Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (15870)	8/24/2003 9:46:28 PM
From: Solon	Respond to of 28931

"Count on that statement being true for you and I Solon" I do.

To: James Calladine who wrote (15870)	9/3/2003 5:42:43 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

Do you believe these words are true? adidam.org Do you believe that Bubba Free John is free of self interest and wordly EGO?! Do you think he is freer than an average person? _________________________________ NO EGO HERE, EH?!! The House Where Swami Lived Long Island Newsday Magazine/September 14, 1986 By Ed Lowe Eleven years ago, Ken and Patricia Smith bought a house from Dorothy and Franklin Jones. Patricia Smith remembers that when the Joneses were showing the house to the Smiths, Franklin Jones pointed proudly to the upstairs wall murals his son, Franklin, had painted years before. The murals depicted French street scenes. Soon after the Smiths moved in, they covered the murals with standard wall paint. Also, soon after the Smiths moved in, they learned from their new Franklin Square neighbors that the Joneses' son, then about 36, had moved to California some years before, founded a religion, started a commune, changed his name to Bubba Free John and developed a sizable constituency of devotees who wore orange robes and married whomever he directed them to marry. Over the years, the Smiths also learned of some of Bubba Free John's writings, which bear such titles as "The Dreaded Gom-Boo, the Imaginary Disease that Religion Seeks to Cure"; "The Scientific Proof that the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced by the White House," and "Crazy Da Must Sing, Inclined to His Weaker Side." One day, after they had lived in the house for about two years, Patricia received a telephone call from a man who identified himself as a New York associate of Bubba Free John. He wanted to know if the new occupants of the house had painted over the wall murals on the second floor, and he wanted to know if he could visit the house and ask some questions. Patricia Smith said that she supposed it would be all right for the man to visit. The man appeared at the door less than 10 minutes after she hung up the receiver. He wore clean white jeans and seemed suddenly unconcerned about the wall murals. Instead, he asked if he could dig on the side of the garage for a blue ceramic urn containing the cremated remains of a pet cat. He said that if he did not immediately find the urn he sought, he would pay Ken Smith $100 for the privilege of digging until he did find it. Ken Smith, hoping to rid himself of any future connection to Bubba Free John, gave the man permission to dig. Five and a half hours later, said the Smiths, the man in now-dirty white jeans had unearthed a plastic bag from the side yard. The Smiths didn't know what the bag contained and didn't ask. The man left. Neighbors told the Smiths that Bubba Free John never had a pet cat. He had some birds, a monkey, fish and a dog, but no cat. "We didn't hear anything else for a long, long time," said Patricia Smith. Two years ago, a young couple presented themselves at the front door and asked if they could visit Da Free John's old room (Bubba had changed his name to Da by that time; he has since changed it, again, to Swami Da Love-Ananda Paramahansa Avadhoota, which has a shortened version, Da Love Ananda, presumably to facilitate conversation). The young couple wanted to check the inside of Da etc.'s closet for a number and a date written on the wall. Patricia found the information (March 25, 1973, and SC3-4567) and gave it to the couple, who declined to reveal its significance. Nothing else unusual happened until this summer. On June 23, Da Free John's New York associate called Patricia and told her that Da etc. would be visiting his mother and sister in Suffolk County and would like permission to visit his old homestead and show it to a few close friends. Patricia Smith said, "No," and added that she would not be home all day. Not long after, she spotted a car cruising past their house, several of the car's occupants pointing directly at it. The car apparently rounded the block. When it returned, Patricia saw that one of the passengers was aiming a videocamera at her front door. She closed the door and asked Ken to look outside. He did and said, "If you didn't like the one carload, you probably ought to avoid looking outside now." Two vans pulled up to the curb in front of the house, followed by another sedan and then two stretch limousines. People wearing full-length, orange robes got out, lined up on the sidewalk and listened as Swami Da Love-Ananda Paramahansa Avadhoota talked about his Franklin Square childhood. Members of the assemblage took dozens of pictures, and the videotape rolled on for the entire visit. Then Da etc. and his entourage paraded down the block and around the corner to an elementary school whose teachings had evidently contributed to the growth and development of the former Franklin Jones. Patricia asked Ken to go outside and videotape the parade. Ken had videotaped them from inside the house, but said he did not want to go outside, because he didn't want to look foolish.

