The 99th Monkey
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The 99th Monkey A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments
Eliezer Sobel
Copyright ©2008 by Eliezer Sobel All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part or in any form or format without the written permission of the publisher. Published by: Santa Monica Press LLC P.O. Box 1076 Santa Monica, CA 90406-1076 1-800-784-9553 www.santamonicapress.com
[email protected] Printed in the United States Santa Monica Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, or groups. Please call our Special Sales department at 1-800-784-9553. This book is intended to provide general information. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not engaged in rendering health, medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice or services. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not liable or responsible to any person or group with respect to any loss, illness, or injury caused or alleged to be caused by the information found in this book. ISBN-13 978-1-59580-028-2 ISBN-10 1-59580-028-X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sobel, Eliezer, 1952The 99th monkey : a spiritual journalist’s misadventures with gurus, messiahs, sex, psychedelics, and other consciousness-raising experiments / Eliezer Sobel. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-59580-028-2 1. Religions. 2. Religious leaders. 3. New Age movement. 4. Spiritual biography. 5. Religious biography. 6. Sobel, Eliezer, 1952- I. Title. BL85.S63 2008 299’.93092--dc22 [B]
2007041436
Cover and interior design and production by Future Studio Los Angeles Portions of this book were excerpted from articles that originally appeared in Quest Magazine, Yoga Journal, The New Sun, the New Age Journal, and Paul Krassner’s book, Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy.
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Contents
Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 1:
Ram Dass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 2:
Primal Therapy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 3:
Werner Erhard & the est Training. . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 4:
Hilda Charlton & The New Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 5: Gurus & Saviors: Muktananda, Rajneesh, Maitreya, Adi Da & Sai Baba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Chapter 6: Chareeva, Actualizations, Michael Wyman & the Moonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Chapter 7:
Haiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 8:
The Manual, the School & the Workshop . . . . . 121
Chapter 9:
Gabr