SpiritualWiki - RobertAugustusMasters

Ich war sechs Jahre lang in Robert Masters' innerem Kreis (1985-1991...). Ich war ein Trauzeuge bei seiner zweiten Eheschließung, war anwesend bei der Geburt von vier seiner fünf Kinder, unterstützte ihn bei Workshop-Retreats in Kanada und den Vereinigten Staaten und vertrat ihn in Deutschland. Ich habe immer noch Kontakt mit all seinen ehe-
maligen Ehefrauen/Partnerinnen und vielen der Erwachsenen und Kindern aus dieser Zeit. Alles, was Be Scofield
über ihn schreibt, trifft zu.
Philip Clement, kanadischer ehemaliger Frontmann von Kultführer Masters, Leserkommentar, 8. October 2018, bezüglich des Blogartikels von Be Scofield, US-amerikanische Aktivistin, Webdesignerin, DJ, Filmemacherin, Bloggerin für die Zeitschrift Tikkun, Autorin, "Spiritual Bypassing" Guru Robert Augustus Masters war ein missbräuchlicher Kultführer [Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader], ursprünglich präsentiert von der online Publikation Medium (13 Minuten Lesezeit)
2. Oktober 2018, The Guru, 15. December 2018 Kommentar wurde mitgelöscht, als Medium Scofield's Konto löschte.

Öffentlicher Appell

Weißblühender Seidelbast

Sozialer Wandel wird sich erst einstellen, wenn die Menschen über Wirkmacht verfügen. Er erfordert einen neuen Ausdruck von Macht, eine friedsame Form von Macht. Nicht nur mangelnde Empathie lässt Konflikte und Leiden weiterhin bestehen, sondern auch die fehlende Wirkmacht, insbesondere die friedliche [nicht-raubtierhafte] Macht und Zivilcourage. Wir brauchen nicht nur Empathie, um die Welt zu verändern, sondern auch empathische, mitfühlende Menschen mit Heldenmut, die Situationen, wo gelitten wird, thematisieren und obendrein eine Form von Macht anwen-
den, die Veränderung auslöst, indem sie Menschen zur Rechen-
schaft zieht, ohne selbst missbräuchlich zu agieren. Wir brau-
chen mehr als nur Empathie, und mehr denn je brauchen wir empfindungsstarke, mitfühlende Einzelne, die Wirkmacht und Zivilcourage entwickeln, um solchen Konfliktherden zu Leibe zu rücken. Andernfalls nehmen lediglich Tyrannen und Soziopathen Machtstellungen ein.
Audiointerview mit Linda Kohanov (*1950) US-amerikanische Reitlehrerin, Pferdetrainerin, Dozentin, Autorin, A New Interview with Linda, präsentiert von dem US-amerikanischen Webradio Attunement, Gastgeber Anthony Write, Minute 50:56, 52:50 Minuten Dauer, eingestellt von Eponaquest, multidisziplinäre Bildungsorganisation, ~3. Mai 2013

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Unvollständige Liste von Verfehlungen und Verbrechen begangen von und im Auftrag von RAM – Xanthyros Kult (1985-1994)

Im Einzelnen stammen die Anschuldigungen von ehemaligen Mitgliedern, die online über ihre Erfahrungen mit Masters berichtet haben. Auf der Webseite SpiritualWiki werden sie gesammelt. Sie behaupten, Robert Augustus Masters (RAM):
☛ "warf seine Frau Gail zu Boden, setzte sich rittlings auf sie, quetschte ihren
Körper mit seinem Gewicht und ließ sie um Luft ringen."
☛ "hat zwanghaft und wiederholt, Philip [Clement], seinem Mann an der Spitze, den Kopf auf den Boden geschla-
gen, während er auf ihm saß."
☛ "hat den Kopf einer Intimpartnerin gegen die Wand geschlagen, was anhaltende Kopfschmerzen zur Folge hatte."
☛ "hat im Rahmen einer Gruppe seiner Assistentin Kobally vor Zeugen ins Gesicht gefurzt."
☛ "hat ein zehnjähriges Kind gezwungen, drei Wochen lang eine Windel zu tragen, vor den Augen seiner
Altersgenossen und den Erwachsenen."
☛ "hat in mehr als ein Dutzend Gesichter von Männern und Frauen gespuckt."
☛ "hat sich auf eine Minderjährige konzentriert mit der Intention, sie sexuell zu initiieren (entjungern)."
☛ "hat jedes der 20-30 (verheirateten) Paare, die der Xanthyros-Community beigetreten sind, körperlich und
gefühlsmäßig voneinander getrennt, sowie die Kinder von ihren Eltern."
☛ "hat unentwegt psychologisches Mobbing und körperliche Gewalttätigkeit gefördert."
☛ "hat jedes Community-Kind in die Mitte eines Xanthyros-Gruppenkreises gesetzt, und war erst zufrieden, wenn
das jeweilige Kleinkind zu ihm hinkrabbelte."
☛ "hat erwartet, dass jedes offizielle Mitglied früher oder später ihm seine Ersparnisse übertragen würde.
Unter dem vorherrschenden sehr starken Gruppendruck entsprachen viele dieser Erwartung."
☛ "hat seinen inneren Kreis etabliert, um in seinem Namen Verbrechen zu begehen."
☛ "hat Mitglieder von Xanthyros ermutigt, betrügerische Anträge auf Sozialhilfe zu stellen. Diese Betrugsmasche
veranlasste das Sozialamt der Provinz zu einer gleichzeitigen Razzia in dreien der Gemeinschaftshäuser."
☛ "Die drei Mütter der fünf Kinder von RAM behaupten, er habe seine Unterhaltsverpflichtungen gegenüber
seinen Kindern eingestellt."
☛ "Für vier seiner fünf inzwischen erwachsenen leiblichen Kinder ist RAM ein Fremder.
Seine vier Stiefkinder hassen ihn."

Blogartikel von Be Scofield, US-amerikanische Aktivistin, Webdesignerin, DJ, Filmemacherin, Bloggerin für die Zeitschrift Tikkun, Autorin, "Spiritual Bypassing" Guru Robert Augustus Masters war ein missbräuchlicher Kultführer [Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader], ursprünglich präsentiert von der online Publikation Medium (13 Minuten Lesezeit)
2. Oktober 2018, Guru Mag, 15. Dezember 2018

Zaubergetränke waren der Zugang zum höheren, universellen Wissen, den Ebenen der Totenwelt, der Schlüssel zu der Macht und den Ebenen der Götter. Weltweit bekannte Ritualgetränke wie das Haoma der Perser, das Soma der Inder, oder das Ayahuasca der südamerikanischen Indios haben eines gemeinsam: die chemische Zusammenset-
zung der Wirkstoffe in den genutzten Pflanzenbestandteilen. [...] Die ältesten Abbildungen von Pflanzen stammen aus
der Kultur der Sumerer und sind mit dem Korn und dem Grantapfel wohl die für die Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit
am wichtigsten zu nennenden. [...] [E]in wichtiger Zusatz während des Brauens war ein weiterer Bestandteil des Bie-
res, nämlich der psychoaktive Wirkstoff des Mutterkornpilzes, das Ergolin. [Der] Bierkonsum [war den] Götter[n
vorbehalten]. Ergolin führt nicht selten zu verfrühtem Ableben, und die Kunst des Brauens eines stark halluzinoge-
nen Biers, war den Priestern vorbehalten. [...]

Industrieller Hanf

Der Granatapfel [...] findet seine Verwendung in den rituellen Ge-
tränken der Perser und der Sumerer. Er ist kein Nahrungsmittel,
das zur Versorgung der Massen genutzt wurde. Der Granatapfel
trägt eine wichtige psychoaktive Substanz in sich, das DMT. [...]
Die Paradiesgeschichte der Bibel benennt zwei Bäume inmitten
des Garten Edens:
➤ den Baum des Lebens und
➤ den Baum der Erkenntnis des Guten und des Bösen.
Die beiden Bäume stehen im übertragenen Sinne [...] für den Inhalt und die Wirkweise ihrer Inhaltsstoffe.
➤ Der Baum des Lebens ist wohl ein Nadelbaum (Kiefer/Pinie) und trägt Alkaloide MAO-Hemmer in sich.
➤ Der Baum der Erkenntnis des Guten und des Bösen ist der Granatapfel, der in allen verholzten Teilen ein sehr hohen Anteil von n-n-DMT in sich trägt.
Erst die Kombination der beiden Inhaltsstoffe ermöglicht das Passieren des DMTs durch den Magentrakt.
Die trauminduzierende Wirkung des DMTs bringt den Menschen in einen Erkenntniszustand und eine sehr reinigende Rückverbindung mit der Quelle allen Seins.
➤ [D]ieser Baum (der Erkenntnis) [wurde] von den Göttern Edens für die Menschen verboten. Der Wirkstoff sollte den Menschen verwehrt bleiben und dadurch den degenerierten Zustand aufrechterhalten. Aus dieser Sichtweise heraus hat die Schlange einen ganz anderen Auftrag, nämlich den Menschen in die Erkenntnis zu bringen, also in die Erleuch-
tung. War mit der Schlange etwa die Kundalini-Kraft gemeint? Die Kraft, die nach ihrer Kultivierung sich über die Ener-
giezentren des Menschen bis zur Zirbeldrüse hinaufarbeitet, um dort die Erleuchtung (massive DMT Ausschüttung) zu verursachen?
Dimethyltryptamin (DMT) nennt sich der Wirkstoff, der bei den Göttergetränken den entscheidenden Fakor und den großen Unterschied zu anderen psychoaktiven Wirkstoffen ausmacht. DMT ist der einzige psychoaktive Stoff, der in allen Lebewesen ganz natürlich vorkommt bzw hergestellt wird. Körperliche oder geistige Abhängigkeiten sind daher ausgeschlossen. Der amerikanische Arzt Rick Strassman hat bei seinen Studien herausgefunden, dass dieses Er-
kenntnismolekül [DMT] bei Neugeborenen, beim Eintritt des Todes und bei Nahtoderfahrungen das Gehirn re-
gelrecht überfluten und dass unsere Wahrnehmung der "Realität" durch dieses Hormon sehr stark für unser
Selbstempfinden verantwortlich ist. Die Gotteserfahrungen können also entweder durch Pflanzenbestandteile, den
Zaubertränken, oder aber durch unsere Hormonprogramme (Geburt und Tod) hervorgerufen werden.
Rasmin B. Schafii, iranisch-deutscher investigativer Referent, HAOMA – Verborgenes Wissen alter Kulturen. Das Lebenselexier der Götter, der Paradiesapfel und das Erkenntnismolekül. DMT und der Baum der Erkenntnis, Vortrag am 3. Freigeistforum Tübingen Kongress, Stuttgart, 14. Juni 2014, gedruckt in Zeitschrift NEU-ZEIT, Heft Juni 2014

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Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters

Personal avowals

Nine months of a helltrip into madness

I spent most of that first post-5-Meo night sitting up in bed (Nancy slept on and off beside me), helplessly absorbed in extremely gripping, three-dimensional replays of the horror I had experienced, now and then trying to comfort myself with the thought that this wouldn't, couldn't, last for more than a few nights. The waves of remembrance did not come gently. I was throbbing, shaking, struggling to find some semblance of calm in the psychospiritual riptides that were tossing me about like a piece of shore-bereft driftwood. A hellride minus an offramp.
Hour after hour I endured, feeling as though I would never return from the madness that was infiltrating me. Finally, just before dawn, I fell asleep and very soon found myself in a lucid dream.
I had often had such dreams, frequently using them as portals for all kinds of adventure and experimentation. As such, they were normally quite pleasing to be in; I would know that the body I "had" in the dream was not my actual physical body, and so could then freely engage
in activities that would mean disaster or even Death in the "waking" state. If I was afraid in a regular dream and then became lucid during
it, I could usually face the fear, interacting with it's dream-form until some kind of resolution or integration occured.
But not now. Yes, I knew I was dreaming, but I could not work with the fear therein. The dream was saturated with an enormous, other-
worldly terror which was coupled with savagely hallucinatory disorientation. In the midst of this I stood, my dreambody but a ghostly sieve
for its surroundings. I knew that if I left the dream, I would still be in the very same state.
At last, I let myself go fully into the dream, despite my conviction that I very likely would not return. Now I was completely inside it, utterly lost, immersed in an edgeless domain of look-alike, spike-headed waveforms, each one sentient and subtly scaly, moving protoplasmically in endless procession in all directions. Just like my 5-Meo setting, but without the speed.
Suddenly, I was overcome by a completely unexpected, rapidly expanding compassion. All fear vanished. A few moments later, I somehow cut – or intended – a kind of porthole in the bizarre universe that enclosed me, as cleanly round as the shrinking aperture of my conscious-
ness at the onset of my 5-Meo journey.
Through this opening the countless alien forms spontaneously came streaming, immediately metamorphosing into flowers, birds, trees, humans: Earthly life in all its wonder and heartbreaking fecundity. Then the dream faded, and I lay radiantly awake, deeply moved, feeling
as though the hardest part was now over. It had, however, just begun.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Darkness Shining Wild. An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell and Beyond. Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation, S. 22-24, Tehmenos Press, 24. June 2005

RAM's 5-MeO hell experience – in his own words

What I saw in front of me – the pipebowl, the faces of Marcelo and Nancy, the room, the framed sunlight, everything – immediately shrank into a rapidly contracting circle, as if it all were being viewed through some quickly closing aperture of a camera. In less than ten seconds,
I became completely – completely – unconscious of waking/physical reality, finding myself bodiless in a horizonless horror that was madly and monstrously pulsating, moving far too fast, in all directions at once. It resembled my ayahuasca journey at its most titanically wild and insane, sped up and intensified a hundredfold. I knew that I was in very serious trouble; I was completely disconnected somatically, unable to locate or feel my body (as in sleep-dream), unable to locate myself – or anything else – anywhere in particular. I had no body,
not even the slightest semblance of a dream-body or mental-body, and I had absolutely no sense of where I was.
And what was I now? I was wide awake, but could not leave this domain, as I might leave a dream once I knew I was in a dream. What remained of me was but a ghostly speck of awareness, an entombed locus of ricocheting attention in a completely unfamiliar locale, per-
vaded with a sickening despairing intuition that the "waking state" me was in grave danger, perhaps already dead.
If what "I" was immersed in possessed any discernible or translatable form, it was vaguely reptilian, full of scaly-headed waves that were both surface and depth, both organic and metallic, sliding in and out of form. No limits, no edges, no exit. It was timeless, boundless Chaos, continuously creating and consuming itself on every sort of scale with unimaginable power and ease and significance. […]
In the shadowlands of the Unimaginable floated I, bodiless yet pinned. Terror and Awe locked in boundless embrace.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Darkness Shining Wild.
An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell and Beyond. Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation, Tehmenos Press, 24. June 2005

The 5-MeO purgatory experience was highly instrumental in dismantling RAM's second cult.

Question by Michael D: 2. You also wrote about being in the role of "cult leader" to that community, and how the effects of your leader role became painfully apparent to you in the aftermath of the 5-meo experience. Do you think the above two factors were directly connec-
ted? In other words, do you think that the 5-meo experience was somehow instrumental in the exposition of the cult dynamic?
RAM's reply: 2. Yes. My 5-MeO experience (roughly 9 months long) was highly instrumental in exposing and dismantling the cultic elements of the community. My defenses were so devastatingly obliterated that I could not hold things together, and could not help but be receptive to what was going on.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Integral Naked Interviews Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the dissolved website Integral Naked, 13. March 2006, posted 20. October 2006

Maltreated and traumatized as a child by a very abusive father

I grew up with a very, very abusive father. And I was very hardened. In my twenties I found my way to some relationships that didn't go well and went badly so much so that I ended up cracking. I had to go to therapy. I had to break down. I had to find my heart. There was a lot of armoring to break down. At the same time I discovered spiritual practice. I began to meditate seriously. And I was young and ambiti-
ous, so I really went for it spiritually. I had this notion that I could become enlightened. As in my thirties I sat for long hours through all these practices and had all these extraordinary states occur. And after a while it dawned on me – I took a while, I was kind of thick about it – that
I was still the same neurotic in many ways despite of all these experiences, all these extraordinary states. And that's when I realized in my heart of hearts that I was not going to get rid of these things. But what I could do was change my relationship to them. So I deepened my therapeutic process, I deepened everything about my life. Instead of trying to get rid of things (this was probably in my late 30s, early 40s)
I began relating to them. So I became far more intimate with my anger, my fear, my shame, my joy, my history. And that furthered me far more than pursuing exalted states, rising above things, trying to stay on a nondual state. I honor that for what it is at its best, but I saw myself – looking back – as bypassing big time. I was probably an ideal person to write a book like Spiritual Bypassing. I have also pursued relationship my whole life. [...] I sensed there was something in relationship that I needed for my growth.
Audio interview with ⚡ Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. robertmasters.com (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Diane Bardwell Masters, US American composer, singer, Robert Augustus Masters and Diane Bardwell Masters – "Transformation Through Intimacy",
MP3, presented by the dissolved US American webcast Beyond Awakening Series, host Terry Patten, US American integral evolutionary leader, coach, author,
minute 30:28, 1:35:25 minutes duration, aired 4. November 2010

Footangle anger

I see anger as the guardian of boundaries. I see a lot of people caught in spiritual bypassing as having such poor boundaries they cannot say a clear NO. They are overly attached to being nice, and sweet, and go to look positive. There is this addiction to being positive. And, they are, in a sense, being negative about their negativity. Audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, What Really Matters, presented by the US American web radio station New Dimensions, program #3392, host Michael Toms, 60 minutes duration, recorded 23. November 2010

The teacher's shadow is as an essential ingredient of a cult.

More and more spiritual teachers are being caught with [their] pants and halos down. [...] I do hold people responsible who get into this trouble [sexual exploitation with their teacher] with teachers by holding the teachers more responsible. And it's very, very common. [...] Even the most immature of us still has a bullshit dedector [...] but we may be a little frightened to say it because that person [the flawed teacher] has more authority. A healthy teacher encouarages students to have access to their own innate autonomy and authority right from the very beginning which means he or she will get questioned more which makes the thing healthier and which makes the possibility that this thing will turn into a cult less likely, but that's uncommon unfortunately. Skype video/audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, minute 0:37:44, 1:44:47 duration, posted 4. August 2011 Removed upon RAM's request on 12. March 2014, reinstated 2016

Eulogy on former teacher and fellow cult leader Adi Da (1939-2008)

[1] Everything he [ Franklin Jones aka Adi Da] did was presented as though it only arose in the context of spiritual awakening; if he, for example, took another man's wife to have sex with him, that was, of course, for that man's benefit, giving him the gift of an in-your-face lesson about attachment. […] I didn't know about such activities at the time, but nonetheless intuited that they were happening. […]
[2] He gathered some heady praise, especially from Ken Wilber, and seemed to be taking his place among many as a legitimate, even exemplary, spiritual realizer, a great adept. This was in no small way helped by having over a thousand people who were totally focused
on – and arguably obsessed by – every move he made, every word he said, every wish he expressed. […]
[3] There was a cult of, yes, personality, forming around him, and he didn't address it nearly strongly enough to blast through it. […]
[4] He also mirrored my own arrogance, legitimizing it as something other than arrogance, something of course spiritual! So I look back
and see him shining bright, and I see myself there too, also shining, hiding my weaknesses behind my strengths, assuming that I had
attained something that I, in fact, had not, namely a truly integral maturity of being. Just like him.
Eulogy on cult leader Franklin Jones by Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, The Death of Adi Da, presented by the publication Enlightened Spirituality, December 2008

NOTE: RAM's shadow chart and "Needed Shattering": Similar to Adi Da Robert Augustus Masters also
[1] was a domineering violent "trigamist" ogling for a fourth female partner,
[2] is the direct beneficiary of Ken Wilber's ongoing promotion since 2006,
[3] needed a drug-induced 9 months long hell trip to acknowledge and break away from his second dysfunctional cult,
[4] obtained a Ph.D. to embark in round 3 of his cult of personality practiced largely within the highly commercialized integral scene
[hailed as the "new man" and "relationship expert"].

Recommendations

Intimacy ⇔ transcendence

Don't settle for oneness, go for intimacy. [...] Intimacy transcends transcendence. We are not here to transcend our humanity. We are to live it fully.
Skype video/audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author,
081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people,
host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, minute 0:04:33, 1:44:47 duration, posted 4. August 2011 Removed upon RAM's request on 12. March 2014, reinstated 2016

Insight

Sense of specialness

The sense of being somebody special (a legend in our own mind!) helps immunize "I" against the bare facticity of its own mortality, here-and-now instability, and innate insubstantialness.
Even when "I" dreams of transcending itself – as in those programs that have (or advertise) as their central agenda the eradication of ego – it is still an "I" who has now achieved the incomparable goal of self-transcendence! "Look, Ma, no ego!" we announce as we unicycle past our rapt inner audience, too proud to notice our pride, forgetting that self-conceit persists well into advanced transpersonal stages of development.
In our craving to be somebody special – and don't forget that we may find our specialness through being "nobody" – we bypass exploration of that very craving, committing far more of our passion to fulfilling our dreams than to actually awakening from them.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Darkness Shining Wild. An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell and Beyond. Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation, S. 58, Tehmenos Press, 24. June 2005

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Fear

Opening to our fear is an act of intimacy, a courageous welcoming of the dis-
figured and outcast into the living room of our being. Opening thus is also an act of surrender. As such, it is not a dissolution – or collapsing – or personal boundaries, as in submission, but rather an expanding of them.
In submission, we deaden ourselves, sinking into the shallows; in surrender, we enliven ourselves, dying into a deeper Life. In surrender we may lose face, but we do not lose touch. Submission flattens the ego; surrender transcends it. Submission is passive, but surrender is dynamic. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psycho-
therapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Darkness Shining Wild. An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell and Beyond. Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation, S. 30-31, Tehmenos Press, 24. June 2005

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Ego

"Ego" as a concept has negative connotations for many spiritual seekers, for whom it is simply an impediment, an obstacle in need of eradication. […] Ego could be said to be a cult of one (or a self-enclosed coalition of survival-oriented habits that automatically refers to itself as "I"). This does not mean that this is evil or in need of annihilation, but rather that it's centered and unquestioningly governed by its own ideology. […] What is needed is not the elimination, but rather the illumination, of ego. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Darkness Shining Wild. An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell and Beyond. Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation, S. 41, Tehmenos Press, 24. June 2005

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Strategic transparency

See: Blog article by Be Scofield, Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader, Medium, 2. October 2018

Instead of trying to get beyond our personal history [i.e. as an unredeemed cult leader], we need to learn to relate to it with as much clarity and compassion as possible, so that it serves rather than obstructs our healing and awakening. This also means relating in similar fashion to our tendency to spiritually bypass, casting a lucid, caring eye upon the part of us who buys into us.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, Kindle location 225, North Atlantic Books, 1st edition 27. July 2010

When we remain outside or removed from our fear [i.e. for being exposed as an unredeemed former cult leader], we are trapped by it, but when we actually do get inside, cultivating intimacy with it, we are no longer trapped by it, disco-
vering – and not just intellectually – that it is but darkly contracted energy, a knotted-up vitality that can be freed when we become intimate with it. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, Kindle location 337, North Atlantic Books, 1st edition 27. July 2010

Real shadow work does not leave us intact; it is not some neat and tidy process but rather an inherently messy one, as vital and unpredictably alive as birth. The ass it kicks is the one upon which you are sitting; the pain it brings up is the pain we've been fleeing most of our life [i.e. for being exposed as an unredeemed former cult leader for 20+ years]; the psychoemotional break-
downs it catalyzes are the precursors to hugely relevant breakthroughs; the doors it opens are doors that have shown up year after year in our dreams, awaiting our entry. Real shadow work not only breaks us down but also breaks us open, turning frozen yesterday into fluid now.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psycholo-
gist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, Kindle location 635, North Atlantic Books, 1st edition 27. July 2010

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Note:

Unredeemed cult leader Masters seems to be unable and unwilling to repair the trauma he has inflicted on his former cult members, especially those who were children then.

