Sufficient Unto This Day Is the Evil That Is the Swami Chetanananda

These are some notes of people who have had observations about the Swami Chetanananda.

There were women in the Ashram who didn’t have a clue. Laura Moderna may have been in that category of women who had no idea about the Swami’s BDSM and drugs.

The old school. They made the place run. Laura, Kari, Ruth, and others.

They were like schoolmarms. You wouldn’t talk about coarse things around them, like dirty things like sex or drugs. You’d mortify them. And yourself.  

Ruth Knight dropped out of college to run the Ashram’s kitchen.

She says, “It is said that simply to sit in the presence of a teacher brings great benefit.”

Laura Moderna may not have been aware. She died of cancer.

But her daughter Winnie worked with the Swami. She was in his inner circle for years. Always around him. She cleaned his house and tended to his needs for years, along with Gretchen and other young women.

Gretchen Kreiger

Laura’s other daughter Jessica must have been aware.  Her daughters may not have told Laura what they knew.

Everyone kept their mouth shut. He trained them to protect him and keep his secrets. This helped lure other women in and for him to get away with worse and worse.

Wm. Kent Burtner, M.Div, M.A. is a counselor in Portland.  Over the years, he counseled former students of the Swami.

He said they manifested symptoms. Dissociative disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder. Guilt and fear of their former guru and his disciples.

They described the presence of guns in the ashram, and of Rottweilers trained to kill. And “powers” the Swami claimed to have over them.

They said the Swami threatened them. Some produced threatening letters.

Cult leaders engage in damage control and accuse their former students of lying.

Tactics to present the leader as the victim of slander and revenge. They often succeed in intimidating former and current followers.

I met with former students of Swami Chetanananda in group meetings, sometimes as many as 10 people participating. I saw how important speaking the truth is to people abused by a cult leader.

They were his fucktoys. Replaceable, disposable, expendable. It’s a hard pill to swallow. A man you devoted yourself to, loved and treated as a god. He could make you believe he loved you as you did him.

I wish I were angry. But I’m just broken. He takes something from you so profoundly intimate that it’s impossible to get over it. He circumvents your relationship with yourself. And he never lets go.

Go to his house, paid for by the work of others, by donations. See his life-long drug and sex addiction, his sexual violence, and battery.

He drove a Porsche for years. He had a house in Malibu. Using donations for expensive alcohol and cocaine and meth.

This man will never change. He’ll cower for a while. He’ll tell everyone how devastated he is at the betrayal. 

He’ll tell his faithful and recruits that it’s a smear campaign from angry exes and people left behind. Then he’ll return to the old way. He’ll never stop. He can’t.

I can’t count the times he told me he stopped. He’d “rather cut his dick off” than do it again.

A few hours later, he went on another bender. He can’t stop.

Swami with Monica O’Neil

Monica lost any appeal. So Jen came back. Warm bodies that don’t complain. That’s it. That’s what he needs. It’s irrelevant who it is or was.

It’s not new.

Dr. Chris Arthur is a psychiatrist in Portland. She saw abuse 20 years ago. Her friend “B” suffered from severe depression and other mental problems.

Dr. Arthur wanted her to leave the Ashram.

No such luck. She was in love with the Swami.

She visited the ashram herself. She told the Swami to get out of having “followers”, which he could not handle, and become a person with equal relationships. They escorted her off the premises.

A person who had left the Ashram told her how the Swami harmed her.

It was told a believable story of ashram members being injured during sadomasochistic activities conducted for the pleasure of the Swami, involving a Portland prostitute.

She wrote to R, urging her as a doctor to confront the Swami. She wished to stop his sexual and physical abuse of ashram members.

I received no response.

Another person saw things she did not expect from a swami.

Fuck everything with a pulse under 40. Re-enact your hard-core porn fantasies with the most vulnerable. 

When you can’t get enough of everything, buy some hookers to let your hair down. Sex clubs, glory holes, modern slavery.

Another woman who lived at the ashram noted that Lama Wangdu often came to visit.

