Hi
My brother in law has just made a vow to adidam and reading the info on this site i feel pretty concerned.

What should i do? Should i present him with the facts? Past stories? Or just support him by 'being there'?

Help!!!!

Phil

But his wife (your sister) and teenaged daughters may be at risk. Adidam has quite a track record.

At the very least, if your brother has a chance to visit the guru, his wife and daughters should stay away, for their own protection. Adidam moved to the south pacific in the early 1980s after he was forced to pay a legal settlement to women who had filed lawsuits after he'd molested them.

Your sister should have a frank discussion with your brother in law about finances, so that his fiscal contributions to the guru will NOT be to the detriment of his family and will be budgeted into the family finances. If he keeps his fiscal donations secret from the family, that's wrong.

Charity begins at home.

If you got married and had children before you met your guru, your family's needs for financial and emotional support must take precedence. Supporting Adidam must not mean skimping on rent or the children's education.

This is likely to be an issue only if your brother is invited to become a major donor or join to the inner circle that surrounds Adi Da on his South Pacific island.

Adidam (formerly Franklin Jones), first got attention for his books and talks about 25 or so years ago.

It was because many discerning people found his written material and his talks so very impressive that they had great difficulty admitting that his behavior was becoming unacceptable. Georg Feurstein who went on to become an eminent yoga scholar, was an early disciple of Adidams, left his group when things got out of hand. His early work has even impressed David Lane, a philosophy professor at UC San Diego who has exposed the inner workings of the Eckankar cult and disapproves of Adidam's behavior.

Ken Wilber (who was never a student of Adidam's) read his books and vigorously promoted him--until the early 1980s when Adidam's abuses of sex and power got too much and several women bravely took him to court.

Wilber, vigorously backpedelled and washed his hands of Adidam. But because Wilber was (and remains) famous in New Age circles, his early advocacy of Adidam's books gave the man some publicity.

*([i:263af741a4]Note: Wilber's loyalty to Adi Da is apparently quite complex and tendentious. Please read the additional source material submitted in a later post by Geoffrey Falk.)[/i:263af741a4]

The fact remains that some very discerning people who disapprove of Adida's behavior and would never personally get involved with him did become impressed by his early work. If someone is charismatic and claims to be 'crazy wise' and happens to write well, they'll have no trouble finding people to defend them, no matter how harmful their behavior becomes later on.

I mention this because in order to communicate with your brother, it will be important to acknowledge that something about Adidam's writings or the group experience has impressed your brother.

This does NOT mean defending, denying, or ignoring that Adidam has quite a record in the media and legal records. Someone can have enlightenment experiences and remain self-indulgent and be difficult to live with.

What is not yet fully understood in the 'enlightenment industry' (phrase borrowed from the journalist John Horgan) is that that people who are self indulgent or in some cases quite dangerous can write superb treatises on spirituality and give highly inspirational talks.

It is easy to assume that if someone's books and talks are profound, eloquent, inspirational, that the author/speaker is infallible.

Not necessarily.

It is difficult for most of us to understand that the teacher and the teaching are separate. Gurus who want power and money will not encourage students to see that the teaching and teacher are separate. All too often we are encouraged or pressured to equate the two, because this is cozy for us and empowers the guru.

Your brother may need help in separating 'the medium' (that is, the [i:263af741a4]very [/i:263af741a4]flawed personality of Adidam) from his (apparently)remarkable teachings.

The problem is that Adidam teaches that his own self indulgent behavior is itself a 'teaching.'

My take is that genuine 'crazy wise' teachers do [u:263af741a4]not [/u:263af741a4]live in luxury while inflicting chaos and hardship on others.

Timothy Conway has a very good essay on telling the difference between genuine crazy wise teachers versus the pretenders: (from) An Open Letter From Timothy Conway - February 27th, 2005 -

Conway notes first that genuine crazy-wise teachers rarely live in structured guru-student relationships. Then he writes (small excerpt from a very good article)

'The disciples of the pretenders feel, not empowered, but exploited for the gain of the pretender. The pretender, in short, functions as a taker, not a giver.

'Secondly, the holy fools are quite unattached to whatever happens in the dream of life, especially concerning their own bodily welfare, whereas the pretenders are usually quite interested in making sure they are properly fed, clothed, sheltered, honored and, yes, remunerated.

