J. Michael Shoemaker initiated Howard Boster in 2008, along with Per Johanson. This was reported in a Movement Center Newsletter.
Boster became Prakashananda.
Boster was part of the Movement Center when Liz disappeared, when Natasha jumped off a traffic bridge and was brought back to the Movement Center in a hospital bed, when BDSM sessions with Shoemaker and partners took place, when alleged pedophile Marc Gafni lived at the Movement Center, when students provided all the cleaning, cooking, maintenance of that place.
Now Boster is a meditation teacher.
2008
During the July retreat, two senior teachers took sannyas and became Swami Ganeshananda (formerly Per Johansen) and Swami Prakashananda (formerly Howard Boster).
Along with Sharon Ward, they form the core of our advanced meditation teaching staff.
Here is a breakdown of the leadership at the Movement Center in 2008, when Boster put on his orange robes.
Taken from the Movement Center Newsletter:
Boster became Prakashananda.
Boster was part of the Movement Center when
- Liz disappeared
- Natasha jumped off a traffic bridge and was brought back to the Movement Center in a hospital bed.
- When BDSM sessions with Shoemaker and partners took place.
- When alleged pedophile Marc Gafni lived at the Movement Center
- When students provided all the cleaning, cooking, and maintenance of that place.
Now Boster is a meditation teacher.
From a newsletter in 2008
During the July retreat, two senior teachers took sannyas and became Swami Ganeshananda (formerly Per Johansen) and Swami Prakashananda (formerly Howard Boster).
Along with Sharon Ward, they form the core of our advanced meditation teaching staff.
The breakdown of the leadership at the Movement Center in 2008, when Boster put on his orange robes.
Taken from the Movement Center Newsletter:
- Bob Shoemaker, Rudra Press
- Doreen Flores, Finance
- Howard Boster, Director
- Jessica Butler and Linda Dima, Kitchen
- Michelle Lawson, Communications / Programs
- Patty Slote, Membership
- Ruth Knight, Hatha Yoga Program
- Sharon Ward, General Counsel
- Theresa Smith, Guest Services
- Tom Fabrizio, Residency Program
Here is another list contributed by a reader who writes:
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 want to stand on.
Brain-dead, heartless, coward or sadist. Which one are you?
- Howard Boster
- Vivina Boster
- Sarah Mocas
- Ruth Knight
- Eddie Rosen
- Tara Israel
- Michael Israel
- Marylin Ritter
- Isa Raim
- Laura Santi
- Susan Marshall
- Timothy Shiels
- Nicholas Alexander
- Barnett Davis
- Gretchen Krieger
- Lydia Hill
- Dr. Aiden Seraphim
- James Deroschers
- Michelle Kennedy
- Jan La Rue
- Cheryl Rosen
- Kari Gronningsater
- Cindy Brown
- Cecilia Hellner
- Ulla Hellner
- Jessica Becker
- Laura Washington
- Gregory A. Lewis
- Maggie Daley
- Govind Corneillson
- Claudia Henry
- Richard Standow
- Julie Galaski
- Larry Manning
- 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
- Moni O’Neal
- Alam Khan
- Jennifer Wilhelm
- Andrew Bonner
- Becky Ries Bonner
- Jim Brisette
- Theresa Khan
- Salmon Khan
- Jesse Sweeney
- Melinda Montague
- Sophie Maree Balsimell
- Paul Uslan
- Don Hayes
- Rosemary Ferrara Chochran (ex Russell Kruckman/Shankarananda)
- Belinda Fenwick (ex Russel Kruckman/Shankaranananda)
- Cheryl MacDonald (ex Russell Kruckman/Shankarananda)
Michelle Lawson, Bob Shoemaker, Ruth Knight, and Sharon Ward are all named in the Richard Read articles dated 2001. If they didn’t read the articles when they were first published, I hope they have read them by now.
Bob Shoemaker, Howard Boster, Michelle Lawson, Patty Slote, Ruth Knight, Sharon Ward, and Tom Fabrizio seem to be still associated with J. Michael Shoemaker. They have appeared in Instagram posts from Gold Beach over the last two years.
A defender of Boster/Prakashananda wrote
Prakashananda was TOTALLY fucked over by Chet… SP was initially told the sale of the [Portland] 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.
PBJ Learning picks up Frank Report Story
PBJ added a Frank Report story on Chetanananda to its “Knowledge Vault” as part of their “Eyes on Trafficking” series.
Here is what PBJ wrote:
Editor’s note: We do not take a stance regarding these allegations. This article has been included for educational purposes to show how complicated situations like this can be for people to get justice.
EYES ON TRAFFICKING
This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.ABOUT PBJ LEARNING
PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims.
Jayne Lyons is a mother outraged by what Chetanananda did to her daughter.
Lyons Puts Together a List
Jayne Lyons wrote:
I visited my daughter various times 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.
When 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.
Jayne points out some of the maladies victims experience.
Strangulation
Strangulation: One of the most lethal abuser tactics
“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
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
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 Shoemaker calls healing are violent physical assaults that cause injuries to soft tissues and joints.
