Andrew Cohen: Enlightened Asshole?

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Gurus Clockin' Dollars

Beliefnet has posted an interview with controversial guru Andrew Cohen, founder of What Is Enlightenment magazine and bad boy of the advaita satsang scene. Depending on who you are asking, he's either a megalomaniacal fraud or a notably rude yet authentic teacher of enlightenment.

Being notably rude ourselves, we feel some kinship with Cohen, especially when he says stuff like this:

Because what happened in the seventies and the eighties [is that] a lot of gurus came over from the East from different traditions and people would say, "Well, they're enlightened which means they're perfect." So then we found that many of them seemed to have difficulties around some basic human instincts [laughs]; that they didn't seem to be able to handle living in the West. And then everybody said, "Oh well, I guess they're not enlightened." And then, that was the end of enlightenment.

Cohen seems to be intimating that some of those crazy, scandalized gurus were enlightened despite the various abuses they participated in. As tough as that may sound to a hagio-poisoned bliss bunny, we wholeheartedly agree. And Mr. Cohen makes a fine example himself:

Andrew had expressly told students that when a "committed" or "senior" student "blows it," it will cost them $20,000 in karmic retribution. When Stas once offered Andrew a contribution of $3,000 at a time when he was desperate to regain Andrew's good graces, Andrew angrily threw the check on the floor, shouting, "Do you think you can buy me off for a lousy three grand?" As a result, Stas borrowed money so that he could make a $20,000 contribution to Andrew. Later, when he told Andrew the money was given under duress and asked for its return, Andrew coldly refused.

That puts him squarely in the asshole category, and some would say in the unenlightened megalomaniac category as well. It's no wonder his own mother ditched him.

Folks seeking to perfect themselves will not get Cohen, because he is clearly not perfect himself. That's why we're kinda digging on him, despite the fiscal abuse allegations. Besides, anyone willing to give Cohen $20,000 to amend for a faux pas deserves to lose the money, regardless of the fact that Cohen clearly didn't deserve to keep it himself.

Cohen's Best Come Back To Haunt Him

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Gurus Clockin' Dollars

Several people have steered us toward the What Enlightenment? blog and the latest brouhaha over enlightened asshole Andrew Cohen's penchant for chiseling:

The author of this piece, Jane O'Neil, is a former close student of Andrew Cohen. It was her devotion to him and her contribution of $2 Million that made possible the purchase of Foxhollow, Cohen's residence and the headquarters of EnlightenNext in Lenox, Massachusetts. After she left the group, Andrew Cohen betrayed his promise to her to keep her contribution confidential by publicly discussing it while severely disparaging her for leaving him.

Then, the former editor of Cohen's own magazine sprinkles sulfuric acid on the wound:

The principal factor in my own decision to undertake a real reckoning with the facts and implications of my involvement with Andrew was the ever-expanding reservoir of evidence (in my own often repressed experience) that his conduct and underlying motivations are in reality far different from his own understanding of them, and that his capacity to comprehend their probable origins and tangible effects is, shall we say, less than adequate.

Ouch!

A wonderful opportunity has presented itself to Andrew Cohen. If he can realize that the strife is of his own making rather than only being the fault of what he imagines to be his former students' inadequacies, he would be vaulted much closer to actually being qualified to wear the mantle he snaked by misinterpreting a few misunderstood words by his guru.

One Blog Closes, Another Laughs It Up

File under: Gurubusting

A few days back a reader informed us that the What Enlightenment??! blog has ceased publication. Founded to expose and investigate the abusive narcissist known as Andrew Cohen, the publishers of this excellent chronicle of the troubles which have constellated around Cohen feel that the work is complete, despite the fact that Cohen is gonna keep being Cohen, and that means plenty of troubled people are going to still be coming out of that head-screwing mindfuck, some with a lot less cash than they had going in:

In the more than two years since I personally "broke the code of silence," all of these disturbing events, and many more, were documented and corroborated on this blog, over and over again. Three former editors of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, including myself, spoke out strongly here about the abuses in Andrew Cohen's community. Other close students have also put their names on the line to attest to what went wrong with the community's beautiful dream of creating heaven on earth. The woman who financed Cohen's Foxhollow EnlightenNext world center wrote about how he unfairly took advantage of her vulnerability and largesse. Numerous other students have also contributed here, both named and anonymous, shedding light on the authoritarian abuses around Cohen, their causes and their harmful effects. In contrast, not one specific or credible factual denial has emerged from Andrew or anyone associated with him about what has been reported here in great detail and depth. Instead, we have only heard the refrain that we have failed to include the "context," as if any overarching purpose could justify the abuses described here and the pain they caused. No cry of "context" could obscure the devastating truth that the participants in this blog have had the courage to reveal...

