This cult is REALLY bad.
I am on a throw, because I will eventually give my name to the press.
I don’t want to share personal details at this time. Please read all the Frank Report articles (guy who blew the whistle on NXIVM) and spread the word on it. I’ve lurked on this sub for years, and it has given me healing that only real understanding can do.
This is a cult based in Oregon, formerly housed near downtown Portland (yes.)
If you hate hippie woo woo types, this is their complete unmasking, so it’s worth it especially to see them spinning, trying to do damage control in the comments in that special culty way cults do.
I’m still grappling with the shame of being part of this place, and allowing myself to be abused and defrauded.
It’s similar to the Rajneeshis of Osho in criminality. This is really bad shit that is just starting to unravel in the past week or so. May in fact be scarier with actual murder and/or coerced suicide/torture. There is also child trafficking to the high levels. I am a rape victim of this, so it’s personal to me.
However, this shows how scared they are, which means it’s even worse than what has already been said. This is an international cult, there are likely thousands of victims.
My old ex-swami’s Instagram is still up, but all posting has “mysteriously” stopped.
He has a rotting bloated potato head with all false teeth from all the coke, meth, heroin, every drug he has binged. You can easily Google this guy to see for yourself.
I will cross post to cult survivors another sub I lurk in.
I want this story to go, because I’m now scared for what is actually going on there, as I didn’t fully know how bad it was. It’s BAD.
I originally asked the mods to post on a throwaway, so I hope this gets posted.
Swami Chetanananda with one of his female disciples
There were 15 Comments
To aid those new to this, here are the posts authored by FP on the FR regarding this story.
Please be aware that these articles contain details that will be triggering to survivors, including details of abuse, coercion and safeguarding-failures:
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Strangulation Swami Can’t Get Hard Without It
April 11, 2022
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More Intel on Amazing Swami Who Strangles, Beats and Trains Women for Gang-Bangs
May 19, 2022 (NSFW: article contains nudity)
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Swami Chetanananda Settled Sex Abuse Lawsuits With Cash and NDAs
May 22, 2022
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Swami Chetanananda Demanded Female Disciples Pity F—k Homeless Men
May 24, 2022
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Insane Swami Strangled Me, Abuses Women and Belongs in Prison
June 9, 2022
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Couple Tells How Pervert Swami Chetanananda Runs Insane Asylum Ashram
June 13, 2022
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Swami Chetanananda, a Vicious, Ravenous, Evil Wolf Among the Flock
June 15, 2022
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Five Decades of Abuse –Swami Chetanananda ‘Raped Me in the Meditation Room in the 1970s’
June 16, 2022
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Mother of Choking Victim Names Inner Circle of the Strangler Swami Chetanananda
June 19, 2022
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People Who Knew Swami Chetanananda Speak Out About His Mental Illness and Sadism
June 23, 2022
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Devotee Shocked By FR Stories on Swami But Silenced Friends Confirm Chetanananda’s Abusive BDSM
June 25, 2022
How can one single person be so monstrously needy!? I always imagined it’s kinda similar to ‘Prader-Willi syndrome ‘where a person never feels full and are constantly hungry. These people die from obesity if they don’t have someone to monitor them.
A bottomless pit. A malfunction in the brain. This cult leader’s “food” are living breathing people, and he’s never full. The problem is he’ll never stop till he’s thrown in prison. I hope he just dies from a heart attack while reading these articles about him, tbh.
OP, you are very brave and doing the right thing.
Psychopaths are not treatable with drugs. However, I do know that sexual paraphilias can be “treated” with castration. The “”””guru”””” here is both a psychopath and a sexual sadist, and possibly worse. He can only be treated behind bars, I think.
Are there reports from someone other than Frank? I ask because my aunt is part of this cult, and I’m very concerned for her. I want to learn more to try and help – if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Note: It’s not that I don’t trust Frank’s articles, but they’re written very aggressively. Hoping to find multiple sources.
Using a throwaway account, because it’s a small community.
They’ve been buying up property left and right around the town I live in… Like, a TON of property.
After reading all the info in this thread, it has me genuinely worried. I don’t want any disgusting stuff like this to go on in the place I call home.
If they moved here thinking they’d have an easier time staying out of the public eye with these acts, they’re surely going to regret their decision. Word spreads around this town at an incredible rate, everybody knows everybody. If he commits any serious crimes here, he will surely get caught up.
It’s a little hillbilly town that frankly doesn’t appreciate the “hippy woo woo” types already… let alone Portland sex cults.
The Swami Chetanananda moved from Portland to Gold Beach in 2019 and lives in a lavish home with a view of the Pacific.
Oh Joy, Swami Khecaranatha (aka Steve Ott, former baker at the Tao, and former resident at the Movement Center under the leadership of J. Michael Shoemaker) will be on the west coast offering various courses and retreats.
Oct. 27-30 retreat cost $250
I am heading to California soon to teach and be with our community for a couple of weeks.( Oct 14-Nov 1). I will offering a retreat, Oct 27-30, (this is how I celebrate my birthday) on Kundalini Sadhana focusing on Shambhavopaya: The Path of Awareness, Oct 27-30. East Bay California–In Person and Global live streaming. Registration now open so please register
https://www.heartofc.org/retreats
I look forward to seeing you there, or over the airwaves.