To: James Calladine who wrote (15870)	9/3/2003 5:48:04 AM
From: Solon	Respond to of 28931

Religion always benefits from a good SEX plan! And it surely is great when one is a GURU! <gg> "While at the church's 600 acre retreat in Lake County in 1976, Da Free John told her to perform oral sex with three men, she said. She was then told to have sex with the guru himself, which she did. _________________________________ Sexual experiments continued after '76, JDC officiaIs admit Mill Valley Record/April 10, 1985 By Peter Seidman Officials of the San Rafael based religious sect led by Da Free John told local followers Sunday that "sexual experimentation" within the church did not end in 1976, as the church had previously maintained. The admission came during a meeting of about 300 members of the Johannine Daist Communion. Sources close to the church told The Record that at least some members were shocked by the news. Until Sunday, the church had said that during a short period in 1976 some church members had engaged in "sexual experiments" as part of their religious teachings. Reports of sexual abuse within the church first appeared in The Record last week. In response to those reports the church prepared an open letter that was delivered late Monday. According to the statement: "We understand our way of life is an ongoing spiritual experiment in which we constantly consider and discover what will best serve our spiritual evolution. For this reason we value the period of liberal experimentation with various lifestyles in the early years of our existence. It was a time full of learning, growth, and spiritual celebration. It was a happy and foolish time." The statement also says that the period of experimentation "occurred within the context of selfunderstanding and with a view of developing life conducive to spiritual growth as individuals and as a community." During interviews with The Record, church officials had resolutely maintained that the sexual experimentation ended in 1976. At least some disaffected former members, however, said that drug use and sexual assaults allegedly have taken place within the church community as late as 1984. The admission Sunday by church officials corroborates at least in part some of the allegations The Record printed last week. Crane Kirkbride, speaking for the church, said Monday that there "have been incidents up to the fairly recent past." Kirkbride also said that no illegal acts took place and the church has a right to continue experiments in lifestyles. In the course of a lengthy investigation, many former members of the church told The Record that part of the experimentation included humiliating sexual activities they were asked to perform in front of Da Free John and some of his "inner circle." Church officials have said they withheld information about the sexual activities because lowerlevel members and the general public would misunderstand the relationship between the activities and the church's teaching. Members of the religious sect call the sexual experimentation "spiritual theater." The purpose of the program, church officials said, is to shock people out of everyday complacency and into a higher spiritual state. But some former members allege that the "spiritual theater" was and continues to be a form of sexual coercion for the benefit of some individual church members. Until the announcement Sunday that the sexual practices had continued after 1976, most members of the sect, whose guru lives on a Fijian island, knew little or nothing about the activities in the higherlevels of the organization. One former member alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Da Free John while some followers watched. She also alleged that he told another women to sexually assault her while she was held down by three women. She said she left the church shortly after the incident. But other, loyal followers have told The Record that they experienced no such incidents during their years in the church. One former member, who identified himself as "Richard," said he was a member for about four years. "My experience was quite positive," he said. Another former member, Dennis Nagel, said he never experienced any of the alleged sexual abuse that has come to light in recent reports. An example of the church's "spiritual theater" was revealed to The Record last week by a former member who said she had suffered emotional pain during one of the churchsanctioned "sexual experiments." The woman told a Record reporter that, as a child, she had been sexually abused by a neighbor. The incident left deep emotional wounds, she said. While at the church's 600 acre retreat in Lake County in 1976, Da Free John told her to perform oral sex with three men, she said. She was then told to have sex with the guru himself, which she did. "I was traumatized," she said. According to sources close to the church, the incident was used Sunday by church officials to explain the benefit of "spiritual theater." The officials told their assembled flock that the woman had benefited from the experience.

To: James Calladine who wrote (15870)	9/3/2003 5:53:56 AM
From: Solon	Respond to of 28931

