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Stripping the Gurus
Geoffrey D. Falk
3.22
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Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.
His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.
Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chogyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."
These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master.
Why?
Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naively open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives?
Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted "It could happen to any one of you."
Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities.
You can start by reading this book.
GenresReligionSpiritualityNonfictionPhilosophy
536 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2009
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3.22
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Onward
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August 29, 2015
I was tempted to give this one star at times, three at others.
The most laudable thing about this book is that Falk avoids the traps many other anti-cultists fall into:
-treating new religious movements (popularly called cults) as categorically different than (and less respectable than) old religious movements
-assuming that the Abrahamic faiths (especially Christianity) somehow have, by default, less potential for harm than Asian spirituality and religion
-failing to recognize that cults form in many quite secular contexts: e.g. frats, the military, workplaces, and so on. As a graduate student in literature, I am most thankful that Falk recognizes that both Freud and Jung were leaders of classical cults of personality that followed the same tactics and urged the same dogmatism that religious cults, UFO cults, and so on rely on.
On the other hand, the book is written with such bile-laden ferocity and anger (Falk had a rough time of things in the Self-Realization Fellowship) that one is tempted not to take it all too seriously, even when the evidence compiled has its own force. Indeed, the whole thing has an air of immaturity about it. It really is just a book of gossip, mostly with a charmless, sneering tone.
Of course, when a lot of the "gossip" is about really fucking serious allegations of abuse, it's most certainly worth taking a closer look at. When it's about such allegations. I use italics there because much of the book isn't about such allegations. The chapter on Ram Dass, for instance (there are some other examples), is so devoid of anything shocking or even particularly troubling that one wonders at its inclusion. I also wonder at how reliable some of his sources are. Some really are reliable; there is a lot of good, valuable, important information here about the abuses that people get away with in the name of religion and spirituality. In some cases, however, the sources appear to be of the "this guy I knew said his brother's friend who was in this cult said that his girlfriend's mother's friend said that..." form.
The issue is that both reliable and somewhat sketchy sources are used. I am not denying the importance of exposing information from reliable sources.
There is also way too much sneering at consensual sexual relationships in spiritual commmunities (oh no! yoga teachers in the West have sex with their students?????!!!!! Who knew?!!!) [yes, there is often a power imbalance, but are we really going to rail against every relationship someone has with someone in their social circle who's higher up the ladder than they are? That would invalidate a large portion of relationships as abuses of power] and at drug use and at various other fairly mundane stuff.
I'd like to note that Falk did get me thinking about the parallels between BDSM and spiritual devotion. I really do not mean to be too fashionably unholy here. The interest in the parallels is genuine. His only comment on BDSM in the book seems to see it as pathological and necessarily problematic; this is also how he sees devotion to a guru, to God, etc. The reason why seems to be that Falk assumes that submission by choice is indication of seriously poor self-esteem, when there's a reasonable amount of anecdotal and social-psych/sex-psych stuff that suggests otherwise. He also assumes that playing the dominant role is necessarily always a matter of actual control, of genuine sadism. He displays no understanding of the dynamics of necessary care, of profound trust, and of very serious intimacy involved (as some have told me; I would of course know nothing personally of BDSM).
Do we have the ability to make such choices in the way we're often assumed to? I do not know, but I do know that this is not the place to try to resolve the millennia-old question of whether or not we have free will. Even the less complex subsidiary questions of influence-after-having-been-initiated and so on are immensely difficult to answer. My own feeling is that such influence is most often inescapable after initiation into a cult or culture or professional group or whatever it is. Critical thinking helps, but doesn't solve all problems. Advertising being the best example of this in the global cult of capital to which none of us alive, as far as I know, even asked to be initiated into.
Of course, the issue of blurred lines is always there in BDSM and always there in spiritual communities. In the use of certain drugs as well as in intense meditative practice, there is the possibility of ego death, often resulting in what have been called "bad trips" and "dark nights of the soul," respectively. In BDSM play, too, the issue of ego death looms large. Falk is no fan of ego death. But I don't think it's a simple matter (by the way, fascinatingly enough, "spiritual vanity" identified by Falk among ashram members seems quite analogous, to me, to the vanity displayed, I'm told, by many BDSM submissives and some doms; the notion that these egos are anywhere near dead is itself quite suspect [you'll also not have to struggle too hard to find LSD users who will endlessly flatter themselves about their special insights]).
Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I see plenty of evidence that many BDSM circles have worked out ways to keep the lines from blurring and to turn what is often, in the world at large, actual abuse and actual psychological violence, into something quite contrary. And I think that many spiritual communities also have checks in place that mostly work.
Falk's assertion is we should "just say no" to most spiritual seeking and (I gather) pretty much all organized religion. I would contend, though, that by the same logic, we should "just say no" to power dynamics everywhere (and they are everywhere). Oh, and perhaps join together with others to create communities without power dynamics (I'm extrapolating here).
Oh, shit, that didn't tend to turn out too well, either, did it?
So let's just be freegans, then. But, damn it, we need support when we're hopping trains, and some of us are better dumpster-divers than others, so fuck, we're in trouble again.
I could go on, but I won't. In essence, I think what I'm driving at is that most human societies and communities contain some elements of fuckedupednness. Perhaps, and I know I'm being pessimistic, there's just fucked up shit that happens when people band together, and we can't seem to avoid banding together, given how profoundly bad it is for us to be genuinely alone. I am thoroughly convinced of the shittiness of some of the groups and leaders Falk discusses here, but thoroughly unconvinced that some of the others are all that terrible or that any of this is somehow unique to spiritual communities. Shit, even Falk doesn't seem to think it necessarily is unique to them.
Very important: none of the above is to imply that we should raise our arms in surrender when abuse does happen and pretend it didn't. One of Falk's most valuable points is that it must be possible to critique and to reform.
You can read the book here: http://www.strippingthegurus.com/
1970-present non-fiction
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Bryan Murphy
12 books · 79 followers
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March 3, 2016
This book performs a devastating demolition job on the lure of gurus. It demonstrates that psychological violence is inherent in the guru-disciple relationship, and strongest in an organised setting. Moreover, the author recognises that the same dynamics play out in many other institutions, even secular ones. His case is unassailable. Unfortunately, he repeats it more often and at greater length than is necessary. Moreover, he has added an appendix in which he shows how neither Christianity nor Islam can claim to be vehicles for peace, but then descends into a diatribe against refugees and those who think they deserve asylum. His ashram-induced paranoia has not so much dissipated as attached itself to new targets, which is sad. Apart from that, he has done the world a valuable service with this volume.
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Nik
61 reviews · 7 followers
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May 23, 2012
If you wana see what most so called gurus are like from the inside and secretly or if if you're feeble minded to want to join some group/following then read this book first. I had plenty of laughs. Never really knew how many of them were homos did know they were perverts. Unfortunately, one of the swami's has ties with Nikola Tesla whom I had been a fan of. No wonder why he was never married!
Insightful and humorous..
fun-read
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Kyle Avery
39 reviews · 5 followers
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August 29, 2018
Brings light to "enlightenment". A very human world looks more human after this book of checks and balances is read.
I appreciate that it doesn't encourage or discourage spirituality or religion it just shows the humanity in even the most decorated practitioners of these divine quests.
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Levanah G.
12 reviews · 4 followers
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November 12, 2021
Having this book recommended to me, I jumped right into reading it blindly, excited to see some good faith criticism about religious leaders and figures misusing their power. Boy was I disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, there's much to be said about leaders accused of sexual abuse and of incubating a cult-like unhealthy following. There are so many cases of that happening across basically all religious groups, so it's not like the author was treading on dry grounds here. Still, he focused on so many accusatory and often times non-issues, forgetting the humanity of practitioners and leaders alike, and the inherent propensity to bad decisions and flawed behaviour. I'm not talking about those who have been accused of sexually harassing their disciples - that is what I expected the book to be about. Instead, the author points out obvious or just menial things, like saying not all Buddhist monks follow their path in an excruciatingly strict way, as if it weren't a thing in all religions. We see plenty of Christians have sex before marriage, divorce, participate in degenerate behaviour, and that is purely because most people are still going to be drawn to their human side, even if the practice is supposed to be strict or barely religious, not because the religion or the group is a fraud or a cult.
Besides the obvious bias against eastern practice, the author tends to put things like 'he drank himself to an early grave' as if it were the end of the world. As the book clearly states, those mystical leaders are only human, and to use things as a type of gotcha is breaking the point of it. Again, there are so many cases of actual abuse within religious grounds, why put the focus on extremely menial things? To criticise the personal life of someone is one thing, but to try and discredit religious practices by pointing them out is weird. Anyone with decent knowledge in a religious subject can teach you about it, and they don't need to practice it strictly or at all to push that knowledge forward. That's not how it works, just because ascetic groups have members who liked sex and lavish things doesn't mean that asceticism is a scam.
