THE ABUSES COMMITTED BY GURUS

Prem Baba and Mooji

(This article was written by Alsibar, who has studied spiritual guides extensively, and the original text in Portuguese can be read at this link.) 

AN UNBIASED ANALYSIS OF THE LIFESTYLE OF WESTERN NEO-ADVAITA GURUS

"You're not a person," "Nothing's happening!", "It's all a joke," "There's nobody there," these are some of the pre-established phrases that any novice student of the Hindu philosophy known as Advaita-Vedanta repeats ad nauseam.

Advaita means "non-dual." It is the profound understanding that ultimately, everything is ONE, because in essence everything is God, Brahman (aham brahmasmi).

This profound awakening to the essential nature of things arises with what is called spiritual Enlightenment and reflects the advanced vision of the great spiritual masters of the East. But when people repeat these phrases superficially, without proper inner understanding, they are not only superficial but also dangerous.

Those who possess great power but do not know how to use it can cause great harm to themselves and those around them. This is the case with Advaita-Vedanta philosophy when it is used by intelligent and skillful speakers who lack the necessary spiritual maturity.

The self-proclaimed Advaita guru may be a dangerous and spiritually immature individual. Dangerous because he uses a profound and ancient spiritual philosophy to manipulate people. And immature for the same reasons.

This individual takes advantage of people's naiveté, their emotional and spiritual weaknesses, and their lack of knowledge to sell the image of a wise man with a profound spiritual realization.

However, almost no one will blame him for not practicing what he preaches, since what he preaches is nothing more than words, clichés, and catchy phrases, often devoid of meaning or logic. By preaching that logic, meaning, and coherence belong to the mind, he sets a dangerous precedent. Thus, whenever someone tries to criticize his actions with analytical logic, he will say, "That's the ego. See beyond the mind, see beyond logic."

And consequently, that Advaita instructor will feel free to do whatever he wants, however he wants, with whomever he wants, and whenever he wants. 

The example of Mooji

The recent events, reports, and accusations involving the Jamaican Advaita guru known as Mooji could be perfectly explained by the above description. But before condemning him, it's worth analyzing his teachings to see if they corroborate or even legitimize this type of unethical and unrestrained behavior.

Various rumors are circulating, ranging from brainwashing to financial exploitation and sexual behavior "inappropriate" for a spiritual teacher. But has any woman accused him of sexual abuse? Are there any lawsuits against him for pedophilia, rape, or sexual harassment?

Probably not, and do you know why? Because everything he does—if the accusations are true—may be immoral, shameful, and socially reprehensible, but it's not illegal. The lines between what's allowed and what's forbidden are very blurry. Besides, nobody knows exactly what happened or how it happened.

So far, I'm not aware of any formal charges against Mooji. What has been revealed, however, is that he adores young women and that his relationships with them don't seem very appropriate according to the more conservative moral standards of spirituality.

Mooji, despite claiming to be a direct descendant of the great master Ramana —who was a sanyasyn— is much more like a disciple of the ancient guru Osho —Rajneesh— known for his hedonistic and libertarian philosophy that advocates free sex and pleasure as a path to spiritual awakening.

Why does this happen?

The problem, in my opinion, lies not in the behavior itself, but in the manipulation and personal use of profound spiritual truths that are distorted to satisfy the guru's personal desires.

This is truly dangerous and controversial. I'm not against sex. But using spiritual power for personal gain seems to me to be wrong and unbecoming of a teacher.

The root of the problem lies, perhaps, in the very transmission of the teachings. By reducing something as complex and profound as Advaita Vedanta to simple clichés such as: there is no "individual," there is no "ego," everything is just a grand dream, without law or order, etc., aren't we creating opportunities for misinterpretations and blatant manipulations?

If Advaita gurus preach that "no one does anything" because everything is just a "grand illusion," then there are no limits, no rules, and no respect for anything. The "master" is the "god" who teaches his disciples—but especially his female disciples—how to find paradise on Earth.

