Lazaris: Friend or Fraud?

-- By Craig (revised on 12/02/2001)

Background

I have been involved with the Lazaris teachings since 1989. I have traveled to LA, SF, Atlanta, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Lee, Saddlebrook, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington to attended approximately 7 four day intensives, 15 weekends, 5 one days, and 20 evenings. I have listened to over 200 tapes. I have never been a member of the forum.

I was first attracted to the Lazaris material at a low point in my life. I was understandably vulnerable and immediately fell in love with the material and Lazaris. While I am usually a very skeptical person, I can see that after I was initially hooked, I threw out my discernment. Lazaris had gained my trust. When I did not agree with something he said, I chalked it up to my not seeing the whole picture.

After an intense seminar involvement though the early 90s, I found I was less interested in going to the events. The newer material, including the tape series, was no longer grabbing me as the earlier material did. While I have been listening to the tapes until recently, I haven't been to a seminar in over 5 years.

In the meantime, I have dabbled in other sources of spiritual wisdom, which I have been increasingly more satisfied with.

Cosmic Fool

My first major clue that something was wrong came when I opened the Concept:Synergy (C:S) mailing stating that Peny had died. I felt something was wrong in the pit of my stomach, but again figured that I was missing something and maybe it was time for her to be moving on to higher planes.

In mid-July 2001, I stumbled across the "cosmic fool" web site by pure accident (http://www.cosmicfool.com/lazaris). I knew in short order that I had to do a major re-evaluation of my beliefs surrounding Lazaris. I first read the excellent, although now somewhat dated, introduction provided by Ted and Katie, the site originators. I then started browsing the message board forum.

Unfortunately, the forum part of this site has an overwhelming amount of material in it. As of late November 2001, there were more than 6,200 posts that average close to one page each.(Note to beginners: don't forget to click on the date range selector that defaults to only listing posts over the past 100 days).

This document presents both my opinions and a summary of what I consider the pertinent facts. It relies vastly on the incredible amount of thought and research of others. I am indebted to all of those who spent so much energy in the forum.

In addition to this document, I have created a highlight section that contains some of the more relevant posts in a categorized matter. See http://www.cosmicfool.com/lazaris/bestof/hiindex.htm for this section. The highlights should be referenced to get more in depth information on any of the topics touched on by this summary. After that, the raw message board should be visited.

Finally, please recognize that much of the material is based on hearsay evidence, and thus should be interpreted in that light. In addition to the direct observations of the posters, there is information that has been provided to some of the posters from old friends of Peny/Jach/Michaell/Lazaris and people who have worked directly in or near the C:S organization. There is other information that unfortunately can not be shared on this site due to confidentiality concerns.

Peny

Lazaris has oft stated that one of his major, if not primary, reasons for visiting us is because of Peny, "a most beautiful spark of love and light". We have been told endlessly of her evolved state and her loving nature. We heard the stories, but not the details, of her marvelous reality creation capability. She was portrayed as a master metaphysician. Given that Lazaris had earned my trust, I trusted what he said about Peny.

The cosmicfool site describes a Peny that I was shocked to find out is nothing like Lazaris claims she is:

• I found no evidence of any worthy projects she worked on or legacy she left, other than of a financial nature.
• She was often rude, controlling, and determined to get her way. She actually once stated that Jach and her ALWAYS WIN.
• She was often infantile, greedy, tacky, paranoid and hurtful.
• She would lie and often had questionable ethics.
• She would gossip endlessly about people, including information she was privy to from private consultations with Lazaris.
• She stated she was anti-family.
• A typical day included shopping on eBay, doing stock day trading, presenting her severe right-wing opinions on various BBSs, talking on the Lazaris BBS and gleefully dissecting people.
• She admitted to being a recluse and did not like to travel.
• She promoted people wearing "Goddess wigs".
• She was at one time a liberal, but switched to an ultra-right-wing conservative after obtaining wealth.
• She was morbidly overweight.
• She talked at length to Lazaris every day.
• She stated that she hoped Bill Clinton would die from an STD, while she adored Rush Limbaugh and Tamy Faye Baker.
• Towards the end, she became totally obsessed with following the "Big Brother" reality series on TV and the internet.
• She has publicly humiliated people, including her own staff, at seminars.
• She often hosted sessions where a C:S staffer would get "processed" by others. This was something that staffers would absolutely dread.
• She used the threat of denying access to Lazaris as a primary weapon.
• She started private email rings where she would share opinions about certain forum members.
• She privately advocated LSD.