Blind compassion is rooted in the belief that we are all doing the best we can. When we are driven by blind compassion, we cut everyone far too much slack, making excuses for others' behavior and making nice situations that require a forceful "no", an unmistakable voicing of displeasure, or a firm setting and main-
taining of boundaries. These things can, and often should be done out of love, but blind compassion keeps love too meek, sentenced to wearing a kind face. Blind compassion is kindness rooted in fear, and not just fear of confrontation, but also fear of not coming across as a good or spiritual person.
When we are engaged in blind compassion we rarely show anger, for we not only believe that compassion has to be gentle, we are also frightened of upsetting anyone, especially to the point of their confronting us. This is reinforced by our judgment about anger, especially in its more fiery forms, as something less spiritual; something that shouldn't be there if we were being truly loving. Blind compassion reduces us to harmony junkies, entrapping us in unrelentingly positive expression.
With blind compassion we don't know how to – or won't learn how to – say "no" with any real power, avoiding confron-
tation at all costs and, as a result, enabling unhealthy patterns to continue. Our "yes" is then anemic and impotent, devoid of impact it could have if we were also able to access a clear, strong "no" that emanated from our core.
When we mute our essential voice, our openness is reduced to a permissive gap, an undiscerning embrace, a poorly boundaries receptivity, all of which indicate a lack of compassion for ourselves (in that we don't adequately protect ourselves). Blind compassion confuses anger with aggression, forcefulness with violence, judgment with condemna-
tion, caring with exaggerated tolerance, and more tolerance with spiritual correctness. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D.
(*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, Kindle location 635, North Atlantic Books, 1st edition 27. July 2010

Spiritual bypassing is a very persistent shadow of spirituality, manifesting in many forms, often without being acknowledged as such. Aspects of spiritual bypassing include
☛ exaggerated detachment,
☛ emotional numbing and repression,
☛ overemphasis on the positive,
☛ anger-phobia,
☛ blind or overly tolerant compassion,
☛ weak or too porous boundaries,
☛ lopsided development (cognitive intelligence often being far ahead of emotional and moral intelligence),
☛ debilitating judgment about one's negativity or shadow side,
☛ devaluation of the personal relative to the spiritual,
☛ and delusions of having arrived at a higher level of being. […]
But if we really want the light, we cannot afford to flee the heat. As Victor Frankl said, "What gives light must endure burning." And being with the fire's heat doesn't just mean sitting with the difficult stuff in meditation, but also going into it, trekking to its core, facing and entering and getting intimate with whatever is there, however scary or traumatic or sad or raw. Article Spiritual Bypassing excerpted from Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, by Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American online magazine Reality Sandwich, 20. December 2010

There's a shame that cripples, and a shame that stands us up in integrity. Without shame, there would be no cons-
cience. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, deleted Facebook comment, 26. September 2010 Termination of RAM's Facebook fan account in May 2015

If someone is really committed to be in a stuck place you're not going to pull them out of it.
Video interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Questions about Spiritual Bypassing, YouTube film, minute 3:40, 4:37 minutes duration, posted by Masters Center
1. February 2011

Grace could be said to be a divine intrusion. […] Grace rea-
ches down. The gravity of the situation demands it. […] In
Grace there often is an implication or felt sense of sacred
intervention, a not-by-us engineered doing that deeply ser-
ves our well-being, often in ways that are far from expected.
A serendipitous infusion of what may quite convincingly ap-
pear to be more-than-human guidance – this is Grace, how-
ever ragged or rough its delivery may be, however unrecep-
tive its reception may be. Grace arrives whether or not we
recognize it. In fact, it is never not arriving.
Somewhere in us there persists a longing for Grace, a longing to receive it and let it carry us where it may; and at the same time there may be a longing for Grace to arrive in a particular form, which of course does not necessarily happen.
Sometimes what we most need is what we assume we least need or don’t need, and Grace serves what we most need, which often means that it doesn’t seem to us to be Grace at all, but rather just a nasty or unfortunate turn of the wheel.
Grace simply persists. [...] Invite it in, even though it’s already here. Serve it even as it serves you.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Facebook comment, 24. November 2011 Link invalid due to termination of RAM's Facebook fan account in May 2015

Authentic spirituality's under no obligation to be nice, cosy, comfortable. Its fire not only gives light but also heat. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Facebook comment, ~December 2011 RAM's Facebook fan account deleted in May 2015

Few really get to the core of their wounding and work through it because of what such an undertaking asks of them,
not the least of which is the courage to fully be in a state of prerational or preverbal vulnerability.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Facebook comment, 20. December 2011 Link invalid due to termination of RAM's Facebook fan account in May 2015

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Shadow work

If you want the treasure you have to face the dragon.
Skype video/audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, minute 0:10:11, 1:44:47 duration, posted
4. August 2011 Removed upon RAM's request on 12. March 2014, reinstated 2016

The passage from immature to mature monogamy is not just a journey of ripening intimacy with a beloved other, but also a journey into and through zones of ourselves that may be quite difficult to navigate, let alone get intimate with and integrate with the rest of our being. But however much this passage might ask of us, it gives back even more, transforming us until we are established in the unshakable love, profound passion, and radically intimate mutuality that epitomize mature monogamy. And even if we don’t end up in such a relationship, our having taken the journey toward it will immeasurably benefit us in whatever we do.
Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Transformation Through Intimacy. The Journey Toward Mature Monogamy, Tehmenos Press, 1st edition 18. October 2007

When a man feels overpowered by a woman (in the sense that her mere presence strongly arouses him), he may not feel good about this if she shows no sexual interest in him, perhaps not even noticing him. If he's
(1) sufficiently bothered by her "ability" to so easily turn him on, and
(2) makes her responsible for his arousal, "bringing out the beast in him" as she has done (however unknowingly),

he may fantasize about "pouncing on her" (after all, what else is a beast to do?), thereby entering, however passively, into the retributive logic and eroticized violence that's central to rape. He may never act this out with a flesh-and-blood woman, perhaps limiting himself to using pornography in which women are "punished" or "put in their place" – hurt and debased – for their sexual allure. But in this he is, unwittingly or not, contextually aligned with rape, tending to relate to a woman's body as a site of conquest, a place to "prove" himself. Article by Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, To Be a Man: Fully Facing Rape and Awakening to True Masculine Power, presented by the Best Self Magazine, ~February 2018

Reference: ► Quotes on anger and aggression by Robert Augustus Masters, excerpted from
To Be A Man. A Guide to True Masculine Power, Sounds True, 14. January 2015

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Quotes on RAM by other sources

Personal avowal

I lived in a community [Xanthyros] lead by robert augustus masters where we did dynamic meditation via rajneesh, intense body work, catharsis regularly, three years of living in this hot house of a community…"
Bob Banner, presented by grof-holotropic-breathwork.net, entry February 11, 2017

Back in the late 1980s I read a book by the Canadian psychotherapist and one-time Osho disciple Robert Masters, titled Way of the Lover Way of the Lover. Masters had been present at the original Poona ashram in the '70s, and he had contrasted Osho's appearance in the '80s at Rajneeshpuram unfavourably with his bearing in the '70s. "Bhagwan's face had lost its balance and luminosity, his eyes lost their timelessness and depth", he wrote, adding that Osho "looked drugged, and appeared to be oblivious to it all."¹ At the time I had dismissed Masters' remarks as those common of a disaffected disciple, especially one who had gone on to set himself up as a teacher and acquire his own following (as Masters had done in the '80s). Blog article by P.T. Mistlberger, Canadian researcher, author, Wild Wild Times, 2010

Both the interlinked original article by RAM as well as the website masterscenter.net where it was published first are defunct. RAM points fingers to his former idols/teachers Rajneesh and Adi Da, leaving out to mention his own two failed community cults starting –1977-1994 lasting for 17 years.

He [Robert Augustus Masters] goes on to outline how and why so many spiritual communities in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and even now fail and self-destruct in dysfunctionl chaos – Think the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (now known as Osho since his 1990 death), think Jonestown, think Adi Da, think Leary and Alpert at Harvard before the fall […] the list could go on for days. Blog article by William Harryman, Robert Augustus Masters – Authentic Community, 15. March 2011

Dynamic meditation / Rajneesh

He (Bob Banner) was the sort of person willing to follow one of those trails into the arms of a group he came to consider a cult. Make that two groups that he came to consider cults: At the dawn
of the nineties, feeling aimless again after a decade of publishing Critique, Banner joined Xanthyros, an intentional community in Vancouver led by a guru named Robert Augustus Masters. Critique was revamped as a New Age magazine called Sacred Fire, and Masters took it over, with Banner serving as little more than a type-
setter until he left the community.
United States of Paranoia: Excerpt, presented by Hopedance.org, Bob Banner, 26. August 2013, cited from: Jesse Walker, US American author, United States of Paranoia. A Conspiracy Theory, Harper, 20. August 2013

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Note:

The slim record thus clearly shows that 5-MeO-DMT can be both extremely unpredictable and powerful without precedent. But undoubtedly the most compelling rendition of the perils of smoking 5-MeO-DMT that I have encountered comes from the book Darkness Shining Wild: An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell & Beyond, by Robert Augustus Masters, with the sobering subtitle Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation.
If you take the idea of Bernard Haisch and others on polarity with any seriousness – the idea that all things must have an opposite for reality to emerge – then this book is the antithesis of Tryptamine Palace, the literary yang to my own written yin. Thus I find it as fascinating as I do terrifying.
A psychotherapist [unlicensed] since the late 1970s, Masters describes himself as "a group leader, and teacher of spiritually deepening practices." His essays have appeared in publications ranging from Magical Blend Magazine to the The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. He is also an apparently successful author of several "self-help" books, such as Way of the Lover Way of the Lover and Love Must Also Weep Love Must. With speaking engagements all over the world, Masters had amassed a considerable following: a psychospiritually oriented community with multiple chapters in Canada, Australia, Europe, and a headquarters somewhere near San Luis Obispo. Masters was "leading" this community in early 1994, when (after an earlier experimentation with ayahuasca), he smoked 30 mg of 5-MeO-DMT on the "enthusiastic recommendation of several members" of that same community.
In his book Masters actually writes that he smoked 30 grams of 5-MeO-DMT, but this is clearly a mistake since it would be both lethal and impossible to consume, so I am assuming that this was a typo and the correct amount should be 30 mg. This amount is a full third higher than that noted in the warning from The Entheogen Review, and is approxima-
tely the same as my own first (uninformed) dose of 5-MeO-DMT. I must state again that I consider 30 mg dosages to
be definitely too high, and obviously dangerous. Part of the reason I have written this book is so that other uninformed users will not be tempted to try such a large dosage as I did! In his account of that fateful incident, Masters had to ac-
tually take two hits, which is rather strange in itself, and I can only assume that the 5-MeO-DMT melted down as it had when I overdosed. […]
According to Masters' account, "Twice in fifteen minutes or so, I almost died, suffering not only respiratory failure, but also apparently having seizures (of which I had no previous history). Again, I had no awareness of this – all I was conscious of was the madly pulsating, sentient Wonder-Horror that seemed to be the very bedrock and breath of reality, bereft of horizon, including itself in every form, every possibility, every alternative to itself."
Masters' account of his "seizures" and apparent lack of breathing should not be disregarded – he had CPR performed on him while he was "locked as if in rigor mortis, purple-faced and unbreathing." Overdoses occupy a category all of their own. It seems clear from this account that his dosage was way too high. Thus the cause of his problems could be credited to a lack of information about the compound (5-MeO-DMT) involved and over-enthusiasm on the part of his "follower" who undoubtedly wanted to make sure that the good doctor "got off." As has been repeatedly stated through-
out this book, if you are experimenting with an entheogen you have no previous experience with, start low. Alexander Shulgin's explanation of how he developed his bioassay system (in PIHKAL) for the new compounds he creates is essential reading for any would-be psychonaut. […]
I in no way wish to degrade the life-threatening danger that Masters believes he was in (he describes it as his near-death experience throughout the book), but it seems clear to me that phenomenologically Masters and I actually ex-
perienced approximately the same psychological event – a psychospiritual ego-death – the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of experiencing the full formless totality of existence. Yet while I regarded my 5-MeO-DMT experience as
a paradisiacal liberation and the "recognition of recognitions," Masters only found horror in the experience – his terror clearly outweighing his awe. It seems that it was his psychospiritual ego-death that caused him to have ongoing problems – not the physical near-death he believes he nearly suffered.
James Oroc, New Zealand photographer, artist, member of the "Burning Man" community since 1999, journalist, Tryptamine Palace. 5-MeO-DMT and the Sonoran Desert Toad, Park Street Press, 21. May 2009

James Oroc: I feel that when Robert Augustus Masters reached that point, he couldn't let go. He'd done so much trai-
ning in vipassana and all these other practices, that he had actually built up a framework with his ego that allowed him
not to let go. He hung on and he hung on and he never let go, so all he experienced was that fear. He went to Stanis-
lav Grof about his experience, and Grof's advice was that he needed to reach full catharsis, even if it meant having people hold him down. He couldn't accept that advice. He couln't take the experience the whole way.
Martin W. Ball, Ph.D., US American artist, musician, nondual teacher/guide, author, Entheologues. Conversations with Leading Psychedelic Thinkers, Explorers and Researchers, S. 24, Kyandara Publishing, 19. July 2009

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Retrieved BATGAP comments on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (Jan-March 2014 ◊ 2017)

Xanthyros – 8 January 2014

Please be informed that Robert Masters was once the leader of a cult named Xanthyros where he used brain washing techniques and damaged the lives of many of its members. This cult ended in 1994 when Robert had a drug induced near death experience that left him in need of constant care for months, at which point the members disbanded. Robert knew what he was doing when he took the drugs and did it with other members of Xanthyros. He expected his trip to reinforce his god like self-image, but instead it was disastrous. Please do not trust this man with your emotional and psychological well-being. Truly, he should not be able to practice any form of psychology with the atrocities he commit-
ted in his past.

zubromakk – 21 February 2014

Although Robert claims to have "changed" out of his 5MEO melt down in the 90's – he has yet to directly apologise:
- to the three mothers of his children for his abusive treatment, (none of whom want ANYTHING to do with him to this day);
- to community members who were coerced to give their children up for adoption;
- to the dozens of children (now adults) who were separated from their parents, and experienced terror, confusion and daily emotional abuse for years under his "leadership";
- to the dozens of genuine seekers who joined his community, and left years later with horrendous long lasting wounds from his ego maniacal self centered pathological abuses.

There is virtually no one from that period who feels Robert has made good on his past transgressions with them: this includes

putting young children in isolation for extended periods,
spitting in people’s faces,
banging members’ heads against the wall and floor,
humiliating a ten year old to wear diapers for three weeks,
facilitating the regular group mobbing of members and children,
and separating children from their parents, and married couples from each other.

When confronted with this GROSS omission of doing right by those whose boundaries he abused, Robert uses spiritual gobbledygook to avoid, deny, and reject any opportunity to authentically do right by those he abused. His comment to two (adult) children struggling to come to terms with their broken spirits, was:

"Stop complaining and turn the past shit into compost."

They eventually sued him for abuse.[*]
Note: Faced with an upcoming law suit, RAM chose to pay off the claimants outside of court.

His appeal to people like Ken Wilber is his ability to sound fearless and all knowing, but use the word litigation or
police in dialoguing with Robert, and his throat becomes dry and his fear is palpable.

In the 80's he left Victoria BC and moved to Vancouver because of the negative reputation he garnered there coleading a community with John Robbins.
In the 90's he left Vancouver and moved to White Rock BC after Xanthyros fell apart.
In the last years, he finally left Canada to take up residence in Oregon, again leaving the negativity he was
part of, (hopefully) behind him.

Like many wanna be gurus – he has inspired, impressed, seduced, and pulled the wool over many intelligent and aware people, and continues to do so, on the ashes and darkness of his not so distant past.

[*] "I hear from various spiritual teachers who I think have not done their personal work deeply enough who say to their students 'Just drop your story. It's just a story.' In that that person is being given the message, 'Your history doesn't matter that much.' And then the dots that need to be connected can't be connected."
Audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros commu-
nity, author, Spiritual Bypassing and Deep Inner Work, presented by Transformation Talk Radio, host Adam Seward, 14. February 2012

Elfriede – 2 March 2014

In his interview with Rick Archer Robert Augustus Masters (RAM) said in minute 0:37:44, recorded August 1, 2011, posted August 4, 2011:
"More and more spiritual teachers are being caught with [their] pants and halos down. [...] I do hold people responsible who get into this trouble [sexual exploitation] with teachers by holding the teachers more responsible. [...] we may be a little frightened to say it because that person [the flawed teacher] has more authority. A healthy teacher […] will get questioned more […] which makes the possibility that this
thing will turn into a cult less likely."

Referring to above quote I wrote on RAM's Facebook thread on December 2, 2012²

"Robert, you were one of these unhealthy violent hierarchical teachers who bullied those who dared to
challenge you. only 5-MeO-DMT could knock you out. as long as you strip your past from your new
narrative you might be setting up a cult all over again."

NOTE: On his self description and in his telecons with Ken Wilber (2006 onwards), Tami Simon, Michael Toms, and Rick Archer, RAM carefully avoided to mention his community cult Xanthyros to keep the crimes committed in there hidden. RAM declared that his books produced by Xanthyros Foundation are out of print, also avoiding to mention the name that would possibly expose him.

On December 28, 2011 Robert Augustus Masters had started a thread on his Google open Facebook page³ asking:

"…when the group/community … becomes too poor a fit? Do we … challenge the very structuring and foundational assumptions (and cultic tendencies) of such a group/community, no matter how convin-
cingly our protests might be summarized as "resistance" or "our problem" or mere reactivity?"

After I cornered RAM and held him accountable to his own words, he apologized to me – to save face. Celebrating
the "miracle," I've soon learned from those he had abused during his years as their cult leader that RAM's written
apologies resulted from his fear of being prosecuted. He had failed to truly come clean with the former Xanthyros
cult members including his wives and children.

In his thread I asked RAM how he has reconciliated his own cult building (Xanthyros) and the members thereof? he replied,

"By acknowledging that it was a cult, apologizing for the hurt I caused, and cutting through my cult-building leanings until they no longer had any pull for me."

These words do not hold truth: in public RAM is hiding his past as a cult leader. Only under threat of prosecution he issued apologies – gestures without appropriate compensation.

In answer to my question end of 2011, he announced his plan to write an article on his experiences as a cult leader. Two decades after the fall of his cult, such a rare avowal has not been released – due to RAM's refusal to redeem its former members.⁴

I have tested RAM at four occasions, and he failed all tests.

I had been a working guest from abroad volunteering in his cult-commune Xanthyros in Vancouver for
4-5 weeks (March-Easter 1991).
At my last meeting with RAM's shadow bearers I turned down his request to set up his German dependence. Instead of bidding me farewell, all three of them screamed at me bullying me for my decision.
In a 17 page long feedback letter I had predicted that Xanthyros would fall apart (which did happen in 1994).
No reply was issued to it.
20+ years later I met RAM for the second time on his Facebook "fan" page.⁵

Challenged – as requested – for his own "cultic tendencies", this is how RAM dealt with me:

He turned off the cult-related thread from Google view by transfering it to a less frequented location.
He deleted one of my critical posts, unwilling to "appreciate the dirt" (as suggested by him for those on the path).
He informed me per PM about this deletion act and offered to handle the issue privately. No more answers given.
A year later – the discussion had continued (without him) for two weeks. Once he discovered it he deleted all
my posts on this thread.
As expected, he blocked me from posting, liking, or sharing anything from his Facebook page.

Unwilling to account for his abuses as a cult leader, RAM reminds me of the wolf who reaped stones in his belly after the girl and the old woman were released from him. Rare it is to meet a wolf who may bear the stones gracefully.

Peace – 4 March 2014

The oath of all physicians is 'Do no harm!' Dr. Masters was a practicing psychotherapist while he set himself up as the leader of an experimental community in North Vancouver, British Columbia, during the early 90′s…which means he is accountable and answerable for his actions.
Dr. Master's needs to examine his own 'spiritual by-passing' where the community is concerned. There were babies and children who where irreversibly damaged by his methods.
He often talks about getting 'clean', I believe Dr. Masters' needs to do just that.

Great heart – 5 March 2014

I have read all of Robert’s work and was, at first, impressed with his wisdom although his writing style always left me cold. I get the feeling he just wants to show everyone how smart he is, but doesn't have any capacity to actually relate to other humans. Too many spiritual leaders write about embodiment but live in their egos. I get the feeling he is hiding a lot about his inner life from the reader. He does not feel like someone who is one of us.

zubromakk – 5 March 2014

That's quite insightful Great heart. His writing always makes a strong impression the first time. But just like all the short bios on pages like this, back book cover blurbs, and Amazon bios – all of which he writes – everything (after a second or third reading) has a similar ring to it: "I am the #1 authority on everything." Is that really what one sounds like when they have had a spiritual awakening?

