UPDATE: Anusara Steering Committee Starts ‘Kula Evolution’, New CEO Steps Down

“Michal Lichtman decided not to be CEO” I’d like to believe that all the chatter here regarding her has something to do with her decision. Certainly, it wasn’t from all of the enablers posting on Elephant Journal.

“For every one thousand hacking at the branches of evil there is one striking at the root.” ~Thoreau

http://www.wimp.com/positivethinking/

Anusara.Org ….. the dark side of positive thinking.

It seems telling to me that the teachers seemingly the most loyal to the survival of anusara have had to branch out on their own and create another new organization. This house of cards is falling apart fast. Yet, not one update on the anusara website. Is any one in charge there? Does anyone even work there?

Who is the new CEO? JF?
Todd Norian and Deb Neubauer both sent out letters stating they were resigning from the steering committee and Anusara.
What did JF offer them $$$$$$$?
What a load of crap!

“To be clear, John’s mismanagement of the past few years is not a universally agreed premise.  The steering committee realizes this.  However, there seems to be a strong consensus that a paradigm shift would need to occur at some point in the future of Anusara Yoga.  And although this scandal has been tragic on so many levels, it has afforded us all the opportunity to move Anusara Yoga into the future. It’s given the teachers’ an opportunity to create a framework where an evolution of our great school can unfold.  And a note: John has been in agreement with this sentiment since the scandal erupted.”

Translation: but there were so many good things about the organization and John really means well that we ought to be able to find a way out. This is why Anusara as anyone ever knew it can not exist any longer. Desperation to maintain some form of the organization is proving to do nothing more than perpetuating the worst aspects of Anusara. One other thing: does anyone at kulaevolution proofread their work?

When can I get the Kula Evolution mat? Will it be 6″ wider than the JF Manduka mat?

copied from another thread:

QuantumSprite March 15, 2012 at 5:08 pm
My question is how could JF get caught up in this type of behavior, as a charismatic, charming, smart dude that he is? Oh, wait, that answer that question. All ego.

The cult of personality in yoga is prevalent, we all know that. People get behind the charismatic, larger-than-life yogi, brainlessly following the occultation of the mask of Light which hides a dark shadow, unfaced and unperturbed by the philosophy that is propounded from the charismatic’s deceptive lips. They decieve even themselves, for they have told a lie for so long that it became the truth.

All over the yoga world lip-service is payed to facing the shadow, to allowing the light into the darkest parts. How often is it actually undergone. Not very. New Age ides prevail in the ethereal twilight of the yoga studio. Are these the kinds of places that the likes of Patanjali and the satgurus of the Shaivism/Shaktism intended their philosophies to be propagated through? Nay. One will not find the healing preserves of the illumined shadow in the yoga world (very rarely), or the awakened Kundalini masters who have faced their reprobate tendencies. The true illuminated beings are found in more private places. Occassionaly you will find them in guys and gals like JF who have gone thorugh their own scandals, perhaps less loudly promoted than this particular one. This is a moment of ego-death for John Friend, if he can face up to everything he did and connect to it emotionaly. So, the real soul in trouble, creating some pretty nasty karma for himself, is JF. For the rest of us, it’s just Entertainment Tonight.

The real awakening is undescribably scary, but it is available to anyone who will look. The one with the true teaching, the Angel inside, does not reveal It-self by charging money or starting an organization that would steal money from it’s initiates; the Theophany of the true Christ, Buddha, or the Green Angel will never be found in the halls of counter-initiation that is today’s yoga world. The yoga world is, at most, a nice place to do some glorified exercises by twisting the body into weird shape.

Let us not pass judgement unto JF. Let us take him into our heart and dissolve him therein. Let us do this not in some sentimental abstract manner, but by orienting ourselves to the mature path of spiritual attainment. Let us orient ourself toward the divine by embarking on our own path of initiation, the long-road of rigourour moral examination, mercilessly so. Let us see JF as our own deepest yoga-shadows, the stuff that is always dark, looming darkly, which we are not willing to admit under normal circumstances.

Om Shanti, Ya NUR

The Green Man

REPLY

DebW March 15, 2012 at 6:33 pm
word!
pranams and thank you. this, along with carol hortons stuff, is among the very best shared (in my opinion) … everyone of us is simply a facet of the divine having an experience; the divine is living this experience via JF “because it can”, and the potential to evolve and awaken through this dark night of the soul and the death of the ego is limitless. jf can do his best work if he stops “resisting” and accepts the cards that fate has dealt. and each of us moving through this experience in our own ways, with our own standpoint, and our own history, likewise has the opportunity to notice what we notice as we experience this experience because – this jfexposed scandal has woken up alot of demons .. alot of denial .. alot of resistance .. and alot of hope. there is a very rich sadhana at hand and as seekers on the path our work is to move through and peel away the the layers and, as Pema Chodren says, notice when our shenpa arises and when we are hooked, and our egos activated, and to just stay with that. to just stay with it. OM TAT SAT.
blessed be. reposting.