Beverly O'Mahony said she was "forced to consume alcohol...and was required to partake in various sexual acts commanded by "the Master," defendant Franklin Jones. So it is a real religion after all!! :-) "Julie Anderson"..."had just appeared as "Playmate of the Month," in the September 1976 issue of Playboy magazine under the name Whitney Kane. Anderson has stayed in the sect and is now one of nine wives living in Fiji with Da Free John, Miller said." (LOL!!!) Asked about the guru's alleged polygamy, Brian O'Mahony said, "We choose not to make a public comment on his private life." ;-) ________________________________ San Francisco Examiner/April 3, 1985 By Don Lattin A lawsuit by a former San Francisco Symphony flutist says she was forced into sex orgies during her seven years as a disciple of American guru Da Free John in California and on a tropical isle in Fiji. Former top-level members of the sect have also told The Examiner that the guru has nine wives, including a Playboy centerfold model, and that his inner circle privately partook in drunken sex orgies while publicly preaching the value of a meditative, highly disciplined lifestyle. The $5 million suit filed in Marin County Superior Court by Beverly O'Mahony, former wife of one of Da Free John's top aides, alleges false imprisonment, sexual abuse, assault, brainwashing, involuntary servitude, and clergy malpractice. Da Free John, named Franklin Jones at birth and formerly known as Bubba Free John, is the spiritual leader of a 13-year-old religious sect called the Johannine Daist Communion. JDC is headquartered in San Rafael, where it operates the Dawn Horse Bookstore. Da Free John's 1,100 devotees are concentrated in Marin County, on an 800-acre ranch in Lake County, at a retreat center in Hawaii and on a 1,800-acre Fijian island purchased from actor Raymond Burr in September 1983. Beverly O'Mahony, the estranged wife of JDC President Brian O'Mahony, said in an amended complaint filed yesterday that she was "compelled, over a prolonged period of time, to accept physical and sexual abuses, confinement, degrading acts, inadequate diet and the surrendering of her children" to Free John and other sect leaders. Da Free John, 45, and his followers "were able through subtle sophisticated suggestion, trust and coercion to control her every thought and move," the lawsuit states. Beverly O'Mahony said she was "forced to consume alcohol...and was required to partake in various sexual acts commanded by "the Master," defendant Franklin Jones." Beverly O'Mahony, who belonged to the sect from 1976 to 1984, said the incidents took place in both California and Fiji. She married Brian O'Mahony in April 1977. Brian O'Mahony, who joined the sect in 1975 and is one of nine defendants named in the 33-page complaint, denied the allegations yesterday in an interview with The Examiner. Da Free John is living a "reclusive" life on their Fijian isle of Naitauba, O'Mahoney said, and was unavailable to respond. "Da Free John is not a public figure," O'Mahony said. "He lives a secluded and contemplative life (and) restricts his activity to writing and living a life of contemplation and prayer." Several top-level defectors have told The Examiner, however, that the guru and his inner circle privately partook in drunken sex orgies while publicly preaching the value of a meditative, highly disciplined lifestyle. Brian O'Mahony conceded the guru's rules were significantly relaxed when the group "experimented with various lifestyles" between 1974 and 1976. "We freely used alcohol and cigarettes during particular periods of the year when we would have quite a lot of parties," Brian O'Mahony said. "There was a fairly liberal attitude toward sex. ...We were a lot looser then than we are now." Marijuana was used by some members "for a brief period in 1976," he said, adding that "since that time we've had very strict rules." According to former devotee Mark Miller, however, the wild parties and extravagant lifestyles among the leaders were continuing when he left the sect two years ago, in 1983. "We were told that the books are for the public, but when you're with Bubba, it's different," said Miller. "It's all done under the guise of spiritual teaching." Miller, now a 28-year-old biochemistry student at the University of California at Berkeley, said he and his girlfriend, Julie Anderson, joined the group in 1976. His girlfriend, then 19, had just appeared as "Playmate of the Month," in the September 1976 issue of Playboy magazine under the name Whitney Kane. Anderson has stayed in the sect and is now one of nine wives living in Fiji with Da Free John, Miller said. Asked about the guru's alleged polygamy, Brian O'Mahony said, "We choose not to make a public comment on his private life." Beverly O'Mahony's suit also alleged that her husband "violently struck" her "Many times over a prolonged period of time, concluding in June 1984." Divorce proceedings are under way. Her husband conceded that he "cuffed" his wife a half-dozen times "in the first couple years of our marriage." "It wasn't a very heavy slap," he said. "I absolutely deny that I beat