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On her second date with Carlos Santana, the future Deborah Santana accompanied the guitarist to his Marin manse, meditated with him under a painting of Jesus, then spent the night. By the time the couple wed in Albany, they were devotees of guru [b:9c41741f57]Sri Chinmoy[/b:9c41741f57], whom they considered an avatar but who was really a manipulative cult leader, as Santana writes in [i:9c41741f57]Space Between the [/i:9c41741f57][i:9c41741f57]Stars [/i:9c41741f57](Ballantine, $24.95), her memoir which begins as a fascinating exposé of the author's early romance with Sly Stone. After spiriting away her virginity during an acid trip shortly before Woodstock, suede-booted Vallejo-born superstar Stone swept the beautiful teen into a whirlwind of drugs, beatings, and international travel which ended with a coat-hanger abortion.

Looking back on past mistakes and on her subsequent thirty years of happy marriage to Santana, the author, who will be at Cody's Telegraph on March 23, advises: "Always live with your own integrity and well-being in the forefront of every decision and choice you make. Never let anyone lay a hand on you."

Claiming that he could channel Christ, perform psychic healings, and satisfy his female followers better than their husbands could, William "Rev. Bill" Duby founded his Berkeley-based [b:9c41741f57]Spiritual Rights Foundation [/b:9c41741f57]in 1982. Duby died in 2001, but the group still exists; its Web site quotes him as saying, "I had a beautific vision."

Ex-members such as Albany's Steve Sanchez -- whose book [i:9c41741f57]'Spiritual Perversion' [/i:9c41741f57](TurnKey, $16.95) recounts fourteen years in the God-and-chakras world of SRF -- call it a cult, saying it wrecked their lives, stole their spouses and kids, drained their fortunes, and drove them crazy.

After leaving the group five years ago, "I was in so much pain, but ecstatic to be out. I felt like I was floating." By writing the book, says Sanchez -- who will be interviewed on KRON-TV at 9 p.m. on March 1 -- "I could try to decode all that mind-control."