The subject of this book is the self-apotheosis of one very intelligent and wily man -- Franklin Albert Jones -- whom his followers proclaim, at his direction, to be the greatest spiritual teacher of this or any other age.

But more significantly, this book is an expression of the new global community of free speech. Before the coming of the Internet, if you had intelligent insights worth expressing, you could share them with your friends, or else you could go through the laborious process of getting them published and distributed to bookstores.

The thoughts that are expressed in this online book are thoughts that cannot be expressed within the walls of Franklin Jones' closed community. (But, as will become obvious, they are thoughts that many who know Jones intimately have wanted to express for a long time.)

This book runs against the mood and intentions of Daism -- Jones and his followers have been at great pains to forestall public discussion of Jones, by claiming their right, as a religion, to be beyond critical examination. They have secreted most of their activities behind a slick and elaborate bureaucracy...and they have spent millions of dollars to build a private kingdom on a remote Fijian island, beyond the reach of the American legal system.

There have, so far, been only two books published by critics of Jones: DA: The Strange Case of Franklin Jones, by David C. Lane and Scott Lowe; and Holy Madness, by Georg Feuerstein. In addition, the New Age philosopher Ken Wilber has, in the last two years, changed his position on Jones from one of extreme adulation to circumspect criticism.

The Knee of Daism is only the third book (and the first online book) to take an objective and critical look at Jones and Daism. It is a book largely written by people who have been on the inside of the Daist cult -- or else steeped themselves for many years in Jones' writings. In keeping with Jones' own proclaimed "crazy wisdom", this book contains both profound analysis, and wild and irreverent humor. Just so.

As an online book, The Knee of Daism is a work in progress. Some of the authors are writing new materials which will be added as soon as they are finished. New, expanded and improved editions will be uploaded whenever conditions merit.

I want to offer my gratitude to Sioux Marshman for pulling this volume together. He's done a brilliant job of organizing and editing a great mass of material, accumulated over more than two years.

At some point in the future we expect to add a "letters" section which will include your comments, pro and con, about this collective work -- and about its subject matter, Franklin Albert Jones, the man who calls himself Adi Da. ...So feel free to send us your thoughts! Or write your own book! This is, after all, the Internet.

Peace,

Elias