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Lawsuits and Media Circuses
The basic facts The basic facts are pretty straightforward. As longtime devotee, James Steinberg, put it, in answering a reporter's question about the lawsuits: "Well, first, it is not like there are lots of lawsuits. There was one major lawsuit [filed by Beverly O'Mahony, March 4, 1985]." There was also a counter-suit by Adidam for extortion, and finally out-of-court settlements. As Brian O'Mahony makes clear: "The entire affair was eventually settled out of court by our insurance companies to avoid the incredible expense of an extended court process."
No charges or indictments were ever brought against Adi Da or Adidam. And no further lawsuit has been filed against Adi Da or Adidam since that brief period in the mid-1980's.
In a letter that Beverly wrote years after the lawsuit (and the ensuing media circus) to her ex-husband, Brian O'Mahony (who is still a devotee of Adi Da, and was interviewed by us about the lawsuits, etc.), she exonerated Adi Da completely. Among other things, she wrote: "I agree that 99% of what I have seen of any reporting on the Community/Guru is horseshit." "I can't think of anything the Master ever forced me to do." "The only physical contact I have ever had with Da is a few hugs, and when I was very pregnant, he touched my belly in a gentle and soothing way. That is it." She explained that most of the "complaints" were made up by her lawyer, who had taken advantage of the fact that she was going through a difficult divorce from Brian, and was in a very vulnerable state — which her lawyers were obviously aware of themselves, since they noted it in the complaint: writing that, at the time they knew her, "she was a young, naive, impressionable and very lonely girl." As Brian O'Mahony has put it: "The lawsuit was very deliberately crafted to make Adi Da and Adidam look like a destructive cult. It had no basis in fact. . . . I remember my own feelings of pain and anguish when Adi Da, my friends, and I were attacked by the allegations. . . . To the surprise of no one involved with the drama of that time, the lawyer was disbarred some years later." The media circus: the Today Show "expose" of Adidam as a "religious cult" Beverly continues: "Had I known it would turn into the media circus it did, I wouldn't have taken that ride. I enjoy my privacy. The media, both TV and newspaper, distorted everything. I was interviewed by a reporter, for one of the San Francisco papers — I can't remember if it was the Examiner or the Chronicle, and I couldn't believe it when I read the article. It had very little to do with anything I had said. It was at that point that I lost faith in the news, journalism and reporters, etc." Other devotees would agree. Frans Bakker and Susan Lesser were two of the devotees responding on behalf of Adidam to the Today Show reporter. Both were young and neither had any previous experience with the media. So when the reporter assured them of positive exposure, they naively believed him. Frans would later tell us the story of how the Today Show crew "grilled" him and Susan Lesser for hours, confronting them with endless provocative questions and accusations, while filming all the time. Frans and Susan both did their very best to respond, checking their growing impatience. But after five hours, they just couldn't tolerate the harrassment any more — and they exploded, their faces contorted in anger as they denounced the endless false accusations they had been hearing. And as it turned out, that explosion was the only part of the five hours of filming that was used in the actual show: these two devotees at "their worst", removed from the context of that provocative, five-hour grilling. In hindsight, it was clear to Frans and Susan that this had been a deliberate strategy: the film crew had been deliberately provoking them and waiting to capture their explosion on film, so they could feature it. At
another point in the Today Show episode, the reporter suggests that Beverly was "held
on Fiji against her will" when she decided to leave Adidam. Lynne Wagner, who
was named as one of the defendants in the complaint (which shocked Lynne when
she found out), has this to say:
At yet another point in the Today Show episode, an allegation was made that, during the 1970's, a young girl had been forced to take off her clothes in front of a group of adults that included Adi Da. What actually was the case? The young girl (who was age ten at the time) was one of many children whose parents were part of the Adidam community. In those days, Adi Da's devotees would often gather with Adi Da at a former Northern California hot springs resort, which Adi Da had transformed into an Adidam sanctuary He called the Mountain Of Attention. Since the sanctuary had bathing facilities associated with the hot springs, it was common in the 1970's for the bathing to be "clothing optional" during the summer. As is frequently the case in "clothing optional" bathing facilities, parents would often be joined by their children at these bathing occasions. Cere B., one of the young girl's friends at the time who was present, recalls those times:
Tally Rhodes was another girl who (at age 17) appeared in the Today Show episode. Here's what Tally recently wrote about that experience (in her online blog):
So much for the Today Show's attempt to portray Adi Da as a child abuser! In reality, Adi Da's love for children was so profound that He developed an entire culture of unique and comprehensive wisdom for raising children humanly and spiritually; many young people who grew up in the Adidam community have attested to how much they appreciated their Adidam upbringing. (More here.)
