sacred silicon cow scientologist

 "in 1963, Adi Da experimented with various hallucinogenic and other drugs. 

For 6 weeks he was a paid test subject in drug trials of mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin conducted at a Veterans Administration hospital in California.

He wrote later that he found these experiences "self-validating" 

in that they mimicked ecstatic states of consciousness from his childhood, 

but problematic 

as they often resulted in paranoia, anxiety, or disassociation" 

"he felt that he discovered a structure or "myth" that governed all human conscious awareness, 

a "schism in Reality" that was the "logic (or process) of separation itself, 

of enclosure and immunity, the source of all presumed self-identity".

He understood this to be the same logic hidden in the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus,

 the adored child of the gods,

 who was condemned to the contemplation of his own image 

and suffered the fate of

 eternal separateness"  

"He served as an acolyte in the Lutheran church during his adolescence and aspired to be a minister, but after leaving for college in the autumn of 1957,

expressed doubts about the religion to his Lutheran pastor. 

Adi Da attended Columbia University where he graduated in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He went on to complete a master's degree in English literature at Stanford University in 1963, under the guidance of novelist and historian 

Wallace Stegner"

(Not that Google knows squat about Stanford, 

LSD 

The US Army

Or manipulating Cult Members 101.)

exhaustive writing, exhaustive writing, exhaustive writing, exhaustive writing, exhaustive writing, exhaustive writing

Jolly West 

Feeling none of his Lutheran professors understood this experience, Adi Da left and 

briefly attended St. Vladimir's Russian Orthodox Seminary in Tuckahoe, New York. 

his autobiography, Adi Da related how he was granted shaktipat initiation, the awakening of the Kundalini Shakti that is said to reside at the base of the spine

After returning to New York, Adi Da and Nina became members and then employees of the Church of Scientology. members and then employees of the Church of Scientology.

Over a period of years, Adi Da entered into what he called "emotional-sexual reality consideration" with his formal devotees.

 It included "sexual theater", 

a form of psychodrama that sometimes involved the switching of partners, 

the making of pornographic movies, 

orgies and other intensified sexual practices, 

with the aim of revealing and releasing emotional and sexual neuroses.

Adi Da spoke of the cultish and contractual nature of conventional relationships, particularly marriage, as being a form of reinforcement of the ego-personality and an obstacle to spiritual life. Many couples were initially encouraged to switch partners and experiment sexually.

 Drug and alcohol use were sometimes encouraged, and earlier proscriptions against meat and "junk food" were no longer adhered to for periods of time.

In investigative reports and interviews, some ex-members made numerous specific allegations of Adi Da forcing members to engage in psychologically, sexually, and physically abusive and humiliating behavior, as well as accusing the church of committing tax fraud. Others stated that they never witnessed or were involved in any such activities

homeopath Gabriel Cousens wrote an endorsement for 

Adi Da's biography

 The Promised God-Man Is Here" 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Da 

"Adi Da heavily edited subsequent editions of his books, for which they have been criticized as auto-hagiography and self-mythology.

University of Southern California religion professor Robert Ellwood wrote, "Accounts of life with [Adi Da] in his close-knit spiritual community [describe]

 extremes of asceticism and indulgence, 

of authoritarianism and antinomianism… Supporters of the alleged avatar rationalize such eccentricities as

 shock therapy

 for the sake of enlightenment"