This paradise is always by your side, at your feet, in satsangs, in retreats, in your ashram (community); and if you are young and beautiful, it is also in your bed.

The eternal human quest for happiness seems to be at the root of this whole problem. Perceiving this deep yearning in the seeker, the astute guru creates an environment conducive to a life free from the pressures and moral demands of society. But this, in turn, generates other collateral problems, other demands and pressures.

When one is taught that happiness must exist here and now, a thousand and one possibilities open up, but even these have their limits. And by not respecting these limits, nor teaching others to respect them, the guru opens Pandora's box, along with all its evils. 

The big problem is that the "guru" is always in a privileged position of power. The temptation to exploit it is great, and he can't always resist it. Generally, the leader preaches that spiritual happiness includes temporal happiness, and that's true. But this doesn't imply the collapse of common sense and reason.

If Mooji did indeed do what the accusations suggest, he was no different from Osho, Michel/Andreas de Holly Hell, Satya Sai Baba, Swami Rama, and the Brazilian Prem Baba. They all took advantage of their positions of power and spiritual status to attain everything any man or woman dreams of: ultimate happiness and pleasure, even at the cost of sacrificing ethics and respect for the frailties and limitations of others.

All this demonstrates that the cliché that "there is nobody here" is nothing more than a fallacy resulting from the manipulation of a deep and subtle truth: Advaita.

If someone is here to be exploited, it's because someone in a position of power is exploiting them. Likewise, in more extreme cases, there will always be someone held accountable for their actions before the law and justice system. And before that, it's pointless to shout the old cliché that "no one is here."

Human beings exist in time and space as social subjects, and therefore must be held criminally responsible for their actions before the law and society. And when, by chance, some neo-Advaita guru, or anyone else, is convicted for their illegal acts, they will finally understand that however much they insist on the non-existence of "someone" within the human being, there is indeed someone who cries, who suffers, who thinks, who feels, and who deserves respect, consideration, and the protection of the law when necessary.

COMMENTS

Julio: And if "nobody is doing anything," could this person also be on the path of disillusionment?

Ricardo: I've known Mooji for a long time and have spent time with him, and I've only ever seen kindness and respect, whether with one person or two thousand. Those women close to him are very beautiful beings... That's why they're close to Mooji; his mind may see them only as "young women," but that's just the "wrapping," the form.

Mooji dedicates his life to facilitating the discovery of who we truly are, and you can be sure that he doesn't use Advaita concepts to harm anyone; quite the contrary. Besides being an Advaita master, he is an exemplary and completely upright person. He dedicates 26 hours a day to those seeking freedom.

Juan: It's not a lack of kindness, but a lack of ethics. If a gynecologist had relations with a patient or a professor with a student, would it be any different? The truth is that those who call themselves enlightened have minds and egos that crave sex.

Alsibar: Exactly.

Mary no: 17. These false teachers are like dried-up springs and clouds swept away by a storm. They are destined for the deepest darkness. 18 They boast in vain and, appealing to sexual desires, they entice those who are just beginning to turn away from those who live in error. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to corrupt habits, for whoever is overcome becomes a slave to whoever overcomes him. 20 You have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they are again entangled in them and overcome, their final state is worse than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of good than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the proverb says has happened to them: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A sow, after being washed, returns to wallowing in the mud.”

Felipe: Unfortunately, due to our emotional vulnerabilities, we humans are manipulated by politicians, religious leaders, teachers, digital influencers, and so on. There's a void that needs to be filled. We must be masters of ourselves so we don't become puppets in anyone's hands.

Alsibar: True.

CID OBSERVATION

I haven't investigated Mooji and therefore can't give an in-depth opinion about him, but there are numerous scandals of abuse by "spiritual guides" (gurus, teachers, instructors, etc.) and not only Advaita but from all denominations and all nationalities, so my advice is to be very wary of such individuals.

THE UNBRIDLED SEX LIFE OF CARLOS CASTANEDA

Carlos Castaneda kept his life very secret, but over time several aspects of it have been discovered, and here I will be posting the information I find about his sex life.

