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Laxer, Mark Eliot

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


"Thanks," I replied and I pulled out a plum.
One time I asked him how he could run a company that was hundreds
of miles away.
"By making a lot of phone calls."
Another time I invited him to see a movie.
"Can't make it," he told me. "I need to take a client out to dinner."
I nodded. "Big deal coming up?"
"Yeah."
Rama began spending time with Jack. In 1986, they went on a trip
to Japan where, Rama told him, they had spent past lives together.
Meanwhile, Jack had donated to Rama not only numerous crates of fruit,
but well over one hundred thousand dollars. In fact, Rama announced
at fund-raising dinners that the disciples were "off the hook"
because Jack had donated yet another hundred thousand.
On August 2nd, 1986, forty-year-old Jack Kukulan was found in his apartment,
partially decomposed before the shrine. According to the police report,
white powder was found on a nearby piece of paper and on the blade
of a knife from the kitchen. According to the autopsy report,
Jack died of "heroin/morphine intoxication."
In August, 1986, Rama left Seattle. Four months later, he returned
to Boston, where he reunited dozens of former followers.
"You should forgive each other and start anew," he told them.


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