In an autobiographical essay, a former devotee of Adi Da described how in an "emergency" he was pressed by Adidam managers to donate $4,000 to the group. He subsequently learned that the entire sum was spent on marijuana for Frank's parties.

The story is not unusual -- others have reported similar incidents. It got me thinking about how swiftly, after his "enlightenment", Frank gravitated to the requirements of his own comfort, the confiscation of others' property, the pleasuring of his bodily appetites, and a hedonistic life-style that lasts to this day.

[1-08-03 Note: Sources indicate that currently a large percentage of Adidam income is still targeted for Adi Da's "circumstance" -- a euphanism that includes not only food, shelter, and a place to lay his weary head -- but also his paperweight and Disney art collections, his hobbies (such as nude art photography), expensive gifts for his wives, and virtually any whim he may have on any given day. As a consequence, the missionary and publishing sides of Adidam remain chronically impoverished. This in turn has resulted in a constantly diminishing number of new converts and students -- and has made Adidam the most financially strapped New Age cult around.]

After considering Frank's chosen lifestyle, I thought about his need for a tropical island experience -- a kind of "samadhi of the vital" -- where he and a few "intimates" can pursue the pleasure-principle undisturbed.

Indeed, Frank has skillfully pushed away the realites of life as it is lived by 99.999999999999999999 percent of the people on the planet, preferring to act out the age-old myth of a pampered god-king, his every want and desire fulfilled by willing sycophants.

OK...that's old news. That aspect of Daism has been soundly trashed from all sides.

FRANK THE DESCENDER

What came to me now was the thought that Frank is a descender -- he escapes from reality (including spiritual reality) by descending into the vital.

It's funny, because the man has always criticized "5th and 6th stage saints and yogis" who escape from this world by ascending into the spiritual realms of the sahasrar. Even a good old fashined nirvakalpa samadhi ("formless ecstacy") is, in Frank's view, "limitation" -- a contraction from the Real, and self-indulgent unenlightenment!

"In fifth state conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi attention ascends beyond all conditional manifestation into the formless Matrix of the Spirit-Current or Divine Light infinitely above the world, the body, and the mind. ...[It] is a forced and temporary state of attention. ...It is produced by manipulation of attention and of the body-mind."[Love-Ananda Gita, page 766.]

But if you examine how Frank has "moved attention" after his own "enlightenment", a pattern of descent emerges -- the manipulation of the body-mind into a conditional manifestation of infantile mental-physical self-gratification.

That is to say, his "spiritual" journey is one of seeking ever-more isolation and enclosure in a womb-like environment, where he will feel protected and cared for by others. The instruments of his search have been unvarnished greed, lust, thievery...and all forms of seduction and mental violence.

What does he "win" for his trouble? A bland boring existence walking on a beach in the South Pacific with a few of his buddies and girlfriends.

Whoa.

I imagine that minds like William Tsiknas, "smoothed out" by strolling in the surf and watching the sunsets, feel they have reached some pinnacle of spiritual experience and are the envy of the rest of the human race. Periodically snapshots of these "reunciates" lounging about their island paradise are published in the community magazines, to remind the overworked slaves what a grand destiny awaits devotees when they finally get the "yes, you're ready" nod from Frank.

All that Tsiknas and those like him have really accomplished though, is to rip off the energies of a few hundred true-believers in order to buy themselves a bit of vital samadhi...a day in the sunshine that will very soon be exhausted and over.

Frank and his mates' manipulation of the minds and lives of others to acquire a conditional heaven for themselves is, more than anything else, the definitive statement about what Frank is and what he is doing.

Frank has written a few interesting philosophical tracts, which at one time or another impressed Ken Wilber, Georg Feuerstein, and several other religious scholars. Practically speaking, the books mainly serve as consciousness-traps for the young and the weak-minded -- once you enter their mental labyrinth, extrication can take years.

But the lionshare of Frank's pitifully selfish existence has been spent on his own comfort and self-indulgence. In my view, he has given nothing of lasting value to the human race.

Frank will be remembered as the World Teacher of Hoggishness.

Just so.