Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 85
schools that claimed to represent the teachings of the arcane White Brotherhood. After
some years of hopeful if problematic involvement, I became a critic of the entire
Theosophical cult of Masters by 1981. Meeting the living Aïvanhov, a ―living master‖ from
that same system (one that he named Fraternité Blanche Universelle (FBU) after his
master‘s group, Byalo Bratstvo (Bulgarian), a.k.a. the Universal White Brotherhood,
impressed me quite differently than it might have Feuerstein. I was curious about
Aïvanhov‘s view and that he established L‘École Divine around 1948 as belonging to his FBU
(Mystery, 45).*
Feuerstein wrote Holy Madness around eight years before his publication of The Mystery of
Light. In the former effort he critically explores a host of cult leaders, crazy-wise adepts and
gurus while examining the whys and wherefores of their influence. His knowledge of this
fringe world is impressive—few religious scholars have bothered to take the recent rascal
guru movements seriously, as they represent a kind of carnival sideshow in the history of
religions. Due to my odd profession as a deprogrammer and cult specialist that spans over
two decades, I have observed this sideshow as much out of career necessity as personal
curiosity. I was very familiar with nearly every one of the main characters in his discussion,
among them Gurdjieff, Da Love Ananda, Aleister Crowley, Bhagwan Rajneesh/Osho, and
Chögyam Trungpa, but I was not familiar with Lee Lozowick. Feuerstein mentions dozens of
other characters from eastern and western traditions, and he has a facility to support his
arguments, quoting from the likes of K. Wilber, E. Underhill, E. Vaughn, W.B. Yeats, R.C.
Zaehner, Plato, and St. Paul. His text examines issues of cultism and brainwashing, but
questions the accuracy of certain anti-cult groups that see only harm in the tactics of rascal
gurus.
Holy Madness is written in three parts: In ―The Phenomenon‖ the author introduces the
reader to these teachers with enough description to give the novice at least some idea of
the crazy territory. In this book Feuerstein does not hold back when reporting on the abuse
of sex, drugs, and power by these adepts. His references are many and solid. In ―Part Two:
The Context‖ he takes us into more difficult territory as he looks into the spiritual practices
with chapter headings that include: ―The Guru: The License to Kill‖, ―Discipleship: Spiritual
Cloning or Brainwashing?‖ and ―God, Enlightenment, and Ego-Death.‖ In Part Three he
examines ―The Significance‖ and enters into a more personal reflection in which he gropes
quite eloquently for meaning in all this mess. Feuerstein states on page 188: ―Few of the
groups or cults that have sprung up since the 1960s, which purport to break away from the
mediocrity of mainstream religion and culture, are truly the alternative altars they claim to
be. In most cases, it is a matter of old wine in new, sometimes quite weirdly shaped
bottles.‖ Perhaps he meant wineskins, but his intent is nevertheless well taken.
