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Laxer, Mark Eliot

"Take Me for a Ride: coming of age in a destructive cult"


She burned the eggs.
"You are in a lousy consciousness," Rama accused her, stewing over
the omelet. "Your level of spirituality has been plummeting!"
Then he continued to lambast her.
Tom was struck by the contrast between Rama's lofty language onstage
and his crass behavior at home. After mulling over the double standard
for several days, he sent Rama a note that he was leaving the Centre.
Rama called him and shouted at him for roughly twenty minutes.
Rama told him that he was a low life and that he was blowing it
for future lives. Despite Rama's warning, Tom left his apartment
and prepared to move back to the east coast. A day or two later,
Dana told me that Rama wanted me to track Tom down and have him
call the Centre. When I succeeded at my "Warrior's task,"
Tom spoke with a very different Rama.
"Don't worry about all the negative karma," Rama assured him.
"I'll absorb it for you." Rama also told him that he was not really
leaving so much as he was being kicked out. But I did not yet know
the details of Tom's sudden departure as I sat in rush hour traffic
in Concord, Massachusetts, feeling dejected and lonely.
I missed Fran. I missed Kate and Pat, each of whom I had gone out with.
I missed Ed, a quick witted UCSD recruit with a passion for mysticism
and Jimi Hendrix music.


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