In Peru

When Carlos Castaneda was a young man living in Peru, his friends say he was quite the ladies' man. He had an affair with a girl whom he got pregnant, and that was very likely one of the reasons why he decided to emigrate to the United States in 1951 (at the age of 25). To prevent something similar from happening again, Castaneda had a vasectomy.

Marriage to Margaret Runyan

In 1955 Castaneda met an American woman named Margaret Runyan, and finally married her in 1960 in Tlaquiltenango, Mexico .

Margaret wanted to have a child, but since Castaneda could no longer do so, he asked a handsome Slavic man named Adrian Guerritsen Jr. to impregnate her, and he took the child she had as his own.

Affair with Mary Barker

A few months later Castaneda and Margaret separated, and shortly afterwards Castaneda began a relationship with another American woman named Mary Joan Barker who was a librarian at UCLA.

 

 

Castaneda never married Mary and finally divorced Margaret in 1973.

Affair with Gloria Garvin

In 1969 Mary introduced Castaneda to anthropologist Gloria Garvin de Joseph, who also became his lover.  

Castaneda becomes famous

After the great success of his first book "The Teachings of Don Juan" published in 1968, many people attended the talks that Castaneda gave.

Carlos Castaneda had become a kind of "shamanic rock star," and just like rock stars, Castaneda surely had sexual relations with many of his female admirers.

 

His witches

Several women joined him, forming his inner circle. First came "the witches," known as:

Taisha Abelar

Florinda Donner

Carol Tiggs

Castaneda supposedly brought them together with him because they were the warriors who formed his group, since in the shamanic tradition of Don Juan Matus, the nahual of each generation has to form a group of sorcerers in order to achieve liberation together.

But the first thing that's disconcerting is that while the groups of the previous nahuals were larger and comprised both men and women, Castaneda's group consisted only of these three women, and all of them were young and beautiful. There wasn't a single fat, old, or ugly woman, unlike the descriptions given to some of the witches in the earlier nahual groups.

Castaneda explains that the difference in his group was due to the fact that he did not possess the amount of energy necessary to form a traditional group given his energetic configuration because he was a "three-pointed nahual" while the previous nahuals were "four-pointed nahuals".

Which could be, but to me that sounds more like a pretext invented by Castaneda to be able to have his harem without generating a scandal among his followers since, according to Don Juan, warriors have to be celibate.

And although Castaneda's witches did not openly declare themselves to be the Castaneda's lovers, some of them did hint at it.

1. For example, Florinda Donner, in her book "Shabono" (1984), which has a prologue written by Castaneda, included the following dedication:

« To the five-legged spider that carries me on its back. »

Researcher Manuel Carballal gave the following explanation: "Arana is Castaneda's other real surname; he actually said that when he lived with Don Juan he used the name 'Charly Spider' because he was making a play on words; and the other four 'legs' are the four women who lived with him."

I believe it is more of a play on words and that Florinda Donner in reality meant "for the five-legged spider," that is, Castaneda represented by his two legs, his two arms, plus his erect penis," who carries me on his back," alluding to the sexual games they had.

2. Another example was Taisha Abelar who in her book "The Sorcerer's Crossing" (1992) commented that the first time she met Castaneda she felt very attracted to him:

« He had dark skin, was short, and seemed very strong. His hair was black and curly. He gestured animatedly when he spoke, and his face was full of energy and expressiveness. There was something about him that made him stand out from everyone else. My heart skipped a beat, and I was immediately drawn to him. »

(Chapter 21)

3. It is also well known that Carlos Castaneda married Florinda Donner in Las Vegas on September 27, 1993, and two days later he also married Carol Tiggs in the same city.

Her explorers

Over time, more women joined Castaneda's inner circle (and also a few men called "elements").

