Pondering Franklin Jones' torrent of bitter accusations against his followers [see Daism Report #6], I began to wonder what is really going on here.

Ramana Maharshi patiently gave darshan to thousands of "beginners" right up until his death. But Frank, who claims to be the pinnacle of all possible Spiritual Realization, can't stand the sight of other human beings.

After thirty years of filtering out a core group of about 800 followers from the many thousands who came to meet him, he announces that it now makes him physically ill -- to the point of death -- to spend time with those who have pledged their very lives to him.

What's this all about, really?

Several theoretical conclusions can be drawn, I think. One is that Frank is a Yogic Mast -- a man who became mentally unhinged after he allowed himself to become possessed by powerful psychic energies. Certainly he shows all the signs of profound mental illness -- and even speaks of himself as "being confined in the state mental facility". (But then, as some have opined, we may be hearing the voice not of Franklin Jones, but of the vain and contemptuous entity that possessed him.)

Another conclusion is that Frank is finding out that in fact he is not a guru at all. In the past the yogi siddhis he developed led him to think that he was a guru, and he mistook the mental and bodily possession of others for real guru-transmission.

Now, after thirty years, he is finding out that no-one around him learned a damn thing from him -- they are all "still beginners" and his life is "wasted", his "work" a complete failure.

He is telling them it is their fault. But secretly he knows what it means -- he was never rightly or lawfully a guru.

And in fact over time his energies have moved inexorably away from his guru-fantasies and found the karmic level at which he is most deeply inclined to function. He has the karma of an artist -- photography has become his new career. And he is a collector of things -- paperweights and Disney art invoke powerful ownership-needs in him. And he likes to watch television, eat, and indulge his prurient interests.

But he is not happy being a guru, because he is not meant to be a guru. He is not lawfully a guru, and therefore he can feel the Universe's displeasure.

Literally, he is being ejected from the "company of the siddhas" -- and this is very distressing to him. His health is failing, his island fantasy has collapsed, and the very urge to give darshan has been taken from him.

The diatribes against his followers are a smokescreen for something quite basic that is going on in him -- something that his pride won't let him admit:

For Frank Jones being a "guru" was always an ego-mummery. And now the ego is being called to let go, give it up, and surrender to the inexorable death of this guruing-illusion.

One can only hope his madness won't take some violent turn in the months and years ahead. But frankly, Adidam is coming more and more to resemble a classic apocalyptic cult, where the leader identifies his personal paranoia and dread with the "fate of the whole world".

Heaven's Gate may look like a school picnic when Frank is done.

May those (especially the children) who remain trapped in Frank's psychosis be saved from such a fate.