The early version of the rationalization for Adi Da’s behavior
Below is one of the earlier rationalizations Adi Da (then Bubba Free John) wrote for his abusive behavior in relationship to devotees. The following is from “No Remedy,” written in the mid-1970s. As is plain to see, the message to people is that they should not trust themselves at all when it comes to judging the GodMan, but should blame themselves rather than him if there is something he does that bothers them.
Over the years, this type of logic was extended and embellished as Adi Da and his cohorts crafted the "Crazy Wisdom" explanation for his abuses.
Adi Da was able to convince a significant number of people to adopt the type of systematic self-doubt he describes below, and as a result remained free of accountability for his actions. How did he make use of this freedom from accountability? He used people to fulfill every fantasy he had, with little regard for their own welfare.
The Way That I Teach by Adi Da (Bubba Free John)
What I do is not the way I am, but the way I teach.
What I speak is not a reflection of me, but of you.
People do well to be offended or even outraged by me. This is my purpose. But their reaction must turn upon themselves, for I have not shown them myself by all of this. All that I do and speak only reveals men to themselves.
I have become willing to teach in this uncommon way because I have known my friends, and they are what I can seem to be. By retaining all qualities in their company, I gradually wean them of all reactions, all sympathies, all alternatives, fixed assumptions, false teachings, dualities, searches, and dilemma. This is my way of working for a time. Those who remain confounded by me, critical of me, have yet to see themselves. When their mediocrity is broken, when they yield their righteous reactions and their strife toward all the consolations of the manifest self, they may see my purity. Freedom is the only purity. There is no Dharma but Consciousness itself. Bubba as he appears is not other than the possibilities of men.
Editor’s note: What is interesting here is the relative lack of capital letters compared with later renditions of similar explanations that were given, such as the 1998 “I Am the Divine Emergence.” In the mid-70’s Franklin had not yet fully evolved into his later state of self-infatuated Divinity.