Citizen Initiative

www.citizeninitiative.com

Introductory Remarks to Webpage Summaries

Citizen Initiative is a publishing and internet project associated with the British writer Kevin R.D. Shepherd, who is the author of twelve books. A publishing statement commences the website and illustrates the commercial priorities of current bookselling practice in retail chains. Shepherd is in reaction with his citizen philosophy (formulated in his book Pointed Observations), pressing for educational priorities versus commercial gains at the public expense. The phrase citizen initiative here also signifies the incentive to confront drawbacks in “alternative” thought and practice relating to “new spirituality,” which again is too often exploitive rather than remedial. The Citizen Initiative website appeared in August 2007, and awards intensive space to documents of current interest that dispute factors in cults, malfunctioning organisations, and evasive political and bureaucratic agendas. Issues relating to drugs and alternative therapy are included. See also http://www.kevinrdshepherd.net, which extends attention to philosophy and the history of religion, amongst other matters.

The key book of Citizen Initiative is Kevin Shepherd’s Pointed Observations (2005), which comprises an annotated presentation of subjects in Western philosophy, Eastern religion, ecology, criminal behaviour, and alternative “new age” thought. That book notably warns against the fallacies attaching to recreational and “therapeutic” use of drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, MDMA (Ecstasy), and LSD. A related volume tackles the history of religion and philosophy. Entitled Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals (2004), this features over 800 annotations to prove a serious orientation.

Kevin Shepherd has recently composed seven epistles which revolve around deficiencies visible in “new age” or “alternative” trends. Those letters include two to Tony Blair, the recent British Prime Minister. Shepherd’s Second Letter to Tony Blair (2006) continued the identification of problems attaching to “new spirituality” in Britain, and also complained at bureaucratic inefficiency. Some assessors have concluded that Shepherd has started an unprecedented form of confrontation with trends and doctrines that are elsewhere beginning to be accepted without question, and to the detriment of the public.

The seven letters are reproduced in their entirety, along with introductions for the guidance of readers. Other critical documents are also preserved on this website. In his books and webpages, Kevin Shepherd presses for due evaluation of evasive strategies which can be discerned as working against the public interests, whether those strategies are official or sectarian or of registered charity status.

Viable interpretations of a beneficial “open society” are still in the offing. The phrase “open society” has been variously defined. A rather loose association relates to controversial “new age” concepts. Moving at a strong tangent, Kevin Shepherd has commented (critically) on the “open society” in relation to the conventional version of the European philosopher Karl Popper (see Shepherd, Some Philosophical Critiques and Appraisals, pp. 251ff.). Yet recently, that phrase has become strongly associated in some American channels with, e.g, Wikipedia, the internet encyclopaedia which has gained extensive popularity. Kevin Shepherd has acknowledged the potential of the Wikipedia transmission, but is also one of those analysts to have misgivings about aspects of the Wikipedia coverage. This reservation was confirmed by an episode occurring in 2006 in connection with the Sathya Sai Baba entry and commentators.

Sathya Sai Baba and Wikipedia

Sathya Sai Baba presides at the wealthy ashram of Puttaparthi in South India. His devotees include politicians and court judges. His followers celebrate the multi-volume work Sathya Sai Speaks. He claims to be a God-man, to perform miracles, and to be a reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba (died 1918). From the early 1970s, many Westerners became devotees of the miracle guru. Yet there have been numerous defections in the West since adverse internet reports commenced in 2000. It is strongly alleged that many Indian boys and also Western males have been the victims of homosexual molestation. Sathya Sai Baba has even been called a paedophile. Yet there are other charges also. Basava Premanand is the leader of an Indian Rationalist party in reaction to Sathya Sai Baba, and he courageously pioneered the exposure of the “miracles” claimed by the guru of Puttaparthi ashram. Premanand has complained of a terrorist dimension to the local support for the guru, himself having suffered violent beatings as reported to the BBC. Yet the notorious “bedroom murders” of 1993 are more salient in the web archives. A lengthy book on those controversial murders has been contributed by Premanand (Murders in Sai Baba’s Bedroom, 2001). The campaign of Premanand against Sathya Sai commenced in 1976, and he became known to Western audiences via the Guru Busters television documentary of the 90s. More recently, he was profiled in the BBC documentary The Secret Swami (2004). See further http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basava_Premanand . A basic complaint is that influential devotees in India have obstructed the due investigation of allegations.

