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, "Guru? 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...???)

The whole time I've been working with and on the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth" topic in this forum not one positive comment has come into the forum, or to me directly personally, about James Swartz.

Not one. Nobody has ever had one good thing to say or write about what one did term "that miserable pile of buffalo dung."

Meanwhile, just in response to this first post in the "From Andrew Cohen to James Swartz--A Good Idea?" forum, already one spiritual person whose opinion I value highly has said something (relatively) good about Andrew Cohen. He reported that he had bumped into him, and that Andrew was actually expressing some seemingly sincere regrets about much that he had done, and was actually admitting some responsibility.

This is not to say Andrew has suddenly become a worthwhile spiritual teacher. Far from it. However, at least he has made some positive steps.

This is more that James Swartz has even hinted at. He has no regrets about anything, except for getting caught and having the truth about him made public.

STILL NOT ONE GOOD WORD ABOUT JAMES SWARTZ -- AND, A PROTEST?

James Swartz--

Not one word yet regarding him being a worthwhile honest teacher. Not a peep about him (in fact) not being guilty of poisoning to death a family pet (hard to refute when he bragged about it publicly to all his breakfast buddies in a public place). No evidence that he innocent of the sexual charges (he's basically confessed to) that have been laid against him. (Details about all of this, and more, in the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth" topic in this forum, and in the Swartz-allegation based book, "Guru? The Story of Heather," available for free download at www.reallyguru.com.)

Meanwhile, in the last post on the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth?" topic, rumors of protests have cropped up regarding his August retreat to rural Washington State.

Rather than protests, I'd rather have the FBI greet him there to arrest him for Mann Act violations (interstate transport of underage females for sexual purposes, for which there is no statute of limitations). However, both would be great, and the protesters better than naught, yes?

Of JAMES SWARTZ (and to and for ex-Cohen followers) -- A Word from the Forest

A few days ago I posted the cut and pasted message below in the "James Swartz--What Is The Truth?" message list.

In that post, I deliberately withheld a few comments made by my wise hermit friend about the "Andrew Cohen to James Swartz" tendency that some unfortunate persons have exhibited (hence this topic here).

Below is the original post, with boldface additions included for this message list. (My friend's summary of James Swartz as a teacher in the original message is italicized here.)

A BIT OF "SWARTZ-IAN" HISTORY
("Why worry about the old Shit?")
I received an e-mail message from one of my most bizarre and hilarious friends. He could be cast as the stereotyped "Grizzled Old Grumpy Guy," except that he is actually a highly knowledgeable spiritual person. A very spiritual person who is perhaps "There," "Has It," or however you would say it, except that this gent tries to keep it hidden.

"Me? Be a Teacher?" Harrumph. "F--- That!!!" has been heard more than a few times in our conversations.

I'll call him "Griz."

Griz wrote, and said, "Why the hell are you wasting your time on a nobody like James Swartz? He doesn't have many followers, he's almost 80, has a bad ticker, and nobody of any consequence pays him the least attention. His teachings are half-assed. They're incomplete and distorted. Most of his students figure that out pretty quickly and move on to someone good."

I could imagine Griz in his home in the woods writing this. He probably had a blaze going in the big old fireplace, except, no, it's summer. He probably had all the windows open to catch the breeze.

I said, "Many Andrew Cohen survivors seem to be attracted to Swartz now. Some of them originally went to Mooji, but now Mooji has become a popular target for anti- guru folks, so they want someone new."

Griz paused. "I knew a woman once..."

On my end of the phone I almost gasped. Griz very rarely talked about personal matters.

He went on, "... Very attractive. Smart, and fun. She'd gone from Osho to Andrew Cohen and was just starting into James Swartz."

"Oh, my god..." I said.

"Yeah, you can see it. With Osho she'd had so much sex she was very much past caring about having any more. She'd been psychologically warped and very abused while living with an Andrew Cohen group, and then she found what she thought was a safe and knowledgeable white-bearded old man, James Swartz."

"Didn't you warn her?"

"This was a few years ago. I didn't know about him, the underage girls, and the stories of drugs and rapes. I didn't know about him killing a pet dog. I didn't know about him having regularly scheduled sex with what you call 'the widowed sewer cleaners.' All I knew is that he was mean, a bully, talked bad about other teachers, and that his teachings were half-assed. I'd never paid him much attention, but from what I'd heard--and now I know it's worse than I thought--he was teaching a distorted version of Advaita Vedanta and was a deliberately awful translator of holy texts."

