Adi Da Samraj

William Patrick Patterson's newest book, Adi Da Samraj: Realized or/and Deluded, is the first evenhanded and detailed exploration of one of the most enigmatic, self-styled spiritual gurus of the last half of the 20th century. America's first young, hip guru, Adi Da Samraj, ne Franklin Jones (1939 2008), self-proclaimed Avatar of Avatars, not only of this age but all ages to come, had a meteoric rise and subsequent fall after devotees went public with his crazy wisdom teaching of sex, drugs and alcohol. Totally committed to spiritual realization, Jones took only six years to realize Sahaj Samadhi, the pointless point of view. Preceding this was a copious use of drugs, and then contentious relations with his two teachers, Albert Rudolph ("Rudi," later Swami Rudranada), a former student of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way, and Swami Muktananda. Intuiting that everyone unconsciously lived the Narcissus myth of separation and denial as he had, Jones founded what he believed was a radical new teaching combining elements of Kundalini Yoga, Fourth Way, Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta along with the acceptance of himself as God incarnate. To break through the narcissism that blocked devotees spiritual realization, he persuaded them to enter into sexually shocking situations with himself and each other. Though experience proved this method hurt far more than helped, Adi Da insisted on what he called "sexual theatre," later renamed "sexual communion," until his last days on the remote Fijian island hermitage to which he had withdrawn. After tracing Adi Da's life from beginning to end, Patterson gives a penetrating analysis of the key concepts of the teaching before coming to the heart of the question - How can someone be realized at the highest level and act this way with his devotees? Adi Da always maintained that realization does not destroy the "person", so just who was his "person"? From a careful reading of Adi Da's books, Patterson gleans an assemblage of facts pointing to a hidden wound that usurped Adi Da's realization for its own ends, giving an archetypal example of wrong crystallization. The esoteric and spiritual questions Adi Da Samraj Realized or/and Deluded raises are acutely seminal and ones every seeker and adept needs to long ponder. --The Gurdjieff Journal.