humiliation? Whatever they were calling it—tough love, purification—my alarm bells were going off and it was suddenly clear to me that I was in the midst of a situation that would probably precipitate my departure from the community. Under the circumstances, (hopefully) needless to say, these were sentiments that produced tremendous confusion and inner conflict given my genuine devotion to the stated principles and aspirations of our communal life. Was I then a hypocrite? And if so, which was the greater hypocrisy: the toleration of violence against a brother, or of my own doubts as to Andrew’s wisdom and purity of motivation? I recognized in this moment that as a so-called ‘spiritual commando’ I was likely to prove utterly inadequate. Should I be more ashamed of this, or of my craven unwillingness to admit it then and there and accept the probable physical consequences? In the end I participated in this ritual without comment. One of the final shoulder blows was so effectively administered by a military-trained member of Andrew’s security team (also a holistic healer!) that it produced a nauseating pop I can still hear and a wince I can still see. After his ordeal was over, however, the student thanked us for helping him to overcome his doubt, and remains (to his credit?) a longstanding member of Andrew’s community.
On another occasion it fell to me to report to Andrew on the progress of a similar ritual recounted elsewhere in this blog, that of an editorial colleague (since departed) who’d been required to submerge himself in the frozen lake one hundred times while yelling repeatedly, “I am an asshole!” Entering his office I encountered Andrew with several of his committed students, who laughed derisively at my secondhand account of this student’s ordeal (e.g., having to relocate to less conspicuous waterfront and start over), congratulating Andrew when he asserted proudly that “things like this happen only around me,” and enthusiastically affirming his insistence that no other contemporary teacher had the “outrageous integrity” to prescribe such ruthless austerities.

Why am I reporting these incidents? For two reasons: First, I am tired of hearing it said that people should simply “get over” the effects of such experiences and carry on with their lives as if nothing had happened. Second and more importantly, both the confusion produced by such incidents, and their legitimacy as facilitators of spiritual development, are crucial topics for discussion. Why? Because they help to explain why so many people who had—and in many cases still have—feelings of incredible respect, gratitude and devotion for Andrew Cohen, have nevertheless felt compelled to move on. It is far less polarizing to approach the issue with this possibility in mind than simply to impugn the integrity of those who dare to speak out. And if a “context” and “practices” of this nature have prompted so many to leave who might otherwise have preferred to stay, it would be well for Andrew and his present community to be humbly aware of that and, as the saying goes, to face into it.

The imposing infrastructure now at Andrew’s disposal was co-created by him and many students who believed wholeheartedly in his realization and vision for humanity, and who in many cases still share that vision and acknowledge Andrew’s contribution to their development as cosmic citizens. It is high time that Andrew made his peace with these people by acknowledging and accepting their experiences as his students, and by encouraging his present students to do the same rather than inveigling them into a selective public relations campaign that serves his image rather than the whole truth.

A Response To Andrew Cohen’s “Declaration of Integrity”

2006-10-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

By Simeon Alev

[Note from the Editors: Apparently attempting to finally give a public statement defending himself against the many allegations of his abuse of students documented previously here (and perhaps also in response to the current heated discussions on the Zaadz+WIE online forum), Andrew Cohen recently meticulously crafted and posted a " Declaration of Integrity", which in effect avoids the whole thing. Instead of addressing the actual facts, he predictably overwhelms us with his assessment of how great things are in the spiritual boot camp he has created, and why his ego-challenging teachings have proven his ex-student critics to be mere “failures”, or losers whose “life mission is to create and spread a negative picture of who I am...” What Andrew does say about the facts is that the stories have been “misrepresented” and given “out of context”. He never denies the charges, but only provides us with eleven pages of his self-justifying “context”, which is just the standard fare we’ve gotten from him for years now. The article below is a response to Andrew’s “Declaration,” by Simeon Alev, a former WIE Magazine editor and long-time student of Andrew Cohen, and is his first contribution to What Enlightenment??!]

I have never until now, with the inaugural posting of Andrew Cohen’s “Declaration of Integrity” on his new blog, felt compelled to participate in discourse critical of his conduct as a “spiritual authority figure.” However, the misrepresentative nature of Andrew’s response to his critics does call for some comment.

Andrew describes certain former students now publicly critical of his methods as having “turned on him,” but the truth is that he had turned on them long before they ever responded in kind. During my years in his community it was common practice for Andrew to publicly ridicule and vilify students who left, and to encourage others to do the same. There was no possibility of this practice, or the remarks engendered by it, being misinterpreted or “taken out of context.” The message was clear, as well as the mean-spiritedness and vindictiveness behind it, which continues to manifest in Andrew’s present post and will likely animate his future “counteroffensives.” Whatever else Andrew Cohen may be, in this respect he is most definitely not a mensch. He has never personally addressed his own habit of vilification and ridicule, much less the many abuses of power catalogued by his critics, who experienced and/or witnessed them first-hand and either understood what they were seeing or figured it out soon enough—despite constant pressure from Andrew himself to give his motivations the benefit of the doubt.

The main problem with Andrew’s community is his investment in his perception of himself as a flawless exemplar of his teaching. This is a problem because Andrew is far from flawless, and his actions (ironically) will probably never reflect the genuine nobility of his realization due to his incapacity to see himself and his own baser motivations clearly. None of Andrew’s former followers would have hailed him as a “21st-century Buddha” etc. had they not been encouraged to do so by his own overly generous estimation of himself, and they cannot be faulted for changing their minds even after an extended period of devotion to someone who for a time seemed to them worthy of it. Andrew’s lack of gratitude toward these people, who labored long and selflessly for the advancement of “his” cause and “his” organization (“his” magazine and “his” jazz fusion band etc.), is egregiously autocratic and narcissistic. I know personally several of the people described by Andrew as having “failed miserably” as spiritual practitioners; in addition to being insulting, this characterization of them is both a myopic and self-serving misperception and a public misrepresentation designed to invalidate legitimate grievances. Their lack of “success” is not difficult to understand in a community where self-induced doubtlessness was often a survival strategy and success was so closely correlated with fear-driven conformity. (If this has since changed, I’m glad to hear it but have my doubts.)

I am concerned that Andrew’s public association with Ken Wilber, in tandem with Wilber’s recent responses to his own critics, has emboldened Andrew in the belief that he is entitled to a form of “score-settling” similar to Wilber’s vibrant and useful “ Wyatt Earpy ” postings. There are, however, several revealing contextual differences between Ken and Andrew’s respective statements. For example, rather than having to defend his ideas or scholarship, or to elucidate the effects of spiritual development (or lack thereof) on perception and worldview, Andrew has been called upon by his critics to justify acts of physical violence, the translation of students’ psychological vulnerability into large cash donations, and apparent mean-spiritedness in the service of the higher evolution of consciousness.

For both Ken and Andrew, it seems to me, the goal of such public dialogue (evolution, mental perspective, enlightened understanding and action) is ostensibly the same and to that extent equally laudable, feasible and urgent. In Andrew’s case, however, the grandiosity and presumption of infallibility that made his “alleged” abuses of students possible in the first place are similarly evident in his “declaration,” which as a result transmits little of the uplifting inclusiveness and vulnerability to be found even in Wilber’s most caustic and challenging remarks. It’s easy to accuse people of “rewriting history,” but what about that history, i.e., those incidents that witnesses have taken the time and trouble to document? And it’s easy to declare dismissively that such incidents have been “taken out of context,” but what of that context? The bottom line is not that Andrew has never lied to his students, but that his dishonesty with himself has never been offered a place at his table.

2006-10-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to WHAT Enlightenment?!! on its second anniversary!

This two year voyage beginning in October 2004 has been full of discovery, revelation, honest fact reporting, emperor with no clothes stories, sad testimonial, memory and recognition.

Since I too was there in the Cohen event, and having left with no small amount of anger, confusion, disappointment, and also a raw determination to see myself through this whole issue and prevail – I stand in appreciation, respect and community for all who’ve been here on these pages. The work accomplished by all the writers and commenters, all those who contributed their own biographical stories, and all the honest and heartfelt discussion by so many is truly significant. Sadly our world possesses all too few examples of truth being told to or about over-reaching authority.

I only wish there was some big banquet table to pass the wine, and share in relief and healing that comes from seeing a clouded and concealed and troubled misuse of spiritual power and authority finally begin to be put to the light of day.

Some have tried to stop this blog, to derail it with ridicule or with strange and meaningless statements, or to shout it into silence – but the record stands on its own merits and is now available for public inspection by anyone with a computer. This was not possible before now.

The volume of material posted here is really huge, but some few articles seem to stick out in my mind as particularly poignant and heart rending. Among those, I recall perhaps most of all Not Forgotten – the Story of Caroline Franklyn by Mario Puljiz, recounting the death by discouragement, heartbreak, and browbeating of a frail elderly and yet very wonderful lady in London.

Setting out many of the basic historical details and the context for the story of Andrew Cohen and his community, was the Breaking the Silence series by Hal Blacker – a truly clear exposition of a complex story making it simple, readable and understandable.

Many others shared the excruciating content of many of their experiences with the guru, and here I think of Susan Bridles’ A Legacy of Scorched Earth, Stas Mavrides’ Letter from a Senior Student, and A Travesty of Enlightenment by Wendyl.

Vimala Thakar’s Concealed Criticism and Andrew Cohen's Treatment of Women is a heartbreaking account of withheld information which covered the guru’s behind, and left many students in the dark.

There are so many more, but that’s my short list.

Who imagined that so much would be exposed and discussed?
May WHAT enlightenment?!! continue the spreading of transparency!

Peace.

(a letter from a reader)

Some Reflections on Abuse and Uncompleted or “Intermediate” Gurus

2006-08-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

“The Intermediate Zone, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, refers to a dangerous and misleading transitional spiritual and pseudo-spiritual region between the ordinary consciousness of the outer being and true spiritual realisation.

...the way that the Intermediate zone works is through a sort of psychological contagion. Thus not just the sadhak or yogi or pop guru themselves, but those around them, also experience this, and it is like a drug, a buzz, a high, a thrill, a rush; it is attractive, it draws them in, and together with the misleading information regarding "breaking down the walls of ego", they are able to justify and rationalise any abuse as "for their own good" and "a sign of the Master's fiery love and compassion"

from Alan Kazlev’s article:
Towards a Larger Definition of the Integral, Part 2: The Wilberian Paradigm: A Fourfold Critique, July 2006
http://www.integralworld.net/index.html?kazlev2.html

Whatever one might think of Alan Kazlev’s ongoing critiques of Ken Wilber, he does have some very thought provoking reflections on abusive gurus and what is termed the “Intermediate Zone” problem. He gives an interesting perspective for trying to understand the roots of the kind of student abuse that Andrew Cohen and other supposedly “enlightened” teachers like him engage in. He argues that teachers like Andrew fall into an “intermediate zone” of partial realization, which is problematic when such teachers believe and act as if their enlightenment is complete. The inevitable result is some form of spiritual abuse of those who get involved with these gurus.

Toward the end of his book, Enlightenment Blues, after describing how hard it was to get free from Andrew's community, Andre van der Braak states that “...Andrew gave me very real and convincing spiritual experiences...”(pg.224).

Yet if Andrew's capacity to give such "experiences" came not from full enlightenment, but from a mixed-bag state that despite its apparent power and bliss-bestowing qualities actually falls short of complete realization -- the Intermediate Zone hypothesis might offer a freeing perspective to those persons who otherwise feel obligated to stay loyal to these spiritual experiences created by the same person who harmed them. It might help those who, though knowing in their hearts and bodies that something went very, very wrong, still believe that staying loyal to those memories is the price of remaining “spiritual”.

Too often, to heal from an I-Zone guru, the suffering seeker can only get respect for their suffering by submitting to pressure from secular-minded friends and therapists to disown the genuine spiritual experiences that accompanied the abuse, and dismiss these breakthroughs as mere trance or crowd delusion. If the suffering person wants to stay loyal to the spiritual dimension, he or she risks being accused of lingering gullibility or some form of the Stockholm syndrome. These secular-minded advisors mean well; with rare exceptions, they are stuck using frameworks that are too narrow to account for the complexities of intermediate zone spirituality/abuse. This leaves the wounded seeker in a very difficult predicament -- If he or she tries to stay true to the complexity and insists that the abuse was accompanied by genuine spiritual breakthroughs he or she risks being accused of remaining duped by the guru.

If the person seeks to recognize and process the abuse (which is real) and does so by using one of many secular therapeutic frameworks which misses the spiritual dimension, the person will get grounded, but often at the price of having to disown and perhaps devalue the spiritual dimension that would offer the deepest form of healing.

Others may pressure us to only honor the spiritual dimension, implying that feeling abused means we are ungrateful, unworthy and disloyal. This too misses the point, and leaves the wounded seeker with no relief.

What is needed is a perspective that enables the wounded seeker to recognize that the same teacher can be both abusive and revelatory -- and may even have paranormal abilities that are emancipatory for some aspects of our lives, yet have a deeply degrading and enslaving effect on us elsewhere -- and that a real and integral spirituality would have to be large enough to acknowledge all of this simultaneously!

That real sweetness and goodness can at the same time be entangled with ghastly abuse, and that both are real and can come from the same source is a profound spiritual mystery, and one that most therapeutic frameworks cannot yet accommodate.

One take-home lesson is that we need to allow room for the varied and often opposing experiences people have of their guru. One lucky experiencer may be going through a phase of being the guru's favorite. Another who winds up being one of his or her many scapegoats will have quite a different set of experiences. Hopefully we can remain altruistic and ask whether one's fellow aspirants are also thriving. We cannot be said to benefit from a guru if we remain cruelly indifferent to the way that guru is harming others. Such an attitude of just-my-bliss-matters is no different from an addict's focus on the next fix and brutal indifference to how friends and family are being harmed in the quest for that next fix.

In fact, one implication of moving beyond this indifference may be recognizing the importance of speaking out against such harm and abuse of fellow students at the hands of one's teacher. This is, in effect, one of the primary purposes of this blog. (...Note: We've heard from a former student resident of Andrew's Foxhollow headquarters who recently left, that to her knowlege since this blog has started, Andrew hasn't been employing his usual physically harsh “disciplining” methods on students -- which often includes slapping them or having them slapped by others. This was good news, and suggested that this blog may be having some moderating effect on Andrew's behavior with students.)

Offered below are some of Kazlev’s reflections on abusive gurus in general, which were published in a recent online article he wrote about Ken Wilber. We have excerpted specific sections in which he discusses Cohen (and comparisons to Adi Da), and references to cases of his abusiveness documented in this blog.

The What Enlightenment?! Editors
*******************************************************

The Problem of Abusive Gurus
from Alan Kazlev’s article:
Towards a Larger Definition of the Integral, Part 2: The Wilberian Paradigm: A Fourfold Critique, July 2006

For whatever reason...[Ken Wilber] cannot recognise that the most obvious sign of any integral transformation is precisely that the Teacher is never abusive! In fact, Wilber falls into the common trap of seeing abuse at the hands of a guru as somehow necessary for enlightenment. This idea goes back at least as far Medieval Tibetan Buddhism; Naropa, one of the great sages of the Tibetan tradition, suffered greatly at the hands of his guru, Tilopa...Wilber's friend and colleague, self-styled guru Andrew Cohen seems -- if the the harrowing accounts of their experiences by his ex-disciples is anything to go by -- to show very similar behaviour to that of [contemporary Western Guru] Adi Da, and is every bit as abusive towards his followers.

With this in mind, let's make a brief checklist of warning that indicate a guru, even a nonduality "enlightened" one, that is an abuser. The following is in no way meant as a complete checklist, but just lists a few common flaws. Note that not all abusive gurus will have all of these flaws, but an abusive guru will at the very least have two or three:

• Sexually abusive behaviour

• Demanding or requesting large "donations" (to fund an unnecessarily opulent or wealthy lifestyle)

• Acting or teaching one way in public and another in private (e.g. celibate gurus justifying sex with female disciples as "Tantric Initiation")

• Narcissistic behaviour

• Using insulting words or other abusive behaviour to "break down your ego".

• Physical abuse, usually by telling devotees to assault other devotees

• Taking advantage of the disciples trust; controlling or forcing them to do something they don't want to

• Emotionally sadistic (and in extreme cases physically sadistic)

• Vindictive attitude towards ex-devotees

• Responding to critics with anger, bitterness, hatred, or mockery rather than love

And so on. You get the idea. Note also that not having any of the above, or any of the other common pop guru flaws, does not mean a Guru or Teacher is genuine. It simply means it may be okay to be involved with them. Another indicator – uneasy feeling or small voice that says "this is wrong" may not be reliable, as it requires a well-developed spiritual consciousness on the part of the seeker. And feeling drained after some time in the abusive guru's presence is also unreliable; not everyone is emotionally parasitised.

Sometimes, as in Da Free John / Adi Da's case, gurus justify their behaviour by saying it represents "crazy wisdom" (another Tibetan theme). So-called "crazy wisdom" gurus, in addition to being abusive, may partake of alcohol or drugs, have lots of (willing) sexual partners, and so on. Chogyam Trungpa is a typical example of a Crazy Wisdom guru, but he does not seem to have been as specifically abusive.

But the most common indeed, the standard, excuse abusive gurus use to justify their behaviour is that it is necessary that the disciple be abused and humiliated in order for them to overcome ego and attain enlightenment (although at the same time, no abusive guru ever acknowledges that any of their students have ever attained enlightenment) It is this, more subtle argument, that one finds associated with the Wilberian Integral movement as a whole. According to Andrew Cohen, teachers need to break down one's ego, and this can be a psychologically and emotionally excruciating process. Wilber fully supports this approach. In the Foreword to one of Cohen's books, he says:

"When it comes to spiritual teachers, there are those who are safe, gentle, consoling, soothing, caring; and there are the outlaws, the living terrors, the Rude Boys and Nasty Girls of God realization, the men and women who are in your face, disturbing you, terrifying you, until you radically awaken to who and what you really are....

If you want encouragement, soft smiles, ego stroking, gentle caresses of your self-contracting ways, pats on the back and sweet words of solace, find yourself a Nice Guy or Good Girl, and hold their hand on the sweet path of stress reduction and egoic comfort. But if you want Enlightenment, if you want to wake up, if you want to get fried in the fire of passionate Infinity, then, I promise you: find yourself a Rude Boy or a Nasty Girl, the ones who make you uncomfortable in their presence, who scare you witless, who will turn on you in a second and hold you up for ridicule, who will make you wish you were never born, who will offer you not sweet comfort but abject terror, not saccharin solace but scorching angst, for then, just then, you might very well be on the path to your own Original Face".
from Living Enlightenment by Andrew Cohen

Wilber applauds Cohen as a "rude boy", and offers him (and abusive gurus in general) as the alternative to a ridiculous caricature that does not match the description of any spiritual teacher. He says that the "rude boy" will "hold you up for ridicule" and "will make you wish you were never born". Yes, all out of his boundless love and compassion that you may yourself attain Enlightenment! But let us look at the reality, the mind games and psychological conditioning and abuse; things that Wilber, who has never been a disciple at Cohen's Foxhollow community, has not had to experience.
Here is one example (from Enlighten Nixt blog)

At one point, the women as a group got into serious trouble because some women answered back to some men who told them they were not doing their spiritual practice properly. Andrew heard about this and let it be known that their disagreement was "outrageous." The women went into a panic when they heard this. They decided they must do something extreme to prove their penitence.

The tragic nature of this example is shown by the fact that it is the disciples themselves suggested this, as a means of punishment, in order to win Cohen's favour (other methods included giving him huge sums of money, such as twenty-thousand dollars, or even the entire life savings) I will return to this point a little later. In this particular instance, it was decided that they would do prostrations in the freezing cold water of a lake on the property, standing waist deep in water and submerging themselves completely, again and again, for an entire hour.

Andrew's wife, Alka, was excused from the practice because she had a bad chest cold. But another woman had suffered a concussion and brain injury the year before. Andrew knew this, because she had undergone a lengthy convalescence at Foxhollow. She was not excused. She passed out in the lake's cold waters after about 50 minutes. She was carried out of the lake, unconscious. She came to in a warm shower, with two other women holding her up. Another woman described making it through the hour. She and some others who did so turned blue. They shivered so hard afterwards that they could not stop shaking enough to undo their zippers or buttons so they could take off their clothes. They went in groups into hot showers, where they stood for 45 minutes at a time until they had finally stopped shivering enough to undress. One woman wound up in the hospital some months later with a serious kidney infection, requiring an I.V. drip. She attributes this to her exposure in the lake.

Some women did not make it through the practice. The women as group got a message from Andrew that those who did not finish had to go back again and complete it. Some women had to return to the lake and try two or three times before they could do so."

The What Enlightenment? and EnlightenNixt blogs are full of cases of unhealthy psychological manipulation like this. On the one hand, one is disgusted by Cohen's willing participation in all this, on the other hand, amazed that these people through lack of self-esteem and ability to claim their own power would put themselves into such a situation in the first place.

Of course it goes on and on. The following poignant message is from a post by an 82-year old war veteran to the ex-Cohenist blog What Enlightenment?, regarding his granddaughter:

My grand daughter spent 5 years with Andrew and she never spoke a word to me during that time....Andrew took a beautiful women and turned her into a fearful depressed person, it's like he sucked the spirit out of her and left only a confused shell...
I appreciate all of your contributions I have read them all it makes me sad to see what's happened to my grand daughter, really sad that a life has been so destroyed by someone she chose to put trust in. I hope one day someone finds a way of stopping him.

...My grand daughter was continuously asked for money, she gave over some $28,000 in the last 2 years.

This story is by no means unique (in fact it was selected here a random because it happened to be the lead story when I was researching What Enlightenment? for the current essay); and is typical of the sort of emotional, physical, and financial abuse, the human wreckage that these people leave in their wake. One wonders why Wilber himself has not investigated these claims; as -- his ranting against any criticism of his work aside -- he seems, from his ambivalence regarding Adi Da, to be a decent sort of person. Moreover, when a case of sexual abuse by a spiritual teacher in his own Integral Institute movement recently came up, he did act, albeit reluctantly, and with the usual "green bashing".

I have dedicated some time to criticising Andrew Cohen, not because he is any worse than other such gurus and cult-leaders (indeed, he may be mild compared to some), but because he is considered by Wilber to be an enlightened being, albeit not as great a realiser as Adi Da. This shows a serious lack of spiritual, but even common sense discrimination among Wilber and those of his followers who also support people like this. It is important to emphasize however that not all Wilberites do go along with this; some at least would seem to be critical of Wilber's association with abusive gurus.

In any case, this sort of situation is almost pandemic among a great many pop gurus and teachers. From his magazine, and the talks on his website, I get a decent enough vibe from Andrew Cohen. I certainly think he does do a lot of good work; it is just a question of this other, more negative side to his nature.

...The problem is that the current Guru institution, as it has been adopted in the West, is deeply flawed, indeed, it is quite medieval. It may be that these traditional cultures like India, Tibet, and the Far East have their own checks and balances, and since these have been removed in the West, what is left is the abusiveness. Or perhaps the same problems also have occurred and do occur in traditional cultures, and great Gurus and Teachers were great not because of this institution, but in spite of it (in the same manner as with religious institutions everywhere). I certainly am not qualified to say which of these alternatives are correct; perhaps it might be a bit of both.

My explanation of how abusiveness works is simple. It has nothing to do with noble motives of helping the disciple work through their ego, progress more swiftly to enlightenment, and all the rest. That is just the rationalization that is at the heart of the pop guru institution, and the reason why this institution is flawed. In other words, the abusive guru is just basically your average emotionally immature and selfish imperfect human being, except that he or she also happens to have some opening to inner and subtle states and powers, up to and including self-realisation. As Wilber himself puts it, these individuals are characterised by "One Taste sufficiency that leaves schmucks as it finds them". Psychologist and participative spirituality advocate John Heron criticises Wilber's conception of spiritual development on that count, but I think what Wilber says is true, although I would strongly disagree with Wilber's assessment that these abusive gurus actually are authentically enlightened (see sect. 2-v). In this instance (and perhaps in all such instances) what Wilber calls "One Taste sufficiency" is simply a lesser experience, not even a spiritual experience. In any case, the argument that "this is good for you, it will help you attain enlightenment" is simply a ploy that the abusive guru uses, a way of manipulating his or her victims, and which he or she can use, precisely because it is part of the whole pop guru mindset. Quite likely the abusive guru genuinely believes his or her own words, because he or she is likewise conditioned by this mindset, just as much as his or her followers are.

But it goes beyond just that. Note the story of Cohen's female disciples who themselves offered to submit themselves to "water torture". What it all comes down to is the sadomasochistic co-dependency between abusive guru and dysfunctional disciple. For every sadist there is a victim, who wants to be tortured and hurt, perhaps out of deep self-loathing, or repressed memories of childhood abuse, in order to earn the love of their abuser (who, being an abuser, will never be satisfied, and will always continue to abuse). I tend to see the current pop guru phenomenon as very much like the battered wife attitude; with their followers so used to be abused, and they know nothing else, that they think it is "their fault" and all this is done for "their benefit". And the more abusive the guru is, the more the disciple rationalises the abuse! A classic case, but only one among probably many thousands of such cases, is what happened to Georg Feurestein and his wife at the hands of Da Free John.

All this is due to the fact that without doubt the largest number of pop Gurus do not have what I would call an integral awakening (more on this a little later). And because the theme that "being abused is necessary if you want to attain enlightenment" is perpetuated by people like Wilber who are seen as reputable authorities in the New Consciousness movement (e.g. Wilber's recommendation above that the seeker should choose "the Rude Boys and Nasty Girls of God realization"), susceptible and vulnerable seekers in the "spiritual supermarket", who only know what they read and hear, fall into this whole sadomasochistic relationship and hence serve as a supply of new victims. But as ex-devotees can now use the Internet to expose abusive gurus, John Heron may well be right when he says that the age of authoritarian guru is coming to an end. (there will always be these sorts of gurus, but i think in future they won't have such an easy time of it)

The Intermediate Zone

How are spiritually realised abusive gurus even possible? Clearly many of the pop gurus have genuine, even profound experiences. Up to and including nondual experiences. How can they be so narcissistic and insensitive to the needs of others, if they have realised non-duality, and that there is no separation between themselves and others?

We need here to distinguish genuine Spirituality, and genuine Gurus and Teachers, from those who, while possessing a greater or lesser degree of non-dual realisation, even total self-realisation on the mental or consciousness level, nevertheless retain ego, and can often have a destructive and abusive effect on their disciples and devotees. To understand how this can be so, we need to look at the Intermediate Zone. The Intermediate Zone, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, refers to a dangerous and misleading transitional spiritual and pseudo-spiritual region between the ordinary consciousness of the outer being and true spiritual realisation.

...the way that the Intermediate Zone works is through a sort of psychological contagion. Thus not just the sadhak or yogi or pop guru themselves, but those around them, also experience this, and it is like a drug, a buzz, a high, a thrill, a rush; it is attractive, it draws them in, and together with the misleading information regarding "breaking down the walls of ego", they are able to justify and rationalise any abuse as "for their own good" and "a sign of the Master's fiery love and compassion".

Note also that the Intermediate Zone does not mean that you are not enlightened. If that is was the case it would present much less danger, because the Teachers who are stuck at that level would be more easily seen to be fakes. No, it is quite possible, even very common, for the abusive gurus stuck here to be Enlightened, and indeed not only themselves Enlightened, but through their own realisation to transformation others, or rather those lucky few who for whatever reason, perhaps a certain grossness or resilience of nature, are able to ride out the waves of emotional parasitism and sadistic abuse that is tied in with and inseparable from the love and compassion. For it is all part of the ambiguity of the Intermediate Zone that some people can be totally destroyed by its negative energies, and others transformed.