Whenever anyone has questioned Lazaris about Peny's outrageous behavior, he would either be uncharacteristically silent or say simply that he "did not see things that way". How can he see things so very differently from everyone else? By refusing to explain why (as he has been explicitly asked), the thinking person is only left with the conclusion that something does not add up with this entity.

Tradevest

Peny, Jach and Michaell were all involved in at least one MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme. There is much information on this site about Tradevest, a MLM company that the group actively promoted in the 80s to seminar participants. Jach pushed getting people to sign up as "associates" (by attending training and paying the appropriate fees). He stated (perhaps illegally) that he didn't want anyone who was a friend of Lazaris signing up another friend directly. Instead, they had to do it through Jach. Thus, Jach would get more "down line" money and the friend of Lazaris would get less.

They publicly stated that they were making a great deal of money off of this company. They sent flyers to Lazaris seminar attendees implying this was a great opportunity to provide income, especially down the line. The implied Lazaris seal of approval was everywhere.

Then Tradevest went belly-up. Even though some people at the lowest level (those who did not pay to be "trained" as an associate, but who instead just used the company for its stated intention as a consumer's buying club) got some of their money back, no associates got back anything. All of the Lazaris people were being pushed to become associates. Again, Jach stated publicly that they made a huge amount of money off of this, but not one cent was paid back to any of the associates that they had enlisted. These associates never saw any money from anyone.

Couldn't Lazaris see this coming?

Mansions and Money

There are public records that state that one of the residences Peny/Michaell/Jach purchased in Palm Beach was bought for $9M dollars. On top of this, a massive amount of money was spent on renovating the place. Their Orlando residence is approximately 20,000 square feet. Peny has bragged in political forums outside of Concept:Synergy of the number of properties she owns and how that indicates that her opinion should be respected.

Meanwhile, many "hooked" Lazaris seminar attendees max out their credit cards in order to pay for yet another seminar. Most people don't object to the seminar fees because they assume that C:S must have to pay a massive amount of money for those fancy hotel ballrooms. What they may not realize is that often these rooms are generally provided at no cost. It is also common to give a number of free rooms to the sponsors. The larger the group you are hosting, the more perks you are given. This practice is done in recognition of the revenue that such groups generate for the hotel. Finally, I understand that many of the people who man the seminar tables are volunteers.

We hear stories of how crystals are being pushed by Lazaris. Not just any crystals, but one's that are allegedly known to have a specific background (thus not containing negative energy) and are coincidentally available for purchase from a C:S company. Additionally, these crystals often cost multiples of what they are commanding on the open market.

Forum Storm

C:S has operated two forums. The original one was on Compuserve. The latest one is hosted on their own web site. What sounds like a great opportunity for sharing amongst fellow Lazarians turns out to be totally dysfunctional:

• Anyone who questions anything will be met with immediate and vigorous attacks by Peny, Jach, or one of the may C:S staff assigned forum patrol. Very hurtful judgments will often be hurled. The behavior is similar to that of dysfunctional parent or spouse who is not allowed to be questioned. When questioned, no matter how delicately, the parent or spouse goes on a rage.
• Posts are often deleted if they contain anything even slightly uncomfortable.
• Peny doled out very questionable health advice.
• People who don't follow the unstated rules often have their forum privileges revoked.
• Some people are never allowed to join the forum based on the counsel of "forum intuition".
• One person actually got an email from Jach saying that she was being taken off of the standing tape list and would have to pay for anything, including seminars, by check. Her credit card would no longer be honored (presumably to punish her).
• Apologies from Peny, Jach and the C:S staff are rarely, if ever, expressed. Apologies from other members are typically explicitly demanded.

