Kurukulla, you misunderstood me. When I talk of practitioners in the Eden Medical Centres not being complicit in Hansard’s abuses I mean those who were renting space and practicing independently. I have no doubt that many will be horrified (but perhaps not wholly surprised) to read these postings.

I cannot say the same for those who were working directly with Hansard, either as practitioners under instruction or as apprentices. The abuses we are talking of here have been going on as long as Hansard has been in practice in London – about sixteen or seventeen years and perhaps from long before. Part of Hansard’s modus operandi is to see just what he can get away with. He actually liked to draw others into inappropriate behaviour.

Perhaps many of those people will have to get over their shame before coming forward with their stories but I would suggest they do exactly that. My brief period of involvement with Hansard scored, to my knowledge, six cases of sexual abuse against women and many cases of people being ripped off, disappointed, frightened and used.

Considering the scale of Hansard’s operation since then and considering that many of the stories we read here relate to continued sexual abuse we might fairly assume that his victims now number many thousands of women.

I think it is about time many people got real about this.


Gondolf, thanks. In principle it sounds good. I think I’ve read enough from you to go along with it but I’m wondering if it will feel safe enough for other contributors. Does the Rick Ross Institute offer any such resource (rmoderator)?

There are things that need to be clarified here.

Eden Medical Centre was an integrated health clinic of which CH was the 'medical director'. He had a clinic of Tibetan Medicine there and over time had various apprentices who were there learning from him.

There were also independent practitioners working there who had little or nothing to do with Hansard.

The apprentices that studied with CH had a genuine desire to learn Tibetan medicine and spiritual philosophy. There was nothing for us to doubt as what we were presented with was very real and convincing.

A physician who is running a busy and successful medical clinic, he is married with a child, he had written a book and one would assume that the 'story' of his backgorund had been researched by the publisher. He seems to know his stuff, he is powerfully intuitive and is very charismatic.

The set up at Eden was extremely professional. I had been treated successfully as a patient before I started to study with him so for me there was nothing to doubt.

The first time I heard about abuse was through this forum earlier this year. I had left the clinic a while ago.

However, during my time there CH was sexually inappropriate with me and whilst I was traumatised and confused by this, I convinced myself it was a lesson. A spiritual teaching. I never told anyone about it. Afraid that I would be asked to leave and I really loved what i was learning, it felt like my purpose in life.

When the question of abuse of patients came up through this forum we were all shocked as we had never heard anything about this or had any reason to suspect. And it was this that gave us each the courage to start asking questions and telling our personal stories.

CH did often talk in a sexual way to us making lewd comments which were inappropriate but we all ignored it as he was the Teacher! He was a powerful force to be around.

It sounds crazy now as I write this but this is the nature of a 'cult' mentality, slowly people become affected and start to not question things, become somehow brainwashed and enchanted.

Since this discussion opening up people have come forward (outside of this forum) to say they had sexual experiences with him that were not appropriate, patients and students. Once the stories started to come out we were all deeply shocked and upset.

It seems that he was using a distorted form of 'sexual healing' on some level. But he had no boundaries. It is not acceptable for a practitioner to use such techniques without the consent of the patient and without their understanding of what is happening to them. It appears many were left confused and upset but did not report these incidents.

The only person who may have known that these types of incidents were occurring was Stephanie. I heard recently that she may have confronted him about it and he became very agressive with her but that was at about 10 years ago. Who knows whether she confronted him about it again? But ultimately she never told us that we or anyone else was at risk.

The whole situation around CH and Eden is incredibly complex and not easy to portray. But I personally see now that it was operating like a 'cult' of some kind. We believed we were learning in the eastern tradition of apprenticeship with a Master. There was one Master who we all trusted. To question him showed a lack of respect and trust for the 'Master'. We were taught that there were 'lessons' in everything so if we found ourselves doubting we could easily be convinced there was a higher teaching to learn. It appears now there were clearly secrets, lies and manipulations going on behind the scenes. As I have said we only found out about 6 weeks ago that Stephanie had been sleeping with him for 12 years which explained alot about her abusive and difficult behaviour.

The Master had been elevated by many who admired and respected him, noone questioned him, he was extremely convincing, most people that met him were in awe of his spiritual ablilties and powerful energy which we particularly saw at workshops and his healing ablitities which we all undoubtedly saw in the clinic. But the teacher was abusing his power and using psychological tricks to play with us. Promising us teachings that never materialised... and not magic or super powers, simple things like astrology and martial arts. We would again convince ourselves we weren't ready for higher teachings. He cleverly played us like pawns in his game maybe to keep us working for free, keeping his clinic going. At the same time his dark side was indulging sexually with women constantly but it appears each one thought she was 'special' and receiving some kind of healing or teaching so did not speak out.

I and I honestly believe none of the others I studied with had any idea what was going on in Christopher's private office. We are all devastated to find out there was such a web of deceit woven.

