"If anyone asks you about LSD,"
he said somberly, "you all *know* that I gave you a placebo."
Then Rama, perhaps nervous about what I had observed in 1984 and 1985,
told the disciples: "Mark was always a little young, a little naive,
a little stupid...he thought that I actually *had* given him LSD...we
all used to indulge him...we all knew that it was just that goofy
Mark again..."
Rama went on to say that one day they might have to explain "all this"
to a judge and jury. But under *no* circumstance, he warned,
should they speak to the press.
Toward the end of the meeting, he told the nineteen that if they
wanted to return to the Centre in this life, they must first hand
in an essay--typed, double-spaced--in which they were to confess
to and apologize for their hurtful, wicked deeds.
After the meeting, Rama returned to his latest project:
staging a national, six-month, six hundred and fifty thousand
dollar "Zen" seminar promotional campaign. The effort included
the placement of a two-page spread in the Sunday New York Times.
One page was a photo of himself; the other advertised his free
talk on Zen and success at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
(see Appendix D). The full-page spreads also appeared in
the L.
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