Details of the forum storm can be found here.

Concept: Synergy

In addition to the horrendous behavior that C:S staffers exhibit on the forum, other notable behavior includes:

• Gathering gossip during workshops and reporting it back to Peny and Jach.
• Talking about people's confidential processes behind their backs.
• Monitoring for unacceptable behavior such as seminar attendees trading crystals, thus bypassing the C:S sales machine.

There have been at least three major C:S staffers who were known to all who attended the seminars because of their serving as the facilitator of the event. I know of Gerald, Mary Beth, and Talor. In all cases, there appears to have been some type of disagreement and then these people drop out of site and in most cases are never seen again at any seminar. One has to question both why the departures and why the silence.

Katie states, based on a view of the logs of who visited her sites, that there appeared early on to be visits to the site from some pretty high power law firms. Fortunately, nothing happened due to the protection of the First Amendment. Why is C:S so deathly afraid of criticism?

C:S has broken its business commitments at least three times:

• The reneging of the commitment in the 80's to those who were allowed to sign up for a permanent "life consultation" schedule.
• Prematurely canceling seminars on the West Coast.
• The most recent canceling of all personal readings.

Michaell

As most of you know, Michaell was Peny's husband. The story presented by C:S was that Lazaris requested that Michaell be summoned from Michigan to join C:S while Peny and Jach were still married. Soon after, Peny divorced Jach and married Michaell.

Michaell has been rumored to be involved with other MLM schemes outside of the above mentioned Tradevest.

Michaell had a young daughter by a prior marriage that sources indicate Peny convinced Michaell should be abandoned and given up for adoption. Later attempts by the daughter to reconnect with Michaell were turned down.

Jach

Jach has his background as an insurance salesman. He is seen by old acquaintances as a slick, clever businessman with an incredible memory for people and details. No wonder C:S is so successful financially.

The official story states that Jach was a metaphysical neophyte when Lazaris began coming through. However people have confirmed that he attended the Silva Mind Control course before channeling Lazaris. I was able to find only one vague reference in an introduction to one of the C:S books that says he did attend a "meditation" course reluctantly once. However, most of the time the story is told it even leaves out this vague reference. There is also stories of Jach attending channeling classes given by Sanya Roman.

The impression I get is that Jach can put on a pleasant public persona, but is quick to attack in defense of Peny, C:S and to a lesser extent Lazaris. I strongly question his ethics. I view him as a master of spin, protecting his corporate interests.

Letter to Jach

On September 6, 2001 I wrote a letter to Jach that I published on this site. I sent this via email and express mail. See here for a copy of the letter. Very briefly, I asked Jach some specific easily answered questions and requested to "buy" some of Lazaris's time to have a series of question and answer sessions.

I asked for a simple acknowledgement of receipt of the letter from Jach. I never received a response. I feel it is very rude not to at least acknowledge, as specifically requested, receipt of the letter. Such lack of response leads me to assume the worst.

Deaths and Suicides

There has been what seems to me an inordinate amount of death surrounding the C:S group.

There is the recent death of Peny. This came as a shock to everyone for many reasons:

• She often stated her desire for longevity.
• I can't imagine anyone saying that she had wrapped up the loose ends of her life and thus may have, out of her love, realized it was time to move on.
• She had virtually unlimited access to Lazaris and his healings.
• She had been practicing Lazaris's techniques longer than anyone else on the planet.
• There was no warning from Lazaris or C:S about her health condition.

