Charles Cannon: Master Of Crazy

File under: The Siddhi of PR and Wackadoo Gurus

There must be a dearth of newsworthy events to report in Virginia, because for the second time in a month, another seemingly reputable news org is reporting on the wackadoo nuttiness of "Master" Charles Cannon and his "blessed Mother" as if it's a bona fide miracle:

A devout follower of meditation, Master Charles has been seeing the apparition since the age of three, but only made that public knowledge nine months ago.

"The blessed mother said to me, 'don't talk about this, don't share this a time will come when you will,'" Master Charles said.

That time was his 60th birthday. Today, he claims he is able to bring the apparition to the masses, and each month, delivers a monthly message from her to his followers.

Though she only speaks to him, those there say she is visible to believers.

"I picked up some faint gold around the face of the statue and of course some auras, the white light and auras," Sandy Beebe said.

"It's like a vibrating shadow around the statue, and it's also these tiny, tiny particles I saw. It's like snow crystals," Martin Thambert described.

Oh, the humanity of it all! You know things are headed to hell in a hand basket when seemingly reputable purveyors of current events news lower themselves to the bottom of the barrel by reporting on a matter like this.

Cannon must be offering kickbacks to local reporters to cover this nonsense. He gets more dupes, they get some cash, and the nondual truth gets to take it hard right up the backside. Greed wins as self-realization is crushed in an avalanche of superstitious fancy and mind-clogging, occluding expectations, all having as much to do with any actual spiritual truth as an episode of the Debbie Does Dallas series of fine motion picture entertainments.

Master Charles Gets The Hook

File under: Satscams and Wackadoo Gurus

Perhaps we find reason to cry Bum Shiva! a little too often, because we completely missed this alternative rag's response to the Master Charles Blessed Mother Apparition scam:

Regardless of whether Master Charles is creating a forum to spread authentic spiritual beliefs or just desperately seeking donations, there's one thing for sure: the new-agey guru is getting some attention.

Even we get a bit of press at MC's expense:

More recently, Radzik branded Master Charles' enterprises as "an avalanche of superstitious fancy and mind-clogging, occluding expectations, all having as much to do with any actual spiritual truth as an episode of Debbie Does Dallas.

Oh wow. That was us? Maybe if we up our daily Bum Shiva! count we can mellow out our harsh vibes...

TV Station's Cannon Aimed At Master Charles

File under: Gurubusting, Hands Where They Don't Belong, Satscams and The Siddhi of PR

Fantasy apparition-employing fauxru Master Charles Cannon has been keeping himself in the local news in Virginia with his "Blessed Mother" scam. Now, a Charlottesville, VA, TV station news department is looking to dig up some dirt:

***WCAV WOULD LIKE TO DO ANOTHER STORY ON SYNCHRONICITY. IF YOU WERE EVER A MEMBER OF THE ORGANIZATION AND ARE WILLING TO GO ON CAMERA TO TELL YOUR STORY ABOUT YOUR POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO INTERVIEWS@WCAV.TV.***

Master Charles was once Swami Vivekananda in the employ of the little girl diddling Baba Muktananda:

Ex-devotees told Rodarmor that Muktananda used a specially built table at the South Fallsburg ashram for his sexual encounters, that in India he had a habit of visiting the girls' dormitories at night, and that it was his custom to bestow gifts of money and jewelry on young women whom he summoned to his room. (If a young woman suddenly appeared wearing new jewelry, the ex-devotees said, it was understood that she had been tapped by the guru.) Michael Dinga, an Oakland contractor and a former SYDA Foundation trustee and devotee, who was in charge of construction at South Fallsburg for many years but became disillusioned and left SYDA in 1980, told Rodarmor that "it was supposed to be Muktananda's big secret, but since many of the girls were in their early to middle teens, it was hard to keep it secret."

Charles also hooked up with two other ex-SYDA swamis to form a Three Stooges of enlightenment a few years back. And based on some of the comments about him on the WCAV website, it could be that MC has been playing rather loose with the T(ax) C(ode). He also appears to have had some trouble keeping his hands from where they don't belong.

It looks like MC better get with the BM and have her KO the TV ND that's gunning for him now. We're looking forward to reporting just what they turn up in their investigation.

Ex-SYDA Swami Launches Mary Apparition Scam

File under: Satscams and The Siddhi of PR

Your meditation institute is failing. You just can't seem to sell your overpriced meditation CDs and folks are not signing up for your expensive retreats. What are you going to do to turn things around?

Why... just claim a visitation from the Blessed Virgin Mary! That's what the misfortunately-named Ex-SYDA Swami Vivekananda [Ed.note: It's a blight on the good name of one of India's greatest gurus.] is doing to get folks to show up at his Synchronicity Foundation in Nelson County, Virginia.

But wait... there's more! According to "Master" Charles Cannon, his Blessed Mary isn't just merely the mother of Jesus Christ:

"She refers to herself as the Divine Feminine, the Divine Mother, the Blessed Mother, not just Mother Mary," Cannon said recently before going to the nearby site where the visitations are said to be occurring.

"She is the divine consciousness - the essence of all those forms. What is amazing here is that so many people are seeing her, hearing her, smelling the fragrance [roses and gardenias].

Er... don't pay any attention to those roses and gardenias blooming in the garden! They are not the same roses and gardenias that smell like the Blessed Mother.

According to Charles, his Mary apparition is also much more cutting edge than those other apparitions folks go on about:

"I think these are very important messages that surround this apparition and will have a bearing on who is able to participate and get beyond their indoctrinated religious beliefs and open to the Divine Mother in ways that maybe are outside their religious beliefs.

"So it's going to be challenging and controversial, I would expect, and a stretch for a lot of people, because you have to go beyond religious conditioning and open up to this miracle that is happening, and then have your own experience of it and see for yourself."

How convenient! She cuts an edge, all right, right toward Charles' own, faltering groove.

This bald-faced attempt at flimflamming the spiritually ignorant is all the more astonishing for being covered in a seemingly normal local newspaper. For whatever reason, an editor at the Daily Progress deemed it important enough for several column inches. They must have been short a few used car ads today and needed to fill the space, because that's the only excuse a professional editor could have for exposing their readers to this utter garbage.