Take Me for a Ride Part 42

Rama kept us awake all night. We did not see Charles Manson videos.

We got to see Rama strangling his puppy instead. Rama repeatedly berated us.

He claimed we were reincarnated demons and were out to get him.

He did not hold us prisoners, but then again, I would not advise running off into the night on five hits of acid. Rama said we could 'come clean' if we, like Barbara, confessed that we were trying to destroy his mission. He threatened that he would send us to h.e.l.l for thousands of lifetimes..."

Rama claims:

Cult Awareness Network and persons a.s.sociated with it are partic.i.p.ating in the very practices that they purport to be dead set against. They are encouraging the abrogation of the personal and religious freedoms of adult American citizens through brainwas.h.i.+ng methods and techniques similar to those employed by the North Koreans and North Vietnamese against American P.O.W's...

I certainly am not in favor of cults--who is?

But I do not believe any person or organization has the right to incite the kidnappings of persons who are part of small religious organizations that are not cults...This is a money making racket. This [Cult Awarenes Network] is nothing more than McCarthyism in a new form.

Anne and I read and reread this last section of the "Statement."

We glanced at each other for a moment--but said nothing.

In 1990 I spoke with the three English professors who, in 1976, had served on Rama's doctoral dissertation committee. Louis Simpson, a Pulitzer prize winning writer, told me he had written a poem about a student, a brilliant lecturer, who creates his own system rather than working within an existing one (Simpson, Louis.

"Herons and Water Lilies." In The Room We Share. New York: Paragon House, 1990). Paul Dolan told me that Fred's performance on the Ph.D. oral exams had been slightly above average. Gerald Nelson told me that while he had taken a liking to this graduate student, he had never thought much of Fred's get-rich-and-famous schemes, including the one to boost his credentials via a mail-order minister's degree.

"Fred once asked me what I thought of his idea for a book called The Thirteen Mystics," Nelson told me. "I joked that he would already have a built in market for the sequel, The Return Of The Thirteen Mystics."

But Nelson had not taken lightly the way young Frederick had been affecting undergraduates during his free lectures on meditation.

In 1975, Nelson recommended that Fred read about Ken Kesey and about Charles Manson. The lesson was that while both charismatic leaders had experimented with drugs and with young peoples' lives, Kesey learned to check his power over others. Manson did not.

"Yet it was difficult for me to guide Fred," Nelson explained.

"Though he was my student, he was Chinmoy's disciple."

Professor Nelson was a tall man with a strong, kind voice.

I wondered if Fred had been drawn to him in his search for a caring father figure.

I asked Nelson if he had read the newspaper accounts of Fred's recent schemes. He nodded sadly. "This is the sort of thing you would expect from an intelligent, sensitive, abused child from a well-to-do family. Fred quite obviously needs help, but is probably too far-gone to realize or admit it."

In the mid-eighties, Rama sent Nelson self-promotional brochures, tapes, and books; in 1986, Rama wrote in a brochure that Nelson had been one of the three most influential people in his life; in 1988, Rama confessed to Nelson that he only wanted to make some money, that he no longer maintained a following, and that he had finally learned his lesson about Ken Kesey and about Charles Manson.

Yet the more I learned about Rama through my continuing research, the less I was heartened by Rama's confession to his former mentor.

In 1988, Rama persuaded many of the roughly three hundred disciples to move to Reston, Virginia, and then to Westchester, New York.

He founded two for-profit organizations: National Professional and Personal Development Seminars (NPDS) and Advanced Systems Inc.

(ASI) During regular meetings of NPDS and ASI he continued to teach his disciples about spirituality. He continued to experiment with mind control. He also experimented with new ways to make money.

Rama had been strongly encouraging disciples to study software at the Computer Learning Center (CLC), a six-month technical school which typically prepared people for entry-level programming jobs.

Several disciples, including my brother, Sal, and Paul, had developed impressive track records in the software industry.

But many were only CLC graduates. During the meetings of NPDS and ASI, Rama told disciples to share their knowledge of state-of-the-art software technology. Then he told them to lie. According to the San Francisco Chronicle ("Yuppie Guru Finds Cash in Computers: Devotees pay $3,000 a month to sit at his feet", 7/30/92), Rama, in 1989, wrote a manual for disciples in which he encouraged them to think of a resume as "a mandala that reflects your new self."

Rama wrote: "They will believe anything you say, even when you intersperse unrealities, because they feel the truth of your experience.

When you have your stories and images in place, arrange for your references.

Choose people from our group who are comfortable on the phone, who sound professional and who have had data processing experience.

Give them a few notes about who they were."

In 1991 Rama told New York Newsday's William Falk ("The Yuppie Guru", 7/30/91), "It's the most amazing career that I know of.

You can start in the mid-30s, and in a year or two you can make $100,000 to $150,000 a year."

