Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive CultLaxer, Mark E.
Religion
Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult
Laxer, Mark E.
Cults -- United States; Lenz, Frederick, 1950-
Perhaps it was to dispel doubts about his own authenticity that
Atmananda proceeded to poke fun at himself. Appearing beside
his photograph was the following ad (Issue #6; March, 1981): "His
High Holiness SWAMI UGULA UGLE From The Himalayan Institute For
The Strange will be appearing in Del Mar on March 37th at 2 a.m.
for the high himalayan karrmuppet hat dancing & tea ceremony.
$$ Bring Lots Of Money $$ His high Holiness Swami Ugula Ugle is
a direct lineal descendant of Llama Fred. He personally assisted
in the baking of several LARGE rye breads at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
A devotee of Sri Ramana Maharshi and baseball, the Swami actually
is a good guy. He doesn't claim to be any better than the rest
of us. But he's happy. So maybe happiness can be learned?
Come and find out...We may hit you for a few bucks - but we'll give
you a good time...Lots of pomp and ceremony for you Western types
who can't accept that enlightened souls can look and act like normal
human beings..."
I liked the ad. I saw no reason why enlightened souls should not
look and act like normal human beings. I liked the way Atmananda
poked fun at the pomp and ceremony which had distanced Chinmoy
from many of his disciples. I also found Atmananda's deflated
view of himself a relief.
A number of Atmananda's advertisements, however, were of a more
serious nature. In the first issue, for instance (January, 1981),
he wrote: "1st WORKSHOP OF 1981...another exciting Castaneda
experience at UCSD...inspired posterers--here's your chance!"
In later issues, he repeatedly ran "The Experience of Luminosity" ad
(Issue #6; March, 1981): "DR. FREDERICK LENZ is a spiritual Benefactor.
Each month...he offers several free workshops to members of the San
Diego community. At these workshops he provides solid information
and techniques that will help you to gain inner peace and happiness.
Dr. Lenz does this by discussing the most helpful aspects
of Buddhism, Yoga, Vedanta, Zen, Taoism and the psychic and spiritual
arts...During meditation, Dr. Lenz enters into Samadhi and directly
channels Peace, Light, Power and Ecstasy to you...ADMISSION FREE..."
At the top of this full-page ad appeared the words, "Paid advertisement"--
as if WOOF! had been published by someone other than Dr. Frederick Lenz.
Atmananda, who at times seemed as cautious as he was bold, told me
to instruct WOOF! distribution volunteers to be highly inaccessible.
I kept this in mind one Saturday afternoon as I approached a health
food store with Marty, a shy, soft-spoken UCSD student with a sense
of wonder in his eyes. Marty had been a disciple of Chinmoy for about
a year.
Raising the WOOF!'s to the counter, I said, "Could we leave
these by the door? They're free!"
"Sure," the manager replied and he took one.
I placed my stack, and Marty, who had been lugging additional copies,
placed his as well. We were almost out the door when the man said,
"Say, who puts out this...WOOF!?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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