'Rather than rely on spontaneous Divine Grace for whatever happens, these pretenders and their cronies make definite plans, arrange things to insure the most pleasing and lucrative outcomes, and so on. They are clearly operating from the mental level, not the transmental/transpersonal Identity, in their strategic planning and calculating of revenues and expenditures, marketing strategies, schedules, meeting site set-up and configurations, writing and publishing ventures, etc. Obviously, some of the pretenders aren't so much involved in this side of things--they have their willing cronies to manage everything or nearly everything for them, and so the pretender can easily "flow with situations" and trust that their acolytes (not God) will take care of everything while the pretenders can appear to be serene and "above it all".

'Thus, for such pretenders and their "true believer" slavish followers to make the claim that they are part of the crazy wisdom tradition is utterly bogus. They are not utterly "abandoned unto Divine Providence", they are not thoroughly surrendered. No, they are to some extent or another quite attached to outcomes. In short, they still labor under the sense of "doership", i.e., being egocentric agents of action.

'Such persons, I would also submit, are trying to have it both ways: they want to be seen and valued as lineage-holders of a tradition--this obviously adds to their status and influence as "an authority". And yet they have the audacity to ignore and/or distort their tradition's teachings about morality and ethics, and the need for staying as free as possible from samskaric attachments and aversions. And when anyone tries to raise the issue of traditional moral requirements for disciples and gurus, they immediately will say that "they are not bound by tradition" that "this is a living tradition that must shock people out of their hypnotic trance state", and other such malarkey.

'This might seem persuasive to those who chronically defer to them, but anyone with any discernment can see that these pretenders are trying to have the best of two opposing worlds: traditional authority and anarchistic "anything goes" license to act out their samskaras. To put it in still more words, they exploit, for their own recognition and aggrandizement, the concept and social institution of the Guru and the lineage of Gurus, but they do not want any accountability within the criteria set by that tradition's previous Gurus for who is and who is not an authentic spiritual master.

'Hence, one finds here a major violation of "Truth in advertising": the pretenders are passing themselves off as "Gurus" in a "lineage" within a "tradition" of "advaita"--and then, whenever it suits them, these anarchists depart from what that tradition values as authenticity and they proceed to engage in rogue behavior.'

[www.inner-quest.org]

The real crazy wise teachers take risks and submit to hardship themselves, so as to make a point. A real teacher willingly bears the painful consequences for his or her provocative behavior.

My take is that using the 'crazy wise' lable to dodge personal accountability for one's bad behavior toward others is the mark of a fake teacher.

And I dont see what is so great about enlightenment if all it does is equip a person to live a coddled existence, hiding out from life.

One might as well just go join the swine at the food trough. At least pigs are friendly, straightforward, and dont run head trips on us.

Here are two very long, complex but thought provoking articles about Adi Da and the way people get confused by his remarkable teachings into ignoring his greedy, self indulgent behavior.

[vm.mtsac.edu]

From some of these accounts, Adidam appears to have a remarkable effect on people--which is perhaps why your brother was so impressed. He apparently acquired astonishing charismatic powers which affect people in profound ways. It is significant that Adidam studied with gurus (Rudrananda, Nityananda and Muktananda) who were also charismatic and knew how to manipulate subtle energy--very seductive to many people. This kind of energetic charisma is like a drug, and it can be especially impressive to persons who fear they themselves are weak, or who are feeling depressed. In a way, charisma is a lot like dope--you can get high on it and then get dependent.

From what a number of people have written, Adidam's writings enthrall the intellect, and if your brother has met him on person, he may have experienced profound states of bliss and probably enjoys the intensity of being surrounded by like minded people.

The problem is, most of us never think to evaluate bliss and dont think to ask, 'What's behind this? Is the source of my joy an honest source, or a dishonest, manipulative source? Am I being encouraged to get dependant on this and abdicate critical thinking and devalue my ordinary life?'

Another thing that happens is that people learn to use non-dualistic philosophy to dodge and invalidate any discussion of ethics--they claim that in matters of non dual realization ethics and responsibility are irrelevant.

[www.ods.nl]

No honest teacher would ever indulge that. But it is a common trap in groups that follow various forms of non-dualistic philosophy.

One of Adidam’s former admirers visited him and described the experience.

[lightmind.com]

Many seekers assume that anyone who can give them bliss experiences is an enlightened person, and an infallible saint.

But we are finding out that this ability to ‘zap’ people with bliss is just a neutral skill, can be mastered by anyone, even someone who is crooked or neurotic, and this can be used to get people hooked and dependant—the opposite of genuine spiritual teaching.