This whole thing is one big sham. John is back to owning 100% of Anusara? Michal has backed out? Well, she had no right being there to begin with as she’s nothing more than another JF enabler. Perhaps this was his plan all along? I am so damn sick of this man, his antics and the antics of his enablers. No respect for the Anusara community anymore. If you’re not giving up your certification and backing away from this sociopath and his “brand” you need to get some help and look at your reasons for clinging onto a name that is now the laughing stock of the yoga world. Take what you know and make it your own. John Friend doesn’t live here anymore.

The so-called Steering Committee has decided to operate under the umbrella of Anusara Inc. (which, if I understand it, is not a corporation at all but John Friend’s sole proprietorship) and Ross Rayburn sucks up by adding that he, Ross, has been nothing but respectful to JF since the scandal broke. JF must be smiling as he watches the Kula Devolution right back to complying with his every whim. This move isn’t really a surprise since each committee member has made their fame and fortune by hitching their wagon to John Friend’s star. I also understand that long time devotees of Anusara wish for nothing more than a return to their merry band of old. Looks like they’ll get their wish but not quite so merry perhaps. JF’s behavior was really so wrong and there are so many apologists and enablers that there is a stink that will linger.

Honoring the truth article on Elephant Journal by Betsey Downing and Suzie Hurley , seems they can no longer sit still and watch John spin his way out of this . Interstingly the article has been edited since it was posted , is this the heavy hand of wail on and his goons , or perhaps something legal .
As A side note is it not likely that john friend and anusara will be bankrupt , they cant have much cash coming in , and presumably have monies going out not to say a lot of dissappointed former associates , wanderlust , Manduka , encinitas etc etc , he is no doubt already morally bankrupt by the sound of the above article .

Letter from Betsey Downing and Suzie Hurley as published (and seemingly edited) by Elephant Journal:

