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Newsletter Nr. 566
Amsterdam, May 22th, 2015



THE STRANGE CASE OF FRANKLIN JONES - SCOTT LOWE

When I was asked by David Lane to write an account of my brief period as a member of the community centered around Franklin Jones (AKA Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Heart-Master Da, Da Love Ananda, Da Kalki, Da Avabhasa),[1] I was initially reluctant, for several reasons. I had been involved with the guru for only a few months back in 1974, and since that time we had followed widely different paths; I had taught middle school and eventually gone back to university, earning a Ph.D. in the History of Asian Religions, with a special interest in Classical Chinese texts. He had gone on to become a moderately notorious "cult" leader, living on a secluded Fijian island with nine "wives" and a small group of male disciples, supported by the earnings of a community of followers, mostly in the San Francisco Bay area, and the income generated by a string of increasingly monomaniacal, eccentrically written books, books that I had occasionally glanced through but had not read. 

...

What finally convinced me to write this essay was the realization that my experiences of Da Free John, though brief, occurred at a time of unusual openness. Although the guru has been extraordinarily reclusive for many years now, when I was in the community he was relatively accessible, and his activities were in plain view. With hindsight, it is clear that in 1974 Da Free John was planting the seeds of behaviors that would grow into luxuriant, noxious weeds in the tropical isolation of his Fijian hideaway. With luck, my narrative of the early days of his community in northern California might shed some light on the later developments that were at least partially revealed in a series of investigative articles published from 4 to 16 April, 1985 in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/lowe1.html