meditation
class", 2/28/93; Santa Cruz Sentinel, "HIGH-TECH Rama: Frederick Lenz
offers a vision of affluence, for a price", 2/28/93 and "Guru's
Disciples teach campus clubs: Is it a 'hustler's' scam, or an
invitation to enlightenment?", 3/1/93; The New York Times (Westchester
edition), "Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others", 6/20/93.

Rama's response to the waves of negative publicity was no different
than his response years before on "The Larry King Show" and "A Current
Affair." He professed, through spokeswoman Lisa Lewinson, that
money-seeking deprogrammers were persuading former disciples to
fabricate accusations. Yet the individuals whose accounts appear in
this book share their experiences as individuals. These individuals
are members of no such anti-cult conspiracy. These individuals respect
and defend the freedom to practice religion in its myriad forms. These
individuals have a simple message. Fly East. Fly West. But don't fly
into the cuckoo's nest.

* * *

Yet in the spring of 1988, stung by memories of friendship and deceit
in Rama's nest, I stumbled my way past the burned-out car abandoned on
the charred foundation of 9514 La Jolla Farms Road. I let Nunatak lead
me in the fading light through the parched chaparral. She gently
tugged me back to the present. One-and-a-half miles east of campus, I
opened the door of my Volkswagon Bus. I was still crying.

Inside the van I saw my fish-net "bulletin board" which reminded me
where I had been and where I was going. On it I saw an article about a
bicycle ride I had taken two years before with Nunatak. I saw the
cover of a book about Mohandas K. Gandhi, autographed by its author,
William L. Shirer. I saw a brochure from the Peace Corps and a
miniature American flag. I saw a sticker for UCSD, John Muir College.
I saw a quote from Thoreau: "If a man does not keep pace with his
companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
him step to the music that he hears, however measured or far away." My
father sent me that.

I saw a picture of anthropologist-explorer Thor Heyerdahl standing at
the bow of Ra I, a papyrus reed boat which he and six others sailed
across the Atlantic. The journey had proved that "primitive" people
could have crossed the great waterways which connect the continents.
My mother sent me that.

And I saw, next to an inflatable globe, written on a small piece of
paper, the name of the chariot: "Sunped I