The day that Peny died, Michaell committed suicide. This was described in an email sent to a select group in the forum (to those Jach felt would understand) describing how Peny and Michaell had made a sacred covenant (i.e., a suicide pact) that if one of them departed, the other would quickly follow. So much for time being an illusion. Wouldn't someone touted as being so spiritual understand that the other would join her in a relative blink of the eye? The tone of the email was very disturbing and could be interpreted as condoning suicide. Fortunately, a clarification email was later sent. Sources say that this was based on a strong suggestion from one of the officials investigating the deaths.

In addition to Peny, the very visible (and young) Gerald died a year or so after leaving C:S. Others close to C:S have died. I have also heard various stories of Lazaris followers developing diseases of one type or another and then dying.

It seems to me, given the alleged healing capabilities of Lazaris, "there is a whole lot of dying going on".

Text of Death/Suicide Emails

The text for the emails may be found at:

• Peny's Death
• Michaell's Suicide
• Michaell's Suicide Follow up

The Lies

On the Healing Broken Alliances tape, Lazaris spends a good 10-15 minutes talking about the deaths. Jach's voice is clearly nervous throughout most of the talk. So much for Jach being an objective channel that Lazaris transmits "bits and bleeps" to.

The entire tone of the talk is that Peny and Michaell are now with Lazaris doing even more wonderful things than they did on earth. Like that would be hard to do. He says that it is glib to say that our loss would be L's gain. He also says that more accurately we will find that our loss will eventually be found to be our gain. I don't know about all of you, but all of the issues I felt over Peny's death centered around how the Lazaris material seemed to fail. This was never addressed.

He very explicitly says that Peny's death had nothing to do with any disease or illness and that it was in no way related to any cardiac or respiratory disorder or complication. He said that the medical examiner said the death was from natural causes, but the medical examiner was unable to find a reason why she died. Lazaris claims that she left her body and decided not to return. He claims that her ability to make quick choices and decisions in life was also evidenced in her departure.

He claimed that Michaell had a level of commitment and integrity that was unparalleled. I guess L forgets about the questionable integrity as witnessed by the MLM deals and the lack of commitment evidenced by Michaell giving up his daughter for adoption and later refusing to re-connect with her. We also know from his will that he chose to give none of his estate to his daughter. Instead, should Jach also die, the estate will go in its entirety to the Republican National Party!

Lazaris also gives a legal disclaimer that neither Lazaris or anyone at C:S encourages or endorses suicide. It seemed out of place to mention C:S unless he was covering his legal butt.

Lazaris offered to surround us with his love and light so that we can find resolution and peace. Also, he claims something like we will become slightly more of our truer selves in the process.

Lazaris says that the reasons for death are always private and he will not discuss why they died to honor their privacy. A couple minutes later, he spills his guts, apparently forgetting his earlier words. He says that she was done with her 2 mandatory and 5 chosen life focuses. Having any mandatory life focuses contradicts earlier statements that Peny's lifetime was completely voluntary.

Unfortunately, Lazaris must not have counted on the police reports becoming publicly available and sought out by members of this site. Scanned copies of the police investigations may be viewed here:

Peny's forensic investigation
Michaell's forensic investigation

Peny's police report indicates that she had been sick for many months. According to the report, she was relieving the pain by drinking Blue Sky vodka and most recently by taking prescription Tylenol and Codeine obtained from a source in Canada. She also had a bunch of medical equipment and supplies in both her bedroom and bathroom. On the night of her death, and for how many nights prior we do not know, Peny was sleeping in her bathroom in a wheelchair. Michaell, who would sleep by her side in an inflatable bed, would wake up every hour and a half to give her another dose of her pain medication. The report from the medical examiner indicates that she had multiple diseases that were serious, but ultimately her cause of death was from an overdose of the pain medication.

I find it impossible to deny that Lazaris lied multiple times on the tape. Further discussion about the deaths, including an attempt by a die hard friend of Lazaris to rationalize his words, can be found here.

Source of Teachings

The Lazaris material is presenting little new information. What it does do is gather elements of the perennial philosophy and presents it in a cogent, up-to-date presentation. There are many obvious sources to the material including Jose Silva, Seth, Carl Jung, Edgar Cayce, Eric Berne and Paramahansa Yogananda.

