newspaper accounts of Fred's recent
schemes. He nodded sadly. "This is the sort of thing you would expect
from an intelligent, sensitive, abused child from a well-to-do family.
Fred quite obviously needs help, but is probably too far-gone to
realize or admit it."

In the mid-eighties, Rama sent Nelson self-promotional brochures,
tapes, and books; in 1986, Rama wrote in a brochure that Nelson had
been one of the three most influential people in his life; in 1988,
Rama confessed to Nelson that he only wanted to make some money, that
he no longer maintained a following, and that he had finally learned
his lesson about Ken Kesey and about Charles Manson.

Yet the more I learned about Rama through my continuing research, the
less I was heartened by Rama's confession to his former mentor.

In 1988, Rama persuaded many of the roughly three hundred disciples to
move to Reston, Virginia, and then to Westchester, New York. He
founded two for-profit organizations: National Professional and
Personal Development Seminars (NPDS) and Advanced Systems Inc. (ASI)
During regular meetings of NPDS and ASI he continued to teach his
disciples about spirituality. He continued to experiment with mind
control. He also experimented with new ways to make money.

Rama had been strongly encouraging disciples to study software at the
Computer Learning Center (CLC), a six-month technical school which
typically prepared people for entry-level programming jobs.

Several disciples, including my brother, Sal, and Paul, had developed
impressive track records in the software industry. But many were only
CLC graduates. During the meetings of NPDS and ASI, Rama told
disciples to share their knowledge of state-of-the-art software
technology. Then he told them to lie. According to the San Francisco
Chronicle ("Yuppie Guru Finds Cash in Computers: Devotees pay $3,000 a
month to sit at his feet", 7/30/92), Rama, in 1989, wrote a manual for
disciples in which he encouraged them to think of a resume as "a
mandala that reflects your new self." Rama wrote: "They will believe
anything you say, even when you intersperse unrealities, because they
feel the truth of your experience. When you have your stories and
images in place, arrange for your references. Choose people from our
group who are comfortable on the phone, who sound professional and who
have had data processing experience. Give them a few notes about who
they were."

In 1991 Rama told