I could go on about how religion (even in small groups) is inherently tied to culture and the current political situation of where it's situated, whether it pushes for change or it supports how things currently are, so to criticise religious groups for long removed ties to political acts and parties is a dumb as screaming at modern Christians for burning witches... but that should already be obvious. Apparently not to our boy Falk.
This is not to say this book is 100% unfounded and that it doesn't come with a much deserved view of cynicism towards religious leaders and those with power through means of religion. But it could have been done in a way that's not purely weaving off [citation needed]-tier claims or points with no nuance. Focusing on things that aren't cult-like and are clearly explained by simply knowing religious dynamics makes it even more difficult for light to be shined upon the hidden and nasty practices that unfortunately are common in religious groups to this day - like the abuse of minors and women, the political monopoly certain countries are under religious parties, the scammers who take every single penny off of grieving families, practices akin to slave work and mass suicide. Those are so important for the author to spend time nitpicking someone's drinking habit.
And as a finale, the author has as much understanding about the origins of eastern practices to be able to justify them as 'weird' as a 4-year-old has an understanding about quantum physics. Here's a lovely example of him explaining why a practice unusual to him is actually not that peculiar within the context of the faith he's criticising, but then just throwing that aside and saying 'nah, that's still weird'.
'The moment I utter the word “cunt” I behold the cosmic vagina ... and I sink into it (in Sil, 1998).
That is actually not quite as odd as it might initially seem, for “cunt” itself derives from Kunda or Cunti—names for Kali, the Hindu Divine Mother goddess, beloved of Ramakrishna.
It is still plenty odd, though.'
Anyway, 2/5 stars. Did have some cases I had no idea about, but overall it's just the religious version of a sensational tabloid magazine.
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Nicola
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October 10, 2019
A lot of the material is not original and the author puts on the same level frauds like Hubbard with respectful zen masters, whose fault was just having consensual sex with women. Although I do not mind gossips, I would have liked a unique strong theme underlying the different chapters. That said, if someone is curious about some gossips or spicy details of a guru's life, maybe he will find those here.
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Chels S
318 reviews · 32 followers
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September 6, 2019
Apart from the immensely stupid mistake of being unable/unwilling to see a difference between Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church and a 2-bit celebrity "guru" on meth, it's good.
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Me
146 reviews · 6 followers
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July 21, 2018
This is a very important book for all spiritual seekers. You will run into con artists, thieves, perverts and nut jobs. This book will help open your eyes to all the nonsense.
I recommend.
===
Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment Kindle Edition
by Geoffrey Falk (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 81 ratings 3.2 on Goodreads 60 ratings
See all formats and editions
"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion."
--John Horgan, author of *Rational Mysticism*
"Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book."
--Dr. David C. Lane, California State University
"This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themself revering a spiritual teacher."
--Susan Blackmore, author of *The Meme Machine*
"Geoffrey Falk's delightful but disturbing unmasking of religious prophets and preachers who command a vast following is a welcome contribution to the literature on the gurus and god-men of all religions."
--Dr. Narasingha P. Sil, Western Oregon University
"No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing—sometime vicious or criminal—reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must!"
--Len Oakes, author of *Prophetic Charisma*
Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.
His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.
Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chögyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."
These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master.
Why?
Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naïvely open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives?
Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you."
Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities.
You can start by reading this book.
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English
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Editorial Reviews
Review
This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themself revering a spiritual teacher. --Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine
Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book. --Dr. David C. Lane, California State University
Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion. --John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism
Geoffrey Falk's delightful but disturbing unmasking of religious prophets and preachers who command a vast following is a welcome contribution to the literature on the gurus and god-men of all religions. --Dr. Narasingha P. Sil, Western Oregon University
No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing--sometime vicious or criminal--reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must! --Len Oakes, author of Prophetic Charisma
About the Author
Geoffrey D. Falk is author of The Science of the Soul: On Consciousness and the Structure of Reality, "Norman Einstein": The Dis-Integration of Ken Wilber, and Hip Like Me: Years in the Life of a "Person of Hair". He studied electrical engineering and physics at the University of Manitoba. Following that, he worked as a best-in-class computer programmer. He currently divides his time between writing, software development, and music composition.