her." Miller, who once served as the director of the sect's Laughing Man Institute, said Beverly O'Mahony's account "is just one example of abusive behavior among years of abusive behavior." "People are brainwashed into believing that these events occur as the guru's way of teaching," he said. "With that logic, anything goes." Another former high-ranking JDC official, who left the group in late 1983 and asked that his named not be used, agreed with Miller. "People who get abused are longstanding members, especially women," he said. "People come to Fiji to do the work, from laundry to grounds work, from security guards to construction. Some of the women who come with them, or come by themselves, get picked off by Jones, especially if they're attractive. "They get paid by being allowed to be around the teacher. That's the greatest wealth and status you can achieve in a spiritual community." Beverly O'Mahony's suit said she was beaten "with the support and backing" of other communal members of her Da Free John household. She alleges that, under the teachings of the guru, women in the commune were regarded as "servant or slave, compelled to follow the opinions or decisions of the men." The damages she seeks are based, in part, on being "induced to forgo a career as a promising musician" and having "lost eight years of her life." Josh Baran, the founder of Berkeley counseling center that helps those leaving religious cults, said he has dealt with around 50 "profoundly disillusioned" former devotees of Da Free John. "Their principal focus is devotion to him as God incarnate," said Baran. "It creates followers who are like dependent children." Baran said some of Da Free John's early books were incisive critiques of other East-meets-West religious movements. Over the years, however, "it became more and more based on him." "They have the right to their beliefs, but when any man proclaims his Godhood, the possible excesses of abuses of power are enormous -- especially when they isolate themselves on an island in the middle of the ocean. ...We saw that in Jonestown," Baran said. Brian O'Mahony said many people, including members of the church, misunderstand Da Free John's references to his divine nature. "He is not God exclusively, but represents someone who has realized God," he said. Brian O'Mahony added that members of the group "profoundly respect" Da Free John and "revere him as a great spiritual teacher and honor him as such." Brian O'Mahony said an Australian businessman, whom he wouldn't name, contributed the $2.1 million to buy the island, which contains a cattle and coconut farm, 16 staff houses, a school, a church and a dairy, in addition to Raymond Burr's previous home. About 40 devotees live on the island, O'Mahony said, along with about 75 Fijians. Most of the guru's followers live in rented communal homes in Marin County and on the sect's spread in Lake County. There are pockets of followers in New York, Europe, Australia and Hawaii, where Da Free John lived before the Fijian island was purchased. JDC is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. Its other divisions include the Crazy Wisdom Fellowship, the Free Communion Church, the Advaitayana Buddhist Order and the Free Renunciate Order. It has published 40 of Da Free John's books, along with a monthly magazine called "Crazy Wisdom" and a quarterly publication called "Laughing Man Magazine." The lawsuit, filed by Sausalito attorney David Cunningham, alleges that JDC's non-profit corporate status is "a mere sham and shell organized as the alter ego of the individual defendant, Franklin Jones, for his personal benefit and advantage." Brian O'Mahony also denied that allegation. "Da Free John lives in a one-bedroom beach cottage," he said. "He lives a very simple lifestyle." He characterized his estranged wife's lawsuit as an "attempt to extend our divorce proceedings to the institution and the leadership of the church." Other defendants named are sect members William and Patrician Tsiknas and Lynn Closser, who are alleged to have "formed a common plan and scheme to unlawfully hold and imprison" Beverly O'Mahony on the Fijian island for eight days in March 1984. Brian O'Mahony, who said he was responding to the allegations for all the defendants, said his wife "could have left by boat at any time." Also named in the suit are Vincent Goddard, Larry Hastings and John Andrews, who along with Brian O'Mahony are named as members of the JDC board of directors. They are accused of breach of directors fiduciary duty. Lastly, the suit accuses Da Free John, a native of New York and former student of the late Swami Muktananda Paramhansa, of "clergy malpractice." It states that the guru's writings "are directed at people seeking a new awareness or enlightenment, and geared to initiate an indoctrination" into the sect. Once they are intitiated, the suit states, "the trap is sprung and ideological remodeling or thought reform begins to take place." Brian O'Mahony said the group doesn't engage in any proselytizing. "We have never sought publicity," he said. "We have found that the more private we are, it serves our way of life."

