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| Re: and in addition.. -- Jethro | Top of thread | Post Reply | Forum |
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Anth's journey relevant portion: Mahatma Jagdeo When Dot and I were at Unity School, in Cornwall, in the early 70s, we made friends with a family who had moved over to the UK from Spain, to be part of the school. After the school fell apart, in summer 75, the family stayed on in the area, Dot and I returned to London and Dot produced a couple of babies. Many years later, I saw the father of the family again in London. He told me that Mahatma Jagdeo had sexually assaulted his eldest daughter. She was 8 years old at the time. Years later, when I read her account of what happened, it made me cry. When her father told me, my reaction was different. It was as if I'd been given a very unpleasant, but completely useless, piece of information. I was angry. But the incident happened about twenty years ago. What was I supposed to do about it? Her father had reported it to Mahatma Gurucharanand, but nothing had been done. It was like I'd stepped on a piece of old bubblegum. Suddenly it was stuck to my shoe. I could ignore it most of the time, but it wouldn't go away. There was never a convenient time to tell anyone. There was never anyone to tell. It had happened 20 years ago. The turd under the settee had become covered in thick dust. Why disturb it now? Let's pretend it's not there and hope nobody looks too close. Then, when I was battering the keys each night, writing my history as a cult zombie, I saw the opportunity to use the information. I included it in my story. I felt a mild relief. I had scraped the chewing gum from my sole. I didn't even give the matter a sentence to itself. Little did I realise what the repercussions would be. The eight year old girl was now a University lecturer in Australia, and she had put her email address on one of the Ex-premie websites. I sent her a copy of my story and we began corresponding. She was still burning for justice. She'd been carrying her anger and pain since she was eight years old, and nobody had even acknowledged that anything was wrong. The message had been consistent, "Nobody cares enough about Jagdeo to do anything about it." I decided to give her my full support . It took about a thirtieth of a second. The mention of Jagdeo's pedophilia prompted other responses. I received a letter from my friend Glen Whittaker, who has spent most of his adult life running the cult in the UK. It was a personal letter. He told me that he knew Mahatma Jagdeo well and Jagdeo was one of the oldest Mahatma's in the cult who had know Maharaji since he'd been a little boy. There was no way he would have done anything like what I'd suggested. Children liked him. Maybe he'd been telling a group of children a story, one of them had sat on his knee, Mahatama-ji's hand had rested on the child's knee for a moment, and it had been misinterpreted. Another old friend from the cult establishment went out for a drink with me a few days later. He confronted me about the Jagdeo allegation, asking me how I could make accusations like that without any evidence. I remember sitting by the Thames with him, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, getting irritated by his insistence that Jagdeo could do no wrong. I ended up yelling, "The guy's a fucking paedophile. Don't ever let him near your six-year old daughter." I received an email from another of Jagdeo's victims. He had assaulted her in the USA. Her friend had also been assaulted. She had reported it to two instructors, asking them to tell Maharaji. One of them reported back to her that Maharaji already knew about it. Nothing was done. Jagdeo continued touring, getting VIP treatment all round the world from cult members. She, like the other victim, was extremely angry and still wanted to do something about it. The momentum to get justice for Jagdeo's victims was gathering I received a letter from Glen, on cult notepaper, saying, if I suggested the cult or its leader were in any way aware, or condoned, any crime that may have been committed by Jagdeo, they would go to their lawyers. I published the letter on the Forum, along with my suggestion that indeed, the cult and its leader may have been well aware that Jagdeo was using his position to sexually abuse children. I didn't hear from the lawyers. The next time I went to Cornwall, I walked into Torpoint Police Station and asked the Sergeant behind the desk if the Police were interested in investigating a crime that happened within their jurisdiction over twenty years ago. He said, "What was the crime?" I replied, "Child Abuse." "Go and sit in that room, I'll fetch the Inspector." In summer 1999 the Sunday Express, a newspaper in the UK with a