Very likely what happened with your brother is that he started out first as a seeker, read Adidam’s early books, perhaps joined a study group and was encouraged to invest himself in the mythologizing of Adidam as a special, remarkable person. It’s a kind of seduction process. You ‘join the tribe’ by sharing a group’s worshipful stance toward its leader, you learn to ignore or make allowances for the leader’s weird or hurtful behavior.
This mythologizing/hero worship is part of the ‘glue’ that binds the group together.

To worship Adidam is to invest him with your own deepest hopes for personal transformation. To question that myth feels like a psychic death because it means (so you fear) questioning your own hope for transformation.

This letter describes the process very well.

[lightmind.com]

Finally if you want to get a sense of how charismatic leaders function, and why people follow them, I urge you to read ‘Prophetic Charisma’ by Len Oakes. Oakes was once a follower of a charismatic guru and he conveys how it feels to be a follower. You can get the book on Amazon.com

Most people eventually leave these groups, either when they feel they’ve learned all they can, or if they run into too much stuff that disappoints them.

Key thing is stay in touch with your brother.

Regarding the Adidam group you should proceed with considerable caution.

See [www.culteducation.com]

Adidam is full of bs. If you think that his earlier works are 'remarkable' then surely you are deluded. The man himself (adidam) is deluded and SICK. He must be stopped, or at least Phil, your brother-in-law should be persuaded to leave this cult IMMEDIATELY. Only harm will come to him from this, and he will only realize this after the damage has been done.

Thanks everyone. This really helpfull.

A bit of background is the following....

My BinLaw is about 28. Im 26. He is single and I think quite lonely. He has little interaction with other people as he is a postman - working unsocial hours. He also lives 5 hours away so I/we rarely get to see him.

He's always been keen to look at spiritual things. He was raised in a Christian family and has spent some time looking into Buddhism.

About a year ago he got involved with some people who were into adidam. He read the books they gave him. They lived about 4 hours away so he would visit every few months but would talk on the phone a lot. Then after visiting a commune near Amsterdam, NL, he made a vow (about 2 months ago).

I/we dont want him to be involved but I dont think he'll be persuaded by an arguement on facts. What should we do? Maybe begin to put a few questions in his mind? Do nothing?

Quote

Wilber, vigorously backpedelled and washed his hands of Adidam.

Unfortunately, that is not Ken Wilber's way—to be able to come out and admit that he was wrong about the "great" guru-figures (judged merely on the basis of their [i:f76e8a935e]writings)[/i:f76e8a935e] who elevate his own position and self-esteem by accepting him and inviting him to write forewords for their books, etc.

Wilber contributed enthusiastic front matter for Adi Da's books in 1980 and 1985. (See [www.beezone.com] and [www.beezone.com] .) Then, in 1985, exposés of Da were published in the [i:f76e8a935e]San Francisco Chronicle[/i:f76e8a935e] and the [i:f76e8a935e]Examiner[/i:f76e8a935e] ( [www.culteducation.com] ). Following those, in a 1987 interview with [i:f76e8a935e]Yoga Journal,[/i:f76e8a935e] Wilber stated his opinion that Adi Da's "entire situation has become very problematic." Nearly a decade later, in 1996 ( [wilber.shambhala.com] ), he explained: "'Problematic' was the euphemism that sociologists at that time were using for Jonestown."

So far, so good. Sort of. Yet even there, Da's "situation" did not merely "become very problematic" in the mid-'80s. Rather, it had reportedly been so all along, even going back to his "Garbage and the Goddess" days in 1974. That was apparently so, not merely for the reportedly damaging ( [www.culteducation.com] ) "sexual theater" during and following that time, but for the absurd claims of miracles (e.g., manifested sun-coronas, debunked by Lowe: [www.american-buddha.com] ) put into print in Da's own books. Further, as one of Da's (multiple) "wives"—who lived in his community from 1974 to 1976—noted:

"If you resisted Free John, it meant you were failing to live up to his teaching" ( [web.archive.org] ).

So already here we can see Wilber shading (or simply being unable to see) the reported realities, as if everything was fine at the time he gave his gushing endorsements, but ostensibly only "became very problematic" at some later date. That is to say, in his own mind he wasn't wrong about Da; rather, the latter had simply [i:f76e8a935e]changed[/i:f76e8a935e] for the worse, [i:f76e8a935e]after[/i:f76e8a935e] his endorsement.