There are three distinct symptoms of Complex PTSD: hyperarousal, intrusion, and constriction.
Each incorporates psychologic symptoms (relating to the mind or mental phenomena) and somatoform (physical symptoms without physical cause).
Rape trauma syndrome relates to post-traumatic stress disorder but is more specific to sexual assault. RTS describes trauma symptoms, including disruptions to routine physical, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal behavior.
Physical Injuries from Beatings and Abuse
The Movement Center used gaslighting, lies, and manipulation to hide the truth and protect J. Michael Shoemaker and the inner circle.
We are expoing lies. The narrative is out now, and inner circle cult members can no longer control it.
You can report what you did before someone else does!
If you were indoctrinated and coerced, you could report that.
Now is the time to ask for immunity. Tell law enforcement what you saw and experienced that was brutal, harmful, and damaging.
If people weren’t harmed and exploited at the Movement Center under the direction of Shoemaker, there would be no reason to publish these articles and republish the work of Richard Read.
Through Read’s and my articles, victims/survivors and witnesses to abuse have come forward. More will come forward. This is far from over.
Howard Boster was a trusted teacher in the community. People went to him constantly with all nature of their concerns because he listened and acted compassionately usually ending the conversation with a shrug as if to say “What you’re experiencing, that bothers me too, but what to do.” Howard gave residents a relief valve by listening but then doing nothing to address the terrible perpetrations they spoke to him of.
Howard was one of Swami’s fixers. In keeping all of Swami’s nasty secrets and facilitating SC’s damage control he enabled Swami’s horrific mistreatment of community members. His complicity through never blowing the whistle on the corrupt and cruel inner workings of SC and others in the ashram management needs to be called out. He probably knows the most of anyone because of how many people confided in him. Come forward, Howard, if you can muster the strength.
You’re right. Howard knew everything in that place. The filth with Monica, about every single woman Shoemaker was fucking, the drugs. He hated it but was too weak to stand up for his beliefs, preferring to “submit to the Guru” as his highest principle. The refuge of a weak person. It takes strength, guts, and courage to stand up to Shoemaker, even when you know the risk is you’ll lose it all. He couldn’t do it for 50 years. There’s no way he’ll do it now when he’s 70. I wish he would. He could die with a clear conscience.
The Bosners exploit just like shoemaker. If he screwed them over in the end, they deserve it. They’re all criminals and abusers. No moral compass, self serving, self promoting vultures who prey on the weak. Their time will come.
In the Grip of the Guru, A Broken Trust, July 16, 2001, Richard Read, Oregonian
“Diane Asay, a current disciple, said students bear responsibility for choosing to have sex with the guru. “I’ve watched people climb all over people to get into his bed,” Asay said. She says jealous former lovers are going public to hurt the swami, who is helping to lead a grand spiritual reformation that will make their complaints appear trivial a century from now.”
Diane Asay died January 20, 2021
Diane Asay defended Shoemaker in the Richard Read article quoted above, but she died outside the “community” and few of her fellow cult members have paid her tribute for her decades of work for Shoemaker. In one of Shoemaker’s posts about moving to Gold Beach he claims that he was “thrown under the bus”, but I wonder how many of his students he has thrown under the bus? Diane wondered about how Shoemaker would be remembered a century from now. How did Shoemaker remember her? Did he throw her under the bus?
Here is part of a tribute written by Kristin Kreiger, the sister of Gretchen Kreiger. Kristin has left Shoemaker, while Gretchen is now the President of the Church of Divine Energy, another Shoemaker inspired enterprize. Gretchen is serving the Church with Sharon Ward, the dog training cadaver finder.
Below are excerpts from Kristin’s tribute to Diane:
Kristin Kreiger
February 18, 2021
When I first saw her, she walked tilted slightly backward, with her long legs lengthening out – first thigh, then lower leg and finally foot, one large step after another. Her entire body seemed long: her torso long and lean, her arms and legs relaxed and moving from the most proximal bone to the most distal which gave her a unique gait, almost as if she were unfolding forward. She was compelling to watch. …. I wasn’t surprised to learn that she had become a dancer. ……..Over all our years, our intimacy ballooned and deflated over and over again. When things were going well, we had a wonderful time. This pattern repeated all our lives together. ……She went to Boston to meet him once when he was working. His colleague took her to Bloomington, IN the next day to meet his meditation teacher. She returned to LA and announced she was moving out, into the Bloomington ashram. I was flabbergasted. Ultimately, I also studied with that teacher for 30 years. The Bloomington ashram moved to Boston for more than a decade, and then to Portland, Oregon. She moved with them……. We met once or twice a year, every year or two and had a long meal, usually three hours, and talked most intimately. Her liver died. …..Last year we spoke long and deeply and rarely. Then she died. Total organ failure. It was fast. We loved each other. It’s a great hole where we’d been.