And here is where the cultic justification comes in: because ...[if] one person [is] benefited, he assumes that everyone will, if only they will stick at the process. But this conveniently ignores the extent of human wreckage these abusive gurus leave in their wake. The contradiction between the two realities -- that of the devotees who are come through stronger, and of the larger number who are crushed – cannot be surmounted by the rational mind; the situation is fluid; there are no dogmatic answers. But is it really a sensible thing to put your life in the hands of someone who adopts a sadomasochistic attitude towards his or her followers? ( a "rude boy" and "nasty girl" as Wilber euphemistically puts it)

The paradox is all the greater when we consider that many of these gurus and teachers genuinely do many good things, alongside the negative things. Thus there seem to be, in addition to the narcissistic and abusive elements, a number of more positive characteristics by which Intermediate zone gurus and teachers, or those that have even a partial development, may be recognised:

• A profound manner of writing or speaking, by which one can sense of the Light and consciousness in the words.

• A feeling of force or shakti in their presence, which is perceptible to and can even bring about an elevation of consciousness in sensitive observers (even if they are otherwise spiritually undeveloped)

• By their own account, they have gone beyond the outer personality and realised a transcendent state of being or reality

... If Intermediate Zone gurus were totally of ...[a negative] nature there would be no problem; they would be seen for the ugly pettiness of their egos, and no-one (except psychologically disturbed people and masochists) would be compelled to follow them. But the whole idea of the Intermediate zone is that it is immensely alluring, immensely attractive and powerful and potent.

It takes a rare seeker not to be impressed or awed by the powerful charismatic spiritual qualities of Intermediate Zone individuals, and for this reason, if they are naive or susceptible, rationalise the abusive elements, as we have seen...

The presence of blogs like "What Enlightenment?" which contain numerous allegations of abusive behaviour by Cohen towards his devotees, indicate that perhaps he does indeed think in that way. This is not to deny that he has had genuine experiences, as has Wilber, as described in his journals in One Taste, but there is absolutely no shortage of such experiences that can be had in the Intermediate Zone.

Intersubjective Fictions--Some Cohen Video Reviews

2006-07-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some anonymous reviews of Andrew Cohen's latest web infomercial Creating the Future culled from some emails we've seen and reproduced (completely without authorization). Many thanks to our astute readers!

"it's like he's speaking another
language...they even transcibe every word, so we don't
miss these gems of wisdom...but I still don't know
exactly what the hell he's saying..."

"I just watched the video. Painful to see so many former dear friends. I just felt like it was blah blah blah, the same blah blah blah for years and years. Like they're inside a sphere of mirrors reflecting back on themselves the same catchphrases and ideas, over and over again. I didn't find it attractive at all. It really seems more like a mind state now. You can get a buzz from that mind state…I know I did for years, but it doesn’t seem authentic or compelling to me anymore."

"After watching this video, which made me want to puke, I think someone should stick their foot up this guy’s ass..... His rhetoric is so seductive, that’s the problem here; so you must continue to expose all his bullshit. What horseshit this guy is peddling. I feel sorry for the people who fall for it."

"Wow, just looking at his wardrobe, I got kinda hot. Do the words really matter?
Put another way, the presentation is so slick it supersedes the content - a perfect metaphor for our times."

"What a load of bollocks!"

"Don't take this the wrong way but it's obvious to me that you're not allowing the intersubjective friction of consciousness to create the ecstatic compulsion necessary to create the future in a way that allows a greater uber reality to emerge in you. It's about intersubjectivity, dude. Let it in!"

What do you think?

The Principles of Enslavement

2006-04-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

by Dragan

[The following reflections are excerpted from a comment previously submitted by former Andrew Cohen student Dragan]

How does Andrew do what he does? How is it that no one can tell that the emperor has no clothes?

There are several principles that Andrew has become a master of, the principles that have been known and are still known to the brainwashing rulers of the ages past and present.

First and most essential of all is the principle of having willing victims. Is there a need for enslavement services, so to speak? The need for the enslavement services is created by suppression of self-confidence (removing true independence), and by creation of fear. The willing victims, once they join, are further kept in line by intentionally created opposing forces, by using alternative punishment and reward, criticism and praise, by setting them against each other so much that those that were once brothers and sisters turn against each other. With constant frictions peace is destroyed, and ultimately, seemingly unbreakable dependence and inhuman isolation are created.

The willing victims have to be brought into the New Fold. For this, there is the principle of isolation. Isolation from one’s Old Life, from one’s History, from family and friends (in the community people were kept away from their dying relatives!), isolation from one’s own common sense (you cannot tell black from white, but have to be told what is black, what is white). This is replaced by New Family and New Common Sense that is subjected to new ideology, often based on High Principles, usually running on the lines such as Brotherhood, Equality and Freedom, in Andrew’s case it was Truth and Freedom, that are all good in theory but in practice fail miserably. However for the purpose of the game they never fail, because their function is to enslave – the brighter the principle the darker the blind spots that it creates in its victims.

Then, there is the principle of unquestioned authority and rigid hierarchical top-down structure. The power moves from the top down, only! The person on the top has to be an absolute despot, otherwise there is no real authority and no real obedience, at least according to the rules of this particular game. Each higher level within the structure has to rule the lower ones by the superior commitment and morality. The lower levels have a responsibility to admonish each other or report on each other to the higher levels, ensuring cheap and all-covering policing.

The principle of bottom-up economy says that the wealth has to flow upward! An absolute ruler on the top has to exploit the slaves below him (Andrew’s students not only give thousands of dollars and pounds but they also give their time and energy worth hundreds of thousands of pounds!) For the ruler’s power to thrive, the richer he is, and the poorer the slaves are, the better.

Then there is the principle of secrecy. While information about all of the activities in the structure, accurate or distorted, is programmed to reach the top of the pyramid, nothing of importance should leak downward. Ultimately, the top only knows the real purpose and the final destination. This ensures that power always remains where it should be, at the top.

In this Set-Up, it’s the principle that morality and responsibility are relative values, subject to change according to the whim from the top. The end justifies the means. Trauma is used as a tool to create more obedient subjects, all in the name of better future. Fear (terror if need be) and guilt are applied as cohesive elements. Love and Joy are morsels to be fed to the obedient.

Going hand in hand with the principle of secrecy is the principle of rampant propaganda. The truth is a commodity in the hands of a few – the top of the structure, the absolute despot(s), is the only possessor of the ultimate truth. The despot uses propaganda to invent New Words and New Meanings. Powerful old words, like “freedom”, “love” etc. are given New Meanings and are installed from the top down to rule over actions of the lower layers. The words become the goals. Through the power of propaganda and inverted meanings human values are turned upside down; blatant truths are shouted down as lies and vice versa, or the truth is given just a lip service.

Then there is the ‘I’m god’ principle, or the principle of SUPREME CONFIDENCE. The despot has to absolutely believe in himself. Everyone else has to treat the despot as if he was a god. The fear and unquestioning adulation is the most needed food for the ‘great one’ to carry on with his mission.

What is the ultimate goal of the ‘great one’, Andrew in this case? Could it be true that he is after the evolution of mankind, as he claims? Or, on the larger scale, could it be that our governments only want us to prosper and grow into happy, proud and strong human beings, as they claim? The situation on the ground testifies that this is not so. It’s again precisely opposite, the ones on the top set things up so that they prosper while the others slave away for them, slaves that have sacrificed their precious freedom for the so called Greater Good.

Dragan
solray@btopenworld.com

Some Common Misunderstandings of 'Two Truths Doctrine' in Nondual Philosophies that May Impede Recognition and Discussion of Painful Situations

2006-03-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

by Anonymous

[Note from The Editors: The following remarkably lucid (and scholarly) article was originally posted as a comment to the article Vimala Thakar’s Concealed Criticism and Andrew Cohen’s Treatment of Women—The Investigation Continues. We thought it might be good at this juncture to quiet the dogs of war, take a deep breath and consider its clarifying wisdom on the relationship between experiences of the absolute and conduct in the relative--often a tricky and confusing matter.]

1) From a lettery by Tim Conway

http://users.snowcrest.net/sunrise/Dv-tim1.htm

“…the greatest sages of India have long cautioned that enlightened spiritual vision must function on two levels:

the absolute level of (paramarthika satyam)
the conventional, "relatively real" level of truth (vyavaharika satyam).

(Note: In Buddhadharma this is known as 'Two Truths Doctrine' and an interested reader can find an article about it on Wikipedia)

Conway writes: 'Thus, the sages, when speaking from the absolute level of parlance, say that, indeed, everything is Divine, all is Brahman, nothing is wrong (in fact, no-thing is really happening!), it's all the perfect leela of the One.

‘But, on the relative or conventional level, the level of earthly conduct, these sages strongly uphold the Dharma of righteous action, ahimsa, purity, and so forth.

'Such sages thus say that, in the absolute view, everything is okay, but on the relative level they are quite adamant that certain behaviors are wrong, sinful, or just inappropriate and should be stopped.

‘For devotees of the Lord to sit back and just say that "everything is divine," which is certainly true on the absolute level, but then do nothing about evils and injustices that occur within the dream of earthly life because "it is all divine" --is a terrible avoidance of basic duty on behalf of Dharma. With this apathy and flawed attitude, none of the great evils of history would have ever been resisted and overcome.

"…one can in fact see everything as Divine leela, but still be quite active in an engaged spirituality on behalf of socio-economic justice issues. (unquote)

(from the article by Renard entitled ‘A Hot Potato’) http://www.advaya.nl/

2) “I still like the expression ‘Advaita Shuffle’ for what I mean here. It points to secretly (or unconsciously) removing a subject that is experienced as threatening or uneasy to a level where that uneasy matter has ‘dissolved’; in other words dissolved into the very substance it consists of indeed: Consciousness itself, pure Knowing.

‘A smuggletrick is used in order not to be accountable as an individual (because ‘the individual’ is seen as unreal). And that accountability is precisely what this is all about.

“What actually is accountability?

”It means being open to the reality of all levels, no matter how temporal and relative, and being ready to resonate with those levels. It also means a readiness to listen to comments or observations that may refer to a specific attitude which could be a blind spot for us.

“Even though one has seen and ‘experienced’ deeply that one is nothing else but undifferentiated, homogeneous Consciousness, one still is, when relating to people, a visual and behaving figure who could be mistaken sometimes. And nothing or no one is getting any benefit from hiding behind ‘Consciousness’ when one is mistaken. (Unquote)

3) Over forty years ago, Sanskrit scholar Aghendanda Bharati, an Austrian born Sanyassi monk in India, tartly described a abuse of two truths doctrine-- used by some Indian scripture scholars or religious professionals when they wanted to avoid admitting that they had lost an argument because their logic was flawed or their understanding or use of textual material had been faulty.

Bharati reported, ”I learned the stereotypical method of rebuttal common to all traditions of religious doctrine in India: The moment discursive thought (that is, thought that is based on reaching a conclusion through use of reason and verifiable /falsifiable evidence) would jeopardize the axiomatic perfection of the text, the critic is given a simple line:

‘Your argument may be intellectually valid but what of it? Only those who have seen the light can see the consistency of the text. Only those who have experienced the truth from within can see that intellectual argument is of no avail in the end.’

"This would hardly be objectionable were the atmosphere among Indian scholastics purely non-discursive.

‘But’ wrote Bharati ‘this is not true: the theologians avail themselves of refined scholastic argument all the time, but they jettison all of it the moment their axioms are impugned.’

(Bharati, from his memoir The Ochre Robe pages 132 to 133)
The confusion of different levels of reality listed by Tim Conway can be the product of an innocent misunderstanding — a misunderstanding that seems common on the spiritual path and that frequently goes uncorrected.

The distortions of two truths doctrine described by Renard as a ‘smuggletrick’ and a 'steoreotypical method of rebuttal' by Bharati are harder to identify and correct.

Confrontation is often frowned on in spiritual communities, with the result that problems go undiscussed and uncorrected.

It is also quite difficult to identify and rebut this kind of argumentation when one is under severe stress--- often the case when one is undergoing the ordeal of discovering that a beloved spiritual community or teacher has become hurtful.

A Call To Action And A Letter To Bill O’Reilly

2006-03-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

P.O.’ed Old Man Leads The Way

Recently, a new contributor to What Enlightenment??! has been leading a rousing call to action against the authoritarian abuse and exploitation of followers by self-styled "guru" Andrew Cohen. P.O.'ed Old Man explained that he is the grandfather of a victim of Cohen's manipulation and abuse. PO'ed felt most of us were making a mistake--we shouldn't just get mad, we should do something about it:

My grand daughter spent 5 years with Andrew and she never spoke a word to me during that time. I read some of his stuff and I think you folks miss the point , there is a lot of fancy language around what he says but he seems to me to be simply a fraud who takes advantage of people. My grand daughter now visits me all the time, she’s not very well, though. Andrew took a beautiful women and turned her into a fearful depressed person, it’s like he sucked the spirit out of her and left only a confused shell.

I appreciate all of your contributions I have read them all it makes me sad to see what’s happened to my grand daughter, really sad that a life has been so destroyed by someone she chose to put trust in. I hope one day someone finds a way of stopping him.

P.O.'ed suggested in another comment going after Cohen's "Achilles heel"—his financial exploitation of followers. He explained he would do it himself, but for his advanced age:

These kinds of cults always have a shadow side. Some of this shadow is exposed through this blog, I am sure there are more lies and deceit below the surface. People who act like this are usually projecting some hidden truths. My bet is that his financial model is very tightly controlled. No one really knows what’s happening except for a few (probably outside the community), these accountants and lawyers would have created not for profit trusts that are under the control of Andrew, these trusts are the then siphoned by way of special charges for consultancy , dubious outside services .My grand daughter was continuously asked for money, she gave over some $28,000 in the last 2 years.

The focus on financial donation I believe shows his weakness. I believe an IRS audit and exposure of how his multi million dollar empire is run would go a long way toward bringing his evil empire down.

If I was younger I would do it myself.

In further posted comments, P.O.'ed got quite specific in his recommendations for how former Cohen followers could empower themselves and stop further abuse by Cohen, suggesting the questions that should be asked, and a course of action to get an investigation started:

Does he for instance draw down as a cost of providing leadership services?
Does he pay his wife a wage?
Are the charges that make up the costs reasonable expenses?
Are assets sold to third parties for below market rates ?
Are assets bought from third parties at above market rates?
Who are the directors of the non profit trust ? What are their fees for such services?
The laws and compliance issues around not for profits require substantial paperwork and compliance to federal laws, from what I have told he seems to have an obsession with money so I wouldn’t be surprised that this might be the key to his undoing.

all you need is a tenacious accountant most of the stuff you need can be found on the public record.

There are other things you could find out as well. there maybe directors who are also benefit from his favor at the magazine. These directors could be targeted (for instance the spiral dynamics guy). If I was younger I would do it myself.

I have some experience here and I find it odd that he qualifies under the federal laws required for non profits, in fact I would be amazed if he did. If doesn’t provide any community services of any substance. the fact that he writes books hardly qualifies him under federal law nor does running a commune.

So I would be interested in any comments that specifically outline the structure of his organization and financial affairs. I have read back through here and apart from the summary liabilities, income and assets I have not detected a lot of depth in understanding in these issues by the ex members.

Does he keep these issues separate?

Does he employ outsiders in order to quarantine knowledge of these issues from members?

If it’s all been explored before fair enough, my apologies

And:

I think you should all petition the IRS to ask for a full investigation of the activities and accounts of the organization

IRS at 1-800-829-0433

I think you should also contact the Congressman John Oliver and alert them to this website and request an investigation.

http://www.house.gov/olver/welcome.html

Those of you who have more serious cases of abuse should take the time make a sworn statement to accompany a personal letter to Congressman Oliver.

You should also send sworn statements to Senator John Kerry and Edward Kennedy

Folks this is America believe in the system, believe in your cause and make the effort. I will have my granddaughter to do the same.

Hal, I would also suggest you print this blog with accompanying financial statements and send to every news organization in the country requesting and investigation .

Cohen’s story would make very good press as he is living like a billionaire. The mansions, international travel and cars make good press. 60 minutes would make him look like the greedy cruel man you have all found him to be.

Only then will many of you get the peace that you deserve.

To make it easy for anyone who wants to take P.O.'ed up on his call to action, in a subsequent posted comment, he provided us with more numbers to call:

Call the IRS today and request they investigate EnlightenNext Inc for fraud at 1-800-829-0433.

Call Congressman John Oliver 202-225-5335 and request he investigate the non profit status on Enlightennext Inc and the fraudulent practices of self proclaimed guru Andrew Cohen.

But, despite his age, P.O.'ed isn't stopping there. Showing the fortitude, tenacity and just plain guts that must have helped this vet get through many tough scrapes before in his long life—and calling to mind the "we're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" attitude that it takes to stop a shameless manipulator and abuser like Cohen, now P.O.'ed has written to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, calling for Cohen's harmful antics to be publicized and the public warned by putting him on O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone."

P.O.'ed is an example to all of us of how not to lie down for abusers and exploiters like Cohen, but get up and do something about them. His letter to O'Reilly, which he copied to us and asked me to post, is reproduced below:

Letter To Bill O'Reilly
by P.O.'ed Old Man

Dear Bill,

I am 81 year old retired war vet I enjoy your show and watch it every day .

About 9 years ago my grand daughter joined a cult run by self styled guru Andrew Cohen. During the time she was in the cult she never spoke to myself or her parents. About 4 years ago she eventually realized that the leader was a manipulative and abusive person and left. When she tried to leave she was subject to harassment and physical abuse. Since then she has tried to take her own life but the worst seems to be over. Her doctor attributes her bipolar disorder to the shocking abuse she received directly at the hands of Andrew Cohen.

My granddaughter is not alone. Literally hundreds of people have suffered a the hands of this so called guru. A victim’s site called What Enlightenment??! can be found at this URL:
http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com

and here
http://essentialwhatenlightenment.blogspot.com

Please read the stories of these people carefully and you will see a deplorable pattern of abuse that literally goes back 2 decades. Even his mother wrote a damning book on the her son:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570270430/104-7246142-2626303?v=glance&n=283155

and there have been many other books from ex cult members. You can find a good summary of his history here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cohen

Cohen travels the world, drives luxury cars and lives on a 220 acre estate in Lenox, MA, all under the umbrella of a non profit organization called Enlightennext Inc. I have provided links to this cult leader’s financial returns below. This guru pays himself exorbitant wages and director’s fees while his followers (volunteers) get paid nothing. This man is laughing at America, he is destroying people’s lives and dodges taxes by abusing the purpose of his non profit tax structure.

Bill, I fought for America and this isn’t the America I fought for and its not the America many of my fallen friends fought to protect. This guy is laughing at us all!

Please do an old man a favor and put this guy in the “No Spin” zone for me.

This guy needs to be stopped and the laws need to be changed so people cannot abuse the non profit protection designed to protect bono fide charities. I am getting a little old to take part but I am sure you can find plenty of ex cult members. I have asked the ones who would like to provide information to email you directly. I think seeing justice done would help my granddaughter heal. Thanks in advance. Put the bastard on full cycle and spin him good.

ENLIGHTENNEXT INC
P.O. Box 2360
Lenox, MA 01240
Mission
SPIRITUAL TEACHING AND COUNSELING.
Programs
TO PROVIDE SPIRITUAL SEMINARS, PUBLICATIONS AND COUNSELING.

2004
2004 Guidestar Financial Docs

2003
2003 Guidestar Financial Docs

2002
2002 Guidestar Financial Docs

The following are links to the UK financial reports
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts%5CEnds01%5C0001050701_ac_20041231_001_01_e_c.pdf

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts%5CEnds01%5C0001050701_AC_20031231_001_01_E_C.pdf

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=1050701

CC Hal please copy this to the site minus my email address and identification details . I want everyone who wants to participate to email Bill O’Reilly asap. I feel comfortable the Bill will pick this up and run with it and even if he doesn’t somebody at Fox will. I want to put this guy behind bars where he belongs.

A Remarkable Consistency

2006-03-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

by Aaron
(Blogger name gniz)

I have read a great deal about the Cohen situation, whether it be the books that are available, WIE magazine itself, blogs on Cohen’s website, and the reports on this blog. There is REMARKABLE consistency in the stories that are recounted about the behavior of this group. If there were a trial, I believe there is simply overwhelming circumstantial evidence as to what has occurred on Cohen’s watch.

The similarity of language used by people who are in the fold of Andrew’s group is just astounding. Using those buzzwords (evolution, conditioning, shedding of the ego, the impersonality of enlightenment). It seems to me that anyone using just a bit of discrimination can see that this is a sham. I am sorry to say it that way, to perhaps belittle what is so important to many people in this forum.

Andrew’s new phase seems to be that he is now stating that groups of students are enlightened, but only through their “group mind communication” and only under his direction. Notice his pattern is to make sure that he is the driving force behind everything and that nothing can continue without his help. If he claimed that “individual students” were enlightened, then they could potentially break away and threaten his reign.

But this way he gets to have his cake and eat it too. By proclaiming this new version of enlightenment through group communication, he gets to claim victory (like Bush in Iraq) without actually letting anyone move on and become adults. He is still big Daddy, responsible for making sure that people attain this supposed state.

What is this big evolution that everyone keeps talking about? Sorry, but it sounds like vague New Age bullshit to me. Being conscious of the moment, being present to my life is the only thing that seems sane to me. I don’t need Andrew Cohen or anyone else to do that. I could sit in a 6 foot by 6 foot box and be present. I can do it while I shop for groceries.

The ultimate egotism, it seems to me, is to claim that humans, and particularly this group of humans, are the standard bearers of conscious “evolution” of the universe. Give me a break. It’s just life. Pay attention.

Buy your groceries. Watch a movie. Pay attention. Simple.
No need for dumb gurus.

Sincerely,
Aaron

BTW, I actually have a guru and teacher. He lives miles away, doesn’t expect worship or money and doesn’t tell me how to live my life.

Vimala Thakar’s Concealed Criticism and Andrew Cohen’s Treatment of Women—The Investigation Continues

2006-02-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

Recently, a comment to an article posted on What Enlightenment??! revealed some very shocking news that few of us who are or were involved with Andrew Cohen knew—Andrew Cohen’s claims that female Indian sage Vimala Thakar supported his harsh treatment of the women in his community—in the name of breaking through “women’s conditioning”—were false. In fact, Vimala strongly criticized Andrew's treatment of the community women in a letter he kept secret from most community members.

Most readers know of Vimala Thakar , a very inspiring and impressive woman spiritual teacher who became realized after meeting J. Krishnamurti. She and Andrew communicated, she gave an interview to What Is Enlightenment? magazine, and Vimala initially appeared to support Andrew’s exploration of “women’s conditioning.” But her support changed to strong disapproval after she met with Andrew and some of his women students after the 1998 Cohen Rishikesh retreat—the retreat that has been discussed on this blog as a milestone in Cohen’s increasing abuse of female students. Andrew has kept, and continues to keep, Vimala Thakar’s strong criticism of his methods secret from most of the community, misleading the women victims of his abuse into believing that Andrew’s ideas and methods have Vimala’s tacit approval.

The shocking news of Vimala Thakar’s strong criticism of Andrew’s treatment of his women was revealed to us by former close “senior” student Stas, in a comment he made to the article on this blog by Wendyl, A Travesty of “Enlightenment”—Wendyl’s Story. Stas wrote:

Hi Wendyl. I’m happy to hear you’re doing well. Thank you very much for sharing your experience so fully, clearly and heartfully. I remember the meetings in India you mentioned with Vimala Thakar and Andrew’s “formal” women students. She impressed me too as a deeply awakened, wise and humble soul. It also made me recollect that in the months that followed that visit, Andrew corresponded with Vimala to let her know what was happening with the women. I remember he sent her a letter claiming that although it had been tough going, a “breakthrough” had occurred for the first time with his female students – this of course, was all because of his tireless efforts (sound familiar?). However, he received no response from her. So again he wrote her, this time with more vehemence. It seemed important for Andrew to have Vimala's acknowlegement of this achievement. Well, Vimala did finally write back, but it was a letter that in the end Andrew only showed to a few people. In it, Vimala told him in no uncertain terms that she thought he was totally off the mark in how he was dealing with his women students, and that she did not support what he was doing because he was harming, not helping them. Andrew of course was outraged by this criticism, and dismissed her opinion outright.

Another former close student of Andrew has confirmed to me that Andrew once mentioned to her that Vimala Thakar had written him a critical letter about his treatment of the women, although he made it sound as if her criticisms were relatively mild. He did not show her the letter. Andrew blamed the women who met with Vimala for Vimala’s disapproval. My source, one of the women who met with Vimala after the 1998 Rishikesh retreat, described herself and the other women at that meeting as emotionally “crushed” and like “the walking dead.” She painfully blamed herself—at Cohen’s behest—for Vimala’s disapproval of what Cohen was doing.

Since the publication of Mario’s article Not Forgotten—The Story of Caroline Franklyn a new level of discussion about abuse in the Andrew Cohen community has ensued on this blog, with more former students contributing to the investigation of this serious matter. This discussion resulted in Wendyl’s last article, an outpouring of her heart entitled A Travesty of “Enlightenment”—Wendyl’s Story, and continued in full force in its comments. The revelation of Vimala’s criticism of Andrew’s treatment of women and Andrew’s concealment of this fact heightened the intensity of the discussion even more. In the article below, Wendyl responds to some of the strong and incisive comments to her article.

Wendyl Responds To Comments About "Wendyl's Story"

Dear Friends,
I am writing in again to comment on some of the above posts and to add some additional insights I have into the situation with Cohen. Mario, Stas, Karen, Dragan, Heather, Hal those of you who were deeply impacted by the abuse of the women (and men) and commented on it. Let’s keep this issue of women’s conditioning alive here as I think it is essential that we women (and men) share more of our experiences of and insights into this “serial abuse”(right on, Mario).

The post by Stas was a shock and the impact of the secrecy a tragedy. A shock because of Cohen deliberately concealing Vimala’s response, not a shock that Vimala would respond this way, as I felt in my heart all along that she would not condone this monstrous behavior. A tragedy because if women had known about this all along things might have been very different for Cohen and the community (which is why he covered it up, or mentioned it to very few).

First of all I have to say that I doubt Cohen’s “spiritual” world view – for both men and women - could ever come to anything except “no good” and I will tell you why. A messianic driven world view creates an enemy and delusions of perfection. We were following a man with a mission. Stas comments aptly in his valuable and revealing article (See Either I’m crazy…or… from Jan 11th) “It is exactly this grandiose position that is Andrew’s madness”. Then we have MeroSathi’s brilliant insights into the machinations of Cohen’s and the community’s behavior. At the same time I think her/his? comments here are revealing: “This was no ordinary environment and its many benefits gave us impetus to step apart from and de-prioritize so many of our other relationships, which we now saw as driven by the “status quo” mentality, one that did not support love, intimacy and bold honesty which we seemed to be sharing. It was Andrew’s revolution……….” And we were different,” cutting edge”, and this difference made us and what we were doing more important than all the other “status quo” folks. Merosathi writes from a perspective that something went wrong at some point. To me, nothing WENT wrong. It could never go right as we were a group with a leader on a mission. And this justifies a lot of appalling behaviors especially when over time it doesn’t appear to be working. We just have to look at the history of the world to look at what kinds of outcomes transpire for groups with missions, especially missions to purify peoples.