Personal avowal by kobally – March 6, 2014

After reading the posts here I felt compelled to write my story on Robert Augustus Masters. I was closely asso-
ciated with him for 13 years from 1981 to 1994. In that time, I became his 'right-hand' woman. I did his bidding,
I paved his way wherever he went or wanted to go to make his passage smooth. I held him in high esteem and
devoted myself to him in his journey
- as body worker,
- then therapist,
- then 'teacher',
- then guru.

I helped elevate him to that status. I believed he had a great gift to give to others. I felt so uplifted working with
him after a harrowing time in India addicted to drugs and going downhill fast. I wanted others
to benefit too and share in the bliss I experienced. But all that changed as I got to know him more closely, and
eventually I suffered profoundly at his hands, literally and figuratively.

In the beginning of our 'relationship' I believed he saw me for who I truly was, a wise, beautiful, powerful, deep
woman. I had never felt this before. I was open, loving, vulnerable, and hungry for attention, and I hate to admit it, power. These were things I did not feel I'd experienced in my life from a man. Robert gave me that. But, it was short lived.

Eventually, I joined him and his partner and their baby boy in Victoria to be part of a community of Sannyasins of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho. That so-called community was the beginning of me seeing how he and John Robbins operated –

create dependence,
rule by anger and power, then
instill fear thus keeping all members close – the epitome of a cult.

I had cut many ties with friends and family and so felt very dependent on what I had there.

Eventually, due to the egos of these two dominating men, the community disintegrated and Robert, his partner, their baby son, and my daughter and I came to North Vancouver. Here, over the next 2-3 years I promoted his work and created yet another dysfunctional-abusive community.

He was, as many of the other people who have commented here have said, an abusive, cruel, egocentric, power hungry paranoid child. He projected all his fears and beliefs, collected from a childhood in a cloistered family com-
pound with a passive mother and abusive father, onto all of us. He coerced us into abusing our families outside the community as well as those inside – spouses, children, and friends.

I lost my daughter for 15 years because of him. I was not a perfect mother, but I would never have given up my child without his driving me into it with the threat of losing everything I held dear and that was good in the commu-
nity by making me choose – the community or my child. I could have chosen my girl, but, I'm ashamed to say, I did not. I have paid the price, as has my child. She is strong, and brave and working her way through all the trauma she accumulated from her experience in Xanthyros and after – it followed her long and hard. But it is a long chal-
lenging journey. He has NEVER apologized or taken responsibility with me or her, for what he did to her, during her time there and how he orchestrated my giving her up.

Robert abused many, many others, young and old, on his journey to the pinnacle of Guru. Many of us are still close friends. We have, together, shared our pain, asked forgiveness from each other for the times, out of fear of Ro-
bert's dire disapproval, betrayed one another, and we have, together, healed many wounds.

Robert has done none of this reparation or healing. There have been a few attempts by him but only after others have written to him or threatened him with lawsuits and exposure. HE DOES NOT PRACTICE WHAT HE PREA-
CHES – no matter how eloquently he writes about it. This frightened, sad man presents himself as all knowing, as all seeing, as an omniscient teacher who can lead you to enlightenment. Do not be fooled. He only talks the talk, and very well, but he does not nor has he ever walked the walk. He has no capacity for love or empathy even with his own 5 children who, on the whole, really don't want anything to do with him. He says Xanthyros was an experiment that we all participated in, but he was the mad scientist at the helm, manipulating and controlling the people who were looking to him for true guidance, care and loving support.

I'm writing this not to elevate myself or to hurt Robert. But lying is lying, whether by omission or changing the truth. Robert has done both and those who follow him now, need to know who he was so they can see him with clear eyes and make their own choice about him from and informed place.

Elfriede – 6 March 2014

Hello readers,
Thank you, zubromakk, for taking a history on the so far undisclosed dark side of Xanthyros/RAM.
Thank you, kobally, for sharing your testimonial as what I call the shadow bearer of a cult leader.

Possibly as a result of the 2014 entries on this site Ken Wilber, a main promoter of RAM's public appearances since 2006, has retracted from supporting/endorsing him and his work any longer.⁶

After RAM's first and second round as cult leader he reemerged as lauded author and speaker and role model for
"the evolutionary man".

To me it is quite amazing to note that it took around 20 (and more) years until a spot on the Internet was found that seems welcome and safe enough to inspect the shadow of an endorsed "shadow expert."
Thank you, Rick Archer, for availing this possibility.

Lizzy – 8 March 2014

Thank god people have come forward to reveal who this man, Robert A Masters, really is and was. I experienced the other side of Xanthyros as a someone who was barred from contacting a family member involved with this cult for
8 years.

I could not believe when I first saw Robert's name, face, and book titles emerge on a free seminar offered through a popular website. The Seminar was called "The Self-Acceptance Project" [Sounds True], and I was devastated his advice was being promoted alongside people I had come to respect as teachers. It made me question the credibility
of anyone out there. I actually contacted the website and asked if they screened the people they promoted but received no reply.

It takes courage to come forward and articulate the truth. Thank you to the above people for doing so and keeping people accountable for their actions. This man should not be counselling anyone who is vulnerable and seeking advice on matters of the heart. In my opinion, he should be discredited and banned from counselling altogether,
and I wonder how he has been able to get away with things for so long.

A Deeper Deeper – 10 March 2014

It is encouraging that Ken Wilber has withdrawn his endorsement of RAM. A teacher carries the responsibility to be true to what they teach. Ken is taking the correct and obvious step. RAM's present day acrimonious relationships with the mothers of his children, their children, 99% of the former members of his cult, many living with deep emotional scars, are a testament to his hypocrisy and callous selfrighteousness. His lack of clean up of the past has been pointed out to him ad nauseum. If you have endorsed RAM or can reach people who have, you will be doing a service for the greater good to update your connection to him.

zubromakk – 10 March 2014

Kudos and thanks to Rick Archer for making this forum available for Truth to be advocated for and spoken, and dark-
ness to be exposed. Instead of RAM whining to Ken Wilber that he is being treated unfairly (!!!) – why would RAM not
address the mothers of his children, his ex-wife, his former associates, confidents, cult members and their children,
all of whom attest that he has done NOTHING to clean up his past, all of whom have nothing good to say about him,
all of whom want NOTHING to do with him, while he skips town and starts over, selling himself off as a "Relationship Expert"?

Philip Clement (former alias zubromakk) – 3 March 2017

Listener be warned: If you want to know why this self proclaimed RELATIONSHIP EXPERT has no relationship with the mothers of his children NOR his children, nor his step children, if you want to know why the mother of his grand-
child won't allow this relationship expert to visit, if you want to learn about the dozens of children and families he took advantage of and abused, and if you want to learn more about how psychopaths are incapable of taking PERSONAL responsibility for their past mistakes (except to write about it "transpersonally" after leaving the country) – you can do no better than follow Elfriede Ammann's links below. Look for the letters from his previous personal manager, lovers and clients.
Meanwhile deleted Listeners' comments, posted 3. March 2017, given in response to the reissued 2011 audio interview , MP3, presented by podcasts.com, issued 2016

Source:
► Retrieved comments (2014) on the interview with 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast
Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer,
US American former TM meditator, posted 4. August 2011 Removed upon RAM's request 12 March 2014, reinstated in 2016
► Separate Viewers' comments, posted 2016 Removed in ~2018

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Readers' comments and discussion on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (2014 ◊ 2019)

Elfriede addressing Scott Kiloby and all readers – End 2014
Hi Scott Kiloby, you wrote

Masters' chapter on Spiritual Gullibility and Cultism is great stuff.

Robert Augustus Masters is a spiritual bypasser – admittedly so. As an unredeemed cult leader himself – he is now acting in his third round.
On March 2, 2014 i posted the flwg comment on this page (http://batgap.com/?p=1281 meanwhile deleted) due to a growing number of critical comments mostly from former students it was removed upon RAM's request on March 12, 2014.

See: Retrieved comments disclosing the unredeemed past of cult leader Robert Augustus Masters

In his interview with Rick Archer Robert Augustus Masters (RAM) said in minute 0:37:44, recorded August 1, 2011, posted August 4, 2011 [removed March 12, 2014]:

"More and more spiritual teachers are being caught with [their] pants and halos down. [...] I do hold people responsible who get into this trouble [sexual exploitation with their teacher] with teachers by holding the teachers more responsible. [...] we may be a little frightened to say it because that person [the flawed teacher] has more authority. A healthy teacher [...] will get questioned more [...] which makes the possibility that this thing will turn into a cult less likely."

Referring to above quote I wrote on RAM's Facebook thread on Dezember 2, 2012,

"Robert, you were one of these unhealthy violent hierarchical teachers who bullied those who dared to challenge you. Only 5-MeO-DMT could knock you out. as long as you strip your past from your new narrative you might be setting up a cult all over again."

NOTE: On his about and in his telecons with Ken Wilber (2006 onwards), Tami Simon, Michael Toms, Rick Archer, Craig Hamilton, and Terri Patten RAM carefully avoided to mention his community cult Xanthyros to keep the crimes hidden that were committed in there. RAM declared that his books produced by Xanthyros Foundation are out of print, also avoiding to mention the name that would possibly expose him.

On December 28, 2011 Robert Augustus Masters had started a thread on his Google open Facebook page asking:

"...when the group/community ... becomes too poor a fit? Do we ... challenge the very structuring and foundational assumptions (and cultic tendencies) of such a group/community, no matter how convincingly our protests might be summarized as "resis-
tance" or "our problem" or mere reactivity?"

After I cornered RAM and held him accountable to his own words, he apologized to me – to save face. Celebrating the "miracle", I've soon learned from those he had abused during his years as their cult leader that RAM's written apologies resulted from his fear of being prosecuted. He had failed to truly come clean with allegedly 99% of his former Xanthyros cult members including his wives and children.

In his thread I asked RAM how he has reconciliated his own cult building (Xanthyros) and the members thereof? he replied,

"By acknowledging that it was a cult, apologizing for the hurt I caused, and cutting through my cult-building leanings until they
no longer had any pull for me."

These words do not hold truth: in public RAM is hiding his past as a cult leader. Only under threat of prosecution he issued apologies – gestures without appropriate compensation.
In answer to my question end of 2011, he announced his intention to write an article on his experiences as a cult leader. Two decades after the fall of his cult, such a rare avowal has not been released – most likely due to RAM's refusal to redeem its former members.
I have tested RAM at four occasions, and he failed all tests.

I had been a working guest from abroad volunteering in his cult-commune Xanthyros in Vancouver for 4-5 weeks (March-Easter 1991).
At my last meeting with RAM's shadow bearers I turned down his request to set up his German dependence. Instead of bidding me farewell, all three of them screamed at me bullying me for my decision.
In a 17 page long feedback letter I had predicted that Xanthyros would fall apart (which did happen in 1994). No reply was issued to it.
20+ years later I met RAM for the second time on his Facebook "fan" page.

Challenged as requested for his own "cultic tendencies", this is how RAM dealt with me:

He turned off the cult-related thread from Google view by transfering it to the less frequented Facebook rubric "Activities of friends" concealing the "activity" he had initiated.
He deleted one of my critical posts, unwilling to "appreciate the dirt" (as suggested by him for those on the spiritual path).
He informed me per PM about this deletion act and offered to handle the issue privately. No more answers were given.
A year later – the discussion had continued (without him) for two weeks. Once he discovered that he deleted all my posts
on this (still existing gutted) thread. Retrieval of gutted/deleted Facebook discussion thread opened by RAM (2011-2015)
As expected, he blocked me from posting or liking/sharing specific posts from his Facebook page.

Unwilling to account for and redeem his abuses as a cult leader, RAM reminds me of the wolf who reaped stones in his belly after the girl and the old woman were released from him. Rare it is to meet a wolf who may bear the stones sown in his belly gracefully.

Dennis314 addressing Elfriede – end 2014
Wow. That was a powerful and interesting post.

smarsman addressing Elfriede – end 2014
You're clearly holding on to hurt, a major resentment and anger that you've carried for decades. While I'm sure there are plenty of accu-
racies of specifics on your post, the story you've concocted and are living in what seems to be woven from some truths into a very poorly constructed cloth. Your hurt, anger and resentment that fuel you to rant like this is doing what? How's it working for you? Could you be suffering from PTSD ("all three of them screamed at me bullying me for my decision")?
RAM's books provide great wisdom, tools and inspiration for many. I have gotten a lot out of what he brings forward. There's the message and there's the (usually imperfect) messenger in whatever tradition. What do you choose to focus on? What focus, thoughts and actions serve your evolving self?

Elfriede addressing smarsman – end 2014
smarsman, are you a RAM enthusiast?
To me you seem to be hooked on RAM. What I have experienced repeatedly is, pathological loyalty to gurus that have delivered helpful information and support does not allow to grasp the(ir) shadow and the bigger scheme.
Tom Steininger was in the inner circle of Andrew Cohen's cult. It took 25 years to undo it (a novum in itself) – and it has been done by those who had the courage to take a prolonged united stand. Steininger still needs time to unhook and process.

See: “My Guru Experiment: Twenty Years with Andrew Cohen” with Tom Steininger, host Terry Patten, 5. October 2014

RAM is running his third round as a reinvented guru. Now it is less visible that he is still a cult leader, who even warns readers of other cult leaders and urges them to hold them accountable. I did so with RAM – and his routine was to "apologize" when cornered, remove my posts, silence me, fall silent, to order deletion of a wave of exposing testimonials on the batgap page – written by his former associates and their loved ones.

What empowers RAM's position within the scene of enlightenment business is that he can count on the continued endorse-
ments of various thought leaders who buy his eloquent talk without thoroughly checking his walk. To this very day RAM refuses
to redeem the damage rendered by him during his first two rounds of running dysfunctional-abusive communities. His apologies serve to save his public image when cornered or threatend by law suits. How come his five children and three ex-wives deny any contact with the celebrated "relationship expert"?
Since the exposure wave broke in February 2014, RAM (supposedly) is not further supported by Ken Wilber and Rick Archer. Both of his former promoters keep their decisions low key. Several others were concerned, read the news (supposedly), yet remained silent –
to continue their endorsing routine. [NOTE: Though warned, both Rick Archer and Ken Wilber have not publically retracted from RAM (status 2020)]

Philip Clement was #2 in the chain of command of RAM's Xanthyros community in Vancouver. After 6 years as RAM's shadow bearer he rejoined with his wife and children in Europe, who had left earlier. Philip received shattering persecution from RAM and the Xanthy-
ros cult, that fell apart only when RAM took too high a dosage of 5-MeO-DMT in 1994. The drug taught him a lesson in hell for nine
months. Philip's exit created a wave, yet it did not have a substantial effect. It was the shadow exposing effect of the drug that severed
RAM and his community cult from RAM's second guru round.

Philip's "Open Letter" followed by kobally's testimonial, made public more than two decades after they had left RAM's community cult,
is addressed to advocates of Robert Augustus Masters (RAM). kobally was RAM's first assistant and #1 cult builder for 13 years.
In 1991 I met RAM, Philip, and kobally, first on Maui for a 5 day workshop followed by my stay as a visiting working guest in the Van-
couver community. 4-5 weeks later I left, for which Philip and kobally gave me the usual shouting intimidation routine (no thank you, no decent good-bye). It was a deja-vu for me. Then still hooked in blind service to their aggressive self-aggrandized guru fueled by their "fear of Robert's dire disapproval", they were unable/unwilling to graceously allow me to present them my insider-outsider feedback and take it into consideration. Though late, I appreciate that these top insiders responded to the momentum created in the public arena February/March 2014 issuing their words of warning – for those willing to take a look behind the curtain. This may allow them to make better informed choices, that well-known endorsers failed to do with RAM.
Testimonials, warnings, and observations by RAM's Xanthyros cult builders

Dennis314 addressing Elfriede and smarsman – end 2014
Elfriede, I found what you wrote to be interesting and informative. I'm sure that smarsman has no special powers or insights to analyze a person as he has analyzed you. I appreciate the information that you shared. I think the book is interesting and to some extent helpful, but your insight into the author helped me to piece together some things about the book that I wouldn't have been able to reconcile.
And smarsman, what can I say to you other than one of the weakest forms of rebuttal is one relying solely on an ad hominem attack. And, in the spirit of your flawed rhetoric, I'd like to respond with some of my own: In answer to your statement that "RAM's books pro-
vide...inspiration for many," I can think of many people who have provided inspiration that has led to a great deal of suffering – for example, the Germans seemed pretty darned inspired in late '30's.

Elfriede addressing Dennis314 – end 2014
Thank you, Dennis.
Are you willing to disclose which are some of the things about "Spiritual Bypassing" that you could not "piece together" / "reconcile" without the data I have provided here?

Dennis314 addressing Elfriede – end 2014
What I pieced together was what I felt to be the grandiose nature of some of his admonishments, but this grandiosity seems to infuse the tone of the entire book. However, I need to be mindful of my bias, which is that I read what you wrote prior to reading the book. I wonder if I would have had the same impression of the book had I read what you wrote after reading it. What I needed to reconcile was my feeling, naïve perhaps, that spirituality is a transcendent quality, and one integral thing that is transcended is our self-centeredness. It does not seem that Masters has done this. While reading the book, I felt as though he was continually imploring me to recognize how clever he was. I came across this multiple times, particularly with his analogies, which he seemed to confuse with irrefutable realities.
In all though, I found the book more helpful than not, but I make it a point to keep a safe distance from people like him and the people he describes in the book. For those who have been hurt deeply by this man, my hope is that they are able to find a way to come to peace with that hurt. And most importantly, now that I've written this, I need to go look in the mirror myself for a few.

Elfriede addressing Dennis314 – end 2014
>grandiosity seems to infuse the tone of the entire book<
Interesting observation, Dennis.
Given your new insight what is spirituality?
To transcend or to integrate self-centeredness (immaturity) that is the question.
Maturing the ego vs. destroying/transcending the ego?

This book on the important issues of tricky avoidance is definitely needed. It takes one to know one. "Spiritual Bypassing" was written by an author who admitted his own "big time bypassing" (still awaiting reparation).
My own experience showed me, "Spiritual Bypassing" did draw some advocates who rather jump to defend the author's integrity than
to check the presented data FIRST along with checking their own kneejerk reflex that has them siding with their chosen role model. Pathological loyalty is tricky.

RAM responded the last time to me on his Facebook stream on December 31, 2011. Upon my question to him he announced that he planned to write an article (not a book) on his own turning into a cult leader and shedding/transforming his cult leading characterists. The article has still not appeared [status 2015].
Since 1994 RAM is bypassing to disclose on his skeletons in the cellar. It'd mean to emotionally/compassionately/financially redeem those he has hurt and it would ruin his image (the wolf wearing the grandmother's clothes) carved out after having reinvented himself
as the one who knows it all and is above things.

>I wonder if I would have had the same impression of the book had I read what you wrote after reading it.<
Having read my list of 11 inconvenient questions to RAM (soon to be deleted by RAM) Jacob MW addressed RAM on Facebook,
"I bought your book on spiritual bypassing and before I read it, teach from it and recommend it to others, I'd like to know how you've responded to these charges. Please take this opportunity seriously."
[Deleted automatically when RAM terminated his Facebook account in May 2015]
There was no reply from RAM to Jacob either. The opportunity is still there.

It is uncommon for a wolf (cult leader) to come clean with Red Riding Hood/s (readers, followers) and her grandmother (high profile endorsers). After the wolf's belly had been gutted by the huntsman (DMT, exposers) he typically chose to fall to the ground (go into denial, keep the lid on, return to bypassing, reinvent his old ways).

Clawdette alias M. Solokoff addressing Scott Kiloby – end 2014
>"We end up giving ourselves the short end of the stick when it comes to freedom and fullness"<
It's not just you that gets the short end of the stick; it's the students. There are far too many people teaching without having fully inte-
grated their own "awakening" on whatever level it is and without any kind of foundation to teach from. Observing the current spiritual scene from the perspective of an older practitioner, the level of teaching now is pretty thin and getting even thinner: a lot of folks would do well to go a bit deeper before sitting on that chair upfront. I am always reminded of Ramana M: 25 years after awakening before he opened his mouth. Is this new rush to grab the guru's seat really helping people to know the Truth? I don't see much evidence of it. It's sad; what is being sold (literally) to folks is fools gold. The fallout, in around 25 years, is going to be huge.

Elfriede addressing M. Solokoff alias Clawdette – end 2014
M. Solokoff, you wrote
>There are far too many people teaching without having fully integrated their own "awakening" on whatever level it is and without any kind of foundation to teach from.<

In his 1995 interview "Teachers and Seekers: An Interview with Andrew Harvey" with Catherine Ingram, Indian-British religious scholar Andrew Harvey (*1952) concluded:

90 percent of the so-called masters in the modern world are not enlightened at all but are in fact occult magicians."

Source: "Yoga Journal", issue 123, pg. 58ff, July/August 1995

As a former promoter and guru/cult building front man of both Mother Meera and ⚡ Sogyal Rinpoche, Harvey had finally discovered their frauds, stepped out, and hence experienced his "annihilation" in 1994.

>What is being sold (literally) to folks is fools gold. The fallout, in around 25 years, is going to be huge.<
It took 3 disclosure books (beginning 1997) and several ongoing blogs by former students on Andrew Cohen's dysfunctional cult to finally put together this list of Cohen's grave abuses/traumatizations in 2013.

THE "A" LIST: A Catalog of Trauma and Abuse

One of AC's former students commented, "Only by explicitly naming all that he did, and owning fully the emotional impact he had, can he change the dynamic. Alas, his apology changes nothing and shows that he's not really interested in changing inside, only that he wants to confess and be forgiven. And that's not even mentioning the whole PR plan."
It took me 24 years after visiting RAM's community houses in 1991 and a virtual meeting with RAM in 2011/2012 to put together this list of his abuses as a cult leader, which remain widely unacknowledged and unredeemed by RAM to this very day:
⚡ Notes on the shadow ♦◊♦ Robert Augustus Masters failing to walk his talk all the way

Yes, M. Sokoloff, the fallout of unmitigated abuse committed by gurus over decades is huge – and it will eventually come to the open.