“This is not something we want to write. However, we know too much to keep silent.
We have been waiting for John to step forward, acknowledge the full extent of his actions and take responsibility.
Or, perhaps we were waiting for someone else to write this article and call on him to do so. But it may be that no one else can write it.
We are the “grandmothers of Anusara,” with most of our professional yoga careers behind us. We are not risking our livelihoods. Also, Betsey was in the unique position of being the only person that saw the jfexposed website [since taken down ~ ed.] of February 3 and participated in the mediated phone meeting of February 9, where John gave his fullest response to the Interim Committee. Furthermore, she was present for John’s first public answering to the allegations during the Miami Conference February 12-14. Suzie was also on the Interim Committee phone call of February 9, but was not in Miami.
Now, we write in the interest of transparency, of standing in truth, and of standing in integrity.
We feel this is necessary. People from around the country and around the world have contacted us and asked, “Why is everyone resigning? Why are you, of all people, resigning? John just had an extramarital affair. I don’t get it.”
We’ve come to realize that people could not know the full extent of the situation unless they know what we know. We have been sitting on some very uncomfortable truths for the past month. It is not an option for us to continue hiding these truths, since John appears to be doing his best to forget or deny them. It is not about John’s sex life. Our concern is about his lying and deceit, and his abuse of power in the seat of the teacher and as the authority figure of Anusara Yoga.
We were both on the Interim Committee that formed for dealing with the scandal that erupted from the jfexposed.com website that was posted on February 3. The Interim Committee formed somewhat spontaneously from a group of teachers whom John had asked to help with the letter that he sent out to the kula when Amy Ippoliti resigned. The committee included many of us who had been serving on the Curriculum and Ethics Committees. A group of 11 certified teachers, identified as the Interim Committee, was on the first conference call with John, as well as several of his business associates, and a mediator acceptable to all. We were able to question John in detail, and directly witness what he said in response to the accusations.
This call took place on Thursday, February 9, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and lasted about three hours. At the beginning of the call, we were asked by the mediator to sign a confidentiality agreement. However, at the end of the meeting, the mediator announced that signing the agreement was not necessary; he said we were released from that agreement even if we had signed it.
The meeting began with each teacher speaking to John, telling him his/her feelings, and asking him questions. As you may imagine, it was an emotionally charged conversation. We were all going through a myriad of emotions including anger, betrayal, disappointment and deep sadness.
The jfexposed website presented a mass of material on John’s activities, including that he had frozen his employees’ pensions, did “sexual therapy” with a specific married woman, was in a Wiccan group, had an affair with another married woman from that group, and had smoked pot—even had it delivered to the Anusara office.
There were also two sexually explicit photos in the related correspondence, one of which was a close up a woman’s genitals being touched by someone’s hand [the face or identity of the woman was not clear. ~ ed]. The information posted on the website primarily appeared to be copies of John’s emails and Skype calls from his computer.
Someone asked John if the allegations on the website were true and he confessed that they were “mostly true.” John explained that the freezing of the pensions was an administrative error in the office, was not intentional and had quickly been rectified. John acknowledged that he had occasionally smoked pot and that once someone sent him marijuana in the mail.
John admitted to the group that he had been helping someone with a sexual trauma she had experienced earlier in life. As a way of justifying that it was sex therapy and not an actual affair, he said, “But I never kissed her,” and that she thought it was healing for her. One person asked what her husband thought of the sex therapy and John admitted that the husband said it was “completely out of bounds.”
Posted also on the website was a long email letter of apology from John to the Wiccan coven to which he admitted belonging, with regard to his affair with another married woman. She had, at the time, also been a member of the coven. He apologized to this woman for his deceptiveness around the relationship, in not telling the others in the coven about it, his poor judgment and misaligned energy, as well as his frequency of deception and lack of integrity.
Here is one paragraph from the letter that was posted on the jfexposed website:
“I am writing you all tonight to formally apologize for my deceptiveness around my relationship with ….. My poor judgment and misaligned energy put the whole coven, each of you and your families at risk. First of all, I attracted her into my life, into our lives, by vibrating in my mind-body with a frequency of deception and lack of integrity. I have always considered myself intelligent and clever, and so I easily could create my own world even if I had to shrewdly cut corners since I would not get caught.”
During the conference call John pledged, “From this day forward I will be impeccable with my word.”
Betsey attended the first three days of the Miami workshops, February 12-14, and took notes; these comments are excerpts from her notes.
In the first morning session of the Miami trainings, John told the group that there had been a website put up on February 3 that posted four allegations. He said, “Anything I did to hurt any of you I’ll be super apologetic.” He then said he would start with the lesser claim first. He said, “Okay, I smoked pot.” Everyone laughed. He also explained that freezing the pension fund was an administrative error and had been corrected.
He also told us that he was involved in a Wiccan group, and that they harnessed energy to send out for healing others. He said that sometimes they took off all their clothes to build the energy, but that there was no sexual contact in the Wiccan group sessions.
After John shared his transgressions, one participant asked, “Is there any more? Is there anything else?” John said, “No. What else could there be?” More laughter. He did not mention anything about the sex therapy issue in response to that question.
At the end of his sharing in that session, John summed up the situation like this:
“Okay, here’s the worst thing I did: I slept with a married woman. Here’s the second worst thing I did: I lied to [a woman we’ll call CA].”
He went on to say that of all the people who should be upset with him, CA should be the most upset. C was a student and a certified Anusara teacher with whom John was in a relationship a couple years ago. (The implication here was that she was not upset with him—she was present in Miami and had given him a very warm introduction—and therefore, we should not be either.) That was the beginning of John’s reframing and redefinition of events to minimize the seriousness of the allegations. It was done in a light-hearted manner that elicited laughter from his audience.”
[….] (looks like EJ edited something here)
