Ford. The
recollection caused my mind to digress down a corridor of memories,
smoke, and mirrors.

I pictured Rama in line at the movies, which is where he met disciples
on Saturday nights. He was easy to spot. With arms folded, one foot
forward, and head tilted back, he played the part of the
self-possessed, insurgent general who had ordered his troops to carry
on, despite the overwhelming odds. His bush of hair made him seem
taller than he was.

Rama incorporated into his teachings what he gleaned from the three,
sometimes four films he saw in a typical week. He taught, for
instance, that he was like Mike (Robert De Niro) from The Deerhunter.
Mike risks a game of Russian roulette in war-torn Saigon to try to save
Nicky (Christopher Walken), his friend.

"You are like Nicky," Rama told me frequently.

Drawing, too, from Mel Gibson's role in Road Warrior, Rama taught that
it was okay for spiritual Warriors to temper their valor in order to
survive.

Rama taught that it was spiritually correct to see such movies as The
Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Dawn Of The Dead, and The Shining, each of
which he viewed repeatedly. Horror films, he claimed, were a clean way
to alter our level of consciousness--"No drugs, no sex"--and were a
graphic reminder that each lifetime was but a brief, fragile
opportunity through which to evolve.

Citing Mick Jaggar in the concert film Let's Spend The Night Together,
Rama further taught that it was perfectly natural for powerful men to
develop their feminine side. "Part of the reason why people are so
attracted to Mick," he said, "is because he puts out a very feminine
energy." Rama later depicted himself in posters and newspaper ads as
an androgynous figure.

Perhaps as part of a doubt-diffusing lesson, Rama once invited about
twenty-five inner circle disciples to see Split Image, a movie
portraying a cult in the late '70s. When the cult leader (Peter Fonda)
blatantly manipulated his followers, Rama laughed out loud. We laughed
too. It was an odd moment; our laughter had a nervous edge to it. I
laughed partly to fit in, and partly because I sensed, but refused to
confront, the absurdity of the situation.

Another time, Rama took followers to see Conan The Barbarian. When
Conan (Arnold Schwartzeneggar) observes a cult leader raise his arms to
silence throngs of "DOOM"-chanting disciples, Rama, who sat beside me
in the theatre, turned to me and said, "He doesn't have such a