Ott left Shoemaker around the time the Leaving Nitayanda Letter was written. If you have questions about that split, you might be able to contact him at the East Bay St. Gyuto Tibetan Center in Richmond California.
Here is a reminder of what former students of Shoemaker put together to help each other when they escaped the cult.
http://www.geocities.ws/leavingnityanandainstitute/
Leaving Nityananda Institute
Leaving Nityananda Institute is compiled and managed by former members of the Nityananda Institute and their families and friends. Across the years, former students of Swami Chetanananda (SC), Abbot of the Nityananda Institute and Rudrananda Ashram, have helped one another recover from various levels of betrayal and abuse sustained while inside the Nityananda Institute and in the process of leaving that group.
Swami Chetanananda teaches that it is wrong to break connections with the guru. He ridicules, denounces and threatens students who leave him and speak openly about their experiences with him. Even so, more than seventy members of the Institute severed their connections to Swami Chetanananda between 1994 and 2000. This constitutes nearly half of the average active membership of the group.
As more and more former Institute members came together for group discussions and shared experiences, our fear levels dropped and healing accelerated. Word spread to other ex-members around the country increasing the need for a widespread and organized healing forum.
We hope that Leaving Nityananda Institute will serve as a helpful resource to: all ex-Institute members and their families and friends; concerned relatives and friends of current Nityananda Institute members; spiritual seekers who are considering joining Nityananda Institute; and, current Institute members who are experiencing doubt about Swami Chetanananda and may want information from outside sources.
[Leaving Nityananda Institute suggests that current members of Nityananda Institute get permission from their Abbot before reading the material on this site.]
If you have a family member or friend in this group and are concerned about their well-being, we suggest you contact the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), formerly called the American Family Foundation (AFF), for more information about the process of recovery from psychological and spiritual abuse: http://www.icsahome.org/or (941) 514-3081.
Leaving Nityananda Institute believes in the right of every person to worship freely as they choose. We also believe in free speech. We believe former members have the right to tell what Swami Chetanananda did to them without receiving threats from Swami Chetanananda and without being harassed by him and his current students.
Press HERE to continue.
Site launched December 2000 – Updated January 2008
About time for another update??
Spiritual traditions were never intended as tuition or merchandising-based businesses for “teachers” to make money from (to finance their lifestyle) as they have become in america… money should not be the means for access to salvation… it corrupts the whole principle,… like the medieval catholic practice of selling relics… i mean what’s next, an online swami gift shop with tee-shirts, coffee mugs, and bobble heads… the constant focus on teacher lineage and membership and class tuition smells like multi-level marketing or some kind of weird franchising operation
In response to LC, Oct. 5th:
If it ever looked and felt like you described no one would ever come there. You also don’t appear to know what happened to your daughter? Am I the only one that is puzzled by this? I want to be sensitive to your daughter. Most people on here do. Help us understand.
This statement is classic DARVO. Attack the victim or the whistle blower. DARVO, meaning “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender,” summarizes a consistent reaction and manipulation tactic used by perpetrators of abuse or other types of wrongdoing.1 It works by shifting the focus away from the original issue and attacking the actual victim or whistle blower. It attempts to switch the roles of victim and perpetrator to allow the actual offender to receive sympathy and compassion, publicly or privately, as well as to avoid consequences for their actions.
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/darvo/
I visited my daughter various time over the three years of her residence at that horrible place. She was fraudulently recruited, love bombed, groomed, indoctrinated and exploited. The cult members used gaslighting, lies and manipulation to keep the “truth” hidden from me about what went on at the Movement Center. After receiving an alarming text from my daughter, I called the Movement Center to inquire about my daughter’s condition, Sharon Ward told me she was, “on the spectrum, had an eating disorder” and was anxious. None of which were true. I have been criticized for not knowing what was happening at the Movement Center. That was the objective of the use of gaslighting, lies and manipulation and refusing to speak to me. The residents and inner circle were taught to hide the truth and to protect J. Michael Shoemaker and each other. Some of the commentors may not be in agreement with my descriptions, they also may not agree with what others are telling law enforcement. Lies are being uncovered, the narrative is out there now, and inner circle cult members can no longer control it.
Through the Frank Report articles, other victims/survivors and witnesses to abuse have put forward their truths. Now, some commentors have questioned these statements and other have asked about injuries that victims of Shoemaker could have based on what has been reported in the Frank Report articles. Here is a review. This is what victims/survivors of traumatizing, violent cult leaders are dealing with.
If you want to be sensitive to the victims/survivors, as the commentor stated above, believe them. You can report what you did, before someone else does! If you were indoctrinated and coerced, you can report that too. Now is the time to ask for immunity. Tell law enforcement what you saw, what you experienced that was brutal, harmful, and damaging. If people weren’t harmed and exploited at the Movement Center under the direction of J. Michael Shoemaker, there would be no reason for Frank Parlato to publish these articles.
Here is the injury review of the brutal attacks reported in the Frank Report articles.
