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Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment
"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Geoffrey Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana. This entertaining and yet deadly serious book should be read by everyone pursuing or thinking of pursuing the path of guru devotion."
--John Horgan, author of *Rational Mysticism*
"Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book."
--Dr. David C. Lane, California State University
"This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themself revering a spiritual teacher."
--Susan Blackmore, author of *The Meme Machine*
"Geoffrey Falk's delightful but disturbing unmasking of religious prophets and preachers who command a vast following is a welcome contribution to the literature on the gurus and god-men of all religions."
--Dr. Narasingha P. Sil, Western Oregon University
"No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing—sometime vicious or criminal—reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must!"
--Len Oakes, author of *Prophetic Charisma*
Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.
His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.
Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chögyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."
These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master.
Why?
Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naïvely open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives?
Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you."
Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities.
You can start by reading this book.
--John Horgan, author of *Rational Mysticism*
"Stripping the Gurus is superb--one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The research is meticulous, the writing engaging, and the overall thesis: devastatingly true. A stellar book."
--Dr. David C. Lane, California State University
"This gripping and disturbing book should be read by anyone who finds themself revering a spiritual teacher."
--Susan Blackmore, author of *The Meme Machine*
"Geoffrey Falk's delightful but disturbing unmasking of religious prophets and preachers who command a vast following is a welcome contribution to the literature on the gurus and god-men of all religions."
--Dr. Narasingha P. Sil, Western Oregon University
"No one involved in contemporary spirituality can afford to ignore this book. It exposes the darker side of modern spiritual movements, those embarrassing—sometime vicious or criminal—reports which the leaders of these movements prefer to hide. With wit and humility, and without abandoning the verities of religion, Falk has provided a corrective critique of groups that peddle enlightenment and transcendence. A must!"
--Len Oakes, author of *Prophetic Charisma*
Ramakrishna was a homoerotic pedophile.
His chief disciple, Vivekananda, visited brothels in India.
Krishnamurti carried on an affair for over twenty years with the wife of a good friend. Chögyam Trungpa drank himself into an early grave. One of Adi Da's nine "wives" was a former Playboy centerfold. Bhagwan Rajneesh sniffed laughing gas to get high. Andrew Cohen, guru and publisher of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, by his own reported admission sometimes feels "like a god."
These are typical of the "wizened sages" to whom otherwise-sensible people give their devotion and unquestioning obedience, surrendering their independence, willpower, and life's savings in the hope of realizing for themselves the same "enlightenment" as they ascribe to the "perfect, God-realized" master.
Why?
Is it for being emotionally vulnerable and "brainwashed," as the "anti-cultists" assert? Or for being "willingly psychologically seduced," as the apologists unsympathetically counter, confident that they themselves are "too smart" to ever fall into the same trap? Or have devotees simply walked, with naïvely open hearts and thirsty souls, into inherent dynamics of power and obedience which have showed themselves in classic psychological studies from Milgram to Zimbardo, and to which each one of us is susceptible every day of our lives?
Like the proud "Rude Boy" Cohen allegedly said, with a laugh, in response to the nervous breakdown of one of his devoted followers: "It could happen to any one of you."
Don't let it happen to you. Don't get suckered in. Be prepared. Be informed. Find out what reportedly goes on behind the scenes in even the best of our world's spiritual communities.
You can start by reading this book.
777 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2009
24 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 11, 2021
Having this book recommended to me, I jumped right into reading it blindly, excited to see some good faith criticism about religious leaders and figures misusing their power. Boy was I disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, there's much to be said about leaders accused of sexual abuse and of incubating a cult-like unhealthy following. There are so many cases of that happening across basically all religious groups, so it's not like the author was treading on dry grounds here. Still, he focused on so many accusatory and often times non-issues, forgetting the humanity of practitioners and leaders alike, and the inherent propensity to bad decisions and flawed behaviour. I'm not talking about those who have been accused of sexually harassing their disciples - that is what I expected the book to be about. Instead, the author points out obvious or just menial things, like saying not all Buddhist monks follow their path in an excruciatingly strict way, as if it weren't a thing in all religions. We see plenty of Christians have sex before marriage, divorce, participate in degenerate behaviour, and that is purely because most people are still going to be drawn to their human side, even if the practice is supposed to be strict or barely religious, not because the religion or the group is a fraud or a cult.