Product details
ASIN : B01BQSF36K
Publisher : Million Monkeys Press (February 12, 2016)
Publication date : February 12, 2016
Language : English
File size : 886 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
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Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 687 pages
Best Sellers Rank: #1,261,354 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Reggae Lover
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2018
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One thing this book proves is that Catholics don't have a monopoly on abuse. There are many many good honest and devout gurus as there are Catholic priest but this book is a reminder that there are deceptive s everywhere.
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a viewpoint
3.0 out of 5 stars A cautionary tale.
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024
For anyone who may not fully understand, I’ll explain in brief what a guru is. Let’s start with the premise that all of us are Soul. That is, we are all small parcels of ‘God’ (or more accurately, what Catholics call the Holy Spirit of God) much like a photon is a small parcel of light but it does not encompass all light. The greater premise is that we can each unfold into greater and greater states of consciousness (or spiritual realization) until we achieve an ultimate state in which we not only thoroughly understand ourself (self-realization) but we have come to the threshold of the ultimate reality, in which we see ourselves as all that is. This last state (if it exists) may be called an avatar, or the presence of the almighty in human form. A guru can be considered anyone who has at least reached the state of self-realization and is capable of offering tremendous assistance to those seeking spiritual enlightenment.
Granted, God the father, the absolute almighty is incomprehensible to the human mind, and a state of being approaching a true avatar (if it exists) would be so qualitatively different from normal human consciousness as to also be incomprehensible. Such an avatar would be able to see all past and future in the present. The avatar would understand you better than you understand yourself, seeing all your past lives, present strengths and weaknesses and future challenges. He or she would know what is best for you as he or she assists you in working through your karma. The more purified his or her consciousness, the more he or she could help you. A lesser guru may not be so advanced, but since he or she is perhaps halfway between you and an avatar, he or she could still be of great service on your spiritual journey.
However, there are many so-called wolves in sheep’s clothing who profess to be what they are not. They seek power over others for the same reasons any flawed person might… ego gratification, greed and sexual abuse. The author embarked on a spiritual quest and he believes that he was taken advantage of by such fraudulent gurus… and he concludes that all gurus are frauds. He now rejects the above premise that some people have evolved to such exalted states (through years of discipline and meditation) that they can assist others along the path of spiritual unfoldment. It’s a premise that has a tradition in the East going back over 10,000 years. Many people who have trained under such spiritual masters have reported incredible miracles as well as amazing spiritual growth. One has to question whether the author has thrown out the baby with the bath water.
Much of the book is sordid yet cleverly witty and entertaining. He shreds the reputation of many gurus, although nearly all of what he writes was already public with a little research. There are some included who don’t really have that much dirt, and you have to wonder if they are really frauds. He wrote a long chapter about Self-Realization Fellowship which he was a member of, but there really wasn’t much dirt on Paramahansa Yogananda or Sri Daya Mata. It was mostly about how petty and incompetent many of those above him were.
The next phase of the book is a lengthy analysis of mind control techniques with a lot of repetition. My feeling on that is that in large part we brainwash ourselves. We have to be careful and go into a path with eyes wide open, but with brains not too wide open. We need to watch what a spiritual path demands of us. Is it simply a commitment to meditate and follow certain disciplines that appear to be for our own good? Or does it demand a huge financial commitment, for example? Or perhaps you have to be willing to be beaten and humiliated? Or abandon your family and friends and life as you knew it? Any price you have to pay strengthens the path’s hold on you. Whether you believe the guru is God in the human flesh or not, it’s very difficult to walk away from having vested oneself deeply with many forms of profound sacrifice.
The book is apparently well-researched as evidenced by an extensive bibliography, but the author cites no less than nine books by David C. Lane, yet he omitted one of Lane’s works, The Unknowing Sage, that is relevant to his skepticism of gurus. It is about the life of Baba Faqir Chand, a man who was recognized as a highly evolved guru yet he was self-effacing in his honesty and claimed to be oblivious to any miracles or spiritual aid rendered by him. If he was doing these things, he had no awareness or memory of it. He could have simply smiled and nodded, and let the credit anoint him. Is that what others have done?
This raises the possibility that it is we ourselves who work miracles in our own lives through our very faith in what we believe to be a perfect master. Contemporaries of Jesus had this kind of faith in him, and he told them that by their faith shall the requested miracle come to pass. Thus, perhaps both are needed… the Godman (or one we believe to be a Godman) who inspires absolute faith and the disciple who manifests that faith. I myself have witnessed such events in my own life and I believe this may be how it works.
