I wish to start this Line as a direct discussion about Kashi Ashram & "Ma" as she is known. I have recently retired to the Indian River area of Florida. Imagine my amazement at being invited by friends to a "Hindu / Buddhist " ceremony for Christmas 2005. I was told that there is this wonderful place not far away were you can share a wonderful vegetarian meal and hear from some of the great Hindu / Buddhist philosophers and chanters of our day. Now I will describe myself as a seeker of knowledge and experiences who respects very few religious leaders today other than maybe the Dalli Lama. But in my quest for new experiences and knowledge I have had dinner with many good as well as bad religious groups. The worst of so far had been Rev. Sung Yung Moons group in it's heyday years ago in New York. So there I sat at Kashi's dinner enjoying the highly intelligent, highly educated people I was meeting and having stimulating seemingly intelligent conversations. There were the occasional odd statement made by one person or another that said something was not right. Small things that I only made a minor note of, but never or less started the bells ringing in the back of my mind even before I had the pleasure Of the service that was promised to be more than stimulating. As we walked to the "temple" a ski chalet style home with the Guru's home upstairs and the living room converted into a shrine/temple. We pass a lake with many religions represented around it. What a stunningly tranquil setting I think to myself. Now truly looking forward to the "prayer service" about 80 people get comfortable in all sorts of ways from giant cushions to chairs to wheel chairs. Still all seems beautiful and I am teaming with anticipation. This soon turns to extreme Dred if not terror. After about 30 minutes of very pretty chanting incomes the precision of monks. But wait what's wrong with this picture. It is all to apparent that the spiritual leader of all these eastern teachings is herself a middle aged pissed off Jewish woman from Brooklyn New York. She has a mouth that would make a truck driver blush, And the taste of a 60's hippie with to much cash to burn. Her lecture is a rambling mixture of anger and vulgarities about the lesbians in her midst's, as well as the way to enlightenment though her teachings of love. "You must love her above all others in a way that you cannot love anyone else, then you may love your self and then you may love others." She now gives her gift of peace to everyone with a meditation session. As she goes on I see there is a very dangerous similarity to self hypnoses techniques taught to me many years ago by one of the leaders in the field, Jerry Fields. So now we come to about 3 months later were we are invited to go again. I being a true scientific mind need to repeat the "experiment" and see if I get the same results. Well, this time I bring a partner whom has an open mind and is highly intelligent. We agree talk as little as possible both to each other as well as everyone there. In this we can truly concentrate on taking in every nuance as well as over heard conversations. After this evening of listening we found ourselves very upset and amazed. Upset first at "Ma" Joan's speech. She wanted every one to know that "to follow a Guru you must not never question them or even try to understand them or what they do no matter what!" Sounds to me a lot like what every megalomaniac whom has ever taken power in this world has said. Now for the so called mediation or as they put it "Ma's Gift" to us. It is without question a hypnoses session with the subliminal suggestions and all. But there is one more thing, that we both over heard at dinner.We eased dropped for over an hour to be precise. It seems that Kashi has broken ground for phase one of a new building project they have been working on for many years. Hear is what concerns me about what we heard in the public dinning area at dinner from the financial planner as he kept referring to himself as to an investments adviser. There is a 7 million dollar figure to complete phase one. But it depends on grants from the state that they have to figure out how to get since the grants are designed for low income housing. They only want to use 1/2 of it as suppossed low income units at $150 and charge the others at $1500 or $2000 per unit. The money man explained that wont work for the grants but the Kashi representative explained "Kashi cant run it as a debt, it has to show a profit." Now heres my question, if Kashi is selling units as well as leasing beds in a retirement / minimal care fissility that has not been approved by anyone yet and does not have the funds in place to even do the project. Why are they clearing so much land? How much is being sold and is it really being sold at all? I hope this brings more scrutiny from others out there. If all they are doing is right and good then I say great, Good things can come from anything or one, Haza! But if there is something not right let it be found and brought to light, for only in the light of truth will we all find what we are looking for no matter what it is.

Well after all that I see I did not post a question, so here goes.
Does anyone else have any personal experiance with Kashi and "Ma"?
Does anyone know what is going on with the sale of suposed home sites as well as a low income home. I have been told that they were raising funds by donation back in the 80's and there is none of that anywere to be found?