Jennifer Jacob's parents maintain that their daughter was not screamed at, ridiculed, or degraded. Although neither Anne nor I knew what had actually taken place with Jennifer, Anne recalled too well some of Rama's methods: "Our minds [during nightmare weekend in Seattle] were violated in a variety of horrible ways. 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 hell for thousands of lifetimes..." Rama claims: Cult Awareness Network and persons associated with it are participating 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 brainwashing 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.