Feuerstein is interested in the phenomena of ―real self-transformation‖ as represented both
by the western (Jewish/Christian/Muslim) mystical traditions and, what appears to be his
personal leaning, the enlightenment process that pervades Buddhism, and more so the
Sanatana Dharma of the Hindu-Vedic tradition. He is, after all, a teacher and researcher of
Yoga. He represents a few of these odd teachers in a positive light, among them Meher
Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Aïvanhov. The latter he quotes once:
―Everyone has his own path, his mission, and even if you take your Master as a model, you
must always develop in a way that suits your own nature‖ (Holy Madness, 144). Feuerstein
very much wants the reader to grasp that despite the wicked behavior of some of these
crazy-wise gurus, they are onto something—they are after all ―wise.‖ If nothing else,
teachers like Da Love Ananda and Gurdjieff (who are pathological in their abusive teaching
methods both from his description and their history) still serve a valuable function,
according to the author. ―Crazy-wise adepts and eccentric masters in this book.…still serve a
useful societal function: to act as mirrors of the ―insanity‖ of consensus reality and as
beacons of that larger Reality [sic] that we habitually tend to exclude from our lives‖ (Holy
schools that claimed to represent the teachings of the arcane White Brotherhood. After
some years of hopeful if problematic involvement, I became a critic of the entire
Theosophical cult of Masters by 1981. Meeting the living Aïvanhov, a ―living master‖ from
that same system (one that he named Fraternité Blanche Universelle (FBU) after his
master‘s group, Byalo Bratstvo (Bulgarian), a.k.a. the Universal White Brotherhood,
impressed me quite differently than it might have Feuerstein. I was curious about
Aïvanhov‘s view and that he established L‘École Divine around 1948 as belonging to his FBU
(Mystery, 45).*
Feuerstein wrote Holy Madness around eight years before his publication of The Mystery of
Light. In the former effort he critically explores a host of cult leaders, crazy-wise adepts and
gurus while examining the whys and wherefores of their influence. His knowledge of this
fringe world is impressive—few religious scholars have bothered to take the recent rascal
guru movements seriously, as they represent a kind of carnival sideshow in the history of
religions. Due to my odd profession as a deprogrammer and cult specialist that spans over
two decades, I have observed this sideshow as much out of career necessity as personal
curiosity. I was very familiar with nearly every one of the main characters in his discussion,
among them Gurdjieff, Da Love Ananda, Aleister Crowley, Bhagwan Rajneesh/Osho, and
Chögyam Trungpa, but I was not familiar with Lee Lozowick. Feuerstein mentions dozens of
other characters from eastern and western traditions, and he has a facility to support his
arguments, quoting from the likes of K. Wilber, E. Underhill, E. Vaughn, W.B. Yeats, R.C.
Zaehner, Plato, and St. Paul. His text examines issues of cultism and brainwashing, but
questions the accuracy of certain anti-cult groups that see only harm in the tactics of rascal
gurus.
Holy Madness is written in three parts: In ―The Phenomenon‖ the author introduces the
reader to these teachers with enough description to give the novice at least some idea of
the crazy territory. In this book Feuerstein does not hold back when reporting on the abuse
of sex, drugs, and power by these adepts. His references are many and solid. In ―Part Two:
The Context‖ he takes us into more difficult territory as he looks into the spiritual practices
with chapter headings that include: ―The Guru: The License to Kill‖, ―Discipleship: Spiritual
Cloning or Brainwashing?‖ and ―God, Enlightenment, and Ego-Death.‖ In Part Three he
examines ―The Significance‖ and enters into a more personal reflection in which he gropes
quite eloquently for meaning in all this mess. Feuerstein states on page 188: ―Few of the
groups or cults that have sprung up since the 1960s, which purport to break away from the
mediocrity of mainstream religion and culture, are truly the alternative altars they claim to
be. In most cases, it is a matter of old wine in new, sometimes quite weirdly shaped
bottles.‖ Perhaps he meant wineskins, but his intent is nevertheless well taken.
Feuerstein is interested in the phenomena of ―real self-transformation‖ as represented both
by the western (Jewish/Christian/Muslim) mystical traditions and, what appears to be his
personal leaning, the enlightenment process that pervades Buddhism, and more so the
Sanatana Dharma of the Hindu-Vedic tradition. He is, after all, a teacher and researcher of
Yoga. He represents a few of these odd teachers in a positive light, among them Meher
Baba, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Aïvanhov. The latter he quotes once:
―Everyone has his own path, his mission, and even if you take your Master as a model, you
must always develop in a way that suits your own nature‖ (Holy Madness, 144). Feuerstein
very much wants the reader to grasp that despite the wicked behavior of some of these
crazy-wise gurus, they are onto something—they are after all ―wise.‖ If nothing else,
teachers like Da Love Ananda and Gurdjieff (who are pathological in their abusive teaching
methods both from his description and their history) still serve a valuable function,
according to the author. ―Crazy-wise adepts and eccentric masters in this book.…still serve a
useful societal function: to act as mirrors of the ―insanity‖ of consensus reality and as
beacons of that larger Reality [sic] that we habitually tend to exclude from our lives‖ (Holy