Here is a man with a mission who legitimizes himself through the marketing vehicle of the WIE magazine, sponsoring conferences etc. He gets the “Good Housekeeping stamp of approval” from other prominent folks who have never lived under his bizarre reign– Beck, Wilbur and indirectly by association with those who are willing to be interviewed. I ask ALL of us who have been involved with Cohen, when we joined onto this revolution what exactly were we thinking? What were our motives? As I said earlier, I could see for myself that there was something that resonated for me in the “We’re doing it. We are an elite group who will change the world. We are more advanced, more evolutionary, the chosen disciples”. It wasn’t so obvious to me in the beginning as this was all mixed together with expansive “spiritual” experiences. I say this can never go right and I think we were all starving from the inhumanity and isolation of it all. For me, there is no “spiritual” life separate from Life itself. You live what you realize. And you don’t need to search further than what is in front of you face to realize and manifest your humanity.

Mario, you are probably right about Cohen’s relationship with his mother, as his brutal focus on women’s sub humanity seemed to start up when Luna revealed to him she was going to finish writing and publish “Mother of God”. I agree with Hal that Andrew also did not like women’s brand of imperfection. Karen (thank you!)…..You got the man with the mission, turning his “pure” gaze upon the plight of the world’s women, who are subhuman and manipulative etc and what do you get? Walking behind the men, not speaking until spoken to, leaden self-doubt, physical and emotional abuse, and silence. Hey, this is natural for us women. This is in our genetic memory from millennia of brutality, second in line, rape, beatings, ostracism. And there are millions of women on this planet still suffering hugely – physically, emotionally, psychologically – from our treatment at the hands of those fixing their “pure” gaze upon us. I agree with Karen - “all I can see is that what’s happened to us as women in the community is proof that 40 years of women’s lib are not enough to change a psyche that has gotten used to be abused for millennia.” I have to say that I, like Karen, saw the writing on the wall early on in Cohen’s pogroms against women but in the early days our gaze was still on the loving, compassionate insights of Vimala into those aspects of growing up female that made it difficult for women to deeply relax in life. There was still something that did not seem to harshly single out women as the main perpetrators of evil. There seemed to be something still positive in the very beginning. So, I gave Cohen the benefit of the doubt, for awhile, a very short while. Unlike Cohen’s eventual assessment, Vimala never implied that women were innately evil. More about evil, see Stas’s shocking article Either I’m Crazy…or…)

What was painful was that we women were all in cult persona, driven by approval by Cohen. I don’t think we ever really got to be relaxed with one another. You can still see that drive in the sickening, self-preoccupied, bold claims of Women on the Verge (Thanks Karen for the link) - sickening to see that Cohen’s women are still preoccupied with and writing about the same old cult speak, loaded language we were writing about 8 – 10 years ago. “We’re doin’ it. We’re doin’ it. Look Daddy, you were right. Oh, beloved Daddy, thanks for abusing us for so long so we could come to this transcendent collective hallucination!” What Cohen has succeeded in doing is silencing, making still, imprisoning potential for great contribution to life by a group of women who are so preoccupied with their messiah’s concept of “the perfect woman”, and the subsequent drama that continues because of this. Life passes them by. It is a vacuum. The vacuum publishes a slick, topical magazine to draw in more recruits. And the vacuum implodes day by day. I say, Women! Wake Up! leave the monster while you can and find something positive to do that will really help your brothers and sisters. Sisters! Let’s meet up again in a spirit of beautiful positivity.

Thank you, Heather, I am with you! So beautiful: “….real Masters and Spiritual Teachers know better than to take power from another. Their Soul purpose is not to interfere but to be an example of human potentiality. Their example is their compassion.”

With much love,

Wendyl
wendylbali@yahoo.com

A Travesty of “Enlightenment”—Wendyl’s Story

2006-02-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

A Response to The Story of Caroline Franklyn

By Wendyl

[Wendyl was a formal student in Andrew Cohen’s community. In her words, “I was so blown apart by Mario’s story about Caroline, these words just flowed from me.” She sent this article by e-mail.]

I lived as a formal student in the US community in California and Foxhollow from 1994 to 1998. My heart ached in reading Mario’s story of what happened to Caroline, whom I knew only from a couple of retreats. Mario’s sensitive and painful rendering also opened deeply an old wound in me. I feel I have to write about my own experience to let potential devotees know that these stories you read about on this blog are not rare, isolated cases. Mario, like Susan, Stas, Hal and others, shows what it is really like to be in the middle to upper echelons of the hierarchy around Cohen and what can happen to your spirit. There was something in the story of Caroline, like others have already said, that disturbed me in a way nothing before on this blog has done, like a dentist drilling and drilling an extremely sensitive tooth and finally hitting a nerve…..maybe because of the cruel tragedy around Caroline’s death. If one multiplies this aggression and bullying of a spirit by a thousand or more, one will get an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of the bright, cheery, interested faces presented to newcomers at the centers, on the Cohen website and behind the scenes of Cohen’s self-aggrandizing, self-promoting marketing vehicle called What is Enlightenment? Magazine.

I was in the 1998 India retreat that Mario mentioned “was the first indication for what was to come for Caroline” when Cohen unleashed his “vitriolic attack on formal women students.” When he “accused [us] of being insufficiently devoted to him, manipulative, untrustworthy and therefore in need of deep and complete inner change”. We were also subhuman, lesser than men – in fact we had to be subservient to the men, walk behind them, and not talk to them. The 1998 retreat in Rishikesh was a travesty. Cohen—a self-proclaimed savior of women, in fact according to him the ONLY spiritual teacher in the history of humankind that ever cared about the enlightenment of women—was relentless with his attacks and aggression. We, 40 or 50 formal women who were cramped into about a 150 sq. foot cinderblock cell of an ashram room maybe 50 meters from the holy Ganges, were like deer caught in the headlights, competing for hasty solutions to the attacks, looking for the key to overcome or transcend or see through our subhumaness. Day after day we had fresh bullying from Cohen himself or via the “senior” students—the same Steve Brett who in Cohen’s honor broke Caroline; and we also had Debbie, Michelle, and Chris Parish among others—all sent by Cohen to batter and break us, to make us so terrified and crazy we would become “free.” It was disgusting and pathetic and had no positive results. When has this kind of aggression ever had results except in torture tactics to gain information?

Why did I stay? I can say that my already fragile spirit for Cohen and what he had to offer broke completely at that retreat. I thought the whole thing was so spiritually deadly and appalling, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I just went mute. In those days with Cohen in India and afterwards I witnessed and participated in such collective hallucinations induced by him and his puppets—harsh words—terror—then possible solution—then euphoria—all of it washing over us like a drug stupor. We were all insane. When you are so self-preoccupied for so long and so intensely with your womanly “badness” your vision becomes so inverted and leaden. No light shines in you and you become numb and blind. Some, like the senior students and those formal students who rose to the top, got good at parroting Cohen’s techniques; others didn’t have the stomach for it.

At the end of that retreat (and in fact this retreat was the apex of an entire year or two of bullying the women with their badness), Cohen went with a group of women to meet Vimala Thakar, who is the spiritual heir to J. Krishnamurti, in Mt Abu in Rajasthan. She is a very beautiful, generous and wise soul who had been featured in an interview in WIE magazine at the beginning of Cohen’s preoccupation with “women’s conditioning.” The women were so self-conscious and flattened after a year or two of intense self-preoccupation with how “bad” women are, and this travesty of a “retreat,” they could barely speak with Vimala. It was just one year earlier, before the women became such “pariahs” in the community, that I had gone with two other “formal” women to meet Vimala and had two beautiful, open, simple and profound meetings with her. In Cohen’s “meeting” everything centered on what was “wrong” with women, all the women being under Cohen’s watchful eye. And of course after this pathetic encounter the women were harshly criticized. I say, what do you expect?

We “formal” women paid for our “sins” of being less than human by each being required to pay $750 to Cohen for a Meditation Hall, a hardship for many, and just another insane, desperate idea put forth by one of the women at the end of the retreat and jumped upon in the euphoric promise of possible solution to future attacks. Desperate and insane—just like the woman who suggested that all the women prostrate in a freezing lake in Foxhollow! There were scores and scores of insane ideas coming out of our leaden, inverted, compressed spirits…….

“You can die a miserable old woman,” like Steve Brett (almost certainly at Cohen’s behest) said to Caroline, or you can prostrate for hours each morning to Cohen’s picture because you are so miserably inhuman. I ask: WHO is inhuman? As Mario stated, we women were “in for it.” After this retreat we continued endless hours of women’s meetings which were unbearable, as they were poisonous forums for bullying, aggression and self fixation. Any truly transcendent moments—and there were some transcendent moments—were quickly battered and beaten out of recognition—too positive and uplifting (and therefore unreal) in a time of preoccupation with darkness and negativity. We were always paying for our “sins” by “contributing” money to buy Cohen expensive clothes, floral bouquets, whatever, staying up all night writing flowery and sickening apologies to Cohen and his chief puppets for one “transgression” after another, for how awful, inhuman we women were and how grateful we were for their “wisdom.” And we were insane and became more and more insane with this treatment. I am not saying that we women did not have deep conditioning to explore. But Cohen’s methodology is sadistic and had deeply sickened our spirits. WHO, I ask, is insane?

Why did I stay? Why did I choose this? Due to community demands, I had by that time (after 4 years in the community and 6 months before I left) cut myself off from friends, family, work possibilities; I was broke, and I doubted myself profoundly and was in a mild stupor most of the time from lack of sleep. It was only a matter of time before I was demoted as my heart had long since fled. Like Caroline I was given cruel and nasty messages from Cohen. And I too was accused by other women of things I never did. I was lucky because when I was demoted I did not have the $2000 required by Cohen to buy my way back into the “formal” students.

When you are demoted it becomes a free-for-all. Every Mary, Debbie and Cathy watches you like hawks and vultures; they shun you but also take every opportunity to peck at you, to give you their “opinion” about your behavior, also known as “feedback”. What a horror show in the name of Truth and Freedom. What a dishonor to the words in Enlightenment is a Secret that resonated deep in my heart and experience and made my spirit soar in the early 1990’s when I first read them. I was so dispirited in my last months that when I finally escaped in late 1998 I was in a state of deep traumatic stress for months afterwards. I would wake up every night in terror, with panic attacks and my thoughts were often on suicide. When I left Foxhollow to be “in hell” (according to Cohen) with my family, with the “them” not the “us.” I was humbled by how beautiful and generous my family was/is, how gracious and kind.

What makes one student resilient in spite of the severe beating of the spirit “for its own good”? And another student succumb to thoughts of suicide? I have asked myself this many times. Maybe it cannot be answered. My heart aches at the tragic situation with Caroline and her family. We can euphemistically call Cohen’s behavior “lack of skillfulness” or “crazy wisdom” or just simply and transparently call it sadism and potentially deadly terror tactics, in some arenas called “torture.” A woman who had been in the US community wrote in response to Mario’s story “I have no doubt that Andrew had no intention to cause this kind of harm to Caroline.” I don’t believe this. His intention is to break people.

So this time with Cohen was “crazed deviation” (thank you, MeroSanthi) but it showed me there had to be something in me that resonated with Cohen’s “them and us” mentality, the “cutting edge” spiritual superiority, and narcissism. And these “concepts” I have left behind in the years since leaving Foxhollow. There is nothing unusual about my experience. The whole thing is so much bigger than Cohen and many have written about this whole phenomenon. When I left, I read everything I could find which explored this kind of group/guru/authority phenomenon. Why do many of us choose these situations, whether in ashrams or corporations or any other group situation? There are a number of books out there which explain cult behavior, many of them already mentioned on this blog. There are psychologists, like Robert J. Lifton who delve deeply into Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and the psychology of traumatized peoples. Other books like Prophetic Charisma, The Guru Papers, Stripping the Gurus and many more explore the actual phenomenon of charismatic figures, authoritarianism etc. I am certain from my own recent experiences that the authoritarian/dominating paradigm is an anachronism. Many of us are finding other ways to experience and express our unity and oneness with our brothers and sisters.

When I look at the beautiful sanity and simplicity of my life now I can hardly believe how insane and sick I became in the Cohen community. Living for the last 5 years in Bali, I have moved out of my head and into my heart. After the terrorist bombings here in October 2002, I started some sustainable economic development projects—sewing and agriculture—in a poor mountain village with my close Balinese woman friend, Jero, who is from the village and is a traditional healer and Hindu priest. I fell in love with an amazing group of young people who are a wellspring of positivity, and moved by this love found that I wanted to help them find ways to support themselves, so they could help their families—bring some money in to pay for health care, schooling and food. They have been a force of inspiration and change for their whole village. What an amazing and rich adventure. Every day opportunities and challenges teach me and move me. I meet and work with many who are simple, humble forces of goodness, kindness, generosity and deep wisdom from this little village and from many countries.

Thank you very much, Hal, for this forum. Susan, Stas, Mario, Roberta, Richard, Smadar and all my “anonymous” friends……….

My love to you all.

Wendyl

wendylbali@yahoo.com

Not Forgotten – The Story Of Caroline Franklyn

2006-01-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

by Mario Puljiz

[Mario Puljiz was a formal student of Andrew Cohen, in his European community, from 1995-2000. He was a friend of Caroline Franklyn.]

Caroline Franklyn was in her late seventies at the time of her death and, having been of delicate health for some time, it seemed of little surprise that despite her remarkable spirit she passed away in London just before Christmas 1999. Caroline was also Andrew Cohen’s most elderly formal student in the UK and had been his devoted disciple for the last seven years of her life.

Caroline was no ordinary woman. Born in 1920 in the Austrian capital of Vienna, she married at 17 and moved to the then Czechoslovakian capital of Prague where she and her husband ran a perfumery on the main Wenceslas Square. After Czechoslovakia was annexed into the German Reich in early 1939, Caroline and her husband became two of the many Jewish refugees who sought safety and freedom in England. They were granted an entry and eventually settled in Hendon, North London. In 1945 Caroline gave birth to their daughter and she carried on working tirelessly with her husband, rebuilding their life in England. Besides bringing up her daughter, Caroline ran her own interior design business and alongside that she also nursed her ill husband for number of years before his death. Some time after his loss, Caroline learnt by chance about J. Krishnamurti. Through the writings and spoken words of the old master she began pursuing a deep and heartfelt spiritual interest and throughout the 70’s and early 80’s she regularly travelled to see him teach in England and abroad. Krishnaji was undoubtedly the source of tremendous spiritual inspiration for Caroline and someone who she greatly respected.

A few years after Krishnamurti’s death in 1986 Caroline came across a young American teacher called Andrew Cohen and soon his passionate call to awaken ignited fire in her heart once more. When he formed his new community in London in the early ’90s Caroline became a member, and soon also one of Cohen’s first formal students in the UK. Caroline’s life was taking yet another unexpected but thrilling turn – now in her early seventies she had a new and inspiring spiritual teacher, she belonged to his close-knit community of students and, perhaps the most important of all, she again felt that tangible promise of waking up in this very life.

Caroline dressed well and much younger than her age; she was bright, lively and warm hearted person who was unafraid of speaking her mind even when that meant going against the "party line" in Andrew Cohen’s community. While at times she undoubtedly got things wrong or was overconfident in her ways, she also rarely shied away from being herself, for better or worse. In a community where adopting uniform views on a range of issues - from matters spiritual to one’s taste in films and clothes - was of crucial importance, Caroline’s views were often different and therefore frequently considered unsuitable. Add to this the fact that Caroline, despite her spirit and vitality, was also an elderly person who could not always keep up with the busy and often exhausting lifestyle in the community, and you will get a picture of someone who was a bit different from the majority of Andrew Cohen’s students.

Caroline’s sense of independence was most probably the legacy of her extraordinary life; to leave her home under life-threatening circumstances, move to a foreign country and start an altogether new life against the background of a world war she undoubtedly had to be both strong and determined. There was also her long and profound connection with Krishnamurti, who taught the necessity of independence from religious organizations as they inevitably grow to be an obstacle to one’s freedom instead of, as they tend to claim, the entrance gates of it. Caroline never physically moved into Cohen’s community and carried on living in her townhouse in the leafy London suburb of Richmond. She was therefore in many ways out of the reach of the long dictating arm of the community on a day-to-day basis. This also enabled her to regularly see and be in touch with her family who she very much loved and did not want to leave behind; cutting off or reducing contacts with one’s family was one of the prices to pay for physically living in the community, as families were perceived as an obstacle to one’s freedom. However, Caroline was at the same time a very devoted student of Andrew Cohen’s and she regularly made a number of long weekly journeys to the community to attend meetings, events and video showings. Her family confirmed that she always spoke about her teacher and her community with love and pride and that in their eyes her spiritual life gave Caroline a wonderful and invigorating lease of life at her advanced age.

The first hint of what was to come for Caroline appeared in January 1998 when, during the Rishikesh Retreat in India, Andrew Cohen unleashed a vitriolic attack on the formal women students in the community. He accused them of being insufficiently devoted to him, manipulative, untrustworthy and therefore in need of a deep and complete inner change. The women were pushed into an endless series of meetings in which they were asked to declare their faithfulness to Cohen, confess to the charges of manipulation and repent their sins in order to come clean. Over the following weeks and months many of the formal female students (including Caroline), verbally battered and emotionally broken as a result of those meetings, were forced to step down and become lay students. Even some of us formal men, well used to intense meetings in which one could be verbally attacked or reprimanded by the group for his perceived egotistical tendencies, privately considered those meetings to be just too severe.

While stepping down meant a welcome temporary relief for the demoted female students, it did not mean the end of their suffering. They were still forced to attend a number of weekly meetings with selected formal women who were perceived by Cohen to be in good spiritual shape. In those meetings, whose supposed aim was to "help" those women to "rise up" and become formal students once more, they were again subjected to the same scenario to the one before – forced confessions, verbal abuse and aggression. Looking back it was of no surprise that Caroline, dejected and of delicate health (she had a condition that would at times cause her difficulties in breathing), never "came through" in those meetings and never regained her formal student status.

Many of we formal students lost sight of Caroline after that. This was a common though often unspoken practice in the formal community – once someone stepped down to a lower echelon they were practically isolated from their former peers and, while they could still attend public meetings and events, they were considered not to be doing well and consequently not paid much attention to. Only later did I learn of Caroline’s heartache at being cruelly sidelined after so many years of deep involvement in the community. But to Cohen and to us she was just another casualty of "the war against the ego" who in essence deserved what she got, the same as everyone else in her position.

Towards the end of 1999 Andrew Cohen came to London to conduct public teachings and, amongst all, Caroline came to see him too. For us students in London it was a rare opportunity to see Cohen in person as he spent most of the year travelling and lecturing around the world. If one wanted to speak to him directly about one’s practice, spiritual development, or any other issue, this was the opportunity. Caroline approached Debbie, one of Cohen’s senior students, after the teaching on Saturday 11 December 1999 and asked if she could see the master privately. Caroline said later that Debbie responded to her in a contemptuous manner, telling her that she was not going to see her teacher that evening. Soon after the exchange was over, Caroline left the teaching venue disheartened and in no doubt that her teacher was not going to see her.

Caroline arrived home after a long drive back to Richmond from Central London where the teachings were held. Her home phone rang and on the other end was another senior student of Andrew Cohen’s, Steve Brett, calling to discuss why she had not waited at the venue to see her master. Caroline’s explanation that she had been told by Debbie that she could not see Cohen, fell on deaf ears. Brett strongly reprimanded Caroline for leaving the venue without waiting to be seen by her teacher, particularly as she herself had asked to see him. Caroline nevertheless protested her innocence as she simply did not think that she had done anything wrong. But Caroline’s response here was undoubtedly another clear sign to Andrew Cohen of how independent and egotistical she was in her stubborn refusal to humble herself and admit her “mistake.” To him there was no doubt that it was Caroline who was wrong here and she needed to be told that in no uncertain terms. After the conversation ended Caroline was deeply shaken and upset. She felt wronged and blamed for something that, in her mind, was never true; she was also dismayed by how strongly she was reprimanded by Brett for her apparent mistake.

The following day, on Sunday 12 December 1999, her phone rang once more and it was again Steve Brett on the other end of the line. Clearly dissatisfied that in the previous phone call Caroline had not "cracked" under his pressure and "admitted her sin," Steve Brett went on to deliver a renewed but far more devastating attack on Caroline. Caroline said later that the conversation lasted for about forty five minutes and that during it Brett repeatedly insulted her with a ferocity that left her completely traumatized. Caroline said that she had to keep the phone handset away from her ear on many occasions as Brett was literally shouting at her from the other side. She was told that she was going to “die a miserable old woman” and how awful it was on her part that she had dared to leave the venue without waiting to see Cohen. Without any consideration whatsoever for her physical and spiritual frailty, Brett again and again furiously scolded Caroline for her apparent egotistical and independent ways that completely infuriated her teacher. Caroline was told that, instead of surrendering her soul to Andrew Cohen now that she was coming close to dying, she was still holding on to her small life and her ego and would die as such. Caroline also spoke about her intuitive feeling that Cohen was in the room with Brett, listening to the latter delivering his attack.

Anyone who has been a student of Andrew Cohen’s will know of his deep need to control all the important aspects of life in his community. Quite literally nothing of significance happened in the community without him either initiating it or giving his clear prior approval. For a senior student to deliver such lengthy and astonishingly brutal feedback to Caroline after her apparent big mistake with her teacher who was also in London at the time, points to only one thing to me. Brett, acting as a mouthpiece, only delivered what Andrew Cohen had instructed him to deliver. This deliberately destructive feedback was clearly aimed at breaking Caroline’s internal defences and getting her to finally realise how detrimental her independent conduct was to her "spiritual progress" and, perhaps even more significantly, how displeased Andrew Cohen was about her "self-willed ways." Disturbingly, Brett was neither the first nor the last to deliver such damaging “feedback.” Many of us were at some point asked by our teacher, himself well-versed in employing righteous anger when giving reflections, to "blast" another student for their apparent egotistical tendencies and we unquestioningly did just that. Made to believe that only complete obedience to Andrew Cohen would bring us enlightenment, we became the clear perpetrators of many devious and dark power games orchestrated by him. Brett in this case was no exception.

However, in this particular case the student spoken to was not a typical Andrew Cohen student – the relatively young, enormously devoted and resilient type who could, in spite of all the emotional ache, survive such fierce feedback, admit the alleged “sins” no matter whether they were actually true or not and respond with a bouquet of flowers and a written apology expressing their love for and devotion to the master. Here the person spoken to was an elderly long term student in vulnerable spiritual and physical circumstances who was still reeling after a deeply upsetting first phone call the evening before. Despite her great spirit she was already shaken, clearly unprepared and not expecting yet another, albeit far more devastating, feedback phonecall. Brett, possibly also in order to impress our teacher which we often tried to do when given any sort of tasks personally from him, delivered an exceedingly harsh and unforgiving tirade to someone who was absolutely not in the position to take it. This is why the consequences and the eventual outcome of this incident are particularly ghastly.

After the conversation had ended Caroline Franklyn was not the same person anymore. Under Brett’s enormous pressure her spirit was finally broken; bullied into believing that what he’d been telling her was indeed true, she took it all to her heart utterly and completely. She later told her loved ones that the "conversation" had emotionally shattered her and that she did not have any willingness to live anymore. A profound sense of alienation, fear and psychological torment filled her soul and she could see no purpose or way forward anymore, neither in her spiritual pursuit nor in her life as a whole. Her health started worsening and she became bed bound within days, a complete shadow of the person she had always been. Caroline’s family soon came to help, thinking initially that it was just an unusually bad attack coming from her breathing condition. However, they soon realised through talking to Caroline that the predicament here was very different. Having learnt about the disturbing incidents with Steve Brett and seeing the immediate sharp deterioration of Caroline’s health that was the result of it, Caroline’s family understandably felt that they did not want Andrew Cohen’s students around Caroline at all. They were deeply worried that any further direct contact with the community would only aggravate Caroline’s already increasingly fragile condition. What they primarily wanted was to secure a peaceful and healing environment within which their beloved mother and grandmother could recover from this sudden and devastating shock. They remember receiving phonecalls from what they recall to be female formal students from the community enquiring about Caroline’s condition. However, the family was uneasy about these calls - they never felt that this interest in Caroline’s condition was genuine and considered it to be an orchestrated information-gathering and damage limitation exercise on the part of Andrew Cohen and his organization.

Caroline’s health kept worsening and on 20 December 1999 she was taken to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London’s Chelsea district, where her family hoped she would have the best chance to recover. Little did they know they were witnessing the last days and hours of Caroline’s life but more than anything it was the state that she was in during this period - haunted, tormented and fearful of further attacks – that shocked them to the core. In spite of the doctor’s and family’s attempts to sooth Caroline’s pain and remedy her spirit back to life, they were now increasingly worried that they were losing her. In their desperation the family decided to contact Andrew Cohen through his London centre and they pleaded to him to send a message to Caroline in hope that a loving word from her teacher could bring her spirit back to life. Andrew Cohen sent a message via phonecall through one of his senior students and his message to Caroline was one of love and forgiveness. By that time Caroline was already largely unconscious although when the message was communicated to her, her eyes opened for a split second and her hand grip became momentarily stronger only to weaken shortly afterwards.

Caroline Franklyn died in the Royal Brompton Hospital in London on 23 December 1999 at the age of seventy nine, only eleven days after the second phone conversation with Steve Brett. She died with a broken heart and in a state of absolute inner terror and anguish, a wonderful and brave human spirit who fought against many odds in her life, and was finally destroyed by those that she loved and devoted her spiritual life to. Caroline’s family believe that she would have certainly carried on living had her spirit not been mercilessly crushed to the point that she tragically gave up on life. Her illness, while undoubtedly serious, was still of a periodical and manageable nature and she had successfully kept it under control in the past.

During that same time I was a formal student in the London community and the described events that were unfolding around Caroline were initially not known to us. However, the message was soon sent to all formal students directly from Andrew Cohen that none of us must get involved with anything regarding Caroline as she had "blown it with him." We were told that this was a great mistake on Caroline’s part and that, now that her health was rapidly deteriorating, we must leave it to Andrew Cohen only to communicate and deal with her. This directive also meant not speaking to or spreading this story amongst the students from the lower community ranks; this rule indeed applied to all messages we formal students ever received from Andrew Cohen. We were never told about the conversations between Brett and Caroline that initiated Caroline’s rapid health decline and subsequent death. Many of us also sensed from the announcement that Caroline was in psychological pain that was so often the result of making any significant mistake with Cohen.

A few days later a message came through that Caroline had died. We were told that her family did not want any of us at her funeral and we, knowing that it had been a process so difficult that our teacher had to personally deal with it, left it at that. Some of us formal students privately felt that at least an announcement should be made to everyone that one of our own had passed away so we could come together as a community in her honour. However, nothing came from our teacher regarding that and, as he had already taken charge of the whole situation and specifically told us not to get involved in anything regarding Caroline, we obediently kept quiet, questioned nothing and in the end did nothing.

I was not the only one who felt in shock about Caroline’s death and who had to suppress all the conflicting feelings in order to obey my teacher’s order not to get involved. This was a type of robotic, unreal response that many formal students habitually employed when dealing with our incompatible internal responses which had to be restrained in order to conform to the "party line" or a directive from above. Our silence here, and by our I mean of formal and senior students, was the perfect response from the obedient disciple point of view but absolutely shameful from the human point of view. I know of one case where a lay student, entirely unaware of the imposed ban, brought up the issue of community silence about Caroline’s death and was promptly and strongly reprimanded by a senior student for being suspicious and doubtful of his teacher’s conduct and intentions. This ensured that any other possible questioning voices in the lay community knew what was going to come their way if they were to bring up the issue again.