Vicki Norman addressing all – 2015
Unfortunately, there are many psychotherapists who are similarly ignorant of their own issues and should not be practising.

J addressing smarsman – 2015

"What do you choose to focus on? What focus, thoughts and actions serve your evolving self?"

If we apply this thinking to say, the actions of the Nazi Party, we have a hopelessly Pollyannish/ostrich view of the world, devoid of discernment.
Unfortunately Elfriede's comments are true, and I thank her for providing the information so I can make my own, informed decision about Masters' work.
You, of course, remain free to enjoy Masters' teachings.

Elise C addressing Elfriede and all – 2016
Having been to group work with Robert recently, I have witnessed first hand his cultish group think and indoctrination and left 5 days in.
I would advise all considering his content to research Robert. He is not what his writing makes him seem.

Chocological alias Philip Clement addressing all referring to Elfriede – 2016
Robert Masters is VERY clever with words and can fool most people into not noticing that what he is really saying in all his books is how evolved and all knowing and more spiritual he is than everybody else. It's about creating an image of Him in YOU: he is not writing about you. He has changed cities three times and countries once in order to not take responsibility for the people he abused,
and the lives he ruined. Read up on psychopaths, read up on Robert's dark past and refusal to take responsibility for his past criminal behaviour.
He is particularly attractive to "teachers" who themselves long to conquer their hidden insecurities and feign wisdom and superiority
the way he does.

Elfriede informing all readers – Beginning 2019
Robert Augustus Masters (formerly called RAMOS) is an unredeemed serial community cult leader who is a self-admitted spiritual bypasser.

See Be Scofield's exposure article October 2018 Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader

Source: ► Removed by Amazon Discussion thread on Scott Kiloby's Customer Review on Amazon, 22. December 2010
Concerning Masters' book Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters, issued 27. July 2010

↑

[Edit]

Englische Texte – English section on Robert Augustus Masters

[Edit]

Testimonials, warnings, and observations by RAM's Xanthyros cult builders

Open Letter to advocates of Robert Augustus Masters (RAM)
Testimonial by RAM's former Xanthyros front man of 6 years – Philip Clement

Dear RAM enthusiast,

This letter is not about the transgressions Robert was party to as therapist-turned-Guru during the Xanthyros Cult days (1984-1994). Everybody makes mistakes. This letter is not about eliciting any kind of apology or gesture from Robert. (He
has already shown his hand in that regard multiple times[*].⁷) This letter is not about reaching out to Robert through your
good graces as a supporter of his. Not at all. This letter is about going a little deeper into Mr. Deep.

⚑ I was a signing witness at Robert's wedding to the mother of his two eldest children.
⚑ I sat beside him as he read pages and pages and pages of hand written vows to her.
⚑ I was privy to him trying to throw that same woman down a flight of stairs in a fit of rage.
⚑ I attended four of his five kids' births, midwifed three of his children, and for a long period was his confident.
⚑ Later I was the confident in varying degrees to the mothers of his children.
⚑ I protected Robert in front of TV cameras, lawyers, social services, and threatening family members.
⚑ I was in the front row.
⚑ I was a seeker, a willing and eager student, client and advocate for six years.
⚑ I was his first representative in Europe.
⚑ I helped publish his first book.
⚑ I was the therapist people worked with before they met with the master.

To the point: This letter is about calling your attention to Robert's unfinished business, which he has chosen over and over NOT to do.
► The woman who Robert left Gail for, and with whom he has his two youngest
children, spelled out to him in excruciating detail who he needs to ask
forgiveness from, and why.
► Myself and many others over the years, have articulated as clear as day the
direction he must take to do right by the children and adults he abused. I warned
him of an impending court case if he didn't make amends.

Nothing moved him.
His empathy for the children who were given up for adoption, and their struggles of today, is nil.
(See Kobally's personal avowal above [and below].)
His empathy for ____ and ____, two of his step children, whose spirits are utterly damaged out of their relationship with him, is non existent.
His sense of regret for separating families, putting children into isolation, humiliating people and provoking mobbing, spitting in people's faces, banging heads against walls, is essentially nil.
His lack of remorse would be damning enough, but to posture himself
- as the New Man,
- as the authority on relationship,
- as the emissary of "a deeper" wisdom all should seek,

is what is fueling the growing momentum to hold Robert accountable for his past, or better put, for not cleaning up his past.
Except for one person, NO ONE from that time [1977-1985 and 1985-1994] wants ANYTHING to do with Robert, including
the mothers of his children, and most of the children themselves. That is a reflection of who he is today, rather than who he was.

What is encouraging however, is that high profile people who have been seduced by Robert, are reading these testimonials, and are dropping their endorsement of him.

Ken Wilber being one of the first.⁸ Rick Archer of batgap.com being another.
[Note: Both men as mentioned above factually recoiled from distancing themselves from RAM.]

There is discussion going on right now with others who have been attracted to the glitter.

I feel compelled to let anyone who engages with Robert know of these things. Buyer beware. As disturbing as these letters must be to read, I hope you believe me when I say I honestly hope it serves your, and the greater good.

Mid March 2014, Philip Clement

[*] Robert's reaction to Ken Wilber and Rick Archer's withdrawing their endorsements of him was to call and whine that he's not being treated fairly. To the suggestion that he respond directly to the testimonials on the deleted batgap comments page, he retorted that he already has, that his apologies have not been accepted, and that the testimonials are inaccurate. Here is where you the reader come in. Read the testimonials here, read a letter from RAM's Canadian assistant [kobally] of 13 years and who established him in Vancouver after he fled Victoria. You decide if she feels RAM has acknowledged the emotional cost in her daughter being given up for adoption.

Philip Clement – Xanthyros inner circle member – 16. June 2015
Facebook discussion forum Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality, thread "I wasn't going to share this here, but then I..."

I spent six years at RAM's side. I was a signing witness at his second marriage, I was a main birth attendant at four of his five children's home births, I was his closest male confident for a long period of time, and was his front line therapist for years: assisting groups, representing him in Europe, heading off angry relatives, TV exposés, and lawyers. Today I have open end contact with the three mothers of his children, and MANY former members of the cult Xanthyros, inclu-
ding those who were the children he physically, emotionally and psychologically abused.
I would like to respond specifically to G. and N. and GW's defence of RAM, and to the notion that people who make mistakes can still do good down the road.
Forget RAM for a moment and consider ANY person who has committed emotional physical and psychological abuse
on children and adults over a period of a decade. Years later this person claims "he is deserving of forgiveness" and has in fact made "hard-won progress" and "on the whole he is a good man" Would you forgive this person, stand by him, and return to work with him IF YOU KNEW that in fact he has not yet apologized to the children who were given up for adop-
tion, nor to their parents, nor to the grandparents and uncles and aunts of those children who were also devastated? Would you forgive this person if he rebuffs all suggestions that he still has some clean up to do, in the face of rock solid testimonials?
If you knew this reformed person has RECENT 'ex-customers' who are reporting similar stories of mobbing, intimidation, God complex, etc. mirroring his days of past abuses, in spite of your positive experiences with him; if you knew that to this day this man has reneged on his $$ responsibilities towards the three mothers of his children – who were first in line for abuse and violence — all the while demanding more and more $$ from his current customers to support his cushy lifestyle; if you knew this 'salesman' closed down his favourite way of playing the Omniscient One — FaceBook — because of threads like this one… If you knew that this reformed person contributing to your growth was shirking his responsibility to do right by those he hurt, regardless of whether it was 20 years ago or one year ago, would you still defend your positions? Would you?
Perhaps as I did 30 years ago — you are finding a good fit with a charismatic authoritative competitive man who you
are sure can offer you guidance and inspiration, who is promising to open doors for you personally and spiritually, and perhaps as I, you aren't noticing that you are starting to internalise/ rationalize small signals, red lights as it were, and argue with yourself that they are insignificant compared to the overall value of $pending time with such a "rare teacher".
(You can read all about him and the children given up for adoption, on Elfriede's Spiritualwiki site, although I must say Elfriede's postings on this thread (above) about RAM and AC are insightful, incisive, and accurate to a fault.)
No, RAM has not done right by us and he could not look me in the eye and say otherwise. He could shout, whine, emote, elucidate, pontificate, clear his throat loudly to make his voice sound more spiritual, accuse me of not being as "open" as he, threaten, throw a tantrum, organize a mobbing, take his best shot at pseudo spiritual psycho babble I'm-a-deeper-person-than-you sound bites, but he could not look me in the eye and keep an open heart.
5 MEO proved RAM's darkness is stronger in the long run than spirit medicine. Similarly, if AC had TRULY broken through his own pathology, there would be zero debate on whether his letter of apology was adequate or not.
Authentic apology doesn't elicit debate, it catalyses healing.
_________________________________________________
I have heard many positive testimonials from people who did some work with RAM and I believe all of them for sure. Miles Davis is acknowledged as a musical genius but his private life is full of documented stories of his abuse of wo-
men. I respect what he did for Jazz but in NO way excuse his behaviour. However, if Miles had began lecturing about women's rights there would be a real problem, and that's what RAM's situation is. I can tell you from personal contact that when the women who were closest to him for over a decade hear that he positions himself as a relationship expert today they cringe for the lies this position is built upon, as do his adult children and step children. It's harder for me to "be fair" because of how he betrayed my trust and hurt those I love, and especially by his refusal to do right by so many from that time, but I hear your point and do want to represent the situation with nuance rather than one broad brush stroke.

Philip Clement – Xanthyros inner circle member – 3. March 2017

Listener be warned: If you want to know why this self proclaimed RELATIONSHIP EXPERT has no relationship with the mothers of his children NOR his children, nor his step children, if you want to know why the mother of his grandchild won't allow this relationship expert to visit, if you want to learn about the dozens of children and families he took advan-
tage of and abused, and if you want to learn more about how psychopaths are incapable of taking PERSONAL respon-
sibility for their past mistakes (except to write about it "transpersonally" after leaving the country) – you can do no better than follow Elfriede Ammann's links below. Look for the letters from his previous personal manager, lovers and clients. Philip Clement, Canadian former frontman of cult leader Masters, Listeners' comments, posted 3. March 2017, in response to: Reissued 2011 audio interview 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by podcasts.com, issued 2016

Philip Clement – Xanthyros inner circle member – 25. November 2017

Robert's ability to sound like he knows EVERYTHING, is WISE beyond wise and profound beyond profound is only matched by his shameless denial of the harm he did to so many, and his disgusting lack of clean up of same.
For evidence look no farther than the fact that the three mothers of his 5 children want NOTHING to do with him, have NOTHING good to say about him, that his five children are at best estranged from him, his step children have taken him to court (he settled) and he has never seen his only grandchild. Or listen to a section of this tape three times to hear his real message, and it is all about himself. Try it. Buyer beware. Viewer's comment by Philip Clement, Canadian former frontman of cult leader Masters, in response to: Video interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Robert Augustus Masters – Overcoming Porn & Finding Purpose, presented by ManTalks, host Connor Beaton, YouTube film, 50:12 minutes duration, posted 29. May 2017

NOTE: The comment section has been disabled to bypass comments exposed RAM. The comment was corroborated on Goodreads, 26. November 2017.

Philip Clement – Xanthyros inner circle member – 2. October 2018

I was in Robert’s inner circle for 6 years from '85-91. I was a signing witness at his (2nd) marriage, attended the births of 4 of his five children, assisted him in workshop retreats in Canada and the US and represented him in Germany. I still have contact with all his ex's, and many of the adults and children from that period. EVERYTHING Be Scofield writes about him is accurate. Reader's comment by Philip Clement, Canadian former frontman of community cult leader Masters, I was in Robert's inner circle for 6 years, dated 8. October 2018, in response to: Blog article by Be Scofield, US American activist, web designer, DJ, producer, blogger for magazine Tikkun, writer, Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader, presented by the stories outlet Medium (13 minutes read) 2. October 2018

Testimonial by RAM's former assistant of 13 years in two community cults – kobally

After reading the posts here⁹ I felt compelled to write my story on Robert Augustus Masters. I was closely associated with him for 13 years from 1981 to 1994. In that time, I became his 'right-hand' woman. I did his bidding, I paved his way wher-
ever he went or wanted to go to make his passage smooth. I held him in high esteem and devoted myself to him
in his journey

as body worker,
then therapist,
then 'teacher',
then guru.

I helped elevate him to that status. I believed he had a great gift to give to others. I felt so uplifted working with him after a harrowing time in India addicted to drugs and going downhill fast. I wanted others to benefit too and share in the bliss I experi-
enced. But all that changed as I got to know him more closely, and eventually I suffered profoundly at his hands, literally and figuratively.

In the beginning of our 'relationship' I believed he saw me for who I truly was, a wise, beautiful, powerful, deep woman. I had never felt this before. I was open, loving, vulnerable, and hungry for attention, and I hate to admit it, power. These were things I did not feel I'd experienced in my life from a man. Robert gave me that. But, it was short lived.

Eventually, I joined him and his partner and their baby boy in Victoria to be part of a community of Sannyasins of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho [~1977-1985]. That so-called community was the beginning of me seeing how he and John Robbins operated –

create dependence,
rule by anger and power, then
instill fear thus keeping all members close – the epitome of a cult.

I had cut many ties with friends and family and so felt very dependent on what I had there.

Eventually, due to the egos of these two dominating men, the community disintegrated and Robert, his partner, their baby son, and my daughter and I came to North Vancouver. Here, over the next 2-3 years I promoted his work and created
yet another dysfunctional-abusive community.

He was, as many of the other people who have commented here have said, an abusive, cruel, egocentric, power hungry paranoid child. He projected all his fears and beliefs, collected from a childhood in a cloistered family compound with a passive mother and abusive father, onto all of us. He coerced us into abusing our families outside the community as well as those inside – spouses, children, and friends.

I lost my daughter for 15 years because of him. I was not a perfect mother, but I would never have given up my child with-
out his driving me into it with the threat of losing everything I held dear and that was good in the community by making me choose – the community or my child. I could have chosen my girl, but, I'm ashamed to say, I did not. I have paid the price, as has my child. She is strong, and brave and working her way through all the trauma she accumulated from her experience in Xanthyros and after – it followed her long and hard. But it is a long challenging journey. He has NEVER apologized or taken responsibility with me or her, for what he did to her, during her time there and how he orchestrated my
giving her up.

Robert abused many, many others, young and old, on his journey to the pinnacle of Guru. Many of us are still close friends. We have, together, shared our pain, asked forgiveness from each other for the times, out of fear of Robert's dire disapproval, betrayed one another, and we have, together, healed many wounds.

Robert has done none of this reparation or healing. There have been a few attempts by him but only after others have written to him or threatened him with lawsuits and exposure. HE DOES NOT PRACTICE WHAT HE PREACHES – no matter how eloquently he writes about it. This frightened, sad man presents himself as all knowing, as all seeing, as an omniscient teacher who can lead you to enlightenment.
Do not be fooled. He only talks the talk, and very well, but he does not nor has he ever walked the walk. He has no capacity for love or empathy even with his own five children who, on the whole, really don't want anything to do with him. He says Xanthyros was an experiment that we all participated in, but he was the mad scientist at the helm, manipulating and controlling the people who were looking to him for true guidance, care and loving support.

Source: ► Retrieved comment dated 6 March 2014 on the video interview[*] with 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, posted 4. August 2011 [*]Removed upon RAM's request on 12. March 2014,
reinstalled in 2016 minus the comments section

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Retrieval of gutted/deleted Facebook discussion thread opened by RAM (2011-2015)

Discussion addressed to former cult members willing to challenge their former gurus failing them
Social media thread issued 28. December 2011

Year			General thread activity	Specific thread activity	Visibility on Google
2011	28·Dec		RAM opens thread on his Facebook fan page.		Open to Google viewers
2011	30·Dec	⚡	RAM denies Google access to HIS thread by transferring it to the less frequented Facebook rubric "Activities of friends."		Removed from Google
2011	31·Dec	⚡		RAM removes 1st one of Eflriede's entries offering her further PM exchange instead.	Result: Dead end "communication" off Google and off Facebook
2012	13·Dec		Last thread entry		Off Google
2012	13·Dec	⚡		Upon discovering the revived thread 11 days later RAM removes all of Eflriede's remaining entries.	Elfriede can still view RAM's Facebook fan page, yet is denied to like, comment on or share entries.
2014	March	⚡	Thread is temporarily invisible to reappear days later.		Off Google
2015	16-20·May	⚡	Truncated thread is deleted.	Upon discovering discussions where links to RAM's cult history appeared	Off Facebook/Google
2015	21-25·May	⚡	RAM's Facebook account is terminated.	Upon he had discovered various discussions where he was tagged and sharers of his entries were cautioned to take note of RAM's cult history.	Off Facebook/Google

Robert Augustus Masters ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 28 December 2011 – 25 likes; 4 shares

What happens when the group/community that once gave (or apparently gave) us so much needed support becomes too tight or poor a fit? Do we then simply make ourselves wrong, assuming that there’s something that WE are doing that’s generating our restlessness or unease, or do we go further, dealing not only with our issues but ALSO challenging the very structuring and foundational assumptions (and cultic tendencies) of such a group/community, no matter how convincingly our
protests might be summarized as "resistance" or "our problem" or mere reactivity?

28 December 2011 – Undisclosed posts by KK, PK, AWL, GA, JJ, JG, SL

Robert Augustus Masters ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 28 December 2011 – 3 likes

If the painful sense of separateness or estrangement that so often drives us to seek membership somewhere is not properly worked with, so that our yearning for togetherness or belongingness is not just an escape from our sense of separateness or strandedness, then we’ll remain highly susceptible to the pull of various "parental" or "we have the answers" institutions and movements ...

28 December 2011 – Undisclosed posts by CS, HO

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 30 December 2011 – 2 likes

Robert, how have you reconciliated your own cult building (Xanthyros) and the members thereof?

Robert Augustus Masters ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 28 December 2011 – 2 likes

By acknowledging that it was a cult, apologizing for the hurt I caused, and cutting through my cult-building leanings
until they no longer had any pull for me.

30 December 2011 – RAM transfers thread to less frequented Facebook rubric "Activities of friends".

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 30 December 2011 – 1 like

good to hear that, Robert. it's the first time i read that.
i listened to your interviews with Ken Wilber where you didn't mention this part of your past.
Wilber himself has 3 fallen gurus as his dear friends. in his public talks he calls them "assholes" because their ethics sucks.
this is your chance to apologize to me now and here: i have been a guest in your cult in Vancouver for 4 weeks (Easter 1991).
i refused to start your German dependence and was screamed down by your representatives.
your # 2 in the chain of command was the first to break free. he suffered a lot for having served to carry your shadow. he was the first to return a letter. you didn't. i had sent you a 17 page letter which you've left unanswered. i had predicted the breakdown
of Xanthyros. was astonished to see it fall apart earlier than suspected.
it was an act of grace that had you take an overdose of DMT.
have an essential new year 2012.

Robert Augustus Masters ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 30 December 2011 – 4 likes

Elfriede, I apologize for whatever harm I caused you, both directly and indirectly. I don't recall receiving your letter, but assuming that I did, I am sorry for not responding to it. And you're right about my having taken 5-MeO-DMT; it was fierce grace, and took me, regardless of my resistance, down to ground zero, changing my life profoundly.

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 30 December 2011 – 2 likes

Robert, Xanthyros was my 3rd cult. it took me 5 weeks to break free from it. and a lot of anger against patriarchs (burdened with a father complex) came to the open after returning to Germany on April 4th, 1991.
the other 2 cult leaders were Sun Myung Moon (never saw him in person) and Werner Erhard (met him in person), both of them failed gurus. it took me 2 years each to break free from them / their cults.
your female rep # 2 ... [see kobally] called me a "tough cookie" and you and her felt that Moon was still a factor in me and a threat to you / your cult then.
i met you first on Maui (at age 35). then i was about to tell you in front of the whole group what i saw happening with you – it was at the occasion of an encounter. you turned me off before the stage was set. and i allowed you to do so.
you (sort of) saved the face of the guy (KC) who acted as the pied piper. he was your sponsor of the Maui event adding European blood to your endeavors.
he and you and a few other guys are tied into a past life drama in Ireland which i was shown before arriving on Maui.
yes, fierce grace was needed to break down the arrogance of a cult leader. my cult leaders # 1 and # 2 are still alive. Erhard fled the country. his cult functions without him. i have not had the chance of starting a (semi)public chat via facebook with either of them.

i am glad you survived your DMT breakdown and were graced with a conversion experience induced by God.
my first break-off from Moon dumped me right into hell. it took 1.5 years to burn off deep seated self-defeating beliefs in me and then an act of grace to lift me off. the breaking off from Erhard was less dramatic. it felt like a rerun though.
finally the anger concerning all 3 cults in this life came out after i broke away from yours. and then there was # 4 in my hometown. he was a former runaway from Scientology.
it took a course of 23.5 years and 4 trials. now the cult lesson my soul has chosen as my karma-dharma is [...]. i am free to speak on it.
one of my visions is: a humbled wolf comes to apologize for having devoured the sick Grandmother and the naive Red Riding Hood. you're the first to do so.
thank God and thank you for your willingness and humility to accept and to apologize.
congrats for your new path, Robert. i appreciate it.

i wish to read an article written by you where you offer a report how the conversion of a former cult leader looks like. what brought you into the cult scene and what got you out – at last. let me know if such paper already exists or if you plan to write one – or to give an interview on it.

Robert Augustus Masters ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 31. December 2011 – 3 likes

Such an article does not exist, but I plan to write one.¹⁰

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 31 December 2011 – 0 likes

looking forward to read it. would you paste it as a document on your facebook account or let me know where i can find it on google.
would love you'd go about it with Ken Wilber. he wrote a whole book on the subject and has trouble to spot the trouble with his fellow teachers who have fallen.
it's not Ken Wilber and his co-pundits who spot it, it's the matured "victims" and the press (some 10-20 years later) who break the scandal.

JF ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 31 December 2011 – 1 like

I admire both of you for this exchange, and healing for you both. This is what I hope for 2012... more illumination and healing like this. I am thankful to have witnessed this one. Many blessings to you both.

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 31 December 2011 – 2 likes

Hi Jan, one of the features of narcissism is a deep hunger for admiration. so pls do not admire.
appreciation and gratitude, an open heart and open ear are a well received support.
I join you in gratitude for witnessing this healing exchange. it comes as a miracle at the end of the 11th year to Elf.

