Why I ended my Involvement with the Oneness
Movement - by Christian Opitz - 04 November, 2007
On many deeksha websites there are articles by Christian Opitz. Christian is a neuroscientist and has done a lot of research into neurobiology and its link to spirituality and enlightenment. Christian used to be on Oneness Univeristy’s/Bhagavan’s board of advisors.
Many in the Oneness Movement are quoting Christian and his articles in order to promote deeksha and prove that Bhagavan and his teaching is totally trustworthy and authentic.
As Christian is no more in the Oneness Movement, he doesn’t endorse Bhagavan’s ideas and promises nowadays, whatever might be written in the articles before (“Deeksha and the brain” etc.).
Translations available in: Dutch/Nederlands and Russian
When I first received deeksha in 2004, I experienced some true benefits, most notably a healing of a painful health issue that had bothered me for many years. Deeksha is of course simply a form of prayer and sometimes prayer does facilitate healing of the body or emotions or (to some extent) expansions in consciousness. But at the time, interpreted the benefits I experienced differently, in the jargon and imagery of the Oneness Movement (OM), as a special gift of a type of grace that exceeds anything that simple prayer could evoke. I also did not recognize at the time just how much I felt a sense of obligation towards the OM and Bhagavan. Unconscioulsy, I felt obliged to interpret what I saw in the movement in a very positive light. When people had some benefits in the couses in Golden City, I interpreted these as largely due to the power of deeksha. I ignored that these people where spending a prolonged retreat in silence, prayer, meditation and rituals, all of which can be powerful catalysts for changes in consciousness and brain wave patterns. I did also see things that where disturbing, like the enormous exaggerations about the effects of deeksha and promises and predictions for the future that seemed unrealistic then and have turned out to be unreal by now. With this unconscious sense of obligation clouding my judgement, I simply explained these problematic issues away, for expample I told myself “oh, maybe they need to aim for the stars to land on the moon, like the hunger project.” The hunger project set out in 1977 to end world hunger by the year 2000. While obviously failing to meet that goal, the hunger project has, in the process of trying to attain it, introduced an effective process to eliminate poverty and hunger in large parts of the third world and has brought 4,5 million people out ot poverty permanently. In the light of such a noble accomplishment, who cares that they did not end all hunger by 2000? I was hoping in 2004/2005 that the OM would accomplish something so noble for a large number of people that the promises of enlightening the whole world would not seem like a shadow side of the movement. I do no longer believe this to be true. The longer the patterns of avoiding reality continue in Golden City, the more I feel that rather than aiming for the stars to land on the moon, this movement will simply crash land on earth.
Of course I am completely responsible for my unconscious patterns that clouded my judgement, no one to blame here. It was a little humbling but mostly liberating to become aware of these patterns, my needs to be liked and other psycholigcal issues that influenced me so much in how I perceived and talked about the Oneness Movement.
I have now completely ended my involvement with the OM. The reason is simple: I do not believe anymore that the OM serves true spirituality, true dharma. To me, spirituality is about two things: The liberation of consciousness from all illusion, so that the true nature can shine and an embodiement in life that is an alternative to the patterns of manipulation and greed that dominate our current culture. I do not feel that the OM serves either purpose. I will try to explain the reasons for why I think this way.
The Fostering of Saviour Fantasies and Virtual Realities
The most problematic issue with the OM is that it continues to foster illusions in people, rather than serving to liberate their followers from illusion. In 2004, the big promise was personal enlightenment for everybody involved and enlightenment for the whole world by 2012. When the first huge wave of disappointment crashed on the shores of the OM, there where some apologies and it was sinply stated that enlightenment takes a little longer. World awakening by 2012 was still promised with full force, the elimination of all political conflict in the world by 2008 and other fantasy promises where openly stated. In those who where not downright appalled by these promises, often the most immature patterns of seeking consolation, seeking some sense of security, of hope, where triggered and nourished. Isn’t spirituality the facing of reality, which also includes the acceptance of the relative reality of life, of the world? According to the Buddha, seeking to manipulate life into something it is not is the pattern of suffering. But when a movement promises something about the world that is out of touch with reality but would be oh so beautiful, how it that going to end illusions and false hopes? The world is deeply established in a consciousness of separation. That is what is. World enlightenment is a fantasy. Awakening the world through collective fields is a fantasy that other movements have been chasing to no avail. The 100th monkey story, if it really happened, simply showed that one skill in food preparation could be passed on through a collective field. These monkeys did not undergo a radical transformation of their monkey consciousness. The OM has often used that story to illustrate how deeksha will impact collective fields to awaken humanity. This is bullshit, pardon my French. Awakening human beings from separation to oneness is a little bigger than improving the ability to chop veggies (or wash sweet potatoes, as in the case of the 100th monkey). True dharma does not try to console people in their fears and vulnerability, but to awaken them to a consciousness where vulnerabilty is no longer a problem. Human life is vulnerable, facing this is essential if we want to grow as human beings, let alone in any way that could be called spiritual. The OM loves to give people a feel – good message and then leaves them hanging when they find out it does not work in real life. The fundamental illusion that the OM has fed to people again and again is that with deeksha, you operate in a different league. Whether it was about getting enlightened with no effort, having all your desires fullfilled as was promised with the phala deeksha in 2005 or the recent claim that deeksha givers are now endowed with siddhis to perform miracles, the idea that through deeksha a life that would otherwise remain utopia becomes real has always been encouraged. It just isn’t so. Deeksha givers struggle with life like everybody else. Deeksha givers grow spiritually to the degree they can let go of illusion, be truly aware of what is, like any other spiritual seeker. They have success and failures according to their talent, work ethic or lack thereof. Deeksha givers are as much subject to the waves of life, karma or whatever like everybody else. Countless times have I heard from people after courses in Golden City how the dasas always responded to emails with positive experiences and hardly ever responded when people were suffering. When the OM is confronted with the sobering reality that does not match their virtual reality, the love that is so intruiging to many in Golden City seems to take a vacation.
