from NEW AGE JOURNAL May/June 1988 copyright (c) 1988 by Rising Star Associates, Ltd. Partnership Shamelessly reprinted without permission. "The Rama Drama" by Cherri Senders and Kathleen Moloney with Jonathan Adolph A MODERN ZEN KOAN: Is the seminar leader Zen Master Rama a dangerous cult leader who has emotionally and sexually abused a number of vulnerable women students in the name of enlightenment? Or is the former college professor whose given name is Frederick Lenz merely a Buddhist meditation instructor whose high-profile advertisements and nontraditional beliefs have made him a target of anti-cult paranoia? One finds little enlightenment in the disputed facts of the Rama drama, which began to unfold last fall when a small but vocal group of ex-followers, saying they hoped to warn others about Lenz, turned to the press with allegations of sexual and psychological coercion by the 38-year-old Los Angeles-based meditation instructor. Lenz contends the allegations are primarily the fabrications of "estranged lovers" and have been "orchestrated" by people affiliated with the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), a grass-roots group with headquarters in Chicago that opposes what it call "destructive cults". Prior to all this, Lenz was perhaps best known for the expensive double-page advertisements he took out in this magazine, the New York TIMES, the Los Angeles TIMES, and a number of other publications nationwide. Featuring backlit photographs displaying Lenz's androgynous face and trademark shock of curls, the ads invited readers to visit the "still center of the turning worlds" or "gain the competitive edge" through Rama's intensive zen meditation seminars. Lenz's most recent promotional campaign cost him $650,000 in the last six months of 1987, he says. A former diciple of Hindu yoga master Sri Chinmoy, Lenz opened his first meditation center in San Diego in 1979 under the name Atmananda. ("Rama", the name of a legendary Hindu warrior-prince, and the epithet "Zen Master" were adopted later.) He now claims to be one of the "12 enlightened teachers" on the planet, though his credentials as a Buddhist teacher have been questioned by experts in the field. "Nobody within the Buddhist tradition, as far as I know, has ever taken him seriously," says Rick Fields, editor in chief of the VAJRADHATU SUN, an international Buddhist newspaper. However, Wayne Surdam, an Asian religions specialist at the University of California at Berkeley and one of Lenz's students since 1982, "Rama has taught thousands of people meditation, and the vast majority of them feel his teachings are offering them a tremendous amount, both in terms of intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge." In a previous career Lenz was a college professor, having received his doctorate in English for the State University of New York at Stony Brook. And in previous lives, he claims, he was a high priest in Atlantis, a Tibetan lama, and an Egyptian mystery school occult teacher. But it's his present life that has some ex-followers disturbed. Among the more troubling of the recent allegations are those of Lisa Mercedes Hughes, 24, who lived with Lenz during the summer of 1987 and says she subsequently agreed to be "deprogrammed" at her parents' request by a CAN-recommended counselor. Hughes claims that Lenz seduced her by violating her absolute trust in him as her spiritual mentor. He told her, she says, that he could "empower me with his enlightened energy and that I would progress at a much, much faster rate than if I didn't sleep with him." Hughes also claims that on several occasions Lenz provided her with LSD, suggesting it would help her spiritual development in the manner described by Carlos Castenada in his Don Juan books. She claims he also persuaded her that she was possessed by demons. Several other women have also come forward offering stories of how Lenz mingled sex and spirituality. Anny Eastwood, a 36-year-old graduate student in psychology, alleges that in a private meditation session five years ago, Lenz berated her for hours about what a "great spiritual opportunity" it was for her to be there, then locked her in a bedroom, brandished a handgun, saying it was for protection from intruders, and forced her to have sex. Eastwood, who says that afterward she denied to herself what had happened and still "wanted to believe in Rama," acknowledges that she continued to attend Lenz's seminars for a year after the alleged incident. Jeana Lori, another ex-follower, says Lenz told her "he was working on my chakras [bodily energy centers] when we were having sex." One woman who had a sexual encounter with Lenz (and who requested anonymity) says she considers Lenz "the cosmic seducer". "He told me he needed to bump me up to his energy level," she says. Other incidents that ex-followers say are revealing range from the simply peculiar--Lenz is said to have asked his 250 or so intermediate students to pay their $600 monthly fee in crisp hundred-dollar bills because smaller bills were "low vibed"--to the more serious: Four years ago, 23-year-old former student Donald Kohl stabbed himself to death in his Malibu room, leaving behind a note that read, "I didn't do well enough to remember. Bye, Rama, see you next time." Kohl's mother says she believes Lenz's influence was "a contributing factor" in her son's death, although she concedes that her son's idealism, sensitivity, and the fact that he was easily disillusioned were also factors. Lenz acknowledges that he was intimately involved with Eastwood and Hughes (he says he doesn't recall knowing Lori), and that on occasion he dates his female students. But he denies the gun and LSD charges, and says he did not personally know Kohl. As for the "low-vibed" money, Lenz says he might have at one time have said that the smaller, often dirtier, bills have a "low-gradient energy". Lenz further contends that his most vocal critics--Hughes and Eastwood--have obvious biases. "What we're dealing with," he told NEW AGE JOURNAL in a recent interview, "is two ex-lovers, both of whom I discontinued with." He asks, for example, why it took Eastwood five years to come forward with her story. Eastwood's response: Her recovery has taken time, and it is only recently that she has fully understood what happened to her through talking with other ex-Rama followers. This type of communication among ex-Rama students was facilitated by the Cult Awareness Network, which serves as an information and referral service for disillusioned ex-cult members, families, and the media. In a recent press statement, however, Lenz charges that CAN is not merely a reactive support group, but one of several anti-cult organizations that instigate "smear campaigns to discredit religious organizations and leaders whose doctrinal points of view they do not agree with." Lenz says he was targeted by people affiliated with CAN because of his high visibility and nontraditional beliefs, and cites a February CAN newsletter that states that Los Angeles members "worked with area media on stories about Rama/Frederick Lenz." In response, CAN executive director Cynthia Kisser says CAN affiliates "never go out and try to create stories. When we get inquiries from media, we try to give them the best information available. The disputed charges and countercharges notwithstanding, Lenz's acknowledged sexual encounters with his students leave him open to criticism. Lenz sees nothing wrong with his actions: "Naturally I meet people [at my seminars] who are interested in meditation, who share a high vibratory nature--evolved individuals--who I have something in common with and like to spend time with, whether it's going to the movies or going to bed." But that attitude concerns some psychological researchers who have studied the dynamics of alternative spiritual groups. "I'm old-fashioned in that respect," says Lowell Streiker, author of MIND-BENDING. "I would be suspicious of someone making claims to being a spiritual master who was having relationships with people in his group." Adds SPIRITUAL CHOICES co-author Dick Anthony: "Sex is inappropriate in any kind of relationship in which there is a profound power disparity--therapist-client, parent-child, minister-parishioner, or guru-disciple."