Besides the obvious bias against eastern practice, the author tends to put things like 'he drank himself to an early grave' as if it were the end of the world. As the book clearly states, those mystical leaders are only human, and to use things as a type of gotcha is breaking the point of it. Again, there are so many cases of actual abuse within religious grounds, why put the focus on extremely menial things? To criticise the personal life of someone is one thing, but to try and discredit religious practices by pointing them out is weird. Anyone with decent knowledge in a religious subject can teach you about it, and they don't need to practice it strictly or at all to push that knowledge forward. That's not how it works, just because ascetic groups have members who liked sex and lavish things doesn't mean that asceticism is a scam.
I could go on about how religion (even in small groups) is inherently tied to culture and the current political situation of where it's situated, whether it pushes for change or it supports how things currently are, so to criticise religious groups for long removed ties to political acts and parties is a dumb as screaming at modern Christians for burning witches... but that should already be obvious. Apparently not to our boy Falk.
This is not to say this book is 100% unfounded and that it doesn't come with a much deserved view of cynicism towards religious leaders and those with power through means of religion. But it could have been done in a way that's not purely weaving off [citation needed]-tier claims or points with no nuance. Focusing on things that aren't cult-like and are clearly explained by simply knowing religious dynamics makes it even more difficult for light to be shined upon the hidden and nasty practices that unfortunately are common in religious groups to this day - like the abuse of minors and women, the political monopoly certain countries are under religious parties, the scammers who take every single penny off of grieving families, practices akin to slave work and mass suicide. Those are so important for the author to spend time nitpicking someone's drinking habit.
And as a finale, the author has as much understanding about the origins of eastern practices to be able to justify them as 'weird' as a 4-year-old has an understanding about quantum physics. Here's a lovely example of him explaining why a practice unusual to him is actually not that peculiar within the context of the faith he's criticising, but then just throwing that aside and saying 'nah, that's still weird'.
'The moment I utter the word “cunt” I behold the cosmic vagina ... and I sink into it (in Sil, 1998).
That is actually not quite as odd as it might initially seem, for “cunt” itself derives from Kunda or Cunti—names for Kali, the Hindu Divine Mother goddess, beloved of Ramakrishna.
It is still plenty odd, though.'
Anyway, 2/5 stars. Did have some cases I had no idea about, but overall it's just the religious version of a sensational tabloid magazine.
Don't get me wrong, there's much to be said about leaders accused of sexual abuse and of incubating a cult-like unhealthy following. There are so many cases of that happening across basically all religious groups, so it's not like the author was treading on dry grounds here. Still, he focused on so many accusatory and often times non-issues, forgetting the humanity of practitioners and leaders alike, and the inherent propensity to bad decisions and flawed behaviour. I'm not talking about those who have been accused of sexually harassing their disciples - that is what I expected the book to be about. Instead, the author points out obvious or just menial things, like saying not all Buddhist monks follow their path in an excruciatingly strict way, as if it weren't a thing in all religions. We see plenty of Christians have sex before marriage, divorce, participate in degenerate behaviour, and that is purely because most people are still going to be drawn to their human side, even if the practice is supposed to be strict or barely religious, not because the religion or the group is a fraud or a cult.