I can assure you, that we, the people who studied with CH out of a genuine desire to learn and to help people wish to know more than anyone the truth behind the teachings and the teacher we trusted in.

I am speaking out here because I am digusted and respulsed by what this man has done to us and to others.

I reiterate that I believe he is mentally ill and delusional and should not be practising. Any treatment he is receiving will take many years to change such deeply engrained patterns if it can help at all and if he sticks with it. I don't have much faith that he will.

He must not be allowed to continue to practice as he is a potential danger to the public, in particular women.

I am not sure what to make of the teachings received. I understand what Kurukulla says, it is impossible to try to explain to anyone who has not had direct experience of them. The teachings and practices are simple and hold many of the great universal truths. I have no idea what to think.

I actually want to believe it is all fabricated because CH's illness points to this but the experiences I have had are real. However, at present I do not see enough solid information to convince me either way.

So Dorje, it seems that you knew alot more than I ever did. I know the truth in my heart and that is enough for me.

This is an attempt to clarify not to justify. The only thing I am guilty of is maybe being naive and taken in by a mentally ill delusional trickster.

I wish to add that whilst I say 'we' in my earlier post, the information I give here is not the voice of any group or collective, it is my personal perspective.

Cirrus -- my salaams. You have clarified what was even to me a murky picture...and I have been looking into CH's activities on and off (mostly off until this thread happened) for several years. My regret is that I did not pursue my original enquiries when the story was rejected by ITV. (The grounds for this rejection, you may recall, were that the investigation would not be credible without at least 2 women going on named record). The result of the CH saga going onto the back burner is that many more people were abused, mislead, manipulated and so on. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. The question now is "What can we do to make sure CH and others like him are never allowed to practise their dark arts on the gullible public again?" Maybe we need to go further than setting up a Yahoo group (althopugh this could be a useful first step). Has the idea of a conference any resonance? It might be possible to organise it via Inform -- the cult information org run by the University of London.

While I can concur with a view which states that belief/personal experence [i:15610807b0]per se [/i:15610807b0] cannot be proved one way, or another, Hansard's 'Dur-Con' 'teachings' and claims are indeed open to critical examination and can be demonstrated to have validity or not. As I have detailed previously, and on the blog [christopherhansard.blogspot.com] there are a number of glaring inconsistencies and misleading distortions in Hansard's exotic account, which convincingly reveal that he callously plagiarized Tibet's authentic Bon tradition. [u:15610807b0]This is the man after all who fraudulently asserted to me in a correspondence that HH the Dalai Lama had recognized his work!.[/u:15610807b0] Clearly there were no limits in terms of deception and exploitation. Further examples of the bogus nature of his invention are currently being researched and shall be publicized in the near future.

Meanwhile, I should like to return to the themes of 'power' and 'influence' and, by way of a traditional Tibetan tale, explore, albeit tangentially, the nature of such ‘qualities’.

[i:15610807b0]An elderly mother who lived in Kongpo, a region to the east of the Tibetan capital. Lhasa, was a person of great faith who cherished a heartfelt respect for the Buddhist teachings. One of her sons, a trader, was soon to travel to the city and his mother asked him if he could obtain for her a rare and precious relic from the Monastery. It was one of Buddha’s teeth.

The son was entranced by the excitement of city life, and devoted his time to the pursuit of his business. It was only on the long journey back to Kongpo did he realize he had completely forgotten his mother’s request. Without the relic he wondered what he could say to her. As his horse passed along the track, he noticed the decaying remains of what looked like a dog and a thought came to him. He removed from the skull one tooth, wrapped it in some fine blue silk and then tied with a traditional Tibetan scarf, a Khata.

His mother wept with joy to see her son and was completely over come when she saw the relic he had brought for her. She carefully placed it upon the altar, next to assorted statues and water-bowls and there it sat bathed in the warm glow of the butter lamp. Each day the mother made offerings to the relic, rice, butter, flowers and mantras were said over the relic for the benefit of all sentient beings. The mother’s motivation and respect was so genuine that one day a remarkable transformation occurred, there on the altar sat a solid gold tooth![/i:15610807b0]

There are of course many layers of meaning to such stories, but clearly this tale reveals that mind and sincere motivation are capable of genuine power, even the ability to transform. It reminds us too that it is not the object itself that generates the magic but our individual desire to believe and the quality of that belief, which if pure, and not based upon [i:15610807b0]‘self’[/i:15610807b0], is capable of extraordinary achievements.

Some former clients and colleagues of Hansard have spoken of [i:15610807b0]his [/i:15610807b0]abilities, [i:15610807b0]his [/i:15610807b0]presence, [i:15610807b0]his[/i:15610807b0] healing, projecting upon him a spiritual gravitas which actually should be more properly attributed to the desires and hopes of those clients themselves. In a sense Hansard’s [i:15610807b0]‘powers’ [/i:15610807b0]were conferred to him, invested with a ‘realism’, nurtured, and experienced, through a willingness to believe.

