Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Abuse Continues - Student of Katsura Kan Butoh Dance, Confesses to Pedophilia

Outlined below is a Summary of events reported to us. In addition to the below we received a petition to stop this abuse, signed by 200 of Rizome Lee's former students . Katsura Kan is a regular guest teacher in this center, he was alerted about this abuse, which he totally ignored as per reports to us.

YouTube Videos:

https://youtu.be/r8wMhmNMXIg

https://youtu.be/RSWmucLE7VY

"Summary of The Beginning

On September 18, 2019 in the evening, Subbody Butoh School facilitators Özerk Sonat Pamir and Robert Montilla (also known as Adam Koan, his stage name) confronted Rhizome Lee (real name Ryuji Oka, a Japanese national living here in Dharamsala, India on a tourist visa) about some information that came to us from Dara (former student, email below) about Lee engaging in abusive behavior. The Subbody facility is located at MDR 44, Jogibara Rd, McleodGanj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh 176219, India 50 meters behind Illiterati Cafe.



What he told us is that the stories we were hearing were true and that he had a problem with pedophilia, which he calls "Lolita Syndrome." He told us he sexually abused three underage girls over the last 15 years.

Right after we heard this statement, we contacted a psychologist who gave us advise on the steps to take (Rajita Ramachandram) to report this because we were concerned about future victims and that there were currently 2 children still living in the space. The 2 children belong to the Indian family that works for Lee.

Two women from the family that work for him were molested when they were underage (victim 2 and victim 3). Victim 3 explained this condition to school manager of the time (Vishal) and Vishal told Dara and Piyu (Priyadarshani-email below). Soon after, Victim 3 died from Malaria, though not everybody agrees she actually caught Malaria. That there are holes in that story.

Also: Lee asked a former student to have sex with him as a way for him to cure his pedophilia. She declined. She also does not wish to reveal her name at this time. 

Details of His Talk with Ozerk and Adam

That same day, September 18, Robert and Ozerk asked him if these were only sexual fantasies or if he acted upon them. He told us that when he moved to Jogiwara from Japan (we don’t know the exact year but it should be around 2002-2004), he loved a 5-year-old girl that lived in a near-by village. He said he wanted to turn this child into his ideal wife and since he loved her, then whatever he did was okay.

We asked for the details of his actions with this girl and he told us he was having sexual gratification from touching her and she was on his lap when they were playing together and he was enjoying that. We learned from him that this situation continued for 10 years until she was 15. She was a Tibetan girl. Priyadarshani has made contact with this girl before, but she refuses to reveal her name for India social ramifications.  She is no longer in Dharamsala, but in a city (maybe New Delhi).

Oka told us that he now feels guilty because he believed at that time he was in love with her and now realizes it was sexual desire. He explained that he confused love and sexual desire. After she left, he attempted to stay in contact with her, as she was suffering mentally and emotionally from this experience. In 2019 he encouraged her to write her traumatic past in novel form so that she could transform her suffering into creation. Oka also told us he was teaching how to write to Victim 1 when she was young. He told us he believed only he can cure her from her suffering.

When this young woman left the village, Oka said he fell in love with another 15-year-old girl whose family worked for him. The family father was also Oka's best friend. He asked to marry her but was rejected. She soon married to another man, and is now a mother. She still works for him as his assistant at the studio and he claims he is no longer attracted to her because she is a mother. Her child plays around Oka and during the day they are generally in Oka’s workroom/ livingroom.

Oka turned his affections to the other daughter of the family (we don’t know her age). At the end of 2018 she complained about the situation with Oka to the Indian manager of the studio (Vishal), as he was taking her (victim 3) to the hospital in another town. Shortly after this event, she died from complications of malaria so the story goes.

After she died, Oka said he began to feel guilty about his behavior through the years. He also expressed that he cannot function sexually anymore and that he is no longer attracted to young girls. He described his affliction as the "Lolita Syndrome" as stated above.

Upon hearing his confession, we told him that he should immediately stop teaching and that children should not be in his presence. We told him clearly that this was the end of his school and his subbody dance method.

Oka said that he believed he should continue teaching and that he was transforming his condition through his method and he just needed some more time to heal himself completely. Currently, as mentioned on his website (www.subbody.net) he has stepped down from teaching, but is still the owner of the space. Spring semester is beginning on March 9, 2020.

