See [www.culteducation.com]

Also see [www.culteducation.com]

There is quite a bit of useful information regarding recovery from cults and the Gans group specifically here.

Hats off to the previous poster for talking so much with the students still stuck in this fake School! The students left behind in the Boston and New York groups may appear loyal because they show up for class twice week, but I'm sure they have their doubts, too. The more they talk and question and speculate among themselves about whether it's a cult or not, the more likely current students will start to see through the sham. The doubts and questioning just needs to percolate a bit.

There's plenty of material to question, for instance: When I was still in School, I wondered why we needed to meet twice a week, every week, without fail, excect for the occasional holiday break. We were told this was so the work wouldn't grow cold. Now that I'm out I wonder if the real reason is that Sharon and Robert want to keep us students occupied so we couldn't develop any outside interests. Do you really get enough new material in every class to justify twice a week, every week of your time? When I was new the ideas seemed fresh and exciting, but how many times can you read the same text books and have the same conversations, over and over again? Is it really necessary to for classes to run past midnight every class, after class, after class?

Do the teachers seem like bullies sometimes? Why do they act that way? Is this how an enlightened being might act? Maybe they're really not enlightened? Would you like to be more like them? Really? I didn't think the teachers were very happy individuals. What do you think? Do they look happier these days?

Why is there such an emphasis on bringing new students? Why don't they call third line of work "Recruiting"? That is what's really going on, why don't they call a spade a spade? Why would they want to decieve you as to the true nature of this work?

And what's with all the School rules and secrecy, anyway? If you're reading this post, you probably know this group has a lot they want to keep from you. Even if most of what you read on the web is truely the lies and slander they claim it is, don't you think there might be some kernels of truth to it? Why are so many former students so vocal in their criticism of School? Why aren't more students writing about what a positive experience they had?

Ask your friends in School these questions, maybe you can figure it out eventually.

Part 1

My name is Don Raskopf. I post ALL of my personal information here & EF because I have NOTHING to fear from vampires & leeches. I use full names of those I have known personally for over 2 decades because LIGHT is a disinfectant - an antidote to secrecy & mind-control. I was recruited into this cult - THIS IS A CULT NOT A SCHOOL - by my then girlfriend Julie Hodson (co-founder of Taylor-Hodson). I was manipulated into paying thousands of dollars and thousands of hours of slave labor annually for years. I was seduced into building (with many friends)FOR FREE the following homes & businesses - many sold at huge profit to Gans (I have many photo's I would love to post - RR let me know how):

Taylor-Hodson's first office in Waterside Plaza

Fred Mindel's house in Lake Hopatcong

Terry Christgau's house near Mindel's

Fred Mindel & Minerva Taylor's illegally joined adjacent apartment's in Waterside Plaza

Mindel's "doctor's" office Suite 505, 133 East 58th Street

Gans & Horn's previous apartment 59 West 12th Street, Apt. 11A/G, New York, NY

Montana - Falls Creek Ranch, Kauffman Road, Condon, Montana

Ilsa (Gan's daughter) Kaye's brownstone - 6 East 10th Street, New York, New York

Pawling - see details under real estate link on Esoteric Freedom main page

dozens of other projects

Part 2

It is my opinion that the only way to kill a snake is to cut off it's head. Rick Ross has years of experience trying free cult members with very mixed results. No one will leave while hypnotized - we need to destroy the hypnotist.

This is spiritual rape and abuse - call it by it's real name. Gans has stolen millions and destroyed hundred's of lives. I will join anyone who wishes to prevent further enslavement by ANY non-violent means - pickets, lawsuits, publicity, civil disobedience, etc.


"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Elie Wiesel



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2011 08:31AM by dar3463.

Don,

When you mentioned Pawling, I just had a flashback of almost falling off a platform while working in 100-degree heat on that damn place.

Let me know if I can help. I'll try to check messages more often.

Guys, just in case this is of any use, there was a turn of the century yoga entrepreneur/guru who hung out in Nyack, another town in Hudson Valley.

His name was Pierre Bernard and he is the subject of a recent biography by Robert Love, entitled The Great Oom

[www.google.com]

Bernard cultivated wealthy people, created an aura of exclusiveness, had lithe young gorgeous girls who ran yoga classes and gracefully enticed people to get interested. He did commit some serious professional improprieties with some of his vulnerable patients.

However unlike Unlike Horn and Gans, Bernard did try to maintain ties to his relatives, offered to help them when in trouble, and he did not cultivate a chronic climate of fear, or push disciples to gang up and shun or abuse designated scapegoats.

Bernard wanted to influence his disciples lives, but for the better, and did not try to turn them into robots. Unlike Horn and Gans, Bernard did leave a positive legacy--he turned yoga into a respectable activity and linked it to mental and physical health and he even linked it to becoming a better and more effective citizen--quite unlike the morbid rejection of society fostered by Horn and Gans.

Here is where it really gets quite interesting; Bernard incorporated work and private theatricals, even a circus, into his programs for disciples. Later, he created a baseball team.

As I read this, I wondered whether the memory of all this had lived on in Hudson Valley and could have been a source of ideas for Horn and Gans. Robert Love noted that while he researched Pierre Bernard's life, he learned that persons living in and near Nyack still remembered him.

Unlike Gans and Horn, Bernard was mindful of the town and actually went to a considerable extant to create jobs during the Depression.