31 December 2011 – RAM removes Eflriede's entry offering her [dead end] PM exchange instead. RAM ended his public response right here.

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 1 January 2012 – 1 like

Robert, i wish you a Happy Essential Year 2012.
your personality cult ended in 1994 due to an overdosed drug intake. fierce grace had DMT act as your master in truth and humility at the time.
a former longterm member of Xanthyros who is easily accessible due to their public appearances reported to me that you did not reach out to them and apologize for the error (of common immaturity) made together.
now that you are in the 21st year of the new phase of your life i wish you will make an effort to contact all your former longterm cult members, your sponsors and even your visiting guests of Xanthyros and come clean with them – on a more mature base.
this experience might possibly give you deeper insight for writing the article on the rise and fall and reconciliation of a former cult.
"coming clean" is an act of grace itself.
Herman Cain i.e. and many others before him did not raise to the occasion of truth-based reconciliation. and the occasions (like this one here) will keep arising. the tendency of the power abusing predatory rankist wolf archetype is to fall to the ground (back out) than to face its own "prerational and preverbal vulnerabilities".

as a sacred intervention grace simply persists. Facebook entry on grace by RAM, 24. November 2011

grace to you and all you(ve) touch/ed. Elf

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 1 December 2012 – 0 likes

Robert, months have gone by since we talked last.
i was grateful to receive your apology you made to me here last year.

⚑ did you already write the envisioned article confessing on what you have done, regretted and learned from your time as a cult leader?
⚑ are you still obsessed with your image (in the eyes of your readers and of Ken Wilber) above all else?
⚑ did you apologize for the crimes that were made in Xanthyros by you or ordered by you out of 'deeper love and deeper truth'?
⚑ did you ever apologize to the mothers of your children who don't want anything to do with you?
⚑ did you ever apologize to the two mothers who you forced to give up their children for adoption?
⚑ did you ever apologize to all those couples coming to Xanthyros who you forced to live apart?
⚑ did you ever apologize to all those parents and their children who you ordered to live in separate houses?
⚑ did you ever apologize to the then 12 year old boy who you forced to wear a diaper for a week?
⚑ did you ever apologize to those former members of Xanthyros who suffered your or others physical violence?
⚑ did you ever apologize to the people who you spat in the face?
⚑ did you offer your written apologies truly or as a result of your fear of being prosecuted?

happy advent.

JMW to RAM ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 2 December 2012 – 1 like

These are fierce charges from someone who does her research and has a gift for calling us all to greater integrity. I bought your book on spiritual bypassing and before I read it, teach from it and recommend it to others, I'd like to know how you've responded to these charges. Please take this opportunity seriously.
Be blessed.

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 2. December 2012 – 0 likes

Robert, in the opening paragraph of this thread you wrote:
What happens when the group/community that once gave (or apparently gave) us so much needed support becomes too tight or poor a fit?
Do we then simply make ourselves wrong, assuming that there’s something that WE are doing that’s generating our restlessness or unease, or do we go further, dealing not only with our issues but ALSO challenging the very structuring
and foundational assumptions (and cultic tendencies) of such a group/community, no matter how convincingly our protests might be summarized as "resistance" or "our problem" or mere reactivity?

⚑ does that mean you're starting to encourage aspirants to leave their respective groups/teachers? to flock to you instead?

⚑ when the members of your Xanthyros cult tried hard to challenge the "very structuring and foundational assumptions" of your cult-commune you not only "summarised" their trials as resistance or reactive, you crucified them. you led the charge. you have been reported a master at mobbing members and students within the Xanthyros commune and way past it.

⚑ what do you suggest for students (followers, groupies, fans) to do, Robert, if their guru's version of summarizing TOUGH QUESTIONS as "resistance" includes mobbing, ostracizing, banging heads against walls or floors, and physically abusive assignments to humiliate, degrade and weaken?
yes, the guru is you in this example.

⚑ what do you see as the effective, meaningful and spiritually advanced correct steps to take for such a guru to be able to make amends with the people they abused?

⚑ ultimately, what steps will you, as the former leader of a cult, take to REALLY make amends with ALL the people you have abused and mislead in Xanthyros?

⚑ Will you share this with Ken Wilber?

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 2. December 2012 – 1 like

Robert, i have watched your Skype interview 081. Robert Augustus Masters with Rick Archer issued last August.
i noticed that in your telecons with Ken Wilber (2006) and Rick Archer (2011) you leave out mentioning a word on your cult Xanthyros and the crimes committed in there.

RAM minute 0:37:44, 1:44:47 duration, posted 4. August 2011: More and more spiritual teachers are being caught with [their] pants and haloes down. [...] I do hold people responsible who get into this trouble [sexual exploitation] with teachers by holding the teachers more responsible. And it's very, very common. [...] Even the most immature
of us still has a bullshit dedector [...] but we may be a little frightened to say it because that person [the flawed teacher] has more authority. A healthy teacher encourages students to have access to their own innate autonomy and authority right from the very beginning which means he or she will get questioned more which makes the thing healthier
and which makes the possibility that this thing will turn into a cult less likely, but that's uncommon unfortunately.

you were one of these unhealthy violent hierarchical teachers who bullied those who dared to challenge you. only 5-MeO-DMT could knock you out. as long as you strip your past from your new narrative you might be setting up a cult all over again. you have set up your inner circle to extremely bully those people [like me for example] who were unwilling to walk your path. i had my sense of "innate autonomy and authority" intact then, and neither you nor your inner circle of bullies were able/willing to acknowledge that. they were programmed by you to try to once more tearing it down. i am sorry that Xanthyros people had no grace to bid a leaving guest good bye and send blessings on their way.

LB ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 13. December 2012 – 1 like

Having just become aware of this thread, think this is an important topic and due to his being uniquely qualified, I would be interested to hear Mr. Robert Augustus Masters respond?

Elfriede ♦ Retrieved Facebook comment ♦ 13. December 2012 – 0 likes

Laurie, Robert A. Masters does not seem to receive notification on further entries of this picture thread. Otherwise, i suspect, he would have deleted the posts or the whole thread which he soon had removed from public view on google last year.
Sadly, R.A.M. has not substantially and credibly cleaned up his past crimes as a violent cult leader – so confirmed by former members of his inner circle.

LB ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 13. December 2012 – 0 likes

I'm not surprised. Thank you Elfriede.

LB ♦ Facebook comment ♦ 14. December 2014 – 0 likes

I just came across these detailed notes on the shadow:
https://de.spiritualwiki.org/Wiki/RobertAugustusMasters#toc10

Source: ► Discussion thread on challenging cult structures and cult leaders, issued by RAM on his Facebook fan page, issued 28. December 2011 ♦ gutted end December 2012 ♦ DELETED by default 16-20 May 2015, when RAM sacrificed his Facebook fan account to defy further exposure of his shadow via the Google open accounts of the multiplicators of his quotes.
Further avoidance of accountability: On 10 March 2014 RAM's former front man Philip Clement raised several pointed questions under RAM's various threads on his Facebook page. Less than a day later all these entries were removed and Clement was banned from commenting there any longer.

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⚡ Notes on the shadow ♦◊♦ Robert Augustus Masters failing to walk his talk all the way

Unrestituted abuses committed by unrepentant cult leader RAMOS aka Robert A. Masters
in his two dysfunctional cultic communities in Victoria (~1977-1985) and Vancouver (1985-1994)¹¹
Shielding and dodging in RAM's third guru round (1999-present) [Status 2015]

"HE [RAM] DOES NOT PRACTICE WHAT HE PREACHES – no matter how eloquently he writes about it. […]
Do not be fooled. He only talks the talk, and very well, but he does not nor has he ever walked the walk."
kobally, RAM's Canadian long-term assistant (1981-1994), 6. March 2014¹²

Time frame	Test arena	Behavior – action – event	Remark
~1977-1994 Since 2006	STATUS INFLUENCE	♦ As a self-aggrandized cult leader, called megalomaniac by local Vancouverians, Robert Augustus Masters practised the "cult of one" in two consecutive small-sized experimental communities in Canada. In his third and most successful round as an integral academic "relationship expert" RAM continues the path of hard to come by narcissism.	See stage 1 of RAM's relationship chart: "cult of one"
RAM admitted in 2010: "I was kind of thick about it – that I was still the same neurotic in many ways […]."¹³
~1977-1994	SEX	♦ Not openly polyamorous, yet unilaterally polygamous, RAM did not permit his wife and two other concurrent partners (mothers of his children) to have any other intimate experiences, unless he was there, whereas he also had sex with a few other women in his community.	Supposedly on behalf of their "spiritual growth"
End of 80ties	MONEY	♦ RAM encouraged members of Xanthyros to cheat by filing for welfare, which resulted in a simultaneous raid on three of the community houses by the Welfare Agency of the province.	Result: Many members went off welfare after that raid. Records of the raids might still be availed on request.
Early 90ties	SEX	♦ RAM groomed a teenager, preparing her to be sexually initiated by him.	Supposedly on behalf of her "spiritual growth"
1985-1991	VIOLENCE HUMILIATION	♦ RAM threw his wife Gail down the stairs, forcibly and repeatedly banged his front man Philip's head on the floor while sitting over him, and banged the head of an intimate against the wall which resulted in prolonged headaches. In the middle of a group, he farted in kobally's face. He forced a child at age 10 to wear a diaper for three weeks in front of his peers, and the adults. He spit in more than a dozen people's faces, both men and women.	RAM's pathological need to control his surroundings, fueled by his manicly obsessive need for recognition, attention and devotion drove him often into fits of anger, stress filled impatience, frustration.
1985-1991	FORCE	♦ RAM put each infant in the middle of a Xanthyros group circle and was only satisfied if the baby crawled towards him. The babies and very young children who were not yet programmed to be afraid of RAM shunned him by instinct.	Since he could not control the babies, RAM coerced their mothers for two adoptions.
~1990	FORCE	♦ RAM "sent" back Philip's wife G. along with their 9 month old daughter to Germany, ostensibly for her personal growth.	RAM did not succeed to intimidate the baby, plus he preferred the undivided time and attention of his "unmarried" front man.
1985-1994	MONEY	♦ RAM expected sooner than later that each joining member would give over their life savings to him. Many did, given the very forceful group pressure.	RAM failed to return the savings obtained via group pressure.
~1984-1994	FORCE SEX	♦ Keen to remain the focus of EVERYONE and intolerant for any other receiving more love than him, narcissist RAM extensively meddled with set existing relationships. Eventually he separated, physically and emotionally, each of the 20-30 (married) couples that joined the Xanthyros community as well as children from their parents.	Ostensibly on behalf of their spiritual growth Only one out of ~25 separated couples succeeded to reunite afterwards.
~1984-1994	FORCE SEX	♦ RAM paired up ~50-100 community members and ~50 visiting guests, in most cases neither by openly giving orders nor by obtaining informed consent by both parties involved.	Covering his meddling with lengthy concealed 'spiritual' justification
1990-~1994	MONEY FORCE	♦ Pressurized to join the Xanthyros community cult, founder/editor of the magazine Critique Bob Banner granted RAM to engross it. Until he was "banned" (for his honesty), Banner served as typesetter of RAM's revamped periodical called Sacred Fire.	Banner lost advertisers, subscribers, and basically the magazine he had published for years ceased to exist. No recompensation availed to him Reference: ¹⁴
1985-1994	FORCE	♦ RAM succeeded in disempowering all the members of Xanthyros, by applying the standard mind control tricks as in intimidation, seduction, pushing boundaries, zero tolerance for criticism by way of threat of aggression, isolation from family and friends, creating growing financial and emotional dependency, resulting in genuine confusion as to what was right and what wasn't – after years of these tactics. As a way to manipulate the group dynamic in his direction, RAM constantly encouraged psychological mobbing and physical bullying.	In respect to psychopathological featuers RAM is scoring considerably high – given the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised.¹⁵
1994-1995	CRIME PRIDE	♦ RAM had set up his inner circle to commit crimes on his behalf.¹⁶	Dissociation Denial of responsibility Lack of compassion
1995-present	Matrimony VIOLENCE	♦ Survivors of abuse, his two former wives and two life partners want NOTHING to do with RAM.	Only one of them has to have contact with RAM because of addiction issues of their child.
"HE [RAM] coerced us into abusing our families outside the community as well as those inside – spouses, children, and friends." kobally, RAM's Canadian long-term assistant (1981-1994), 6. March 2014¹⁷
1994-1995 Up to present	DEATH FORCE	♦ Though thoroughly sobered by his 5-MeO-DMT drug intake, self-admitted spiritual bypasser RAM avoided to voluntarily apologize and subsequently come clean with his former cult members. As a result, 70-80 people (99% of all the adult and children survivors of RAM's abuse), except for one adult, broke ties with RAM.	None of the former cult members endorses his work as "relationship expert."
RAM admitted in 2010: "I saw myself – looking back – as bypassing big time. [...] I sensed there was something in relationship that I needed for my growth."¹⁸
1995-present	MONEY PARENTING	♦ The three mothers of RAM's five children claim that he abandoned his financial obligations toward his children.	Denial of responsibility Neglect
1995-present	PARENTING	♦ Four out of his five now adult biological children are estranged from RAM. His four step children hate him.	Denial of responsibility Lack of compassion
1995-present	PARENTING FORCE	♦ RAM has shown zero remorse for the fate of the two children whose mothers he had coerced to give them up for adoption.	Denial of responsibility Lack of compassion
1999	STATUS VIOLENCE	♦ To upgrade his range of influence, RAM completed a Ph.D. program in psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in Oakland, California. His dissertation was an interdisciplinary, psychospiritual investigation of anger.	As a boy he was exposed to his father's anger, as an adult RAM committed his own cruel fits of anger.
2003	TEACHING	♦ RAM offered yearlong apprenticeship programs training students in his psychotherapeutic working style.
Since ~2003	STATUS FORCE	♦ In his third round as guru, positioning himself as self-styled "relationship expert" and "new man" mainly within the US American spiritual "enlightenment business" arena, RAM gained fame and a large following – mainly due to his elevated status in the integral scene. Industrious author, he is reaping (continued) endorsements by informed!!, associated and unsuspecting bloggers, media people, colleagues of the pen, distributors, and luminaries.	Upon having been informed about RAM's unredeemed great harm committed as a cult leader, his loyalty-bonded advocates in his 3rd round took note, yet stayed put. Namely: Bernhard Guenther, Jeff Brown, M.A., Tami Simon, Ken Wilber
2001-~2005	FORCE STATUS	♦ Two brothers, children during the Xanthyros community days, approached RAM for support for their recovery from years of his abuse. He rejected them with, "Turn the shit into compost." Consequently, they sued him for physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse. To avoid a public upheaval that could damage his newly styled image and career, he settled out of court, financially.	Note: Working with clients RAM claims to integrate the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
RAM stated in February 2012: "I hear from various spiritual teachers who I think have not done their personal work deeply enough who say to their students 'Just drop your story. It's just a story.' In that that person is being given the message, 'Your history doesn't matter that much.' And then the dots that need to be connected can't be connected."¹⁹
March 2005- 2 April 2006	MATRIMONY STATUS	♦ RAM met Diane Bardwell, who was raised with strong cult dynamics as a child. A year later she became his third wife. Whereas both confirm to enjoy a monogamous intimate relationship with each other, he is her adored guru-master, whereas she acts as his intermediary to the world covering his shadow.	Practicing the "cult of two" See stages 3 and 4 of the Masters' relationship chart
2008	MONEY STATUS	♦ Not a licensed therapist Diane Masters became cotrainer at their Masters Center for Transformation (MCT).	Off-law
1995-2010 2010 2015	STATUS	♦ RAM moved cities while in British Columbia, Canada. The Masters moved to Ashland, Oregon, in the United States heading to California, given their clients manage to pave their way in.	Bypassing his crimes and traumatizations inflicted onto the members of his two cults and their relations.
2011-2015	STATUS FORCE	♦ When held accountable at two social media outlets for his unredeemed crimes as a cult leader – as publicly requested by himself – RAM saved face/image/status, ducked, dodged, deleted, silenced-blocked and insisted on removal.	➤ Gutted Facebook thread, started 12/28/2011, gutted 2012, deleted 15-20 May 2015, ➤ Retrieved BATGAP comments disclosing the unredeemed past of cult leader R. A. Masters, Jan-March 2014 ➤ Termination of RAM's fan platform on Facebook >20 May 2015.
RAM challenged in 2011: "More and more spiritual teachers are being caught with [their] pants and halos down. [...] I do hold people responsible who get into this trouble [sexual exploitation] with teachers by holding the teachers more responsible."²⁰

RAM's mission statement ⇔ Letter from a veteran to commander-in-chief

RAM's mission statement (2007)

Dying veteran's letter to Bush/Cheney (2014)

"My passion is to fuel, illuminate, and support the living of a deeper life, a life of love, integrity, and fully alive awakening. Providing environments (both inner and outer) in which deep healing and transformation can take place is my vocation and privilege. […] Since 1977 I've worked as a psychotherapist (I have a Ph.D. in Psychology), group leader, bodyworker, and teacher of spiritual deepening practices, integrating the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual in my practice." Robert Augustus Masters (*1947), guest profile presented by Conscious Talk, ~14. February 2011

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans – my fellow veterans – whose future you stole." Tomas Young (1979-2014) US American paralyzed military Iraq War veteran, war protesting activist (2004-2014)

Usual pattern of disgraced gurus

I have witnessed […] fallen spiritual leaders be publicly exposed, subsequently disappear, and invariably pop up in a new location several years later only to repeat the same pathological patterns that led to their downfall the first time around. The taste of power often seems to be so inebriating and irresistible that offenders are doomed to repeat their history again and again. Article What Happens When Your Guru Disappears?, presented by Eliezer Sobel (*1956) US American publisher, editor, journalist-blogger, author, 27. March 2015
Note: Ironically, Eliezer Sobel himself is one of the endorsers of RAM's book "Spiritual Bypassing", issued in 2010.

Sources:
► Incomplete testimonial by Robert Augustus Masters A Needed Shattering, presented on website robertmasters.com, February 2015

References:
► Blog article: THE "A" LIST: A Catalog of Trauma and Abuse, presented by whatenlightenment.blogspot.com, posted by Hal Blacker,
US American founder of whatenlightenment blog, former senior editor of magazine What is Enlightenment (WIE) founded by cult leader
⚡ Andrew Cohen (1994-E/1996), 18. July 2013
► Book: Dr. David Mc Dermott, US American author, Mind Control Manual. Important concepts about mind control, cults and
psychopaths, Smashwords Edition, 5. June 2012, 2015

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⚡ "A Needed Shattering" – RAM's 1st incomplete report on his cult history (February 2015)

Note: The last paragraph of justification was added to the above blurb at a later unknown date.
The reason I've been able to write and teach about topics such as spiritual bypassing, cults, shaming, anger versus aggression, relational dysfunction, being run by our shadow, and so on, stems from the specific experience of having been there and been caught up in them all (especially during my time of leading the community) – and also from the deep inner changes that have occurred in me throughout the
past two decades. I remain grateful for the rough grace […] breaking me open to what truly matters.²¹

RAM's brief public statement on his "needed shattering" appears in part as an attempt
to whitewash himself and embellish his history as a twice failed community cult leader.

༺༻	Updates on Robert Augustus Masters (aka Ramos) cult history	Time·frame
Omission 1	RAM failed to mention his first dysfunctional cult experiment in Victoria, BC, Canada, a community of Osho Sannyasins run by him and his companion John Robbins, until their unresolvable power conflict drove them apart.	~1977-1985
Omission 2	RAM failed to mention the name and location of his second dysfunctional community cult – named Xanthyros in Vancouver, BC, Canada.	1985-1994
Deranged·leader Cult·implosion	After his 5-MeO-DMT drug induced near-death experience RAM suffered nine months of haunting paranoia. He consulted with a specialized leader of vision quests with "spirit medicine" including 5MeO from abroad. Over the phone RAM learned from this well known experienced shaman teacher that his hellish trip emerged due to his "tight rectum."	1994
Lie 1	RAM: "When I fell apart in 1994, I soon thereafter disbanded the community." 2013
Correction	Contrary to his claim mentally ill RAM was unable to "disband" his already dissolved Xanthyros commune.	1994
Update	In need of continued full daycare after his 5MeO hell trip started, RAM had lost control. One of his students accepted the task to nurse him. Teenagers who he had abused for years stood up to his face. To his close inner circle, desparate RAM expressed he was thinking of obtaining a gun. The prospect of a mentally deranged man shooting (himself or others) was the 'last straw' for devoted intimates to jump off the ship without captain. First gradually, then increasingly 30-40 dishevelled cult members moved out of the Vancouver housing complex to embark on the long road of their recovery. The remainder of 30-40 Xanthyros cult members left the peripheral houses located in BC and USA to which RAM had demoted them for having spoken up to him. No one had asked RAM for permission to leave and no one waited for him to declare the nightmare was over.

Lie 2	RAM: "I was immensely humbled, broken down so deeply and for so long that I could not resurrect my former way of being, and took steps to make amends, including writing a large number of individual letters of apology." 2013
Correction	Contrary to his claim RAM didn't make substantial amends with former cult members for more than 20 years.²²	1994
Update	RAM wrote individual letters of apology to about 20 percent of his regular former cult members, not addressing each one of his former cohabitants. None of the selected recipients of RAM's letters of apology were moved by his written words. As if an insincere politician was clamoring for their votes, they felt that RAM was indeed attempting to appease them so they would not consider sueing him. RAM's contrition letters were evidence that his behavior had not profoundly changed. 21 years later the survivors of the Xanthyros cult still loathe RAM for his express avoidance to come clean with them. Out of his volition RAM apologized to one man from his inner circle (of shadow bearers) covering 25% of the abuses that were committed on his behalf within a period of six years of cult history. When reminded of the defaulted 75% of violations RAM slipped back into his usual arrogance mode. No apologies were extended to his right-hand assistant kobally, who helped build up both of RAM's dysfunctional community cults and accepted his ultimatum to give up her daughter for adoption. Neither did RAM apologize to the second mother who he forced to give away her child nor did he apologize to the abandoned children (by then young adults).

