Persons of a spiritual bent would always like to find a good teacher, a wise, knowing, "for real" man or woman who leads one the right way.
Andrew Cohen, most definitely, however promising his beginnings and however bright his intellect and charisma, turned out, to put it mildly, badly. Of the big five destroyers of teachers (which are detailed in the free book, "
Guru? The Story Of Heather," by Devon Adler), Andrew Cohen fell to Fame, Power, and Money. (Unlike many other "fallen teachers," he did not become sex-crazed or a drug addict, Sex and Drugs being the two others of the Five.)
Lately
Mooji has also come under fire, and has lost perhaps thousands of followers due to the perception of poor and inappropriate behavior on his part and that of some of his closer followers. (This is detailed in this forum in the "
Mooji a cult?" topic.)
Suddenly thousands of spiritual persons are looking for a new teacher. Very interestingly, the controversial teacher
James Swartz has jumped in to try to fill this void.
At this stage of his life, James Swartz seemingly comes across rather convincingly as a wise elder. He has a white beard, talks with authority and convincingly, and has an attractive wife. He even has a nice new teaching center on the Iberian peninsula not far from Mooji's ashram.
However, the kind and well-meaning persons who think of going, or continuing to attend, lessons with James Swartz might do well to check out the forum topic on this site "
James Swartz--What Is The Truth?" very carefully.
In the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth?" forum, there are over a hundred posts which detail many allegations and facts about this self-proclaimed teacher that would give many good reason to take a second look at James Swartz as a teacher.
Some of the facts and allegations regarding James Swartz contained in the forum are:
-- James Swartz has lied about his spiritual background.
-- James Swartz has mis-translated spiritual texts, and even left whole verses out of his translations, even to pivotal works like
The Bhagavad Gita. Why? The conclusion was that the verses altered or skipped conflicted with Swartz's own (widely regarded as mis-)teachings.
-- James Swartz has taken the concept of "Enlightenment" and made it something totally mental. This is incorrect, as it's actually beyond being solely a mental understanding, but he takes it a step farther, and worse. He mis-uses spiritual truths, proudly, to justify any behavior he "does," since "he" does not actually exist and therefore all that is "done" is "Divine Will."
-- James Swartz has basically confessed to many of the allegations of "Heather," who was a 14 year-old girl looking for a "father figure" when James Swartz, then about 40, brought her in and, she says, drugged her and serially raped her for two years. (Swartz also allegedly took her across interstate lines without parental permission, and for sexual purposes, a still active violation of the Mann Act.) All of this, and more, is detailed in the book, "G
uru? The Story Of Heather", which was totally based on James Swartz according to Heather's accusations.
-- James Swartz is a confessed killer of at least one family pet, having gleefully shared with his breakfast buddies how he poisoned to death a neighbor's dog because its barking disturbed him.
-- James Swartz also was the merry sharer of the tidings that he was most happily having sex with a scheduled series of poverty-stricken sewer cleaning widows while residing in Tiruvannamalai in the winters of the early 2000's.
James Swartz? Based on Devon Adlers list of five, he has definitely fallen prey to Sex, desire for Power and Fame, and Money (what with the accusations of him almost becoming Andrew Cohen-like in his grabbing property and inheritances in order, partly, to get his new Spanish retreat center. Some as yet unverified tales come that he is under legal investigation(s) in these matters.) Drugs? According to Heather, he used cocaine while with her, and he's publicly told stories of using others with students, even LSD.
If even half of the above is true--
and well over half is verified--would James Swartz be a good choice as a teacher.
There is much more in the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth?" topic and a ton of information, and
self-revealing writings by Swartz himself, in "
Guru? The Story Of Heather."Your comments on this matter would be much appreciated. Is James Swartz really better than Andrew Cohen? Which is worse? Is Swartz better now, having reformed from lying about spiritual matters and his past?
Perhaps there is a side to James Swartz that everyone on the Swartz forum, and that I in two and a half years of research, have missed.
Maybe James Swartz really is better than Andrew Cohen.
At least he's married to a stronger woman now than he was when he was with (he's confessed to knowing her when she was 14) Heather. His first wife he made to go out and do live sex shows on stage in San Francisco to make him money. At least he doesn't do that anymore with his second.
So he is better now, right?
Sure thing. You betcha. (And if you can, please do show that I am wrong. So far, not one person has been able to refute a single allegation, or to even try to refute one fact, listed above about James Swartz. Extraordinary... And he's still teaching...???)