Besides the obvious bias against eastern practice, the author tends to put things like 'he drank himself to an early grave' as if it were the end of the world. As the book clearly states, those mystical leaders are only human, and to use things as a type of gotcha is breaking the point of it. Again, there are so many cases of actual abuse within religious grounds, why put the focus on extremely menial things? To criticise the personal life of someone is one thing, but to try and discredit religious practices by pointing them out is weird. Anyone with decent knowledge in a religious subject can teach you about it, and they don't need to practice it strictly or at all to push that knowledge forward. That's not how it works, just because ascetic groups have members who liked sex and lavish things doesn't mean that asceticism is a scam.
I could go on about how religion (even in small groups) is inherently tied to culture and the current political situation of where it's situated, whether it pushes for change or it supports how things currently are, so to criticise religious groups for long removed ties to political acts and parties is a dumb as screaming at modern Christians for burning witches... but that should already be obvious. Apparently not to our boy Falk.
This is not to say this book is 100% unfounded and that it doesn't come with a much deserved view of cynicism towards religious leaders and those with power through means of religion. But it could have been done in a way that's not purely weaving off [citation needed]-tier claims or points with no nuance. Focusing on things that aren't cult-like and are clearly explained by simply knowing religious dynamics makes it even more difficult for light to be shined upon the hidden and nasty practices that unfortunately are common in religious groups to this day - like the abuse of minors and women, the political monopoly certain countries are under religious parties, the scammers who take every single penny off of grieving families, practices akin to slave work and mass suicide. Those are so important for the author to spend time nitpicking someone's drinking habit.
And as a finale, the author has as much understanding about the origins of eastern practices to be able to justify them as 'weird' as a 4-year-old has an understanding about quantum physics. Here's a lovely example of him explaining why a practice unusual to him is actually not that peculiar within the context of the faith he's criticising, but then just throwing that aside and saying 'nah, that's still weird'.
'The moment I utter the word “cunt” I behold the cosmic vagina ... and I sink into it (in Sil, 1998).
That is actually not quite as odd as it might initially seem, for “cunt” itself derives from Kunda or Cunti—names for Kali, the Hindu Divine Mother goddess, beloved of Ramakrishna.
It is still plenty odd, though.'
Anyway, 2/5 stars. Did have some cases I had no idea about, but overall it's just the religious version of a sensational tabloid magazine.
March 2, 2016
This book performs a devastating demolition job on the lure of gurus. It demonstrates that psychological violence is inherent in the guru-disciple relationship, and strongest in an organised setting. Moreover, the author recognises that the same dynamics play out in many other institutions, even secular ones. His case is unassailable. Unfortunately, he repeats it more often and at greater length than is necessary. Moreover, he has added an appendix in which he shows how neither Christianity nor Islam can claim to be vehicles for peace, but then descends into a diatribe against refugees and those who think they deserve asylum. His ashram-induced paranoia has not so much dissipated as attached itself to new targets, which is sad. Apart from that, he has done the world a valuable service with this volume.
May 23, 2012
If you wana see what most so called gurus are like from the inside and secretly or if if you're feeble minded to want to join some group/following then read this book first. I had plenty of laughs. Never really knew how many of them were homos did know they were perverts. Unfortunately, one of the swami's has ties with Nikola Tesla whom I had been a fan of. No wonder why he was never married!
Insightful and humorous..
Insightful and humorous..
August 28, 2018
Brings light to "enlightenment". A very human world looks more human after this book of checks and balances is read.
I appreciate that it doesn't encourage or discourage spirituality or religion it just shows the humanity in even the most decorated practitioners of these divine quests.
I appreciate that it doesn't encourage or discourage spirituality or religion it just shows the humanity in even the most decorated practitioners of these divine quests.
September 5, 2019
Apart from the immensely stupid mistake of being unable/unwilling to see a difference between Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church and a 2-bit celebrity "guru" on meth, it's good.
October 9, 2019
A lot of the material is not original and the author puts on the same level frauds like Hubbard with respectful zen masters, whose fault was just having consensual sex with women. Although I do not mind gossips, I would have liked a unique strong theme underlying the different chapters. That said, if someone is curious about some gossips or spicy details of a guru's life, maybe he will find those here.