Tibetan religion, of Bon or Buddhist tradition, teaches that we have individual responsibility for our mind and actions, this is a difficult and painful reality, as many of us would prefer to project such accountability upon others or to external circumstances. In that context, are those who were deceived by Christopher Hansard, able to exempt themselves from any sense of individual responsibility? Was it a relatively simple task for him to manipulate those who, at a subconscious level may have actually wished to relinquish control and responsibility, and who desired to believe in Hansard’s Dur-Con fantasies?

That however does not excuse or tolerate the reported abuses inflicted upon clients by Hansard, and while there may well have been a cult-like atmosphere operating, it does not fully explain why people choose to surrender their critical faculties and become automata-like followers. More importantly it does not absolve them of any ethical responsibility as individuals. It is highly unlikely that those in close association with Christopher Hansard were not aware of the reported abuses. It appears they chose to remain silent, and only now have one or two voices appeared, issuing warm words of ‘healing’, ‘forgiveness’ and ‘compassion‘. Noble sentiments, but one simply cannot understand, or justify, any complicity which maintains a shameful silence as women and men were, it seems, being physically, sexually and emotionally violated.

Do not judge the intentions and experiences of others - they are not yours to judge.

Students seek teachers, this is how knowledge is passed on. The ill seek doctors, this is how healing occurs. If we could all suddenly reach enlightenment the world would be a different place.

Let us stick to clear facts in order to find truth, healing and justice.

Interesting how Atlantic chooses to ignore the speculative nature of my posting, avoiding the details, and wrongly dismissing it as being judgemental, perhaps a degree of judgement by Hansard's cronies may have prevented the reported abuse and manipulation of clients? I wonder if this because the contents touch upon some uncomfortable facts, and ask difficult questions of those who knew but kept silent! May I enquire Atlantic if you were associated with Hansard?

Jeff Bowes, you have obviously never worked in a clinic before. People are seen one to one. There is a professional set up operating, and practitioners are expected to abide by a code of professional conduct. These are all the unspoken rules. I think you need to give more credence to the experiences of the people who actually worked there. This is, after all, a forum for sharing experiences. I know, and it has been stated by others, that nobody knew of any sexual abuse. How would they? Put yourself in that situation for a moment. You cannot know what is going on behind a closed door. People were certainly not running into the waiting room, saying "help! I've been sexually abused!" It seems now, from everything that has come out, that some of the sufferers were going for therapy elsewhere and telling their stories within a confidential setup, which obviously did not go any further. If there were any complaints or grievances brought to CH, he certainly kept a tight lid on it. You simply do not understand the setup there.

It is one thing to speculate. But I find your arguments highly provocative, as do many people. You are actually accusing people of being party to information and deliberately keeping silent. This is offensive. It is not based on fact: you cannot state that there must have been people in the know. Things do not work like that. You need to have facts before you accuse someone.

Also I think that line of argument is rather pointless. Please show a little more respect to the contributors on this forum, and anyone who does not conform you your point of view.

I do not think you are debating things: you clearly did not read post about the teachings. In it I stated that there is no way of stating categorically that the teachings are fabrication. Most people would understand this logic. Even if you have found discrepancies in the bio, and I believe that you have, no amount of evidence is going to convince people that they are false, because something of a higher nature is experienced and not proven.

Thank you Cirrus for your moving account of your experiences at Eden. I find this to be highly accurate. What people reading these accounts may not understand, is the powerful presence that Christopher had. His energy field was physically powerful, hypnotic, entrancing and incredibly dominant in that people either rejected it immediately, clashed and left, or stayed and submitted to the way he chose to run things.

One finds spiritual masters to have this kind of commanding presence; unfortunately Christopher abused his hold over people, and the powers he clearly demonstrated. Yes perhaps you could say that the people under his spell on one level wanted to give up control; however once you get to that level, none of us are exempt from those type of probing questions about the way we live our lives, and the subtle games that we play. Is it a crime to be taken in? More a lesson in becoming more streetwise, I would say.

A powerful presence and a degree of energetic control such as that, demands the utmost responsibility and integrity to hold it. People are not sheep, or cows to be milked for the benefit of others.

Much as I admire the many contributors to this forum – can we come back to an important question? Do we think Christopher Hansard should be stopped from practicing medicine again?

Gondolf’s suggestion didn’t attract much response although I personally think it will have long-term value as a way of documenting many individual experiences of the man.

How about simpler option? Would it be worth organising a petition demanding that Hansard be barred from practicing medicine? This could be signed by anybody with direct experience of him – either as patient, colleague, apprentice or student.

This could be put in the hands of the London police unit who already have a file open on him. I am sure they would be happy to circulate it.

This could also be put in the hands of the local authorities in London who licence clinical practices.

This could possibly be done on-line – perhaps through an organisation like avaaz.

I could probably raise ten signatures without much ado. Does anybody else support this idea or have suggestions of how to stop him?

Jeffrey – I know you do and I trust you to continue, but how about the rest of us?