Source: ► Incomplete undated testimonial by Robert Augustus Masters on his Xanthyros community cult experiment
A Needed Shattering, presented by the website robertmasters.com, issued February 2015 Deleted / cached in mid October 2018

Reference: ► Q&A contribution What is spiritual bypassing?, presented by the Californian
question-and-answer website Quora, Elfriede Ammann, 1. November 2018

RAM's avowals juxtaposed to insights of former cult members and cult watchers

༺༻	RAM's·avowal <1994-2015	Quoted comment by contemporary cult watchers
1a.	"I assumed far too much authority, getting increasingly grandiose. There was too much me in the community, too much uncritical focus on what I did."	The circular logic of emotional vulnerable cult members is: 1. Sun Myung Moon is of God. 2. God will fix all the problems in the world. 3. All I have to do is to humbly follow. 4. Then God's Messiah will fix all this. The most dangerous problem is that it creates separation: Us ⇔ Them, Right ⇔ Wrong, Good ⇔ Evil. Video presentation by Diane Benscoter, American ex-moonie, deprogrammer, How cults rewire the brain, presented by TED Talks, minute 4:13, 6:05 minutes duration, filmed February, posted June 2009 The minds of cult members are subjected to a viral memetic infection.
2a.	"I thought I had a sacred mission and wasn’t about to let anything get in the way of it, even if I had to run roughshod over people."	"Indeed, it may well be that much of Da Free Jon's deep psychological insight into the human condition didn't stem from his self-proclaimed "enlightenment" but from observing day to day his own neurotic behavior and his own self-centered interactions with those closest to him." David Christopher Lane, Ph.D. (1956) US American professor of philosophy and sociology, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, California, lecturer in religious studies, author, The Paradox of Da Free John*, review of same article dated 1985, 24. May 2015
3a.	"My arrogance was immense. I was a spiritual asshole, surrounded by followers, entrenched in a position I'd vowed never to be in."	"The asshole 1) allows himself to enjoy special advantages and does so systematically; 2) does this out of an entrenched sense of entitlement; and 3) is immunized by his sense of entitlement against the complaints of other people." Aaron James, Ph.D., US American professor of philosophy, University of California Irvine, Assholes. A Theory, Anchor, 2012, reprint edition 22. April 2014
1b. 2b. 3b.	1. "Apotheosis or de facto deification of the leadership – exalting them to God-like status in and over the group, often to the extent that the leaders become a "mediator" between the people and God." 26. "Members are psychologically traumatized and indoctrinated with numerous improper fears and phobias aimed at keeping them reeling in diffidence and an over-dependence or co-dependence on their leaders and the corporate group." 31. "Members departing without the prior permission and blessing of the leadership leave the group under a cloud of manufactured suspicion, shame, and slander." Article The Signs of Spiritual Abuse, presented by the website Charismatic Captivation, Dr. Steven Lambert, US American Bible scholar, theologian, ordained minister, educator, author of Charismatic Captivation, 15. November 2008

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⚡ Third guru round of predatory power player Robert Masters ♦◊♦ United States (1999-2020)

RAM's emergence in Oregon and Colorado – starring as shadow/relationship/man "expert"

Time frame	Behavior – action – event exerted by Robert and Diane Masters	Test arena
19. December 1947 Victoria, BC, Canada²³	♦ The Human Design System chart of psychopath Robert Augustus Masters (previously Ramos) discloses the following: ➤ RAM's type is rare (8.8% of world's population)²⁴. He is an anger prone emotional initiating, informing- impacting Manifestor. ➤ RAM has a gift for language and unusual insights (activated "freak/genius" 43-23 channel). ➤ RAM seeks to mutate people, yet may act heavily antisocial (activated channel of "openness" 12-22") in the domain of individual knowing and manifesting.²⁵ ➤ His HDS 6/2 Role Model/Hermit ("determined leader") allows him – under favorable conditions – to become a role model for others. This demanding calling is often not met and cannot manifest before age 50.	ASTROLOGY
Late 90ties-2005	♦ After having led two failed cults – 17 years of financially, sexually, emotionally, and psychologically abusing adults, children, and extended families – RAM launched his "sacred mission" for the third time. Running from his shadow, he chose to ➤ not take the path of humility, ➤ not search for adequate professional help for his psychopathic tendencies, ➤ not make amends for his damaging abuses. In 1995 – only 1 year after his psychotic meltdown – he began practicing therapy again. In 1999 RAM acquired a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Saybrook Graduate School, California, to earn him more clout within the literary world. Rewriting his earlier works and redesigning himself, RAM reemerged as a profiteering therapist on the North American spiritual/therapeutic scene. In 2003 he began teaching year long apprenticeship training programs. In 2005 RAM self-published his lengthy book *Darkness Shining Wild* avoiding to mention the host of unredeemed transgressions committed by the "mad scientist", himself, at the helm of two failed experimental community cults. Note: RAM's cult-building leanings emerged again.	STATUS rebuilding
200?-2009	♦ RAM's "Masters Online Center" offered varying levels of membership possibilities and ($) fees which included corresponding levels of access to and interaction with the "master therapist". Starting to establish himself in the US, Boulder, Colorado and in Ashland, Oregon RAM was aiming for the desires of his audience to belong and improve. Note: Third emerging cult environment: megalomania, money making, predation, mind control tactics, group oversight through group blog interactions.	MONEY CULTISH
2007-present	♦ In 2008 RAM convinced his wife Diane Bardwell to participate as a facilitator in group therapy sessions, private therapy sessions, intensives, therapist trainings, and teacher training programs. Raised with strong cult dynamics as a child and not a licensed therapist, Diane is unqualified to hold the therapeutic space aside from what she has learned from RAM. In their Cult of two marriage , RAM is her guru-husband.²⁶ Whenever his psychopathic tendencies emerge, she protects, lies, and covers for him. Convinced of both their "sacred mission", she believes he is a master, whereas she is serving as his interface with the public. It did not occur to her to hold RAM accountable for his past transgressions. Shadow-bearer Diane is prevented from grasping what has been/is taking place and from receiving outside help, since RAM managed to create his third cloistered compound. Enjoying her newly found wealth and self proclaimed status as a "relationship expert", Diane also fails to live their talk. Note similar behavior: Past cult members were made (more) important by RAM, and brainwashed into following through with the abuses the guru requested. See kobally's above testimonial.	MATRIMONY SHADOW bearing CULTISH
2007-2010	♦ In addition to "Masters Therapy Trainings", RAM offered another profiting scheme "Masters Bodywork Trainings". Neither are RAM and Diane licensed bodyworkers nor approved teachers of physiotherapeutic skills. The offerings attracted people into further contact with the master, and into the continuation of the non-recognised trainings at "The Masters Center".	MONEY Off-law
2008-present	♦ RAM and Diane (in unconscious collusion with him) use clients' vulnerable emotional states within the therapeutic setting as a way to influence i.e. seduce them into promoting them. Their professional boundaries get overly blurry as soon as there is something to gain from clients. Note past cult leader behavior: RAM took what he wanted without empathy or remorse.	PREDATION
2008-present	♦ Within the therapeutic setting RAM and Diane often meddle in people's lives and healing journeys by ➤ doing matchmaking, ➤ encouraging separations, ➤ giving unsolicitated advice, ➤ violating confidentiality, ➤ using confidential information, ➤ spreading misinformation, ➤ discrediting contemporaries in the area. Note: As the leader of the Xanthyros community cult RAM applied similar control tactics.	CONTROL MANIPULATION ABUSE
"Everyone from the Xanthyros days felt that confidential information, combined with misinformation, was being shared or was manipulatively encouraged to be shared by Robert in attempts to discredit and harm the individual, individuals, and couples that challenged him or posed a threat to him." Former member of the Xanthyros community cult
2008-present	♦ RAM uses mind control tactics to specially and privately invite those that are "deemed ready" by the master into over priced sessions, intensives, groupings, and non-recognized therapist and teacher trainings. Not uncommon, the Masters lure inexperienced and naive individuals or couples, and those recovering from past cults into their groupings and trainings. Note: As the leader of the Xanthyros community cult RAM applied the same marketing method.	PREDATION MONEY
2010	♦ The Masters purchased a large home on the hillside in Ashland. Named the "Masters Center for Transformation School", it serves as the headquarter of RAM's third cultish endeavor.	Cultish HQ #3
2011-present	♦ Clients who are deemed not ready to do therapy with the master are first sent to Masters' trained therapists, "core faculty", whose names are not being disclosed on RAM's website. Note RAM's longterm marketing method: Aiming for people's desire to obtain the privilege of "working with the master"	CULTISH
2012	♦ Resulting from the Masters couple inappropriately, i.e. manipulatively, sharing about their personal struggles and financial difficulties in therapeutic settings, clients or else students engaged in a fund raising effort, so that RAM and Diane could enjoy their needed "rest" and "healing". Once the endeavor occurred, RAM did neither discourage it nor redirect the funds. Note similar Xanthyros strategy: Manipulative solicitation for financial gain; preying upon wounded seekers	MANIPULATION EXPLOITATION
2013-present	♦ Obsessed with his Internet image and status and concealing his subtle mind control tricks, RAM changed his physical image²⁷ to appear more soft and father-like, and he is continuously changing the wording within his website using New Age buzz words and online sales tactics ("group full", "invite only") to prey upon those in vulnerable psychological states.	STATUS PREDATION
2013-present	♦ RAM covering online exposure to his cult leanings: ➤ March 2014: He demanded from his former one-time host founder of Batgap Rick Archer to remove the link to their video interview 081. followed by a BATGAP comments thread which contained disclosing testimonials of former "inner circle" Xanthyros cult members. ²⁸ ➤ March 2014: One phone call to his most prominent integral proponent Ken Wilber served to reassure Wilber's continued promotion of RAM.²⁹ ➤ ~20 May 2015: To cut his losses and due to his express unwillingness to discuss, write honestly about, or mention in interviews his first and second (Xanthyros) failed cults RAM shut down his most prominent Facebook fan platform (operating since ~2010) to his generally supportive audience.³⁰ Note: As he gains status and makes more money, "shadow/relationship expert" RAM is still avoiding to acknowledge his abuses much less redeem his crimes commited in Xanthyros.	STATUS IMAGE
2013-present	♦ RAM and Diane terminated their not recognised trainings to become "Masters Therapists" producing "graduates" who are not licensed to do therapy work. Diplomas were extended to Masters Therapists for completing the "Masters Intuitive Integral Psychotherapy" program. Alternatively, the Masters offer "Foundational Trainings for Professionals" , and "Advanced Trainings for Professionals". On his website RAM stated, "We will be not so much teaching specific techniques as transmitting a context for guiding others into the deepest sort of healing and awakening." Designed to bring experienced practitioners together, the work in these small-sized groups is actually slightly modified group work and less demanding. Still, the Masters charge substantially more money for these non recognised "trainings". Note: The "Advanced Trainings" are more of the same manipulative techniques to acquire more money, and to keep customers hooked.	MONEY INFLUENCE
2014-present	♦ January 2015: Following his latest and supposedly final book *To Be A Man, RAM positioned himself as an authority in healing gender-based masculine wounds. Psychospiritual profiteer, he continues to gather more support from the Integral scene* as well as the intellectual community, which further increases the demand for his over priced group work for men. See Masters Mens Work, 2016. Note: "Healed man", "master therapist", and celebrated "relationship expert" RAM continues to not support his own abandoned children, the mothers of his abused step children, the victimized children of forced adoption, nor the financially, emotionally, and sexually abused former Xanthyros community and family members.	STATUS COLLUSION NEGLECT
2015(-2020)	♦ The work of RAM and Diane and their close associates, promoted by modern day psychopathic marketing strategies, is veered about making money and gaining status, not about the welfare of people. The Masters have settled into their newly found success built from RAM's cultish tactics. Note: ➤ The Masters couple, ➤ their Masters therapists and associates,³¹, ➤ their supporters/collaborators,³² ➤ RAM's publishers,³³ ➤ their serial broadcasting hosts³⁴ ➤ RAM's serial endorsers,³⁵ and ➤ one-time endorsers of one of his 9 books³⁶ continue to ignore or else are unaware of the psychopathic allures that keep surfacing – a third time – through highly groomed predatory power holder Robert Augustus Masters.	STATUS MONEY CULTISH

"Having been to group work with Robert recently, I have witnessed first hand his cultish group think and indoctrination and left 5 days in.
I would advise all considering his content to research Robert. He is not what his writing makes him seem."
Amazon customer Elise C., 27. October 2016

"Robert Masters is VERY clever with words and can fool most people into not noticing that what he is really saying in all his books is how evolved and all knowing and more spiritual he is than everybody else. It's about creating an image of Him in YOU: he is not writing about you. He has changed cities three times and countries once in order to not take responsibility for the people he abused, and the lives he ruined. Read up on psychopaths, read up on Robert's dark past and refusal to take responsibility for his past criminal behaviour. He is particularly attractive to "teachers" who themselves long to conquer their hidden insecurities and feign wisdom and superiority the way he does."
Amazon customer Chocological, Beginning 2017

Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please. Robert D. Hare, C.M., Ph.D. hare.org (*1934) Canadian professor of experimental psychology, researcher in psychopathology, psychophysiology, criminal psychology, developer of Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), University of British Columbia, Paul Babiak, Ph.D., US American industrial psychologist, Without Conscience. The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, The Guilford Press, 1st edition 8. January 1999

Source: ► Ashland Cult Watching Above information was gathered from former clients, family of and ex friends of Robert and Diane Masters.

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Conclusions on the redesigned guru RAM by Ashland Cult Watching

Observations made by Ashland Cult Watching

During his cult leading days Robert Augustus Masters' psychopathy deeply affected adult individuals, couples, families, children, and the extended families of those involved with him outside of his cults. His deranged methods of control and manipulation devastated many peoples' lives.

After his psychotic meltdown in 1994, RAM was not stable enough to continue his abusive cult leading "career"
that lasted for 17 years in Canada.
Note: Xanthyros members disbanded the cult due to RAM's dangerous mental instability and high levels of dysfunction, terrible confusion, and extreme abuse administered to them. Some had left or escaped RAM's cult before his meltdown – attempting to salvage their broken spirits and families.
RAM's former cult members are still suffering from the abuses and crimes he administered to them to this day.
As a result there were three lawsuits (each settled out of court!) against the atrocities committed by RAM.³⁷
Note: Given RAM's frightened and traumatised victims had not been too psychologically devastated and financially broken to deal with legalities, there would have been more lawsuits.

Lightning over Oradea, Romania

Twice failed as an experimenting cult leader, RAM aimed for a broader audience, seeking promotion and endorsements by multiplicators in the spiritual growth scene.
Only 1 year after his close to death psychotic breakdown in 1994 megalomaniac RAM began practicing therapy again, persistently presenting himself as an authority, a teacher, a guru.
RAM chose to reemerge with his "sacred mission" by beginning his Ph.D. program in the United States.
By relocating to Ashland, Oregon (later to become cultish headquarter #3) he escaped from his [bypassed] shadow and abuse. On the run again!
After first self-publishing in 2005, he has modified himself into a more acceptable and even appealing teacher figure and lauded author.
In 2006 he gained access to his most effective and ongoing promoter integral thought leader Ken Wilber.³⁸
Since ~2007 RAM is covertly using his entrained tactics.
By 2010 RAM had paved his way into the self proclaimed
"relationship expert" title attached to himself and his wife Diane.
RAM's promoters, unsuspecting audience, and the Ashland community, have been duped into believing that he had not only recovered after his meltdown but miracu-
lously transformed his psychopathic pathology which prevented him from feeling deeply humbled and from seeking the rare to find help he needed.
Note: People are largely unaware about the nature of psychopaths. Highly adept to morphing themselves, they are notoriously difficult to treat.³⁹
RAM – still dangerous – is a predatory man of the mind whose psychopathy is alive and unhealed. Lacking empathy, remorse, or compassion, this 'relationship expert' is unable to relate with people outside of promoting himself, and of being a therapist, an expert, a master.
With his understandings gained through his own psychopathic behavior RAM continues to fool his readers and customers.
RAM's strong need to be cheered as an expert and master is driving his eager chase for money, status and influence.
Terrified of being exposed, neither RAM nor his wife Diane will disclose data on his dark past.
RAM does not live his talk.

Dear readers, pay attention, ask questions, hold RAM and Diane accountable. Be [A]ware!

3. August 2015, Ashland Cult Watching

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⚡ "Clarifying My Past" – RAM's 2nd incomplete soon revised report on his cult history – 10/2018

RAM's incomplete vague response to the aftermath triggered by
Be Scofield's exposure article on his unredeemed past as a cult leader

Note 1: In his first 2015 4- then 5-paragraph blurb A Needed Shattering RAM first admitted to his past as a cult leader, pointing out
that his own abuses had served him in writing books on these very subjects. Feeling pressured to offer a "more transparent"
public admission in response to Be Scofield’s article on his redeemed past, he erased it in October 2018. In December 2018 he
redirected the dead link to the new gutted statement "Clarifying My Past".
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note 2: RAM's below undated October 2018 "admission" statement Clarifying My Past originally contained 25-paragraphs.
Only 2-3 weeks later it was revised, mellowed, and shortened, again missing an edit date. Skipping 12 paragraphs altogether
(see the red parts), all the ☛ specific admissions and ☛ corrections of inaccurate accusations were removed, the text
embellished (see the [blue] parts), the term "cult leader" exed, the term "cult" replaced with "community".
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Note 3: Find more assessments to the original "Clarification" statement here:
Rebuttal and suggestions by inner circle Xanthyros members addressing RAM's 2nd public admission – 10/2018

A genuine apology requires a person to acknowledge the offense adequately, express genuine remorse, and offer appropriate reparations, including a commitment to make changes in the future.
Aaron Lazare (1936-2015) US American professor of psychiatry, chancellor and dean of University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts (1991-2007), author, On Apology, S. 9, Oxford University Press, New York City, New York, 1. January 2004