I was warned about Lama Wangdu, who was there at the time. People laughed about how women better watch out, because he may grope you unexpectedly.

It was not taken seriously. Women laughed about how funny it was. They gushed over him and appeased him, despite his behavior. Like they gushed over Swami Chetanananda.

It creeped me out. All of it creeped me out. I avoided Wangdu like the plague and learned to avoid Swami Chetanananda when he showed interest in me. I saw through the bullshit.

Lama Wangdu and Swami Chetanananda

She said she felt traumatized and hurt by the Swami’s deception.

I knew in my heart what was going on was wrong. Swami Chetanananda was wrong to manipulate students into sexual relationships and “party” so much. I would not let him use me, so I moved out.

To this day, I am still dealing with his shit. It’s affected many people I know and care for, and even those I’ve never met. My heart goes out to everyone.

The Dead


Alan Dewitt was a student for 30 years. No one could explain his rapid decline. He was in the hospital and died. No one knows why. They said he “died of a broken heart” following his wife’s passing.

His room was cleared out at the ashram before the family arrived.

Rudi’s sister in law, Phyllis Rudolph lived at the Movement Center until her death.

The devotees cared for her physical needs as part of their “seva”, free labor.

Albert Rudolph, aka Rudi was Chetanananda’s “teacher.” He got his money, art and took care of his brother and sister in law.

 

Mary Elizabeth Bazzani, was found drowned in a Portland river. Was she a BDSM partner that Shoemaker put in a trance or drugged?

And Ayez Quadir. What happened to him?

Ayaz Quadir
Swami Chetanananda and Natacha

Natacha jumped off a bridge in a trance.

Dr. John Bonner received “home care” from the devotees as a “seva” service. He was a resident of the Movement Center. His son, Dr. Andrew Bonner, and his daughter-in-law, Dr. Rebecca Resse, were residents there.

Both Drs. Andrew Bonner and Resse were in the Center when Natacha jumped off the bridge. They provided care to her in the center. They are still in the Portland area.

They don’t all die. Sometimes he leaves them behind.

Molly

About six weeks before the doors of the Movement Center shut, Molly broke her knee. No one had room for Molly anymore. She did not make the grade to Gold Beach. They put Molly out to pasture. To live in the “real world” after 30 years of service. She was a leftover misfit.

The Movement Center is no more. And at Gold Beach, Molly is a name forgotten.

Leaving Chetanananda

“At first, we were blatantly courted,” the 11 who left the Swami in 2008 said.

We were made to feel chosen and special.

Chetanananda disguised his control tactics. He made enlightenment sound noble and realistic.

He disarmed us with poetry, music, and sumptuous parties.

Many fell prey to his charm.

We were in painful life transitions or naively assumed that spiritual teachers don’t lie. We accepted Swami Chetanananda’s claims that he loved us unconditionally and had only our best interests at heart.

They sacrificed to stay close. They relinquished ties to family and friends. They changed jobs, ended marriages and partnerships, or entered them at this suggestion. They sold homes and delayed planning their financial security to pay for his projects.

They left the ashram after discovering his lying, cheating, manipulation, and sexual misconduct.

Adultery. Having sex with the daughters of his students. His secret use of alcohol, cocaine, and prostitutes. His violence and anger. Fundraising manipulations by him and his staff.

A luxurious lifestyle attained at the expense of devotees. His threats to students who spoke about his private life; and endless cover-up.

Freeing ourselves from his control was not easy. For years, we had avoided looking at the truth for fear of destroying our spiritual growth, betraying our guru, and being ostracized by the community.

He spoke in platitudes: “The mind is the slayer of the soul,” and “Doubt is your worst enemy.”

He instructed us not to energize problems by giving them attention. He made us anxious and confused by alternately bestowing and removing the “honor” of being in his company.

They had fear and mistrust. They did not dare discuss sensitive issues. They informed on one another to be “close” to the guru.

Loyalty to anyone else meant disloyalty to him.

We learned not to trust ourselves, our former moral and ethical standards… We grew accustomed to accepting blame for his problems. We learned to lie to “protect Swami Chetanananda’s privacy.” The transformative practices he taught damaged them.