We told him he should be under psychiatric treatment. He said he didn’t believe in social institutions and no one knows him better than himself. This conversation lasted around 3,5 hours. When we left the room we told everything to Julie Becton Gillum (from North Carolina, curator of Asheville Butoh Festival).

We contacted a therapist, Rajita, who supported us from this first day and she offered much advice including exposing this condition publicly. We wanted to guarantee that Oka would not ever hurt a child again. That he should be isolated from children and should never teach. Rajita found us the contacts of many NGO’s (including Jagori). She also advised us to contact Commission For Protecting Child Rights at Shimla. Dharamsala Jagori NGO was contacted and we had 2 meetings with them in person. The person we were in contact with at that NGO was the former mayor of Dharamsala.  Unfortunately, Lee has not been stopped from carrying on his school.

After the first conversation with Oka, on different days we talked to him more than 10 hours (former students and current manager also joined these conversations). Each time we had to explain again and again why he shouldn’t teach, and why we needed a legal institution to take care of this condition.
At one point he asked us why we didn’t believe him when he told us he no longer feels attracted to children.

We told him he had been lying to all his students for 15 years. People who are interested in dance ended up at his school and no one would have joined his school in the first place if they knew what was going on. We told him we didn’t have any confidence in his words about his current sexuality.

His Confession in Front of the Class

Two days after we first talked to him about this issue, he confessed his condition to a group of current and former students (including Ian, Julie, Harsha, Robert , Ozerk, and other students, and the current manager. The others were not willing to take action, but among them was Yi (who is a current facilitator for Spring semester).

Leaving Subbody

After this confession, we decided as a group to leave Subbody School. We decided that all the students should be refunded (this process was completed in almost a month). The manager (Naireet Bashak, email below) which connects Subbody to a legal business entity at the time then said he was resigning from the manager position, but it was false. He did not resign and kept supporting Lee. At this moment, we do not know if he is still the manager.

After two days we left the school, we heard from one of the current students (Ian) that children were still present at Oka’s room when Ian went there to sort out his refunding. A day after hearing this information from Ian, in order to protect children and to stop new students from coming to the studio, we exposed the information we had in our social media accounts and on one of the official websites of the school which was www.subbody.in (now no longer up).

Several former students protested our action of exposing this condition. Two female students from the community contacted with the family of the second and third victims and made a voice recording in which the Victim 2 and her sister (also have a daughter around 5-7 years old and she is working at the school) denied that anything happened. These recordings, however, have been gathered from Yi who is in 100% support of Oka. We have not heard these recordings.

This statement contradicts what Oka had told to us and the group. It is clear that they are not interested in revealing any damaging information about their relationship with Oka.

During one of our meetings with the community, Piyu joined us through video conference, she told us she has the contact of the Victim 1 and showed us a message from Victim1 (by hiding her name) and read it; which clarified that Victim 1 is experiencing emotional and mental problems due to her past with Oka.

Victim 1 expressed that she does not wish to bring up her past trauma publicly by acting as a witness against Oka and hopes that she will have the power to do so in the future. We asked Piyu to tell Victim 1 we are ready to support her if she is willing to take action.

Oka also sent a mass email to former students defending himself against the information on subbody.in, but in the email statement, he does mention a rather strange line of sexuality and children--"skinship" (email is attached in word documented and this specific section highlighted, and the email can be forwarded on demand).

Five police officers also arrived on the 12th because they got a hold of the statement from subbody in. When this happened, Oka sent Ozerk and Robert this following email, in which he is lying to the police about his condition as the main teacher. In fact he has been guiding this year and the rest of the years that the facility has been in operation. All the students of this year can easily tell you he was definitely the main teacher (we can give you their emails upon request). Oka by law can't teach or a make a business on a tourist visa. He tried working with a loophole by attaching a local business entity (Naireet or formerly Vishal) in order to say he was just hired by them.

