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Holotropic Breathwork

Mar 23

Attacking All Connections

By Anthony Busuttil, Edinburgh University, Holotropic Breathwork, Simon Kidd, Stanislav Grof, University of Western Australia
Simon Kidd
In becoming a target of Equalizer (Gerald Joe Moreno), I discovered that my family and supporters were also derided. The hate campaign was thorough and unrelenting, reflecting a sectarian cyberstalker tactic.
In December 2009, Moreno attacked Simon Kidd, an academic in Australia who defended me on Wikipedia against a hostile faction influenced by Moreno blogs and the 2006 Wikipedia User page of SSS108 (Moreno). Kidd was incongruously mocked by Moreno in his role as a Senior Research Officer in Education Policy at the University of Western Australia. Moreno urged that Kidd could not be taken seriously for supporting me. The academic was even described as an “internet propagandist” in this zealous attack. The truth is that Moreno (alias Equalizer) was the major internet apologist and propagandist for Sathya Sai Baba (d.2011). 
Moreno/Equalizer contrived the ridiculous argument that Kidd was desperate to deceive others about my “credentials.” I have never claimed credentials, and Kidd made no such reference. Instead the academic showed ability and scruple in parrying the defamatory content of Moreno blogs. 
Simon Kidd had earlier obliged the Holotropic Breathwork (HB) promoters on Wikipedia to acknowledge published criticism instead of suppressing this inconvenience. He had a valid role in such measures because of his early correspondence relating to the HB issue. In 1994-5, Kidd had corresponded with medical authorities, including Regius Professor Anthony Busuttil of Edinburgh University. Busuttil was very concerned about commercial HB. In 1993, this medical expert had been commissioned by the Scottish Charities Office to provide a report on that disputed subject. 
Moreno knew nothing about medical matters. He ignorantly diluted the subject of HB as though it were a crime to support my views in that direction. He even stated: “Simon Kidd was apparently involved with Kevin Shepherd’s campaigns against Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathing.” I did not conduct any campaigns, and had never met Simon Kidd. I mentioned the subject of Grof and HB in a lengthy annotated book of 1995 (Minds and Sociocultures Vol. One, pp. 66ff., 945ff.). A sequel chapter appeared in my Pointed Observations (2005). 
I contributed a web article on Grof therapy and MAPS, viewed as relevant information by some interested academics. MAPS is a controversial psychedelic project of Grof supporter Rick Doblin. The subject of LSD “psychotherapy” is strongly related to HB, a potentially hazardous exercise in hyperventilation. Criticism of these trends is not reprehensible outside the stifling boundaries of Pro-Sai  polemic. 
If credence is given to Moreno, then Edinburgh University and the Scottish Charities Office count for nothing in stemming the tide of commercial therapy, represented by such enterprises as Grof Transpersonal Training Inc. Grof had invented HB, charging high prices for HB workshops at the Findhorn Foundation and elsewhere. 
These complexities were typically avoided by Moreno, who suggested that Simon Kidd was involved in “some sort of collaborated scheming on Wikipedia against Stanislav Grof, Holotropic Breathwork and the Findhorn Foundation.” In reality, Kidd merely appeared on a discussion page to dispute the suppressive HB publicity. Even one of the HB supporters remarked that the Wikipedia article on HB read like a therapy advert until Kidd made objections. 
Observers again deduced that Gerald Joe Moreno (Equalizer) could not be taken seriously in his extremist arguments and defamations. 
Kevin R. D. Shepherd 
ENTRY no. 22 
Copyright © 2014 Kevin R. D. Shepherd. All Rights Reserved.
Dec 03