But I think that this particular forum has run its natural course. The essence of what needed to be expressed has been said. Most of the former students I know have moved on, or are in the process of doing so—they have regrouped or are regrouping, they value what they learned, both good and bad, and they have ventured into productive new lives. Those lives now may be less filled with drama, buzz and high romanticism, perhaps, than their lives with Andrew Cohen. But they seem, to me, to be lives that are far more genuine, lives that are making, or have the potential to make, greater contributions to this world.

We're sorry to see the end of this parade of horrors, as it is a mightily-instructive journey into the heart of the pathologically-generated self-image of a guru. We suppose Cohen is never going to get it, as such is the fate of the habitually self-regarding souls who are convinced by their interpretation of their spiritual experience that they are special, rather than coming to know and promulgate the much less glamorous yet more accurate rendering of the truth, that self-realization and enlightenment do not make you special; they only reveal your utter ordinariness as a being – to yourself, others and the universe at large.

Just as the door shuts on What Enlightenment??!, another has opened for us. Today a reader revealed the existence of YogaDawg, which is described as a snarky cross between The Onion and Yoga Journal. Seeing as we are decidedly outside the yoga "scene", a lot of it flies clear over our heads. But other folks seem to like it, and as we get more of a sense of its style, we find our admiration increasing. We're adding a permanent link, and if we miss anything that applies to what we're doing here, please give us a nudge in that direction.

Cohen Leaves Lenox For A Less Spoiled Pasture

File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

Apparently, some folks in Lenox, MA are pissed off that Andrew Cohen is shipping out with his EnlightenNext org, and they've got fingers pointed at American Guru author William Yenner. But based on Yenner's 13-year sojourn as an inner-circle member, Cohen has no business teaching nondual realization at all:

During my 13 years with Andrew Cohen, as a member of his inner circle of students, manager of Foxhollow, and a member of the Board of Directors, I was witness to countless instances of abusive behavior toward students on a regular basis. The strategy at EnlightenNext has always been to "destroy the ego", believing it to be the main obstacle to spiritual "evolution". Andrew's tactics are largely based on ever increasing levels of demands and psychological pressure on the "ego", which is often how the abuse results. I have witnessed such treatment escalate in some cases to emotional, financial and even physical abuse. In far too many cases students were coerced to behave in ways that violated their own dignity, privacy and good sense, all in the belief that only a self-limiting ego would resist their guru's instruction.

Can you say ego-fixation? And that whole idea of destroying the ego is so 2000 and late.

Not that it's going to stop everyone from going. Cohen has rendered himself a star, and there will always be folks who want to catch some of that "shine." His being an asshole isn't likely to hobble his appeal to that reflex. In fact, it's just as likely to enhance it with some folks.

"What Enlightenment" Reignites

File under: The Siddhi of PR

A persistent reporter has spooked Papaji acolyte and EnlighteNext magazine founder Andrew Cohen, causing him to make public denials through lawyers to the authors of What Enlightenment, which carries unflattering descriptions of Cohen's behavior with his students. Cohen's action has caused ex-students to rally to the truth, and this truth hurts:

I would say that slapping and physical assaults were pretty infrequent. I have heard of a number of incidents over the years, but on the whole I would not say it was something that formal students came to expect. Perhaps it was more so for the very small group of “Committed Students”—the few, perhaps three to seven most senior students who led Andrew’s communities. I can personally attest to being instructed one time to go to Craig Hamilton and Carter Phipps, coeditors with me of Andrew’s magazine What Is Enlightenment?, shout an angry message, and slap them both, hard. Andrew emphasized that I must really mean it and hit them hard. I did this. He also had me do the same thing to Amy Edelstein (who sent the replies to you from EnlightenNext). For the record, I also witnessed Amy Edelstein herself slapping Craig and Carter under similar circumstances. In the incidents I witnessed or participated in, no one was physically harmed. Nevertheless, I find it abhorrent, and this event was one of the “final straws” that helped me to realize that Andrew, and now I, had crossed a line that should not be crossed.

We suspect Cohen is now wishing he'd have kept this bag closed. While his little slaparchy might have made a good episode of the New Three Stooges, it definitely also makes for really, really bad PR.

The Twisted World Of The American Guru

File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

We received a copy of American Guru a few months ago, but have slacked at actually opening it. That said, this review reveals the gist of it, that Andrew Cohen gives every appearance of being yet another personality-disordered, adoration-addicted control-freak cult leader:

Cohen mandated – directly or indirectly – actions such as slapping the face of someone for showing too much ego or pride; banishing followers, at least temporarily, for alleged misbehavior; or requiring followers to shave their heads as a form of humility. In one incident recounted in the book, Yenner says a woman who spoke up to Cohen had red paint thrown in her face as punishment.