༺༻	RAM's statement	Review	Remark
1.	What follows may be known, at least in part, by some readers, but for others it won't be. If it is news to you, I imagine you may feel disturbed reading this. And for those who have worked deeply with me as clients, and who had not fully been aware of my history, I understand that you could be feeling shock, upset, anger, or disappointment. My hope for all readers is that after reading this you will have a fuller sense of me, both historically and currently, whether or not you're familiar with my work and books.	RAM first addresses his current following, concerned they might turn away from him.	Concern for shocking his readers/clients
2.	From 1986 to 1994 I led an experimental psychospiritual community that gradually became a cult. Though I've written and spoken about this for years, I want now to be more transparent. I called myself its guide but was more its director and centerpiece. Looking back at that time, I feel shame, remorse, self-disgust, and grief.	RAM continued his power trips from his denied 1st cult in Victoria and his 2nd cult in Vancouver. The pledge for "more transparency" was soon taken back.	Omissions Confession
3.	More often than I'd like to admit, I was abusive and arrogant, filled with delusions of grandeur, and those in the community paid the price for this. Everyone was caught up in my dream of a new kind of tribalism, even when it became a nightmare.	Did "crazy wisdom" teachers EVER repair their damage or simply get away and "move on"?	Confession
4.	My heartfelt apologies and compassion goes to those who were part of that cult. For all of the ways I hurt you and had no empathy for you, I am deeply and truly sorry. When I look back, I feel so much remorse knowing the pain, difficulty, shame and fear which many community members experienced – that I caused them to feel. I can completely understand how you would still feel hurt, betrayed, and angry, and realize that any apology I can give can’t undo the hurt I caused. I deeply apologize for the suffering you endured because of my behavior.	RAM did not address his Xanthyros victims personally [initials], no mention of visiting guests there and his clients in round #3.	Omission General apology
5.	I didn't doubt what I was doing in the community, didn't see the harm I was causing, and was numb to the suffering of those I was leading. The fact that I didn’t feel any shame for what I was doing appalls me, as does the fact that I often shamed community members when they got stuck in therapeutic work, which just made things even harder for them. I took no responsibility for my part in their difficulties, not considering what it must feel like for them.	RAM did not lead, his MO was bullying cult members. Psychopaths do neither feel shame nor empathy.	Confession
6.	One way in which I assumed excessive authority was in how I handled couples who were having serious relational challenges that didn't resolve after being worked on for some time. I'd all too often have them separate, then before long they'd find another partner. The fact that some of the new couples that formed are still together does not justify my breaking up couples in the first place.	*Addressed below*	Lie Omission Confession
7.	☛ I pressured those with money to give it to the community; ☛ I had zero compassion for how hard community members had to work to support the community; ☛ I got physically abusive (for example, banging a man’s head against the floor); ☛ I played the misunderstood victim to any criticisms of me; ☛ I presented myself as being advanced in relationship, as shown by my living with three partners at once; ☛ I took no responsibility for nor let myself really feel the impact I was having.	Manifestor types hardly feel the impact they are having.	Omission Confession
8.	I was, in short, way out of line, in the name of the supposedly cutting-edge tribalism I was obsessed with promoting. As things got more and more cultic, it became easier to justify matters that would have otherwise been viewed as simply wrong – like ☛ giving up a child for adoption. This happened twice. In each case, the child did not want to stay in the community, but the parents did. These were decisions that were agonized over and were not made lightly. The entire community council (including the parents) came to an agreement that it was the best thing for the child in question; this was not just my decision, but my input was given exaggerated importance. I'd never consider such madness an option now, but would have had the parents and child in question leave together. I deeply regret that this happened; the fact that it did clearly demonstrates that we all were in a cult, lost in groupthink, with me at the helm.	1 of 3 cases of separating mother from child was not mentioned. *Adressed below*	Confession Lie / omission Personal apology missing
9.	Here are some clarifications [to things] that are not accurate or have been distorted. ☛ It has been alleged that I am the same man as I was when I led the community, and have no remorse for what I did; this is not true. ☛ I did not lead two cults for 17 or 20 years, as stated in a recent article, but, one for 8 years. ☛ I did not groom a teenage girl to be sexual with me. ☛ I did not have members cheat to get governmental social assistance, but had them quit such assistance and find jobs. ☛ I did not throw my ex-wife down the stairs.	No specific quotes, no mention of the sources/accusers *Adressed below* *Not adressed below*	Listing alleged inaccuracies Denial
10.	☛ I did apologize to my ex-partners who were with me during my community years. ☛ I do have an ongoing relationship with 4 of my 5 children, whom I love dearly; they'd be very surprised to hear that they, according to pieces written about me, want nothing to do with me. ☛ I did cover my financial obligations, and more, for my children until they were 19 and older. ☛ And though I had pressured those members with money to give it to the community, I had the money from the sale of the community property distributed proportionately to them, and kept none for myself.	NOTE RAM omitting to mention the community's name "Xanthyros" which he himself had chosen. *Not adressed below*	Clarifications
11.	Also, I did not run away from the area (Vancouver) as has been said about me, and leave the country to try to reinvent myself. I stayed in the area for over a year, interacting with ex-members of the community, then moved to White Rock (45 minutes south of Vancouver) in order to find work. I stayed there for 13 years, including the first 5 years I was married to Diane, who is American. We moved to Ashland, Oregon in 2010 so that I could be near the team that was treating my cancer, and so that she could be closer to her children and grandchildren.	*Not fully adressed below*	Explanation
12.	I assumed that my community experiment would not only be a legacy to be proud of, but would outlive me. It had plenty of momentum heading into 1994, but this came to a sudden halt early that year when I took a drug (5-MeO-DMT) that knocked me unconscious and almost killed me through prolonged respiratory failure. My sense of self and ground was shattered during the experience, and remained so for quite a while. My heart got blasted open [ pain], so that I deeply felt the hearts of those I'd hurt, and at the same time I was severely destabilized. I was extremely shaky, suicidal, and teetering at the edge of insanity, enough so – and for long enough, nine months – to not be able to reassemble my old self.	RAM's claimed near-death experience was a "psycho- spiritual ego-death" – according to James Oroc.⁴⁰	Grandiosity Historical review
13.	I needed to be stopped. The cult [ community] had been expanding, starting to take root in other countries. My drug experience didn’t just interrupt me, but obliterated my capacity to keep going on as I was. Without the massive intervention it provided, I very likely would have continued for some time on my deluded and dangerous path. This event marked the end of the community, which I formally disbanded half a year later [ in August that year].	*Adressed below*	Lie Omission
14.	What I did upon my recovery was to begin a long process of personal work to ensure that I could never again behave as I had in the community, and to take steps to make amends. This included expressing my remorse, along with many individual letters of apology, probably sixty or more [ sixty or so individual letters of apology]. I have copies of 38 of these letters, including to those I have been accused of not contacting.	No substantial reparations to the traumatized victims were voluntarily offered.	Omission
15.	The context of the cult [ community] had been partially rooted in the teachings of different "Crazy Wisdom" teachers, including Rajneesh, Trungpa, and Adi Da (for whom unconventional or even bizarre behavior was supposedly employed to help students evolve). When I chose to operate under that premise, I framed it as an awakening device of sorts. It was all about trying everything that was out of the box. The wilder, the better, or so it seemed, in stark contrast to mundane cultural suppression. What arrogance, and what a place for unacknowledged shadow to be expressed! Soon after my near-death experience, my pull to Crazy Wisdom teachers was gone for good.	See Bob Banner's entry.⁴¹ See Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters, item "Eulogy on former teacher and fellow cult leader Adi Da (1939-2008)". See publisher's advertisement blurb, 2010⁴²	Partially incorrect statement
16.	I do not excuse any of my harmful actions. […] the collective movement towards accountability is morphing into a tsunami, as it must in order to have its needed impact. More than silences must be broken; the edifices of male denial, entitlement, and aggression must be leveled. I am willing to stand in this fire myself, no matter how uncomfortable. [ I continue to support and stand in this fire.]	RAM's public 5 paragraph statement #1 "A Needed Shattering" (February 2015) was REPLACED by his 2nd more outspoken statement "Clarifying My Past". Both were not followed by actual financial restitution payments, hence "words only".	Declaration
16.	For many, I imagine that my remorse and my holding myself accountable, no matter how sincerely expressed, was and is not enough – and in a way they are right. That cannot undo the pain I caused. If I apologized, [ – which I have, ever since the community ended] but didn't also face and work with [ through] the roots of what [ originally] drove me to hurt others in the first place, this would not *create a lasting* change**, one through which I would no longer be capable of my original harm-doing.	Again, RAM assumes it is about him. No – a genuine apology includes repair/restitution.	Bypassing
17.	I also view it as essential that I share my hard-won understanding through my work and writings, doing my very best to guide others on how to change their behavior so as [ in core-level healing and awakening. A key aim of such work is] to prevent harm on every sort of scale, including cutting through the [ all-too-common] tendency to dehumanize others.	Dehumanizing, bullying and traumatizing people – RAM was found meddling with and shaming his Ashland clients in 2015.	Unredeemed past
18.	My capacity to write and teach about topics like cultism, shame, anger versus aggression, relational dysfunction, spiritual bypassing, being controlled by our shadow, and so on, arises from having been there and been caught up in them all. I have suffered and I have caused suffering, especially during my cult leader time, and worked with this year after year.	The total duration of 17 years of leading TWO cults remains unacknowledged.⁴³ / ⁴⁴ RAM's avowed "capacity to […] teach […] about cultism" is bypassed by him having removed 5 "cult" related terms from his original statement.	Explanation
19.	I did fall into a very dark place, and was [– thankfully! –] brought down to ground zero, learning how to be responsibly human, step by stumbling step. This is one of the reasons that I've dedicated the rest of my life to guiding others into core-level [ full-spectrum] healing and fully bringing their shadow out of the dark, so that it can no longer run them.	Scofield's article had RAM's shadowy past rise to the open.	Unhealed healer syndrome
20.	And I am not done [ finished] with my personal work; it's not something to be done with, but is an intrinsic part of my life. I am still learning.	Pseudo humility expressed by the "expert"	Lifelong learning
21.	Part of what's been in my shadow the past two decades has been my assumption that I've done enough with regard to my remorse for my cult leader actions. What has also been in my shadow is my fear of fully feeling my shame and grief over this. As I open to this, I feel a deeper cracking of my heart. Fully admitting what I did is very painful but necessary. I caused suffering for many people, and continue to feel extremely sorry for this.	(Removed) words lacking reparation	Bypassing
22.	I continue to explore my shadow, spurred on by my recent near-fatal heart attack. My heart breaks when I focus on all the hurtful impact I've had, all the exploitation of others for my own ends, all the disrespect for others deemed lesser than myself, all the avoidance of the fact that we're all in the same boat. [ It's easy to forget or only superficially acknowledge that we're all in the same boat.] I had an upper deck berth for a while, but that sense of special status is long gone.	If "special status" is no more, why does RAM allow his endorsers and hosts to laude him as the "New Man", the "Relationship Expert"?	Declaration Denial
23.	I feel the humanity I share with those I've hurt as well as with those I've helped, and am learning [ as I continue] to immerse myself, humbly and fully [ more and more deeply], in that shared sense of being, that shared sense of heart.	Two close calls did not change RAM's pattern of collecting needy followers.	Kumbaya

Source / trigger article:
► Public statement in response to pressure Clarifying My Past, issued by Robert Augustus Masters via his blogspot
robertmasters.com, undated, issued 16. October 2018
► Article by Be Scofield, US American activist, web designer, DJ, producer, blogger, writer, Spiritual Bypassing Guru
Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader, presented by the stories outlet Medium, 2. October 2018

See also:
► ⚡ "A Needed Shattering" – RAM's 1st incomplete report on his cult history (February 2015)
☛ Abusive artist Pablo Picasso
► ⚡ Third guru round of predatory power player Robert Masters ♦◊♦ United States (1999-2018)
► Rebuttal and suggestions by inner circle Xanthyros members addressing RAM's 2nd public admission – 10/2018
► ⚡Disclosure on the abusive guru Bhagwan/Osho – Hugh Milne
► Extending genuine apologies to reestablish trust
Missing items in RAM's public apology:
❄ Not naming names (initials) ❄ Not naming the full list of his crimes and those committed on his behalf
❄ No offer to repair/restitute ❄ Not confessing to his continued hurtful behavior (in his THIRD guru round)
❄ Not asking for forgiveness (which turns obsolete, once full restitution has been effected)

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Rebuttal and suggestions by inner circle Xanthyros members addressing RAM's 2nd public admission – 10/2018

Clarifying the Guru's Clarification

Robert Augustus Masters' recent statement Clarifying My Past posted on his website October 16th, 2018, is a profusely apologetic epistle which has both distortions and various significant omissions. He wrote it as a response to
the high number of inquiries he was receiving from bewildered clients, students and fans of his who had come across
Be Scofield's October 2, 2018 brutal exposé of his past published on the outlet Medium.

In fact, the same damning information revealed in Be Scofield's work has been available since March 2014 on the SpiritualWiki website curated by Elfriede Ammann. The same information has also been public on various Facebook
forums and timelines since December 2011 starting with Masters' FB fan page. But none of that information including questions produced a direct response from him until now. Why has his life changing "humanity I share with those I've hurt" only come to be published today?

In his "Clarification" Masters jams into one condensed paragraph a list of "his bad deeds" chronologically matching Be Scofield's exposé. Was that paragraph a confession? An apology? Remorse? Revelation? Or the bleating of a dry alco-
holic convincing us he's changed by confessing to how awful he used to be.

With his "sense of special status long gone," and with his "heart blasted open," why did this Everest of remorse
not find a voice until now? Why has his life changing "humanity I share with those I've hurt" only come to be published
24 years after his cult disintegrated?
He goes to such lengths to express

his "shame, remorse, self-disgust, and grief, heartfelt apologies and compassion",
his "I am deeply and truly sorry," "feel so much remorse," "I deeply apologize,"
"I deeply regret," "I took no responsibility,"
his "my heart breaks"?

But why clarify these cathartic transformations and emotional insights, words of empathy and compassion and regrets NOW?

Around the year 2004 when two adult children survivors approached him for help it was – according to his own chronology

after his "sense of self and ground was shattered,"
after his "heart got blasted open,"
after he "deeply felt the hearts of those I'd hurt,"
after his "long process of personal work," and
after he took "steps to make amends."

Surely with his heart broken open he would positively engage with these two child victims when they clumsily reached out
to him.

Even after he was alerted there could be legal ramifications, this new found remorse only managed to produce a gaggle of "sincere" letters that for the recipients had the impact of "a homework writing assignment" (as one recipient said). At the same time he told the shattered and bewildered boys to "turn their shit into compost." The boys did what few dared –
they chose to re-live their nightmares via a court case to try and find justice. Masters settled and ran. With no apology offered.

Was it a coincidence that he moved from Victoria to North Vancouver after his first attempt at a "spiritual community"
(co-led with John Robbins) ended badly? In his "Clarification" he denies such a community even existed.

Was it a coincidence he erased his constantly tended to, voluminous Facebook presence overnight? OVERNIGHT! after some random independent exposés surfaced in various threads.

Did he really "move to White Rock BC, an hour south of Vancouver," with a population of under twenty thousand, for work after the ship he was piloting sank?

In his "Clarification" Masters refers to "couples who were having serious relational challenges" whom he instructed to separate. In fact 100% of ALL the couples who ever came to Xanthyros were separated. On his "therapeutic" instruction. 100% of them. Surely that indicates another dynamic at play. A psychologist who visited the cult then noted that Robert could not tolerate members having more attention on their spouses and families than on him. The same was true regarding the children. A child who wouldn’t defer to him as the ultimate authority was hounded and treated as a problem. He said nothing in his statement about the brutal "isolation retreats" he forced upon ALL the children. Yes he's correct there were children who didn't want to be in the community, but omits to add it was because of him they wanted to leave.

In trying to ameliorate how dreadful giving children up for adoption sounds, he describes a "community council" that was part of the decision making. This is a lie. There was no "community council". None. Ever. The name "community council" was never used. Not once in 10 years. There was a community who – after enough mobbings and intimidations – lived in physical and emotional fear of challenging him. True, not one member in the entire group objected to giving up the daugh-
ters for adoption. They cringed in disbelief, enabling, not agreeing. It was Masters' agenda 100%.

He omitted to mention a third boy who he refused to let rejoin his mother when she escaped the cult. Welfare and police showed up with the mother trying to take her son back. He was so livid with her for calling the police he forbade all from
ever using her name again – the cult was to refer to her by her initials only. When he wrote that same mother one of his perfunctory letters of apology – he completely forgot the part about keeping her son from her. The forgetting of that detail
in his apology letter devastated her.

He has never attempted to do right by those children. Read one mother's transparent, heart breaking and insightful testimonial about giving her daughter up for adoption here. The piece is signed "kobally".

Masters cleverly informs us that some of the couples which formed on the ashes of the community are still together, but magnanimously assures us that it still "… does not justify my breaking up couples in the first place." So why mention
it? To mask the darkness of the deed? To diminish the confusion of the children?

In his "Clarification" he emphatically states: "I did not groom a teenage girl to be sexual with me." A confident from his inner circle corrected the error: "I never heard him use the word 'groom' but he did talk a few times about 'initiating' _____ and _____ 'when the time was right'." Another witness declared: "I also heard tell that R was talking about 'deflowering' _____." But in his defence, perhaps he really has forgotten about his debauched thinking at that time. Who wouldn't?

He also omitted: including a second banging of heads, that of another lover of his; mentioning that during one of his therapy groups, in front of everyone, he bent over and proudly farted directly into the face of his personal assistant, inches away. It was on Be Scofield's and Elfriede Ammann's list. He must have missed it.

He claims he did not throw his ex-wife down the stairs, to which a witness commented "_____ suffered so much physical abuse at the hands of Robert. I don't recall him throwing her down the stairs but I do remember him throwing her down on the floor and then crushing her with all of his body weight." Another writes of a similar habit of his: "… [now] he will never again leap on me sending me crashing to the ground crushing my lungs with his large body."

He refers to "formally disbanding the community." In fact nothing at all was formalized. No group meetings, no edict from the master. Just running from a sinking ship in an environment of chaos, distress and confusion.

This masturbatory "Clarification" dripping with self congratulatory bravado masking as "self-disgust, and grief" was fittingly summed up by another ex member: "Words words and more words." Yet obviously he feels he still has much to teach. Who else but an "enlightened" teacher could write: "… and I am learning to immerse myself, humbly and fully, in that shared sense of being, that shared sense of heart. I continue to explore my shadow…"

Really? By composing two dozens of paragraphs posted on a website, due to public pressure? With no evidence of effort
to actually make a tangible difference to the child victims, some of whom still deal every day with their trauma?

Compiled by former inner circle Xanthyros members
22. October 2018

Trigger article: ► Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader by Be Scofield,
US American activist, web designer, DJ, producer, blogger, writer, presented by the stories outlet Medium, 2. October 2018

Asked what Robert Masters would have to do to atone for his so far unredeemed abuses
committed during the Xanthyros cult time, following reply was obtained:

Robert, do something that makes such a genuine difference in the lives of those you hurt
the most – that they make it publicly known you've done them right, and they forgive you.

Written by a former inner circle Xanthyros member
October 25, 2018

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Four stages of relationships – Robert and Diane Masters

Moving from immature [unilateral] polygamy or else polyamory to mature monogamy

··✿··	Type of relationship	Quality of relationship	Legend	Result	Betrayal ___________ Promiscuity	Form of monogamy
1.	Me centered "Cult of one"	Dependent	Ego-run arrangement, egoity of one partner dominating the other, credo of each partner is 'What is in it for me?'	Little intimacy for either party, transitory elevated experiences of bonding, closeness, or love	Common ___________ Indulged	\|mmature
2.	We centered "Fusion" stage	Co-dependent	Quality of we equality is often overvalued, differences tend to get flattened or drained, streaks of me-centered tendencies 'Less two cults of one, in coalition, as one cult of two over against the rest of life'	Power dynamic rooted in exaggerated or force-fed tolerance; couple almost exclusively defined by the relationship	On each person's autonomous self in service of the relationship ___________ Suppressed	\|mmature
3.	We centered "Cult of two"	Co- independent	Both partners need to surrender overattachment to autonomy and aversion to deep communion, negotiation over differences, more interpersonal risks taken, tolerance less rigidly enforced	Sense of a deeper kind of relationship more passionate, yet not fully expressed	Exposed and discussed ___________ Not threatening the relationship	Shedding immaturity

4.	Being centered 'Intimacy' stage	Inter- dependent	Aware it is beyond the previous three stages, chooses inclusion and intimacy with all qualities, recognizes that all qualities characterizing relational intimacy are to whatever degree, part of being.	Freedom through intimacy Great, ever-deepening passion	Nonexisting ___________ Not entrapping, but liberating	Mature

Each stage both transcends the previous stage and includes it, however peripherally.

Sources:
► Book: Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community,
author, Transformation Through Intimacy. The Journey Toward Mature Monogamy, Tehmenos Press, 1st edition 18. October 2007
► Newsletter: Four Stages Of Intimate Relationship, PDF, presented by Masters Center For Transformation, Robert and Diane Masters,
February 2012
► Blog article: William Harryman, Robert Augustus Masters – Polyamory and the Stages of Intimate Relationship, presented by
masculineheart.blogspot.de, 20. January 2009

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Quotes on horse wisdom by Linda Kohanov

RAM's nightmare concerning horses

An image of rearing horses, wild-eyed, sleek powerhouses, now comes to me, for my parents' place was, among other things, a thoroughbred racehorse farm, and I was part of that from early on, working with horses, cleaning their stables, etcetera, to the point where they began to gallop through my dreams, obliterating the fences between them and me. Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Integral Naked Interviews Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the dissolved website Integral Naked, 13. March 2006, posted 20. October 2006

Personal avowal
Historic leaders who were great horsemen dealt with aggressive, challenging stallions without resorting to violence or panicking but
taking the non-predatory teachings from the horse: Buddha, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, George Washington, Geronimo, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan.

Rite of passage: Gaining the trust of an angry stallion – ancient power archetype

I thought that I could win him [my angry life threateningly dangerous stallion] over through kindness, sympathy, understan-
ding and bodywork. He wasn't having any of that. He actually demanded that I become powerful in order to work with him. That also became a metaphor for me of what we're facing in our culture. The whole reason there are so many bullies and sociopaths in power is because the empathetic, compassionate people out there in the world have not exercised a different form of power where they can stand up to those people in a way that creates productive social change. I realized it wasn't enough to be empathetic and understanding and compassionate. I also had to have [warmhearted connecting] power in order to rehabilitate this very angry abused stallion who would threaten my life. So I think more people who are sympa-
thetic and understanding must step in that new kind of power in order to change the world because otherwise we will keep the bullies and sociopaths in power.
Audio podcast interview with Linda Kohanov (*1950) US American riding instructor, horse trainer, speaker, author, The Power of the Herd; Non-Predatory Power and Horse Sense, presented by The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, host Rob Kall, US American radio host, minute 1:05:36, 1:30:21 duration, aired 18. July 2013

Domesticated horse

Social change is not going to occur until people have power. And it has to be a new form of power, a non-preda-
tory form of power. It's not just a lack of empathy that cau-
ses conflicts and suffering to continue it is also a lack of power, particularly non-predatory power and emotional heroism. Not only do we need empathy to change the world, but we need empathetic, compassionate people with emotional heroism to walk into situations where suffering
occurs and also show a form of power that effects change and holds people accountable without also becoming abusive. We need more than empathy and more than ever we need sensitive, compassionate individuals to develop the power and emotional heroism to step into these conflicts. Otherwise we just get bullies and sociopaths in power.
Audio interview with Linda Kohanov (*1950) US American riding instructor, horse trainer, speaker, author, A New Interview with Linda, presented by the US American web radio Attunement, host Anthony Write, posted by Eponaquest, multi-disciplinary educational organization, minute 50:56, 52:50 minutes duration, aired ~3. May 2013

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[Edit]

Links zum Thema Robert Augustus Masters

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Literatur

⚡ Ken Wilber (*1949) US-amerikanischer mystischer Philosoph, Vordenker des 3. Jahrtausends, transpersonaler Bewusst-seinsforscher, Entwickler der Integralen Theorie, Autor, Bruce Ecker, Dick Anthony, Herausgeber, Meister, Gurus, Menschenfänger. Über die Integrität spiritueller Wege [Original 1987] Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main, 1998

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Literature (engl.)

⚡ Ken Wilber (*1949) US American transpersonal philosopher, consciousness researcher, thought leader of the 3rd millennium, developer of Integral Theory, author, Bruce Ecker, Dick Anthony, editor, Spiritual Choices. The Problems of Recognizing Paths to Inner Transformation [German title: "Masters, Gurus and Fishers of Men"], Paragon House, New York, 1987
James Oroc, New Zealand photographer, artist, member of the "Burning Man" community since 1999, journalist, Tryptamine Palace. 5-MeO-DMT and the Sonoran Desert Toad, Park Street Press, 21. May 2009
- Literary Review: ‘Tryptamine Palace’, presented by Psypress, United Kingdom, 30. January 2013

[Edit]

Literature (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Literature by Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author

Book	Book title	Publisher	Release date
A	*Way of the Lover Way of the Lover*	Xanthyros Foundation, Canada	1. April 1989
B	*Love Must Also Weep Love Must*	Xanthyros Foundation, Canada	1. January 1990
C	Truth Cannot Be Rehearsed Out of print – Advertisement in Yoga Journal	Xanthyros Foundation, Canada	1991

Book	Book title	Publisher	Release date
1	*Darkness Shining Wild. An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell & Beyond: Meditations on Sanity, Suffering, Spirituality, and Liberation* Not mentioned are the unredeemed transgressions committed by the "mad scientist" RAM at the helm of two failed experimental community cults	Tehmenos Press Selfpublished	24. June 2005
2	*Freedom Doesn't Mind Its Chains. Revisioning Sex, Body, Emotion, & Spirituality*	Tehmenos Press	21. September 2005
3	*The Anatomy And Evolution of Anger*	Tehmenos Press Selfpublished	10. March 2006
2006: ⚡ Ken Wilber appears as RAM's most influential promoter and audio host.
4	*Transformation Through Intimacy. The Journey Toward Mature Monogamy*	Tehmenos Press, 1st edition Selfpublished	18. October 2007
5	*Meeting the Dragon. Ending Our Suffering By Entering Our Pain*	Tehmenos Press, 1st edition Kindle ebook, 72 pages	18. February 2009 29. September 2013
End of RAM's selfpublishing
6	*Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters*	North Atlantic Books, 1st edition	27. July 2010
7	*Transformation through Intimacy. Revised Edition. The Journey toward Awakened Monogamy*	North Atlantic Books	6. March 2012
Change of publishers: from North Atlantic to Sounds True
8	*Emotional Intimacy. A Comprehensive Guide for Connecting with the Power of Your Emotions*	Sounds True, US American multimedia publishing company	9. September 2013
Launching of this SpiritualWiki cult watch page on RAM – March 2014
9	*To Be A Man. A Guide to True Masculine Power*	Sounds True	14. January 2015
RAM survived a near-fatal massive heart-attack in 2016.
10 NEW	Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark. Breaking Free from the Hidden Forces That Drive You Foreword by Lissa Rankin, M.D., US American OB/GYN physician, consultant to health care visionaries, speaker, author	Sounds True, US American multimedia publishing company	1. October 2018
Oct 2, 2018 – RAM refused to give an interview to Be Scofield. Her exposure article had the potential to shrink the number of his followers.