Manipulation
Many people who first go to Golden City are touched by the love that is there (or seems to be there?). Most of the dasas I have met have very sweet, cheerful personalities. But when the OM has to decide between love and integrity on one hand and what they believe serves their ambitions to get bigger, they seem to say “to hell with love, we want to get more famous”. In 2004, so many Western deeksha givers reported the enormous peak experiences that where common then in Golden City. In early 2005 when I did the 21day course, these experiences did no longer occur. We were told that Bhagavan had decided to no longer “give” them, because the where distracting from true enlightenment. Sounded very reasonable. All of this fostered the myth that Bhagvan has the ability to simply switch on and off such effects of deeksha, that he could influence a person’s consciousness to a degree that seemed unheard of. From all I know now, it seems clear that in 2004, there was a psychedelic substance used in an herbal preparation that was given to participants in the courses, which really caused many if not most of the peak experiences. Before this preparation called leyham was introduced, no peak experienced occurred in early 2004 in a course where participants where promised enlightenment in five days. Wanting to appease the disappointed folks, Bhagavan invited everybody for another free course. This time leyham was given for the first time and people had incredible experiences of cosmic oneness, blood – boiling love etc. These usually occurred after taking leyham. Whatever this stuff was, it also caused severe nausea and vomiting. But the Ayurveda experts that I have asked told me in unison that leyham is about as gentle as it gets, it is give to babies shortly after birth. Whatever they gave to people in Golden City was not traditional leyham. Nausea and vomiting are known reactions to alkaloids with psychedelic properties. Some people could not handle the leyham and had pyschotic episodes, even after leaving Golden City, they had screaming fits at the airport, which almost caused problems for the OM with the police. I know this from first hand reports from several people who where there. In 2005, when Bhagavan did no longer “give” peak experiences, we were told that some people had gone into such high samadhis, they had been disfunctional at the airport . Simply not true. The people who had psychotic episodes were accompanied to the airport to get them on the plane without causing trouble. After that, they received no help, no support from the OM and their stories where changed into another PR pitch that helped to foster the myth of Bhagavan’s ability to just give people incredible high states of consciousness.
Some people believe drugs can help to open doors in consciousness, others believe they cause more harm than good. But even the strongest supporters of psychdelics I have met who have “Thank you for Pot smoking”-stickers on their refrigerator agree that to give drugs to people without their consent and then to claim that the experiences where due to the grace of a master is a serious breech of integrity.
A more recent manifestation of manipulation by the OM, one that prompted me to leave this movement for good, are the changes of the term deeksha to oneness blessing and the change of the message towards prosperity and success. We were told that there were problems with the term deeksha in the Western world, that many people thought it was a cult because of this term. I have never found this to be true. Countless people believe the OM is a cult because of the prices they charge, if THAT was changed, the OM would really do something for its reputation. In three years of hanging out around the OM, I have never heard one complaint about a sanskrit term. When Anandagiri came to Italy in May of this year, his new message was to not be so overly spiritual and to embrace prosperity. Deeksha is supposed to help people with success in life and deeksha givers should make their presentations more about success in the world. The reason he gave for these rather dramatic changes was that they found too many people were holding on to ideas of renunciation for spirituality. He literally said that most Westeners believe they have to live like Ramana in a loincloth to be spiritual.
