[www.next-culture.net]
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Some spiritual teachers use sophisticated marketing techniques to sell their message—a socially acceptable form of deception.
A recent email from the Ken Wilber-affiliated organization Integral Life [integrallife.com] announces an online seminar called The Key to Evolving Beyond Ego: How to Make the Change that Changes Everything, taught by Craig Hamilton.
Hamilton is described as having spent “13 years in a living laboratory of evolution—a modern-day monastery where he pursued his spiritual training day and night.” This “living laboratory” was run by Andrew Cohen, Hamilton’s teacher during those 13 years, whose harsh and coercive treatment [whatenlightenment.blogspot.com] of his students is well documented. Last year Cohen stepped down from leading his organization and stopped teaching, having finally gotten the message from his students that he still had some ego left to deal with.
Why is his association with Cohen hidden in Hamilton’s marketing? Where is his acknowledgment of the support he gave Cohen all those years as one of the leaders of his organization and the editor of his magazine, What Is Enlightenment? And why is there no apology for his complicity with Cohen’s misconduct?
I made several attempts to contact Hamilton and his organization regarding this issue, with no response. Perhaps he doesn’t consider his former teacher’s behavior to be harmful, but if so, why the lack of transparency? And doesn’t he think that prospective students (being enticed to pay hundreds of dollars for his seminars) might deserve to know where he got his training?