Many of us were depressed inside the ashram even though we did our best to believe we were happy and growing. His staff and closest devotees were often callous and mean-spirited… Some of our former friends, current Institute members, even considered suicide.

He lived in luxury, but announced his financial need to recruit new donors. He told them he was celibate while having sex with many of his female students from the beginning of his career.

Swami Chetanananda at Gold Beach Estate

He told us not to park our brains at the door of the meditation hall – to be critically watchful of him and his senior students. Still, he publicly ridiculed and distanced himself from any of us who dared doubt or question the practice, him, or his inner circle.

He told us that the only thing we had to surrender was our tensions, when we were expected to sacrifice everything to his program: our families, our girlfriends if we were men, our bodies if we were women, our daughters’ bodies if we were parents, our money, our former religious beliefs and morals, and our sense of belonging in society.

Christmas Day Gold Beach 2021

He took the greatest pleasure in pointing out their faults publicly or behind their backs.

His covert message: If we had sex with him, gave him expensive gifts, sent him on first-class vacations, and surrendered to his every wish, we would be welcome in his “inner circle.” Our liberation would be accelerated.

His public message was that the Nityananda Institute was not a cult because we were all free to leave. But his overriding message was that it was disastrous to leave your spiritual teacher.

He took credit for acts of generosity. But the gifts he gave, the people he helped through college, the training courses for his staff, and the Asians he supported were funded by devotees.

He preached about the unconditional love that flows from the guru/disciple relationship. He derided ordinary love between people as primarily contractual: You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”

However, his bottom line on how we should treat him was clearly quid pro quo: “You must treat your donkey [guru] well if you want him to work for you.”

He told them he was selling them art and gems below their value. But he overpriced these by many times their value.

He told young women students that they were not destined to marry or have a fulfilling relationship. He told young women they should not have children or that their children would be born deformed. He told women that sex with him would advance their spiritual lives.

He broke up relationships that ashram members formed with “outsiders.” He separated students from parents, spouses, and children not part of the group. He told them that if they left him, they would become violent, crazy, or die. Or they would commit suicide.

He attempted to control ex-members with threats and used his current devotees to deliver manipulating messages, emotional blackmail, and accusations of betrayal and vindictiveness.
When confronted, he denied ever doing these things.

We mourn multiple losses: marriages denied, delayed, or broken at Swami Chetanananda’s suggestion; failed marriages and relationships arranged by Swami Chetanananda; the opportunity to bear children destroyed; professional careers delayed or missed; important family events unattended; talents and passionate interests ignored or dropped; morals, integrity, health, and finances compromised.

We mourn the loss of friends and family still inside the group.

They wrote their letter in 2008.

It is the truth that ultimately liberates people, not lies. We hope this letter helps free and heal students caught in Swami Chetanananda’s web of deception and manipulation, and prevents others from suffering as we have.

Fourteen years have passed since they wrote it. Not much has changed.

About the author

Frank Parlato

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  • The Swami proclaims that all of these accusations against him are lies. Why then, may I ask has there always been layers of secrecy, cover-ups, lack of transparency and weirdness around this guy? If there has been nothing to hide, why do the inner circle work so hard provide an environment that is shrouded in secrecy? Because there has been something to hide all along. That is why. This guy is a master at compartmentalizing his life. The idea that all of these awful allegations are fake, is a complete lie. They are real.

  • Michael shoemaker- conman from the start. You swindled Rudy and have lived a life of destruction- preying on those most vulnerable.

    You’re cowardice is telling. First your Facebook is down and now your Instagram is private.

    If you have nothing to hide, then hide nothing.

    A brutal coward. Working double time now to silence those who can put an end to you if they manage to stay the course.

    How many NDA’s have been signed? And your foolish followers pay to silence victims on your behalf.

    How many dead under your leadership? Where’s Molly? What did you do for Liz’s daughters and Vivi?