A recent attempt at media cordon in Wikipedia by an American supporter of the Sathya Sai Baba movement has been viewed as a symptom of the desire to screen out data unwelcome to sectarian interests. The American Sathya Sai Society blocked the lawsuit of Alaya Rahm in 2006. Influential devotees like Dr. Michael Goldstein have repudiated allegations of sexual abuse made against Sathya Sai Baba. An internet apologist for the Sathya Sai Baba sect is Gerald (Joe) Moreno, an American who became a commentator on Wikipedia (in relation to Sathya Sai) but who was subsequently banned in 2007. In 2006 Moreno instigated an infamous Wikipedia User page against Kevin Shepherd, attempting to suppress Citizen Initiative as an insignificant publishing project to be ignored. The British response on this website to American pro-Sai activism has the sub-title of The Sathya Sai Baba Cordon in Wikipedia. This refers to the cordon attempted by Moreno prior to his ban in February 2007. The British response warns of extremism in the apologetics of the Sathya Sai Baba sect as conducted in America. There are also indications of problem occurrences in the “free encyclopaedia” that is now so well known on the internet.

The revealing appendices in Kevin Shepherd’s book Investigating the Sai Baba Movement (2005) borrow from the contributions of ex-devotees of Sathya Sai, including Robert Priddy of Norway. Shepherd has been sensitive to their complaints, which are impossible for serious researchers to ignore. He himself is a complete outsider to the Sathya Sai Baba sect. Joe Moreno attempted to remove reference to Shepherd in Wikipedia files, being a strident opponent of ex-devotees like Robert Priddy, who is also profiled on this webpage. Dr. Marianne Warren, a scholar of Indian religion, is also described in becoming an ex-devotee. The webpage continues by charting the conflict between Moreno and ex-devotees, and also by describing events in Britain, which include a controversy associated with FAIR, the cult-monitoring and victim support group. That controversy relates to the sociology of religion in issues surrounding INFORM, the agency associated with Professor Eileen Barker.

Joe Moreno has countered the Citizen Initiative webpage in an internet attack using his favoured “scathing” approach. This outburst has further disadvantages for his position as a sectarian apologist contradicting testimonies of abuse. The update entitled Kevin R. D. Shepherd in response to Gerald Joe Moreno answers the renewed attack of pro-Sai activism. That update refers to, e.g., ex-devotees, the BBC documentary on Sathya Sai Baba, the lawsuit of Alaya Rahm, Wikipedia issues, and the question of Google rankings.

Grof Therapy and MAPS

Dr. Stanislav Grof is the author of numerous controversial books such as LSD Psychotherapy (1980) and Beyond the Brain (1985). His name is strongly associated with LSD therapy and MDMA therapy, two very controversial practices which became illegal in America many years ago. The most commonly visible Grof therapy is now Holotropic Breathwork, a trademark exercise which is also disputed. This very commercial package was developed by Dr. Grof at the Esalen Institute in California when LSD therapy became illegal. Kevin Shepherd confronts some relevant issues in his webpage Criticism of Holotropic Breathwork and MAPS. There are many references to Holotropic Breathwork in Shepherd’s epistles, and this webpage is a significant clarification of the reasons for his sustained criticism. The frequently understated incentive and ideology of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) is also described, MAPS being a Grof-related project. MAPS covers a wide sphere of drug investigations, claiming to portray the benefits and disadvantages of psychoactive drugs. In another avenue, Grof’s influential disciple Dr. Christopher Bache currently advocates LSD therapy to a marked extent. A critical response to Grof theory is necessary not least because there are current indications that many people are resorting to psychoactive drugs in the belief that these confer spiritual experiences, a belief that is insidiously furthered by Grof and his disciples. The Wikipedia entry on Holotropic Breathwork comes under review, an entry which at first strongly resisted a critical supplement, preferring to dismiss critics of the commercial exercise.

The Findhorn Foundation: Myth and Reality

This webpage analyses the Findhorn Foundation from their inception in 1962, together with antecedents. The co-founders of the 1960s were Eileen and Peter Caddy, who established themselves in the Findhorn Bay caravan park of Moray, Scotland. Shepherd’s account describes accumulating problems and discrepancies attending this “new age” community, and which became acute during the 1990s and after. A feature of the coverage that strongly emerges is the contradictory role of Eileen Caddy (died 2006). The treatment serves to accentuate omissions in the Times online obituary. Factors involved here are Eileen’s purported divine guidance, community economic problems, the promotion of commercial therapy by the management, and the severe treatment of dissidents. Shepherd also touches upon the recent and strongly disputed elevation of the Findhorn Foundation to CIFAL status as a UN training centre in ecology. The presiding personnel named in recent promotionalism for the closely related ecovillage project include Alex Walker, Michael Shaw, and Craig Gibsone. These three exemplars are all associated (in different ways) with the suppression of the dissident Kate Thomas and her maligned friends. The dissident problem tends to strongly contradict Findhorn Foundation sentiments and catchphrases relating to intentional communities and the commercial “conflict resolution.” A society or grouping which stifles dissent and creates stigma is basically questionable.