Strangulation: One of the most lethal abuser tactics
https://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/health/strangulation-can-leave-long-lasting-injuries
The power of controlling a victim’s next breath makes strangulation a frequent tactic for abusers. It can take less than 10 seconds for a person to lose consciousness as a result of strangulation, and death can occur in just under five minutes. The injury from being strangled cuts deeper, however, to include psychological injury (PTSD, depression, suicidal ideation, memory problems, nightmares, anxiety, severe stress reaction, amnesia and psychosis), neurological injury (facial or eyelid droop, left or right-side weakness, loss of sensation, loss of memory and paralysis) and even delayed fatality. Other recognizable symptoms of strangulation can include changes in one’s voice, neck pain, difficulty swallowing or breathing, ear pain, vomiting blood, vision change, tongue swelling, bloodshot eyes, lightheadedness.
“Most abusers do not strangle to kill. They strangle to show they can kill,” says Gael Strack and Casey Gwinn in the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice. However, it is important to realize, “When a victim is strangled, she is on the edge of homicide.”
Concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury:
Intimate partner violence is a common cause of a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury is an intracranial (head) injury that is a result of an external physical force striking the head or neck. It is classified based upon causative forces, pathophysiology, and severity of the injury. It is caused by bumps/jolts, severe shaking, or penetration of the skull, and lack of oxygen (i.e., strangulation) which results in damaged brain tissue.
Penetrating head injuries are due to a foreign object (i.e., knife, bat, bullet, etc.) that pierces the skull. This type of injury leads to localized brain damage.
Closed head injuries are due to blows to the head or neck that do not fracture the skull; this also includes injuries caused by severe physical shaking. This type of injury is common for those that are classified as sustaining a mild-TBI (aka, concussion).
Common causes of closed head injuries among intimate partner victims:
Objects striking the head or neck.
Pushed against a wall or other surface.
Pushed down a flight of stairs.
Violent physical shaking or strangulation
And in the case of Shoemaker, hitting the ground if the hook holding the unconscious victim breaks.
Taken from http://chetanananda.org/about/
Swami Chetanananda’s understanding of the Breath of Life has been further influenced by his study of a range of energetic healing systems and modalities. For eighteen years, Swamiji studied with Dr. Rollin Becker, a gifted cranial osteopath. Shoemaker claims in his bio that he is a healer and uses his energetic healing knowledge to heal his students’ bodies. Such brutal physical adjustments that Shoemaker calls healing are violent physical assaults that cause injuries to soft tissues and joints.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/crps-complex-regional-pain-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20371151
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a form of chronic pain that usually affects an arm or a leg. CRPS typically develops after an injury, a surgery, a stroke or a heart attack. The pain is out of proportion to the severity of the initial injury.
CRPS is uncommon, and its cause isn’t clearly understood. Treatment is most effective when started early. In such cases, improvement and even remission are possible.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of CRPS include:
• Continuous burning or throbbing pain, usually in the arm, leg, hand or foot
• Sensitivity to touch or cold
• Swelling of the painful area
• Changes in skin temperature — alternating between sweaty and cold
• Changes in skin color, ranging from white and blotchy to red or blue
• Changes in skin texture, which may become tender, thin or shiny in the affected area
• Changes in hair and nail growth
• Joint stiffness, swelling and damage
• Muscle spasms, tremors and weakness (atrophy)
• Decreased ability to move the affected body part
Symptoms may change over time and vary from person to person. Pain, swelling, redness, noticeable changes in temperature and hypersensitivity (particularly to cold and touch) usually occur first. Over time, the affected limb can become cold and pale. It may undergo skin and nail changes as well as muscle spasms and tightening. Once these changes occur, the condition is often irreversible. CRPS occasionally may spread from its source to elsewhere in the body, such as the opposite limb. In some people, signs and symptoms of CRPS go away on their own. In others, signs and symptoms may persist for months to years.
Post cult Complex PTSD
There are three distinct symptoms of Complex PTSD: hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction. Each of these symptoms incorporates symptoms that are both psychologic (relating to the mind or mental phenomena) and somatoform (physical symptoms without physical cause).
The data regarding PTSD in former cult members and the relevance of superstition and the cultic approach to God and truth, supports the findings that a specific form of Complex PTSD, postcult Complex PTSD, is a direct result of members’ experiences in cults. It is important to understand that cult members are often kept in either a state of hyperarousal (emotionally aroused, easily startled) or hypoarousal (flat, numb, lethargic, not fully present).
https://www.icsahome.com/articles/the-unique-characteristics-of-postcult-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-and-suggested-therapeutic-approaches-docx
Rape Trauma Syndrome
Rape trauma syndrome is related to post-traumatic stress disorder but is more specific to sexual assault. RTS describes symptoms of trauma including disruptions to normal physical, emotional, cognitive and interpersonal behavior.
Major symptoms are:
• Re-Experiencing the Trauma: Rape victims may experience recurrent nightmares about the rape, flashbacks or may have an inability to stop remembering the rape.
• Social Withdrawal: This symptom has been called ‘psychic numbing’ and involves not experiencing feelings of any kind.
• Avoidance Behaviors and Actions: Victims may desire to avoid any feelings or thoughts that might recall to mind events about the rape.
• Increased Physiological Arousal Characteristics: This symptom can be marked by an exaggerated startle response, hypervigilance, sleep disorders or difficulty concentrating.