The community announcement about Caroline Franklyn’s death was never made and the whole case was swiftly put behind and quickly forgotten. It was indeed as if Caroline had never existed – her name was rarely if ever mentioned by Cohen or his senior and formal students and the full scale of the events surrounding her death was never exposed within the community. Caroline was cremated in the Hoop Lane Crematorium in Golders Green in London and her ashes are buried in the woodlands near Alsford in Hampshire close to the Brockwood Park Krishnamurti Centre. A wreath ring of white flowers was the only thing that was sent from the community for her funeral. A handful of former Cohen students were the only people from all her years spent with him that came to pay their respects. Caroline’s daughter approached some of them after the funeral and asked: “Why did she have to die like that?” struggling to grasp why her mother had to exit this world haunted and in anguish. The family decided afterwards to take the matters further and wrote a letter personally to Andrew Cohen to obtain explanations about the events preceding the sudden deterioration of Caroline’s health that led to her death. He never answered.

Mario Puljiz
London UK
mario.puljiz@gmail.com

“Either I’m Crazy…or…”

2006-01-11T21:52:00.001-08:00

A Behind The Scenes Look At Andrew Cohen's Black Or White Logic

By Stas M.

[Note: The following article is by a former long-term and close “senior” student of Andrew Cohen, who was known in Cohen’s community as “Ernest.” His previous contribution to this blog is Letter From A Senior Student.]

“Here it comes”, I thought to myself. As a longtime student of Andrew Cohen I heard him utter these words many times over the years. And now I found myself sitting with a handful of others, in anticipation, waiting again to see where his broad, sweeping logic would take us.

“Either I’m crazy…or there’s something so pure, so absolutely good about me that brings out the devil in people who get close to me. And I can’t help it, but my function is to purify everyone around me from ego.” Andrew made this bold statement on a mild summer evening in August 2002 at a rustic, but elegant restaurant-villa in the village of Tourettes-sur-Loup, Southern France, where with his inner circle of senior students he was celebrating the successful conclusion of the retreat he had just given in nearby Les Courmettes. At our guru's words the table fell silent, save for a few murmured “ummms” and nods of assent.

There was a somber note to the occasion, because at this retreat Andrew had been putting tremendous pressure on his women students to give up what he considered their female “personal perspective” for “the sake of the whole.” As a result, yet another of his close, longtime people, a leader among his “formal” women students had “crashed and burned,” dramatically leaving the retreat (and Andrew) under the intense psychological and emotional pressure. This pressure included being videotaped in a small room as I and another student berated her, at Andrew’s request, for betraying him and for responding to criticism with what Andrew considered a “demonic” expression on her face. (At the time, Andrew was obsessed with trying to capture the “smile of the ego” or the face of the “devil” on video. Andrew had a number of such videos made of students being interrogated and humiliated.) These kinds of extreme, anger-fueled tactics had been used by Andrew for some years to try to “crack” someone’s ego, but lately he had given it a name – he was calling it "evolutionary tension." Those with leadership responsibilities were especially susceptible to Andrew's displeasure and wrathful imposition of such “tension” when they didn't measure up to his expectations. The result was nearly always the same –- sooner or later they would leave. It was at difficult and tragic moments like this that our guru would resort to his flawed black or white, “either-or” argument.

“Either I’m crazy…or…” was designed to force us to complete the Aristotelian logic in our heads -–“our guru is definitely not crazy, therefore…what he’s doing is obviously completely and cosmically right.” And so our response was: “Yes, Andrew we’re with you no matter what!” It had to be. The logic dictated it, since it was never really a matter for serious consideration that our teacher may in fact BE “crazy.” For to entertain the possibility that our guru might actually be crazy, or even just flawed, would be to cast doubt on what we had given years of our lives to, the validity of our cherished spiritual experiences, and even our own judgment and sanity, as well.

It had been hard to ignore the steady stream of committed students in responsible positions exiting the ranks each year--a fact that might have given another teacher pause for self-reflection and re-assessment. Yet for our guru, the pain, devastation and leaving of his students were only proof of the sanctity of his mission. He would often gather together his remaining troops and once again trot out the “either-or” argument. Then there would be Andrew’s scathing assessment of the student who left--the disparagement and erasure from our lives of one or more of our former compatriots and friends (now “traitors”) in “the revolution”.

Andrew’s trashing of this person would have already happened at least a few times prior to his or her departure, while they were still there, present and struggling to deal with the pressure being put on them from all sides. These were the "meetings" where one or more committed students on the hot seat were severely criticized, screamed at and insulted by Andrew in front of the others. Generally, most of these gatherings were held in his office in the Foxhollow compound or in his living room. Still, on more than a few occasions, we would be called to a local bar, where we’d find Andrew sternly sitting at a table, like the Godfather, next to his right-hand person of the moment, greeting us with "I called you here because I have to get drunk first before I can talk to you!'" Then the usual bullying would ensue without inhibitions.

However, Andrew's special "either I'm crazy or…" speech would normally be reserved for meetings after the bloodbath, when the student in question had been kicked out or had left in an emotionally and spiritually crushed state. (See Susan Bridle's article A Legacy of Scorched Earth.) He would then speak retrospectively to the remaining faithful in an attempt to explain the recent painful events. This would allow Andrew, once again, to gain reassurance from us, his devotees, that we understood the "context." Here the "context" meant basically that anything goes in the name of liberation, and that no matter what, Andrew's judgment must be trusted. Remember, “either I’m crazy or...”! Andrew would also remind us that ego death is not for wimps. "Right?...Right!" We would then acknowledge to him that we understood how the collective force of ego is against him at every turn, and that, yet again, he is being let down and betrayed by even his closest people only because he is such a purifying “force for goodness.” In effect, we would be tapping into the primary myth of our lives with Andrew, and as "Greek chorus" in this tragedy, would "sing" to him: “No, Andrew, of course you are not crazy, you are a living Buddha!”

It is important to see that there is no middle ground in Andrew's argument. That is, either he is insane or he is a prophetic vehicle for an absolutely perfect cosmic unfolding of consciousness, divinely inspired and guided by universal principles of evolution. Otherwise, his actions might have to be judged by the same shared standards of human decency we mere mortals apply to vet out narcissistic and even abusive behavior toward each other. His many punitive actions with his students (including the kinds of emotional, psychological, financial and even physical abuses documented on this blog) are supposed to be seen in the context of coming from someone who has no “shadow,” hidden agendas or blind spots, and who is thus only serving as an agent for the evolutionary needs of the student. Andrew and his apologists have criticized this blog precisely for failing to give this "context" to his actions. For without this “context” of an unquestioning shared belief in Andrew as enlightened agent for the cosmic "guru principle", his actions would be seen for what they are, as dangerously misguided, harmful, and self-serving.

There is a truism, expressed humorously by the Italians: “tutti pazzi”— we’re all a little crazy! Yet, it appears to be impossible for Andrew to even consider that he might have some faults, blind spots, a shadow like the rest of us. Having been a close student of Andrew over the years, it seems to me that what is at stake for him in this regard is nothing less than his absolute conviction in the cosmic rightness of his mission, and his confidence in his infallibility and the efficacy of his methods. But, I believe, it is exactly this grandiose position that is Andrew’s madness. This is borne out by the harm he has caused many of his students by imposing on them his brand of “evolutionary tension.” It seems that because he is so busy constantly trying to convince everyone (and perhaps himself, as well) that he is not crazy, his ability to clearly and consistently manifest real wisdom and compassion has been severely hampered. And, as evidenced on this blog, this is a real danger to those who might enter into relationship with him as spiritual mentor and authority.

By recognizing the thinking which underpins everything Andrew does, there is the hope that those who are or have been involved with him as teacher can see through his “either-or” framework to a more inclusive and real picture of Andrew as a human being like everyone else. They might even dare to openly question and test what he says and does against their own experience and values, and consider the possibility that real freedom must include our shadows, flaws and imperfections. Then the question “What is enlightenment?” would become subtler (and more complex), and could be pursued in an open-ended way, free from Andrew’s dangerously closed, authoritarian and self-serving “logic.”

So Sad . . .

2006-01-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

I recently received the following email from a reader:

Subject: So Sad . . .

Hal,

I am literally shaking after having read your articles. I am a Sai Baba survivor. In 2000, after having been a devotee for 25 years, I collapsed under the large number of credible allegations of sexual abuse against children.

I must tell you that I thought Andrew was a beacon of light in a sea of slime.

Oh, what are we to do if “impersonal enlightenment” can still see a man go so wrong? If an “avatar” can ruin young children’s lives?

Thank you for breaking your silence. There goes my thinking that we were crafting a spirituality that was appropriate for North Americans. I am so sad. What are we to do?
My response:

It is sad. But I think it is better to know, even though it brings sadness, than to waste years going down the wrong road. So, although it is sad that the teacher isn't what he pretended to be, you could be happy you found out. There is a lot to learn from this.

I think there are still some good teachers out there, some folks who have realization and are genuine. They can be a bit harder to find because I think that they usually don't promote themselves very much. They don't usually hold themselves out as anything special, so they can be harder to recognize. In my opinion, they don't usually demand obedience or reverence, and they don't pretend to be perfect. They also don't try to take away your independence and autonomy. These are just a few pointers I have found through my 30 years or so of relating to spiritual teachers and teachings. Someone else's experience may be different.

I think there is some truth to the saying that "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." I think we tend to find, often by coincidence, the teacher and teaching that is appropriate for us at the moment.

Good luck. And thank you for your response to the blog. I am glad that you found it useful to you.

Warm wishes,
Hal

WIE EDITOR CRAIG HAMILTON LEAVES MAGAZINE, COHEN GROUP

2005-12-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

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 Blacker and Susan Bridle . Now, WE can't help but wonder whether and when he will follow in the footsteps of his WIE editor predecessors Blacker and Bridle (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.

Why Leaving Andrew Cohen’s Group Can Be So Hard

2005-12-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

In addition to the direct difficulties Cohen often creates for close students who wish to leave him, including threats and acts perhaps just this (or the other?) side of false imprisonment (see my previous article Karma Will (Literally) Cost You And Leaving Isn’t Easy), there are psychological reasons why leaving a group like Cohen’s can be very difficult. In many ways, abusive spiritual groups like Andrew Cohen’s replicate the circumstances created by Dr. Philip Zimbardo in his famous Stanford Prison Experiment.

A friend who was a former close Cohen student recently pointed me to Geoffrey Falk’s Stripping the Gurus, a book available on-line, that contains a chapter that makes this point, compares abusive groups and analyzes the reasons members often have a difficult time leaving them despite their abuse. Here is a brief excerpt:

AS WE HAVE SEEN, a common set of alleged problems, even expressed in nearly identical words, tend to occur in our world’s spiritual communities. Indeed, the reported characteristics observed are essentially independent of the specific beliefs espoused by the community, and of the historical time and place in which the spiritual leader and his disciples have existed.
Why would that be?
A large part of the answer surely comes from well-known research done at Stanford University in the early 1970s. There, Dr. Philip Zimbardo—later, president of the American Psychological Association—was able to inadvertently transform a group of “healthy, intelligent, middle-class” college-age individuals into “fearful, depressed, neurotic, suicidal shadows” in less than a week. He did that simply by arbitrarily assigning them (via the flip of a coin) to guard/prisoner roles in a simulated prison environment which they all knew was just an experiment.

Falk describes the Stanford Prison Experiment and discusses the similarity of the psychological coercion created there to the environment in abusive groups. In examining the role of psychological trauma and abuse in disempowering students in abusive spiritual communities, he mentions Andrew Cohen’s group. For example:

To a more chronic degree, though, much of the emotional violence and psychological abuse reportedly perpetrated in the name of “ego-killing discipline,” as a betrayal of trust and widely recognized “spiritual rape,” would also qualify as trauma. Indeed, Tarlo’s (1997) and van der Braak’s (2003) stories of alleged discipline at Cohen’s hands are nothing if not descriptions of repeated emotional trauma/shocks, humiliation and degradation. Further, those occurred in an “intimate or bonded relationship” with the guru-figure, which they could not escape without being “bad disciples” or “failures.” And wherever there is such inescapable trauma, one will find instances of both “learned helplessness” and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Thus, “crazy wisdom” or “Rude Boy” environments in particular cannot help but be breeding grounds for exactly those ailments.

Many former Cohen students find this chapter of Falk’s book eerily familiar. The complete chapter can be found here:

Stripping The Gurus: Chapter XXVII, Gurus and Prisoners.

Another Teacher Like Cohen

2005-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

by Daniel

There is another living guru just like Cohen. I recently left his fold and stumbled upon this website. You see after leaving my teacher I was strangely attracted to Cohen. Only to realize that Cohen is using the exact same tactics and circular logic of faulting everything to "EGO" as my own "crazy-wise" teacher.

If you haven't guessed already, my teacher was Adi Da. The men's and women's "consideration" groups, the endless "ego-war" and striving for perfection. The constant feeling of being an utter failure and never good enough for the guru. Ridiculously unfair criticisms from the guru. The questionable flow of many and huge donations made by people who can ill afford it. And on and on and on. It is all the same. The two men are incredibly similar in their method.

Andrew comes across at least in public as having all sorts of humility. Adi Da most certainly does not. But from what I read Andrew's humility is not sincere. Both men have had a falling out with their past teachers (although Adi Da still proclaims great love for Muktananda). Both men interestingly enough have zero support from their mothers. A devotee told me how occasionally Adi Da would have his (now deceased) mother visit the Ashram where she would be screaming at him "I don't care how many books you've written you are not God" to which he would just respond by laughing louder and louder at her. But a mother knows her son better than anyone else I think.

The power of belief in ones own "reality" is contagious and I sincerely think that both these men completely believe in their Divinity. So much so that it has convinced thousands around them of this same "reality". They are both great spiritual geniuses, of that I have no doubt. Adi Da also is a genius of meditation and transmission of spiritual energy. As I imagine is Andrew also. But I'm coming to realize you cannot equate intellectual and spiritual genius with the inability to ever become deluded.

Therefore I still have great love for Adi Da. Because he sincerely believes in his Mission and he struggles immensely in it. I am grateful for his teachings and all I have gained from being in his community. But I am very glad I did not become one of the "inner circle" or decide to completely drop my life outside of his Ashram (and it got very close to that-- I lived and served at his Ashram for a year). I am still fairly young (26) and will certainly continue on the Spiritual path, but with greater caution.

For all I know complete surrender to a Guru with double standards could still be beneficial. It isn't for me to say. "A fool who persists in his folly, becomes wise" a great poet once said. But myself I am a devotee of Happiness and I did not see that sufficiently in the longtime devotees of Adi Da or the master himself.. In Adi Da's own accounting, nobody had yet gained very much enlightenment at all after 32 years of his teaching! Peace of being and Happiness are for me the most important thing in life. And so I had to leave my guru because I did not find it there sufficiently. And also I could never trust Adi Da so completely as to surrender to Him completely and, in his dharma, anything less than complete (literally every second of the day and night) surrender of attention towards the guru was a barrier to God-realization. So if I cannot trust him completely (after 6 years) I cannot surrender completely and I am wasting my time. So I left.

I hope you will post this on your site for those who have left Andrew Cohen to see that there are others in similar situations with other teachers.

Daniel

Tale of Two Teachers

2005-10-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

by Karl B.

[Note: The following article is a fascinating account from a person who was among the first to spend time with Andrew Cohen after Andrew's enlightenment experience with H.W.L. Poonja (known as Papa-ji or Poonja-ji), the guru who Andrew later disavowed. Soon after spending time with Andrew in Rishikesh, the author met Poonja-ji himself, and, like Andrew, was also declared enlightened and given permission to teach by Poonja. The story gives a valuable historical perspective on Andrew Cohen and raises interesting questions about his claims to uniqueness, as well as the very nature of enlightenment itself.]

I am sharing my story in hopes that my perspective could serve as a tool for seekers questioning their path and themselves. In the Summer of 1986, I was staying in Hardwar, India, awaiting the opportunity to meet H.W.L. Poonja Ji, whom I had learned about from Murray, a fellow traveler, at a high Himalayan shrine. There was a knock on my hotel room door. It was Murray and Andrew Cohen. They had news to share with me and wanted me to walk to the Ganga to talk. At the banks of the holy river, Andrew explained that he had just become enlightened by the grace of Poonja Ji, and that he was now beginning his teaching career. They planned to have satsangs in Rishikesh while they waited for Poonja to join them. Would I like to come along?

I was determined to meet Poonja (who was not commonly available in those days) so I went with them. About a dozen of us rented the rear compound of a temple in Laskman Jhula, and plunged into an orgy of Satsang, tea drinking, and Ganga dipping.

How can I capture the rare and fascinating dynamics of a man suddenly plunged into the role of spiritual teacher? He was trying to process and understand the sudden change he had undergone and he was attempting to enlighten others at the same time. It would be easy to focus on the negatives, it would be easy to focus on the positives, but it would be impossible to convey the totality of the situation without bias. With that disclaimer, I will simply attempt to share my perspectives that might benefit those who are concerned with the enigma of Andrew and the mysteries of "Enlightenment."

We stayed up regularly into the wee hours of the night, engaged in one-on-one dialogs and group discussions. (Eating kilos of mangos in the process) I thought Andrew was an unparalleled genius in using Socratic questioning to guide a person to a state where they would no longer have "a place to stand." He could force a person's mind into a self-canceling contradiction where thought was suspended and transcendent reality might have a moment to shine through. For me personally, I was very much benefited by Andrew's explanation of the simple fact that the highest Self was not "an experience" by virtue of the fact that our highest Self was the experiencing consciousness, the subject, not object, of all experience.

I spoke with Andrew a great deal about his developing perspectives on his sudden enlightenment. He freely admitted to being a miserable neurotic seeker prior to his breakthrough with Poonja Ji. Andrew was certain that through Poonja, he had reached full and final enlightenment, beyond which no further progress was relevant. He claimed to be a radically changed man.

Later I found it ironic that a "fully enlightened" man would write a gushy love book about his guru, and then manage to have an ugly falling out with him, over petty issues. In a vast universe with untold planets and beings, underpinned by a timeless reality, maybe we shouldn't use that word "final" so easily.

Andrew was also convinced that his students were becoming enlightened, or coming to the brink of enlightenment, at unprecedented speed. Folks were becoming "enlightened" and then falling from enlightenment at record pace. All this judged as true by a man claiming final and full enlightenment.

On one hand, Andrew's approach was refreshing. He was a Western teacher unburdened by "Indian Guru Conditioning" Satsang was free of the ritualistic culture of respect, reverence, even worship, commonly found around Gurus. You could treat Andrew as a friend. On the other hand, there was a feedback loop of praise and discovery that was plainly leading Andrew to suspect that he was such an exceptional teacher, that he just might be the greatest of all, perhaps the fountainhead of what could be a revolution of human consciousness in the planet.

The biggest turn-offs were his monumental arrogance and narcissism. I was no stranger to great teachers with flaws, so I reserved judgment. Still, one of the great questions seekers face is "What is the relationship between the personality of the teacher, their ability to impart wisdom, the perfection of the Absolute, and it's application to the relativities of human life in this world?" Let's get back to that later.

The pressure to submit to Andrew grew and grew, as Andrew's enlightening process seemed to depend on surrender to both "the Truth" and to Andrew. As students surrendered to Andrew, they looked to influence others to do the same.

While I clearly hadn't surrendered, I was open to satsang and deepening my spirituality, so I submitted to Andrew's questions and challenges. I had knowledge of Hindi, Sanskrit and various Indian philosophies. Andrew believed that I was attached to that knowledge and insisted that I throw my spiritual books in the Ganga. I felt that I had already come to terms with the limitations of paper knowledge, but eventually complied in order to prove my ambivalence. I felt neither freedom nor attachment in doing so, just a sense of waste. Does he ever force students to throw Andrew's books into that icy lake?

I had met many teachers over many years. I felt Andrew was not exceptional on any transcendental level, although he certainly had rare skill in dialectics. His heart seemed almost limited to marveling at his own greatness. Looking back at Andrew's teaching career, it seems to me that he's been determined to "stand out" and "be special" among all teachers. At first, when students appeared to become suddenly enlightened, Andrew had a claim to fame as a vehicle for instant transformation. When it turned out that those transformations were short-lived, I believe Andrew had to develop "cutting edge" enlightenment concepts so that he wouldn't just be "another guru." Certainly as a budding musician he would have fantasized about success with it's attendant fame and adulation. Now it would come through his very inner superiority. The neutral Light of the Spirit can lend a fake authenticity to an overblown ego with its power and radiance.

I hadn't been immune from this fault myself, as a tantric guru in Badrinath had earlier faulted me for wanting to be special. He said there was a danger of my inflicting "Karl-ism" on the world. He said that great men like Gandhi were simple, and accepted their mission with humility. I had to look within and admit that he was right.

Back to my story, I'd waited long enough to meet Poonja. A former Muktananda Swami and I somehow got permission to visit Poonja in Delhi. We left Andrew and crew in Rishikesh.

Within a few weeks of meeting him in Delhi, Poonja Ji had declared me enlightened as well, and given me permission to teach as he had given Andrew permission to teach. I believe I was the second appointed teacher of Poonja's. At this point, I don't believe Poonja had an idea of what exactly he expected from his emissaries. It was certainly not the case, as some have suggested, that Andrew's role was to attract followers to Poonja Ji in Lucknow. Poonja's health was in serious question in 1986. He had no ashram, no attendant disciples, no history of collecting followers, and there was no talk of changing that. He didn't even have a "teaching" in a conventional sense.

On the other hand, I don't think he expected Andrew to make up his own teachings and declare himself Lord. I had no discussions with Poonja regarding how teaching should proceed. I think Poonja Ji assumed that anyone grounded in Truth would be guided from within. Poonja always let his followers be free. He never demanded any money from me, nor gave me any orders. Rather he'd buy me a mango lassi and sit in communing silence with me if I didn't have any questions.

I had experienced a radical transformation 8 years earlier, where I clearly perceived the unity and perfection of all things as consciousness. You could say that I was reborn, but not without my own share of delusions and confusions. The "enlightenment" that I later experienced with Poonja Ji was no such "big bang." It was an ineffable shift that opened a clear sense of my own eternal nature as consciousness. I had always been a happy and peaceful person; my immersion in my own presence had been continuous in my mental background since my initial awakening. I'd be tempted to say that Poonja simply gave me proper understanding of my Self, but I'm afraid this would miss a transcendental aspect of his transmission that defies words and understanding.

This "enlightenment" transmission of Poonja Ji has been controversial since other paths have views of enlightenment that are much more extreme in terms of mystical knowledge and power. I consider "enlightenment" to be a term that is not only misunderstood, but misleading, and somewhat counter-productive. Our consciousness is continually being refined through experience and yet it expands in quantum leaps throughout our evolution. Every one of those quantum leaps seems like "enlightenment." Humans are pretty blind and contracted. A glimmer of divine light seems like a thousand suns.

The reason I relate the story above is for the sake of those who would make the "enlightened" man's behavior and pronouncements infallible and sacrosanct. I was, and am, more than capable of mistakes of all sorts, of being swayed by lust and greed, and plenty of other weaknesses and vices. I am totally confident that Andrew is in the same boat, only with his own individual set of faults and vices. Apologists will claim that I'm merely projecting my own imperfection on Andrew. Maybe so. Yes, our innermost essence is totally transcendent of these human foibles, but it isn't the one cashing the checks either.

Here is an unfortunate nexus of spiritual law and human weakness: The spiritual law is "Ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find." If somebody comes to a teacher, and asks from sincerity of her heart, the teacher may act as a conduit for universal consciousness to guide that person. The more faith that the questioner has in the teacher, the more likely they are to draw out an inspired answer, and the more likely they will be to accept and enact the teacher's advice. Call it evolutionary tension if you like.

The result of this phenomena is that Andrew's greatest faults are some of his greatest strengths. He went from Dog to God, so his realization seems supreme to him. He's supremely confident and arrogant so it's easy for him to demand total agreement and submission. By putting himself up on the highest pedestal, he has the power to effect maximum change in a student who believes in him.

Unfortunately, we are all silly humans with faults. Our ego is scum floating on the ocean of truth and it gets slimy over anything that emerges from that ocean. It's easy to see how a man, observing "miracles" happening in his presence, being showered with love, respect, and obedience from everyone around him, could believe that his scum was as pure as the ocean below.

When I returned to the United States, I determined that if I were to serve the Truth with integrity, I wouldn't depend on the "Andrew method" of proclaiming myself be the Most High and expecting folks to fall in line. I would let the Spirit guide my destiny. It turned out that I quickly fell in love, fell into drama, and fell into more attachment than I had suffered in my "pre-enlightenment" phase. I moved through those challenges but am not fooled that my human side is obliterated or beyond influence. I'm happy to suspect that I've had a positive influence on my friends and community nonetheless, without placing myself in an unnatural position of power and authority in relation to them.

After exchanging numerous letters with Poonja Ji and meeting him in New York, I continued to have questions regarding the guru's personality versus his enlightenment. While Poonja preached non-judgment and non-comparison, he seemed to indulge in his share. I wrote him a letter asking for an explanation but didn't hear from him. Poonja was always setting his students free, not creating a dependency, so I left our connection on the inner level rather than external, and went on with life.

In 1996, it struck me that Poonja Ji had been very generous with his time and love with me. He had actually cried when he believed I was enlightened. He would also die someday. I wanted to be sure that there was no gulf between us. I had also heard about the feud between Poonja and Andrew and hoped that perhaps I could help mend fences. I was sure that Andrew, despite his faults, meant well, and I knew the same about Poonja. Why should high beings so intimately connected be so estranged? If the Gurus were at war, what hope do nations have?

I wanted to clear waters and test his reaction to Andrew. I wrote Poonja Ji a letter. Here is an important except:

"I believe it has been at least seven years since I have seen or written you. Even though I have not felt separate from you during all that time, I hope you still remember this wayward Son of yours and forgive me for not fulfilling my potential as a teacher. I understand that Andrew, who did accept the teaching role with both hands, has become such a demigod that he can no longer love his good Father the way he used to. When I see that, I feel glad that I judged myself as not yet fit for that work, as I would never want to fall short in such a critical role. I am not in a position to judge, so I wish love and wisdom for all, and hope Peace and Understanding ultimately prevail."

Poonja Ji replied on 7-18-96. 99 percent of its essence can be gleaned from the following excerpt:

"..the student who abuses his teacher goes to the 7th Hell, where one is thrown into fire, and again revives, and again is thrown into the fire, this will continue for a million years in this Hell. Later he will be born into the pigs family." [And on and on! ] "You are a most lucky person to have saved from living with such rascals. If you don't have enough money, stay where you are Divine will Bless you."

I'm afraid my friends, that we live in a dark world where the Spirit doesn't fully rectify the personality of the fortunate ones who realize transcendent truth. Seek the truth, and follow a path with a heart, but don't expect idealized perfection where it can't exist. Attempts to force "Heaven on Earth" through moralism and ideology fail to recognize that it is the very nature of life on this planet to grow by struggling though our ignorance. If this planet were to evolve beyond it's darkness, it would be a beautiful thing, but another planet would have to come into being to fulfill that niche. It's a greater mystery than anyone can explain in human terms, but everything at each moment has a perfect place in the totality. Change yourself, and your world automatically changes. If Andrew sees the world as deficient, it is his own deficiency that he witnesses.