This book is an interesting read (especially the first half) and is recommended for the young and naïve spiritual seeker as a cautionary tale.
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James R. Schwartz
4.0 out of 5 stars This book is actually very good, and essential reading...
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2014
This book is actually very good, and essential reading for anyone considering joining these NRM (new religious movements). Rather than relying on speculative anecdotes or questionable sources, it uses a liberal amount of references to show its veracity.
Here is just one excerpt from the book, from the chapter 17, "A Wild and Crazy Wisdom Guy (Chogyam Trungpa):
"Allen [Ginsberg] asked Trungpa why he drank so much. Trungpa explained he hoped to determine the illumination of American drunkenness. In the United States, he said, alcohol was the main drug, and he wanted to use his acquired knowledge of drunkenness as a source of wisdom (Schumacher, 1992)."
However, this book is not perfect, that is for sure. In one chapter, the author writes: "[A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's] (1896 - 1977) own guru was claimed to be an avatar." By who? Bhaktivedanta Swami's guru was the illustrious Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati (1874 - 1937). I have never read, anywhere, of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati being called an "avatar". Note that there was neither footnote nor reference on this point. For this reason, I am giving the book four stars instead of five.
This book is actually very good at exposing the so-called yogis and other frauds. These con artists have done a great disservice to sincere seekers of wisdom who turn to Hindu or Buddhist thought. After experiencing or witnessing abuse, they may "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and dismiss all Dharmic schools as depraved. This is unfortunate, because there are some glittering gems hidden amongst the broken pieces of glass coming from the East. For example, the Bhagavata school of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486 - 1534) is one such effulgent gem.
Speaking of "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", it is unfortunate that the author of this work appears to have done just that. His disillusionment with his own personal experiences with Yogananda's group (the Self-Realization Fellowship), thoroughly covered within this book, seems to have turned him into a cynical atheist.
I am amazed at the number of one-star reviews of this book. I can only assume that many of these may be submitted by devotees of the individuals exposed in this book. While doing some research, I found some websites from some followers of Chogyam Trungpa, mentioning the necessity of "sanitizing" (editing) Wikipedia articles that recount unsavory scandals dealing with Trungpa. This sort of behavior at hiding the truth makes this book even more essential.
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Klaus Schober
1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2022
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Following his theme author is looking for dirt and cruising through head lines. Who says 'gurus' have to be celibate? Pure trash and waste of paper.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Information that needs to be out there
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2021
As someone who has been on the margins of groups led by "inspired" gurus, I am grateful to the author for making this information available. It is like getting doused by a bucket of ice-cold water; if this doesn't wake you up, nothing will. "Steer clear of all gurus" would be the book's takeaway. The guru principle is identical to the Führerprinzip, and no one should be given that type of power.
The author's snarky tone is amusing at first, but eventually gets on one's nerves. I was also left uneasy by his nihilistic conclusions about spirituality in general, but I can see why he reaches them and, frankly, he may be right.
Despite these (possible) drawbacks, I give the book 5 stars because of the importance of the information it presents and to counterbalance, to a small extent, the pannings the book has received from the camp of the "true believers."
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Krishna Rao
5.0 out of 5 stars Spirit of Independence
Reviewed in India on December 6, 2023
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"Stripping the Gurus" gives a terrific jolt to the thought that a Guru is an enlightened one and that he would help others attain enlightenment. Guru is equated with God and as such, followers would not hesitate to surrender to him and lose their spirit of Independence. Having lost the much needed critical observation, the followers fail to see things in black and white. Geoffrey, by a stroke of luck, could come out of the oppressive atmosphere prevailing in an ashram. Then, he made it a mission to expose some of the famous gurus who lack the integrity and are given to sexual aberrations. The genuine aspirants would certainly benifit from this book. It is only when one is empowered with a spirit of Independence, that one would be in a position to discover what all spirituality is about.