  • “If we truly seek to live our life authentically we must celebrate and be grateful for the madness we become. Inside the box, normal, there is fear, and hate, and anger. Outside the box ..there is joy, freedom, love…and madness. I am mad. To see the lie that is life on earth..makes any caring person insane. Celebrate insanity..becomes intoxicated with joy… dance your freedom…Be liberated from normal..which is death by boredom.
    -Swami Chetanananda

    “Sanity is a small box; insanity is everything.”
    -Charles Manson

    “No sense makes sense.”
    -Charles Manson

    “Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.”
    -Joseph Stalin

    “The world is not for cowardly peoples.”
    -Adolf Hitler

    . “The only preventative measure one can take is to live irregularly.”
    -Adolf Hitler

    “I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country.”
    -Pol Pot

    “I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing.”
    -H.H.Holmes

    I got out. You can get out. You are not alone.
    https://humantraffickinghotline.org/
    https://www.rainn.org/

  • Well, he seems to have admitted he’s “insane” in his latest statements. “I am mad” because I’m profoundly “bored” with my life and the people in it. “Be grateful for the madness [I made you] become” because I pushed you into the darkest corners of my own insanity and self-hatred.

    What a convoluted load of crap.

    Not one single ounce of compassion or responsibility for the people he’s hurt. Just angry defensiveness and mocking, and a PR campaign gloating about all his money.

    Listen mate. There’s a way to live crazy wisdom and see life for what it is without hurting the innocent. In fact, it is non-negotiable.
    A realized yogi embodies compassion; they die every moment for the pain of all living beings. You are not this. You never have been.

    Everything is always and ever about YOU, what you’re gonna get from a situation, and when and how you’re gonna get your dick sucked by someone new who doesn’t yet know not to trust you; and obliterating your brains with drugs so you can forget your sorry fat self and how much you truly hate yourself. Everything else, all the accoutrement of the ashram, it was a mirage to camouflage what the real agenda was.

    Aren’t you even bored yet? I’m so bored by your constant sameness. Over and over. The same story playing out. How many times? How many women? You must truly be brain damaged to keep doing the same thing over and over and over. Insane indeed.

    You are a dishonorable bully. There will be a reckoning for the lives you’ve destroyed. Get a fucking STD panel and sober up. You’re deluded.

    Rudi would be disgusted with what you’ve done to women, and to yourself.

  • This is a comment from an earlier article. It is so helpful:
    When you need help
    July 4, 2022 at 4:14 pm
    Victims of J. Michael Shoemaker are coming forward and talking to Frank Parlato and posting comments on his articles. One of these victims posted that s/he had tried to contact the Portland Police and according to this person, “No one seems to want to Listen”. Nathan Wollstein of the Portland Police did listen to me, he has spent hours learning about cults and gaining knowledge to recognize cultic abuse and to prepare to interview victims of Shoemaker. I am grateful for his help. I first contacted Portland Police in May of 2019 and Detective Wollstein contacted me in October of 2019. Detective Nathan Wollstein, 503-545-3482, Nathan.Wollstein@portlandoregon.gov

    During those intervening months I contacted every local, county, state and federal resource I could regarding the activities of this dangerous and damaging group that J. Michael Shoemaker leads. I got plenty of eye rolls, lots of “there, there” and from the county human services social workers I was told we can’t intervene because none of the people at the Movement Center were their clients! Cultic abuse is very difficult to explain.

    Traumatizing narcissists like Shoemaker take full advantage of this. Our laws don’t recognize coercive control and most people in social service and law enforcement laugh politely at brain washing and cults. There were no bars on the windows of the Movement Center. The prison was created through entrapment using classic cultic techniques of love bombing, fraudulent recruiting, rhythmic chanting, gaslighting, thought stopping, disrupted sleep, constant activity, destroying boundaries, normalizing abuse within the group and planting phobias and fear.

    My loved one was hospitalized in Aug. 2019. She was driven to the hospital from the Movement Center by Drew Carlson. She was admitted and was given a diagnosis of xxxxxx even though she told the medical team that she was being abused and was afraid to return to her residence. No one at the hospital reported her abuse even though licensed providers are mandatory reports.

