Stripping the Gurus:
Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment*

by Geoffrey D. Falk

Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion.

—John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism

Stripping the Gurus is superb—one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book.

—Dr. David C. Lane, California State University

This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themself revering a spiritual teacher.

—Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine

Geoffrey Falk's delightful but disturbing unmasking of religious prophets and preachers who command a vast following is a welcome contribution to the literature on the gurus and god-men of all religions.

—Dr. Narasingha P. Sil, Western Oregon University

No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing—sometime vicious or criminal—reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must!

—Len Oakes, author of Prophetic Charisma

Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.

His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.

Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chögyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."

These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master.

Why?

Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naïvely open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives?

Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you."

Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities.

You can start by reading this book.

Contents
Introduction
Chapter
I	Speak No Evil
II	A Bit of a Booby	Ramakrishna
III	The Handsome Duckling	Vivekananda
IV	Mother Dearest	Aurobindo
V	The Krinsh	Jiddu Krishnamurti
VI	Zen in the Art of Sex and Violence	Zen Buddhism
VII	Sex, Bliss, and Rock 'n' Roll	Satchidananda
VIII	The Sixth Beatle	Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
IX	Been Here, Done That, What Now?	Ram Dass, etc.
X	Scorpion-Man	Satya Sai Baba
XI	Even If It Happened....	Swami Rama
XII	Mo' Chin-Ups	Chinmoy
XIII	Thai Surprise	Thai Buddhism
XIV	Battlefield Teegeeack	Scientology
XV	Werner's Uncertainty Principle	est/Landmark/Forum Training
XVI	Cockroach Yoga	Yogi Bhajan
XVII	A Wild and Crazy Wisdom Guy	Chögyam Trungpa
XVIII	Sixty Minutes	Muktananda
XIX	The Mango Kid	Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
XX	Da Avatar, Da Bomb, Da Bum	Adi Da
XXI	Sometimes I Feel Like a God	Andrew Cohen
XXII	Hello, Dalai!	The Dalai Lama
XXIII	Up the Asana	Yogi Amrit Desai
XXIV	Sodomy and Gomorrah	Roman Catholic Church
XXV	Of Cabbages and Nature Sprites	Findhorn
XXVI	... To a Nunnery	Paramahansa Yogananda
XXVII	Gurus and Prisoners
XXVIII	Spiritual Choices
XXIX	After the Ordeal
XXX	Make It Better
Essential Online Resources
Bibliography
Permissions
About the Author
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Trademarks: "TM" and "Transcendental Meditation" are service marks registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation. "Coke" is a registered trademark of the Coca-Cola Company. "Barbie" is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. "Molly Maid" is a trademark of Molly Maid International, Inc. "Spiral Dynamics" is a registered trademark of the National Values Center, Inc. "Adobe" and "Reader" are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. * The inclusion of any particular individual in Stripping the Gurus is not meant to suggest or imply that he or she represents him- or herself as a guru, nor is it meant to suggest or imply that he or she has indulged in sex, violence, the abuse of others, or any other illegal or immoral activities. top