Isn't it perfect that Andrew, having rejected and abused his teacher, (who, even though imperfect, gave him so much) is now accusing his own students of betraying him? Perfect that the king of narcissism finds it everywhere around him?

Poonja was a great teacher. He has my eternal love and respect. Andrew is a powerful man who has had direct knowledge and potent inspiration. However, this world is a like a big drunk party. You might learn to see through your state of intoxication and call it enlightenment, but you're still in danger of crashing your car if you drive too fast.

Andrew's treatment of his students is counter-evolutionary. A student with inculcated self-hatred is more egoic than one who loves himself. Every bit of coercion, psychic violence and inner loathing adds to the pot of darkness reflected in our worldly situation. Love is the healing balm for our society. In the face of love, we can afford to "drop our egos."

I certainly hope Andrew can taste some of his own medicine because he has much potential as a leader. I think every spiritual teacher should take a month out of every year to travel alone and incognito. He should interact with many people in many situations where a guru has no standing, no identity and no authority. That would be an excellent reality check and retreat.

It's important to note that realization of the Self does not necessarily convey realization of the complete spectrum of relative truth and manifest reality. Andrew hasn't saved the world. The world will be saved or lost as a reflection of the totality and either result will be a perfect outcome in the face of Eternal Consciousness.

Still, I'm confident that our journey in refining and awakening consciousness is something beautiful and sacred. Experience the poetry of life in love and beauty. Learn from teachers, but know that the only realization you can have is from within. Take a path with a heart, and open to eternity.

With great love
Karl B (peacebaba@excite.com)

NEW-- Andrew Cohen's "Talking Dog" Letter To A Senior Student

2005-08-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

The previous article "Letter From A Senior Student" by Ernest (Stas) referred to a letter he received from Andrew Cohen after he left Cohen's community, begging him to come back to the fold. Andrew wrote this letter as if it were from from his dog "Kensho." We've decided to post a copy of this letter here.

Folks, this is not satire or a prank--this is an accurate copy of the actual letter from Andrew.

Growing up in "the community" - One view

2005-06-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

by Anais Daly

[Note from the Blog Administrators--Although we are generally not accepting new contributions for the What Enlightenment??! blog at this time, we could not resist posting the following article from a former "sangha kid." It is written with exceptional honesty and vulnerability, and provides an aspect of the community experience we haven't heard here before.]

My name is Anais Daly, I am 25 now but spent the majority of my childhood living in community houses. I remember Andrew from before he was a teacher up until I moved out my senior year of high school. I am not here to condemn Andrew, but just tell my story for the sake of information and discussion. I do not have a confirmed opinion of Andrew or the community, there's too much involved to really know where to begin forming a black and white opinion. First off I was never physically or emotionally abused, perhaps confused and left to my own devices too much but I never felt the lack of love and care a child needs. I have lived with many of the people mentioned in these articles and comments and am extremely grateful to read their stories. It takes a lot of courage for people to tell their stories and for whatever reason they decided they needed to I greatly appreciated reading these statements. I along with a lot of other readers am learning a lot of things that I didn't know.

I remember Beenleigh and my mum spending a lot of time with a new group of people. Many of them parents of my friends. I remember Andrew being at the house and talking for hours with the group. He was warm and friendly. I remember he smiled a great deal. In the summer of I think ‘88 we came to Amherst, MA for a couple of months and lived in a huge house with many other people. I remember my mother being happier than she had ever been. The summer was truly amazing, beautiful weather, swimming in Puffer's pond, everybody seemed to be floating on air. Andrew sent the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" to a party we were having.

In June of ‘89 we moved to Marin County. More people seemed to join all the time. We had kind of a pseudo kids group formed from all the kids who moved. I was kind of the young generation of kids at the time; there was my older sister and her group, and my brother and his group who seemed to hang out a lot. We lived in these big nice houses all together. Parents would usually live with other parents so we were often living with other kids. We moved house a lot.

In the beginning there were a lot of events for the families, days in the park and such but over time the kids stopped being invited to activities and my mum started getting busier and busier. In the evening there were discussion groups and meditations and teachings, videos and so on. Most of the parents were gone pretty much every night after awhile, so all the kids would hang out together. From time to time they would decide that we needed to participate a bit and there would be a "kids meeting" or they would ask if we wanted to meditate but there was not that much pressure. I remember Andrew's teachings all sounding the same, the words just seemed to be a part of daily conversation, everything sounded the same. There were a couple of us kids who really learned how to "speak Andrew" and could talk our way through everything, knew when to be quiet or buy flowers and such.

The last couple of years in Marin were interesting, mum was a senior student and we moved out of the houses with other kids and we started living with people like Michelle, Bob, Donna and Debbie. My brother and sister had already moved out and everyone left me alone completely. As long as the house was clean I pretty much did whatever I wanted. We lived in these beautiful houses, with hot tubs and fancy furniture. Andrew become less and less familiar and when he was around I would pretty much make myself scarce. I was always afraid we would move back to England or somewhere so mum could help lead some center. She said we were once but it never happened. I could see from where I was living a lot of the other community kids living in houses together with rules and house meetings and I was very happy not to be in them. Mum and I always got along really well and it worked out great.

Then mum "fell from grace" as everyone keeps putting it and we moved into this square little box and all she ever did was vacuum. She was so unhappy that I ended up moving in with my sister for a little while. I remember feeling really self-righteous, like she had done something really wrong and I couldn't live with her in this state. I visited with Andrew and Michelle and they told me how wrong and bad my mum had been. I never really knew what she had done but now that I look back I feel embarrassed that at such a young age I could have taken advantage of her vulnerabilities that way. Anyways I got a call while I was smoking cigarettes and hanging around the Depot from my tearful mother saying I could come home and she was shaving her head and they had let her back in. I acted all supportive and told her that was great when really I was just worried about my own freedoms to do what I pleased.

In ‘97 I went on a retreat in Switzerland. We spent two weeks on top of a mountain. I remember in the beginning I was stunned, it felt like the heavens had opened up just over this mountain and it was beautiful. I still have the journal I wrote while I was there and I was really in heaven for a little while. I finally found peace to meditate for long periods of time. I also finally felt disconnected from my mum and I was there for me not as a kid. And of course I got Andrew's rebuffs openly in the teaching tent when I asked a question and confidently stated I was fully ready to search for enlightenment. (I was a Californian 17 year old). But towards the end I seemed to lose interest and ended up having a small affair with an Israeli man and smoking too many cigarettes.

When we moved to Boston things seemed to get ugly. Not really with my mum but in the households I was living in. Mum was no longer in the inner circle and some of the other parents were very intense. I remember instances of the kids being turned against each other by new rules and hearing how arrogant a lot of the kids including myself had become. I remember one guy my age saying to a kid who was not in the community that they would never meet another group of kids like this and feeling sick to my stomach. I remember the amount of adults who were leaving and how badly everyone spoke of people who "last week" were just another "community face". I remember how traumatic it was for kids who had one parent who had left and one who was still in. It seemed the kids were always stuck in the middle.

At our teenage years we would find out more things about the community and I could also feel mum's doubt and indecision. My mum kept her head shaved for long periods of time and didn't speak for I think it was 6 months or close to that. For me there were also times in the community when I was really taken care of by other people. I got stuck out in Wendover, Nevada late one night, having been left behind by a greyhound bus, and when I couldn't reach my mother the first number in my head was that of the center. Through tears I explained my situation and they looked me up on the Internet and tried to find me a hotel for the night, stayed on the phone with me until they found my mum and finally called the police. Being in dire need of something I would never have hesitated to go to anyone within the community.

When my mum finally left after I was already in College I was not surprised or angry. My brother and sister seemed more upset but that is their story to tell. Ultimately I am not upset about growing up in the community; there were many loving and caring people. I was taught to respect all living creatures, aspire to open, honest relationships and care about the world in general. I have been angry over time at many aspects of the community, I feel that the community can tear families apart and instills a kind of "close mindedness" or "should be" about what you are supposed to be doing. It is not until years later that I finally let the idea go that one day I would join the community and that his teachings are the only way in life. I watched my mother go to the bottom and back during her departure which was difficult but I guess necessary (but that is her story). I have nothing to do with the community now only remnants from family members who are still with Andrew.

Last year my cousin passed away from cancer who was 23 years old. Both her parents and her sister are involved with community. When I went to the funeral I expected to see a large community presence but instead there was very little. The community's influence on her family has angered me over the last year and has appeared to come between the remaining family members in a harmful and hurtful way. But I will say this—I do not understand the Community's response or the fact that there was not more of a community presence at her funeral. I guess the revolution is more important than children, family, and individual pain but at the same time I want to say that I do not think that Andrew has the credentials to understand what it must be like to loose a child, or a sister. I know these are big things to say and that he will not agree with me but I remember him saying once at a teachings that he could not respond to a woman's question because he had not been through what she had (She was a Jew in Germany and had the number tattoo on her arm.)
I hope this was of some interest to some people and thank you again for your stories.

Anais
xxx

Karma Will (Literally) Cost You And Leaving Isn't Easy

2005-05-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

Breaking The Code Of Silence, Part IV
By Hal Blacker

May all beings be happy!

This is the fourth and last part of my "Breaking The Code Of Silence" series of articles about Andrew Cohen for the WHAT Enlightenment ??! blog. For those just arriving, the previous articles in the series are:

Breaking The Code Of Silence (Part I)

Cruelty, Vengeance and Crazy Wisdom (Part II)

Shame, Guilt and The Guru's Blood (Part III)

Karma Will (Literally) Cost You
Andrew Cohen's extraction of large contributions from community members in trouble has been touched on in this blog before. Stas (Ernest) recounted in his article "Letter From A Senior Student" how Andrew had expressly told students that when a "committed" or "senior" student "blows it," it will cost them $20,000 in karmic retribution. When Stas once offered Andrew a contribution of $3,000 at a time when he was desperate to regain Andrew's good graces, Andrew angrily threw the check on the floor, shouting, "Do you think you can buy me off for a lousy three grand?" As a result, Stas borrowed money so that he could make a $20,000 contribution to Andrew. Later, when he told Andrew the money was given under duress and asked for its return, Andrew coldly refused.

Stas was far from the only student who had large sums extracted from him by Andrew Cohen at a time of emotional confusion and vulnerability. These are only a few other examples.

Another long time close student, named Bill, told me in a private communication, at least one half year before this blog came into existence, about how he, like Stas, gave a large contribution, under pressure, at a time when he was psychologically devastated. Bill had been instrumental in the acquisition of Andrew Cohen's main center, Foxhollow, in Lenox, Massachusetts. In 1996, he found and handled the purchase of that $3 Million, 220 acre former Vanderbilt estate. After years of service to Andrew, Bill, like so may others, incurred his wrath. He endured being slapped, having to attend numerous meetings with fellow students where he was shouted at, being exiled to Australia, then soon after being called back to Foxhollow, where he was told he was not welcome and could not stay. After further similar twists and turns and "demotions," Bill finally received a message from Andrew that he should send in his inheritance of $80,000, an amount he had once offered Andrew at an earlier moment of desperation. Bill complied with the request. Later, after Bill left the community he demanded the money back, and threatened legal action if it was not returned. Andrew did return the money, but only on the condition that Bill sign an agreement drafted by Andrew's lawyer. The agreement contained a release of Cohen's organization (the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship, or "IEF," formerly known as Moksha Foundation) from all claims forever, and a "gag order" prohibiting Bill from speaking to the press or making any public statements about Andrew Cohen or his organization, particularly any "disparaging" ones, without prior approval, for a period of five years.

Another former close student of Andrew Cohen told me how she gave her entire Individual Retirement Account, amounting to $60,000, and promised to give her future inheritance to Andrew's organization under psychological duress. She had run away from Foxhollow, but was located and persuaded to come back. This was the second time she had left the community. When she returned she was told how she had utterly betrayed Andrew. Her acts were described as being completely "off the map," in the scale of possible offenses. It was stressed to her repeatedly how she was guilty of a hellish crime, and how upset Andrew was with her. She offered to contribute approximately $10,000 as retribution. She was told this was insufficient, that she'd have to "dig deeper" and had to be willing to "give everything." Three days later she offered her IRA and her inheritance. This presented some problems, as her father had some control of the IRA account, and she would have to transfer the funds to an account from which the "contribution" could be made without her father finding out. During the several weeks it took to accomplish this, IEF's secretary, Cathy Snow, repeatedly called her, asking how long it would take, and making sure she was not backing out. She was in great anguish and turmoil, and recalls being essentially insane at this time. She told Cathy that this was all the money she had in the world. Cathy had given her a message from Andrew that "You have to be willing to give up any idea of having a back door." She ultimately gave IEF the $60,000, but left the community for good when her father died, and before she could give away her inheritance.

Such "contributions" were often given under conditions of great secrecy. One student told me that she had complied with pressure to give $10,000 contributions twice when she was in trouble after having left. The $10,000 figure was expressly specified by close students and IEF administrators Steve Brett and Cathy Snow. She was told that a $10,000 contribution was a condition of coming back into the community, and that she should do whatever she needed to get the money, including obtaining a bank loan. IEF director Jeff Carreira tolder her at least three times regarding contributions "Do not tell anyone about this." When she later left the community again she knew she would have to give even more to return. At one point she told Carreira she would give Andrew the proceeds for the rest of her life from a trust for her. He seemed satisfied with this, but, as she told me, "I came to my senses and backed out."

There is a close English student who was kicked out of the community for about two years, but who continued to live in Lenox, Massachusetts, hoping to regain Andrew's good graces. A witness recounted a conversation with Andrew regarding the student’s request to return to IEF. Andrew said he would get this student to give him all of his money, so that he would be dependent on Andrew and have no "back door." “Then he’d be mine,” Andrew said. The student is now, again, a leader in Andrew's organization.

Andrew became extremely outraged with another student who had taken a celibacy vow and admitted to Andrew he had masturbated. Wracked with guilt and remorse after being called a hypocrite by Andrew, the student wound up obtaining an advance on his inheritance and giving it to IEF.

In addition to direct financial contributions, students frequently purchased Andrew Cohen expensive clothing and other gifts. Most of these students have little of their own money. One student told me how she had purchased him an $800 pair of Armani pants and many $200-$300 sweaters. The giving of flowers to express sorrow or gratitude, common when I was a member of the community, stopped being sufficient years ago.

It is not unusual for nonprofits to ask members for contributions. But it is unusual to obtain such contributions through psychological manipulation and the use of shame and guilt, as occurs in Andrew's community. A glance at the finances of IEF do not appear to show the need for using extraordinary measures to obtain contributions. According to IEF's 2003 Federal Income Tax Form 990 (the latest one viewable at the Guidestar.org web site, obtainable by doing a search for Moksha Foundation), IEF had total revenues of over $4 1/3rd Million Dollars in 2003, with a net over expenses of $2,184,927.00. Its total assets exceeded its liabilities by $7,653,439.00. In the last several years, Andrew Cohen had a large new office built for himself at Foxhollow, despite already having a luxurious office suite in the Foxhollow Manor House. That office suite included a private yoga room, private bath, private secretary's office, fireplace, porch, views and a main room of about 500 square feet. Andrew Cohen's lifestyle, while not as ostentatious as some famous gurus', could be fairly called lavish by most people's standards.

Leaving Isn't Easy
Given the pervasiveness of physical and emotional abuse and financial exploitation in Andrew Cohen's community, it would be reasonable to ask (as some on this blog have) why students don't just leave. In fact, most of Andrew's students do leave. He has far more students who have left him over the years than who have remained with him. Few of his early students remain. I have learned from an inside source that there are currently less than 400 students and "practicing members" combined, worldwide. This is far from the "revolution" that Andrew has always claimed he is spearheading.

For many students, however, leaving Andrew is traumatic. This is due to a combination of factors. Some of these factors are psychological and entrained by Andrew. Students are told repeatedly that leaving Andrew and his community is the greatest betrayal. They are taught that it is tantamount to admitting that they do not "want to be free" and to giving up any chance of spiritual enlightenment. Andrew's close students have witnessed numerous times the way Andrew denigrates and demonizes those who leave him. Andrew frequently complains about a conspiracy of former students who only want to undermine him. Students are repeatedly told that if they leave they should have no contact with other students who left the community. This means that it is likely they will be alone and without emotional support if they leave Andrew and IEF. Close students have generally devoted years of their lives to Andrew, have derived their whole sense of meaning from the community, and have lost touch with other friends, interests and support systems. The prospect of facing a huge void in their lives makes the idea of leaving Andrew very intimidating. But sometimes leaving Andrew is difficult for another reason-Andrew and his community sometimes make it almost impossible to do.

It is generally not possible to openly talk about leaving the IEF community if one has been a close student. If one does leave, one is often hounded by the community. There have been many instances of this. Marvin, a student who left on the pretext of visiting family, was called repeatedly by community members, and asked to come back. He finally agreed to return briefly to discuss the matter. When challenged for leaving without telling anyone, he made the memorable comment, "Leaving is not a formal student topic." Many other students were hounded after they left. Jeff, the student who left after Andrew had Michelle, a physician student, pretend she was going to surgically remove his finger for failing in a writing project (See "Shame, Guilt and The Guru's Blood") was sent a series of e-mails, each with symbolic pictures of the cover of the video "The Picture of Dorian Gray," with the images becoming progressively more distorted and ugly.

Many students have run from the community during the night. A couple of examples of this follow. The female student who made the $60,000 contribution and pledged her future inheritance, whose story was told above, did so after secretly escaping Foxhollow one night. Before she left, Andrew knew she was in a delicate condition and there was a danger she might leave. She had left once before. One night after receiving serious "feed-back", Andrew's wife Alka came to her room, and asked her for her driver's license, passport, and credit cards. She said she could not find her passport, but handed over what she claimed was her only credit card and her driver's license. She had previously hidden, however, another copy of her license and another credit card. She took them, along with her passport, "borrowed" the community car, and drove to a car rental office in Lenox. There she rented a car, left a voicemail message at Foxhollow about the community car's whereabouts, and drove off into the night. She didn't know where she wanted to go, just that she wanted to get far away. Eventually, she drove the thousands of miles from Massachusetts to New Orleans. She figured no one would find her there. A few days after she arrived and got a room, she went to return the rented car. There, to her shock, she found Debbie, an IEF community member, waiting for her. Debbie had waited at the car rental's Lenox office until she overheard a phone conversation from which she learned the student would be returning her rented car in New Orleans. She flew there and waited in the New Orleans rental office until the escaped student showed up. Debbie eventually persuaded her to return.

One Dutch student, who was close to Andrew and who had been a leader in his communities in Europe, fell into disfavor. He was put in a community home in London, where Steve Brett was told to keep an eye on him and prevent him from leaving. Steve slept just outside the Dutch student's room, so that he could not leave in the night without being noticed. But one night Steve failed to do this. The Dutch student packed a bag and threw it out his bedroom window to the ground below. Then he sneaked silently out of the house. He retrieved his bag, and found a pay telephone a block or two away, from which he called a cab. A couple of weeks before this, Rob, a close community member and an old friend of the Dutch student, had warned him against leaving. Rob was highly trained in martial arts, having been a member of a special division of the Dutch military, roughly equivalent to the U.S. Navy Seals or Special Forces. Rob had told his friend that if he ever left, he would find him and break every bone in his body. After the student escaped, he chose to go as far away as he could imagine, settling in Costa Rica. A few weeks after getting there, he got an e-mail from Rob. All it said was, "I'm coming." Andrew himself had instructed Rob to send this e-mail.

Conclusion
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this is the last in my "Breaking The Code Of Silence" series. It also marks the end, for now, of my contributions to this blog. The stories I have recounted in these articles are only examples. There are many more to tell in all the categories of weirdness and abuse I have discussed. There are some areas that I barely mentioned. One such area is Andrew's intense involvement with his students' sex lives, his betraying of sexual confidences of students, and his use of such information to humiliate students. These stories will have to wait for another day, or another author.

For now, the ice has been broken, and much of what was previously kept hidden by unwritten rules has been revealed here. People interested in studying with Andrew Cohen and becoming a part of his community now have essential and previously unavailable information about him, so they can make an informed decision. Students who have left him and are hurt or confused can now discuss these matters openly without feeling they are the first to betray some deep dark secret, because the secret has already been told.

It has been my privilege to have the opportunity to contribute to this blog, and I am grateful to all the readers, commenters and other contributors. I hope that the breaking of the code of silence that occurred here will benefit everyone, that we all continue to grow in openness, and that all of us have success on our path.

May all enjoy happiness and the root of happiness, be free from suffering and the root of suffering, and enjoy the great equanimity that is free from passion, aggression and prejudice

Hal Blacker
hdblacker@comcast.net

If Andrew Cleaned Up His Act And Walked His Talk

2005-05-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

An Essay And Miracle Story
by AD

I might be wrong but I would not agree with all those who see Andrew as an evil incarnate who is only after the power and his own egoic goals. I think he has a lot to offer to some people, at least on the preliminary level of self-knowledge, or rather ego-knowledge, which are not the whole story of the spiritual life but an important first step.

He just needs to clean up his act… and that's a serious job, is he up to it? will he do it? Who knows?

People like him will be around as long as there is a need for that kind of “teachers” and the need is created by some unquestioned collective beliefs like; "Only someone else can show me the way to God", or "other people are more spiritual then I", etc. or just people who think they need this kind of thing as they cannot find it anywhere else or in themselves or in existing churches or religions. It’s a spiritual market gap he fills to cater to some of the unexamined human "wants & needs & beliefs". As long as there is a demand for something the service will be provided sooner or later by Andrew or someone else.

Which of course does not excuse his barbaric behaviour towards the people around him a one bit. Prostitution is also a problem, the prostitutes too provide a kind of service catering to human needs and will be here as long as the demand exists.

So whom do we blame? The prostitutes? Or the guys who go to prostitutes for service and keep them in business? Or just Human Ignorance? If the guys stop going there, the prostitution would die, same with people like Andrew, as long as there is a demand for people like him, he will be in business…spiritual Sado-Masochism?...spiritual ecstazy mixed with a hudge dose of existential and emotional pain, it's a volitale mixture.

I'd like to believe, although I do not know for sure, that initially AC motivation has been pure, perhaps still is and he has not set himself up to rip people off financially, emotionally and spiritually. Yet obviously he got seriously corrupted somewhere on the way as the people around him allowed themselves to be mesmerised by him and hand him more and more power and control over their lives in the hope of getting from him whatever that was they projected,that they will get.

His financial status, over the years, also has become very powerful and perhaps being there on top, it’s extremely difficult to stay innocent and uncorrupted. Again saying all that, this does not excuse his behaviour one dot. It is the responsibility of the spiritual teacher to find skilful ways to deal with such unholy temptations, it is his own private yoga.

I think that half of the time he does not have a clue what he is doing, he is just groping in the dark, and he often said this himself that he “makes things up as he goes along”.

This is not surprising, as often noticed and expressed on this blog, he has no spiritual teacher himself, he never lived in highly structured spiritual community, he also never had normal job, family, kids, etc. His circumstances and lifestyle is just so very uncommon, so it is understood that he might lack the understanding and wisdom to relate to people who actually have full-time jobs, family life, kids, normal friends, etc.

His only pseudo “spiritual teachers” since about year 2000 seems to be people like Ken Wilber and Don Beck, as even the language in which he present his current teaching is borrowed from the ideas and expressions from those two men, I hope that they are aware of it. As I did not known him earlier I’m not sure who were his favourite “idols” before that.

It is all OK, as long as he himself believes in what he is saying about his teaching, that it is “made up and changed as he goes along” and do not behave as if it is the "final and absolute" teaching and imposes it cruelly on his students with no room for challenge, true free dialogue, questioning or deep inquiry. The only possible “dialogues and deep inquiry” are usually only limited to contemplate his five tenets. On one hand he is asking people on his retreats to “have guts, courage, think deeply” on the other hand, closer to home, he is punitively discouraging any challenge, discussions or questioning of the validity of any part of his teaching or himself as a teacher.Again this is a very tricky and dangerous situation for any human being to be in, because if he is wrong, he will fall from a very high place and might not survive it as a spiritual teacher or even a person. His castle already started to crumble.

I think that even this very sorry situation is still remediable with a huge dose of true conscience and humility on his part. I do assume of course that he has it.
Again, “true conscience and humility” are at the very top of his favourite topics at the retreats. It seems that now he needs a dose of his own medicine in homoeopathic form; “Likes Cures Likes.”

Lets just imagine that we all heard a story called "Andrew Walks His Talk":

“Andrew decided to get a dose of his own homeopathic medicine and for the sake of all, for the sake of peace and harmony in this world, and for the sake of his own conscience and soul he decided to face everything and avoid nothing:

He quickly and extensively apologised to all the many students that have been abused while trying on them his “ever changeable, new and improved spiritual formulas” and failing.

He deeply acknowledged his responsibility and wrong doings.

He soon after sold both of his lavish estates, in Foxhollow and London, and gave all the money back to the people that over the years have been emotionally blackmailed to give it to him.

He also gave the magazine away as a Spiritual Gift to all those people who actually do all the hard work for the Magazine and to all those who have been doing it for years and left.

The rest of the money he donated to charities plus all the expensive designer clothes to go with it.

He also sold his expensive cars and uses public transport, as now he feels one with the universe and started to care about the environment, experiencing it a part of his own body, mind & spirit.

As a daily spiritual practice he and his wife have chosen “service to others” and now visit all those who for years have been serving them. Now Andrew and his wife for a change do their cooking, cleaning, ironing, gardening, etc for free and are grateful for the opportunity to serve and deepen their own humility.

Afterwards he has gone into seclusion for a couple of years to reflect deeply on his actions and to find out if he still has a calling to be a spiritual teacher.
Eventually he has returned into the world, with free conscience, ever-present humility and the restored sense of purity and innocence, he has changed, and became less ignorant, more enlightened, more sensitive and aware, more compassionate.

He now supports himself as most people do in this world, as not to be regarded as “special or better”, by working as a musician and lives in a small two-bedroom house somewhere.

He and his wife share the domestic duties and responsibilities together, again as not to be regarded as “special, different or better”; they no longer have free servants.

He is still filled with spiritual enthusiasm, with grace, deep humility and he realises that the True Purpose of Enlightenment really is to serve the world and fellow human beings, to help to alleviate their suffering, rather then make fellow human beings serve him in the name of Enlightenment and contribute to world suffering.

He fulfils that purpose by running occasional retreats, renting the premises elsewhere already made for that purpose. He keeps the cost to bare minimum and offers free places, so as many people as possible can participate, as he deeply realised that after all spiritual teaching is his true vocation in life”.

Miracles do happen.
If that were to happen I’d be the first to book myself on his retreat.

AD

The Seeds Of Abuse Were In Place

2005-05-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

A View On Andrew Cohen From 15 Years later

By Douglas Wallace

I left Andrew Cohen’s community in December of 1989. Unlike others who have written about their experiences here, I was involved with Andrew Cohen and his sangha for barely over a year. But, as many readers of this blog will understand, that time was extraordinarily powerful, and marked the most intense and profound commitment I had ever made to anyone or anything. I encountered Andrew weeks after I had begun a graduate school program, but quickly abandoned my studies, job, and home to follow him. Meeting Andrew felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and there was no choice but to give myself to it completely.

Falling in love was the easy part, because what Andrew offered was so astonishing and revolutionary. I had spent years as a Buddhist practitioner, but in a scant few days Andrew opened my eyes to more freedom than I had believed possible. I became convinced that Andrew was offering me a high-speed ride to liberation, and I was among the chosen few.