Only three current and former members of Shoemaker’s cult wrote tributes for Diane Asay: Rio Hibler, Karen Sutherland and Rachel Dyer (a “second generation” member, daughter of Connie Dyer). Not one word from Shoemaker. Shoemaker calls his students his loved ones, but, who gets thrown under the bus? Who else do you know that has been harmed, exploited, abused, and thrown under the bus by this monster? Who else has given so much to him and gotten so little back.
Kristin is Gretchen Kreiger’s mother not her sister. Karen is Gretchen’s sister.
Rachel Dyer is not second generation, not Connie Dyer’s daughter. Rachel married Rick Dyer, Connie’s ex-husband.
Hi everybody it’s me Scott Johnson!!!
I have a new tool system, named the Johnson Tool System®️ to getting 100% free stuff in 5 easy steps . It’s better than Amway!
Here it is:
1. Steal a TGIF 20% off a 16oz soda card.
2. Grab a Win-Dixie grocery store coupon for 10% off all apple juice.
3. Make a purchase of CVS brand Aspirin 50% off 2nd bottle. Buy both bottles!
4. Apply for a Jiffy Lube credit card and get 20% off of your next oil change.
5. Now add up the percentage savings, it equals 100% free!!!!
It’s incredible, amazing!
My system sells for $19.95.
I’ve gone from being suckered by tool scams – to being a tool. Hooray!
****
Anybody know anything about his jewelry side hustle? He tried to sell me a ring for $800 that I had appraised at $250 when I left.
Boster must have learned this trick straight from Shoemaker.
“He told us he was selling us art and gems way below their actual value, however according to estimates from reputable dealers Swami C overpriced these objects by between two and twenty times their current values.”
Taken from the Leaving Nityananda Blog, January 14, 2008
http://leaving-nityananda-institute.blogspot.com/2008/01/open-letter-from-former-nityananda.html
Bostner is no victim. Let’s not forget his wife was the real estate agent on the new mansion in golds beach and it appears they are permanent residents.
Stay on this. There’s plenty of abuse and financial profit being made by these spiritual fraudsters.
Howard Boster and his wife were also active members of the Shoemaker cult when Ayaz Quadir was found dead in 2009. The Bosters have a lot to answer for.
As a realtor, you’re allowed to make a commission from a sale. No black magic in that. I’m guessing that Chet would have Vivina’s agency list the house with the FULL expectation that she would donate her commission back to him. Her agency’s commercial division probably also took over which means her commission was more like a referral fee. I’d bet $$ on this being true.
Chet’s an ass and should be f’d the way he f’d others. Boster is not your guy in your straw man arguments. Keep your Focus on the big orange f-tard!
What are examples of accessory to rape? (look it up, https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/what-are-examples-of-accessory-to-rape–721538.html , https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/victimology-and-rape-accessory-discourse )
Can someone be an accessory to rape if they weren’t there? What kind of evidence would the prosecutor need to charge someone with accessory to rape?
a person can be a party to a crime by doing many different things before, during, and after the crime is committed that can legally make one a party and accessory to the crime.
TPC sec. 7.01. “PARTIES TO OFFENSES” provides that “(a) A person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed [1] by his own conduct, [2] by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or [3] by both.” Thus, the person who commits the act is a party and anyone else whom the law defines as a party is criminally responsible for the act. Subsec. (b) provides that each “ party to an offense may be charged with commission of the offense.”
Sec. 7.02, describes three situations where a person is a “party,” i.e., criminally responsible for the conduct of another. If the party does not commit the offense directly, to be liable, the party must want, intend or desire that the other person commit the offense.
Second, a under sec. 7.02 (a)(2), a person is responsible for the acts of another if “acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense.” This is the classic definition of an “accomplice” and also includes those who solicit others to commit crimes. (The crime of solicitation is discussed in ch. 7.) Thus is A asks (solicits) B to commit a crime, A intends that the crime be committed, and B commits the crime, A (along with B) are guilty of the crime committed by B.
You should go visit with a criminal defense attorney and they can explain further.
I am used to the term post criminal act. Which could be helping the rapist to evade capture and prosecution. Acts prior to the rape, for me, would be aiding and abetting and include such things as taking the rapist to the victim to the rapist, providing a place for the rape, any act to facilitate the rape, etc..
The prosecutor would need evidence that one assisted the rape and knew that a rape was to occur…
Accessory after the fact? Here are possibilities: getting the victim to a location where it happened; providing drugs that caused intoxication; letting them use your apartment; or lying for the person to the police. These are all possibilities. You should really find a skilled criminal defense attorney from the county where the allegations occurred…
Law enforcement knows how to use these charges in culty cases like Shoemaker’s cult.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/founder-nxivm-purported-self-help-organization-and-five-others-charged-superseding
A superseding indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Keith Raniere, Clare Bronfman, Allison Mack, Kathy Russell, Lauren Salzman and Nancy Salzman with racketeering conspiracy involving an array of crimes, including identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
If you are part and parcel of these crimes that Frank is exposing, call law enforcement now, you can ask for immunity. Or you can wait for someone else to tell law enforcement what you did to harm others or to protect Shoemaker and his inner circle. The choice is yours and the clock is ticking.