To: James Calladine who wrote (15870)	9/3/2003 6:07:36 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

Isn't it always the same with such charlatans?! :-) "The parties never ended," said Neil Lupa, the JDC's in house attorney from 1979 to 1983. "They just learned the lesson of privacy. They started to make more and more misrepresentations to the community." The community to be deceived included the general public, exmembers said. Mark Miller, a former member, said he was ordered to burn 1,000 copies of the book "Garbage and the Goddess," which revealed Jones' early side. "Jones said he was becoming a renunciate, but the things continued to go on. It's just fewer people knew about them. "Anyone who denies the stories had better review the laws of perjury," Lupa said. Exmembers draw a distinction between the JDC's inner circle and outer circle. They say the inner circle, including Jones' nine wives and other people he liked, were privy to the parties, the good living, prestige within the cult. The outer circle the majority of the group's estimated 1,000 members- provided the money and the work to support the JDC, exmembers said. ______________________________________ Lake County Record Bee/April 12, 1985 By Walt Neary Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series presented as part of the Record-Bee's continuing coverage of the Johannine Daist Communion. The sect was headquartered in Lake County until recently, and some members still live in the group's Seigler Springs resort on Cobb Mountain. Lake County In 1983 Jaclyn Estes wrote a letter to a New York school board about the Johannine Daist Communion. A New York newspaper reprinted her allegations of abuse, sex orgies, drug use, and rape. Cult officials vehemently denied the charges, as they have done recently in response to a $5 million lawsuit by a Marin County woman. Angelo Druda, a sect spokesman, said that members of the JDC experimented with sex, wild parties, and drug use during a two month period in 1976, but none of it was at the insistence of Franklin Jones, also called Da Free John, the group's guru. "We concluded that drugs and promiscuity were of no use in spiritual life. Since 1976 we have been more sedate; we began to resume a more orderly life," Druda told The Mountain Eagle newspaper. Until this week, cult members insisted the stories of promiscuity and drug use came from the 1976 period. Cult leaders continue to insist no one was forced to do anything against their will. "The parties never ended," said Neil Lupa, the JDC's in house attorney from 1979 to 1983. "They just learned the lesson of privacy. They started to make more and more misrepresentations to the community." The community to be deceived included the general public, exmembers said. Mark Miller, a former member, said he was ordered to burn 1,000 copies of the book "Garbage and the Goddess," which revealed Jones' early side. "Jones said he was becoming a renunciate, but the things continued to go on. It's just fewer people knew about them. "Anyone who denies the stories had better review the laws of perjury," Lupa said. Exmembers draw a distinction between the JDC's inner circle and outer circle. They say the inner circle, including Jones' nine wives and other people he liked, were privy to the parties, the good living, prestige within the cult. The outer circle the majority of the group's estimated 1,000 members- provided the money and the work to support the JDC, exmembers said. These members continue to have the most contact with the general public, and many have no idea of what goes on within the inner circle, former members said. Members are expected to pay anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of their income, and to support appeals for special projects. "One of the goodies that was held out was the access to Da Free John," one former member said. "If they didn't pay their certain amount a month, then they couldn't see him and they wouldn't have use of the sanctuary (in Lake County)." At least some of the money was used to buy an expensive art collection, including many Disney originals, a favorite of Jones and also a plush home on the Lake County property, said Miller, former director of public education for the group. In 1977, married couples reportedly were told not to have sex with each other for six months. In other experiments, couples were told to "engage" for three hours in bed, but not complete their sexual act, a former member said. In 1978, Jones told a group of men that they would resume using marijuana "though we knew it was already being used," an exmember said. In 1979, the group held large gatherings at the sanctuary, and collected money. One former member recalls that there was a lot of peer pressure to give money. "It was a continual problem -the church was always in financial straights, but there seemed to be an incredible income coming in," he said. The church eventually obtained another sanctuary on the Hawaiian island Kauai. Jones' sanctuary was adjacent to a property belonging to another guru, Master Subramunya. The two gurus waged a two year battle over noise. "Master Subramunya's followers would ring bells, I think as a call to prayer," Lupa said. "And Da Free John didn't like the sound of the bells. They bothered him." For two years, legal war was waged, and both sides turned to local governments. "I remember in the end there was some reduction in the bell ringing," Lupa said. "But I got the feeling, this is insane. I just was not seeing evidence of a teacher practicing his teaching. He was identified with vengeance and hatred." "I had been working 18 hours a day. I was exhausted with dealing with the contradictions. I couldn't do it anymore," Lupa said. Another former member, who asked his name be withheld, said he was disgusted by accounts of the battle. "Some guys came up with a scheme. They decided to throw a big party on New Years Eve, and just go berzerk. They would make so much noise, Subramunya would agree to support a local noise ordinance. "But it didn't work. The noise went unnoticed during the holiday. Jones went completely livid, swearing and criticizing them for coming up with the idea for this, when he himself had endorsed it." "He always preached that people shouldn't come up with a strategy or plan to life. Here he was, demanding 'Give me a strategy' to get this guy," the exmember said. "Something struck me I thought, What a hypocrite. He's not even a good neighbor," the former member said. In 1983, Jones moved to an island in Fiji, which the church purchased from actor Raymond Burr. Neil Lupa said he found the island for Jones, and helped conduct negotiations for a permit with the Fiji government. "They were very leery of what happened at Jonestown," Lupa said. "At first, they were not told of the teacher. We stressed we had a mature group of practitioners lawyers, writers who wanted a retreat." Jones remains on the island with his wives, and a small following. The Marin County lawsuit accuses the church of engaging in the same sort of activities it conducted in Hawaii and Lake County. The JDC is currently based in San Rafael. A spokesman denied allegations in the suit. Since the suit was filed, and media publicity multiplied, cult members have said the exmembers are trying to extort money, and that no one was forced to do anything illegal. Earlier this week, a church spokesman conceded that sexual experimentation did not cease in 1976, as had been claimed before. However, the sexual activities have been by willing participants and for the spiritual benefit of those involved, the spokesman said. Every member of the JDC interviewed by the RecordBee insisted no one had been coerced.