Yenner himself kept coming back for more, getting fleeced in the process:

In 1998, he says, he gave Cohen a gift of $10,000 to thank him for being his mentor. A year later, Yenner, told that he was exhibiting too much pride, says he was banished from Foxhollow for betraying Cohen and his teachings.

Increasingly exhausted, desperate, and almost mentally broken, Yenner says, he sought to regain favor by offering EnlightenNext an $80,000 inheritance from his father. Things got only more bizarre after that – Yenner was told to go to Australia to stay with another out-of-favor follower. Six days after his arrival Down Under, Yenner says, Cohen ordered him to return to the United States.

After another cycle of banishment and forgiveness, Yenner was told he was no longer welcome at Foxhollow. “I felt nothing,” he writes. “I decided to leave the community for good.” That night, he stayed in a hotel in the tiny town of Florida in the Berkshires. “I could see for miles,” he writes. “I began to feel joy and liberation.”

Playing God takes two, someone to be God and someone to believe in them. This provides the glue that holds a cult together through each successive episode of the leader's pathological narcissism. What appears to be insanity from an outsider's perspective gets filtered as God's tough love within the group. Yenner and others were paying a lot for that love. Here's to hoping they finally get to see that they got their money's worth for having survived such a towering example of enlightenwrong.

The Rev. Sun-Yung Cohen?

File under: Gurubusting

We love it when a tipster does all the work for us:

Details will apparently be forthcoming, but this current student's blog reveals that the Rev. Sun-Yung [Andrew] Cohen has orchestrated and officiated at a group marriage ceremony for four couples this New Year's Eve. What isn't [revealed] in the meaning "relationship in an evolutionary context" is that in the past Cohen has always had final approval of who gets to have a sexual relationship with whom, and often pairs people up himself.

The other irony to all this is that Cohen used to have quite a penchant for breaking up married couples who became formal students. This was the case for years... now he's marrying them... I guess either way, it's all about who's controlling the marriage... and when it comes to his students it's got to be him.

[It] also could be interesting to remind everyone that this is all happening at Foxhollow, the ashram he bilked $2 million from Jane O'Neil to acquire.

Cohen's own mother explains it all, speaking to Cohen himself:

Everyone lives in terror. Of you. The people nearest you are all spies. For you. They're also sycophants, telling you only what you want to hear, because they're afraid to tell you the truth. So you get no feedback. There is nothing at all to modify your behavior. Nothing.

Playing with people's lives like he owns them. It's much more within the purview of character disorder than anything that could be called true wisdom.

Will The Right Wing Come After Cohen?

File under: The Siddhi of PR

The anti-Andrew Cohen Whatenlightenment blog is running with a letter written by an 81-year-old Republican with an axe to grind:

My grand daughter spent 5 years with Andrew and she never spoke a word to me during that time. I read some of his stuff and I think you folks miss the point, there is a lot of fancy language around what he says but he seems to me to be simply a fraud who takes advantage of people. My grand daughter now visits me all the time, she's not very well, though. Andrew took a beautiful women and turned her into a fearful depressed person, it's like he sucked the spirit out of her and left only a confused shell.

Or, she may have come into an adult onset of clinical depression.

While we'd probably disagree with everything else the guy has to say, his suggestions as to how to deal with Cohen are comprehensive:

These kinds of cults always have a shadow side. Some of this shadow is exposed through this blog, I am sure there are more lies and deceit below the surface. People who act like this are usually projecting some hidden truths. My bet is that his financial model is very tightly controlled. No one really knows what's happening except for a few (probably outside the community), these accountants and lawyers would have created not for profit trusts that are under the control of Andrew, these trusts are the then siphoned by way of special charges for consultancy, dubious outside services. My grand daughter was continuously asked for money, she gave over some $28,000 in the last 2 years.

The focus on financial donation I believe shows his weakness. I believe an IRS audit and exposure of how his multi million dollar empire is run would go a long way toward bringing his evil empire down.

But what is really frightening about the whole thing is that it's all in a letter to Bill O'Reilly.

Can you imagine that nincompoop calling for an audit of Eastern religious organizations as his next cause celebré? The mind boggles at what could be the opening of the next front in the culture wars. The Whatenlightenment folks need to understand that once they help open that door (which we suppose we're helping along too), it could be curtains for hundreds of more legitimate efforts to bring Vedic understanding to the West.

This here's a double-edged sword, folks. Let's all hope we don't get cut with it ourselves.

Cohen Suddenly Gets "Integrity"

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Seemingly in response to the Jaxon-Bear brouhaha – or at least timed suspiciously close to it – "bad boy" and fellow Papaji-ite (and rival) Andrew Cohen has released "A Declaration of Integrity" on his blog. Apparently, it's getting hot in the kitchen and the boy does not want to leave:

I’ve always been the kind of teacher who evokes reverence and respect from some, and suspicion and hatred from others. In recent years, however, this polarization has become more extreme, due in large part to the dedicated efforts of a small group of former students who seem to have made it their life mission to create and spread a negative picture of who I am, in a couple of books and in online forums.