"So what happened with you and her?"

"Absolutely nothing. She discounted my warnings about Swartz, we never went out even once, and, that was it."

"Where is she now? What happened to her?"

"No idea."

"Wow," I said. "Wow."

"I hope, of course, that she saw through him and got away from him and his 'teachings' right away. But like I said, "Anyone who sticks with him is getting what they deserve. Poor slobs. But, beyond that, he's not raping anyone anymore. His heart would probably explode from the thrill if he tried. Plus, he's got that wife. According to your contributors, she's strong-willed, attractive, and half bonkers herself.

"So, again, why do you bother to spend so much time about this ugly sludge bucket James Swartz?"

The response to that goes back 2 1/2 years.

First, I became aware of Heather's allegations regarding Swartz being a drugging rapist of at least one 14 year-old girl.

Next, when I began to research Swartz, every person--and some of these had known him closely--had nothing positive to say. Tales of bullying, sexual excesses with widowed sewer-cleaners, the killing of a family pet, and more, abounded. Plus, everyone was scared of him--of his anger, his spitefulness, his terrible meanness, and his great skill at getting revenge for slights by distorting things about a person and making up terrible stories about them, but ones that sounded convincing.

Then, I wrote to his closest associates, asking them what they thought of the allegations regarding James Swartz, which Heather had just posted on-line. (These original articles had to be taken down due to threats by Swartz to the site owners. They were never taken down due to inaccuracy. That is one reason "Guru? The Story of Heather" did not name Swartz directly. Only now, two years later, has his identity been confirmed as that book's 'inspiration.')

Within hours of sending the e-mail to his associates Swartz himself was coming at and to me personally. His messages are now a public record, published as "allegation-based fiction" by Devon Adler (with Heather's permission, of course) in "Guru? The Story of Heather."

While I was doing all of these Swartz-related items I was also getting to know Heather and her circle of friends and supporters quite well. Good persons all. And Heather? Wonderful.

So, while James Swartz was threatening, attacking, bullying, and simultaneously offering me friendship and (even) counsel for my obviously disturbed psyche, Heather was becoming a friend.

I wrote, "Now, Griz, as a friend, Heather said that she wanted to do all she could to protect others from Swartz's evil influence. She couldn't stand to think of innocent or naive people believing for a minute that he was actually a worthy spiritual teacher. Not when she knew him as a rapist monster."

On top of that, I wrote, "She said that she might not have 'come out' with her accusations if it hadn't been that Swartz was, incredibly to her, actually getting dozens or even hundreds of students to his meetings. This horrified her. Her message was, 'They don't know what they're getting close to!'"

Actually, I communicated that with Swartz. I wrote to him that if he wanted Heather to "shut up," then he should. If he just retired from teaching, she'd stop telling the truth about him. I wrote to Griz, "You can imagine how that went. He used that message to tell people that the whole Heather thing was an attempt to stop his brilliant, wonderful, and profound teaching. And, that this was proof that it was a follower of some teacher that he had said bad things about who was coordinating the whole Heather plot to 'get him.'"

Griz knows me. He certainly knew that Swartz twisting the message that way would, to use the old expression, "Piss Me Off." Yes, it did.

By now Griz also knew what was really going on. He's sharp.

He understood that I was keeping this Message Board going and continuing to research James Swartz because:

1. Heather wanted it done to help others.

2. Heather wanted it done to help herself to heal.

3. Because James Swartz had made things personal with me. Because this lying, corrupt, rapacious piece of human excrement had really torqued me. Because what he did to Heather, to her friend, and has done to so many others verbally, emotionally, psychologically, and financially, all while under the guise of "guru" and "spiritual teacher," just fries my gizzards.

I don't mind an honest criminal (does that make sense?). I don't mind someone who is honest about what they are. Swartz is a hypocrite, a liar and a con man, and has been a rapist and pet killer on top of that. He's a bully and a coward, as most bullies are.

My "relative, dualistic" self has come to despise his 'relative, dualistic" self for its behaviors. That's another way to put it.

Griz said, "You'd like to see that bastard in prison, wouldn't you?"

To that, I just smiled.

Whatever the case, as I made clear to Griz out in his forest, I share the truth about James Swartz because, at the times I am writing these posts and doing my research, that is what, in that moment, is the (best) thing for me to "do." (And, in dualistic terms, I do it in part because "That a--hole really pissed me off!")

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