In addition, there are some unique techniques that I view as variations of existing techniques. This is not hard to do for anyone with a little creativity and a decent background in metaphysics. I'm sure if I put my creative hat on, by the end of the day I would have a handful of new techniques that some would find useful.

I strongly question some of the changes that the material presents. For example, I share with Ted a view that his information on the negative ego is off base.

While there is much borrowing from other sources, there is also much omission. Examples include:

• There is little suggestion to perform anything other than "mental" work. I have never heard him advise followers to perform any type of volunteer or charity work. He has recommended non-mental work, but it is always in context of producing money.
• There is little suggestion to perform open ended meditation. All meditations always seem to have a specific theme. I believe that directed meditations must be balanced by non-directed meditations.
• There is little suggestion on how to deal with other people in a conflict, other than claiming they are in negative ego.

Contradictory Teachings

Lazaris warned us of contradictory teachings, but does not seem to be exempt from such practices. A sampling of contradictions follows:

• He speaks of non-interference on the one hand while admitting that he arranged to have Michaell come down from Michigan to join C:S.
• He talked about how he was positively referenced in a major magazine article, because "they", of course, create their own reality and would not allow anything negatively to be printed. How, then, is this site explained?
• He gives conflicting advice as to whether a crystal should be cleaned with seawater. Rumor has it that this change in position was done to placate an important friend.

Health, Healing and Longevity

I think this is an area where people should be EXTREMELY careful of the advice Lazaris gives. We only have to look at those closest to Lazaris to get an indication of their effectiveness. Given that he has not been shown to be 100% truthful in matters and given that his techniques as practiced clearly do not work for some very close to Lazaris, why would anyone follow his advice in this area when their life may be at stake?

I'm sure there have been many people who have had healings that they attribute to Lazaris. Even if they are legitimately shown to be caused by his healing ability or techniques, there are enough significant cases of failures to balance those examples. I do not question anyone who has been healed as to the legitimacy of their healing. What I question is the real source of that healing. It may have been that they were open to healing themselves and needed the extra oomph provided by some external event or intervention. I similarly don't question (assuming they actually happen) the source of healings performed by televangelists.

The source of many of his teachings regarding health can often be found at pamphlets in health food stores.

Finally, he has given what appears to be some outrageously harmful advice:

• A person was told in a private consultation not to worry about his smoking because it would fall away once he valued himself. This same theme has been told to others.
• Jogging before breakfast would make you turn food into fat later in the day.
• More than 15-20 minutes of aerobic exercise will make your mind go numb.
• The red label tape on "reducing sleep" is contrary to new research showing the many negative effects of sleep deprivation. We have heard from people who used the tapes and suffered negative consequences.

Guinea Pigs

Lazaris has related a story where he was channeling some healing energy through Jach at a hospital. The person allegedly ended up levitating off the bed. Lazaris claims he was getting used to the energy and it was part of his "learning curve".

Lazaris has often related stories of him trying a new technique out on Peny and Michaell. He says he often has to tweak the technique before making it generally available. He only makes available supposedly those techniques that are shown by Peny and Michaell to have worked.

To me, those two stories indicate an irresponsible introduction of techniques that have not withstood the test of time. It is one thing if he had no need to test a technique because he has access to perennial wisdom. It is another thing that he has to use Peny and Michaell and us as guinea pigs. Look what happened to Peny and Micahel, along with many others closely related to C:S. This makes me very uneasy.