One of those "former students" being his own mother! We read her book The Mother of God last year on the plane, but we couldn't finish it as it was just endless stories of Andrew being a grandiose asshole. Too close to home, we guess.

It doesn't appear that they've caught this yet, but since it's more in the purview of the What Enlightenment? blog, we'll let them take it from here. It's been a while since our last visit and it looks like there's a couple of new articles about abusive gurus up, so check it out.

Update: It looks like they've caught it now.

Very Little Enlightening, A Lot More Mad

File under: The Siddhi of PR

Andrew Cohen's "truth," by a kind and talented reader. (click to enlarge)

The Varieties Of Space-Daddies

File under: Gurubusting

We've told you before, and this won't be the last time you'll hear it from us: the commenters here rock! There is just so much good information in the comments sections of this blog that it makes us positively giddy. (The 10" of snow on the ground at Guruphiliac HQ may have something to do with that as well.)

Today, David "The Blade" drops his science about space-daddies and mommies, a term we coined to describe the make-it-all-ok with a [insert your guru's shtick here, be it a look, gaze, glance, hug, squeeze or whatever other nonsense they've come up with]-type gurus that are making the rounds in the world today:

The Blade's Space-Daddy/Mommy Glossary with Examples

Space-Daddy Explicator:
Makes it pretty clear that he is to be your space-daddy, and if you know what's good for you, you'll be his little chela.

Examples: Adi Da, Andrew Cohen, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, ...

Space-Daddy Silent Cultivator:
Never claims space-daddihood explicitly, but cultivates it through his organisation

Example: Maharishi, [Ed.note: And Sri Sri!]

Space-Daddy Repudiator-Cultivator:
Explicitly tells you not to make him a space-daddy, then makes himself a space-daddy by cultivating it through his life and organization, just like the silent cultivator.

Example: J. Krishnamurti, [Ed.note: And Swami Nithyananda.]

The above show people whom I believe fit decisively into those three categories. Other people skirt the categories, in certain aspects or times behaving as if they belong to one category, then moving into another category in another aspect or time.

Most space-daddies these days (except the extreme explicators) have some element of 'repudiation'. If you are getting into the game, this is important to know because many people think that when they hear a little repudiation of space-daddihood from their space-daddy, that he isn't a space-daddy. Don't be overly impressed when you hear something like 'You mustn't put me up on a pedestal. You must think for yourself'. Or credit being given to your own nervous system or Guru Dev. Think again! Think like a woman thinks when she hears 'I don't go after women for their bodies'.

The lower down they are in those categories, the deeper is the denial of the followers that the person they are following a space-daddy.

Now we have a taxonomy of space-daddies & mommies. As soon as we read the description of the space-daddy repudiator-cultivator, Swami Nithyananda's noble, yet somewhat comically stereotypical Hindu visage jumped into view. A perfect example of what "The Blade" has shared with us today.

So today the turban comes off so we can take the dust of the feet of "The Blade".

Tyrannosaurus Ken

File under: The Siddhi of PR

You might not be reading this blog were it not for Ken Wilber. Our exposure to his books The Spectrum of Consciousness, The Atman Project and No Boundary was the impetus to go back to school with the intent of becoming active in transpersonal psychology research. We actually ended up in graphic design, but that didn't put a damper on our higher aspirations. The blog you are presently reading is the result.

We can't admit to keeping up much with Ken. We recall him repudiating that pompous windbag Adi Da, and then repudiating his repudiation. Other than that, all we knew was he was teaching at some school in Colorado and that he'd occasionally be featured in another pompous windbag's magazine, Andrew Cohen's What is Enlightenment?

Well, according to this guy, Ken's been taking lessons from both those inflated narcissacharyas:

Being integral is increasingly being defined as: ‘agreeing with Ken Wilber’. This is the only critique being accepted within the movement. And basically it takes the form of: yes you are a genius, but wouldn’t you consider that xxx. Such a form of self-denegating critique is the only one acceptable, and it can only serve to strengthen the edifice and the influence of the master.

Ken seems to be in danger of becoming a chip off that very large block known as Adi Da. There's only the proclamation of his special divinity left to be announced and he's off to the big time guru races. It's an exceedingly sad thing to see such an intellectual and intuitive giant get waylaid by his own hype, rendering him little more than another of the self-aggrandizing nincompoops who compete for the adoration of the spiritually gullible.

An "American Guru's" Sleazy Steering

File under: Gurubusting and The Siddhi of PR

It is being alleged that Andrew Cohen is using sleazy SEO tactics to divert folks from William Yenner's American Guru page.

Excuse us for a sec so we can suddenly fall out of our chair in disbelief.