Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1995, page 56
been the most popular in the West for people interested in Buddhist retreats. According to
Hamilton, among those participating in this form of Buddhism, fully one half are
psychotherapists. A goal is to become a “Stream-winner,” that is, one who has achieved the
first level of enlightenment. The Stream-winner sees objects in a continuous state of change
“because consciousness is continually changing.”
For Hamilton, saints are enlightened human beings. His definition includes many mystics
from the Catholic tradition, but excludes sanctity based on miracles. His view is more in line
with Buddhist philosophy. However, enlightenment can be hard to spot from the point of
view of the unenlightened, and the enlightened as well. Hamilton tells us that “nothing is
acquired” in the enlightenment process. In fact, enlightened people can be quite
“embarrassed” by the enlightened state, not knowing how to speak about it or relate to it
experientially. Most often, he says, those who announce that they are enlightened are not.
Which is why he wrote this book. Hamilton wants to help people, seekers mostly, avoid the
pitfalls of the path he provides a guideline and a checklist.
As for characteristic traits: saints “say, mean, do” consistently, whereas psychopaths “say,
mean, do” with disparity. Saints keep promises, pay debts, adhere to their own moral
standards, will apologize for mistakes immediately, and have truth as the highest standard.
Psychopaths say they do but do not. Saints felt loved as a child psychopaths did not. Saints
may adopt one spiritual name, while psychopaths tend to have many aliases but not always.
Psychopaths tend to attack their accusers when confronted with wrongdoing. When
completely trapped, a psychopath might admit to a wrong, afterwards asking for a clean
slate of forgiveness, only to return to his or her misdeeds later. Hamilton warns us that his
checklist is only a guide having some of these traits does not make someone a saint or
psychopath.
Hamilton‟s spiritual journey began in 1971 after his first LSD trip. After completing a degree
in psychology in 1959, he became a very successful businessman during the 1960s. Like so
many in that era, he discovered a spiritual void in his life, one that became magnified by a
psychedelic drug experience. He dropped his business ventures and tuned into the
consciousness-raising subculture. He founded the Ophalese Foundation in Denver, where
mostly psychologists shared a 30-room house in the mountains. There they explored yoga
and meditation, but the group disbanded after it became the victim of “greed, aversion and
delusion” as with the “vast majority of intentional communities of that time.” He then read
Be Here Now by Ram Dass, a.k.a. Richard Alpert, the former Harvard psychologist. In the
1960s Alpert had experimented with LSD with Dr. Timothy Leary finding drugs to be
limiting, Alpert moved onto meditation and guru devotion. Alpert‟s guru, Neem Karoli Baba,
died in 1973, thus leaving a void in Alpert‟s life again.
Hamilton worked with the Hanuman Foundation founded by Ram Dass until 1977. He later
intensified his Vipassana efforts especially with the Insight Meditation Society in
Massachusetts. During the latter 1980s he promoted Peace Pilgrim, the work of a female
Buddhist teacher. In the 1990s he continued his Vipassana work with Sayadaw U Panditia in
Burma.
Hamilton recounts his experience with one psychopath, which began in 1974 when he
became attracted to Ram Dass‟s new “teacher” in New York, a woman who
trance-channeled the dead Neem Karoli Baba. The channeler claimed to be an incarnation of
the frightening Hindu deity, Kali, an aspect of the Divine Mother. Hamilton neglects to name
the woman, but former devotees told me her name is “Joya Santana” or “Ma Joyti
Hanuman.” She was a Brooklyn housewife who claimed to be spontaneously enlightened
one day in her bathroom. According to her former devotees, Joya moved to Vero Beach in
Florida.
been the most popular in the West for people interested in Buddhist retreats. According to
Hamilton, among those participating in this form of Buddhism, fully one half are
psychotherapists. A goal is to become a “Stream-winner,” that is, one who has achieved the
first level of enlightenment. The Stream-winner sees objects in a continuous state of change
“because consciousness is continually changing.”
For Hamilton, saints are enlightened human beings. His definition includes many mystics
from the Catholic tradition, but excludes sanctity based on miracles. His view is more in line
with Buddhist philosophy. However, enlightenment can be hard to spot from the point of
view of the unenlightened, and the enlightened as well. Hamilton tells us that “nothing is
acquired” in the enlightenment process. In fact, enlightened people can be quite
“embarrassed” by the enlightened state, not knowing how to speak about it or relate to it
experientially. Most often, he says, those who announce that they are enlightened are not.
Which is why he wrote this book. Hamilton wants to help people, seekers mostly, avoid the
pitfalls of the path he provides a guideline and a checklist.
As for characteristic traits: saints “say, mean, do” consistently, whereas psychopaths “say,
mean, do” with disparity. Saints keep promises, pay debts, adhere to their own moral
standards, will apologize for mistakes immediately, and have truth as the highest standard.
Psychopaths say they do but do not. Saints felt loved as a child psychopaths did not. Saints
may adopt one spiritual name, while psychopaths tend to have many aliases but not always.
Psychopaths tend to attack their accusers when confronted with wrongdoing. When
completely trapped, a psychopath might admit to a wrong, afterwards asking for a clean
slate of forgiveness, only to return to his or her misdeeds later. Hamilton warns us that his
checklist is only a guide having some of these traits does not make someone a saint or
psychopath.
Hamilton‟s spiritual journey began in 1971 after his first LSD trip. After completing a degree
in psychology in 1959, he became a very successful businessman during the 1960s. Like so
many in that era, he discovered a spiritual void in his life, one that became magnified by a
psychedelic drug experience. He dropped his business ventures and tuned into the
consciousness-raising subculture. He founded the Ophalese Foundation in Denver, where
mostly psychologists shared a 30-room house in the mountains. There they explored yoga
and meditation, but the group disbanded after it became the victim of “greed, aversion and
delusion” as with the “vast majority of intentional communities of that time.” He then read
Be Here Now by Ram Dass, a.k.a. Richard Alpert, the former Harvard psychologist. In the
1960s Alpert had experimented with LSD with Dr. Timothy Leary finding drugs to be
limiting, Alpert moved onto meditation and guru devotion. Alpert‟s guru, Neem Karoli Baba,
died in 1973, thus leaving a void in Alpert‟s life again.
Hamilton worked with the Hanuman Foundation founded by Ram Dass until 1977. He later
intensified his Vipassana efforts especially with the Insight Meditation Society in
Massachusetts. During the latter 1980s he promoted Peace Pilgrim, the work of a female
Buddhist teacher. In the 1990s he continued his Vipassana work with Sayadaw U Panditia in
Burma.
Hamilton recounts his experience with one psychopath, which began in 1974 when he
became attracted to Ram Dass‟s new “teacher” in New York, a woman who
trance-channeled the dead Neem Karoli Baba. The channeler claimed to be an incarnation of
the frightening Hindu deity, Kali, an aspect of the Divine Mother. Hamilton neglects to name
the woman, but former devotees told me her name is “Joya Santana” or “Ma Joyti
Hanuman.” She was a Brooklyn housewife who claimed to be spontaneously enlightened
one day in her bathroom. According to her former devotees, Joya moved to Vero Beach in
Florida.