    I came to help as soon as the hospital social worker called me. I learned about what had been done to my loved one and I insisted that her case be reviewed and that an abuse report be filed. This took many phone calls and many hours of conversation. I had to advocate for my loved one. Most victims leaving Shoemaker’s cult will not have someone to advocate for them since a cruel cult technique is to cut family members off from their loved ones.

    From May until Oct. 3, 2019 no one in law enforcement responded to my calls. Like fingernails on a black board, I insisted that someone listen to what was going on at the Movement Center. Finally, Detective Wollstein called me to talk about abuses at the Movement Center.

    My loved one was unable to discuss her abuse. She was suffering from her abuse and the trauma it caused. She is still suffering from this trauma. Shoemaker predicts that “students” who leave him will go insane. Pinky said as much in her testimony from over 50 years ago. Other “students” have also reported that Shoemaker claims they will all be subject to ill fates if they leave. Even now we are reading threats from Shoemaker’s flying monkeys that “karma” will get us if we continue. This is classic cult conditioning and again, every traumatizing narcissistic cult leader uses the same old cookie cutter techniques.

    This state of terror and trauma is called “post-cult adjustment”. This is a condition that most of the people fleeing from J. Michael Shoemaker will have as they approach law enforcement to present their testimony of the horrors that they have endured as members of a high demand, high control group. According to cult specialists (Singer and Lalich, Cults in our Midst, 1995) people leaving cults will experience: depression, feelings of loss, guilt, regret, lack of self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, self-blaming, memory loss, dissociation or “floating”, mistrust of others, may be unable to make and express opinions. As these victims emerge from their abuses, they will be disoriented, they will be traumatized. If they now understand that their guru (Shoemaker, aka Swami Chetanananda), who they may have been “following” for decades is a liar and an abuser, their world will be falling apart. They may be homeless, they may be separated from their families, they may not have an income. They may be desperate. They will need help, empathy, and support.

    Fortunately in Portland there are many resources to help survivors of cultic abuse. Dr. Ken Garrett and Dr. Margaret Eichler are both cult survivors, knowledgeable about Shoemaker and living in Portland. They offer services to people who are leaving cults. Kent Burtner, who lives close to Portland, is a cult exit counselor with experience in providing services to ex-members of the cult led by Shoemaker. Ashlen HIlliard, a former member of a high control group, also living in the Portland area offers services. The Spiritual Abuse Form for Education, SAFE, offers group meet ups for former cult members. All of these resources are available to law enforcement and to those leaving or wishing to leave.

    Please contact one or more of these cult experts for help. When you are ready you can also discuss how to approach law enforcement. Detective Nathan Wollstein is approachable, knowledge and anxious to be of help. You can reach him at: 503-545-3482, Nathan.Wollstein@portlandorgegon.gov

    Portland Area Resources:
    Kent Burtner, 503-475-3429, wkburtner@aol.com

    Dr. Margaret Eichler, 503-956-7398, https://www.dr-meichler.com/about/

    About Dr. Margaret Eichler – Resonance Counseling & Consultation LLC
    Dr. Margaret Eichler, PhD. Resonance Counseling 503-956-7398 resonancecounseling@msn.com 834 SW St. Clair Ave. Portland, OR 97205
    http://www.dr-meichler.com

    Dr. Ken Garrett, 503-762-9941 https://www.gracechurchportland.org/ken-garret/
    Pastor Ken – Grace Church Portland
    http://www.gracechurchportland.org

    This is the result of reporting abuse in the cult that Ken Garrett was part of
    https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/2015/04/happy_valley_pastor_mike_spero_1.html
    Happy Valley Pastor Mike Sperou convicted of child sex abuse, sentenced to 20 years in prison – oregonlive.com
    A Multnomah County jury of six women and six men convicted Pastor Mike Sperou earlier Thursday on three counts of first-degree sexual penetration of a person under the age of 12. The jury …
    http://www.oregonlive.com