December 22, 2024
The first time I read this book, it was so enjoyable and funny and engaging and interesting and detailed. But I was coming from a place of pain and frustration just like the author and now reading this book years removed from that pain, it’s flaws are more obvious.
The first 22 chapters are all somewhere between five and 25 pages. They’re very brisk and brief conversational depiction of the worst aspects of different religious groups or movements. It’s like just a solid dose of all of the worst with none of the best. But then, the third to last chapter is 80 pages, and it is the least harmful of the religious groups depicted, and it is the one that the author had lived with and worked for and felt most wounded by.
As he just kept going on and on about this one group and it’s relatively minor flaws, I realize that this entire book is a personal grievance against New Age religious movements. And there is a place for that. But I no longer think that this book is so impressive because I have overcome my own struggles with these kinds of movements and contextualize my own positive experiences and I’m off of that conflict years now. The author himself might be cured of these conflicts as well, but in this book, trapped in the pages of this book, this conflict is forever.
The humor, the stream of consciousness style, the endless gossip, it’s all very funny, but it lacks all kinds of structure and objectivity. I no longer highly recommend this book. It’s just fine.
Most family of all is that the information on how to leave these places and how to heal from wounds is all the absent in the chapters that report to be about leaving and healing. He uses those chapters to make a few more grievance complaints.
It’s fine
But his grand conclusion is that all religions and religious movements are as fake as Santa Claus, and basically it turns the author into my agnostic nemesis. Because I am the kind of agnostic that thinks every religion is as real as Santa Claus. And the distinction makes a difference.
I feel strongly that your beliefs should make you happy and help you lead a full life. I also feel strongly the same about your non belief.
The first 22 chapters are all somewhere between five and 25 pages. They’re very brisk and brief conversational depiction of the worst aspects of different religious groups or movements. It’s like just a solid dose of all of the worst with none of the best. But then, the third to last chapter is 80 pages, and it is the least harmful of the religious groups depicted, and it is the one that the author had lived with and worked for and felt most wounded by.
As he just kept going on and on about this one group and it’s relatively minor flaws, I realize that this entire book is a personal grievance against New Age religious movements. And there is a place for that. But I no longer think that this book is so impressive because I have overcome my own struggles with these kinds of movements and contextualize my own positive experiences and I’m off of that conflict years now. The author himself might be cured of these conflicts as well, but in this book, trapped in the pages of this book, this conflict is forever.
The humor, the stream of consciousness style, the endless gossip, it’s all very funny, but it lacks all kinds of structure and objectivity. I no longer highly recommend this book. It’s just fine.
Most family of all is that the information on how to leave these places and how to heal from wounds is all the absent in the chapters that report to be about leaving and healing. He uses those chapters to make a few more grievance complaints.
It’s fine
But his grand conclusion is that all religions and religious movements are as fake as Santa Claus, and basically it turns the author into my agnostic nemesis. Because I am the kind of agnostic that thinks every religion is as real as Santa Claus. And the distinction makes a difference.
I feel strongly that your beliefs should make you happy and help you lead a full life. I also feel strongly the same about your non belief.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2025
Overall I think this is a very low quality book, but I gave it two stars rather than one because it might just encourage a few people to look more carefully at a spiritual teacher before committing to a connection with them.
In other respects the writing is chaotic and badly structured, the quality of the evidence he draws on before making sarcastic or unkind remarks about someone is often low and he does not seem to understand what the scientific method is, or what you can and can't do with it.
In other respects the writing is chaotic and badly structured, the quality of the evidence he draws on before making sarcastic or unkind remarks about someone is often low and he does not seem to understand what the scientific method is, or what you can and can't do with it.
July 20, 2018
This is a very important book for all spiritual seekers. You will run into con artists, thieves, perverts and nut jobs. This book will help open your eyes to all the nonsense.
I recommend.
I recommend.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews