(The story starts here)
The Man Who Would Be Guru, Part 5
Sink, Slash, and Burn; Salt the Earth and Get Out of Town
San Francisco, California 1982:
"Such improbable scenarios could occur only because the individuals so judged had long ago granted superhuman status to a man whose measure of moral authority was, in the end, definitively revealed by his actions toward them."
The life-support medium sustaining the Münchhausen-scale fantasy of The Center For the Unity of All Mankind was the journal-to-be All One. As long as the remaining micro-cultists were kept spinning about on tasks supporting its eventual self-publication, conversation could continue about Alain being at the epicenter of an expansion of human consciousness. That estate in the Napa Valley might yet materialize; world leaders, eager for guidance, could be queuing up in the wings. Artists-in-residence could still be visualized, obediently creating to The Center’s standards. Archimedes the goat, the imaginary Center’s imaginary mascot, might yet gambol in grassy pastures. And George Lucas might stop wasting his time on those silly Star Wars films and turn his attention to Alain’s movie-making ideas.
Or not.
After innumerable revisions, the premiere issue of All One—a prospectus of Alain's thoughts about how mankind could expand its consciousness through an institute under his direction—was launched. Despite the borrowed bouyancy of the Krishnanurti Foundation's donor list—a document of incalculable value that Alain had retained after leaving Krishnamurti's employ; K. himself did not lend his name to Alain's endeavor—All One sank on its maiden voyage, pulling in after it the chimerical Center For the Unity of All Mankind. When the waters finally closed over the roiling mess, the micro-cult had vanished, and Alain had left California and the guru business forever.
Before his departure, blame was apportioned for All One's failure to excite world-wide interest. Proofreading Robert's minutes of the marathon Sacrosanct Wednesday sessions given over to this topic revealed that the Center For the Unity of All Mankind flopped because of insufficient dedication to its ideals by the collective as well as each individual. Only Alain was unstained by blame. I could hear the thin high whine of knives being sharpened in the distance. Soon enough, each of the remaining micro-cultists was summoned, in turn, to tea.
These were the unreconstructed loyalists, those hard-shell true believers who had made Alain the focus of their inner lives for more than a decade. There was virtually nothing about them that he did not know through the roles he'd assumed over the years: guru, confessor, psychotherapist, physician, father figure, and sole, bottom-line authority on all life's mysteries. Now he called forth and laid bare the most intimate and profound of their past confidences, serving up their errors and shortcomings as proof of their lack of worth before sending them on their way.
In most irreparable relationship breaches—divorces, family feuds, business deals gone south—there is equal opportunity for bad behavior by both sides. Each party knows where the other is most vulnerable and can decide whether, and where, to attack. This was not true of Alain's unilateral exit interviews. For many years, he had insisted on full, intensely personal disclosure from his acolytes. Under the rubric of spiritual guidance, he dug, prodded, and pried, greeting insufficient detail with icy disapproval. This flow of information was entirely one-way. He exercised remarkable caution to keep his own life private, sharing very little and repeating again and again the key points consistent with the powers he'd claimed: that his unique qualities and experience {insert the name Krishnamurti here; drop incessantly for more than a decade} conferred upon him an understanding of life far superior to that of ordinary people. That he was more insightful, more intelligent, more spiritually evolved than others. That his superior wisdom trumped individual judgment and instinct. That he should be trusted with one’s deepest secrets.
Some did trust him. Robert, absolutely. The betrayals of that trust, described in devastating detail by Robert and two other micro-cult survivors, were specific and absolute: Kafkaesque nightmares in which one’s parent, priest, teacher, and shrink convene to pass biting, bitter judgment that one feels powerless to refute. Such improbable scenarios could occur only because the individuals so judged had long ago conferred superhuman status upon a man whose measure of moral authority was, in the end, definitively revealed by his actions toward them.
There were—still are—many imponderables about why Alain chose such a Draconian way to end the assiduously cultivated guru-devotee relationships. In the wake of the failure of All One, big changes were afoot in his life. At age 55, he was leaving San Francisco to set up shop as a lay homeopath in Dallas. He was taking with him one of his piano students, an 18-year-old boy who, he confided to Robert, reminded him of himself at that age.
Alain’s relationships with his former followers could have been allowed to attenuate gradually in those final months before everyone moved on. There could have been respect, if not for the individuals who had trusted him so blindly, so implicitly, then for the intense experiences that he and they had shared over many years. A fresh perspective from inside normal emotional boundaries might have offered new insights, new connections. There could have been a nuanced legacy.
There wasn't. Alain Naudé left San Francisco more than a quarter century ago. None of the former micro-cultists, save one hanger-on, has seen him since. It took a while, but eventually everyone stopped picking at their wounds, and as soon as they did, they healed.
Go to Part 6 of The Man Who Would Be Guru: Reductio ad Absurdum
Thanks to C.K. for sending this link, in which Alain is quoted about the importance of humbleness, a real desire for the good of others, understanding relationships and human beings, "and, of course, love and compassion, without which nothing else has any meaning": http://www.minimum.com/interviews/anaude.htm
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