Although each individual’s experience is unique, people experiencing rape trauma syndrome often process their trauma in a series of stages
________________________________________
The Major Stages of RTS
ACUTE STAGE
The acute stage can begin days or weeks after a sexual assault and generally lasts for between a few days and a few weeks. Often, victims begin experiencing symptoms of the acute stage after the initial shock of an assault has worn off. Symptoms at this stage may include:
• Diminished alertness or hyper-alertness
• Numbness
• Dulled sensory, affective and memory functions
• Disorganized thought content
• Nausea and vomiting
• Paralyzing anxiety
• Obsession to wash or clean themselves
• Confusion about everyday life
• Acute sensitivity to the reaction of other people
• Thoughts of and increased risk of suicide
OUTWARD ADJUSTMENT STAGE
Outward adjustment often begins when the Acute stage ends, and can last for between a few months and several years, if it is not interrupted. During this stage, the victim may outwardly appear to have “moved on” from an assault, but this stage is marked by serious inner turmoil. Victims may employ a wide range of coping mechanisms, including:
• Minimization (pretending “everything is fine”, or that the assault “wasn’t a big deal”)
• Dramatization (cannot stop talking about the assault)
• Suppression (refuses to discuss the incident)
• Explanation (analyzes what happened)
• Flight (moves to a new home or city, alters appearance)
Victims may show a wide variety of symptoms, but some common symptoms during this phase include:
• Poor health in general
• Continuing anxiety
• Sense of helplessness
• Hypervigilance
• Inability to maintain previously close relationships
• Experiencing a general response of nervousness or “startle response”
• Persistent fear
• Mood swings from relatively happy to depression or anger extreme anger and hostility (more common for male or masculine victims than female or feminine victims)
• Sleep disturbances such as insomnia, vivid dreams, and recurring nightmares
• Flashbacks and intrusive thoughts about the assault
• Dissociation (feeling like one is not attached to one’s body)
• Panic attacks
Victims in the Outward Adjustment Stage may increase their reliance on coping mechanisms, some of which may be adaptive, such as relying on the support of family or friends, mindfulness, or increased self-care, but others may be counterproductive in the long term, such as self-harm, drug or alcohol abuse, high risk sexual behaviors or disordered eating as a way of regaining control.
During this stage, victims may feel their lifestyles being changed in a variety of ways, including:
• Sense of personal security or safety is damaged, which may lead to a changing of behaviors and abandonment of activities previously enjoyed
• Hesitance to enter new relationships.
• Questioning of sexual identity or sexual orientation (more typical of people assaulted by someone outside of their orientation).
• Disrupted sexual relationships or sexuality, including difficulty re-establishing normal sexual relations, inhibited sexual response and flashbacks to the rape during sexual activity, or hyper-sexuality.
UNDERGROUND STAGE
During the underground stage, victims may work to return to their more “normal” lives. This stage may last for years, with limited disruptions to daily life, although emotional issues surrounding the assault may continue to be unresolved. In the underground stage victims may:
• Attempt to return to their lives as if nothing happened
• Block thoughts of the assault from their minds and may not want to talk about the incident or any of the related issues
• Have difficulty in concentrating and some depression
• May experience some dissociation and/or symptoms of hypervigilance
REORGANIZATION STAGE
The Reorganization Stage can begin when there is an external trigger than moves a survivor from the Underground or Outward Adjustment stage, or when there is a life transition, or for other reasons that may not be clear to the survivor or their loved ones. The length of reorganization can vary widely, and can end when a survivor returns to Outward Adjustment or Underground, or when they are able to resolve the trauma and move to the Renormalization stage. Reorganization is characterized by a return to internal and external emotional turmoil. Friends and family may be confused by a return of feelings and behaviors in the victim that they thought were resolved. Victims may also feel surprise, fear, and confusion in this stage as strong feelings about the assault return. In the reorganization phase, victims may experience:
Fears and phobias that may be related specifically to the assailant or the circumstances or the attack, or may be much more generalized. These phobias often include:
• Fear of being in crowds.
• Fear of being left alone anywhere.
• Fear of men or women.
• Fear of going out at all.
• Fear of being touched.
• Specific fears related to certain characteristics of the assailant, e.g. side-burns, straight hair, the smell of alcohol or cigarettes, type of clothing or car.
• General suspicious or paranoid feelings about strangers.
• Appetite disturbances such as nausea and vomiting. Survivors may also develop disordered eating patterns at this time.
• Nightmares and other sleep disturbances.
• Violent fantasies of revenge may also arise.
• Increased thoughts and risk of suicide.
RENORMALIZATION STAGE
In this stage, survivors reprocess their experience and are able to integrate it into their lives. The sexual assault or rape is no longer a central focus, and feeling such as guilt or shame resolve. Survivors in this stage are also able to recognize and address secondary consequences of maladaptive coping mechanisms. While victims may look upon the sexual assault and its aftermath with sadness, the feelings generated by the assault in other stages are not as strong, overwhelming, or disruptive as they once were.
Physical Injuries from Beatings and Abuse
https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-physical-and-emotional-injuries-of-domestic-violence#2
A person being physically abused might have frequent injuries and bruises.