Effectiveness of Teachings

We endlessly beat ourselves if any techniques do not work. We assume the techniques are flawless. It must be us. Here is an excerpt from a post that humorously illustrates the point:

I have to admit I have not followed this thread very closely, but I want to respond to something that seems to be a theme. That is the idea that C:S or Lazaris promises that material reality should easily be abundant because we are so spiritual. What I got VERY strongly from Lazaris, over and over again, was that material reality could easily be abundant because it isn't real -- it is, and I quote, "silly putty." We can have ALL OF THE SILLY PUTTY THAT WE WANT. And nobody had to even be "spiritual", or anything, except maybe willing. or deserving. or... And because it isn't real, it is all done with mirrors, so to speak, as soon as we get the hang of the mirrors, voila! Just recognize, acknowledge, forgive, and change. If that doesn't work right away, it is because of a resistance to recognizing. Or acknowledging. Or forgiving. Or changing. But change, which happens instantly, will happen if we will just be more brutally honest with ourselves, but more tender with others, more and more owning that we might still be in martyr, in self-pity, in shame, obeying our dark law, stuck in our web of anxiety, hanging onto the old bottom line, poisons, hidden agendas, oh, and of course, go to the causal plane, meet your ancient one half-blind, be willing to receive, be a winner not a loser, take your higher self, meet the old man, meet the old woman, meet all the archetypes, speak to all the muses, spin a disc, dance in triumph, go out on a mill, be sure to integrate all of the faces of the self, and practice a seven-day ritual every solstice and equinox, create a temple of dreams, go there every night, create a temple of your soul, go there every night, discover your spiritual heritage, go there every night, meet your boundary dweller, meet your bottom feeder, make a mask, take off the cloak of your world's disguise, program for 33 seconds, program with tones, work with your shadow, awaken your desire, awaken your brain, learn your personality drive, your lean, your soul's path, your ego's path, go to the very Goddess herself, go to the shining ones, go to the eagle people, the crystal people, the cat people, the dolphin people, go to the dog and cat people, go to your safe place, go to the edge of safety, go to the valley of lost souls, find your lost dreams, release your old dreams, work with your child, your adolescent, your young adult, your old adult, allow more of Lazaris' love, allow more of your higher self's love, expand your success cube, find that ribbon of road, discover your subconscious, go to the imaginal realm, go to Sirius, go to Lemuria, go the crystal cave, go in your double-tetrahedron, go in a dewdrop, go through the rip in time and space, meet a dwarf or gnome, meet a fairy, meet your council, meet an effeminate man, meet a bawdy woman, and don't forget to review all four steps to all seven processes for all of the above. Oh god, I have to stop because it is getting really late, but you all know I could GO ON AND ON AND ON!!!!!!!! But, dear ones, it is easy! It is not simple, but it is easy. It is not complicated, but it is complex. Only our martyrs fear the complex. It is silly putty, and we can have all the silly putty we want. There is nothing to stop us. If we don't have what we want in our reality, all we have to do is recognize, acknowledge, forgive and .....................

For every story of success with the techniques, I wonder how many of us could counter with our own humiliating failures? To quote someone who has had many private consultations: "Boy did he f*ck up some projects in my past...".

In addition to the obvious failings of those closest to Lazaris, I view that the typical Lazaris follower does not exhibit the type of financial, emotional, and relationship successes that are advertised by using the material. While there are exceptions, I consider the group as a whole to have lower levels of such successes compared to a typical peer group.

Psychic Ability

There have been reports of Lazaris mentioning peoples names during blendings and during crystal ceremonies. On rare occasions he also mentions something of a psychic nature. For example, one person reported that at his first seminar, Lazaris mentioned his first name and nickname. The nickname is something that he never gave to C:S or that anyone else there would know of. It was a very unique name combination according to this person.

There has been speculation that Jach/Lazaris is given a list of new attendees. Their names are usually mentioned during one of their first seminars, presumably to get them hooked. I know my name was mentioned during my first blending. There is also speculation about how Jach occasionally mentions someone's name during the Crystal Ceremony. This may be explained by a lot of possibilities. It is obvious to anyone who has watched Jach up close that he occasionally "peeks". As related earlier, old friends of Jach have said that he has an incredible memory for detail and people. This might allow him to identify someone who he either knows or was pointed out to him. How would Jach know people? Besides the obvious methods, one must not forget that during intensives that people wear name tags. Jach certainly sees his share of these people while not channeling and if he has a great memory, would be able to retain such detail even at a future seminar where name tags might not be worn. Lazaris said my name once during the Crystal Ceremony, but I can't remember whether it was at an intensive (where my name could be easily peeked at the ceremony).