Several years later, in Saniel Bonder's (1990) homage to Da, [i:f76e8a935e]The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher,[/i:f76e8a935e] Wilber had recovered sufficiently from his previous concerns to declare:

"The event of Heart-Master Da is an occasion for rejoicing, for, without any doubt whatsoever, he is the first Western Avatar to appear in the history of the world.... His Teaching contains the most concentrated wealth of transcendent wisdom found anywhere, I believe, in the spiritual literature of the world, modern or ancient, Eastern or Western."

Note that, in the above quote, Wilber is evidently considering himself fit not merely to pronounce on the degree of enlightenment of others, but even to confirm their avatar status, "without any doubt whatsoever." (The now-independent teacher Bonder has since become a founding member of Wilber's Integral Institute: [web.archive.org] .)

In mid-1998 ( [www.beezone.com] ), Wilber offered an explanatory open letter to the Adi Da community. There, he clarified his position on Da Realizer, back-tracking significantly from any insight which one might have been tempted to credit him from 1996, and explicitly stating that he had not renounced his view of (or love for, or devotion toward) Da as Realizer. Rather, he argued simply that Da's "World Teacher" status enjoindered upon him the maintaining of a presence in the world (i.e., beyond Fiji), and the initiation of an "even more aggressive outreach program" by the community, as opposed to his ongoing seclusion.

An "even more aggressive outreach program." To put a positive spin on a "problematic" situation, and "spread the word" to more people, thereby doing [i:f76e8a935e]more[/i:f76e8a935e] harm? Or perhaps simply to warn potential devotees as to "what they’re getting themselves into," as if that would then clear up all of the reported problems with the community? (Would "Jim Jones with a warning label" have been the solution to [i:f76e8a935e]his[/i:f76e8a935e] "problematic" craziness?)

The full text of Wilber’s aforementioned ( [www.beezone.com] ) 1998 open letter to the Daist Community is eminently worth reading, toward one’s own disillusion regarding the caliber of advice given by even the "brightest lights" in the spiritual marketplace. To summarize its contents: Wilber states that he neither regrets nor retracts his past endorsements of Adi Da; that it is only for cultural and legal considerations (i.e., for evident protection when "Da Shit hits Da Fan") that he can no longer publicly give a blanket recommendation for people to follow Da; that he is pleased that his own writings have brought people to Da Avatar and hopes that they will continue to have that effect in the future; and that he still recommends that "students who are ready" become disciples/devotees of Da.

A month and a half after distributing the above nuggets of wisdom to Adi Da's community, Wilber ( [wilber.shambhala.com] ) reconfirmed his position in another open letter. There, he stated—with rarely encountered opacity—that the "real difficulty of 'the strange case of Adi Da' is that the guru principle is neither understood nor accepted by our culture." He further opined that "for those individuals who realize full well the extremely risky nature of the adventure, but who feel a strong pull toward complete and total surrender of their lives to a spiritual Master, I can certainly recommend Adi Da.... [H]e is one of the greatest spiritual Realizers of all time, in my opinion."

Wilber has since drifted away from foolishly commenting on Da, into equally indefensible endorsements of "Rude Boy" Andrew Cohen ( [www.wie.org] ). Against Cohen, however, see [whatenlightenment.blogspot.com] and [www.strippingthegurus.com] . (For a concise summary of Da: [www.strippingthegurus.com] .)

If history is any indication, Wilber and his Cohen-defending friend Don Beck ( [whatenlightenment.blogspot.com] ) will have some explaining to do over the coming decade.

For a better appreciation of the full range of problems with Wilber's work and character, please see my online essay titled "Norman Einstein": [www.strippingthegurus.com] . Amazingly, even with Beck's eager help, Wilber has misrepresented Spiral Dynamics® as grossly ( [www.spiraldynamics.org] ) as he has done for biological evolution, David Bohm's physics, and Jung's and Aurobindo's ideas.

Anyway, Da himself would surely appreciate the biblical allusion in Wilber allegedly "washing his hands" of him. For, it was not so long ago that he apparently "repeatedly said ... that the year 2000 is the year he will be recognized by the world. He has even gone so far as to claim that Christians will recognize him as the Second Coming of Christ" ( [lightmind.com] ).

If Wilber had really wanted to "vigorously back-pedal" from his previous endorsements of Adi Da, he would have denounced the latter in at least one of his many ponderous books since the mid-'80s, since each of those reaches "a hundred thousand people," and thus might have undone some of the damage which his previous endorsements have done. As it stands, you have to search (e.g., in the Archives section of his website, not on its home page) to find even kw's gentle criticisms of Da.

Hero-worship dies hard, after all.