Signs of physical abuse could include:
black eyes
bruises on the arms, limbs, or neck
sprained wrists
broken bones
unexplained pain
A person who is being physically abused might be unable to explain what caused their injuries, or their explanations might seem shaky and inconsistent. They might attempt to cover up their injuries by wearing heavy makeup or more clothing than usual such as a scarf or long-sleeved shirt when it’s hot. They might also cancel events or avoid seeing people until their injuries heal.
I read this reddit thread and for those who haven’t, there’s a comment on it I’d like to share here by (likely) a reader of this blog, 12dudes. I don’t want to steal your thunder, but I found this comment so helpful, it might help others too. I hope you don’t mind.
People who abuse others don’t care about anyone else outside of what they can get from that person. (Sex, money, admiration, housing, food, drugs, something pretty to look at, status, etc.) If they were capable of caring about another person they wouldn’t have been able to treat you so shitty in the first place, it would be too painful. Their lack of somatic empathy affects them in many ways that are fucking baffling to people who have it.
Think of it like they are walking around in a sensory deprivation tank, but the only sense they are missing is somatic empathy (that sense of feeling another person’s feelings with them). Their existence is cold, empty, and likely very confusing, as they lack the capacity to feel love or bond with others in the same way most people can. (This is why they can “fall in love” with someone they met 6 hours ago, and why they can be cold and uncaring when their long-term partner is sick, hurt, or divorcing them. Their “bonding” functionality is borked. They don’t bond, they only parasitically attach. And when they aren’t getting enough of the “good stuff” there is no reason for them to be there anymore, so they detach and go looking for a new source of sustenance.)
I think of it like: “Love”, to them, is like the way normal people think about “loving” their favorite food, as something that brings them pleasure, that they want to consume. They can’t feel what most people experience as “love”. I think on some level they know they are missing (or at least deficient in) a fundamental human capacity, and many of them are angry or insecure about this and try to hurt people who they can see DO have the capacity for love.
This diminished capacity to feel love is why they even CAN treat you so badly. No one who actually loved you would be able to abuse you, it would hurt them too much to see you in pain. So yeah, this guy likely seems like he doesn’t care because he probably doesn’t. It has nothing to do with you though, it’s something wonky with his brain, that predates him even meeting you.
Frank have you ever read the Oregonian articles by Rick Ross?
“In the Grip of the Guru,” etc
I am having a hard time finding those articles to read online!
Can anyone share a link here if you find one? (A link to the original articles in 2001)
The Oregonian articles seem unavailable online. I believe I have a copy of them. They were not written by Rick Ross. But by a reporter for the Oregonian. I will look into publishing them on Frank Report.
They’re hard at work burying shit as usual. They’ve done this before with SEO manipulation. I’m sure they’re targeting FR to make it appear as low as possible on Google searches.
Thankyou Frank!
I would really appreciate getting to read the full spread of Oregonian articles!
I only know the first one is entitled “In the Grip of the Guru”
https://web.archive.org/web/20090727151941/http://www.oregonlive.com/special/guru/
thank you so much
Glad to be of assistance. You gave me all the clues to find it, so thank you.
Try this: https://culteducation.com/group/1175-swami-chetananda.html
Here’s a nice assemblage of articles concerning Shoemaker’s conduct
https://culteducation.com//group/1175-swami-chetananda.html
August 28, 2013, 9:43 am
Next Were Swami Chetanananda’s followers merely “cash cows” milked by guru?
2
Swami Chetananda Visitor Comments
“I can’t believe I found these articles about Michael Shoemaker on the Internet. I once lived in his freak show ashram. Seeing his photo makes me want to vomit. I know first hand the sexual misconduct and money misuse of this phony. He used the money earned by people working 70 to 80 hours. We had $8 a week to spend on whatever we wanted! Swami Shoemaker had sex with me within a week of my arriving at the ashram. ‘Meet me in the meditation room, I have some special work for you.’ I was anticipating steps toward my spiritual enlightenment. He raped me.
He had sex with whomever he wanted. No woman would dare refuse him. I guess that’s what he would call ‘consensual sex.’ We were forbidden to associate with people in ‘skag,’ that was anyone who wasn’t in the ashram. When I told Shoemaker I wanted to leave the ashram, he said I’d be in a mental institution within 6 months. I felt like I was breaking out of one!”
Copyright © Rick Ross
Richard Reed is reporters name
Would someone please explain to me what makes Heather George and Tara Israel special?
They are trophies
That is what I thought.
Here’s a list of current and longtime supporters of J Michael Shoemaker. You just have to ask yourself what kind of people they are to continue to blindly support an abusive sadist who uses drugs and extreme sexual violence against his most vulnerable female students, destroying hundreds of women’s lives. Most of these “students” were present in the community and stood silent as they watched women move in, be seduced, and then suddenly disappear. Over and over again. How many times? 100? 200? Much more. And they did nothing. For decades.
Are you all zombies, is anyone home? Or are you sick sadists like him? What are these women’s lives worth to you? Choose who you want to be in this life and what side of darkness you wish to stand on.
Brain-dead, heartless, coward or sadist. Which one are you?
