Adi Da and Adidam: Document Shredding and Destruction of Potential Evidence against Adi Da in 1985
Editor's note: There are multiple sources for the activities described below that have been verified off-line.
Posted by Speaker #2 on Nov-22-99 to Lightmind Daism Forum
Thanks, Speaker, for your contribution to this forum. Now is my turn.
In response to the activities of disenchanted devotees, the threat of lawsuits, and the lawsuits themselves, Adi Da launched a project to cover up anything in his activities that might be damaging to him if any of the lawsuits ever ended up in discovery or, worse, in court.
The person in charge of this cover-up was Craig Lesser. He employed a cadre of people, each with a different responsibility, to carry out the plan to sanitize the church's records. None of the people involved, except for Craig Lesser, the guru and one or two others, was privvy to the entire plan. The primary people involved included CL himself, MB & SB, DT & BT, CR & KR, FK, those of the guru's wives who also transcribed his tapes, and those devotees who, likely without knowledge, contributed funds for purchasing equipment and furnishing rooms for this "very special very intimate" project. Each person was sworn to maintain utter secrecy.
Initially, the knowledge of each person was limited to the specific task they performed. No one else in the organization, not the community leaders, not the sanctuary managers, not even sanctuary security knew about this project. Community members were not told anything about it.
Over time, the participants came to understand they were part of a larger group project, and some sanctuary residents and the occasional resident or visitor who stumbled across a locked room, also knew that "something" was going on.
The project was packaged as a project of great personal importance to the guru. Everyone involved was uncomfortable with it, and periodically they were given individual "pep talks" about how important this project was to the guru, that he was monitoring it personally, and how good this would be for their sadhana, to keep them going.
The project was carried out in various locations around the sanctuary in the archives, the transcribing rooms, a special room under one of the dormitories, another in a small cottage, and another in the hotel. These rooms were kept locked at all times and no one was allowed to enter except the participants. In fact, the workers were often subjected to abuse from sanctuary staff and security because they kept their project secret and their doors locked.
A computer system was purchased with several workstations and a text scanner for converting the transcribed talks into digital format. A microfiche camera was purchased for making micro-films of the transcripts. A shredder was also purchased.
Everything the guru did or said was recorded. The tapes of his discourses, his conversations, and his parties, were transcribed by the few who could type and were trusted - his wives and a few other women. The transcriptionists were sworn not to discuss what they heard on the tapes.
Typed transcripts from gatherings that included the dissident group (as it was called), including parties, were first micro-filmed and then edited. Editing was performed with a thick black marking pen, to black out any words which would support the legal claims of the dissidents, including their names. Any conversation they had with the guru, any conversation he had with them, their interactions with others present, etc., all was blacked out.
Then the transcripts were filmed again. The micro-fiches of the original unedited transcripts were removed by CL without comment. The micro-fiches of the edited transcripts were stored in an unnamed vault, perhaps a safety deposit box, somewhere off sanctuary.
Some highly sensitive transcripts were shredded. Those that contained only defensible material were returned to storage in the old stone archives building on the sanctuary, which was available to "mature" students.
In this way, all evidence supporting the complaints of the dissidents, the Lupas, the Cutlers, the Parkers, Bev, Sal, and others, were erased from the "official" version of the Adi Da/Franklin Jones' history.