Nury Alexander

Tycho Thal

In order not to contradict the story he had told, that Don Juan asserted that Castaneda was "a three-pointed nahual" and that was why he only had three witches by his side, Castaneda invented other roles for these new women:

Castaneda said that Nury was "The Blue Explorer," an energetic entity he rescued in the dream world who had been born into the physical world as a human.  Castaneda said something similar about Tycho, who was "The Orange Explorer."

Castaneda in reality met Nury while she was working as a waitress and attending classes at ULCA. She had suffered a tragedy in her childhood: her father almost died in an accident that left him with permanent injuries.

During the nearly twenty years she lived with Castaneda, and despite her gray hair, Nury behaved like a child, claiming she had been trapped in another dimension since the age of seven. She played with dolls and spoke like a little girl.

Amy Wallace says that Castaneda told her:

 

-      "Nury was seven years old when she first got into my bed. She climbed on top of me and thump, thump, thump! She wanted to do it at seven years old ... and we did! What could I do? I couldn't resist... she sexually assaulted me while I was asleep!"

His affair with Amy Wallace

 

The writer Amy Wallace published a book entitled "Witch's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda" (2003) where she reveals that she met Castaneda when she was 17 years old and that she later became one of the members of his inner circle and also became his lover.

In her book, she recounts that when her father, Irving Wallace, died in 1990, Amy was 35 years old and living in Berkeley, California. Shortly afterward, Castaneda called her and told her that Irving had appeared to him in a dream and was trapped in the Wallace house, and that he needed Castaneda and Amy to go and free him.

Amy traveled to Los Angeles, where Castaneda began to seduce her until they finally had sex. Castaneda told her he hadn't had sex in 20 years.

(Cid's note: which is a huge lie.)

When Amy later worried that she might have become pregnant because they hadn't used any contraception, Castaneda jumped out of bed exclaiming:

 

-       "Me, get you pregnant? Impossible! The nahual's sperm isn't human. It doesn't match your fluids. You're human... Don't let the nahual's sperm escape, baby, because it will burn your humanity."

(Cid's note: Castaneda didn't mention that he had a vasectomy and implied that his sperm was going to transform Amy.)

The BBC broadcast a documentary about Castaneda where they interviewed Amy, and she mentioned:

« Carlos wanted us to have sex in my childhood bedroom to break the spell of all the old energy.

. . .

Later, Castaneda had taken the strange step of adopting Nury as his daughter in the 1990s, and he was also sexually active with her, which gave their adoption a completely bizarre atmosphere, you know? Castaneda once told me, "You have the same vagina as my daughter, that's why I love her so much. »

Richard Jennings was a student of Castaneda and he recounts that in May 1995 he met Amy at the Omega workshop, they became great friends and confidants, and she revealed to him that she and the other women in the inner group had had sexual relations with Castaneda.

His president

Talia Bey was the president of the organization created by Castaneda (Cleargreen) to commercialize his teachings.

His chacmools

Castaneda called his last personal disciples "chacmools".

Kylie Lundahl

Nyei Murez

Renata Murez

Her close students

Other women who were close students of Castaneda during his later years were:

Aerin Alexander

Halley Alexander van Oosten

Zaia Alexander

Carola García Arslan

Constanza Coll

Rylin Demaris

Darien Donner

Margarita Nieto

Araceli Zafra

Moonchild or Thurney

Note: I cannot say with complete certainty that all of Castaneda's chacmools and close female students were also his lovers, but knowing how much of a womanizer he was and the fascination he produced among his followers, it is very likely that he also had sex with them.

The ugly ones had no chance of getting in

in Castaneda's personal group

I heard of a woman who was willing to do anything to become one of his close students, truly anything; however, since she wasn't very attractive, I suspect that was the real reason Castaneda refused to accept her.  

Castaneda also shared his disciple-lovers

with his protégés

Marco Antonio Karam is a prominent promoter of Buddhism, and in his youth he was considered by Carlos Castaneda as his future successor; and Karam told the following to journalist Geoffrey Gray:

« As part of my initiation into the inner circle of Carlos Castaneda's group, he ordered me to have sexual relations with Carol Tiggs (whom Castaneda had also married).