Have you ever met a person, let alone many, who really believe in severe austerities? This is the West, the home of blatant materialism. The spiritual subculture of the West has for the longest time advocated a balance of spirituality and material life. That people believe they have to renounce everything to the loincloth level to be spriritual is largely an old cliché. Besides, deeksha is in no way a reliable means to enhance a person’s chances for success. People involved with deeksha for a long time enjoy success and suffer failures like everybody else, there are no special boons through deeksha. Of course there are many stories of such special boons, but have they ever happened to you? The OM often solicites testimonials from people shortly after their first trip to Golden City, during a honeymoon phase. Many people who initially had fantastic things to report about deeksha would not give such glowing testimonials two or three years later.
The real reason for both these changes, the change of the message to success and the term deeksha to oneness blessing has a comletely different reason that the OM appearantly does not want to tell people openly. Tony Robbins demanded these changes of the OM and agreed to bring all his famous friends and clients into the OM if they follow his directive. The dasas were obviously coached by Tony Robbins, at a recent course in Golden City, they sounded like Western-style success coaches. Great idea, take a bunch of monks who took vows of renunciation as teenagers and let them deliver a message of success in the world…but I am digressing. So the OM is obviously willing to simply change what they tell people, because a famous person promises them more famous people to join. This sounds like a politician campaigning, not like a spiritual movement. At least, they should have the honesty to tell people, “hey, we thought it was a great idea for Toyy Robbins to decide our message.” But no, they decided to give some reasons they simply made up, pretending to address real problems with these changes.
Is it worth it? Is the limelight of fame, the endorsment of celebrities really worth the discarding of any principle of integrity and honesty?
Disempowerment
One of the most popular Western spiritual leaders is Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk of the Benediktine order. His humility and love and simple but profound message of gratitude has touched countless people. Most folks that I have met in the modern Western subculture certainly have a very critical opinion of the Catholic Church and its dogmas, but would agree that Brother David, catholic or not, is a genuine man with a highly evolved consciousness. In his case, people would most likely attribute his level of awakeness to him, to his effort to grow, his dedication to his path and practices, because it just seems unlikely that the pope or the sacraments and dogmas of the Catholic Church would have brought forth such spiritual awakeness.
When good things happen to people in the OM, the most common interpretation is that these changes or breakthroughs are due to deeksha, to grace. Most OM-folks would not interpret a high level of awakness in a deeksha giver or receiver the same way they would interpret it in Brother David. We Westeners can easily see through the limitations of the Catholic Church, but an avatar from India is just so intruiging that we tend to apply different standards. If someone would talk to a statue of Mary in a catholic church, threatening suicide if she does not talk to him, we would call the proverbial men in the white coats and assume he has some serious mommy issues to work out. But when someone does that in Dakshineshwar on the banks of the Ganges in front of a Kali statue, we call him Ramakrishna and think he is an avatar.
Have many people grown during their time in the OM, sometimes through remarkable leaps of consciousness? Yes absolutely. Is there any proof that this had more to do with deeksha than with their own dedication, willingness or other peronal qualities? I don’t think so. Spiritual growth for people in the OM in no way exceeds what people have attained through healthy self-effort through the ages. Deeksha at best can be a support for people who apply themselves. The OM has also left countless people disappointed, and this seems to always occur when expectations of deeksha are raised to a level where deeksha will simply fail. Of course effort can be sometimes very ego-based and contain elements of struggle. Occasionally teachings along the lines of “there is nothing you can do” can help. But effort does not at all have to be based in struggle. The OM has always given people a disempowering message. When good things happen, it is due to grace because you cannot do anything anyway. When there is disappointment, it just shows you even more that there is nothing you can do. Just recently, a dasa again shared the message in an internet chat of “dissolving the ego is AmmaBhagavan’s job, what could you do about it?” Well, what can AmmaBhagavan do about it? Nothing much it seems. I would rather enourage people to take their chances with their own awareness.
If we assume hypothetically that an experiment would be conducted where one group of people was put on a balanced program of spiritual practices and another group was simply given deeksha regularly, what would happen? If after three years, the changes in people’s lives where assessed, which group would have enjoyed more benefits? Three years ago, I believed the myth of the OM and would have said the deeksha group would be much better of. Today I believe the smart money would be on the group that is doing the practices. Deeksha, prayer, transmissions of grace can help along the path. But fundamentally, we walk the path and will proceed according to how deeply we apply ourselves. In my opinion, this is the sober, liberating truth. This kind of “old-school” spiritual approach has stood the test of time. Whether or not the OM will be more than an afterthought in a few years remains to be seen. For myself, I would no longer invest my hopes into deeksha or the faint hope that the glorious promises of the OM will come true one day. And I do believe that by 2013, when there is no grand awakening, this movement will fade.
I have been wrong before and I can be wrong this time of course. These are just my current viewpoints, of course subjecive and colored by my lenses. Decide for yourself. All the best to anyone who reads this and may all beings be happy!
Christian Opitz