Howard Boster
Vivian Boster
Sarah Mocas
Ruth Knight
Eddie Rosen
Tara Israel
Michael Israel
Marylin Ritter
Isa Raim
Laura Santi
Susan Marshall
Timothy Shiels
Dr Aiden Seraphim
James Deroschers
Jan La Rue
Cheryl Rosen
Kari Gronningsater
Cindy Brown
Cecilia Hellner
Ulla Hellner
Belle Moffa
Rio Hibler
Michelle Valentino
Kanu Sengupta
Blythe Grandon
Bob Shoemaker
Karen Sutherland
Gregory Lewis
Trish Reilly
Patty Slote
Tom Fabrizio
Kelly Ponzi
Linda Pope
Chris Jackson
Anna Brook
Viktor Usov
Sara Storm
Barbara Rabin
Lois Miller Tallon
Kathy Wyer
Peggy O’Donnel
Heather Gail George
Mirna Espinel
Kelly Coolidge
Saroj Bardewa
Carolyn Morgan
Larry DeWitt
Melinda Montague
Sophie Maree Balsimelli
Paul Uslan
Don Hayes
Rosemary Ferrara Chochran (ex Russell Kruckman/Shankarananda)
Belinda Fenwick (ex Russel Kruckman/Shankaranananda)
Cheryl MacDonald (ex Russell Kruckman/Shankarananda)
Why doesn’t Aloozer defend the poor Swami from the anti-cultists?
The Swami has never been prosecuted in a court of law. However, Raniere has been prosecuted.
the vast majority of information on this thread is junk. And, the comments are not any better. It is obvious, that very few of these people know what they are talking about.
FACT: Dozens of good people left this community with bad feelings. Got that Sadhvi? Are you there?
FACT: Nate England, a long time student, who never hurt a fly, nor said a bad word about anyone was told, after his marriage ended and he moved into the Ashram: “dont get any ideas, this isn’t a retirement home, you can’t live here more than a year or so”.
Nate’s feelings were (understandably) hurt. He didn’t feel welcome in the community that he loved for decades.
FACT: Tara Israel, a young woman was given homemade lavender ice cream, and watched sunsets with her Guru in Malibu (special deal), and had virtually unlimited access to him.
FACT: Sadhvi was the one who delivered this cold, arbitrary statement to Nate.
FACT: Sadhvi should have a pile of human excrement dumped on her head for this reason. And, there are many, many other stories like this that show horrible treatment of good people. While idiots, get the red carpet treatment. For NO reason.
Fuck you, Sadhvi, and Fuck all of your cult supporters.
Shoemaker would always have Sharon Ward (aka Sadhvi) deliver any bad news. That way he could stay at arms length so that if things went sideways he could always have plausible deniability. But the message (any message) was always from him and the reason he himself would not deliver a message like that to Nate (after Nate had been with the ashram for decades), was because he knew it was fucked up.
It showed that the reality was that Shoemaker didn’t mind Nate giving him free labor for decades when he was young, strong and energetic but an aging supporter without lots of money… has very little value in his mind (“this isn’t a retirement home”). And after all… to them, it’s never “how can we serve you for your growth and development” but rather “what can you do for us”.
Shoemaker is just a conman sucking off others. He gives nothing of real value in return, just bullshit at best and pain, trauma and abuse all too often.
Attention!
To anyone who doubts there were 1000 victims do the math:
20 victims a YEAR!
“She estimates the Swami has had more than 1000 victims during his 50 years as a guru.”
I think it’s very fair to estimate that he was sleeping with between 6-15 women per year. Sometimes more. Likely never less than 6 in an off year. I’m being conservative. Even a few years in there he was pretending to be “monogamous” to two public girlfriends, there were at least 6 others he had regular sexual relations with. Always a ball-faced liar. Always having multiple concurrent lives and women running at once. He’d just keep them isolated and feed them whatever story they needed to be told in order to keep them in line. Like any narcissist, he cannot live without a fresh supply and these women were always rotating. Just multiply that exponentially and you have him.
I am the user “throwawayeducovictim” in the above post. I know it’s important to direct Survivors to the source of accurate information and the place to direct other survivors. I am grateful for what Frank is and has done. I know some Reddit users are, erm, biased and single-minded; one followed me to the Cult Survivors subreddit where the above post (or similar – I forget) was shared and tried to turn the discussion into one about Frank. This is the reason why I used his initials. But I am happy to state I like Frank; I respect him and what he is doing for the survivors of this group is admirable. And I know the Survivors appreciate him. And that’s really all that matters.
Now this is accurate intel
The South China Post lets the whole Guru cult thing have it right between the eyes:
“The modern Indian guru phenomenon takes the most unpleasant elements of the Western cultist mentality and the Hindu tradition of total supplication before the teacher and gives it a pseudo-religious sanction”
https://amp.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2109392/forget-charles-manson-why-indian-gurus-are-cult-above-west
Thanks for the article Frank. The people lurking in the comments continually saying to “drop the story” are intriguing. Not the same people from the ashram who were commenting early on about crazy guru nonsense (moni and jen) But clearly people who were affiliated at the ashram and don’t want more information to come out. Maybe you’re on the edge of some really incriminating evidence?
Heather Gail George from photo above
https://www.thelotusway.org/drgeorge
Heather claims to be an
Oriental Doctor……
And O.J. Simpson is God!
O.J. Simpson is the Lord!
Watch the whole 6min clip! It’s hilarious!. https://youtu.be/4BxDCYl2NuA
The female student pictured above is Heather Gail George, the same woman seen harassing Eva on michaels behalf over text in a previous post
Another narcissist. Those texts were all me me me me me. Eva’s under medical care, but she’s gabbing on about herself. Twat.
