Lawsuits, Media Circuses, and "Anti-Adi Da" Websites



How do you find a marriage partner? How can you trust someone you fall in love with? Well, sometimes it doesn't work out; sometimes you have to get a divorce. But you don't necessarily take that person to court because you feel the person "used you" or represented himself in false colors. It is an affair of the heart. So, too, with religion, which is ultimately an affair of the heart. The more restrictions and safeguards you put on religion, the more danger there is of institutionalizing it entirely and then losing the spark and mystery of it.

Lex Hixon, Ph.D., religious scholar and mystic, 1989 interview
(Lex was the narrator of A Difficult Man,
a 1974 movie about the teaching and work of Adi Da)


Back in the mid-1980s, a couple of lawsuits were brought against Adidam and Adi Da Samraj by a few disaffected former devotees. When these lawsuits were made public, given the nature of modern sensationalistic journalism, a generally negative public attitude toward "gurus", and the exaggerated language that commonly appears in legal complaints, a kind of "media circus" erupted. There was significant newspaper and television coverage, including a Today Show "expose" about Adidam as a "religious cult".

A significant number of people in the process of discovering Adi Da run across "anti-Adi Da" websites that seek to combine decades-old newspaper clippings about these lawsuits, the associated "media circus", and Adi Da's "Crazy Wise" play with devotees in general at the time, into an argument against becoming Adi Da's devotee.

For this reason, we have created this special section to set the record straight — and to relieve and strengthen the hearts of those who otherwise are attracted to Adi Da and His extraordinary offering of the Way of Adidam.

So read, and be relieved! But then do continue your process of discovering Adi Da by exploring the rest of this site. This small section is mostly about what Adi Da is not. But the bulk of this site — the truly interesting and amazing part of it — is all about Who Adi Da is. (Click here for more about this.)

In contrast with the handful of detractors out there on the Web, hundreds of devotees and appreciators of Adi Da have contributed to this site, communicating a completely different story and a most extraordinary Spiritual opportunity.


ARTICLES
 

Lawsuits and Media Circuses — Chris Tong presents the basic facts, which are pretty straightforward. Two lawsuits were filed, and out-of-court settlements reached. The Marin County Superior Court dismissed the primary lawsuit.

  
A judge dismissed the case, ruling that there was no legal basis for the lawsuit.
   
 
An Interview with Brian O'Mahony

An Interview with Brian O'Mahony — Brian O'Mahony has been a devotee of Adi Da for many years. The one major lawsuit against Adidam was brought by Brian's wife at the time (1985). In this interview, Brian speaks candidly about that time, the lawsuit, the media circus that ensued, and what to make of it all more than twenty years later.

 

"Anti-Adi Da" Websites
Question: What about the "dissident" ex-devotees who express negative feelings about Adi Da and Adidam on the Web?

Brief answer: A recent independent study shows that most ex-devotees are not negatively disposed toward Adi Da and Adidam — quite the contrary! But a small number of unrepresentative (but very vocal) ex-devotees have created critical websites that are often mistaken for the majority view among ex-devotees. And as it turns out, even some of those most vocal critics are communicating a new and very different understanding of Adi Da these days.


Quotations from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright owner:
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