The following is the email Oka sent to Ozerk and Adam on October 12, 2019 (we can share the original email if wanted):

Dear Adam and Ozerk,
How are you?
I hope to calm down and listen to Life.
Yesterday, five policemen visited me, with a copy of your statement of
subbody.in. I don’t know how they got it.
They interviewed me and checked all the spaces in the house. Finally, they
demanded me to write a statement. I wrote a statement like the following:

Statement
12 October 2019
1. I am Ryuji Oka, Japanese. Twenty years ago, I had a contract to rent this
land for thirty years with my landowner Madan Shing and built this house.
2. My friend Babul made a foundation “Subbody Butoh Insititute,” and I
became an employer of the foundation as a facilitator of Butoh dance.
But, five years ago, the foundation system in India has collapsed, then I had
to change to a tourist visa. I know that the tourist visa holder can’t work at all
in India. Then I stopped teaching at all five years ago. The participant's age
was 20-70 years old.
3. Now I stopped all activity and just meditation and writing. I will never do
any activity here at all.

Ryuji Oka

March 9, 2020: Spring Semester Begins

The school is opening for Spring term very soon with the facilitator Yi (email below) and Honza Svasek (email below). 2 days ago she wrote Adam an email telling him to come back to the school because she forgives him and knows all the exposure he did was simply because he was in pain. She said she was trying to commit suicide in September specifically due to Adam's actions.

Yi very clearly told Adam in email that the space will accept both pedophiles and even murderers because this is a space to turn the tendency to hurt oneself or another into creativity instead.

Take note, neither Honza nor Yi have any experience in social work or therapy. Yi in the past has recruited students without them knowing anything about the history of Subbody, and when the information has gotten to them, it left them shocked and very disappointed.
Yi in October also came up with a false collaboration between the Tushita meditation space and Subbody Butoh School. They were going to use the space as an extension of Subbody teaching and never let the Tushita organization know. Many people reported this to Tushita and Tushita immediately told Yi to take them off the event.
Honza Svasek is the other facilitator and holder of another space called Free Butoh School situated in a farm  (Durgadahali) 2 hours north of Bangalore, India. He believes it is all lies. The figure on the right will be the pitch he will be telling the future students.

Other Teachers Worth Mentioning or Negligent

Mushimaru Fujieda according to the Subbody website (subbody.net) is due to teach there this month. He is a well-known figure in the Butoh world and lives in Japan. Has traveled a lot internationally. Adam mentioned in message what Lee confessed to us, but he replied that he finds no problem in simply being in his space because he is "Lee's friend." Adam also talked to Mushimaru's student who travels with him and she has chosen to be silent. Note: Mushimaru has worked with children before in the field of butoh.


A very good friend of Lee, has kept silent about the whole affair. Adam messaged him with the information and he only replied with a thanks for the information.

When Adam brought up the situation about Katsura Kan to Lee in email, Lee wrote back that the Families Against Cult Teachings are wrong. That it was a "setup" and is due to "the father's failures as a father being projected onto Katsura Kan".

Gadu Doushin

A former Japanese Subbody student, now a teacher in Minneapolis. The school name is Heart of Tao Resonance Art. On his website, it appears he also works with children. Gadu was emailed by Adam, only to get a very angry reply by Gadu saying everything said was 100% false and never to email him again."

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

F.A.C.T. Founder, Tibor Stern featured in recent History Channel's - The UnXplained

F.A.C.T. founder, Tibor Stern, was featured in the History Channel’s most recent episode of The UnXplained: Deadly Cults with William Shatner, which aired on March 21, 2020.

This episode discusses the dark world of cults and its Deadly Dance segment tells the world about the wrongful death of Sharon Stern by her instructor Katsoura Kan, Butoh “The Dance of Darkness” practitioner and instructor through Naropa University.


In this snippet from the show on YouTube, hear Tibor Stern speak (at 1:07):
_______________________________

To hear the full episode telling about Sharoni’s tragic death, click to stream the full episode for free from your TV provider:

The UnXplained: Deadly Cults 
Season 1, Episode 12 (42 minutes)

"Deadly Dance" Timestamp: 25:30

Be Safe and Be Well,

The F.A.C.T. Inc, Team

Friday, March 6, 2020

Elgio Bishop aka Nature Boy - Carbon Nation

We have posted about this before and we recently received another complaint from a concerned citizen about Elgio Bishop and Carbon Nation.