He had quite a sense of personal entitlement, but he did not take pleasure in cruelty, nor did he encourage disciples to shun or inflict harm on any designated scapegoats. The basic difference with Bernard is that he did not create a climate of fear or train anyone to despise the outside world.

But Bernard's taste for luxury, fine buildings, cars, and his strategy of putting disciples to work renovating property and involving them in creating theatricals, training in and performing in musicals and even circus events--all that intriguing similiarities to what has been reported of Horn and Gans.

Robert Love noted that Pierre Bernard drew many disciples from the art and music scene in New York--very similar to the areas where many guru recruiters prowl today.

If Alex Horn or Sharon Gans spent their early years in and around the Hudson Valley they might have gotten some inspiration from Bernard's career, just from hearing locals talk about him.

It is also interesting that Bernard spent some time in San Francisco, had his first 'Tantrik Lodge' in that city.

He left San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake. He went north to Oregon, got into some trouble there, then moved to New York City.

Look at:
[stopsharongans.blogspot.com]
[sharongansschool.blogspot.com]
[thesharonganscult.blogspot.com]

From thesharonganscult.blogspot.com:

Reasons why I didn't leave sooner:

Also I felt quite superior to those who were writing about the cult on line..."they are just asleep people in life, they are weak people, part of 'sleeping humanity' if only they knew what I knew" ... This is a major reason why people wont leave the group or even CONSIDER the fact that they are BRAINWASHED. The group cultivates and strengthens a self-important, patronizing ARROGANCE amongst it "students" .... As a "student" you feel superior to others...So much so that you may feel sorry for 'those in life' or pity them...Nothing they say has any real value. (This is a 'successful' example of Gans' brainwashing.)You have been told "school" is really the only place you will learn something and it is your only salvation...You believe it...You turn a blind eye and deaf ear to all of the warning signs that Gans is psychologically unstable as well as her "teachers" ....You refuse to recognize that the group is wildly dysfunctional, that NO ONE IS EVOLVING,,,,, You go on drinking the Kool-Aid and admiring the emperors clothes......

For those of you who still feel superior to those of us who are writing about the cult on line, please remember, WE WERE THERE TOO.
There must be some reason that we decided to give up our superiority over others and accept ourselves as human beings who are trying to get someplace. We never got anyplace while we were in school. Did you? The only place I wanted to get in school was to be an "older" student and to be able to go on the secret retreats to Montana. I knew other people had privileges that I didn't have and I wanted that too. I mistakenly thought that the higher up I got, the wiser I would become. The higher up I got, the more important I would become - Sharon would notice me more and I would get more responsibility and I could tell younger students what to do. IT WAS ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!! When I finally became an "older stdent" and was admitted to the "INNER CIRCLE" I realized that the rest of them DIDN"T KNOW ANY MORE THAN I DID!!! WFT is correct, no one is evolving in school. Actually, it's probably the opposite...

Also, if people want to get in touch with people who left contact esotericfreedom.com or www.esotericfreedom.blogspot.com

I was in the group from around 1983 to 1985. It was a very intense experience, and to this day I occasionally have a dream where some members are nearby having a meeting, and I'm not sure if I am still in the group or not. Those dreams are never pleasant, because I don't want to be "in." Sometimes I'm afraid they will see me and somehow bring me back. I was never sure that it was a cult. I gained a lot, including a group of educated, nice "friends" (I was not a sociable person and always had trouble connecting with people, so it was like an instant "community). I also felt that Alex and Sharon had a certain power that I could feel when they were around. Bob had charisma and seemed on the way to attaining some of the power and wisdom that they seemed to have. I also gained some sort of "work ethic." I worked on the renovation of a building somewhere near Cambridge (though I didn't have any relevant skills), and I almost didn't finish he college because I had been working in Bob's furniture company, delivering furniture as a helper. I did find a lot of it harsh, especially the pseudo-psychology, and sometimes excruciatingly boring, especially when a meeting had gone on too long in my opinion (like two or three hours too long when it was already past midnight). I was also expected to recruit, which made me very uncomfortable. In addition to the dues (which an outside friend told me was a sign the group was not legit), I was persuaded to give $2,000 for the purchase of land in Montana. I was assured the money would be repaid, whether I left the group or not (to this day, no money). After the renovation job, I was invited to a "work vacation" in Montana. The place is sublimely beautiful, but again I had to work my ass off. At one point one of the students was going into town, and I asked him to drop a postcard in the mail to my girlfriend (I couldn't lie to her, she's the one person I told). Well, Sharon of course found out about it and confronted me with it in a meeting: "Why don't you tell it to your girlfriend!" I was shocked and ashamed that I was caught breaking the rules. I took some time to think, and told Alex and Sharon I wanted to leave the group. They had someone drive me to a stretch of highway in the middle of nowhere, and I hitched a ride into Bozeman and got a flight home. That's my story, not all negative, but very intense.

Just dumping you on tthat highway to Bozeman was WRONG.

You donated labor ('worked my ass off') and lots of money.

You deserved to be more than to be discarded/abandoned.

What if someone dangerous had picked you up on that highway?

The least, the absolute least those people could have done was to drive you all the way into town and pay for several nights room and board at a decent motel or hotel after all that you gave to them.

The ordinary human person has dignity. We are not here to be used as disposables by one another.