Anonymous
October 4, 2022 at 2:34 am
Another narcissist. Those texts were all me me me me me.
Haters gotta hate, Monkeys gotta fly, this is classic DARVO.
DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators of wrong doing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.” The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim — or the whistle blower — into an alleged offender. This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of “falsely accused” and attacks the accuser’s credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.
https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html
This is all that matters:
Anonymous
October 4, 2022 at 12:21 am
Shoemakers days are numbered. Keep writing. Victims are gathering and coming forward. FR has once again given a voice to those silenced.
Shoemaker can join Raniere in the Shu.
Michael shoemaker… it’s over. Tell Sharon the dogs can’t help you now
Can you be more specific?
I’m confused. “Seen harassing Eva”
In a text?
Can you copy and paste the text please?
Thank you
Shoemakers days are numbered. Keep writing. Victims are gathering and coming forward. FR has once again given a voice to those silenced.
Shoemaker can join Raniere in the Shu.
Michael shoemaker… it’s over. Tell Sharon the dogs can’t help you now 🤣
—In fact be scarier with actual murder and/or coerced suicide/torture.
I expect from everything which has surfaced thus far – there’s at least one murder or coerced suicide.
https://cdenergy.org
This is total bullshit. There are no programs in California. Where? And, when was the last one given?
The chief cult facilitator from LA, resigned as Swami’s student.
The Church of Divine Dirty Business, where pretty girls are given special deals, and then choked and abused.
From the website link you provided –
“ Join Us
We regularly offer programs in Oregon and California. Please join our mailing list to stay apprised of upcoming events. “
Maybe that means this isn’t bullshit?
Reply to Horsetail who wrote This is total bullshit. There are no programs in California. Where? And, when was the last one given?
The chief cult facilitator from LA, resigned as Swami’s student.
Surprise Horsetail, taken from this post, linked below. Looks like the great Swami Prakashananda (Howard Boster) put this program on and Sophie (Marie Balsimeli) was the contact number. Give her a call,number is listed below (her number was in the original post) and see when the next cermony will be held. It only costs $50. See details below
https://www.themovementcenter.com/new-events/2019/3/1/learning-the-chod-practice-orange-county
Come for basic instruction on the practice of the Chod ritual, given in three sessions by Swami Prakashananda.
chod implements.JPG
Friday, March 1:
5:30 to 8:00 pm
Saturday, March 2:
10:00 am to 12:30 pm
Sunday, March 3:
2:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Chod is an ancient practice of cutting through tensions, fears, and obstacles in our life. In Chod, we visualize making an offering of our body, which is transformed into whatever is wanted by all beings in all realms. In this vast offering we create and cultivate a flow with everything around us and are in contact with the boundless dimension of ourselves.
This course will draw on the teachings of Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche, Swami Chetanananda, and the Longchen Nyingthig tradition.
The topics we’ll cover include:
What Chod is and its origins
Instructions for practice, with commentary
Visualizations
How to play the drum and bell
The rhythms and melodies
Mudras
Recommended donation for the course: $50.00. Please make an offering in whatever amount you can.
This program will be held at Unity of Tustin, 14402 South Prospect, Tustin. For information about the program, contact Sophie at 714-393-0978.
That’s dated 2019
Sophie is one of the big flying monkeys and fully condones Chet’s behavior.
Prakashananda is one of the very few good ones. He actually is consistently kind, compassionate, and is a true practitioner and teacher. He never got involved in Chet’s drugs or deviances. If anything, he’s been f’d by Chet a number of times. I suggest we keep the focus on Chet.
He knew, though.
Anonymous
October 4, 2022 at 10:37 am
Sophie is one of the big flying monkeys and fully condones Chet’s behavior.
Prakashananda is one of the very few good ones. He actually is consistently kind, compassionate, and is a true practitioner and teacher. He never got involved in Chet’s drugs or deviances. If anything, he’s been f’d by Chet a number of times. I suggest we keep the focus on Chet.
REPLY
Wrong, wrong, wrong about Howard Boster, aka Swami Prakashananda. Some cult members were victims, other were perpetrators. Some were both. If this describes you, go to law enforcement and tell what you know before someone else tells it for you. If you harmed others, if you were harmed too you can ask for immunity.
Let’s keep the focus on all the abuse and harm that has flowed out of this evil place and the people behind it. J. Michael Shoemaker, Sharon Ward, Howard Boster and many more. The inner circle has been named over and over.
When my daughter called me and asked me to come help her Boster aka Swami P, was in the room with her, he got on the phone and told me my daughter had hurt herself on the exercise machines. He said she had been “shaken up”. This was not true, it was a lie he used to manipulate me and to “protect” Shoemaker. What is kind and compassionate about that? This is how a true practitioner and teacher would act?
I think this is how an up-and-coming cult leader would act. Boster had to “control” what my daughter said to me. When I got to the Movement Center and found where she was being held, Boster showed up to that room right away to “control” the situation. When the ambulance team arrived, he high tailed it out of the room to avoid being questioned by the paramedics.