    Ashlen Hilliard,
    https://peopleleavecults.com/index.html?fbclid=IwAR01Ih0en9Gar6k9nsGkWJZneOJxs5rDGTpRIUO7jBC9Mlikj4A0k_sDfzQ
    PLC – Support for Cult Victims
    PLC offers recovery, support, and intervention for victims of cults and coercive control.
    peopleleavecults.com

    SAFE, Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education
    https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualAbuseForumPDX
    Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education – Home | Facebook
    Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education. 507 likes · 2 talking about this. We are a relaxed, open community that gathers to for support, education, and…
    http://www.facebook.com
    https://www.safeportland.org/?fbclid=IwAR1QyAmUxltxJfXh1LLBwGHglcL11FQnWypq3YlcNg0Ho9tjU_8vaH51tRU

    SAFE Portland
    Details: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, July 8th at the McMenamins Kennedy School (“Community Room” ) located at5736 NE 33rd Ave, Portland, OR 97211 . The Spiritual Abuse Forum for Education is a regular meetup in Portland, Oregon for those who have left or are considering leaving high-demand religious groups, and for those with friends and loved ones who are members of such groups.
    http://www.safeportland.org
    safemeetup.pnw@gmail.com

    Please, get help in working through your abuse and trauma, please find ways to put words to your abuse, talk to a cult exit specialist, call Detective Wollstein, 503-545-3487, Nathan.Wollstein@portlandoregon.gov, when you are ready. There are many who can help and support you.

    • Oh I see, so you were like a secret agent? So all the lies you told me about how you were trying to protect SC from Crazy Jayne and the guru hunter, and how Jayne stalked you sand stole that memo from your room that was just your “cover”. What was I exactly since you made it such a point of gluing yourself so hard to me as soon as I arrived? It couldn’t have been to “protect me” because you told me several times I should sleep with him. Was I just human bait? Part of this secret operation without my knowledge? You know I was being psychologically screwed with constantly for trying to be your friend which I was guilted into because I didn’t get good vibes from you? You know how much I was fucked with me because they knew what you were doing and thought I knew or was involved when you were lying incessantly to me? Did I strike you as someone who was in a place to take on any of that? What was true that you told me? Did your Mother really commit suicide or is that just something you told me so I would trust you because my Dad died like that? I was put through some intense psychological torment and accused of being in “cahoots” with you for all this stuff I’m only discovering now in these accounts. Man the rape of this place is not confined to the body. What an absolute mind fuck with MANY assailants. This “Loved Ones” at the hospital is a new story and I thought I had heard them all. So you talked to the police in October? You never mentioned that. You definitely told me that I should have sex with him after that, the last time was in November. Thank God that never happened but why would you do that? Why would you use someone who you knew was trying to heal profound PTSD from sexual abuse like that? What was your angle here? You used me as a human shield and as bait. I don’t like your style Jessica and while I acknowledge he victimized you by having sex with you as his student and should have never given you drugs there are a lot of falsehoods I have experienced around you and I am still being subjected to on here. I am a seeker of justice and truth. Contrary to your post it isn’t me dear trying to “settle scores”. That pure projection: I can’t align to something that every time I read my jaw drops with your latest revision or omission of truth. This Joan Of Arc for all the victims thing you are on is really not working for me as I was there from August until close and spent far too much time with you then I can sadly ever get back. I contacted Frank because after telling Jayne Lyons repeatedly I was not in a good space to take this up as the last 10 years of my life has been a well documented battle against sexual predators and FOR survivors my little sister and I’s photo showed up on your “sexual abuse” story. I don’t deserve being thrown into any of this and I don’t appreciate your assumptions or call outs. You are nothing but pure nerve. You never ONCE told me in all the time we spent together that he forced anything on you but having sex with another student which you told him you never wanted to do. The account you gave is NOT the stories I was repeatedly subjected to that frankly grossed me out and I was NOT having my baby sisters photo attached to that “abuse porn” which was also a lie. I remember telling you once “Can you please stop, it’s like having a step mom that tells you about her and your Dads sex life”. I didn’t them nor do I know want to hear about that kind of sex. It’s of the lowest vibration and offensive. You have marked this page like a cat, owning it with your particular “scent” of victim hood which is NOT everyone’s. Furthermore you are controlling like Jayne of other peoples experiences like you get to play favorites of who isn’t hurtful based on whatever your motive or experience is with them. You cannot change or destroy energy with the exact energy in a different form to which is steeped in. I refuse to align with “Destroy him at all costs even if you have to hold your nose at the methods” No. I will not. I will not get on board with liars. That is creating a whole other kind of karma I don’t want anything to do with and neither should you, Frank. This isn’t right. You aren’t right, Becker. Why is your giant family that loves and will protect anyone you love from perceived enemies not protecting you from yourself? Not all victims of this are created equally. Your stories are missing giant parts or just flat out falsehoods that read like soft core rape porn. Eww. I agree with you listing the contact help and I also really wish you would bench yourself for the rest of the season. You are a liability to the team and frankly predatory in addition to being a victim. It’s not a winning combo. I don’t appreciate whatever sick game you were playing with my life when I lived there, which THANK GOD you lost or I too would be having all my cruelest betrayals of trust and shattered private parts displayed for all the world to read. My life is not a game and my hard core stance for sexual abuse survivors and truth is something I’ve always been willing to die and lose everything for and I have the sad lonely life to prove it. I’m sorry Jayne that you opted for the pay out and gag order. You don’t then get to terrorize and exploit other victims, troll and bully them on here or off of Cult Recovery groups. It Cake or Eat It. Not Cake and Eat It by driving hurt women who have no resources and are trying to heal their own substantial trauma off a cliff. You are driven by hate, ego and arrogance, not justice and no thank you. There is no honor, healing or potential glory to be had by lying or destroying others to get your trophy. You are no better then him if that’s how you plan to “win”. I will wait for my friend, Truth. I clearly have no other friends here and never did.

