Adi Da’s anxiety attacks systematically explained as “spiritual” events over the years
Posted: 10/14/06 by sparrowhawk
Post subject: Lopez Island Syndrome. (or Adi Da Has Left the Building.)
Here's something to chew over about Our Man in Fiji today. Surely all of us here
who are conversant with the subject know of Adi Da's habit of having near-death
experiences? Let's see if I've got my facts straight: the first one occurred
when he was in the seminary where Rudi told him to go, because he thought it
would be good for Adi Da and would help ground him and straighten him out a bit.
The first episode began with an anxiety attack and a sense of impending death
which resolved itself by transforming into a blissful feeling of transcendence
of the physical world.
The next time it happens is in Muktanada's ashram in India. He's hanging around
in his quarters preparing to leave the next day when wham! he falls into a swoon
and blisses out for an unspecified amount of time. (But perhaps this one doesn't
really count because there was no quality of great sorrow or suffering attached
to this particular event.)
Many years later, after he has assumed the name Da Free John, he tells the story
concerning the death (or near-death) event when he was overwhelmed with an
tremendous sense of sorrow and grief because, according to him, he feels great
agony for the lack of response from his devotees and the world at large for
their presumed failure to recognize His Presence and respond accordingly. He
says out loud to those present at the time he would like to leave this world and
punctuates his wish with the phrase, "May it come soon." Wham! (There's that
'wham!' again.) He starts feeling a great numbness travelling rapidly up his
arm. Before you know it the Daster is down and out on the mat. (You've got to be
impressed with a guy who apparently now has Death Itself at his beck and call.)
Well, the devotees present are galvanized into a panic to save their beloved
master. Fortunately, there's medical staff present, or in any case they arrive
in a hurry, and eventually, successfully revive Adi Da and rescue him from The
Premature Mahasamadhi of Great Sorrow. ( I just made that last bit up. Maybe I
could get a job as a copy editor at Dawn Horse Press. ...Nah ) This occurrence
happened, I believe, sometime around 1986 and would henceforth be referred to
simply as the Death Event, sort of a variation on the Vedanta Temple Event; it
makes for good continuity in the story in Any Event. This entire episode
naturally requires that Master Da retire once more into seclusion and recover.
All of which leads to the next big show-stopper: The Divine Emergence. Needless
to say, Adi Da really wows them in Peoria this time. The photos of him from this
period (the so-called Divine Emergence ) are really quite striking and in my
opinion never more has he looked the part. That is to say, the part of the
saintly ascetic intoxicated with love and bliss. He apparently lost a lot, and
for Adi Da I mean a lot, of weight. He looks fragile and vulnerable, his hair is
tied in a topknot East Indian style, and he is dressed in an orange dhoti robe
like a renunciate. At the time I must confess I was utterly convinced that
something was really going on with this Da Free John fella. I mean, I bought it.
Completely.
Well, I aint gonna go into whole the Lopez Island bit. Y'all can read the full
account here at Lightmind in the Daism Research Index. To summarize, it's just
more high drama of the same stripe. The Master once again finesses his way past
Lord Yama. But, oh, what a mighty struggle! Full of yogic swoons, weeping female
devotees! And...foot massages! It makes me horny just thinkin' about it.
Okay now. After all of this what can we make out of it? At the mundane level
there are certainly many ordinary people out there who have had a history of
anxiety attacks in their lives. One presumes that most people with these sort of
health issues just don't feel inclined to refer to their last attack as "a yogic
swoon". In Adi Da's case we may presume that, for a man who claims to have
achieved an unprecedented level of enlightenment, he nonetheless suffers from an
overwhelming fear of death. I make no claims here of being proficient in
conventional psychology, but there appears to be a pattern here related to
episodes of hysteria and stark panic. People with these sort of problems might
certainly tend to be very "high maintenance" individuals. They are often very
high-strung, hypersensitive and have food allergies of all sorts etc. They may
also be remarkably creative an intelligent persons as well. The fact that Da has
lived most of his adult life now in more-or-less voluntary seclusion shares
features with that of a lifelong chronic invalid. Such persons are often on a
daily regimen of medications also. Also it should be noted that the feature of
enforced isolation surrounding Da cannot be said to be the most healthy thing
for a person. Especially if he does perhaps show signs of the sort described
above.
I invite anyone to correct my chronology of events about Adi Da's history of
near-death experiences if they spot any errors, or wish to flesh out my
description of events more expertly. I am working strictly from memory on
material I have not reviewed now in many years. And of course, I welcome anyone
who may feel moved to add their observations and thoughts to this topic also.
All the Best~
----------------------
Posted: 10/14/06 by anonymous
Post subject: Not to be picky...
... but I think the "death event" you refer to and his "Divine Emergence" were advertised to be the same thing. But I do remember other mid-span death events being reported, my favorite 'tale' being the time he walked into a room full of devotees, lay down on a couch and, for all intents and purposes, supposedly died. They claim he had no breath or pulse etc. In a short time though he did recover, roused himself and stretched, saying, "Aah, death. The pause that refreshes." And got up and walked out. It's the kind of myth that sprouts up easily around these guys all the time but, regardless of whether there is any truth to it or not, it's still pretty funny.