Within weeks, though, I also sensed some disturbing signs in the community and in Andrew’s behavior that would only intensify over time. There were strict, but unwritten rules that tripped up even the most experienced students. Violations resulted in public humiliation and crushing “house meetings” – two words that I would come to dread. Crossing Andrew, or even appearing to disagree with him, guaranteed swift retribution.

Reading through the various accounts that former students have posted here, on WHAT Enlightenment ??!, it’s clear that the seeds of the abuse and manipulation were in place long ago, probably from the start. The details are horrifying, but not surprising. Andrew is just reenacting a role that has been played by other gurus before him – one theme, many variations – and the drama always unfolds along the same lines.

My departure from the community also followed script. After enduring a number of men’s group meetings where faltering students were shouted at and brought to tears, I finally spoke up and suggested that maybe there was a better way to help people through their difficulties. Oddly, in the weeks leading up to these events, I had been feeling increasingly confident in my own experience and judgment. I must have known, in some way, that this challenge would bring their scrutiny directly on me and force the issue of my own skepticism about Andrew.

If this was an unconscious wish on my part, the men quickly gratified it and blasted me with criticism about my treachery and lack of gratitude toward Andrew. While I acted a little contrite, I quietly knew that I wasn’t about to tolerate weeks or months of abuse for my egoic crimes. After a day of reckoning with the consequences, I gathered my clothes and my courage, and left my group house without notice.

I did have one phone call a few days later with Andrew, during which he asked me if I would reconsider my decision and return to him. With my heart in my mouth, I said I couldn’t and explained why, feeling wrenched with anger and love for him. I later learned that Andrew had recounted that conversation to my fellow students with such fabulous distortion that I became an easy villain. Abusive phone calls from the community chased me until I left the area.

I embarked on a trip to Asia for lack of a better destination, already weary from loss and depression. My life took me to an improbable encounter with Poonjaji (Andrew’s teacher) in India, and a slow healing through a desolate mental landscape, back to a semblance of wholeness. Being with Poonjaji also brought back to life the beauty of Ramana’s teachings, which Andrew had offered me my first glimpse of, but little more.

While my time with Poonjaji was critical in helping me through my separation from Andrew and the community, I still simmered in a stew of outrage and reactivity for several years afterward. My bridges to Buddhism had been burned, and I felt mistrustful and negative toward other Advaita teachers, especially those who had anointed themselves after an awakening experience. Caught in a deep disillusionment, I was intensely critical if there were any question of their integrity or authenticity. As for Andrew, I found his lingering presence in Marin County, where I finally returned to live, a source of great agitation.

As with a brief affair, I ended up spending a lot more time processing my experience with Andrew than the months I actually spent with him. Of course, I thought long and hard about sending him a letter that would finally set him straight. But each time I considered it, I remembered Andrew’s bullet-proof defenses and self-justifications, and knew that there was no getting through.

The passing years have made a difference, and I’ve been fortunate to meet several fine teachers who offered their guidance without demanding my allegiance. They were all rooted in a dharma that transcended their personal interests, and it was a deep joy for me to return to the truest part of my spiritual calling. None of them claimed perfection, and I never asked it from them. All were human, and they knew it.

I look back, bemused now, at my hopes that I would finally be free of certain kinds of experiences, particularly difficult emotions. I wanted Andrew to help me escape my basic human predicament, and he seemed more than willing to accommodate me, for a price. It was a bad bargain for both of us. I’ve learned the hard way that my spiritual longings were complex: unfulfilled narcissistic drives were interwoven with a genuine love of truth, and revulsion toward the mess of the world joined with a deep contemplative nature.

Now when I think of Andrew, I appreciate the doors he opened for me, but his delusions and failings don’t keep me up at night. He’s just another guy.

THE CHALLENGE OF GETTING CLEAR--An Essay On Andrew Cohen's Teaching

2005-05-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

By Bruce Ryan

[A Note From WHAT Enlightenment ??! : What follows is the Prologue of a longer essay critiquing Andrew Cohen's teaching by former Cohen community member Bruce Ryan. Due to the length of the essay, it has been posted in its entirety on its own website where it can be downloaded as a Word document. If you would like to download a copy of the whole essay, go to GETTING CLEAR. On the front page please double click on the second module in the right hand column. This will bring up an active link to the essay on the left side of the front page. Double click on that link and the essay will appear as a download.]

PROLOGUE: TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION

I’ve noted in my conversations with members of the "shadow" community that many of us are still under the illusion that Andrew Cohen has victimized us with his teaching. One even noted on the WHAT Enlightenment ??! blog that she didn’t care about that because her evil, stubborn ego deserved to be victimized. It is difficult to get to the bottom of this issue from a viewpoint like that because that is precisely the viewpoint Andrew brings to the table. Perhaps that accounts for the fact that on the WHAT Enlightenment ??! blog, while I have not yet read all the contributions, I have yet to read any really pointed observations on the so-called “dharma” that Andrew proposes. This is a pity because from that “dharma” has flowed all the perceived abuses which have sent so many people fleeing the community. The confusion behind that “dharma” must be deeply understood and one must see very clearly how it pales in the light of the Dharma that liberated Andrew.

True Dharma is that Dharma which describes the phenomenal world exactly and precisely as it is. It does not add anything to that description, nor does it take anything away. Dharmas that do not meet this standard are typically larded with colorful metaphors, clever phrasing, and poignant images that prey on the seeker’s emotions and seduce him into thinking they are true. This is especially true of seekers who approach them with an open heart. That is why it is the seeker’s obligation not to respond to a dharma solely on the emotional level but rather to dig beneath the surface and find out if it is true. It is the truth which sets one free, not dharma-talk.

Take, e.g., a description of Enlightenment posted currently on Andrew’s website in which he urges the seeker to “drop his ego like a hot potato.” Who could not respond to such a colorful metaphor? It is part and parcel of his idea that Enlightenment always occurs in the “now” and that when one really looks, one will see that the “now” is all there is. So it communicates a kind of urgency. It tweaks one’s desire to be free. It inspires one to get on with the process. But any seeker who takes up the challenge of dropping his ego “like a hot potato” will find that he is in for a rude awakening, if you’ll pardon the pun. The trouble with it is that the “now” Andrew is talking about is timeless while the “now” the seeker is in is karmic. The seeker’s “now” is a coalescence of all the “thens” which went before it. Those “thens” were filled with seeking and as a result so is his “now”. The truth is, of course, that he is already free. But that is his truth only from the point of view of the timeless “now”. But from his perspective he is not in that “now”. This means that he is not in possession of this truth. If he were in possession of it, why would he be seeking? So in his actual condition he is not free. As a result he is not free to “drop his ego like a hot potato” either.

I urge the reader not to take my word for this. Try it for yourself. Try to drop your ego “like a hot potato” and see what happens. This kind of dharma-talk has a sort of instant appeal to it. It gives the seeker the idea that Enlightenment is easy. But it puts the cart before the horse and only ends up dashing one’s hopes in the end.

Andrew’s teaching is filled with this kind of talk so to call it a Dharma is quite a stretch. Indeed one is hard-pressed to find words to describe it, since no one in the world of Spirituality has had either the audacity or the gall to turn his back on the very Teaching that liberated him before the advent of Andrew Cohen. Perhaps the best descriptive phrase is a “mock” dharma because it radiates out of a false premise. This might explain why in all his many years of teaching no one has been able to make it come alive in his or her heart. One might say that it is basically a collocation of half-baked ideas, linked together by a false logic flowing from an unexamined assumption. At any rate that might do for starters.

In order to see these points clearly however, one must free oneself from the shackles of the victimization game. This is edgy stuff and the emotions run deep around it. For this reason advice is often risky. Still, if one has had some headway in this endeavor one has an obligation to speak up. In this sense I can only relate what worked for me.

When I left the community I was crest-fallen. I felt that life had derailed my eight-ball in the biggest possible way. All my hopes and aspirations were tied to that teaching and had been for ten years. I wallowed in self-pity for several weeks. But as bits and pieces of my former life began to come back to me I was overcome with a deep sense of relief. This sense had to do with, not so much a return of the familiar, but the knowledge that I was not going back to Moksha again. This knowledge allowed me to relax. It gave me a sense of space. That space was deeply inviting. Occasionally thoughts would enter somewhat like a bird might land on a door stoop. They would look around, flutter their wings, and fly off into the sunlight again. One thought persisted over time however: a sudden and deep recognition that this “teaching” was not The Way. This was the bird that would not fly away.

At first I had no idea where this intuition came from but I did remember that I had had that same intuition during my association with several other spiritual communities. In those cases, while I did not drop my ego “like a hot potato”, I did drop those teachings in precisely that manner. But soon I began to recognize it as an intuition that had been lurking in the background during my involvement with Andrew for actually quite a while. I had just not paid much attention to it because I was uncomfortable with the power it had to let my ego off the hook. But as I continued to look at it, it seemed to pull together my experiences with Moksha in a way that no other idea did. It was deeply satisfying. For several years I did not take my eyes off that intuition. I watched in silence as it grew stronger. I began to see my association with Moksha as a sort of experiment I had undertaken to deepen my understanding of the Dharma. The experiment failed, or so I thought. But so what? The experiment was much like the driver who goes the wrong way down a one-way street and ends up at a dead-end. Does he sit there and rant and rave at what a dirty blow life dealt him? Of course not. He turns the car around and moves on. Let’s face it: he gambled and he lost. Whose responsibility is that? In this way I came to the end of the idea that I had been victimized.

The one word which embodied my experience with Moksha like no other was failure. I was a total failure at Andrew Cohen's teaching right out of the starting blocks, and right to the very end. For the last year of my life in that community I felt like I was walking around with a big X on my forehead and that the only issue at stake was who got to make the kill. In the end it was Andrew himself but he did so in the gentlest of manners, sort of like he was executing a bird which had broken its wings. This was interesting in itself because I had witnessed several ugly blow-ups in precisely this kind of circumstance. At any rate what felt like an execution in the beginning, turned out to be a liberation in the end. He liberated me from his teachings and for this I am eternally grateful. It’s an exhilarating feeling to be free of it! In my crazier moments I’ve often wished I could return the gesture. But that will never happen. His karmic circumstances will not allow it.

This paper grew out of that sense of freedom. It is excerpted from a work-in-progress on the difference between true and false religion. I had intended to entitle the online version OUTING ANDREW COHEN, but after much reflection I became concerned by the provocative nature of it. It seemed to appeal to a part of me that is still in rebellion against the world. That part is better left unexpressed in this case because it would cheapen the point of the paper.

It is not about the idea that a teacher made foolish mistakes. It is far bigger. It is about an intense challenge which faces every aspirant on the Spiritual Circuit: how to get clear on the Dharma. Indeed, the challenge is bigger, even, than that. It is a challenge not only for the aspirant, but for the teacher himself. If the teacher is not clear on the Dharma, how can his students be clear?

I first began to think around this topic almost a year ago. My lifetime of failed involvements with religion covers a span of almost sixty years. The specter of this failure has haunted me continuously, especially since exiting from the Moksha community some years ago. That was my seventh – and final - spiritual community, or so I thought. Previously however I had always approached the examination of this issue in a personal way – how I failed here, why I failed there, etc. My investigation was all about me. Suddenly it occurred to me that this too was just another idea. Perhaps I didn’t fail these religions. Perhaps they failed me.

Teachers, of course, don’t like to hear this kind of talk. Religions don’t fail. People fail. Many see it as just another version of the blame game. I was willing to concede that possibility but I wasn’t willing to take it for granted as I had on so many previous occasions. I had to find out whether it was true. As I pushed into this issue it became clear to me that I needed a new tactic. Previously I had bounced these ideas round and round in my mind, mulling them over incessantly as I walked my mail route. Often a thought would come to me and I would dash it down on paper. After a while thoughts would come so fast I found myself scrambling in the bushes to find scraps of paper to write them down on. Several times I found myself using gum wrappers! All these pieces of papers were put in a little basket that had come to me as a Christmas gift. One night I began poking through them and realized that they seemed to link themselves together in a sort of logic that was really quite convincing. On the other hand, how could I know for sure unless I tried to work this logic out? Such a task could only be done with pen and paper. So the name of the game became: put it all down on paper.

I recommend this strategy to anyone who thinks he understands an issue, whether it is religious or not. I guarantee that you will find out very quickly whether or not you do! One doesn’t have to be a Hemmingway to do this and one doesn’t have to have an ulterior motive either. All I am doing is trying to get clear on an issue that has gnawed at my innards for years. I never had the intention to write a book and to this day, although I’ve often talked that way, I have no idea whether that will be the result of my reflections or not. Only time will tell. Still, the attempt is revealing. I tried to write down my reflections exactly as I had thought them in my mind over the previous months and the result was an embarrassing hodge-pod of false ideas, illogical conclusions, incorrect facts, unexamined assumptions, and just plain bad thinking. Nevertheless as I wrote and re-wrote a kind of clarity began to emerge.

It seems to me that if one brings the issue of true versus false religions to the table in an open minded way three permutations appear. One can live a true religion, or one can fail to live a true religion. On the other hand one cannot live a false religion. One can only fail to live it. In fact it is guaranteed that one will fail to live it. That is because it is false. If a religion is false that means it cannot come alive in the human heart.

To meet this challenge of this paradox I had to get very clear about the structure of a true religion. This meant that I had to develop a vision of religion in the biggest possible way. There was no help for me here, and rightly so, as no one I talked to saw things my way. Nevertheless the issue was clear: is there such a thing as a true religion? If so, one has to be able to identify the principle which makes a religion true and distinguish it very clearly from the principle which makes a religion false. As I pushed into these issues it became apparent that the principle in question is an assumption. Not any assumption, but an assumption about the nature of the Universe itself. If one does not make this assumption there are an endless number of ways a religion can go false. I present one of them here. So while I see Andrew Cohen as a stand-in or a proxy for false religion in our time, in point of fact any TV preacher would do just as well. Andrew’s thinking, of course, is obviously deeper. And there is no denying that his insights are often more poignant. But these are not stand-alone features of the Truth that sets us free. While Andrew does not trick his audience with a feel-good story about how, even though they have egos, they will go to heaven and sit at the right hand of God forever if they will only believe so-and-so, he does something just as wrong: he cons them with a feel-bad story about just how evil the human ego really is. Both of these stories are false. Neither recognizes the transcendental nature of the human heart and its impulse to move beyond ego. Both lack a commanding vision of the Truth. That is why, with respect to the fundamental concepts of religion, there is no substitute for clarity.

Bruce Ryan

Email Bruce Ryan

If you would like to download a copy of the entire essay from which the above prologue is an excerpt, go to GETTING CLEAR. On the front page please double click on the second module in the right hand column. This will bring up an active link to the essay on the left side of the front page. Double click on that link and the essay will appear as a download.

What Is The Purpose Of Enlightenment?

2005-04-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

A Beginning Student's Story

I’ve been reading your blog regularly and would like to thank all those who contributed to its creation, as it has helped me tremendously to understand my own experience with Andrew’s community. I admire your courage, openess and honesty.

Although my experience was rather short lived and I never lived in Foxhollow nor was I involved personally with Andrew, I went to many long and short retreats with him, to simply find out what he has to offer. That was in 2000/01/02. Soon after the last long retreat I decided to move into his “orientation house” inspired by the retreat.

Although at first my great enthusiasm and joy kept me going, I only stayed about a month and moved out, as I could not stand it. Only in my first week staying there I was put into the famous “hot seat” where I did not know most of the people, people who never even talked to me, strangers, have told me all and everything what was wrong with me, with very angry outbursts.

I had to listen to all that and was not allowed to speak nor to question their opinions, where did they got them from? My feeling was so unreal, as if I was a part of a theatre play, where the script was pre-written, well in advance, nothing to do with me. Only later I understood that I witnessed the “scoring points” meeting. It happened every week and in between I was regularly verbally abused by senior female student member and called names, I rather do not repeat. It continued and it was enough for me to say NO MORE and leave. I could not tolerate abuse in any form. There were other newcomers who also left at the same time with the same experiences of disappointment, confusion, hurt and abuse.

We just could not understand what is wrong with the students, where was their “unbearable lightness of being”? their joy, their enthusiasm, their happiness ?
Most walked around like zombies, running on gallons of coffee a day just to keep going.

I often thought that by some terrible mistake I joined some fanatics following a military dictator and not a spiritual teacher. The atmosphere of constant spying on one another and being very careful what one says to others, reminded me very much of the Communist regime, and the emphases on the collective good and the total ignorance of the individual.

Perhaps my own little experience is really trivial and not important and yet even after such a short time of connection with the students and Andrew, I left very confused, sick and totally bewildered.

It has taken me a long time to make any sense of it and with the help of your blog I understood why all this was happening. I often compared his community to an army camp where most people slept only a few hours a night, then went to work and then worked at the centre or had their 10 meetings a day together.

I cannot claim that I really got to know Andrew’s students from anywhere else, but this one centre. Nor I have had any experiences with Andrew, apart from the retreats, as I was only the beginner student. I found his retreats relatively helpful to me, as he is very good and entertaining when it comes to the EGO, and he makes people understand why it is important to see it.

Yet I find his teaching lacking when it comes to some greater picture, apart from the ego-games. It seems to me such a waste of life to spend so much time focusing on the ego and nothing else.

The questions I asked myself during my stay in the community were: Do I want to be like those people, live this kind of life? “The proof is in the pudding”…I really did not like the taste!

The value of any Dharma Teaching is in the students living that teaching, yet what I saw and experienced was most of the time truly repulsive, so totally different then the atmosphere of the retreats and the promise afterwards of this “Heaven on Earth” to follow, if one commits oneself and joins the community. In my very short experience it was “Hell on Earth.” My answer was NO, I also found most of the senior students really dull and suppressed, who would only repeat over and over more or less the same mantras: “Isn’t Andrew great?” “Wasn’t it a great retreat?”, “Isn’t he wonderful?”, etc.etc.

But what really surprised me was the atmosphere of fear and luck of authentic, free self-expressions, lack of any original individual thoughts about any subject whatsoever. Most students would just use more or less the same kind of expressions about anything, as if some kind of scripts were handed to them earlier, so they did not have to use their own brains. And the most infuriating was the expression” I disagree” used by everyone in situations where it was totally inappropriate and illogical. Like after someone has expressed their own personal feelings and experience on a subject, someone would say “I disagree”, nothing else, no explanation, nor argument, nothing.

Probably I do not know any of you, ex-students, yet you all sound like very intelligent, bright, sincere individuals and I wish I met people like you in his community…and yet I wonder if you would have been the same open, honest, courageous beings you are now? As it seems that theoretically this kind of qualities were asked for from his students by Andrew but in practice they were discouraged very harshly.

Anyway, the last question I’m still asking myself is not What is Enlightenment? But WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ENLIGHTENMENT? I know that historically the purpose of Enlightment has been to alleviate human suffering. When one looks around this world the greatest suffering here is still poverty, hunger, disease, death and no hope for better life. Apart from the very small minority of the Western Developed World, the rest 70 % of the population suffers terribly.

I was wondering what is the purpose of that “Freedom for the sake of all” Andrew promises to his students and how it relates to the rest of the suffering world? I hope his organisation does support charities and not just his lavish lifestyle.

The “suffering” in the developed western countries is mostly on emotional/mental level, where in the rest 70% of the population it is basically about the survival on the physical level. And then there is the common suffering of old age, disease and unknown death. .

Is spending years masturbating with one’s ego individually and collectively, as in Andrew’s teaching, being cruel and abusive to his committed students, has anything to do with “alleviating suffering” in this world? I wonder. I know this is a huge topic and I’ll not going into it, yet I wonder if anybody else ever thought about it ?

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ENLIGHTENMENT?

My very best wishes to you all,
AD.

PS. writing in english is not my best ability, as it is not my first language, so sorry for the lack of any sofistication in my expression.

Of Cohen, Koresh And Authoritarianism--3 Views

2005-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

At Saturday, 23 April, 2005, Anonymous said...

I have an idea...

Why don't we just condemn Cohen, as a David Koresh and Jim Jones type, poisoning and misguiding people, report him to the authorities, call the editors of the New York Times and whatever else we think is fit, take him to court, charged with abuse and be done with the whole thing. How about it Hally, Hal (haven't heard form you for awhile), or Helene (who are you, anyway)? Then, we can all get on with our petty lives and stop wasting so much valuable time debating whatever it is we are or aren't debating on these blogs (blobs, I say). Are you all so bored with your lives that you have to keep going on and on about all of this stuff.

At Saturday, 23 April, 2005, just another "blobber" said...

The previous "anonymous" wrote:

I have an idea...

Why don't we just condemn Cohen, as a David Koresh and Jim Jones type, poisoning and misguiding people, report him to the authorities, call the editors of the New York Times and whatever else we think is fit, take him to court, charged with abuse and be done with the whole thing.

Nobody here has compared Cohen to Koresh or Jim Jones--although given the proof submitted on this blog from numerous named and reliable sources as to the physical abuse, financial and psychological manipulation, and the fear, guilt and shame tactics used by Cohen at his Foxhollow compound and elsewhere, a cogent argument could be made that he is certainly heading very rapidly and determinedly in that direction.

The virulent tone of some of the recent posts on this blog condemning it and its contributors appears to indicate a heightening of fear and paranoia in Cohen's circles. Definitely a recipe for disaster, if history tells us anything.

Maybe some of the previous poster's suggestions--going to the press, investigating the abuses shown here and more recent ones that are likely to be occurring, and taking legal action, where appropriate--should be seriously considered, both for the good of Foxhollow compound inmates and the innocent unwary public.

Maybe the previous defender of Cohen does have a good idea after all.

At Saturday, 23 April, 2005, Anonymous said...

Why don't we just condemn Cohen, as a David Koresh and Jim Jones type, poisoning and misguiding people, report him to the authorities, call the editors of the New York Times and whatever else we think is fit, take him to court, charged with abuse and be done with the whole thing.

Because the whole thing is not just about Andrew Cohen.

The Cohen issue is the micro level issue. The macro level issue is about a “political” conflict taking place along a continuum where at one pole we find spiritual authoritarianism, at the other spiritual deep democracy, with various shades in the middle.

What Cohen, Koresh, and Jones (both Jim and Franklin) have in common is that they are all closer to the spiritual authoritarianism pole of the continuum.

This is the model where the teacher implicitly or explicitly communicates the following message:

"There exists a hierarchy of consciousness. I am high on this hierarchy. I am higher than you. I'm enlightened and you're not. Only those at my level can appreciate my behavior and speech acts at the level from which they emanate, while those at lower levels may easily misunderstand my behaviors and speech acts to be rooted in egocentricity and neurosis rather that compassion and an absolute relationship to life. Therefore, my students must question only themselves and must turn all doubts about me, my behavior, my speech acts, and my teachings, back onto themselves. Students who doubt me are caugth in egoic resistance to the very process of transformation itself. Therefore, those who leave me have simply fled from the fire of living Truth. There is nothing I can say to them to disabuse them of their illusions, and so I say nothing to those who leave and then in Judas-like fashion, attack me."

Let's say that John Doe embraces this model and he reads Susan Bridle's post here, titled, “A Legacy of Scorched Earth: Reflections of a former student”, (Wednesday, February 02, 2005) where she recalls her life as a Cohen student and shares that she presently studies with Danan Henry Roshi at the Zen Center of Denver.

She says, “It’s sooo different from Andrew’s community. Much more spacious, much more respectful of the individual, definitely not authoritarian. I’m finding my way with having a completely different, non-guru-like relationship with my spiritual guide.”

John Doe reads this and because his allegiance lies with spiritual authoritarianism, he automatically concludes that Susan has fled from the "fire" of the "Rude Boy" into the arms of a "comforting" and "consoling" teacher who probably has the "disease" Ken Wilber calls "boomeritis Buddhism."

But anyone who reads Susan's post can see that she has actually gone deeper into the fire of transformation, and has outgrown the parent-child teacher-student spiritual authoritarianism mode Cohen offers.

Those whose allegiance lies with the spiritual authoritarianism model are reactionaries. If this were the late 18th century in Colonialist America, they would be Tories, loyal to the King. They are loyal to the King and to the model of the guru as sovereign absolute monarch. They are stuck in the past and like professional reactionary Ann Coulter they defend their retrogresive values by attacking everyone who has exceeded these quaint values.

The alternative to the spiritual authoritarianism model is not "boomeritis" spirituality, but is deep democracy, where teachers do not isolate and insulate themselves from an open flow of feedback within their teaching systems as Cohen has done. Jack Kornfield, as one example, does not have "boomeritis" (though a reactionary bitch might say that), and no one can possibly suggest that sitting for a five-week meditation retreat with Kornfield is "comforting" or "consoling." If one wants to know where the money comes from and goes in the Spirit Rock Meditation Center which Kornfield founded, one can look at the annual report that always includes a pie chart that accounts for every cent of income and expenditure. If there is a problem with a teacher at Spirit Rock this is never ignored but always addressed openly and at the level of community. Only a reactionary would call this "boomeritis." No, this is deep democracy and it is a developmental advance over the antiquated spiritual authoritarianism model Cohen represents.

Because of the micro and macro issue here, there are some who remain aligned with the spiritual authoritarianism model and who see the problem only at the mirco level as being with Cohen, as if a more benign king would be just fine. Others, like myself, see the problem with Cohen but feel that the very model he represents is an anachronism, regardless of whether or not the king is benign or pathological. And reactionaries, such as Ken Wilber and Cohen, attempt to defend their attachment to the antiquated spiritual authoritarian model by accusing people like myself of being caught in "boomeritis" and of having some fear of hierarchy. This is ironic, because I very much believe in hierarchy and think the model Wilber and Cohen embrace is rather low on the hierarchy. In their terms it's not "second-tier," it's "blue."

Missing THE POINT

2005-04-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

By Anonymous

I think, therefore I am not. Just kidding. Actually, I don’t think, therefore I am. Just kidding. I think that much of this blog, as useful and perhaps even necessary as it is, is missing the point. It is undeniably true, though that never stops volumes of denial, that the pathological manifestations of Mr. Cohen and the deep suffering of many of his temporarily willing enablers, need to be addressed, processed, brought to some kind of balance, yes. It is also true, at least if one subscribes to the wisdom of Gurdjieff, that all issues of the well being of the individual, as vital to health and harmony as they may be, are secondary to the issues of the well being of the Work as a whole. So this means that, perhaps, the most damaging effects of this whole mess, of Mr. Cohen’s predictable fall from grace, is the complete disillusionment that his behavior creates in so many good, decent and serious practitioners, disillusionment relative to the path itself. Of course it is human tendency to assume all spiritual teachers are bad, are psychotic, just because of the prominence of so many public scandals. When one is disillusioned by his or her teacher, yes, often one must come to terms with both one’s grief and remorse and also with their own naiveté, confusion, false expectations and projections, transference and dependencies, but these things can be resolved with competent help and a healing and nurturing environment. But when one’s disillusionment severs them from the Path itself, from all true self-inquiry and transformational possibilities, that is the greater tragedy.

There is such a thing as true crazy wisdom, but that term has been so misused, both by those who totally trivialize it, assuming every circus clown and stand-up comic is practicing it (at least this is benign), and by those who excuse what should be inexcusable abuses toward others, cruelty, sadism, and related neuroses, by calling it crazy wisdom (decidedly not benign). The term has become almost meaningless due to its association with those confused and those lacking any degree of depth of real insight and understanding. Sort of like “Tantra.” What a travesty the current understanding of that word is.