  • Yeah the more I think about it the more I think this guy is one cool dude. He gets what he wants and gives it too.

    These women want it and I would say nine times out of ten the only time they regret is when he moves on.

    When they can’t get it no more then they are pissed. And consent turns to rape.

    Retroactive withdrawal of consent. It don’t work that way. Grow up little sisters

    • I am a woman who never was sexually abused by the swami, instead i was abused in every other way which is why i believe every surivivor. I was especially defrauded with the lie that donations are going towards a spiritual purpose, instead it was like a corrupt televangelist buying drugs and first class tickets and settlements for the women he abused. If what he was doing was so above board why the secrecy, coersion and threats? Why the need to constantly speak ill of anyone who disagrees with him even in the slightest? If i had known what was going on i would have run screaming from that place. Do you have daughters? I hope not.

      This comment is very illustrative of the type of men described in the book “why does he do that? Inside the minds of angry and controlling men” called the player. Since you only want women for sex therefore women must be the same…only want sex and thus all rape accusations are false.

      My condolences for the women in your life.

    • These last two comments sound like Shoemaker. This comment in particular sounds like it came straight out of the 1970s. His social media is live again, so he likely thinks his “work” behind the scenes on his victims has silenced them and FR will run dry.
      Then… business as usual.

      By the way, “retroactive withdrawal of consent” of dozens of women shows the problem is YOU.

    • “Bag em up” is definitely Shoemaker. He thinks he’s cool. He’d best be aware of his surroundings and have eyes in the back of his ugly head. We’ll see who is bagged up.

    • Sadly, I think this has been true of a few that have historically ruined it for the legitimately abused and it’s now used as the “catch all” type for EVERY woman who is hurt there.

      The above described could have been written by him verbatim. It’s also written like this guy is just some hot piece of ass that all the broads go wild for.

      Most eligible bachelor in town. He’s supposed to be a spiritual teacher. More than that, the incarnate of the Divine so there is some serious bait and switch going on here.

      I couldn’t even come up with a number of how many women that have come through through his spiritual shtick over the years. Enough to receive a heathy high five from Wilt Chamberlain.

      There are many that don’t know what to do when he just suddenly lays a kiss on them or invite them for a treatment because they have been trained at that point to “surrender their tensions.” Thru are saying yes to their Guru not some overgrown frat boy that has to nail every attractive female that walks through the doors. That’s just wrong. Every student he’s had sex with is abuse.