"CULT GROUP INFORMATION:

Name of Cult Group or Church: Carbon Nation

Where: Currently Atlanta Georgia

Leader(s): Eligio Bishop

Please describe the cult activity: Carbon Nation is a well known Cult ran by Elgio Bishop who is also known as Nature Boy and Chief. Eligio claims he is the second coming of Christ, he has multiple spirtual wives that he physically and mentally abuses. He also passes these said wives to the other men in the group for sex. The members have no choice but to submit to Eligio's demands of whom and what they do sexually. He has been a male stripper, done online porn and known to have sex with both males, and females in his cult. Most of these people who follow Eligio are between the ages of 16 and 27. He has a huge online following, and tells mental health patience and those infected with std's and HIV that they aren't infected or sick and to stop taking medication. Prior to being deported back to the states, Eligio and Carbon Nation members were in Mexico and several other areas within the tropics. There have been several member who followed him to Mexico and have since passed away. One who left but stayed in the area died of a mysterious car accident and the other stopped taking her meds at the advice of Elgio, and suffered a massive heart attack.

Again, this cult has a huge social media presence and influences new members to abandon their children and family to join his cult. He promotes domestic violence and pedophilia. There are several videos of Elgio admitting to trying to murder his wife, and also forcing female members to abort their children via a home made tea and pills.

New members also are humiliated upon arrival online. They are asked to disclose their darkest secrets. Several members have admitted to molesting younger family members and children. Eligio tells them that they are forgiven if and when they join his cult. The most disturbing video to date is a full description of Eligio describing how he has sex while laying next to his son, and allows his son the play with his penis afterwards. He also admits to being nude in front of all children in carbon nation. There are currently 2 small children under 2 years old including his daughter. Elgio has referenced his own daughter as being his new wife, and a ex member admitted that he and the child's mother often have sex with the young child in the bed beside them.

This cult is anti America although they are mostly born in the US. Eligio has gone on rants about end times, fighting the war against the "system" and influencing members to prepare for the end. He has even been arrested in Panama, and Mexico where he and members were beat by offices due to Elgio's orders to be non compliant with officers.

It has been rumored that since his last deportation, Elgio has had his passport revoked. However he is currently been trying to find a way to get out of the country. Carbon Nation lives off of the donations of misled people. Elgio considers the USA Babylon, and encourages everyone to quit their jobs and rebuke any modern day things. Members eat one meal a day, practice what Elgio calls the b6 diet and most look malnourished and sick.

He has admitted to being a Narcissist, manipulator and that he spent several years in a mental institution as a young adult.

Recently I have noticed Eligio and other men of Carbon Nation showing guns online and threatening anyone who tries to expose him and his cult. I have been extremely concerned for current and future member, most if not all seem to suffer from some form of mental illness. Everything that I have disclosed here is online either on YouTube or instagram. Several members have left and gave testimonies of the verbal, mental and physical abuse that they suffered.

Is there anything else that we should know or you would like to tell us: All information online can be found on a YouTube content creator's channel The Tea Or by searching Carbon Nation, Elgio Bishop or Nature Boy

Instagram handles are
Immortal.chief
Immortal.tru
Immortal.chieftess
Immortal.malia " 


Sincerely, 
The F.A.C.T. Inc Team

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Naropa University, Shambhala Buddhism, Shambhala International

This is what F.A.C.T. Inc brought to light as soon as our founders daughter, Sharon Stern was driven to suicide by her Naropa teacher. Naropa University refused to implement changes when Tibor Stern suggested to help the University put in place a manual for teachers proper behavior with students.

                                In our opinion Naropa University must be Shut Down!


Daily Camera Guest Opinion July 9, 2019
By Darryl Collette

“As a recent graduate of Naropa University in Boulder, repeat visitor of Shambhala Mountain Center, and longtime student of Shambhala I felt compelled to reach out to the Daily Camera this week. As you may already know, news has been coming out all month about Shambhala assisting multiple pedophiles in avoiding prosecution.

The word back from Naropa has been “we are disconnected from Shambhala for decades.” The word from Shambhala has been “we could have done better.” As someone who has attended both organizations, I now find myself deeply ashamed for every dollar and minute they got of mine.

In my time studying at Naropa University I was repeatedly told that Naropa and its contemplative approach to education come directly from the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa. The Shambhala school of Buddhism was covered extensively in Buddhist Psychology Part 1 and 2, maitri (a meditation invented by Trungpa), as well as Senior Seminar Part 1 and 2. All of these classes were mandatory for my contemplative psychology degree. The majority of these classes were taught by ex-followers of Trungpa. Upon the recommendation of the college I went on retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center yearly and took Shambhala meditation classes at the Boulder Shambhala Center.

