tmananda" or "Bliss-of-the-Soul," whereas the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, after accepting his dissertation ("The Evolution
of Matter and Spirit In The Poetry Of Theodore Roethke"), had bestowed
upon him the title "Frederick Lenz, Ph.D."

* * *

Fundamental to my research on Rama were my discussions with former
disciples, some of whom I tracked down, and some of whom I happened to
meet at movie theatres, airports, and gatherings of Amnesty
International. Talking and writing about my experiences helped me to
work out much of the emotional pain. Listening to what others had gone
through also helped a great deal. But as I listened, I realized that
my darkest fear had come true. Rama had been getting progressively
worse.

In the fall of 1985, weeks after I left the Centre, Rama disbanded
Lakshmi and encouraged roughly one hundred followers to move from
Boston to Los Angeles. He directed these disciples to donate their
time to his software company, Vishnu Systems.

In 1986, Rama moved from Boston to Seattle with about eight men and
three inner circle women: Laura, Cindy, and Anne. Once they arrived
in Seattle, Rama informed the three women that he had asked them along
specifically to satisfy his sexual appetite. He told them that they
were to be his "Geisha's." By then, he explained, he needed to sleep
with two or three women at a time; an individual, he maintained, had
too little "energy" to stimulate him.

He confessed to Anne that for most of his life something had been
hurting him, keeping him down. He told her that during a recent trip
to a family event, he saw that his aunt and uncle had been using their
psychic powers all along to make him deathly ill and to try to kill
him. He told her that I had been sending him a great deal of Negative
Psychic Energy and that, in response, he had been sending me Entities
so my life would be "miserable on a daily basis."

Also in Seattle, Rama repeatedly administered LSD to the three women.
During their hallucinogenic trips he kept them up all night, shouted at
them, told them that they were possessed, and tried to get them to
confess that they had incarnated on earth to destroy his mission. Then
he threatened their lives.

During one such episode described by Anne as "nightmare weekend," Rama
fed them acid--five or so hits each--and showed them his new puppy.

"This dog is possessed," he claimed, citing its frequent need to
urinate, and its habi