ANANDA UNCOVERED: Deposition of woman #1, a preview

Deposition of Woman #1

Preview

You may download entire deposition here

....exctract

I, XXX, declare:

1.I am a former member of the Ananda spiritual community, which I believe later became the Ananda Church of Self-Realization ("Ananda"). I make this declaration of my own personal knowledge and if called upon to testify could and would do so competently.

2.I first came into contact with members of the Ananda spiritual community in May, 198X. I was
twenty-two (22) years old. At that time, I was searching for a spiritual community to join and live in.To that end, I went to the Ananda community"s house in San Francisco to meet some of its members and find out about the church and its spiritual community in rural northern California outside of Nevada City. After meeting with the San Francisco church members, I also spoke to various friends and associates in Los Angeles regarding their impressions of Ananda and its teachings. I also spent a weekend visiting the Ananda community, which included a "monastery" within its grounds. After about three (3) months, I decided to move to the community and join the apprentice program.

3. The Ananda Church teaches the philosophy enumerated by Paramahansa Yogananda, including a
monastic lifestyle. At the time I joined the community, the role of its "spiritual leader," J. Donald Walters, was minimized to me. Mr. Walters called himself "Swami Kriyananda" and supposedly followed all the teachings of Yogananda, including the renunciation of all of the purely human desires, including sexual. To my knowledge, all of the male members of the Ananda community "monastery," including the "Swami." had taken vows of chastity, poverty and "cooperation." (Swami Kriyananda had replaced "obedience" with a vow of "cooperation.") The "nuns" of the community did not take vows.

4. The term "swami" is a term which describes a member priest of an Indian monastic order, attained after a series of steps within the religious order over a period of years. One who has become a member of the "swami" order has renounced worldly desires, including sexual.

5. "Swami" Kriyananda held himself out in the Ananda spiritual community as having successfully
obtained a higher state of "being" through living by these vows merely by using the title "swami" within the community. His "inner circle!e" reinforced this elevated, spiritual status through constant reinforcement that we (the disciples) were privileged to "serve" the "Swami" and that he was Yogananda"s direct representative or "channel" for the community.

6. I personally discovered later on, however, that "Swami" repeatedly abused his position of power within the church to convince young women in the church to satisfy his sexual desires while simultaneously convincing them it was to their spiritual benefit. I was not aware of his sexual interaction with young female church members until it happened to me.

to be continued in the Deposition of woman #1

Download the complete deposition

Back to the Archives page