I write this because the idea that Naropa and Shambhala are separate is as much a lie as that Naropa is a secular university.

I am deeply ashamed to hear that Shambhala has repeatedly stepped between pedophiles and any meaningful repercussions for their actions, but I cannot say I am surprised.

Trungpa slept with his students. This has always been known. His son Sakyang Mipham was accused of sexual assault last year. I repeatedly heard about Naropa teachers having sexual relationships with students in my time as a Naropa student. I personally witnessed Naropa teachers dating students they had taught. I repeatedly heard about a situation where a Naropa student was in a sexual relationship with with a teacher’s underage son.

This is what I heard as a nontraditional Naropan trying to keep my head down and just get to graduation. I can only imagine what other stories exist. As the Denver post quoted a former Shambhala Mountain Center staff member in its last article about the allegations: “Every young girl I knew had something happen.”

Enough of the lies.”


Direct Link to Daily Camera Article

Additionally, in July 2019 The Daily Camera released an article reporting in part, "Detectives in Colorado have been investigating sexual assault allegations with ties to Shambhala for months — and records from a recent arrest detail an apparent effort to shield a suspect from prosecution by addressing the allegations within the Shambhala community.

Last year, Larimer County sheriff’s detectives opened an investigation into what a Boulder police report describes as sexual assaults at the Shambhala Mountain Center. Larimer sheriff’s officials declined to elaborate, but last week confirmed their probe remains ongoing."

So far two arrests have been made as a result of these investigations. 

"The first arrest came in February, when former Boulder Shambhala meditation instructor William Lloyd Karelis, 71, was booked on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young girl he mentored in the early 2000s. Karelis has denied the allegations through his attorney."

"Boulder police arrested a second former Shambhala member, Michael Smith, 54, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl he met through the Buddhist community in the late 1990s. Those allegations originally had been reported to Boulder police in 1998 after the victim informed one of her mother’s friends about what she said happened — but Smith wasn’t named as a suspect or arrested."

For further research here is a link to over 40 media articles regarding Shambhala Buddhism, Shambhala International, Naropa University, Sakyong Mipham and Chogyam Trungpa.

https://shambhalalinks.blogspot.com/2019/09/httpswww.html?m=1&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Thank you,
The F.A.C.T. Inc Team

Monday, February 3, 2020

Complaint Filed on Teal Swan the "Teal Tribe"

Below is a recent complaint we received about Teal Swan and the "Teal Tribe".

                                                                        Teal Swan

"CULT GROUP INFORMATION:

Name of Cult Group or Church: Teal Tribe

Where: on the internet on youtube, facebook, her website

Leader(s): Teal Swan

Please describe the cult activity: Are their specific complaints you'd like to tell us about?

Suicides due the cult. Members gas lighting the mentally ill. Member believing they have more power than they do.

Are you aware of any human rights violations, emotional/physical abuse, illegal activity?

Suicides from her teachings and gas lighting by members, they had to take down their original facebook group. Members believe they have all of the answers and harass those with major mental illness.

Involvement with group: If yes, please explain.

1) When did you/they get involved & for how long?

I have followed for 6 years

2) How did you/they get involved? How were you/they directly recruited?

You tube, they have tags such as suicide and other heavy topics.

3) Are there other family members involved?

No

4) Has their been a disconnection of relationship(s) with family, old friends?

No but many have as teaching against the parents is the main goal

5) What are the circumstances currently?

Still very dangerous, teaching people with no psychology background even they can be psychologists, and they end up gas lighting with no empathy. also all of her work has some degree of damage such as teaching people their circumstances are their own faults by law of attraction

Impact from group: Please describe how you believe to have been harmed and/or wronged by this group. Be as detailed as possible, and send any supporting evidence via the email below.

Gaslight and bullied by members who have no business giving advice about mental health problems. Led me to become more suicidal as a result of their bullying, also she states suicide is a reset button to a bad life. Her followers believe this and speak about it to others even if they have no belief in it genuinely.

BASIC SPIRITUALITY BASED CULT. "

If you have any experiences or knowledge about any human rights violations, crimes or abuse within the Teal Swan / Teal Tribe group, please e-mail us at  https://www.familiesagainstcultteachings.org/cult-help/contact.html

Thank you,
The FACT Team

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