Back to the point: let us not forget that in the vast expanse of time in which the Work unfolds (not to deny the possibility of valid, full awakening in one lifetime, but hey, do the math), that in 100 years our personal discomforts and crises will pale compared to the potentially ongoing divorce between earnest, true-hearted seekers and the Path.

OK, mind-fuckers, bring on the hair-splitting philosophizing.

Through a Mirror Darkly—continuing to try to see clearly!

2005-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Further Reflections from Roberta Anderson

Dear Friends,

Trying to get clear about my time as a member of Andrew’s community has been and continues to be a challenging and extremely emotional process. In talking with an old friend from the community recently it occurred to me that it’s actually quite a bit like the grief process I went through when my mother died a number of years ago. I kept thinking it was “over” and that I had reached some kind of “resolution”, and then, lo and behold, yet another “wave” would hit me often when I least expected it. I want to say that I really appreciate this blog a lot, as it has provided a great forum for me and many of us to sift and resift through these incredibly intense years many of us shared together. Finally getting the courage to participage and throw in my two cents has been far more helpful than I’d expected. In beginning to shake up and examine and re-examine so much that I hadn’t seen clearly and probably still am not. I actually think that this, like the grief process, may well go on for a long time! Many experiences and incidents from this time with Andrew are continuing to burble up to the surface which I’d forgotten about or filed away “safely” because I really didn’t know what to make of them at the time.

For me the really hard part about all of this is to hold and acknowledge it ALL, in all of its craziness, ecstatic revelations, agonizing humiliation, intense joy, incredible fear, unbelievable ongoing pressure, etc. The mind continually insists on something very white or very black, and to try somehow to stay in that really uncomfortable middle place of discomfort and confusion where nothing is denied or left out and the whole actually wildly confusing thing is attempted to be seen all at once—well, I continue to find that this is really difficult!

I think that as Brook pointed out in her post, part of why it’s so challenging to see this all clearly is that undeniably so many of us had enormously powerful and ecstatic realizations of Self when we met Andrew that literally blew our minds. His charisma, confidence, brilliant grasp of the dharma, and willingness to be “on the edge” enchanted us all. Also, the fact that he was an “independent teacher” actually living and teaching from nothing but his OWN understanding instead of some “stodgy tradition” –the incredible aliveness and freshness of all of this really appealed to so many of us “dharma renegades”. Our teacher was a handsome New York Jew who wore Italian clothes and knew everything about jazz. He was hip! He had a great sense of humor, was an incredible mimic, had great timing, and everything he did and said seemed to delight us. He seemed to have an amazing gift for cutting through obscuration and making the dharma simple and accessible and clear. Everyone and everything seemed to “glow” when we were with him. The fact that everything really did seem terrifically new and “unknown” was incredibly exciting. We were explorers out there on the edge, investigating new and uncharted lands with our brave and beautiful teacher at the helm. We were definitely a special and chosen lot!

As things slowly began to change and become not only not very ecstatic, but actually quite scary, many of us including myself felt that finally we were really entering the “true spiritual life”. Although it became often painful and really uncomfortable more and more of the time, everything we’d read and studied from the traditions told us that this was The Way. Slowly and progressively things got harder and weirder. NOW we were definitely “doing it”! Throughout this time lots of new innovations came into play, many of which were in fact skillful and very useful for all of us. We had freqent “discussion groups” where we would go into and explicate subtle points of the teachings with each other, and all of us learned a great deal about how to actually listen to others, articulate our thoughts and ideas much more clearly, and try follow each other’s train of thought with some intelligence. I’ve already written a lot (some would say ad nauseum!) about how all of these years with Andrew really did have a powerfully transformative effect on me and on many of my friends.

But now slowly, because I continue to stare into all of this and reflect and re-reflect from as many angles as I can find, I have to say that I am starting to fall off my high horse and to see that there was indeed a great deal that was just plain old weird, cruel, and abusive, and way over the top. It’s helped me to think about what “went wrong” in terms of looking at the fact that Andrew didn’t really have a real model of “how to teach”. He hadn’t really worked closely with a deeply realized teacher who was steeped in a time-tested tradition where many of the kinks had a chance to get ironed out through centuries of learning from lots of mistakes. He was actually making it all up as he went along, and while we first thought that this was great because he was only teaching purely from his own understanding (which was undeniably profound)--and this was indeed probably why the teachings had a truly "alive" quality, his main and really only strategy became to simply continue to “up the ante”, no matter what. The force and domination and control indeed became quite nazi like. No situation was tailored for individual students at particular times (although I still believe that “intensity” at the proper time and with a great deal of sensitivity and finesse can actually be helpful on occasion). Every month and every year the intensity and “abuses” (already fully documented here on this blog) appeared to escalate to a degree that was beyond extreme. I never really participated myself in being aggressive with others (I was in fact considered rather weak and “wimpy” in that I was always pretty bad at giving “strong feedback” –this seemed to be a sign that I really didn’t care about the freedom of others!)

Truly weird as it was, I think that Andrew thought and probably still thinks that this extreme force was necessary for the “liberation” of his students. I really don’t think he knows any other way to teach, and will probably justify his “methods” to the end. A big part of the underlying setup, as many have described, was that once you accepted Andrew as your teacher that was it. He knew best (as he often said, “why would you come to a teacher if you already know better?”) and because of his rather incredible confidence, managed to set himself up as the unquestioned Authority on Everything! Because of this I think there must be some kind of underlying fear that the whole thing would fall apart if Andrew ever admitted to having made a mistake. This in itself is symptomatic perhaps of how and why it all got so crazy.

So I am finding it really helpful to just keep looking at all of this, trying to keep seeing the holes and blockages in my own understanding, my areas of denial, where I may be still protecting anything for whatever reasons, etc. As I’ve said before I am not bitter about all of the quite long time I spent in this situation, crazy as a lot of it was. For whatever reasons, mostly because I really wanted so much to believe in Andrew’s “vision”, I chose to stay and tough it out through a great deal of wild and crazy and quite painful stuff. I definitely learned a lot and changed deeply in ways I needed to. It was an unbelievably wild ride, and I must say that I both don’t regret it and I am also really glad I’m no longer in that situation! I know that there is still probably a great deal more for me to see about all of this, really appreciate the posts from everyone, and want to thank Hal for providing this much-needed forum.

With love and thanks to all,
Roberta

P.S. Something I’m finding kind of interesting to think about is that early on with Andrew he had all us us ex-Da Free John students (there were six or seven of us) get together to get “de-programmed” and see and face clearly what a mad teacher he actually was. We all sat together for a number of hours going over and over our experiences. I remember actually feeling a bit “seasick” from just being forced to see and tell the truth. It’s just rather ironic and weird that now I am going through this again with Andrew! Wow.

Real Teachers Are As Scarce As Hens' Teeth

2005-04-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

A Letter Of Appreciation For Andrew Cohen
By Roberta Anderson

Dear Friends,

I’ve been following this blog with a lot of interest—often fascinated, often confused, often feeling a little sick, and often alternating between wanting to defend Andrew, damn him, and then again defend him.

I stayed in the community for nearly twelve years and participated in everything that’s been written about. Even though much of it was intense beyond belief and often even “brutal”, I stayed because early on in this life I knew that I wanted to find something that few on this planet, apparently, have discovered. I had a strong sense that my particular destiny was to give my damndest to attempt to awaken in this very life. I familiarized myself with all the masses of available literature from all the traditions, and I knew that of all the endeavors one can aspire to, this particular matter was apparently difficult beyond anything I could begin to imagine, and that slaying the ego was definitely not for wimps or naïve new-agers. Reading everything from all the warnings in the Tibetan literature about why it’s so very difficult to even get past the “lions at the gate” to Irina Tweedie’s “Chasm of Fire” gave me at least an intellectual understanding that the ego will never simply roll over and die of its own accord, and that it will very probably have to endure massive, intense, and ongoing humiliation to finally be willing to even begin to loose its hold.

I came to Andrew after already having done a fair amount of “spiritual work” because I somehow knew immediately when I met him that he was one of the few true teachers who was actually willing to do battle with the ego down in the muck of the trenches, and that he was indeed the man for the job. He did not disappoint me in his willingness to keep his part of the bargain. Little did I know what I was actually in for, how immensely stubborn and recalcitrant the human ego actually is, the massive and ongoing onslaught against it that is actually required to begin to even make a dent in this fortress, and the intensity of the suffering one must be actively willing to bear in order for real transformation to occur.

Andrew’s students quickly get to know a lot about what Gurdjieff called “conscious suffering”. When one is deep into this process the meaning of Jesus’ words about how “many are called but few are chosen”, “straight is the way and narrow is the gate” etc. becomes quite clear indeed. The first of the countless undesirable aspects of my ego that was exposed in spades was the indomitable strength of my own “spiritual ego”, and my lifelong strategy to do everything imaginable to try to make myself superior to all other human beings so that I would be able to always feel separate, safe, and protected from “them” at all times, places, and spaces. All of my attempts to perpetuate this familiar strategy were dashed and hatcheted, time and time again. Never once did I get to “look good”. From a traditional psychological perspective this sounds pretty horrible, since the whole idea of this approach is to learn more about “honoring and loving yourself” etc. But this is a different game, and always will be.

I think that I have hesitated to throw my voice into this mix until now because I somehow felt that I should be expected to be some kind of grand “enlightened one” to even try to explain my own experience, and to try to shed some light on why I think Andrew is the kind of teacher he is. Instead I’m just a really ordinary human being. But coming from where I started with all of my grandiose notions about myself this is actually rather radical! I do know that with no doubt I am profoundly different from that person that came to Andrew in 1989. I had my butt kicked to kingdom come, was “drawn and quartered”, often felt like I was being boiled in oil, and weirdly enough (and I know that nearly everyone will find this to be pretty crazy), when it comes down to the most fundamental truth of it all, I feel basically nothing but deep gratitude to Andrew for having the guts and integrity and passion for awakening to be willing to do battle with me for so many years.

This is messy, nasty work, and very few understandably will even have any interest in it—both teachers and students. I knew I needed a very tough teacher and I got one. Andrew showed me how to plunge into life and to live it fully with zest, passion, and deep love—the real kind of love that comes from knowing with no doubt that you are not even an iota separate from any other soul on the planet, and because of this we all have a deep imperative to really love each other like crazy, no matter what. He showed me the importance of how precious this human life actually is, and how all of us despite whatever our many perceived weaknesses may be, have a sacred responsibility to be agents for evolution wherever we are and whoever we are with no matter what we feel like doing. He also taught me that I don’t actually have a clue what’s really going on and that I don’t have to be afraid or insecure because of this—that this is in fact what makes life such an ongoingly rich, mysterious, and thrilling adventure.

By no means do I feel that Andrew is “perfect”. As has been more than adequately pointed out on this blog, he has and will no doubt continue to make numerous mistakes. Like all of us, he is a mere human being despite his quite deep realization. There are parts of him like those parts in all us that clearly need ripening. The zen teachers often carry on about how this process actually never ends. There are numerous areas that I question or disagree with him. The work that he has committed his life to is the most vicious insult to the ego that one can ever begin to conceive of, and it is most understandable that such a huge number of ex-students are affronted, “wounded”, pissed off, vengeful, etc. etc. I have also felt all of this quite a lot and pretty consistently myself over the years. But ultimately (and apparently I am in the extreme minority in this respect!) I can only say that I got what I asked for, and way, way, way more than I could ever imagine. And I am frankly amazed that such a teacher as Andrew actually exists on this planet. The real deal is rare and the real teachers are scarce as hens’ teeth. They will probably always be vilified because of the extreme and excruciatingly painful nature of the real spiritual process.

Sending much love to any and all of my old friends who may read this—

Roberta Anderson
rlanderson83@yahoo.com

Reflections Of An Early Student

2005-04-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

A Letter From Brook Stone

Dear What Enlightenment Blog,

I’d like to begin by saying how grateful and appreciative I am that this blog has come into being. My story is an old one so I will keep this relatively brief. So much has been said so well and my experience and thoughts match most of what has been written here.

I was a very involved student of Andrew's for 5 years from 1988-1993. Many people have understandably asked in their comments why people didn’t speak up, or why it has taken so long for people to be able to get over their experience. I’ve asked myself that question as well. Reading this blog in detail has revived many memories and thoughts about my experience. Though I feel that Andrew is a tainted teacher and I feel highly motivated to speak up in this forum, I nonetheless had one of the most profound experiences of my life during my time with him. It took me, and I think many people, quite a lot of time and courage to sort out the depths of love and idealism that Andrew inspires from the very twisted and dysfunctional use he makes of them.

Giving oneself so fully and feeling the power of that kind of surrender and commitment makes it very hard to untwist. If one hasn’t been involved, I think it’s difficult to imagine the depths of the pull that this kind of spiritual opening and connection exerts. One then feels a powerful need to protect the beauty of one’s experience and deny the trouble. And the experience gets so deeply entwined with the teacher who helps make this possible. This too makes it harder to untangle. This is a central part of the seduction. Though I have remained deeply involved in spiritual life, sit regular retreats and work with different non-dual teachers, I am still clarifying where my authentic spiritual yearning and direction lies.

I finally left when I felt I could no longer support what seemed to me the very personal needs of the leader in the name of the Truth. In my case, it was deciding to listen to my doubts rather than rationalize them away, that was the turning point. For a long while, I believed that my doubts were my ego speaking. And certainly to some extent they were. But by the end, the doubts I had overwhelmed the benefits and insight that had been worth the journey up until that point. Leaving was terribly difficult. It meant giving up everything I had devoted my life to. Perhaps what’s hardest for those not involved to understand is how one feels one has given oneself to the highest purpose possible. To see that purpose contaminated and then crumble is a profound disillusionment. Hopefully, for many of us, this marks the beginning of a more mature and honest spirituality.

Andrew is living example of how a mind no doubt transformed by profound experience can nonetheless carry a personality that is deeply flawed. Andrew is not able or willing to apply his deep insights to himself. It was one of the things that kept his community so compellingly confusing. He seemed to name the dynamics in other groups and teachers that were going on in his own. How could he be doing the very thing he named as dysfunctional in other groups? He'd joke and tell us to call the group a cult “and be done with it.” It was a truly clever diversion that served to hide some very twisted motives.

Now that Andrew has made it into communities of repute, I feel especially compelled to speak out. One needs a very critical eye to understand that what you see is not what you get. He's a master of sorts, no doubt. But he is not benign nor is his community.

Andrew’s community is shame-based. When I left, it was small potatoes compared to what’s happening now, though the seeds were all there. I was shunned when I left, shamed and told to my face that though I may think that leaving was took courage, I was weak and a coward. End of five years of commitment. But I was not physically attacked and pursuit ended quickly when I returned hostile letters to the sender unopened. Now he hits people, or has them hit, and condones other practices that by any measure constitute abuse. His need for power and recognition trump all else.

I want to say to those of you in the academic community, to Ken Wilber and the others, please, do not be fooled or seduced. In the current cultural context, where truth is constructed to suit the image desired, it seems especially important that in progressive communities, we have open dialogue, the ability to think critically and the freedom to question leaders. Idealism should not lead to blindness. We humans are a very mixed bunch, capable of the highest ideals yet all carrying some kind of shadow. Andrew is no exception to that. If he could own his shadow as others in these pages have suggested, maybe a true transformation could take place. Then we’d have not a perfect person, but a complex and compelling human being with something to offer for those who are drawn. But for now, to sanction abuse, to rationalize it away or trivialize what is happening, is inexcusable. It perpetuates a stance of denial. This does not, nor can it ever, set us free.

Sincerely,
Brook M. Stone, MSW, LCSW

Shame-based Spiritual Striving

2005-04-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

A Letter From A Reader

Hello there:

I just want to say that I really appreciate what you are doing here. I think shame-based spiritual striving is a big part of the problem here. When we have wounds of shame, we can get caught into these patterns of dysfunctional teacher/student relationships. I grew up in a spiritual community that my parents belonged to. When the "shit hit the fan", many people including myself at age 23, went through a painful process of re-orientation to life that involved, among other things, healing deep feelings of shame. This task continues.

I nearly went to a Cohen retreat a year or two ago, but fortunately my "antenna" from overcoming my earlier years kicked in enough to stop me. Then, I attended a local Cohen/Integral group for meetings, but became aware of interpersonal/group process problems rather quickly. This group subsequently folded.

There is such a thing as healthy shame: "red" acts should bring shame upon our heads, to keep that energy in control. If even half the events described by contributors to your blog are true, then Cohen really ought to be ashamed of himself. Shame on you, Andrew!

Warmest regards,
Durwin Foster, M.A.
Doctoral Student (Counselling Psychology)
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education
University of British Columbia
durwinfoster@shaw.ca

Shame, Guilt and the Guru’s Blood

2005-03-24T18:44:00.000-08:00

Breaking The Code Of Silence--Part III
by Hal Blacker

May all beings be happy!
May the truth, no matter how difficult it is to hear, set all beings free.

I have previously written on this blog of incidents of slapping and physical assault against students by Andrew Cohen and at his direction. I told the story of the assault of Donna with buckets of paint, and the emotional assault on her teenage daughter. Stas (Ernest) has shared his story on this blog, and you have had the chance to read some stories from some other former students. But it is difficult to convey, from these various particular stories and incidents, the pervasive atmosphere of guilt, shame and fear created by Andrew in his community, which refugees from the community have communicated to me.

When I left the Andrew Cohen community in late 1996, before its move to Lenox, Massachusetts, Andrew had already begun to speak openly of his fondness for guilt. It went along, in his mind, with his emphasis on conscience and “doing the right thing.” I remember Andrew saying at a special retreat of close students in Mill Valley, California that I attended that while other teachers talked of unconditional love, self-acceptance and forgiveness, he did not agree with such talk. “I’m not into unconditional love or forgiveness,” he said. “I’m into conditional love and guilt.” Andrew would say that while it was not his preference, if that is what it took to force change, using guilt and shame was perfectly alright.

Over the years, Andrew instilled a sense of guilt and shame in various ways, as he deemed necessary. He would often highlight student’s weak points by giving them an embarrassing or insulting name. A student who received such a name could only use that name in the community, and community members were required to use that name when addressing or referring to that person, until Andrew said it could stop. Some examples of these names include Vacance, Mad Dog, Raging Bull, Furious, Dizzy, Casual, Unreal, Mephisto, Q the Clown, Sherma the Tank, Tamasa and His Greatness or “HG.” The shaving of heads was also used to mark someone who was in trouble. While it was sometimes a voluntary act symbolizing renunciation, shaving one’s head became more and more something that you were required to do when Andrew was unhappy with you. These devices of inducing shame were already in force before the move to Foxhollow. But after the move to Foxhollow, the use of guilt and shame as a teaching device seemed to increase dramatically. At Foxhollow, Andrew also began to speak openly of what he called “healthy shame.”

Incidents involving writing messages in fake blood on the walls of Foxhollow residents’ rooms or offices have been already described on this blog. One such incident was obliquely alluded to in the 10th anniversary issue of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, published in the Fall of 2001, and Craig Hamilton referred to this incident in one of his contributions to this blog. When Andrew would receive a letter from a student or students that offended him, he would sometimes have it blown up, splattered with fake blood and posted publicly. Everyone knew that this fake blood, or red paint, represented “the guru’s blood.” Andrew made it clear that he felt that when a student questioned, disobeyed or offended him, they were spilling his blood. Fake blood was used liberally to induce shame and guilt in students, or his entire student body, when he was unhappy with them. For a time he converted the basement spa at Foxhollow into a space for practice and penitence, where the walls were liberally smeared with this “blood,” his “blood.” There was a men’s side and a women’s side. Both were copiously stained with Andrew’s “blood.”

One very dedicated long-time student of Andrew’s, a physician named Michele, who was a leader in the community at the time, committed the unthinkable crime of contradicting Andrew. When Andrew criticized her about something she had done, she countered that Andrew had told her to do it. Andrew said that she was trying to make him doubt himself, and that was the worst possible crime and sin. For her perceived betrayal of him, her office was moved into the basement under the kitchen in the main building at Foxhollow. She was forced to work in an unfinished room, where the heating pipes were exposed. All four walls, the ceiling and the floor were painted in red paint, representing the guru’s blood. One witness recalls there was a large cartoon put up there, representing Michele as a vampire. Another recalls that the word “traitor” was painted on the walls, as well. Michele was required to stay in that room for hours a day.

The period in 2001 preceding the publication of the 10th anniversary issue of What Is Enlightenment? was a particularly difficult time for the men at Foxhollow. As described earlier on this blog, when that issue of the community’s magazine was published, most of the editorial staff had been banned from the center. But all of the formal male students had been under extreme pressure and had been recipients of Andrew’s displeasure and wrath for some time before then. It seemed that Andrew’s shift in emphasis from individual enlightenment to collective evolution translated into group experiments with his male and female students, involving pressure, shame and guilt.

It was understood, at one point, that Andrew was “taking on” all of the formal male students. The women had already been under great pressure for at least several years before then. Now Andrew’s attention had shifted to the men. He wanted a “collective shift” to occur in them. At a certain point, frustrated with their lack of movement, he had all of the formal men stand in a circle, surrounding his house, in the winter in the Berkshires, for two to three days. The group has been estimated at 15-18 men. They were permitted to sleep for a few hours a day and were brought sandwiches a couple of times a day, but otherwise they were not permitted to move. Some of them urinated in their pants. An eyewitness to these events reports having seen Andrew emerge from his home and laugh at the men from time to time. During the extended period of intense pressure on the men, approximately 8-10 formal men could not stand it, and left the community.

At various times, it was the women’s turn to “collectively shift.” The women’s side of the Foxhollow basement spa was turned into a multi-media space, where 20-30 women would be required to squeeze into a small space and watch the movie “To Die For” or listen to Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” over and over again. The women had to take shifts, including in the middle of the night, and keep these media playing non-stop, 24 hours a day. One woman described the area where this occurred as 80-90 square meters (about 240-270 square feet) of wall-to-wall blown up comments, letters, cartoons and caricatures, red paint and multi-media. Andrew used a very talented caricaturist who was in the community, and he spent an enormous amount of time making very large, dramatic cartoons for Andrew. Many of the caricatures depicted specific students as devils or demons. Some showed these women eviscerating Andrew, literally tearing his intestines out with their bare hands. Others showed students dancing demonically around a fire, throwing Andrew’s dharma books into the flames. Another depicted a female student as a dominatrix, performing sexually predatory acts. At times, all or most of the women had to sleep down there. This went on, even though most of the women had to work all day at outside jobs, as well as perform labor for Andrew’s organization, the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship. For much of this period the women in relationships were prohibited from having sexual relations. They were not allowed to speak about personal matters, feelings or concerns with each other. They were especially prohibited from expressing any doubt, fear or confusion to anyone. The term “code of silence” was explicitly used for these rules. In general, the men ignored the women, because this was encouraged. At times the women were required to spend 3-4 hours a day in a group, confessing and writing in a document every way in which they had “betrayed the revolution.” This document was eventually typed up and presented to Andrew.

At one point, the women as a group got into serious trouble because some women answered back to some men who told them they were not doing their spiritual practice properly. Andrew heard about this and let it be known that their disagreement was “outrageous.” The women went into a panic when they heard this. They decided they must do something extreme to prove their penitence. Kathy Bayer came up with the idea that they should all perform prostrations in the freezing waters of Laurel Lake, the lake on the Foxhollow property. Memories vary as to exactly what month the prostrations occurred. Witnesses have reported dates from mid-October to late November. Most agree November. There wasn’t ice on the lake yet, but all agree that it was bitterly cold.

Andrew learned of the plan for the lake prostrations group penitence, and approved it. Some people had performed prostrations in the lake before, but not in such cold weather. For example, Craig Hamilton at one point performed prostrations as penitence in the same lake, shouting “I am an asshole” at each prostration. His sadhana had been interrupted, however, when some local construction workers became disturbed by what he was doing and threatened to beat him up if he didn’t stop.

The women entered the lake and walked to where the water was about waist deep, or a little higher. They held their hands above their head, shouted “Face everything and avoid nothing,” and plunged down, completely submerging themselves. Then they got up and did it again. Their goal was to do it over and over again, for an hour.

Andrew’s wife, Alka, was excused from the practice because she had a bad chest cold. But another woman had suffered a concussion and brain injury the year before. Andrew knew this, because she had undergone a lengthy convalescence at Foxhollow. She was not excused. She passed out in the lake’s cold waters after about 50 minutes. She was carried out of the lake, unconscious. She came to in a warm shower, with two other women holding her up. Another woman described making it through the hour. She and some others who did so turned blue. They shivered so hard afterwards that they could not stop shaking enough to undo their zippers or buttons so they could take off their clothes. They went in groups into hot showers, where they stood for 45 minutes at a time until they had finally stopped shivering enough to undress. One woman wound up in the hospital with a serious kidney infection, requiring an I.V. drip, about 1 ½ months later. She attributes this to her exposure in the lake.

Some women did not make it through the practice. The women as a group got a message from Andrew that those who did not finish had to go back again and complete it. Some women had to return to the lake and try two or three times before they could do so.

The sense of guilt and shame, and the feeling that one was constantly “betraying one’s Master” could inspire the willingness to make sacrifices that seem extreme and irrational from the outside. Andrew seems to encourage this behavior, even relish it. Some years ago at Foxhollow, a student named Jeff, a very good writer, was having a great deal of trouble with a writing project he had been assigned to do. He was supposed to write an introduction to a book Andrew was publishing, but he was having no success. Feeling terrible guilt about this, he wrote in a desperate letter to Andrew that “if I don’t come through, I will cut my finger off.” Andrew seemed to like this idea. When Jeff still did not succeed at his writing, Andrew called for Michele, the physician, to come see him. My informant was present when Andrew instructed Michele what to do. Andrew told Michele to go to see Jeff, and to bring her medical kit. She was instructed to tell Jeff that Andrew was taking him up on his offer to sacrifice a finger. She should take out her scalpel, her mask, her gloves, a sponge—everything she would need for such an operation—and lay them all out. She was told to carry through the charade up to the very last minute, and then stop.

When Michele visited Jeff, he had barely slept in about a week. He was in a desperate state. Nobody was there but Michele, who is still a student of Andrew, and Jeff, who I do not know how to contact. But Michele confirmed to another informant of mine that she had followed Andrew’s instructions precisely. Jeff was severely and obviously shaken by the incident. He left Andrew and Foxhollow a few weeks later.

A Reflection from Christopher Titmuss

2005-03-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

Dear What Enlightenment Bloggers,

I received from you details of your website and had a careful read through it. I knew Andrew in the early 1980's as a serious student of mine until he met Poonja-ji and I know some of the senior students referred to in your website. I recall from Andrew's autobiography that, as a student, he became disillusioned with his past teachers, including his yoga teacher, myself over a misunderstanding on a retreat in India, and he had a complete falling out with Poonja-ji. An increasing number of Andrew's students are disillusioned with Andrew as a teacher. Is there a certain karmic justice here that we can all learn from?

After reading it through, I do feel that your website has struck a balance between the search for mutual understanding, such as the article 'To Heal One is to Heal All,' and direct criticism. Not easy. Teachers tend to fall from grace. Our immortality becomes mortal, whether it's power, money or, as in my case and others, the amorous and loving encounter. As years go by, students develop two inner strengths, namely wisdom and confidence. If students are seeing clearly, then their clarity will reveal both past and present, and have the confidence to express what they experience and know. The student finds her or his voice that invites one expression of the embrace of the Non-Dual (namely teacher and student). One hopes as a teacher and servant of the Dharma, that students will learn from both the wisdom and
foolishness of the teacher, the kindness and reactivity of the teacher.

