“Therapy Gone Mad” by Carol Mithers
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Gone-Mad-Hundreds-Generation/dp/0201570718

Published in 1994, it’s about the Center for Feeling, an offshoot of the Primal Institute, which was located in Los Angeles until it spun out of control and self-destructed in a couple of days.

It’s an excellent blow-by-blow description of how a cult can form, despite the best intentions of those who are responsible for building it brick by brick. Anyone who has ever been involved in a cult will recognize the symptoms. Anyone who is certain that their particular “spiritual path” is NOT a cult ought to read this book as well. You might be surprised to find yourself in error.

I have no connection to the book, the author or the Center for Feeling. I just know a useful book when I read one.

Thanks for this, and also for your article on guru-talk which I enjoyed. As I wrote in my article, I don’t think there is any simple answer to the question of Andrew Cohen, and I consider all viewpoints important. I am glad that his teachings affected you positively and wish you all the best.
I respect what you are doing.

Marc

# Marc:
October 14th, 2008 at 11:46 pm edit

Alan Kazlev, author of the “Wilberian paradigm” article quoted on http://manifesting.net/2008/09/andrew-cohen-evolutionary-enlightenment-and-enlightennext-is-it-a-cult/ , wrote me the following interesting letter (excerpted here with his permission)
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The concept of Evolutionary consciousness or evolutionary enlightenment (as oppossed to static enlightenment) can also be found in various ways and aspects in Madame Blavatsky (Theosophy), Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophy), Henri Bergson (who influenced Teilhard and process philoosophy), Alfred North Whitehead (Process Philosophy/Process Theology), Jean Gebser (Mutations of Consciousness), and no doubt others as well.

Cohen certainly plagiarised Sri Aurobindo, but even more so people like Briane Swimme (Great Story or Cosmic Story) and probably also Peter Russell (The Global Brain), both the latter in turn inspired by Teilhard. More recently it seems (from the Guru & Pandit dialogues in WIE) he’s imitating Ken Wilber (Integral Theory) as well (Wilber in turn being inspired by Sri Aurobindo and many others). Unfortunately, unlike what you said on your
blog I have to confess I do not consider him a spiritual genius, just the opposite, he seems pretty insipid from what i have read of his stuff online. Perhaps if i had to read an entire book of his i would feel different, but more likely i wouldn’t. If he does have some neat ideas all you need to do is look at the above sources to see where he gets them from ;-)

Like you i find his followers (from the quality of the magazine WIE, also i dialogued with one online) are of a high calibre.

And while I am not saying this applies to all followers, it does seem to be that abusive gurus often tend to
attract a very high (but perhaps psychological dysfunctional/masoichistic?) class of devotees, as shown for example in the WhatEnlightenment?? blog archives. This is the case with Adi Da as well. However Adi Da is light years above Cohen, an altogether more complex and (unlike Cohen) genuinely brilliant figure. I have written on him on my website but always feel the need to revise what i wrote, he is not easy to pin down, and is demonised by detractors and idealised by devotees.
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Pete:
October 1st, 2009 at 4:32 pm edit

Andrew Cohen has incited extreme responses from the moment he spontaneously began teaching. All the noise about Andrew being an abusive meglomaniac has been made by former students. However there are far more former students (myself included) who are deeply grateful for their time with Andrew, have been transformed in profound ways, and many are now doing very positive work in different spheres out in the world. Check out http://www.guru-talk.com for some very different perspectives. While Andrew may not be flawless and beyond legitimate critique most of the published complaints of “abuse” are taken out of context and issue from wounded pride. Play with fire and you will get burned! One does not bring a higher stage of evolutionary potential into manifestation by pandering to peoples egos, in fact one has to fight like hell, eat plenty of humble pie and consistently reach for the highest despite all the whimpering of ones egoic “sensitive self”. And the arrows in ones back that issue from those who seek to destroy your dauntless passion and inspiration are to be expected.