CIFAL Findhorn – A Critical Statement

The Findhorn Foundation ecology project (or part of it) became officially known as CIFAL Findhorn in 2006. This investiture occurred via UNITAR, the UN branch based in Geneva. Critics maintain that relevant data was suppressed by the various bodies involved. Shepherd here mentions such unpublicised matters, and also gives a critical assessment of the “low carbon footprint” theme promoted by CIFAL Findhorn. Anomalies are observed in the closely attendant commercial devices of “new spirituality” occurring within the Findhorn Foundation, an ongoing matter persisting over decades. CIFAL Findhorn is a facet of the Findhorn Foundation, and is not effectively a separate entity in real life. Shepherd urges that close attention must be given to the hindrances and exploitation for which the ecological themes provide a questionable camouflage.

CIFAL Findhorn describes itself as “an International Training Centre for knowledge sharing on integrated sustainable development and other global goals of the United Nations.” Such claims are promoted via CIFAL Findhorn Company Ltd on the website www.cifalfindhorn.org . Critics urge a thorough examination of the claims. CIFAL Findhorn Company Ltd describes the patron UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) in further glowing terms. UNITAR are here called “the UN training arm for social and economic development, environmental services and multilateral diplomacy.” The diplomacy has involved total neglect of varied complaints about the inauguration of CIFAL Findhorn, including a warning from a professional accountant about former Findhorn Foundation accounts.

Seven Letters of Kevin Shepherd

These epistles include two to Tony Blair during his term as Prime Minister. The First Letter to Tony Blair (April 2006) argues against the partiality for Grof doctrines visible in the Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) and associated with the nonjudgmentalism of David Lorimer, a key figure in both the Wrekin Trust and the SMN. These are prominent “new spirituality” organisations in the UK. In addition, an extension dwells upon alternative trends of “Mind, Body, Spirit” that are commercially misleading. The Second Letter to Tony Blair (September 2006) primarily argues against the Findhorn Foundation, who are strongly associated with the promotion of alternative therapy and pop-mysticism of a lucrative kind. Findhorn Foundation promotions have been observed to charge high fees for these indulgences. Yet this organisation became elevated to CIFAL status in 2006 via the ecovillage project associated with Craig Gibsone, Alex Walker, and other entities. This project amounts to a telling compromise when the situation is closely analysed. Several of the Shepherd epistles dwell upon the discrepancies involved.

Kevin Shepherd was a supporter of the Club of Rome in his first published work Psychology in Science (1983), and he has commented upon the vindication of that approach in Pointed Observations (2005), Part 8. He urges that purist ecology is not reducible to, and nor compatible with, the cause of alternative therapy (which has created misleading doctrines and health problems in some directions). It is now well known that alternative therapy relies heavily upon the subscription of affluent females who are beguiled by the ads for weight loss and other presumed benefits. The ecological cause should be separated from such commercial considerations. In 1983 the ecological cause was viewed as speculative (even in the most sober versions) by the establishment, who merely marked time in consumerist pursuits. Yet recently the cause has been validated by mainstream science (after costly and potentially fatal delays). The conclusion of Kevin Shepherd is that ecology must comprise a science, not a convenience supporting commercial “workshops” of the Esalen variety. There are also other considerations which support his verdict that UNITAR, based in Geneva, has not accomplished the due research into events occurring in north Scotland. Busy bureaucrats frequently overlook relevant data from other countries.

A document sent to the Home Office was About the Findhorn Foundation and United Nations (2006). That message was also circulated to various other bodies, including Moray Council, who failed to respond. The political and economic agenda created to support CIFAL Findhorn is committed to ignoring details upsetting to the promotionalism of the Findhorn Foundation. The Home Office document affords an insight into obscured matters consigned to oblivion elsewhere. The oblivion was largely preferred by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). The two Letters to OSC Regulator (2006) attest the reluctance of that body to duly intervene in some doubtful tactics of the Findhorn Foundation, even though this organisation was officially discovered to be evasive about the promotion of Holotropic Breathwork. The OSCR was overawed by UNITAR and Moray Council, declining to reply further. The status of Scottish Charity regulation is currently in dispute.