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Externe Weblinks

Wikipedia-Einträge Guru

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External web links (engl.)

Wikipedia entries Guru

Deleted article Who is Robert Augustus Masters?, presented by Integral Institute, ~2006
Introducing Robert Augustus Masters to the integralist community, omitting to reference Masters' past as a cult leader.
Article Robert Masters, presented by the publication https://integrallife.com/|Integral+Life]], issued 12. May 2015

Article Spiritual Bypassing excerpted from Spiritual Bypassing. When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters,
by Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American online magazine Reality Sandwich, 20. December 2010
Deletd book excerpt by Jesse Walker, US American author, United States of Paranoia: Excerpt, presented by blog hopedance.org,
host Bob Banner, 26. August 2013
Blog article Underground 5-MeO-DMT Facilitators: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with James Oroc, presented by the publication Psychedelic Times, Wesley Thoricath, 24. July 2018
Quote: "A book that is mentioned a lot when it comes to spiritual bypassing [Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters] was written by Robert Augustus Masters, a guy who had a very bad 5-MeO-DMT trip 15 or 20 years ago that completely wrecked his ego and his community and everything he had going on. He wrote Darkness Shining Wild, which is mentioned in the appendix of my own book Tryptamine Palace where I talk about heaven and hell. My book was so overwhelmingly positive about 5-MeO-DMT, I felt a responsibility to include information about the potential of the opposite. Masters’ book is the anti-Tryptamine Palace: it's like he had the exact opposite experience as me, and it was as terrifying for him as it was liberating for me."
Q&A entry What is spiritual bypassing?, presented by the Californian question-and-answer website Quora, Elfriede Ammann, 556 views · 3 Likes, 1. November 2018
- Additional comment

Critical articles

NEW Article by Be Scofield, US American activist, web designer, DJ, producer, blogger for magazine Tikkun, writer,
Spiritual Bypassing Guru Robert Augustus Masters Was an Abusive Cult Leader, presented by the stories outlet Medium (13 minutes read) 2. October 2018

[Edit]

Audio- und Videolinks

[Edit]

Audio and video links (engl.)

Video presentation by Sebastian Job, Ph.D., Australian anthropologist, honorary associate, department of anthropology, University of Sydney, 5-MeO-DMT–The Metaphysical Tribes, presented by the Australian Psychedelic Society, YouTube film, 1:42:33 duration, posted 23. February 2019

The 5-MeO-DMT 'release' is a metaphysical event of the first order, an existential truth event. The human psyche responds with different forms of loyalty to this event. Note: The Black Diamond response juxtaposed to Robert A. Masters' 5-MeO-DMT intake. See minute 37:52

[Edit]

Audio and video links (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Audios and videos featuring Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (RAM) (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author / Diane Bardwell Masters (DBM) US American composer, singer

Type	Offering	Heading	Sponsor ♦ Location ♦ P-Date	Minutes duration	Release date
YouTube video	Interview RAM+DBM	*Stages of Relationship*	Masters Center	10:03	12. November 2009
Audio	Interview RAM+DBM	Diane Bardwell Masters, US American composer, singer, *Robert Augustus Masters and Diane Bardwell Masters – "Transformation Through Intimacy"*, MP3	Dissolved US American webcast Beyond Awakening Series, host Terry Patten, US American integral coach, author	1:35:25	4. November 2010
Audio	Interview	*What Really Matters*	US American web radio station New Dimensions, host Michael Toms, program 3392	60:00	23. November 2010
YouTube video	Interview RAM+DBM	*Questions about Spiritual Bypassing*	Masters Center	4:37	1. February 2011
YouTube audio	Interview RAM	*Spiritual Bypassing and Deep Inner Work*	Transformation Talk Radio, host Adam Seward, 14. February 2012	53:59	29. September 2012
YouTube video	Interview RAM+DBM	*Robert Augustus Masters & Diane Masters share inside their relationship with Julie Hart*	The Hart Centre, host Julie Hart, Australian psychologist, director of The Hart Centre	1:00:22	22. April 2015
YouTube video	Interview RAM	*Robert Augustus Masters is interviewed by Julie Hart about his new book "To Be a Man*"	The Hart Centre, host Julie Hart, Australian psychologist, director of The Hart Centre	23:08	23. April 2015
Audio podcast	Interview RAM	*Robert Augustus Masters On True Masculine Power*, Episode 20	Podcast The Amiel Show, host Amiel Handelsman	51:44	8. June 2015
Minute 6:00: Men need to face shame head on; Minute 16:30: Importance of an authentic apology
YouTube video	Interview RAM	*Robert Augustus Masters – Overcoming Porn & Finding Purpose* Comment section disabled after comments exposing RAM	ManTalks, host Connor Beaton	50:12	29. May 2017
YouTube video	Interview RAM	*Robert Augustus Masters: Shadow Work – Turning Towards our Pain*	Integral Recovery Institute, episode #26, host John Dupuy	48:26	18. August 2017
Audio	Interview	*Spiritual Bypassing and Transformation through Intimacy with Dr. Masters* MP3	"Revolutionary Wellness Talk Radio", host Rochelle McLaughlin	54:54	5. October 2017
Audio	Interview	Robert Augustus Masters: The Depthless Depth of Shadow Work, MP3, transcript availed	Multimedia publishing company Sounds True, Insights at the Edge, host, founder and director Tami Simon (*1953)	1:03:19	27. November 2018
RAM: "What I was leading [Xanthyros] shifted from being a community into a cult. I define a cult as any self-enclosed entity that is closed to inside dissension and outside feedback. I'd already had plenty of experience with that." Minute 5:08
Audio	Interview	*DR ROBERT MASTERS: HOW TO BE A MAN; EXPLORING YOUR EDGE THROUGH SHADOW, INTIMACY, AND THE WORK*	Presenter and host Michael Trainer	1:22:40	20. November 2019

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Educational movies (engl.) on psychopathy

Video full length educational documentary by Stefan Verstappen (*1957) Canadian world traveler, martial artist, writer, Defense Against the Psychopath, presented by the YouTube platform Stefan Verstappen, YouTube film, 37:37 minutes duration, posted
14. December 2010
Excerpted from Verstappen's book The Art of Urban Survival. A Family Safety and Self Defense Manual, chapter 1, Woodbridge Press,
1. January 2011
See also:
► Innate horse wisdom – Four stages of effective usage of emotions
► Quotes by Linda Kohanov – Horse wisdom

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Interne Links

Englisch Wiki

Hawkins

¹ Robert Augustus Masters, Way of the Lover Way of the Lover, S. 148, Xanthyros Foundation, West Vancouver, 1989 ⇑

² Retrieval of gutted/deleted Facebook discussion thread opened by RAM (2011-2015) ⇑

³ Retrieval of partially gutted Facebook discussion thread opened by R. A. Masters – 28 December 2011 ⇑

⁴ RAM's 1st undated online blurb on his cult leading past was issed February 2015. His 2nd undated admission statement ⚡ "Clarifying My Past" – RAM's 2nd incomplete report on his cult history – 10/2018 was issued on October 16, 2018 in response to Be Scofield's exposing article on RAM dd October 2, 2018 ⇑

⁵ Retrieval of partially gutted Facebook discussion thread opened by R. A. Masters – 28 December 2011 ⇑

⁶ Wilber's intention to silently retreat from his promotion and association with RAM including the deletion of references/links to events where he appeared with RAM, expressed during a private email exchange during February/March 2014, did only last for 2-3 weeks. As soon as Masters found out about a series of testimonials posted on Rick Archer's batgap site, wherein his unredeemed past was exposed, he did not answer the call, but felt treated unfairly. Around March 9, 2014 he got in touch with Wilber, whereupon his most influential promoter – following his established pattern of serially enabling predatory power players – switched sides again. Masters successfully instructed the site owner Rick archer to remove the whole thread containing disclosures. Hence, the entries were retrieved on this SpiritualWiki page. ⇑

⁷ Retrieved comments disclosing the unredeemed past of cult leader Robert Augustus Masters ⇑

⁸ Note: Ken Wilber's privately expressed his intention to terminate his support of Robert A. Masters in February 2014. In beginning of March he changed his mind as a result of one directive phone call to him by RAM. ⇑

⁹ Retrieved comments disclosing the unredeemed past of cult leader Robert Augustus Masters ⇑

¹⁰ "A Needed Shattering" (February 2015) – RAM's incomplete report on his cult history, deleted in October 2018. It's dead end link was redirected to the gutted statement "Clarifying My Past" issued mid October, gutted halfway through in November 2018. ⇑

¹¹ A Needed Shattering, February 2015
Robert Augustus confessed on his website in 2013: "I led an experimental psychospiritual community (from 1986 to 1994)," leaving out to mention the 2nd cult's name and location (Vancouver). ⇑

¹² Retrieved comment dated 6 March 2014 on the video interview[*] with 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, posted 4. August 2011 [*]Removed upon RAM's request on 12 March 2014, reinstated 2016 minus the comment section
See: Testimonials and words of warning by RAM's former "inner circle" Xanthyros cult builders ⇑

¹³ Audio interview with ⚡ Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Diane Bardwell Masters, US American composer, singer, Robert Augustus Masters and Diane Bardwell Masters – "Transformation Through Intimacy", MP3, presented by the dissolved US American webcast Beyond Awakening Series, host Terry Patten, US American integral evolutionary leader, coach, author, minute 30:28, 1:35:25 minutes duration, aired 4. November 2010 ⇑

¹⁴ "He [Bob Banner] was the sort of person willing to follow one of those trails into the arms of a group he came to consider a cult. Make that two groups that he came to consider cults: At the dawn of the nineties, feeling aimless again after a decade of publishing Critique, Banner joined Xanthyros, an intentional community in Vancouver led by a guru named Robert Augustus Masters. Critique was revamped as a New Age magazine called Sacred Fire, and Masters took it over, with Banner serving as little more than a typesetter until he left the community." Jesse Walker, US American author, United States of Paranoia. A Conspiracy Theory, Harper, 20. August 2013 ⇑

¹⁵ Article Quiz: Is Your Boss a Psychopath?, presented by the monthly US American business magazine Fast Company, staff members, issue July 2005 ⇑

¹⁶ "A Needed Shattering" – RAM's incomplete report on his cult history – February 2015 ⇑

¹⁷ Retrieved comment dated 6 March 2014 on the video interview[*] with 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, posted 4. August 2011 [*]Removed upon RAM's request on 12 March 2014, reinstated 2016 minus the comment section
See: Testimonials and words of warning by RAM's former "inner circle" Xanthyros cult builders ⇑

¹⁸ Audio interview with ⚡ Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Diane Bardwell Masters, US American composer, singer, Robert Augustus Masters and Diane Bardwell Masters – "Transformation Through Intimacy", MP3, presented by the dissolved US American webcast Beyond Awakening Series, host Terry Patten, US American integral evolutionary leader, coach, author, minute 30:28, 1:35:25 minutes duration, aired 4. November 2010 ⇑

¹⁹ Audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D. (*1947) Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author, Spiritual Bypassing and Deep Inner Work, presented by Transformation Talk Radio, host Adam Seward, 14. February 2012, deleted YouTube film, minute 15:44, 53:59 minutes duration, posted 29. September 2012 ⇑

²⁰ Skype video/audio interview with Robert Augustus Masters, Ph.D., 081. Robert Augustus Masters, presented by the US American podcast Buddha at the Gas Tank. Interviews with "ordinary" spiritually awakened people, host and founder of Batgap Rick Archer, US American former TM meditator, minute 0:37:44, 1:44:47 duration, posted 4. August 2011 Note: This video interview and comment thread was removed upon RAM's express request on 12. March 2014, reinstated 2016 minus the comment section ⇑

²¹ This paragraph was rephrased and replaced in RAM's admission statement issued October 2018. See ⚡ "Clarifying My Past" – RAM's 2nd incomplete report on his cult history – 10/2018, item #18. ⇑

²² ⚡ Notes on the shadow ♦◊♦ Robert Augustus Masters failing to walk his talk all the way ⇑

²³ RAM's meanwhile deleted reference to his data of birth ⇑

²⁴ Chart: Four basic types (raves) of humans – Human Design System ⇑

²⁵ Founder of HDS Ra Uru Hu commented on the 12-22 channel: "They are deeply, deeply antisocial beings." (listen to the end.) ⇑

²⁷ He grew grew his hair and a beard, and began wearing colorful T-shirts. ⇑

²⁸ See Retrieved BATGAP comments disclosing the unredeemed past of cult leader R. A. Masters (Jan-March 2014) ⇑

²⁹ Ken Wilber had been warned about the dealings of cult leaning power holder RAM via letters mailed to his office in 2007 and in 2008, to which he did not respond. In February 2014 he was updated with more recent data on RAM per email to which he privately expressed his "lip service intention" to retract from RAM by way of silently deleting the web promotion links concerning RAM. In effect, as seems to be Ken Wilber's longterm pattern in dealing with abusive gurus, he did not follow through. ⇑

³⁰ RAM's exit from Facebook occured after he had become aware of a series of caveat discussion threads (posted in February, April-May 2015) sharing links and data about his unredeemed past. ⇑

³¹ Iyeshka Farmer, Canada iyeshka@iyeshka.com, Brett Butler, United States, Lauren Calderon de la Barca, Mexico City, Bridge for Health, Vancouver, Canada, Paola Ardiles, paola@bridgeforhealth.org, Rochelle Jaffe, Ashland, Saleem Berryman, Ashland, Laura Loescher, Ashland ⇑

³² Bill Kauth, Ashland bkindman@mind.net, The ManKind Project, RogueValley, United States, The Man Kind Project, United States (Regional contact lists), The Hart Centre, Australia, Julie Hart, Bernhard Guenther info@bernhardguenther.com ⇑

³³ Sounds True, founder and CEO Tami Simon (*1953), North Atlantic Books Contact ⇑

³⁴ Tami Simon, Tami Simon (*), Gay and Katie Hendricks (*/2x), Ken Wilber (*/1x), Terry Patten (*/1x), Mary Allen (*/1x), Amiel Handelsman (*/1x), John Dupuy (nx) ⇑

³⁵ Jeff Brown, M.A. (3x), Jean Houston (2x), Stephen Levine (2x), Nancy Dreyfus (2x), Ian Macnaughton, Neurofeedback (2x), Katherine Woodward Thomas (2x), Saniel Bonder (2x), Donald Rothberg (2x), many of whom are associated with Tami Simon's publishing hub Sounds True ⇑

³⁶ Book Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark (2018): Lissa Rankin, M.D. (Foreword)
Book To Be A Man (2015): Harville Hendrix harvilleandhelen.com, Alan Clements, Diane Musho Hamilton, Jackson Katz, Karla McLaren, Joe Ehrmann Coach-for-America, Raphael Cushnir, Hank Wesselman, Robert K. Hall, Sarah Nicholson, Vanessa D. Fisher, John Dupuy, Anna Jedrziewski
Book Emotional Intimacy (2013): Christiane Northrup, Mark Nepo, Stan Tatkin
Book Spiritual Bypassing (2010): Stephen Batchelor, stephenbatchelor.org, Jack Kornfield, Mariana Caplan mariana@realspirituality.com, Eliezer Sobel, Stephen A. Diamond drstephendiamond.com, Spiritual Media Blog by Matt Welsh, Integral Options Café by William Harryman, New Consciousness Review Facebook account, Scott Kiloby
Book Meeting The Dragon (2009): See serial endorsers.
Book Tranformation Through Intimacy (2007): Arjuna Ardagh, Barry and Joyce Vissell, Marnia Robinson, Diana Daffner
Book Divine Dynamite (2006): Stanley Krippner, Jenny Wade
Book The Anatomy And Evolution of Anger (2006): John E. Nelson
Book Darkness Shining Wild (2005): Thom Hartmann thomhartmann.com, David Lukoff, Ph.D. ⇑

³⁷ Two lawsuits were filed by RAM's stepchildren, one by a woman retrieving her funds given to Xanthyros. ⇑

³⁹ See research results: Quotes on psychopathy, Psychopathy check list (revised) (PCL-R) – Robert Hare, Features of psychopathy – Stefan Verstapen ⇑

⁴⁰ "Masters believes he was in (he describes it as his near-death experience throughout the book), but it seems clear to me that phenomenologically Masters and I actually experienced approximately the same psychological event – a psychospiritual ego-death – the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of experiencing the full formless totality of existence. Yet while I regarded my 5-MeO-DMT experience as a paradisiacal liberation and the "recognition of recognitions," Masters only found horror in the experience – his terror clearly outweighing his awe. It seems that it was his psychospiritual ego-death that caused him to have ongoing problems – not the physical near-death he believes he nearly suffered." James Oroc, New Zealand photographer, artist, member of the "Burning Man" community since 1999, journalist, Tryptamine Palace. 5-MeO-DMT and the Sonoran Desert Toad, Park Street Press, 21. May 2009 ⇑

⁴¹ "I lived in a community [Xanthyros] lead by robert augustus masters where we did dynamic meditation via rajneesh, intense body work, catharsis regularly, three years of living in this hot house of a community…" Bob Banner, presented by grof-holotropic-breathwork.net, entry February 11, 2017 ⇑

⁴² "In the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa’s landmark Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Spiritual Bypassing provides an in-depth look at the unresolved or ignored psychological issues often masked as spirituality, including self-judgment, excessive niceness, and emotional dissociation."[^Spiritual Bypassing, North Atlantic Books, issued 27. July 2010 ⇑

⁴³ Above paragraph is a new version of one that RAM had added to his now deleted 1st brief admission statement dated February 2015: "The reason I've been able to write and teach about topics such as spiritual bypassing, cults, shaming, anger versus aggression, relational dysfunction, being run by our shadow, and so on, stems from the specific experience of having been there and been caught up in them all (especially during my time of leading the community) – and also from the deep inner changes that have occurred in me throughout the past two decades. I remain grateful for the rough grace that has again and again decisively brought me to my knees, breaking me open to what truly matters." A Needed Shattering, February 2015 ⇑

⁴⁴ See also Abusive artist Pablo Picasso ⇑

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Übersicht

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Problematischer spiritueller Lehrer / Problematic spiritual teacher

⚡ Robert Augustus Masters (*1947)
Kanadischer Psychologe, Psychotherapeut, Kultführer der Xanthryros Wohngemeinschaft, Autor
Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author

Zitate von / Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters

Zitate von und bezüglich Robert Augustus Masters

Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters

Quotes on RAM by other sources

Retrieved BATGAP comments on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (Jan-March 2014 ◊ 2017)

Readers' comments and discussion on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (2014 ◊ 2019)

Englische Texte – English section on Robert Augustus Masters

Testimonials, warnings, and observations by RAM's Xanthyros cult builders

Retrieval of gutted/deleted Facebook discussion thread opened by RAM (2011-2015)

⚡ Notes on the shadow ♦◊♦ Robert Augustus Masters failing to walk his talk all the way

⚡ "A Needed Shattering" – RAM's 1st incomplete report on his cult history (February 2015)

⚡ Third guru round of predatory power player Robert Masters ♦◊♦ United States (1999-2020)

Conclusions on the redesigned guru RAM by Ashland Cult Watching

⚡ "Clarifying My Past" – RAM's 2nd incomplete soon revised report on his cult history – 10/2018

Rebuttal and suggestions by inner circle Xanthyros members addressing RAM's 2nd public admission – 10/2018

Four stages of relationships – Robert and Diane Masters

Quotes on horse wisdom by Linda Kohanov

Links zum Thema Robert Augustus Masters

Literatur

Literature (engl.)

Literature (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Externe Weblinks

External web links (engl.)

Audio- und Videolinks

Audio and video links (engl.)

Audio and video links (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Educational movies (engl.) on psychopathy

Interne Links

Übersicht

Linksammlung

Portale

Problematischer spiritueller Lehrer / Problematic spiritual teacher

⚡ Robert Augustus Masters (*1947)Kanadischer Psychologe, Psychotherapeut, Kultführer der Xanthryros Wohngemeinschaft, AutorCanadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author

Zitate von / Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters

Zitate von und bezüglich Robert Augustus Masters

Quotes by Robert Augustus Masters

Quotes on RAM by other sources

Retrieved BATGAP comments on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (Jan-March 2014 ◊ 2017)

Readers' comments and discussion on the unredeemed past of cult leader Masters (2014 ◊ 2019)

Englische Texte – English section on Robert Augustus Masters

Testimonials, warnings, and observations by RAM's Xanthyros cult builders

Retrieval of gutted/deleted Facebook discussion thread opened by RAM (2011-2015)

⚡ Notes on the shadow ♦◊♦ Robert Augustus Masters failing to walk his talk all the way

⚡ "A Needed Shattering" – RAM's 1st incomplete report on his cult history (February 2015)

⚡ Third guru round of predatory power player Robert Masters ♦◊♦ United States (1999-2020)

Conclusions on the redesigned guru RAM by Ashland Cult Watching

⚡ "Clarifying My Past" – RAM's 2nd incomplete soon revised report on his cult history – 10/2018

Rebuttal and suggestions by inner circle Xanthyros members addressing RAM's 2nd public admission – 10/2018

Four stages of relationships – Robert and Diane Masters

Quotes on horse wisdom by Linda Kohanov

Links zum Thema Robert Augustus Masters

Literatur

Literature (engl.)

Literature (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Externe Weblinks

External web links (engl.)

Audio- und Videolinks

Audio and video links (engl.)

Audio and video links (engl.) – Robert Augustus Masters

Educational movies (engl.) on psychopathy

Interne Links

⚡ Robert Augustus Masters (*1947)
Kanadischer Psychologe, Psychotherapeut, Kultführer der Xanthryros Wohngemeinschaft, Autor
Canadian psychologist, psychotherapist, cult leader of Xanthyros community, author