During the two weeks I spent with my daughter caring for her at the Movement Center, Boster never came by once to see how she was recovering. He never asked how he could help me or my daughter. When I tried to talk to him, to make an appointment to talk to him, he would not speak to me. He continued to avoid me. My daughter’s residential room was across the hall from his office, he had to “control” everything she did.
Cult leaders want money, power, and sex. Perhaps Boster may not have been getting the sex like Shoemaker was, I can’t speak to that. In terms of money, his wife, Vivina, was well set up by the cult to earn money on the buying and selling of all their real estate.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateagents/5983a881b377420013ec0252
Boster, as one of the leaders of the cult, had the power to control information, to control the behavior of members, to control the thoughts of members and to control their emotions. He may be another victim of Shoemaker if Shoemaker promised him the moon and then pulled to rug out from under him, but he was involved in covering up what was done to my daughter. He was there when others were harmed. He can talk to law enforcement and ask for immunity and tell them everything he did, saw, and heard and so can his wife Vivina.
There is a great picture of him and his wife, Vivina, sitting with Shoemaker in an opulent room at Gold Beach on Instagram. No doubt Boster was asking for what had been promised to him. Wonder if he got it?
I apologize because I’m chuckling at your description of Howard as a “up and coming cult leader”. Not in his personality one bit. Cult follower? Yes. Cult leader? No, Ma’am. He missed that window about 30 years ago. You don’t know any of these people and it does show. I’m not trying to criticize you. Admire what you are trying to do. I’ve read your many descriptions of these people and the Ashram Itself and they don’t match reality. If it ever looked and felt like you described no one would ever come there. You also don’t appear to know what happened to your daughter? Am I the only one that is puzzled by this? I want to be sensitive to your daughter. Most people on here do. Help us understand.
SP was still doing his bidding. Just like Sharon and Theresa.
Fucked by Chet or did you mean fucked over by Chet? Swami P has definitely been fucked over by him. It’s hard to understand why he continues to keep ties at all at this point.
I honestly feel sad for him. He is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known, and he was abandoned and wasn’t given any financial support from Swami C. He continues to devote himself to students who don’t have the means or desire to follow Chet to Gold Beach. He continues to teach and create space for those who love the core of the practice, which was and always will be the meditation.
The mediation classes he offers are not supported by Swami C and are free to those who want to participate. Those that donate can and do, to help pay for the space that the classes are held.
But I know for a fact that he was not given any favors from Chet despite devoting his entire fucking life to him and the practice. He is an honorable person with a huge heart and he’s not doing it for any other reason other than love.
To Anon “…fucked over by Chet…”
Yes, Prakashananda was TOTALLY fucked over by Chet and I can confirm your statement… SP was initially told the sale of the ashram would help buy/fund a new center in PDX…. Then Chet went back on that and basically told SP, “I started this all with $5 in my pocket, you can too.” I believe there are ZERO ties of Chet to the current meditation group. It is now just a community of meditators at its purest form without the politics or perversion.”
Who is Swami P?
To Anon 10.46am
He started with $5 in his pocket and through 50 years of lies, hundreds of thousands of hours of voluntary work by trusting students, and coercive control and manipulation of people like SP and so many others, he ended up with an $8M, a mansion by the water, millions in art and jewellery, and retires comfortably buying up acres and acres of land in Gold Beach.
But fuck off because it’s all MINE!
What an absolute low life.
For those interested, he’ll be spending all the money on coke and meth, probably the local GB prostitute, and air travel, jewellery and other expensive gifts for his new and old play things so they stick around. As well as expensive alcohol and food so they can gorge themselves senseless as they wither and die in their gluttony.
Please provide information on where these classes are being held. I am sure there are many who would like to attend.
Sophie (Silvana) Balsimelli – delusional recruiter for Chokeananda. Sadly, and somewhat desperately trying to feed her daughters to this madman so she can remain in favor and relevant. Fortunate for them, they’re not his type. Though the old guy is running seriously low on options these days, so Soph, you just never know.
We are approaching the sixth anniversary of Pam Cafritz’s death.
And Pam has a listing in finagrave.com
Unfortunately she has no picture or details on where she is buried.
Pamela Anne Cafritz
BIRTH
1959
DEATH
7 Nov 2016 (aged 56–57)
BURIAL
Burial Details Unknown
MEMORIAL ID
232941901 · View Source
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/232941901/pamela-anne-cafritz#source
No names, times, places? This story is outright garbage. Frank–stick to the facts. In general, the stories are losing steam, and it is obvious you are running out of “ammo”. Let it die?
Creative Screenwriting 101
“The Forty Year Old Virgin”: starring Allison Mack, written by Kevin directed by Nicki Clyne.
“Allison Mack was a Forty Year Old Virgin who had never experienced the Joys of Sex until her guru Keith Raniere raped her with his magical rod of power.”
“Even though Allison was raped by Keith Raniere because she experienced an orgasm it was not really a rape.”
Not to be nitpicky but the original poster did not say she was raped by swami chet, she just said she was a rape victim. She could have been raped by one of the visiting gurus or another ashram member.
Agree. The tone actually sounds like someone already posting on this blog.
Yep!
truly evil swami
your days are numbered
10 9 8 7 6…
if you saw something, say something. stay anonymous if necessary, but every detail contributes to the overall picture.
“There is also child trafficking to the high levels”…