I just re-read a favorite book by Peter McWilliams entitled Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You. The introduction is entitled What does a rampaging guru have to do with you? McWilliams got taken by John-Roger, a self proclaimed guru known for abusing his power. It’s a fun and enlightening read, as are all of McWilliams’ books. Life 102 is not simply an expose’ of misrepresentation, scandal and fraud relative to one man, one incident. The book goes into the intricacies of the programming aspect of indoctrination in organizations that purport to be self help but are instead cash cows. The book is particularly relevant in light of the James Arthur Ray incident. I literally stayed up overnight reading it, although I did skip over the dialogue of John-Roger’s harrassing phone calls and hateful notes to naysayers, and skipped over the legal findings of specific criminal acts. Essentially, the story began when John-Roger, a self proclaimed all knowing ascended guru, told Peter McWilliams that he could see in his aura that McWilliams had AIDS and tuberculosis and that he was going to die in 9 months. BUT, if McWilliams put Roger’s name as co-author on some books and shared profits with him, Roger would heal his illness for him. McWilliams was under his spell from 1978 until 1994, at which time he was medically treated for depression. As his depression lifted, he began to see what others had been telling him about John-Roger, and he began to break ties. Roger retaliated, as he always did, and it is all documented in the book. Continue reading →