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Laxer, Mark Eliot

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


Several disciples, including my brother, Sal, and Paul,
had developed impressive track records in the software industry.
But many were only CLC graduates. During the meetings of NPDS and ASI,
Rama told disciples to share their knowledge of state-of-the-art
software technology. Then he told them to lie. According to
the San Francisco Chronicle ("Yuppie Guru Finds Cash in Computers:
Devotees pay $3,000 a month to sit at his feet", 7/30/92), Rama,
in 1989, wrote a manual for disciples in which he encouraged them
to think of a resume as "a mandala that reflects your new self."
Rama wrote: "They will believe anything you say, even when you
intersperse unrealities, because they feel the truth of your experience.
When you have your stories and images in place, arrange for your references.
Choose people from our group who are comfortable on the phone,
who sound professional and who have had data processing experience.
Give them a few notes about who they were."
In 1991 Rama told New York Newsday's William Falk ("The Yuppie
Guru", 7/30/91), "It's the most amazing career that I know of.
You can start in the mid-30s, and in a year or two you can make
$100,000 to $150,000 a year."
From 1988 to 1991, Rama's individual tuition rose from roughly one
thousand to three thousand dollars per month.


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