Kevin RD Shepherd Not An Academic

By Craig Gibsone, Cyberstalking, Equalizer, Findhorn Foundation, Gerald Joe Moreno, Holotropic Breathwork, Sathya Sai Baba
Craig Gibsone
Gerald Joe Moreno (Equalizer) was incensed when some ex-devotees (of Sathya Sai Baba) described me as a scholar. He went to elaborate lengths to snub this classification. His blog Kevin RD Shepherd is NOT an Academic appeared in 2009, and notably capitalised the negative word.
Since 1983, when I first emerged in print, I have made clear that I am not an academic, both to avoid confusion and to allay any grievances of specialist academics. The Equalizer treatment of this issue, in 2009, was memorable even by the vehemently distorting standards of Pro-Sai web campaign:
Kevin R. D. Shepherd is a sectarian bigot who obsessively, unremittingly and fanatically attacks and stalks everything and everyone affiliated with the Findhorn Foundation. 
Equalizer (Moreno) here relinquished completely any credence to accurate reporting. It is well known that I am not a member of any sect. My criticisms of the Findhorn Foundation do not come under the sectarian category, as is obvious to diligent readers. Nor do I criticise “everything and everyone” affiliated with that organisation.
Informed readers concluded that the extremist Moreno assertion closely reflected his own ill-repute as an obsessive  stalker of “Anti-Sai” critics and ex-devotees of Sathya Sai Baba (d.2011). Moreno was much more than a troll, gaining the repute of a cyberstalker who went to almost unbelievable lengths to blacken the reputation of his adversaries. For instance, he was reported to distort images of ex-devotees, and to harass victims by emailing their contacts with adverse portrayals. He targeted Google name lists with multiple entries visibly agitating against the victims. At one time there were seven hostile Moreno web entries listed in a row on my own Google listing,  with many others following in a more scattered density.
The peculiar spite of Equalizer (Moreno) was evidenced in his concluding remark at the NOT blog. “The only thing that trumps Kevin R. D. Shepherd’s non-academic role is his big ego.” Equalizer also had a non-academic role, referring to Moreno in the third person, and making many mistakes in his vituperation. The lack of context in his stigmas became a source of amazement, not merely notoriety.
Equalizer urged that my “big ego” was proved by my pointing out the lack of academic credentials in others. The only instance he supplied was that of Craig Gibsone, an influential member of the Findhorn Foundation. No further information was given. The missing context is relevant here.
I had indeed criticised Craig Gibsone, and more than once, but not for a mere lack of academic credentials. The reason was because Gibsone had been disastrously influential in pioneering commercial Grof therapy (Holotropic Breathwork) in Britain. He could only be offset by the combined warning of Edinburgh University and the Scottish Charities Office in 1993. Even this setback did not prevent Gibsone’s further resort to dubious “workshop” practices of hyperventilation, connoting a medical risk. I had pointed out that Gibsone and his team did not possess medical credentials in their “new age therapy” pastime, a deficit posing a potentially substantial risk. See further my Letter to BBC Radio, dating to 2006.
Medical doctors considered my objection to be perfectly valid. However,  in cult lore, such reservations are caricatured in terms of “big ego.” To extend that argument in due proportion, the Equalizer category of “big ego” discrepantly covers many medical doctors, psychiatrists, and other professional parties of scruple. Ethical complaint at discrepancy is set at naught by cult lore, an endangering activity involving a blanket dismissal of criticism and a hate campaign against any objector.

Observers of this situation pointed out that the Moreno (Equalizer) slurs, aimed at diverse victims, comprised an attempt to distract attention from the “allegations” of sexual abuse made against Sathya Sai Baba. The solid testimonies are revealing.
A well known testimony came from Jens Sethi, a German who encountered Sathya Sai Baba at close quarters during the 1990s. In the notorious interview room at Puttaparthi ashram, “he [Sathya] commanded me to remove my trousers, unzipped my fly and went with his right hand into my underpants. Sathya Sai Baba the divine touched and massaged my genitals unasked. He expected some erection, but this didn’t happen for I did not feel any sexual excitement, no lust in the presence of a seventy year old man. I was really disgusted. Then he had the impudence to say, ‘It is very weak, don’t waste energy.’ When I looked at him I realised the truth about him and was shocked indeed” (Experiences of an ex-Sai Baba devotee I, exbaba.com, Witnesses tab).

Sethi continues his narration of events:

I came into contact with other devotees who had similar and even worse sexual experiences [with Sathya Sai], and came to the conclusion that there is indeed a pattern of behaviour towards his victims. First he establishes contact and checks the devotional potential of the devotee. Afterwards, once he has decided to molest a person he starts by kissing the same [on the lips]. The next step is massaging the genitals with oil or vibhuti [sacred ash], and finally [he] is masturbating them. In the end he asks [the victim] to do oral sex! This is nothing but the truth. Also, [there are] testimonies from Indians who have been sexually molested through Swami [Sathya Sai] even in the early seventies [1970s]. Now it becomes evident through many testimonies that he had sexually molested and raped young boys for a very long time.  This made me very sad and it broke my heart…. To cover up the awful incidents, he builds more and more buildings to distract innocent devotees from his evil motive. He wants to become more famous than Krishna and is after name and fame. (Experiences of an ex-Sai Baba devotee II, exbaba.com, Witnesses tab)

Some Western victims tried to justify their plight by inventing bizarre justifications. The oiling ritual was invested by these alarmed devotees with supposed significances of “kundalini energy,” a Tantric theme becoming popular in the Western new age. This excuse also became associated with the Sathya Sai action of kissing the lips. Some victims referred to the “balancing” of kundalini, a fantasist belief in Western sectors created by entrepreneurs.

Apologist devotees subsequently resorted (by 2006) to a belief that “spiritual healing” was being accomplished in sordid activities of the interview room and the bedroom. Others denied that the abuse had ever occurred. Sathya Sai himself apparently favoured the “spiritual healing” interpretation. A prominent Dutch devotee insisted that the abuse was a remedy for “karmic debts and sexual lust” (Dogged Denial).

Western victims were often very confused. One of these was Gerald Joe Moreno, who early stated that he had experienced the oiling ritual in 1988, at the age of eighteen. The Pro-Sai activist subsequently attempted to justify (and to ignore) such guru eccentricities, which complicated his apologist tactic. Ex-devotees pointed out the discrepancies. This was no proof of their “big ego.” To the contrary, they were opposing a guru who claimed to be God while pursuing phallic and paedophile preoccupations in numerous instances. One devotee justification for all discrepancies was the assertion: “Swami (Sathya Sai) is God.” They were repeating the guru’s own inflated emphasis.

Kevin R. D. Shepherd

December 2013 (modified 2021)

ENTRY no. 13
Copyright © 2021 Kevin R. D. Shepherd. All Rights Reserved.