Frederick Lenz - Criticisms and Controversial Incidents

Criticisms and Controversial Incidents

Some incidents that occurred during the 1980s fueled negative publicity.

Donald Cole, 23, committed suicide in 1984 because he was disappointed at his progress in the program. He left a note that read, "Bye, Rama, see you next time."

In 1989, Brenda Kerber moved from the San Francisco Bay Area (where she followed Lenz) out to New York to continue her work with him and subsequently vanished in early October, 1989. Also missing, and never recovered, was her Ford station wagon. She left behind all her personal possessions, cash, credit cards, bank book, driver's license, purse and personal diary. To date, her family believes Lenz was either aware of, or responsible for, her disappearance, since her diary showed an impending mental collapse brought about by what she reported as Lenz's disappointment in her spiritual progress.

Some of his former students allege that he told his students (especially his male students) that they should abstain from sex, while at the same time using his position as a spiritual teacher to coerce female students into having sex with him, then telling them to keep quiet about it. Allegations that he was a sexual predator are often the subject of Lenz news articles. By 1986 Lenz said he "needed to sleep with two or three women at a time". An individual, he maintained, had too little "energy" to stimulate him. According to Newsweek, "a 36-year-old graduate student from Los Angeles named Anny Eastwood" claims that Lenz "allegedly waved a loaded pistol and forced her to have sex with him."

Mark Laxer, a favored student of Lenz from 1978–1985, published a book in 1993 about his time with him called Take Me For A Ride; Coming Of Age In A Destructive Cult.

Those supportive of Lenz described him as an educator who held seminars in the same way a college professor would. They claim that he promoted total independence, strength and integrity of being, and continually encouraged people to leave and go out in the world to practice the teachings on their own. Some of his former students disagree, alleging that he ran his organizations in the typical manner of a cult. These students became involved with several cult watchdog groups, including the CAN (Cult Awareness Network) and deprogrammers (in particular, Joe Szimhart, who is accused of kidnapping and imprisoning Lenz' student Karen Lever). Lenz and his supporters label the cult watchdog groups as "hate groups" and deprogrammers as "kidnappers."

Many former students did not become involved in so-called hate groups, did not shun meditation, did not disregard much of what Lenz taught, but discovered an aspect to Frederick Lenz that they found worthy of warning the public about.