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Laxer, Mark Eliot

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


Four months after that, he instructed them to call and invite other
former followers to a "very important" meeting in Boston.
Hundreds responded by flocking east from Los Angeles and from
other areas of the country.
At the meeting, Rama divided the congregation into the "NO,"
"YES," and "MAYBE" groups as a way to determine who could
come back into his new, nameless Centre. He put the women
who had been with him the longest in the "MAYBE" group.
"They are the worst," Rama declared, explaining that they would
be required to "pay off" their bad karma with checks ranging from
$1200 to $2000 a month each. He then informed the "MAYBE" as well
as the "YES" disciples that if they wanted to study with him in this
or in any future lifetime, they should prepare to move to Silicon Valley.
Several hundred disciples made the move and attended Rama's first
gathering in Palo Alto, California. Anne and Rachel, followers since
the Stony Brook days, drove west together from Boston and arrived
a month later, in time for the second meeting. Rama asked them
and seventeen other inner circle women to work at the second meeting.
They would check attendance lists and sell his books and tapes,
which they had done many times before.


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