From 1988 to 1991, Rama's individual tuition rose from roughly one thousand to three thousand dollars per month. He told followers that since NPDS and ASI were actually furthering their careers, they should deduct the increasing payments from their taxes.

This enabled Rama to dramatically increase his "surprise" gift reservoir-- while bilking the IRS of millions, in a way that would be difficult to expose.

In 1989, Rama justified to the disciples his rising tuition.

"I nearly killed myself by accepting your Negative Occult Energy,"

he said, "and now you are going to have to pay for it."

In January, 1990, Rama announced that disciples had until March 21, 1991, to donate additional money--from $50,000 to $1,000,000 per person, depending on his or her "capacity." They didn't have to partic.i.p.ate, he told them. But it would be their last year in the Centre if they did not. He gave them each "charmed" marbles. The marbles, he said, would enable them to accomplish any task he suggested.

The charm, he added, would fade for those who left the Centre-- who had not already lost their marbles.

At one meeting in 1990, Rama claimed that his students were treating him with disrespect by being late with their tuition payments.

"Better to owe your creditors than to owe me," he told them.

He suggested that they move in together, sleep on apartment floors, and not pay their other bills for awhile.

Rama increasingly used fear tactics to control the financially hard-pressed, sleep deprived followers, many of whom worked more than one job.

He told them that if he stopped protecting someone who left the Centre, they would suffer forever in the "seventh level of h.e.l.l." He told them that he wielded the power to create and demolish the universes.

He told them that he was no longer the "Last Incarnation of Vishnu The Cosmic Preserver," but of "Siva The Cosmic Destroyer."

He emphasized that those criticizing him would invariably get hit by a car or contract cancer.

Rama, who had not held public lectures since early 1988, required most students to bring at least three new potential initiates per year.

He spent hours during the NPDS and ASI "computer" meetings coaching disciples about what kind of people they should recruit and about how they should go about recruiting them. He also told them of his plan to have them recruit at universities in every state in North America.

Rama came up with many new ideas between 1989 and 1991. He told the disciples, for instance, that his former Guru was really "a great big spidery Ent.i.ty from h.e.l.l." He did not mention that ten years earlier, he had billed Chinmoy as "the Seventh Avatar...the highest soul to incarnate on earth..." He told a few disciples to infiltrate and destroy Microsoft Corporation (one devotee actually landed a job at the software giant as a recruiter). He told disciples that he was ordaining them as Buddhist monks.

He did not mention, however, that he was having unprotected s.e.x with a substantial number of them under the guise of advancing their souls.

In 1991, articles on Rama appeared in New York's Newsday, "The Yuppie Guru", 7/30/91; The L.A. Weekly, "Rama Rerun", 11/29/91; and in several issues of the Consultants' & Contractors' Newsletter (CCN). I read in CCN (July/August, 1991 issue) how Rama's followers had become known in the computer industry as the "California Raisins."

The Raisins apparently had been causing companies, recruiters, and agencies in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to lose a substantial amount of time and money. In the same issue, I read: "...we think it only fair to put cult members on notice that knowledge of their activities is widespread...local area recruiters are now circulating a list of those known to be cult members, which is regularly updated as new names are added...In other words, local recruiters, typically thought of as competing with one another, are acting in unison when it comes to fighting the onslaught of this group...if you want to adhere to a certain faith or religion, go ahead, it's what our country was set up to protect. But don't continue trying to raise money through fraudulent behavior which neither the courts, nor most religions would condone...Further info. available from (201) 299-1535."

Also in 1991, I read in Newsday that Rama did not permit disciples to live near him because he did not want them to "lower the vibe"

of Long Island. I read about one follower who committed suicide after "speaking incessantly about Rama and about making enough money to get back into the group." I read about Brenda Kerber, a follower who disappeared from her White Plains apartment on October 9th, 1989, and who, at the printing of this book, is still listed as "missing." I read about Rama's claim that those who had not done well in his program were "simply unrealistic or lazy."

And I read about Rama's claim that he merely wanted to teach, travel, meditate, and, when time permitted, date women. "I have a great life," Rama was quoted as saying. "I'm one of the happier people I know."

In 1992, Rama regularly held private meetings for his computer company "monks" at the Performing Arts Center at the State University of New York at Purchase. Christopher Beach, director of the Performing Arts Center, told The New York Times ("Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others", Westchester edition, 6/20/93) that Lenz is "no more than a Dale Carnegie of the 90's." Dr. Sheldon N. Grebstein, president of SUNY Purchase, also defended Lenz in The Times article: "At SUNY Purchase we have directly witnessed none of the alleged cult activity."

