Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Damaging Experience with Scientology

Check out Janette, a long-time member of our FACT family, talking about her damaging experience with Scientology along with other ex-members for ABC News.

Click here.

Monday, May 2, 2016

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE - CONCLUSION

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE: (CONCLUSION)

After Sharon Stern’s tragedy, the Stern family tried to bring something positive out from it in an effort to safeguard future students at Naropa University. They reached out to Naropa University asking for a simple meeting on how future tragedies like this could be prevented, with their request being flatly denied. Then, when the Stern family asked for some kind of monetary compensation at least on behalf of the Sharoni Stern Estate, which would then be entirely donated to FACT for the purposes of anti-cult education and awareness, Naropa refused to give a cent.

The Stern family is of course not surprised by Naropa’s lack of cooperation and compassion in the wake of Sharon’s death, as in their opinion Naropa’s well documented history shows a pattern of covering up the exploitation and abuse of students by faculty members. The Stern's believe it is easier for Naropa to just brush things under the rug rather than confront the issues head on and make changes. We at FACT believe this is utterly shameful behavior for any academic institution, let alone one “accredited” in the U.S. for higher education. Moreover, Mr. Stern, the father of Sharon, believes that if the faculty at Naropa had acted appropriately at the time when these abuses were being initiated against his daughter, instead if worrying about their accreditation, she would still be alive today. How this school received their accreditation in the first place with their long documented history of student abuses is truly anyone’s guess.

Regarding Naropa’s infamous ex-teacher, Katsura Kan, his desperate attempts to stall the lawsuit against him (from going to trial) are an exercise in futility. Katsura and all his advisors are delaying the case with the claim that the Sharon Stern Estate has no jurisdiction because the alleged crimes were not committed in Florida. A higher court denied his poor excuse of a claim and booted it back down to the lower court, where the Stern family needs now only to show the evidence proving it, which is abundant.

Katsura’s other claim to stall the lawsuit was that he barely spoke English, which is easily disproved from all the emails he sent to Sharon. Also, on behalf of the Sharon Stern Estate, Mr. Stern believes that Naropa should never have hired a teacher who barely spoke English, and also believes Naropa gave him the authority to teach a destructive life philosophy in their classroom. In Mr. Stern’s opinion, it’s more than a lie from Katsura Kan, it’s an insult to the family and a crime to waste the time and resources of our court system like this. The Sharoni Stern Estate will get to the bottom of this through the active lawsuit.

We hope you found this expose interesting and educational. If you would like to learn more about what happened to Sharon Stern, please read the following articles on this page:

http://www.familiesagainstcultteachings.org/Memorial/

We would like to conclude this expose with a message from our founder:

I, Tibor Stern, father of Sharon Stern, representative of her estate and president of FACT, who is going through so much pain and suffering every minute of the day and night from the loss of my beloved daughter, feel obligated to make sure that no other parents are going to go through this kind of unnecessary tragedy by bringing public education and awareness on this typically overlooked and misunderstood subject. My advice to all parents whose kids are attending or going off to college, please research the school in-depth and especially check out the school for any past complaints. Also, make sure that the sexual harassment law Title IX applies to your child’s institution.

We parents entrust our children blindly to the universities, which is the wrong thing to do. There is evil everywhere, so always be as well-informed as possible. Please contact us if you would like any personal educational material for you and your children, explaining the warning signs of cult recruitment and indoctrination.

Sincerely,

Tibor Stern
President of FACT
(On behalf of the Sharon Stern Estate)

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Friday, April 29, 2016

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE - PART FOUR

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE: (PART FOUR)

Over the years, there have been some defenders of Katsura Kan who have reached out to the Stern family, claiming his innocence and vouching for his character as a good and moral person. However, their minds were usually quickly changed when presented the overwhelming evidence against Katsura that reveals his true sociopathic and selfish nature.
For those unaware, Katsura Kan is a cult leader who teaches Butoh (dark Japanese dance form) as his cover / modus operandi to seduce, manipulate and exploit students, especially young female ones. This sexual predator once proudly admitted to Sharon Stern that he had slept with over 160 of his female students (all while still married to his wife that was living in Japan). Moreover, we received word from Katsura’s past students that he manipulated them to take drugs, including psychotropic ones, with evidence of this appearing even on stage during some of his Butoh performances with student dancers. As further support to this notion, Katsura once took Sharon Stern and other students to one of the most drug infested locations in all of Copenhagen called ‘Christiana’, labeled by many as the drug capital of Denmark. It was here that Sharon had a very serious psychotic breakdown, with his cold response being to abandon her on the streets, where she was later found and taken to a local psychiatric hospital. If that wasn’t enough, FACT also has evidence of his financial exploitation of Sharon, with him ordering her to send money to his bank account (please find attached). Needless to say, it’s obvious that Katsura never had his students’ best interests at heart, manipulating and exploiting them until they proved useless to him, and then dumping them like garbage. Amazing, this evil teacher was “good” enough for Naropa University to hire to teach in their MFA program. Thankfully however, through the tremendous efforts of the Stern family, the time is coming soon when Katsura will have to answer for his heinous crimes and face justice.

The Sharoni Stern Estate is currently suing Katsura Kan for her wrongful death in the 17th Judicial Court of Broward County, Florida. As expected, Katsura’s reaction to the lawsuit has been dismissive and disrespectful, especially with him trying to settle the case for $1000. It seems to this wicked ex-Naropa teacher that the value of a student’s life is this measly amount (and quite frankly we expect nothing less from a wicked sociopath such as this). When the Stern family of course refused his insulting offer, he proceeded to try a defense claiming that the case should be dismissed based upon a matter of jurisdiction, meaning that the alleged crime against him was not committed in Florida and should be thrown out of the Florida court. He is not denying his actions at all it seems and is merely reaching for a way to escape, no matter how far-fetched it is. Moreover, Katsura is stalling the lawsuit as much as possible based on his claim that he only speaks and understands English at an elementary school level. (If this is true, then how could Naropa have hired him to teach courses to students pursuing a Master’s degree?) As expected though, so far throughout the lawsuit the judge has seen right through Katsura’s manipulation tactics, siding with the Sharoni Stern Estate thus far.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s conclusion of our expose, where we’ll update you on the latest news with the lawsuit against Katsura Kan and the efforts made by the Stern family to try and effect the necessary changes to safeguard students at universities across the country.

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Thursday, April 28, 2016

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE - PART THREE

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE: (PART THREE)

According to all available evidence online and numerous published books, we believe since its inception Naropa University has been something of a breeding ground and safe haven for abusive, guru-like faculty members, even starting with its own founder Chögyam Trungpa.

Trungpa started Naropa University in Boulder, CO in 1974, and was notorious for manipulating, controlling, and seducing many of his young students. He was also known to deliberately have sex with married women and to "play God" with people's lives and ruin them, just because he could. Witnesses have even reported that he had forcibly stripped down two people at a “seminary party” one night while drunk (Trungpa was known to be a raging alcoholic and drug addict, and would even lecture to students in these mind-altered states). Due to the power of his charisma and manipulative abilities, many of his vulnerable student followers defended his behavior, falsely believing in Trungpa's "crazy wisdom" as a path towards true enlightenment and personal betterment.

Before Trungpa died of alcoholism in 1987, this “enlightened guru” appointed his favorite assistant Thomas Rich, a.k.a. Osel Tendzin, as his successor at Naropa. Tendzin's time spent at Naropa University was beset with published reports of him having unprotected sex with many of his students, both male and female, without him revealing that he was infected by the HIV virus. Even worse, Trungpa secretly knew about this and even encouraged his behavior, saying (after he swore everyone to secrecy at a special meeting), "as long as he [Tendzin] did his purification practices, it did not matter, because they [students] would not get the disease." Sadly this turned out not to be the case when Tendzin later transmitted the virus to a student, who later died of AIDS. Unfortunately when Tendzin himself died of AIDS in 1990, it didn't stop future Naropa faculty members from following suit with terribly inappropriate and irresponsible behavior towards students.

Most recently, a few years after Katsura Kan taught at Naropa, according to the source below another Naropa teacher, Lama Tenpa, sexually harassed two female students while teaching at Naropa, but without any serious reprimand or disciplinary action. Rather, it seems Tenpa was "sat down for a chat" and forced to write letters to the students stating that he now "understands the Naropa University and American University policy". According to Naropa’s website he is still teaching there today.

In addition, Naropa seems to have a deep-rooted connection with Shambhala International (Tibetan Buddhism). On the surface, Shambhala is represented as a global organization and community “inspired by the principle that every human being has a fundamental nature of basic goodness. This nature, our innate wisdom, can be developed so that it benefits our own lives and helps meet the many challenges facing the world.”