We could continue stepping through (and pulling apart) every insinuation, distortion, and miscommunication made by the Today Show's "expose of Adidam as a cult"; but the show doesn't deserve it, and the examples we've already laid out are enough to make our overarching point: the Today Show's "Adidam expose" episode has no credibility whatsoever. It doesn't take much journalistic digging to discover why the Today Show reporter who put together the episode so aggressively (and baselessly) attacked Adidam. That reporter had strong, personal religious affiliations (including patronage of a scholarship at a Christian university with a stated intention of converting the world to Christianity) — a compelling reason for questioning the objectivity of the TV segment he put together on our non-Christian religious tradition. A further reason for questioning the reporter's objectivity can be seen in the TV segment itself: it contains footage of him on Adidam property shortly after he arrived, reporting "conclusions" to the camera about Adidam which not only were false, but which he simply could not have had sufficient time to research, having only just begun his "investigation". Lastly, the Today Show reporter had personally assured us that he would produce a show that would give Adidam positive and balanced exposure; we would not have worked with him otherwise. And then, in violation of all personal integrity, he turned around and did the exact opposite. For these and other reasons, it was clear to us that the reporter had pre-determined that — whatever it took — he was going to paint Adidam as a "cult", and had intended all along to produce an "expose" on this minority religion so different from his own mainstream affiliation.
Lawsuits, service professions, and expectations Every area of human life that involves service to others — including religion and spiritual traditions — is also accompanied by lawsuits. Again, from James Steinberg: "People may be familiar with the fact that Upasani Baba faced court trials, as did Ramana Maharshi (they sent someone out to deposition him), as they did with Shirdi Sai Baba. And this is in India where there is a much stronger tradition of understanding about such God-men and women."
In other words, even genuine and highly respected spiritual masters, from Ramana Maharshi to Adi Da Samraj, can be sued. (In a different time, another great spiritual master was even crucified.) Many of our best doctors, psychiatrists, and other servants of society have been sued — which is not altogether surprising in the litigious society of the contemporary United States. Any time there is the potential for a gap between expectations and reality — the expectations of the one being served, and the reality of what the one serving them must do to serve them effectively — there is the potential for a lawsuit. It might be a paramedic breaking someone's rib while performing the Heimlich maneuver to save the person's life. Or it might be a psychiatrist delving into unconscious matters that a person has suppressed all his life, to raise these things to consciousness so he can be free of them at last. And in some sense, there is no greater potential for a gap between expectation and reality than in the area of spirituality. Our Western "consumer" culture programs us to expect "Enlightenment in a weekend" (in the manner of "fast food" to go). But true Spiritual Realization requires a most profound ordeal of transcending one's ego, and a Spiritual Master who, once "hired" for the job, won't let you off the hook. It is going to hurt! No doubt about it. But if we are smart, and remain clear in our higher purpose of Spiritual Realization (and in our understanding of how that purpose necessarily entails transcendence of self), we keep it a struggle with self, rather than turning it into a struggle with the Spiritual Master we chose to help us with that very purpose. As Laughing Man Institute Director, James Alwood, puts it:
Author Mariana Caplan makes a complementary point about how contemporary views of ethics and morality can place constraints on genuine Spiritual Masters that limit their ability to practice Crazy Wisdom as needed, and hence limit their effectiveness as Spiritual Masters:
Instead of suing the Spiritual Master, take advantage of his or her help and transcend self As we have pointed out, even great servants of society may get sued. But dwarfing such lawsuits is their track record of helping others. Great doctors heal patients; great psychiatrists help relieve their patients of some of their negative psychological patterning; and great spiritual masters help their devotees transcend themselves, help them experience the greater-than-material Spiritual Reality, and utimately help them to realize that Spiritual Reality. This site is full of stories of Adi Da helping devotees in that ordeal of transcendence — an ordeal for both the devotee and Adi Da Samraj — and of devotees who chose to accept the Master's help, "stayed the course", came out the other side of a growth process, and were able to report a breakthrough in their human or spiritual maturity, from the humble to the extraordinary. (And Adi Da has made it clear that there can be no substantial spiritual maturity without substantial human maturity first.) Here are just a few such stories:
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