From the stage of this prestigious auditorium, Rama, whom Grebstein described as a "model client," instructed the hi-tech monks to fan out to different parts of the country, form front organizations, and give talks on meditation. On the east coast his recruiting arms included: Boston Meditation Society (Ma.s.sachusetts), Hartford Meditation Society (Connecticut), Philadelphia Society for the Meditative Arts (eastern Pennsylvania), Diamond Mind (Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. and Maryland), New Jersey Meditative Society (southern New Jersey and Princeton area), Virginia Meditative Society, and Manhattan Meditation Forum (New York City and Westchester). On the west coast: Banzai Tantric Inst.i.tute (Silicon Valley), RCF (San Francisco, Marin County, and East Bay area), and Pacific Meditation Society (Los Angeles). He told disciples to promote their talks by postering universities.

He told them to pay particular attention to bulletin boards around engineering and computer science departments. He told them to invite certain seekers to meditate with him (at SUNY Purchase on the east coast and at a rented hall in Oakland, California, on the west coast). It was no secret what type of person Rama wanted to attract.

Many of his posters found at universities across America contain this message: "All workshops designed for individuals 29 and under."

According to one disciple who left the group in 1993, Rama's recent, indirect recruiting method attracted roughly four hundred new disciples.

When a group of disciples' parents--known as the "Rama Mamas"-- found out about Rama's active quest for fresh material, they alerted the press. Articles began to appear: The Santa Fe New Mexican, "Controversial guru coming to Santa Fe", 3/24/92; Santa Fe Reporter, "Computer Cult: Is the Leader Here?", 3/25/92; Heart Dance: The Bay Area's Most Comprehensive Events Calendar for Contemporary Human Awareness, Spirituality & Well-Being, Editorial: "RAMA? UH-OH", 4/1/92; The Daily Californian (UC Berkeley), "Zen master a fraud, followers say", 6/26/92; San Francisco Chronicle, "Yuppie Guru Finds Cash in Computers: Devotees pay $3,000 a month to sit at his feet", 7/30/92; The Philadelphia Inquirer, "As guru's disciples. .h.i.t town, critics cry beware: Truth and light, the followers promise.

Fraud and suffering, the watch group warns", 8/31/92; The Portland Oregonian, "Is Brenda Barratt reading this?

If so, phone home", 9/5/92; The Ramapo News, "College Authorities Alerted of Cult Leader", 10/15/92; The Hartford Courant, "Guru mixes money, mystique: Ex-followers say students exploited", and "Traveling along the path toward enlightment", 10/18/92; The Wesleyan Argus, "Cult Recruits Students Via Meditation Group", 10/30/92, and "Arguses Stolen", 11/3/92, and "Cult Faces Obstacles Elsewhere; None at Wes", 11/6/92, and "Self-Discovery Club Loses Group Status", 12/4/92, and "Wes Investigates Meditation Group's Activities", 12/4/92; The Trinity Tripod, "Alleged Cult Sponsors Workshops On Campus", 11/3/92, and "Meditation Workshops Exposed", 11/10/92; Peninsula Times Tribune, "Manipulative...or merely meditative? Zen Master Rama faces serious charges", 11/7/92; Baltimore City Paper, "Software Svengali: Yuppie Guru Frederick Lenz Wants You For His Army Of Meditating Computer Programmers. Step #1: Bring Your Purses And Wallets", 11/13/92; Yale Herald, "Meditation group accused of cult recruiting", 11/13/92; Westchester Gannett Reporter Dispatch, "ZEN and the ART of COMPUTER MAINTENANCE", and "Flim Flam Artist or Hindu Deity?", 11/22/92; The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Insidious Recruiting or Innocent Seminar? Colleges Police Meetings of So-Called Cult: Meditation group forces administrators to confront questions about student safety", 12/2/92; New Age Journal, "The Return of Rama", 1/1/93; Family Circle, "Do You Believe In Magic? New Light on the New Age", 2/23/93; The Trenton Times, "Meditation or manipulation?

Guru called cult leader", and "Disciples carry Rama's word by meditation cla.s.s", 2/28/93; Santa Cruz Sentinel, "HIGH-TECH Rama: Frederick Lenz offers a vision of affluence, for a price", 2/28/93 and "Guru's Disciples teach campus clubs: Is it a 'hustler's' scam, or an invitation to enlightenment?", 3/1/93; The New York Times (Westchester edition), "Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others", 6/20/93.

Rama's response to the waves of negative publicity was no different than his response years before on "The Larry King Show" and "A Current Affair." He professed, through spokeswoman Lisa Lewinson, that money-seeking deprogrammers were persuading former disciples to fabricate accusations. Yet the individuals whose accounts appear in this book share their experiences as individuals. These individuals are members of no such anti-cult conspiracy. These individuals respect and defend the freedom to practice religion in its myriad forms.

These individuals have a simple message. Fly East. Fly West.

But don't fly into the cuckoo's nest.