Two earlier epistles were circulated to a wide audience of politicians, academics, and other categories. The results are still ongoing. Noticeably failing to respond (save in one isolated instance) were the Scientific and Medical Network, whose pivotal figure was addressed in the Letter of Complaint to David Lorimer (2005). This lengthy epistle is now considered to be a landmark in British commentary pertaining to the “nonjudgmentalism” and “new spirituality” trends. The accompanying Letter to BBC Radio (2006) queries the activities of alternative therapy as visible in the curriculum of the Findhorn Foundation and their exemplar William Bloom, both being linked to the SMN and the Wrekin Trust. That letter arose in response to a radio chat programme considered to be misleading by some assessors.

Neglected Papers Against Grof Therapy

This webpage gives an insight into the “LSD neoshamanism” issue associated with Grof’s American disciple Dr. Christopher Bache, and as contested by the British writer Kate Thomas, whose contributions have been neglected by the British organisation calling itself the Scientific and Medical Network (SMN). The SMN has chosen to favour Bache on their website, and have ignored the warnings against LSD therapy (and the strongly associated recreational use of LSD and MDMA in Grof circles). The Grof movement is inseparable from the subject of psychoactive drugs. The books of Stanislav Grof are based upon LSD sessions which have been given misleading interpretations in the “perinatal” idiom devised by Grof. An influential book by Bache describes experiences of the latter arising in LSD sessions and Holotropic Breathwork. Thomas supplies a different interpretation of those experiences. The Thomas version of mysticism is attended by an unusually realistic assessment of shamanism in counter to new age romanticism. SMN “nonjudgmentalism” discarded the Thomas version in preference for LSD neoshamanism, which is currently an influence on the SMN website. The two relevant articles of Thomas are here reproduced. In addition, a paper of Stephen Castro appearing in 1995 is included as testimony to the drawbacks in Holotropic Breathwork that were observed at the Findhorn Foundation during 1989-93 before official intervention occurred. Shortly after, Castro wrote his significant book Hypocrisy and Dissent within the Findhorn Foundation (Forres, 1996). That work was published in the face of overwhelming odds created by deceptive promotionalism, but has since gained acknowledgment from close analysts as a courageous stand against bad management. The Castro report was favourably reviewed in some well known journals before the Findhorn Foundation internet ploy of 2002 discrepantly declared that Hypocrisy and Dissent was not worthy of review, a dogmatic verdict which showed no awareness of other published viewpoints.

Scientific and Medical Network Events 2000-2004

The Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) is a British organisation having the anomalous reputation of being a haven for alternative therapy and “new spirituality.” Kate Thomas was a member for some years until she resigned in 2004. She here describes her encounters with the SMN, the Wrekin Trust, and the Findhorn Foundation. These three organisations are interlinked in terms of affiliations and some degree of shared conceptualism. The account of Thomas has been considered a unique insight into the problems denoted by “new spirituality”. In particular, she describes her contact with David Lorimer, the leading organiser of the SMN and a major official of the Wrekin Trust University for Spirit Forum (since known as Forum for Spiritual Education). A crisis occurred when Lorimer sanctioned the inclusion of Dr. Christopher Bache as a speaker in 2003, making no objections to Grof doctrines of LSD therapy. Lorimer had penned an enthusiastic review of Bache’s LSD book Dark Night, Early Dawn (2000). The eminent neuropsychiatrist Dr. Peter Fenwick, a presidential figure of the SMN, was in private agreement with the counter-argument of Thomas, but was not prepared to openly contradict David Lorimer. When Thomas resigned in 2004, Lorimer instigated the inclusion of a controversial pro-LSD article by Bache on the SMN website, and neglected to include the opposing article by Thomas which had appeared in the SMN journal. The pro-Bache tendencies of David Lorimer were thus confirmed in an obvious gesture of favouritism. The Bache article advocates LSD therapy as a spiritual path, and is still present on the SMN website at www.scimednet.org/Articles/RPbache.htm (accessed 03/03/2008). This is the fourth year running that the SMN have been celebrating LSD therapy, despite a trite disclaimer of responsibility for views expressed on their website. The absence of responsibility is perturbing. Critics say that this form of “new spirituality” nonjudgmentalism is potentially disastrous for the younger generation, and also very inadvisable for the older generation (especially the gullible sector frequently recruited by the SMN, the Wrekin Trust, and the Findhorn Foundation). The absence of a due sense of moral responsibility is a frequent hallmark of new age nonjudgmentalism.

Letter of Kate Thomas to UNESCO

In September 2007 Kate Thomas sent a substantial letter of complaint to the Director General of UNESCO at Paris. That document describes discrepant policies and attitudes maintained by the Findhorn Foundation, an organisation here revealed in a very different light to the promotionalism favoured by the management. This promotionalism has influenced official parties who have taken no account of drawbacks in a suppressive milieu that has undertaken continual commercial expansion since the 1970s.

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