circulation of a few million, picked up on the Jagdeo story. I think they wanted to do a piece along the lines of, "Internet Uncovers Cult Paedophile." The paper phoned and asked if I'd co-operate. I agreed. They then asked me to get in touch with the victims and see if they'd be willing to be interviewed.. They were more than willing. The paper contacted the cult and they went into a panic. They sent a letter to the Express, saying they'd take legal action if the paper suggested Elan Vital was connected to Divine Light Mission. Any crimes committed by DLM officials were nothing to do with Elan Vital. This letter precipitated one of my magical moments on the Internet. It was 5 o'clock on a sticky, Saturday afternoon in August. I was in a cabin on the cliffs in Cornwall, miles from civilisation. The phone rang. It was the reporter from the Express. The cult were trying to prevent the paper from publishing the story. They were threatening legal action if there was a suggestion that DLM had anything to do with Elan Vital. I posted this information on the Forum. Five minutes later, John (JHB) posted from London, saying he had a letter from Divine Light Mission asking him to change the number of the account his standing order donation was paid into. He had another letter, showing that the new account number belonged to Elan Vital. Ten minutes later, Joe from San Francisco posted a link the State of California legal archive, showing the official name change from Divine Light Mission to Elan Vital. I emailed the information to the Express. The story was delayed a week. The cult were fighting hard to stop it altogether. During that week, one of the paper's directors appeared in the editors office, excited with the news, "I've got Cainer." They were referring to another old friend of mine, Britain's best know astrologer, and reputedly, best paid journalist, Jonathon Cainer. Jonathon and I worked on the editorial team of the cult magazine, "Connect." He was also part of the team that set up one of the first cult websites, Enjoyinglife.org. In England, there's a Sunday Express, Sunday Mail, Daily Express and Daily Mail. The newspapers are fierce rivals. They both aim at the Conservative middle class. The Mail had been steadily luring readers away from the Express for several months. The paper's owners had hired a trendy editor, Rosie Boycott, who became famous at the Independent for starting their "Legalise Cannabis" campaign. The word around Barnes pond was that she'd been lured from the big liberal broadsheet to the tacky, Tory tabloid by a salary fatter than Jabba the Hud and some good weed. The rumour was that Jonathon would bring a hundred thousand or so loyal astrology fans from their main rival. He'd obviously seen where the future lay. Of course there was the matter of Jonathan's connection with a cult that that was involved in allegations of child abuse, and the fact that the paper was, coincidentally, about to run a story on the aforementioned cult. Jonathon resigned his cult positions, and membership, and ended up working for the Express, who dropped the Jagdeo story. Naturally, he couldn't be associated with an organisation that was the target of such serious allegations. When I asked the reporter why the story had been spiked, he said, "For commercial reasons." I asked him if these "commercial reasons" were the readers Jonathon Cainer was expected to bring from the Express. He wasn't at liberty to comment. The Jagdeo campaign has its own momentum now. The cult has stopped denying he is a paedophile. They removed their initial response to the accusations from their website. They have conducted a recent enquiry into his activities, but refuse to release the results, or even admit there was an enquiry. Earlier this year I was contacted by someone who I've known for many years, who has had many official positions in the cult. I was told that Jagdeo's sexual abuse of children had been discussed, by small groups of people, at cult conferences for several years. Eventually the solution to his child abuse was to limit his touring to the Indian communities in the Far East. Somebody who had been at Unity School in Denver also contacted me. They told me that reading some of the stuff about Jagdeo had reminded her that he used to have sessions with some of the schoolchildren there in darkened rooms. This was now worrying her, and she'd decided to investigate further. More recently, someone told me they had witnessed very disturbing scenes in an ashram in India, where a young girl was crying, pleading not to be forced to go to Jagdeo's room again. The Jagdeo business, more than anything else, has hardened my attitude against the cult and its leader. Modified by Susan at Sun, Sep 03, 2023, 11:40:02 |
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