This of course sounds all well and good, but unfortunately as we discovered from numerous victims that there is something much more sinister lurking below the surface of this organization than meets the eye. We will let the victims of this organization speak for themselves:

“Under a veneer of warmth and kindness, Shambhala leaders care only about protecting their guru, institutions, and organization, not the vulnerable people they routinely harm.”
“We were 'deep in' this cult of Shambhala, having taken care of Chogyam Trungpa's [removed] for six years inside this mandala. We picked up the pieces for this neglectful family, who pretends to the world that they are compassionate and caring when their inner circle and the current Sakyong are some of the most self-centered, self-obsessed cult members who care only about spreading their cult and nothing else, while giving lip service and repeating the word 'compassion' over and over until people believe that is what they are about.“
“All the faculty at Naropa that were Trungpa students, and now the Sakyong's Shambhala students, have taken a vow of loyalty to their gurus, and their guru worshipping cult covers up and denies anything negative. Their vows to their gurus, maintained with fear of hell realms, and groupthink and group coercion in the cult of Shambhala International turns them into 'compartmentalized cult members…'”

“I was a Shambhala cult member for almost 20 years, it took me another 10 to come out completely, even after hooking up with another phony Lama, very popular in the west and friend and protector of Randy Sogyal with a second multimillion dollar lawsuit for sexual abusing and physically abusing hundreds of women and turning them into slaves, like Sharon Stern became. They all use the tantric techniques of these Lamas, as this Japanese teacher did, that is why he was attracted to Naropa, he knew he could get away with it. These vows to their gurus, supersedes ethics, laws, and all the western Canon. I know I was one of them.“

“I am in the process of writing a book which is close to being finished, describing my experiences inside this Shambhala cult for so long, and how their mind control works upon people who were once educated and reasonable and how one can become a cult member within a matter of months, rejecting ones own cultural values and belief system and even family, for a ninth century misogynistic belief system of guru worship and its deadly dance of ego dissolution, that becomes ones total focus, while still appearing normal and rational to the outside world. I was a school [removed], and no one would have known that I was a cult member of the Lamas. The more disciplined and a perfectionist one is, the harder one falls into the Guru pleasing trap of 'ego dissolving and constant perfectionism to become the 'best' student of these charlatans. I believe I know how it could happen to your lovely daughter.”

“I am heartbroken to hear about Sharon's story. Shambhala is notorious for being unkind to women who report teacher abuse. For the past two years I have been advocating for the sexual safety of women and youths as a result of my experiences at a Shambhala Center in San Francisco. I also filed internal grievances against leadership all the way to the top for issuing protocols shunning survivors to avoid legal liability. As a result of my public advocacy and complaints, Shambhala leadership issued an organization-wide ban excommunicating me from their centers despite that I do not attend Shambhala centers anymore and have not for some time.”

Tomorrow we’ll expose the true character of Katsura Kan, according to his correspondence with Sharon Stern, her family, and his responses to the wrongful death lawsuit against him.

--------------------
Online sources:
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechap…/trungpa.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/us/21beliefs.html?_r=0
https://boulderbuddhistscam.wordpress.com/…/trungpas-influ…/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chögyam_Trungpa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ösel_Tendzin
http://www.drbachinese.org/vbs/publish/228/vbs228p018e.pdf

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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE - PART TWO

THE KATSURA KAN AND NAROPA UNIVERSITY EXPOSE: (PART TWO)

After Sharon Stern’s tragic suicide, questions arose as to how it could have been avoided, especially regarding how Naropa University could have hired such a dangerous teacher in the first place. It’s hard to imagine how any school could have hired Katsura after conducting a proper background and credential check, not to mention research that included a review of his course material. This begs the question: did Naropa actually conduct a proper hiring procedure for Katsura Kan?

According to our information, we at FACT believe Naropa did not check Katsura’s background, his teaching credentials, nor did they do an in-depth review of what he would be teaching students. Rationally speaking, in our opinion this is a must for any school to do, especially one accredited in the U.S. for higher education and receiving millions of dollars in federal grants from our hard-earned tax-payer dollars. To further support our beliefs, as per his own admission when he ran into difficulties, Katsura claimed that he was going back to his construction job in Japan. Also, he claimed in the lawsuit against him that he speaks English only at an elementary school level. But for some reason, in our opinion, none of this seemed to matter to Naropa. Katsura was somehow “qualified” to teach for them and more amazingly at a Master’s degree level. It is our belief and opinion that this position gave Katsura the platform he needed to teach his corrupt ideas in the classroom and use undue influence over his students for his own exploitative and abusive purposes.

For a long while, it was very difficult to understand how and why Naropa had hired Katsura Kan, until we received these communications that really shed some light on the matter.

“I have my fingers crossed that you and your family will make this sociopath Katsura Kan responsible as well as finally calling to reckoning his enablers Naropa U, facilitator of the biggest guru cult scourge on our country.”

“First , let me say how very sorry I am about your daughter Sharon. My heart was so heavy when I read about what had happened to her at Naropa because I knew that this evil charlatan dance instructor could not have continued his terrible thought control agenda without being at Naropa, actually a recruiting college for the cult of Shambhala International-- a thought control cult in itself of the late founder Trungpa Rinpoche…”

Tomorrow we will reveal the dark, cultic history of this so called “school” and the deep-rooted connection between Naropa and Shambhala, an international organization considered by many to be a destructive cult, so stay tuned...

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