Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1997, page 86
Book Reviews
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen, A Study of Gurus. Anthony Storr.
Free Press, New York, 1996, 254 pages.
The author of this book is a well-credentialed, British psychiatrist, a Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians, and an Emeritus Fellow at Oxford University. In Feet of Clay, Storr
explores the world of charismatic leaders --good and evil-who have inspired and led people
to change their lifestyles and basic beliefs. The book has an extensive subject index a
bibliography and 10 pages of references for chapter footnotes. There are 10 photographs of
the “gurus” described and analyzed.
The first chapter, “Paranoid Enclosures,” is a concise, yet comprehensive review of the
isolated communities of Jim Jones in Guyana and David Koresh in Waco. Storr describes the
psychological effects of isolation and continuing daily influence of a charismatic leader, using
examples from current research and also based on Freud‟s classic Civilization and Its
Discontents.
Chapter 2 describes and evaluates the work of Armenian mystic Georgei Ivanovitch
Gurdjieff and his disciple Ouspensky, whose influence is seen in the works of, among others,
T.S. Eliot, who attended Gurdjieff‟s meetings. Gurdjieff‟s own account of his background is
contradictory and largely unsubstantiated, as are his claims of having studied in Eastern
monasteries. Gurdjieff taught that most people are “asleep” and resent being awakened.
Here emerges the charismatic leader who alone knows the truth and shares it only with
selected followers. He called his path to truth, “The Work” --an assortment of mystical and
abstract ideas such as “the law of seven,” a basic 7-step rule that permeates the universe,
evident in the musical scale. This is yet another sign of the guru: a secret body of truth
known only to him. Storr‟s conclusion: Gurdjieff was “by his own admission an accomplished
confidence trickster ...deceiving ...and extracting money” (p. 43).
Chapter 3 explores the largely white, middle-class movement of Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh who espoused “technology, capitalism, and free love” (p. 47). Storr
describes Rajneesh‟s troubled youth and a “series of events that sound like a
psychotic episode” (p. 49) from which Rajneesh emerged “enlightened.” He then
went forth and shared his truth with others. At its peak, there were 6,000 followers
at the 17-acre ashram in Poona, India, and 30,000 visitors per year. Enlightenment
did not sustain Rajneesh, however, and he resorted to substantial amounts of valium
and nitrous oxide.
The book continues to explore the “guruship” of Rudolph Steiner, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud,
Igna6us Loyola, Jesus, and Paul Brunton. This fascinating assortment of personalities
demonstrates the author‟s ability to see parallels, similarities and dissimilarities, good and
evil, in various types of leaders. Chapter 9, “Chaos and Order,” describes a guru‟s “period of
distress followed by illuminations the “process of creative discovery” where Jesus is the
example or the down side, where “irrational spiritual experience” and unconscious
processes combine to create a delusional system, such as in the cases of Koresh and Jones.
The “ecstatic experience” can occur in the nonreligious as well, evidenced in Byron,
Whitman, and Koesfler or in the mystical experience of Admiral Byrd, who alone in the
arctic, saw the universe “as cosmos not chaos.” These dramatic perceptions can resemble
delusions, and a value of this book is how it separates out the positive from the negatives
healthy, selfless spirituality from destructive, self-serving subjectivity.
Chapter 10, “Delusion and Faith,” focuses on the conversion phenomenon, using John Henry
Newman as an example. William James, Freud, Jung, and Steiner are also represented as
“applying the methods of science,” but “actually promoting a belief system akin to religious
faith.” “One man‟s faith is another man‟s delusion” and “delusion and normal perception are

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1997, page 87
on a continuum” (p. 198). The chapter concludes with the observation that gurus can differ
from each other, but share the conviction that they know what no one else does. This may
be not so much genius as narcissism: the guru offering himself to be loved rather than to
love.
Chapter 11 brings the book to a close with Storr‟s grand summation: “If there is a message
I want to convey it is to distrust characters who are both deeply self-absorbed and also
authoritarian.” Those who “divide the world into „us‟ and „them‟ and who preach that there
is only one way forward or believe they are surrounded by enemies are particularly to be
avoided” (p. 232). This clearly written, comprehensive, insightful book provides information
to distinguish from negative spirituality, with many examples and references to support
conclusions. Highly recommended.
Frank MacHovec, Ph.D.
Center for the Study of the Self
Gloucester, Virginia
Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life Behind the Headlines of the HareKrishna
Movement. Nori J. Muster. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1997, 213 pages.
Nori Muster was a member of the Hare Krishna sect, formally known as the International
Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), from 1977 through 1988. In an honest and
interesting account, Muster recounts her decade of “devotional service” at the ISKCON
public relations headquarters in Los Angeles. Betrayal of the Spirit offers a personal insight
into the behind-the-scenes propaganda machine developed by some of ISKCON. As Nandini
(Muster‟s devotee name), the author worked for the ISKCON World Review, the sect‟s
primary public relations tool and in-house newspaper. Circulation reached well over ten
thousand throughout the world. The purpose of World Review was not only to inform the
members of the goals and gains of the group, but also to feature articles that amounted to
damage control of the scandals that increasingly plagued the movement. Muster writes of
her years as a member during the most difficult period faced by the sect. She joined just
after the founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (Srila Prabhupada), died and left his colorful
organization with too many immature, confused, and corrupt leaders.
Woven throughout Muster‟s presentation of corruption is her struggle to remain a good
devotee according to the principles set down by Prabhupada. Her relationship with her
father, Bill Muster, also provides a subplot that enlightens us even more about the “politics”
behind the public relations scenes. Bill Muster was an accomplished communications
professional and businessman who sustained a close relationship with his daughter all the
while she worked for ISKCON. He often advised Nandini and her boss, Mukunda, with
valuable strategies. This did not mean that he approved of all the group stood for, but he
did support his daughter‟s chosen spiritual path. He died of cancer not long after his
daughter found herself outside of ISKCON in 1988.
Nandini was not seeking to quit ISKCON. The pervasive suppression of women‟s natural
rights under Prabhupada‟s chauvinistic system and her desire to assert those rights coupled
to finally set her aside. In the end, Nandini could not convince her bosses to report the news
of ISKCON‟s plights accurately. Despite talk of efforts to reform the movement, the male
chauvinism won out Nandini‟s efforts were dismissed.
Back in the world as Nori Muster, the author tells us that she still sustains her belief in
Krishna as her God. At times she participates in devotional activity at the temples and
chants the mantra. At the end she says, “I admire Prabhupada ...Were it not for
Prabhupada‟s courage and sacrifice in coming to the United States in 1965, many more lives
would have been wasted on drugs and fruitless searching.” I find this last statement filled