We, who are in the privileged position of teaching, must never forget that the clear and the unclear within are merely a thought apart. Your website provides a service since it makes those of us who live in the rarefied realms, called a spiritual teacher, accountable to those we serve. I know very well. I've attended a few meetings with students and co-teachers, some of whom I made teachers. At times, they pulled me over the hot coals because of a romantic event years ago or some things I have written or spoken about. Unfortunately, inner pain and fear hide beneath aggression and that makes it harder for you to find reconciliation with Andrew who, judging from your reports, still seems to have an unconscious need to belittle people.

All credit to those of you who speak up. In a certain way, it is a kind of backhanded compliment to Andrew that his students do speak up. Isn't that an emphasis in his teaching? He should be proud of you all! Some may contribute to your website from outside the story; others are still inside of it. If one has moved outside the story totally, then you express an authentic freedom of the Non-Dual (realising the dependent arising of so-called 'self 'and 'other'), and a seeing through the fictional mind set that give substance to the ultimately insubstantial; and that surely is the heart of any worthwhile teaching.

If students who have left Andrew write from a place of reaction, faultfinding, and blame, then consciousness is still embroiled in the story and still hooked emotionally into Andrew's inner world. Such students will be revealing echoes within themselves of the very criticism levelled at Andrew - namely negative and apparently dehumanising treatment. Those who point the accusing finger at another should remember they have three fingers pointed at themselves. Hopefully your contributors, whether anonymous or not, remember to look within themselves, even if your former teacher cannot.

In the Dharma,
Christopher Titmuss
www.insightmeditation.org

To Heal One is To Heal All

2005-03-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

by anonymous

I extend my respects, and my ever-breaking heart, to the contributors of this blog. To those who are suffering, to those who are healing and thriving. . .and to Andrew, and to his serious and dedicated students who pour out their hearts’ sincerity and the depth of longing into what they hope to be the greatest possibility for their lifetime. None of us is so different from each other, blind but sincere voyagers on this Ship of Fools.

I am not a student of Andrew, but have followed his work for many years, and have received teachings from him on more than one occasion that were of valuable help to my sadhana. I would like to share a precious teaching lesson Andrew once offered me, and with open hands and heart offer it back to him in return.

Many years ago, as a young practitioner on the path, I visited Andrew. At the time I was like many of us, totally ambitious, totally naïve, believing that my wish for Truth was greater than the others, that I was destined for spiritual greatness, that I was, somehow, special. Surely many of us can admit to such a feeling, if only in the privacy of our hearts? That is why Hafiz wrote, “But still God is delighted and amused, you once tried to be a saint.”

Though I believed nothing could come between myself and the most radical and uncompromised truth, I was struggling with a broken practice, with resistance.
I shyly raised me hand, “Andrew, how do I work with the great NO inside of me? How do I overcome this tremendous resistance to practice that keeps me from Truth?”

“Give me an example, Andrew flashed back, playful suspicion in his eyes. “Tell me how this great NO shows up in practical terms.”

I told him of my fall from grace earlier that day, which amounted to a breach of practice so minor as to be perceptible only to myself.

“Oh my God!” Andrew theatrically jumped in, laughing, instantly disarming my self-seriousness and grandiosity. “Did you hear that?” he turned to his students.

“Listen, sweetie,” he turned to me with the piercing swords of discernment, the mood instantly changed. “You’re young, you’re serious and you are just beginning. On this path you are going to make a LOT of mistakes, and some of those mistakes are going to be BIG ones. Everybody does. It is guaranteed. Save your energy and remorse for the big mistakes because you are going to make them and you are going to need your energy to get through them. Got it?”

I think we all got it in that moment, the inevitability of a fall I could not imagine, the humanness of it, the humility of it, and the need to show up as a true spiritual warrior when the time would come.

It is 10 years later. Andrew has made some big mistakes. Some of the ones he said we would all make. The accrual of casualties in terms of the abuse of money, power, and emotional manipulatin, just to name a few of the “crimes of unconsciousness,” are undeniable.

It is a precious moment. What appears to be a devastating shock can become a healing crisis if it is related to with deep courage. A doorway is open that may not stay open for too long. It is a moment in which Andrew can use the fruits of his sadhana, the energy that he still has accumulated, to gracefully work his way through his present predicament. This is the moment in his own life that he was telling me about, one of the BIG mistakes, in which we cash in some of our hard-earned accumulation of energy in order to create a significant healing and transformation.

People can be tremendously resilient and forgiving. When approached from the humility of true remorse and heartbreak, and the admission of human error, hearts open and karma is undone.

Those hurt by Andrew were, of course, mutually complicit in the drama they were a part of. Our neurotic wounds and needs unconsciously kidnap the teachings in service of themselves, and so both neurosis of teacher and student were feeding off each other. This is an inevitable symptom of the times we are in, times of great possibility and a time in which our collective psychological wounding has penetrated to such a collective and epidemic level that none us, including teachers, are immune from its influence. The question is, “Can we work our way out of it?” If we really believe in evolution, this is the humble domain in which it is learned and lived.

Many years ago, Claudio Naranjo, after being fully enlightened for three years, running a thriving spiritual community, came to the stark realization and admission that his enlightenment was not complete. In spite of protests from his students, he dismantled his organization and dethroned himself as guru. He later explained that his own enlightenment had to be sacrificed in order to illuminate that which was still dark within him.

A friend of mine was a very close student of Yogi Amrit Desai. In fact, she was one of those who sued him for his sex scandals (enacted on her) and won the lawsuit. Much later, they did mediation together. Eventually, therapy. Many years later she returned to him as his student, and they now have a mature, thriving, adult relationship as guru and disciple. Corruption and transmission can coexist! Change is possible. Forgiveness is possible.

Let us remember that none of us are beyond falling. Most of us have not been given enough power, authority and fame to fully appreciate the subtlety and pulls of its temptations. We actually cannot know that we would not do as Andrew has done, given the complexity of historical and karmic factors he faces. Most of us have not penetrated the subtleties of dharmic wisdom deeply enough to fully appreciate the degree to which the still unconscious aspects of ego can co-opt Truth into a sterling silver layer of armor and defense, all flawlessly justifiable in the language of Truth itself. Most of us are not beyond falling into the traps that Andrew has fallen into.

However, as a world teacher and model, Andrew is now in an incredible position to offer us an extremely potent teaching lesson about how an authentic teacher can allow himself to become dismantled and dethroned in order to assume the true throne of Disciple of Truth, of Love, of Life. Through his own umcompromised practice, Andrew could, through an essential and brave gesture, undergo the greatest teaching lesson of his own life - turning toward EVERYTHING that is within him, including deep psychological wounds and their consequences, humility, hurt, blindness, in order to demonstrate to all of us that a true visionary will stop short of nothing in his journey to Truth, even the dethroning of his own empire. I envision that the humility of such an action would invoke the forgiveness and support of all of those who, in their heart of hearts, still love him. Things that may still be to come, lawsuits, more difficult books, this blog, could be dropped, forgiven, erased, and even transformed into the fruition of a still greater truth.

I am sure the Gods would sing. The great gurus would arise from their cremated ashes and bestow blessings, forgiveness, the undoing of karma, and true praise for an act of such human bravery. The hearts of present and former disciples would be disarmed in the beauty of Andrew’s humility, and something deep within them could forgive, let go, and all of us could learn something painfully deep and humanly real about the teaching that “there is no other.”

Andrew, you offered me that precious lesson long ago: “Save yourself for the big mistakes because you are going to make them and you are going to need your energy to get through them.” Now demonstrate to all of us how it is done, so when our time comes we will have the courage to do the same.

With All Respects

Cruelty, Vengeance And Crazy Wisdom

2005-03-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

Breaking The Code Of Silence--Part II
by Hal Blacker

May all beings be happy!

It is now more than ten days since I wrote Andrew Cohen an “Invitation To Truth And Reconciliation." So far, there has been no response.

This is a disappointment. Andrew’s utter silence now, after previous hostile posts made here by his representatives, seems to signify a complete unwillingness to face the harm he has caused. So now I am compelled to continue this journey into Andrew Cohen’s heart of darkness. Because this is bitter medicine, it will be served in small doses.

Let no one think that the few specific instances of slapping described previously here were the only ones. There were many others. The slapping of several What Is Enlightenment? staff members by another staff member, on Andrew’s orders, has been chronicled earlier on this blog. A former senior student reports slapping other students on Andrew’s orders, including former and present students such as Steve Brett, Harry Dijkshorn, Bob Voss, and others. He saw Andrew personally strike Calvin Phipps, Arjan Kindermans, Mike Dutka and several other men. A former female student reports that women were slapped at Andrew’s direction even more often than the men.

In addition to slapping, groups of male students were ordered by Andrew to assault other students. In 1997, while the community was still in Marin County, California (shortly before I left it), a group of men roughed up former student Ingo. He had recently been “promoted” and was living in Andrew’s household along with other closer students. I did not find out about this until years later. I was incredulous at first, thinking it must have just been “rough-housing.” with obviously no harmful intent. Ingo stressed that this was not the case. He was very frightened by the incident. He was not seriously hurt, but while it was occurring he feared that he might be. He fled the community soon after, never to return. Around this time Stas (Ernest) was also jumped and “beaten up” a number of times by a group of fellow students. He also was extremely frightened and panic-stricken by the attacks. Again, he was not seriously harmed physically, but felt emotionally traumatized from the events. These kinds of physical assaults were rationalized by Andrew, however, as a way to get certain men in touch with their inner rage.

Some forms of physical abuse did not involve direct assaults on the person. For instance, at the Foxhollow World Center, Andrew once ordered that a large plastic bag of garbage, containing food waste and other trash, be obtained from the center’s kitchen. He had a student empty its entire contents on the bed of a student living there named Mary Acton-Adams.

Andrew also appears to be capable of engaging in a sustained effort, lasting over years, to demoralize a student with whom he is particularly angry. This seems to have been the case with Donna, Stas' (Ernest's) former wife.

Donna and Stas became students of Andrew’s in the late 1980’s. By the time the community moved from the East Coast to Marin County, California, they were among his closest. When I joined the community in Marin in 1990, I lived briefly with Donna, Stas and their young daughter, Sophia. Donna and Stas achieved the rank of “senior students” (the highest level in the student hierarchy, for a time) and were leaders of the community for years. For years, they were also one of the only—perhaps the only—married couple in the community that Andrew did not break apart. By the time the community moved back to the East Coast to its new home in Foxhollow, however, Donna had fallen from grace, been separated from Stas, and Andrew was very unhappy with her.

In approximately 1999, Donna was a lay student, living off the Foxhollow campus. Although she had fallen into disfavor with Andrew, she tried to keep some connection with him and the community. The community was involved with extensive re-modeling of the Foxhollow Center, and Donna volunteered to help. One day, she was working at the center with others, painting, and during a lunch break, close student Bob Voss approached her. He asked her if she could “come downstairs” into the basement. She was met there by four close female students, including Andrew’s wife, Alka. They guided her to a plastic sheet that was on the floor. Alka approached Donna and told her she had a message from Andrew. Saying “Thanks a lot” (or words to this effect) in a sarcastic voice, Alka poured a full bucket of paint over Donna’s head. The other students proceeded to do the same, pouring a total of 4 buckets of paint over Donna.

Donna recalls being completely devastated. She remembers standing covered with paint and crying. One student helped her to a shower, where she disrobed and stood under the water for 45 minutes, broken and sobbing. She was given coveralls to change into before she left. She tried as hard as she could to hold herself together emotionally long enough to leave the premises without breaking down and making a scene. She had trouble keeping control. Later, a fellow student telephoned Donna and called her a “coward.” After the incident, and perhaps because of its emotional trauma, Donna became very ill with a bad flu.

Donna never returned to Foxhollow. She drifted away from the community, although she maintained contact with Stas, in part because of their daughter Sophia. But this was not the end of Donna’s humiliation at Andrew’s hands. Andrew seemed to feel the need to cause Donna more pain. He would eventually accomplish this through emotional abuse and manipulation involving her daughter Sophia.

As Stas described in his letter posted on this blog, he often had little time for his daughter Sophia due to Andrew’s demands on him. Sophia, naturally, came to resent this. Several years after Donna was assaulted with paint in the basement of Foxhollow, Sophia, then 15 years old, and her mother were living together separately from Stas. Sophia was angry with Stas for his neglect, and wanted little to do with him. She was, however, very close to Donna and held her in high esteem. Andrew became aware of this, and felt that something should be done.

Some years earlier, Andrew had learned about infidelity by Donna that had occurred in the distant past, years before Sophia was born. Over time, Andrew had used this against Stas and Donna on a number of occasions. He revealed this embarrassing information to many people in the community. When Andrew heard that Sophia wanted little to do with Stas, while holding Donna in high regard, he decided Sophia’s love and respect for her mother should be undermined by telling Sophia of her mother’s past infidelity. Andrew was outraged that Sophia would dare to be disrespectful of her father because he had given his life, his time and his priorities to Andrew, rather than her. Through the years, Andrew had often told the parents that they should not hide from the children that their dedication to him comes first, even before them. He also said he felt that it would somehow be of personal benefit for Sophia to “know the truth” about her mother and that it would help Stas’s relationship with Sophia. Andrew discussed this idea with Stas and other close students numerous times.

Andrew kept pressing Stas to tell Sophia directly of her mother’s past infidelity. As a result, when Stas was visiting with Sophia, he told her how her mother had been unfaithful before she was born. Upon hearing this, Sophia cried. But Stas felt that telling her might have had the desired effect. He called Andrew and told him this. Andrew, pleased with himself, said jokingly, “OK. So, now you owe me another $20,000.”

After Stas left, however, Sophia became physically ill and threw up. She called her mother, upset by everything she had been told. When Donna heard what had happened, she became furious. She rightfully suspected Andrew’s involvement in the affair, knowing that Stas would do nothing without Andrew’s direct instruction. But before she had a chance to speak at length with Stas about it, Alka called him and told him, “Andrew says, to leave him out of this.” Andrew had not only Stas but others told to engage in a “cover-up” for him. Later, when Stas spoke to Donna and was questioned by her, he denied any involvement by Andrew. Shanti (Mary), another long-time student and close friend of Donna’s, vehemently denied Andrew’s involvement in the affair.

Donna, Stas and their daughter Sophia have all felt the brunt of Andrew’s wrath, in cruelly novel and unexpected ways. They are not the only ones. Donna recalls Andrew once comparing himself to the controversial and scandal-plagued guru Adi Da (Da Free John), saying, “In terms of crazy wisdom, I’m the craziest.” Crazy wisdom, something Andrew once vociferously condemned in his teaching, had become a matter of pride for Andrew. The thing about crazy wisdom is, it has no limits. Let us hope—against the evidence—that Andrew’s cruelty and vengeance does.

On WIE--A Dialogue

2005-03-02T06:45:00.000-08:00

At Thursday, 24 February, 2005, Anonymous said...

Is it just me or is the new issue of WIE just not as interesting as it used to be?

Maybe it’s because, as I’m reading along, a thought keeps flashing in my mind: 'He slaps his students around! He manipulates large sums of money out of them!'

I was reading Andrew’s editorial about Authentic Leadership in which he wrote about a group in Australia who seemed fearful and disinterested during one of his talks. Instead of thinking: they just can’t comprehend his enlightened mind. Now I’m thinking: 'How is it that authentic leadership involves slapping adults hard in the face? And manipulating people into giving 10,000 dollar “donations”?'

This issue’s Andrew and Ken dialogue seems to be a rehashed version of ‘my enlightenment is better than anybody else’s because it’s cutting edge and evolutionary.’ Or maybe it’s because I’m thinking: 'Guru, are you dysfunctional, and Pandit, are you looking the other way?'

And Don Beck, how does a face-slapping and money-grabbing leadership style fit in with your Politeness, Openness, Autocracy (P-O-A) principle as described in Spiral Dynamics?

At Thursday, 24 February, 2005, freewilly said...

Well Hal, you got what you wanted! I don't know if you meant this all to become so laughably - i don't even know what the word is - transparent maybe? In any case, just so this craziness does not go unremarked on:

One of your posters said: "Is it just me or is the new issue of WIE just not as interesting as it used to be?

Maybe it’s because, as I’m reading along, a thought keeps flashing in my mind: 'He slaps his students around! He manipulates large sums of money out of them!"

Dear poster, have you considered flipping your worldview upside down and thinking about the evolutionary ideas presented in WIE and then seeing the slaps and the alleged "extortion" from that point of view? Meaning, hmmm I wonder if there is ANY more to the story at all?

I've noticed that WIE is so challenging and groundbreaking that its very easy to write it off quickly as having become "heady" or "juiceless." However, if you switch into the mindset - just for fun see if you can - that those who write the magazine and those who are featured in it are actually doing and are serious about the kind of Global Human Change that is constantly pointed at, its very possible to "get it" in a very different way.

Good luck trying that experiment without getting at least a mild brain expansion!

At Thursday, 24 February, 2005, Anonymous said...

The Bullshit Never Ends.

One poster writes:

"Is it just me or is the new issue of WIE just not as interesting as it used to be?
Maybe it’s because, as I’m reading along, a thought keeps flashing in my mind: 'He slaps his students around! He manipulates large sums of money out of them!"

Another poster (freewilly) responds:

"Dear poster, have you considered flipping your worldview upside down and thinking about the evolutionary ideas presented in WIE and then seeing the slaps and the alleged 'extortion' from that point of view? Meaning, hmmm I wonder if there is ANY more to the story at all?"

Does anyone see the word "extortion" in the first poster's comments? How did "manipulates" become the much stronger and legally connotative "extortion"?

Does anyone notice a pattern here? Andre, Susan, Hal, Anastasi, et al write balanced reports about experiences which not one of them has described as "terrible" or as a "life-destroying police state," and none of them have described Andrew Cohen as a "menace to society," and yet Cohen's defenders have blanketly characterized "this blog" in toto as presenting an extreme, one-sided picture of Cohen and his community.

This is a tactic familiar to anyone who has ever watched shows like the O'Reilly Factor on the Fox TV news network. Regardless of how one may feel about O'Reilly, it's undeniable that he consistently exaggerates his opponents' actual positions in order to make their positions easier to attack.

Such argumentation tactics are a sign of weakness (as well as weak-mindedness.)

What I have consistently seen in posts by Cohen's defenders are a refusal to acknowledge a middle position between advocacy for Cohen and abject condemnation of him.

There is a name for that approach to argumentation; it's called sophistry, after the Sophists, who in Plato's Euthydemus are shown trying to convince a young man to agree that he was either "wise" or "ignorant," offering no middle ground when there should be.

Of course it's possible that those who do not see that Andre, et al, occupy a middle ground position that does not fall into an extreme do not see this because they have yet to "evolve" to the point that they can see beyond black/white, either/or, us/them, for/against modes of thinking. That may be why they need a "Rude Boy" teacher who uses sophisticated, mature teaching methods like having students slapped and writing messages on walls with fake blood. (I'm sorry folks, it's sounds like a really boring version of Lord of the Flies. When are the adults gonna show up?)

Emperor's New Clothes?

2005-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

A Letter from Ed McDougal

I lived in Andrew's community for almost ten years, first in Cambridge and Marin county, then, more recently at Foxhollow. This blog has helped me compare the ups and downs of my experiences with those of others who were also there.

After an absence of five years, I wrote Andrew that I had overcome certain reservations I had previously expressed to him about his teachings. The upshot was that he eventually decided I could move to Foxhollow. I was very glad. Like many others, I had glimpsed the impersonal enlightened perspective as a result of contact with Andrew. It now seemed particularly in reach because of an enlightenment experience that had taken place a year or so after I left Marin that impressed me deeply. I wanted to live permanently in and from that perspective.

I was not successful. No doubt this is owing in part to reasons having to do with my personal makeup. But I also believe no small part was played by the way I handled a particular situation that arose with Andrew after my arrival at Foxhollow. I wanted to speak to him about the spontaneous experience that occurred some years earlier, when suddenly for several hours I didn’t know who or where I was, yet managed to accomplish several physically and mentally demanding tasks, even while being completely distracted by the unfamiliarity of familiar surroundings.

When I tried to discuss this with Andrew, I was given to understand that it would be inappropriate and unnecessary to do so. I did not insist, reasoning that the enlightened perspective, as Andrew teaches, is a matter of freedom in relation to all experience, even enlightened experience, and that dwelling on the past is counter-productive.

I now think that I was mistaken. I ought to have insisted on speaking about this, and in failing to do so, I failed myself. If I had received confirmation that I was on the right track, and had been given more than just a taste of the real thing, it might have gone far toward establishing the base of self-confidence so necessary in the kind of solitary struggle with the ego in which we were all engaged. I was aware that Andrew's own remarkable increase in self-confidence after he met his teacher coincided with just such a communication. As Andrew wrote to his mother and brother:

"When I told him [H.W.L.Poonja] in detail about the spontaneous awakening I had when I was sixteen he told me that at that moment I had experienced all there was to experience, and he said that if I had had a teacher or someone whom I could have talked to about it, a man of knowledge—then my work would have been over then. Much of what I understood then has [since] returned." (My Master Is Myself, p.39)

Since then, of course, Andrew's interests have taken a different direction. Which brings me to a third factor in the mix, crucial during the time I was at Foxhollow—what I think of as Andrew’s “one size fits all” approach to enlightenment. This may well be the result of the increasing emphasis in his teachings on the biggest possible picture of reality, involving an expanding universe, a noosphere, memes, and the inter-subjectivity of consciousness. Impersonal enlightenment has clearly become less important to Andrew than what he now regards as an evolutionary step beyond that, toward the collective discovery and generation of a kind of emerging group intelligence that can be applied to the cultural, social and political problems of our times.

Obviously some of these problems are extremely urgent. But I have seen little evidence that collective intelligence generated by groups at Foxhollow or elsewhere is having an actual effect on the problems it is meant to address, or even, secondarily, that the lives of individuals who are making group efforts have changed so as to make the impersonal perspective more permanent among them.

Andrew once told me and a group of fellow retreatants at Foxhollow that I was "completely oblivious to what’s going on here." Perhaps he is right. And perhaps more time is needed to tell if what is admittedly an experiment is bearing fruit. It would be worse than disappointing to conclude that what we have here is a case of emperor's new clothes.

An Invitation To Truth And Reconciliation

2005-02-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

By Hal Blacker

May all beings be happy!

As a contributor to this blog, I want to say that I am extremely happy with how this blog is unfolding. I feel that it is a place that may be unique, or at the very least, extremely rare on the Internet. I think that, together, all of us —from each contributor to every person who has given it the gift of their attention—have created a sacred place where a miracle of truth, healing and purification is occurring. Every one who enters here enters this sacred cyberspace, whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere. You are all welcome and all appreciated.

I want to especially extend my appreciation to the courageous people like Stas and Susan and some anonymous contributors who were willing to expose their own vulnerability, their insight and their pain. I want to equally thank those brave souls like Craig, Carter, Dave, Jeremy, Anne and others who have been willing to enter this forum and express their doubts and criticisms about what is occurring here, and their support for Andrew Cohen. And all those from outside the community of former and present students of Andrew Cohen, who have lent their own unique insights and perspectives here, must be greatly appreciated and thanked as well.

This work is not easy for any of us. It is very hard to engage in this kind of dialogue without regressing to a mode of “attack or defend.” I—the writer formerly known as Raging Bull—personally find this very challenging. That’s why I start out saying “May all beings be happy!” I’m no bodhisattva, believe you me; it’s just that I need to remind myself of my intention every single time. I pray for help from all the bodhisattvas and divine beings in this work.

It is also hard to hear the difficult truths of people’s experiences and let them stir and touch our hearts. They re-evoke our own memories and experiences. It would be easier to turn our eyes away. It would be simpler, it seems at times, to retrench and plow on. But opening to the rain of mercy that is always here means exposing one’s raw nerves and heart. I am certain that it is only through telling and hearing truth that a greater respect, understanding and empathy—for ourselves, for Andrew, for all concerned—will be possible.

I hope it isn’t too presumptuous for me to share my vision of what is occurring here with you. I see a pure lotus beginning to bloom from the muck and mire of this dark age. I hope you can find it in you to give it water and nourishment with your attention, your good intentions, and your courageous participation.

At this time I wish to issue a special invitation to Andrew Cohen to directly join this forum. We have heard his voice through his representatives Craig and Carter. But we have not yet heard Andrew directly. I believe that if Andrew were willing to speak the truth here about the events described by former students, it could be of enormous benefit. And to hear Andrew speak frankly about what has occurred—mistakes and all—would be much better for all concerned, including him, than to hear it come only from those who were affected by his acts.

I would like to suggest something about the kind of participation that is being invited, however. The point of this blog is not to bash Andrew, and the participation invited is not self-defense or aggression. Craig has received much criticism for the defensiveness and hostility in his posts. I think it is understandable to become angry when you perceive your teacher being criticized, so I empathize with his response. But I don’t think that kind of response is helpful for the truth-telling and finding that should occur here. If that is the best he can do, so be it. It may very well be better than nothing, and, as I said earlier, Craig’s participation here is appreciated. But I think that it is better to engage with a greater degree of respect and fidelity to the truth.

For example, Craig misleadingly minimized some of the events that were mentioned here, such as physical abuse. I mentioned in my post “Breaking The Code Of Silence” learning of incidents of a student being ordered to deliver messages consisting of delivering slaps “as hard as she can” to other students. Craig wrote, “I was the one mentioned in Hal Blacker’s letter who got slapped in the face and also had fake blood smeared on his wall—which, incidentally, we already wrote about in the magazine three years ago—so much for the ‘code of silence.’” Craig implies he was the only person to receive a slap, or receive messages written in fake blood, and that this had already been publicly disclosed. That is not true. It is true that the Fall/Winter 2001 edition of What Is Enlightenment? (the 10th anniversary issue) mentioned on page 24 that words were “scrawled in red graffiti” across his office walls, and that the editors had been going through a very difficult time. But, contrary to Craig’s misleading statement, he was far from the only person to receive slaps or messages written in fake blood. In the very incident mentioned in WIE (according to a participant), Craig, Carter and Amy Edelstein all were given messages from Andrew consisting of physical assaults in this period—and definitely more than once. The fake blood writing also occurred more than one time and with more than one person. And, as described by Stas (Ernest) in his letter here, and to me by many others, slapping, other physical abuse and the liberal use of fake blood—styled for purposes of guilt inducement as “the guru’s blood”—occurred numerous time in Andrew’s community.

One other example of a misleading “admission” by Craig. In his response to Susan Bridle’s posting, he admits but mischaracterizes an incident involving prostitutes that I had mentioned in an earlier posting. There is more to be said about this, but, given its sensitive nature and the feelings of those involved, I don't feel it is my place to go into all the details, at this time.

These are only examples meant to show how real frankness is needed, not obfuscation. There are many events that should be revealed and discussed, in truth and openness. They should not be hidden, minimized or misstated. Saying and hearing the truth isn’t easy. I know some would like to forget what happened. But I think that the only way to even begin to understand what has occurred around Andrew Cohen is to lay the facts out bare. That is why I am now issuing this heartfelt invitation to Andrew to participate in this process. I am sending a copy of this post by e-mail to Craig, Carter and Andrew at his Foxhollow World Center.

Please come into this forum, Andrew. Please be willing to truthfully admit your mistakes, and begin to help the process of truth and reconciliation. It will be much better for everyone—you, your community, your former students, and your friends—if you participate with humility and honesty in this ceremony of healing and purification. Whether you participate or not, however, the truth will come out. It must.

With love and respect,
Hal Blacker