Krishna Rao Nagineni
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revilo178
3.0 out of 5 stars If Shiva is angry, your guru can protect you; but if your guru becomes angry, no one can save you
Reviewed in Canada on April 15, 2012
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It is difficult to rate a book if you basically agree with its main thesis but don't like the way it argues for it. As far as I am concerned, this book is a case in point, as is shown by my rather Solomonic rating. I do think that "surrendering one's will and one's life to a guru" is a very poor decision to make. It may make sense to "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him," as members of Alcoholics Anonymous are supposed to do (3rd step) - an institution that, though doubtless spiritual, not only has no "enlightened master" at its helm but even utterly rejects the concept of a charismatic leader (see tradition 2 [emphasis added]: "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern," and 12: "Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."). It hardly makes any sense, on the other hand, to assume that any of the gurus of the spiritual world is a God in his or her own right, much less to worship them uncritically. It is worth pointing out that this is not a view held by "materialists" only: among many others who take interest in Eastern or East-inspired spirituality, Swami Vivekananda (no less) said that "Of one hundred persons who take up the spiritual life, eighty turn out to be charlatans, fifteen insane, and only five, maybe, get a glimpse of the real truth" (cited by Falk on p. 337.) Besides, there is hardly any way of telling whether or not anyone who claims to have experienced spiritual enlightenment really has or is just pretending or deluding themselves; furthermore, arguably even non-dual enlightenment (or whatever other kinds of enlightenment there may be), all claims to the contrary notwithstanding, does not guarantee that the individual affected by it will behave morally in the future (p. 431-2. I think the case of Zen masters supporting Japanese fascism in the 1930-40ies [researched by B. Victoria] speaks volumes in this respect). Add the human proneness to embarking on power trips whenever possible and forgetting much of one's empathy and care for other living beings in the process (cf. the Zimbardo experiment, related by Falk in ch. 27, p. 305-49), and it will become clear that surrendering one's life to a guru figure, and checking one's critical mind at the entrance of their ashram, is a very risky thing to do, to put it mildly.
The way Falk argues his point, however, is less than satisfactory. While he does admit that he is reporting "allegations" (and often simply rumors) on the gurus he is writing about, he invariably goes on to base his arguments on the assumption that these allegations are true. Someone like me will have no trouble believing that most of them are, but those people who are in danger of surrendering their lives to a guru will hardly be persuaded to refrain from this by such gossipy and one-sided attacks. Falk has obviously gone out of his way to throw as much dirt as he can at each and every guru he could think of; his taint on Vivekananda seems frankly petty and his criticism of Ramana Maharshi is inaccurate (it is the first time, by the way, that I have seen anyone take a shot at this most uncontroversial of all sages). The whole book reads like a rant, and is too long to boot. It is easy, in the middle of the ranting, to miss out on Falk's real arguments (which I have tried to summarize above).
Whoever, after reading this book accurately, reads the negative reviews (I mean those on amazon.com) will see that for the most part they do not address his real points but either ignore them or put forth counter-arguments that Falk has already dealt with. One example: Falk never attacks Ramakrishna just for being a little queer, but because he used other people (mostly children) to live out his phantasies. It is the lack of empathy, of true concern for the feelings and well-being of others, that he sets out to expose, as well as the (ridiculous) contention that some behaviours can only be "misunderstood" in the "perverted West" while (as we obviously are to understand) in the "Holy East" there is no such thing as sexual abuse and the like, which doesn't really deserve a comment. (Or, as Agent Gideon in Criminal minds says: "Evil is not a cultural phenomenon. It is a human phenomenon.") By the way, just because Eastern religious texts praise non-violence and the care for all sentient beings doesn't mean that these ideals are actually realized in Eastern societies, any more than "love thy neighbour" has made Western societies any less cruel. The reason for this is probably that empathy is not something that can be imposed by precept but rather a skill that must be acquired and developed. But as I said, it is easy to overlook the sound points the book makes, since its partisanship is very much in your face and its way of dealing with its sources is unlikely to elicit sympathy and attention to the fine points of the argument from people who do not already share the author's opinions.
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Chris
1.0 out of 5 stars mediocre
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2016
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mediocre poorly researched often incorrect conclusions
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Alex Bernd Bittmann
1.0 out of 5 stars Beschwerde
Reviewed in Germany on June 1, 2014
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Ich habe das Buch NICHT erhalten ! Nachdem ich bei the book depository nachgefragt habe teilten diese mir mit sie hätten es Anfang Mai versendet. Sie sind nicht bereit dafür Verantwortung zu übernehmen, obwohl ich das Buch Anfang Mai bezahlt habe ! Auch suchte ich nach einer Möglichkeit mich bei Amazon zu beschweren, doch habe keine gefunden. Somit kann ich das hier nachholen und würde sie bitten sich um die Angelegenheit zu kümmern. Danke -mfG A.B.Bittmann
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