Castaneda presented this to me as a worthy honor for his designated successor.

I stayed at a hotel with Carol during her trips to Mexico City. We were just two disciples following our master's orders.

Castañeda told us that having sex was a ritualistic exercise that united energies and sought to align the spiritual genes of his group.

It wasn't something passionate, it was something mechanical that simply had to be done to achieve that supposed harmony.

Carol remained indifferent and impassive in the face of that order; she was simply told that she had to do it, and she did it. »

I get the impression that Castaneda was already so obsessed with sex that he also wanted his protégé to enter into this dynamic of sexual compulsion; just as a drunkard wants others to drink alcohol too.

And Karam also asserted that Castaneda was a sexual deranged maniac, since he declared:

« Castaneda was  very obsessed with sex, always trying to manipulate attractive women he met into having sex with him. And having sex with witches was also a way of controlling them.

Castaneda manipulated everyone into competing against each other; he was very brilliant at it, like all cult leaders. His group was like a game of musical chairs, where everyone fought to be the favorite at that moment and capture his attention.

Castaneda's predatory sexual attitude toward all of them was not a sign of a spiritually developed person. »

Castaneda didn't care about destroying lives

just to sleep with a woman

Jacobo Grinberg and his daughter mentioned the case of a woman whom Castaneda pressured a lot to join his group, but she had to abandon her son.

Jacobo Grinberg said:

« Eventually, Castaneda stopped communicating with most of us, except for one of the women in our group. He spoke to her day and night, urging her to abandon everything and join his group.

The problem was that this abandonment meant leaving one of her children unprotected, a child who was emotionally and materially dependent on his mother. This woman was subjected to such pressure by Castaneda that on one occasion she had to ask him not to try to contact her anymore.

When she told us about the terrible pressure Castaneda put her under, I was deeply shocked and I still don't understand what happened. »

Estusha Grinberg added:

« My father witnessed things that Carlos Castaneda did that he disliked a lot. For example, my father told me that there was a woman with a son, and at one point my father got very angry with Castaneda because Castaneda told this woman that if she wanted to be in his group she had to detach herself from her son, and that was that, she had to leave him.

But there was no one else to care for that child; the child's father wasn't taking responsibility, and that meant abandoning the child. But Castaneda didn't care about that; for him, the woman had no choice but to detach herself from her son. » 

We already know what Castaneda wanted to do with this woman, but since he didn't want to deal with children, he also pressured her a lot to abandon her son, who had no one else to take care of him.

And this shows you how cruel, callous, and inhuman Castaneda had become, not caring about the harm he was going to cause that child, just to satisfy his whim of wanting to have sex with his mother.

Shortly after Castaneda's death

Carol described to Amy her last conversation with Florinda:

« Florinda was getting ready to leave, without saying 'I love you,' 'I wish you the best,' nothing. It was very cruel. Suddenly, at the door, she turned to me and said, "Carol, were you ever jealous of the nagual and his women?"

I replied, "No, Florinda, I didn't have any. I had other problems with him, believe me, but that wasn't one of them... I'm not jealous. I mean, listen, after all, I was the number two pimp."

Then Florinda smiled and said, "Well... he had many women, you know? I was just curious, that's why I asked you," and she turned and left. Not a hug, not a kiss, not a thank you, not a goodbye, nothing. »

OBSERVATION

Castaneda's most ardent followers will continue to believe that nothing sexual happened between Carlos Castaneda and all these women, but based on everything I've discovered about Castaneda, I'm more inclined to believe that all of that was true.

And this implies that Carlos Castaneda was an immense hypocrite because while he demanded sexual abstinence from his followers in order to become great shamanic warriors, he –who as a nahual should have set an example of impeccability– was, on the contrary, extremely sexually active with several women at the same time, and several of them very young.

And here I have only mentioned the lovers who have been discovered, but surely there were many more who preferred to remain anonymous, so it is very likely that Carlos Castaneda had sexual relations with hundreds of women.