“On the morning of February 14, John read a letter to the entire Miami group of about 120 students. This was the letter that he was planning to send to the Interim Committee, asking them to “stand with him” in order to save Anusara. Otherwise he said that Anusara might be gone by the end of the day.
In the letter John stated, “I am absolutely not a sex therapist, nor have I considered myself to be, which has been purported.”
During a portion of the asana class while the group was working in partners, Betsey went up to John and said, “The problem the Interim Committee is going to have with your letter is that you did not tell the truth about the sex therapy.”
John replied: “But Betsey, I said in the letter that I am not a sex therapist and I have never said I was a sex therapist.”
Betsey said to John: “Then you are just being technical with your use of words. You never said you were a sex therapist but in the letter you are not revealing what you told us on the conference call—that you did sex therapy with a student.”
John said: “Betsey, I cannot say that. The media would go wild with that information. There might be lawsuits.”
Betsey replied: “Then don’t tell us that you are telling the whole truth and being transparent—because you’re not being totally truthful here.”
He asked her what he should do. Betsey said she didn’t know. He then asked her if she would meet with him over the lunch hour to re-write his letter. She declined, feeling that she could no longer continue enabling John to avoid the consequences of his actions. Five days after his pledge to be impeccable with his word, he wasn’t.
Instead of remedying the scandal by acknowledging the extent of his transgressions, John minimized them by saying the worst thing he did was to sleep with a married woman.
He has recently been calling the accusations against him “uninvestigated,” as though the truth behind them has yet to be established, despite his admission in the call with the Interim Committee that they were “mostly true.”
Where is the need for an investigation when he has already admitted his guilt to the Interim Committee?
Our concern is with the gap between what John has admitted to the Interim Committee and what he is saying publicly.
We feel he is using the proposed Ethics Committee investigation to buy time to continue manipulating the kula [community] with his incomplete version of events. Meanwhile, it seems to us that with each additional letter John has written to the community, he has gotten further away from taking responsibility for his abuse of power in the seat of the teacher by lying about having sexual relations with students and employees.
The Ethical Guidelines that John wrote, and that all new teachers must sign before they become licensed Anusara teachers, used to state that sex with students should be avoided because there is an inherent power differential.
John changed the ethical guidelines in the Teacher Training Manual, without consulting with or notifying the teachers about it. His new version made it acceptable for Anusara teachers to have sexual relationships with students.
In the earlier, ninth edition (2006), on page 92, it says this:
“Avoid sexual relationships with students. When a sexual attraction occurs between you and a student, wait some weeks before acting on the attraction. If the student-teacher relationship is about to be compromised by any intimate relationship, it is advisable for the teacher to assist the student in finding another qualified teacher… Never sexually harass a student. Follow all civil laws and other legal codes of behavior.”
In the later, 12th edition (2009), on page 91, it states this:
“When sexual attraction occurs between you and a student, be very disciplined and mindful to avoid any adharmic behavior. Never give an improper or imbalanced amount of attention to an attractive student or one with whom you are in an intimate relationship while in the classroom. Outside the classroom develop any intimate or romantic relationship slowly and do not act on sexual attraction until a steady trust in the relationship has developed. A romantic relationship between teacher and student is permitted in Anusara yoga, yet within the classroom the respectful roles of teacher and student must be maintained. However, if the romantic relationship is negatively affecting the flow of the class, then it is advisable for the teacher to help the student find another teacher if possible…”
John stated in Miami on February 12, “My ethical standards are very high.” However, in this case it seems that he simply changed the standards to match his behavior.
If there is an Ethics Committee investigation, we think it should go beyond the discrepancies between his public and private stances above, and also identify any other practices and behaviors that may remain unrevealed.
Many teachers and students have contacted us, as well as other members of the Interim Committee and other certified teachers, to talk about their experiences with John. Most have told us they never before felt safe enough to reveal their full stories. Their experiences cover a range of issues from more instances of sex therapy, favoritism, including which centers were allowed to offer various workshops, to unethical business practices.
An Ethics Committee could serve the kula well by collecting and documenting these experiences, and creating a safe place for students and teachers to come forth with their stories.
In his initial statement to the Interim Committee John said that he would step down from teaching and come back only when a therapist said he was ready to return.
However, his schedule posted on the Anusara website already says he’s coming back to teach in June. Is that sufficient time for introspection, understanding and healing? How can John heal the deceptive and abusive behavior he has shown—and is still covering up—in a few months?
From the way John has handled the “scandal” since it has erupted, it appears to us that John continues to manipulate the truth by telling lies and half-truths and remains in denial of the seriousness of his abuse of the power in the seat of the teacher. He still sits at the foundation of Anusara, Inc. and the Anusara Yoga School. He owns the trademarks and is still pulling the strings.
Can anything bright and beautiful be built on such a foundation?
We don’t believe it can.
In the end, whom we align with as our primary teacher directly impacts our students. Neither of us in good conscience could tell our students that it is acceptable that John Friend displayed the behaviors mentioned here. Each person has the greatest freedom to know where to draw the line in matters such as this. We respect your right to choose, and we hope we are giving you some needed information to make a more informed and conscious choice.”

“John said, Betsey, I cannot say that. The media would go wild with that information. There might be lawsuits.”

He wont tell the truth because he is a coward. He wants this to go away and will deny, deny, deny for as long as he can in hopes that it will all blow over. Then he will continue to throw out his Johnisms… masking the truth, putting doubt in peoples minds until he builds a collection of minions to do his dirty work again.

John claimed in his letter that Anusara might not survive the day unless the committee “stood with him”. The way I see it the only way Anusara survives is if they STAND WITHOUT HIM.

I am not talking about the business or the the t-shirts or the jumbo mats or any of that. Anusara as a way of practice, that so many claim to do so much for them can stand without the man but only if he lets it go or has it pried from his swarmy fingers.