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قراءة كتاب Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult
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Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult
TAKE ME FOR A RIDE
Coming Of Age In A Destructive Cult
by Mark E. Laxer
Copyright 1993 by Mark E. Laxer
[email protected]
Take Me For A Ride
* * *
One flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
—Childhood nursery rhyme
quoted in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey
To your *golden* side,
I don't care if you're the cuckoo—
Take me for a ride...
—Agni
TAKE ME FOR A RIDE
Coming Of Age In A Destructive Cult
by
Mark E. Laxer
1993 Outer Rim Press Copyright 1993 by Mark E. Laxer
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, unless the intent is to benefit humankind.
For *physical* book order information, or to contribute to Laxer's legal defense fund :( and write-another-book fund :)
write:
Outer Rim Press
4431 Lehigh Road, #221
College Park, MD 20740
USA
[email protected]
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Simon & Schuster, Inc., for permission to reprint an excerpt from Gandhi: A Memoir by William Shirer. Copyright (c) 1979 by William Shirer.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-085777
ISBN 0-9638108-3-9
Initially printed and posted in the United States of America
To Patsy Sims—inspired teacher, intriguing storyteller, intrepid journalist.
Author's Note
Names in the following story have been changed, except for those already mentioned in the press.
Contents
1. Bicycle Ride—Walden
After I left Rama's inner circle in 1985, I occasionally bicycled to Walden Pond, where I read about Thoreau's experiment with self-reliance. My seven years in the cult of Rama—Dr. Frederick Lenz, who was known early on as Atmananda—had deeply shaken my confidence. Atmananda often assured me that I was possessed by Negative Forces, that I was barely able to function in the real world, and that I was fortunate he did not drop me off at a mental institution. I met him in 1978, when I was seventeen.
Thoreau helped me recall a time, before Atmananda, when I was strong and self-reliant. I had been an avid cyclist. Pedaling thousands of miles each year helped strengthen both my legs and self-esteem. Throughout my teenage years bicycling and self-confidence were inextricably linked, and I grew to believe I could ride anywhere, under any conditions. I tried to approach life with a similar gusto, which may explain why, in 1979, Atmananda invited me to move with him to southern California to start a spiritual centre. From