Ken Wilber has endorsed .a series of troubled teachers, most notoriously
Adi Da, Andrew Cohen and
Marc Gafni.
Quote
http://culteducation.com/group/1289-general-information/29085-petition-calls-on-whole-foods-to-cut-ties-with-rabbi-accused-of-improper-sexual-conduct.html
Petition Calls on Whole Foods to Cut Ties With Rabbi Accused of Improper Sexual Conduct
Gafni, who has ordination from Orthodox and Renewal movements, long has been trailed by accusations. He has acknowledged some inappropriate behavior, including sexual impropriety.
JTS/January 1, 2016
An online petition calls on Whole Foods to cut financial and institutional ties with Marc Gafni, a former Orthodox rabbi and spiritual teacher who has been dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct.
Nearly 900 people had signed the petition as of Thursday morning on the Change.org website. Launched Tuesday, the petition urges signers to “Stop Marc Gafni from Abusing Again.”
The petition says it aims to “prevent future harm to those who may be exposed to him, and as a protest against any individuals, organizations, or institutions that support or endorse him as a teacher or leader.”
“Complicity in giving Gafni a platform is a violation of our tradition’s highest ethical and moral standards: ‘Justice, Justice shall you pursue’ and ‘Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor,'” it says.
The New York Times published a feature article on Gafni on Dec. 25 under the headline “A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past.”
The petition singles out Whole Foods, whose co-founder, John Mackey, is chairman of the executive board of Gafni’s Center for Integral Wisdom, a New Age think tank.
Gafni, who has ordination from the Orthodox and Renewal movements, long has been trailed by accusations, and he has acknowledged some inappropriate behavior, including sexual impropriety.
For a time seen as a charismatic Orthodox teacher of Torah in Jerusalem, Gafni eventually stopped identifying as Orthodox. The Renewal movement disowned Gafni after a public airing of his sexual and ethical breaches.
Several years after leaving Israel and dropping off the Jewish map, Gafni reemerged in Utah as a practitioner of a Kabbalah-inspired philosophy called evolutionary spirituality. More recently, Gafni, who has authored several books on spiritualism, moved to California and founded the Center for Integral Wisdom.
John Mackey - Whole Foods
Ties to Ken Wilber - [
www.google.com]
[
www.reuters.com]
Internet | Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:04am EDT
Related: Tech
Whole Foods CEO sorry for anonymous Web posts
LOS ANGELES | By Nichola Groom
The CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. John Mackey poses in this handout photo from February, 2006. Mackey posted messages on a Yahoo! financial forum under the user name ''rahodeb'', according to a court document filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and postings on Yahoo!...[
www.reuters.com]
Quote
The chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. apologized to shareholders on Tuesday for anonymously posting comments about his company on the Internet as the organic and natural foods grocer said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had launched a probe into the matter.
News of the SEC probe comes a week after court documents filed by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey posted messages on a Yahoo! chat forum under an alias for years.
In the postings, Mackey talked up his company while predicting a bleak future for Wild Oats Markets Inc., the rival his firm is trying to acquire.
"I sincerely apologize to all Whole Foods Market stakeholders for my error in judgment in anonymously participating on online financial message boards," Mackey said in a statement on Tuesday. "I am very sorry and I ask our stakeholders to please forgive me."
Last week, Mackey had defended the postings, saying he "posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. Many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms."
Corporate governance expert Nell Minow of the Corporate Library said she did not expect him to remain CEO for long.
"The fact that somebody has twisted his arm into saying he's sorry just isn't enough," Minow said.
FTC LAWSUIT
The FTC cited Mackey's postings as part of its lawsuit aimed at blocking Whole Foods' planned $565 million acquisition of Wild Oats on the grounds the deal would hobble competition and increase prices for consumers.
SEC staff contacted Whole Foods late on Monday, the company said, adding that it was cooperating with the probe and would not make any further comments while the inquiry is pending.
The Austin, Texas company also said its board of directors formed a special committee to investigate the postings. Whole Foods hired Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP to advise it in its internal investigation.
Minow said the SEC would likely be looking at whether Mackey broke any disclosure rules in his postings and at whether his comments constituted an attempt to manipulate the share prices of Whole Foods and Wild Oats.
"When you are the CEO of a public company you no longer have the luxury of communicating in any way you like about what's going on at your company," she said.
The internal company probe would focus on Mackey's "monumental poor judgment," she said.
Whole Foods shares fell to $39.49 after closing at $39.97 on Nasdaq.
An article by a man affected by Marc Gafni was published in 2011 in Tikkhun.
[
www.google.com]
Additional heated discussion here and in the comments.
[
zeek.forward.com]
Useful examples
of the rationalizations used by Gafni's many enablers and admirers in the Integral scene.
A research strategy:
Anyone associated with Gafni, especially someone trash talking Gafni's victims:
put the Gafni advocate's name into google and along with search terms such
as "cult" and "abuse" and with or without the words "ego" "guru", "yoga" and "zen".
Gafni and Wilberian supporters will call this witch hunting.
Okay.
Survivors and those of us who detested cruelty rationalized as spirituality - we call this research.
Here is how Ken Wilber rationalizes cruelty - Wilber's "Rude Guru" manifesto.
[
www.google.com]
As was inflicted on the daughter of one of Andrew Cohen's students - at Cohen's behest.
[
whatenlightenment.blogspot.com]
Quote
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.
Remember, friends - Ken Wilber associated with Andrew Cohen, did so for years.
"A" List of Trauma and Abuse
[
whatenlightenment.blogspot.com]
And Wilber is the one who, in the NYT interview, dismisses Gafni's behavior as that of an insensitive boyfriend.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2016 01:45AM by corboy.