Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult

“Mark Laxer does a great service in his deeply personal portrayal of life within a cult. His struggle to attain independence…is a poignant quest of a seeking spirit.”

--Jacob Longacre, Lutheran Minister

“All students of human nature will delight in Mark Laxer’s insightful story of his personal journey into a new kind of American cult that interweaves pseudo-spiritual goals with money making, computer, hi-technology ambitions. He shows us the subtle techniques used to seduce bright college students and graduates into this cult and the powerful forces that bind members to their charismatic leader. My students have enjoyed the narrative and learned much from this analysis of the psychology of cult indoctrination in Take Me For A Ride.”

--Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University, Initiator of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Update:

After weathering a $30 million lawsuit meant to silence his ‘Take Me For A Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult’ (1993), Mark Laxer went on to write ‘The Monkey Bible’ (2010) with companion rock opera The Line by Eric Maring and ‘Rama Trauma Trump: I Left the Cult and Now Look What Happened’ (2020) - a nonfiction graphic novel illustrated by Marcie Vallette. Contact author for free digital copies of aforementioned books and rock opera.

Additional resources:

--Free audio of ‘Take Me For A Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult’ read by the author on the Mark Laxer youtube channel, in the Take Me For A Ride playlist

--Subscribe to Mark Laxer and TheMonkeyBible youtube channel for latest

--Follow author on twitter.com/marklaxer and instagram.com/mark.laxer

--Contact author through mark.laxer profile facebook page

--Follow author on facebook through thetravelerscircle or themonkeybible or vEcotourism

--For physical copies of books, search your online bookseller or check with your local librarian

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Simon & Schuster, Inc., for permission to reprint an excerpt from Gandhi: A Memoir by William Shirer. Copyright (c) 1979 by William Shirer.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-085777

ISBN 0-9638108-3-9

Initially printed and posted in the United States of America

To Patsy Sims--inspired teacher, intriguing storyteller, intrepid journalist.

Author's Note

Names in the following story have been changed, except for those already mentioned in the press.

Contents

1. Bicycle Ride--Walden 2. Zapped! 3. The Joining 4. The Community 5. Bicycle Ride--Lenox 6. The Garden 7. Money Mantra 8. Fast Leader 9. Off The Map 10. Bicycle Ride--Utica 11. Displaced 12. Thwarted Escape 13. Breakdown 14. Bicycle Ride--St. Ignes 15. The Enchanted Taco 16. Ride To Heaven 17. On High 18. Where's My Tribe? 19. I'm Okay 20. The Last Supper 21. Bicycle Ride--The Continental Divide Epilogue

Appendix A: Excerpts From WOOF! Appendix B: Excerpts From "Welcome To Lakshmi" Appendix C: Excerpts From "Sophisticated Sexuality" Appendix D: Excerpts From Rama's Ads and Brochures

1. Bicycle Ride--Walden

After I left Rama's inner circle in 1985, I occasionally bicycled to Walden Pond, where I read about Thoreau's experiment with self-reliance. My seven years in the cult of Rama--Dr. Frederick Lenz, who was known early on as Atmananda--had deeply shaken my confidence. Atmananda often assured me that I was possessed by Negative Forces, that I was barely able to function in the real world, and that I was fortunate he did not drop me off at a mental institution. I met him in 1978, when I was seventeen.