      People aren’t coming there for his dick. They are coming for spiritual guidance. He’s no different than a pastor that screws his congregation or a teacher that screws his students.

      That’s a real dick head response to this, something that an overgrown frat boy would write. “Yeah,, they just cant take it when they can’t have any of this up in that anymore”. Wank, wank, wank. I don’t see anything in the books or lectures “Oh yes the other secret to my spiritual path is I’m in a committed relationship but I have an ever revolving door of students I use for side pieces some I make do the most degrading things imaginable for their highest spiritual growth. Also, about butt plugs…”. If there was nothing wrong with it, why not be more open about it?

      Hell, just call it a polygamy cult. But that’s NOT what is advertised and that isn’t what he wants. Where is any printed or public teachings is it encouraged to have sex with multiple partners.

      To do drugs? No where.

      His taste in women varies, he likes the full spectrum.

      So yeah on occasion he will get a pathologically dishonest, lady douchebag version of him that doesn’t make the cut when they prove to be unreliable or untrainable. He’s already got a few of those installed already and they are indeed colossal pains in everyone’s ass but they know how to serve him well.

      The “Dakinis Scorned” are great only in the fact they make his life a living hell and get under the thinnest parts of his skin like no one else in the world can. I can think of one in particular he woefully underestimated who has been like a reoccurring cold sore on his lip ever since.

    • There is zero consent in his violent acts. That is not simply BDSM. He tortures, rapes, strangles, beats, bites, hangs them upside down, sometimes over the balconies of his homes. He walks into his victim’s rooms and without notice, chokes them out, or smothers them. He has used plastic bags to suffocate without any notice, and even pillows. He does not ever get permission. Once he is finished love bombing, coercing and grooming, he does whatever he wants to them, whenever he wants, and wherever he wants. And they all know that at any moment he will either summon for them, or walk into their rooms. Rape is rape. He rapes and harms. And he tells them that they love it, that they want it, that it will help them, etc.

    • This must be shoemaker. A lifelong habit of making a MASSIVE drama out of every single feeling, while consistently putting down and minimizing everyone else’s.

      Even when he destroye’s everyone else’s health and lives, he whines endlessly about how he is the victim.

      What a manipulative, self-absorbed, sociopath.

      The “funny “ part is that he promotes himself as a teacher – but all hes constantly doing is putting everyone down, whining his butt off, talking everyones head off with useless inconsequential drama that happened years ago, and pitting everyone else against each other and terrorizing them against ever having their own mind about anything.

      You *wish* it was as simple as “he likes BDSM”, you wish!

    • Obviously you haven’t been paying attention.

      You know what i hate about the mainstreaming of bdsm? Abusive men can just claim its a kink and therefore its automatically above criticism. Heres a hint: the comfort and perspective of the sub is above all. So if multiple people are coming forward claiming they are victims of the dom you are obligated to believe them. Because this subculture attracts rapists and abusers who can hide in plain sight.

      The world is progressing forward, we younger people are not so easily fooled anymore by the bullshit excuses of rapist men.

  • Liz DID NOT commit suicide. Nor was she mentally ill. Stop with the bullshit excuses and cover up. She had two daughters and a granddaughter– and cherished them all.
    Sharon Ward knows all.

  • This is the tip of the iceberg. Thank you FR for helping us. Swami is formidable and his co-conspirators are threatening and retaliatory. Shoemaker is a master manipulator and has spent his entire life preying upon and exploiting men, women and children. People are objects to serve him; disposable. Complete deception.

    The rage and hatred he has for his victims is beyond toxic. Please come forward. Please come together so we can stop him. He will not stop. Jessica–thank you for encouraging everyone and giving hope.

About the Author

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist.

His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents.

His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.

Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries "Seduced" for saving 'slave' women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS.

Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.

Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded.

Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT's The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi's "Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM," which aired January, 2023.

IMDb — Frank Parlato

Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankparlato@gmail.com

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