no one but yourselves.
C'mon people--fess up!"

"Rama, are we focusing on the l.o. [lower occult] again?"

"What do you think?"

"Yes, Rama."

"Look, none of you realize what you are getting yourselves into. Once
you open the door to the Negative Entities, it is nearly impossible to
get rid of them." He read our expressions and paused, as if to assess
the point at which to start building us up again.

"Eternity is all around us at every moment," he said gently, "be
absorbed. Nirvana is a world of unlimited ecstasy, be absorbed. Go
see the new Schwartzenegger movie, be absorbed. You are doing much
better lately, be absorbed. Don't forget that we will soon be
meditating together on the golden beaches of Maui, be absorbed. Be
proud that you are taking a stand against the Negative Forces, be
absorbed. Don't be so hard on yourselves--give yourselves a break--be
absorbed. Learn humility and you will learn the secret to happiness,
be absorbed. A desert trip is coming up soon, be absorbed. Forget not
that our mission is to spread light in the world, be absorbed. Our
friends from past lives will soon be joining us, be absorbed."

Rama asked that we sit up straight. He put on electronic music, slowly
scanned the audience, and raised his hands above his head. Many of us
gazed at him intensely. It didn't matter that those occupying the same
room as him were, during meditation, supposed to evolve hundreds, even
thousands of lifetimes. We still tried to absorb as much spiritual
light as we could.

Then, he might end with a quote from the teachings of Lao Tzu,
Castaneda's Don Juan, or Christ.

At the next Centre meeting, Rama might announce that everything had
changed and that we were in an extremely poor state of consciousness.

"At the weekly Centre meetings," I told Donald Kohl's father, "Rama
teaches us to realize our full potential. He teaches us to love and
respect life." I did not describe, however, Rama's fixation on death.

"Someone in San Diego is trying to kill me," Rama once told devotees in
a turret of the castle he was renting. "I am moving to Los Angeles. I
suggest that you do the same."

Another time Rama turned to me and said, "Do you realize that I can
kill you at any moment?"

"He's only joking," I thought.

"No, really," he went on. "I am extremely strong and could kill you in
an instant!"

Repeatedly during the '80s and early '90s, Rama expressed a desire to
take disciples