There have been discussions about Lazaris giving "cold readings" to individuals during "magic time" and personal consultation. Basically, these readings contain generic statements that tend to be interpreted as meaningful to the person having the reading done. There are reports of professors asking everyone in a class their birth dates and presenting them with personal readings from an astrologer. The vast majority of people claimed these readings were very accurate. What they didn't know was that everyone in the class was given the same reading!

I allow the possibility that Jach may be psychic. So are a lot of people.

So what is the quality of his psychic abilities? I was present at a Lazaris seminar in LA during which the Northridge earthquake happened. We were given no warning from Lazaris about this event, although he gave a typical "what is the meaning" of the quake during the morning after. Why was he not able to give us a warning? Why did he not envision the future of Tradevest? Why did he not warn of Peny's death? Why did he not give any hint about the terrorist attack on the 11th of September?

While some people have felt their personal consultations are accurate and helpful, we have heard many stories that the information given was inaccurate.

It is fine if he doesn't want to give psychic advice. One could certainly argue that the future may no longer be accurately predicted, but then what are the end of year tapes, "magic time" and personal consultations all about?

Ted tells an amusing story:

I was at a workshop a few years back in Seattle and was stricken with a terrible stomach virus. When I approached "Lazaris" to receive my special, just for me, crystal which he randomly removed from the bag, he said, "look at you, you're glowing". I was actually exerting all my strength to avoid having a really embarrassing accident! "Lazaris" saw that as glowing?

Katie relates the story of how in her early Lazaris days she got some very clear impressions during a meditation about the topic of fear. She was shocked later when she came across the just released fear tape and found that sections were word for word what she heard during her earlier meditation. Anyone in the Lazaris mind-set would ask what clearer indication do you need about the existence of Lazaris? Someone outside of the mind-set might congratulate Katie on her tremendous psychic experience.

"Magic Time"

For those who have not witnessed this, "magic time" is a series of segments that Lazaris has over the course of an intensive. During a segment, which lasts about an hour and a half, Lazaris will give perhaps 3 or 4 people an opportunity to ask a question about their life.

While Lazaris treats each person differently, there are some to whom he gives shockingly brutal details about a past life. Even people who are not being talked to are often traumatized by these stories. There has been much written in psychological literature about people who are hypnotized or regressed developing false memories that were "encouraged" by the therapist. The subjects now swear these events are real. Subsequent investigation has found that they often are not real. People have been convicted for this type of behavior that Jach is practicing without a license. Imagine the harm that is possibly happening. Even if the information is real, we all assume that "since Lazaris said so", these people are emotionally and spiritually prepared to hear it. Unfortunately, I no longer trust Lazaris enough to take his word blindly.

There also appears to be some psychic phenomena demonstrated during these segments. Some might be explained by the well know cold reading techniques of fraudulent psychics as explained above. Some might be explained by Lazaris knowing details of this person's life either through prior private consultation or through the gossip mongering efforts of the C:S crew. Some might be explained by legitimate psychic phenomena. Again, a lot of people are psychic.

There is a very disturbing story of a mother and daughter who both were followers of Lazaris. They were also known to many of the seminar attendees. It turns out the mother was tangentially involved in the "forum storm". The daughter was given the mic at a magic time shortly after the forum incident. Lazaris suggested that she distance herself from her mother since here mother's thinking was not clear. It is hard to interpret this event as anything more than a blatant attempt to punish the mother for her alleged "disobedience" and serve as a veiled threat to anyone who might try the same. As to be expected, the prior loving relationship between mother and daughter was put to a severe test. This event also had a negative impact on others who knew the people involved. Fortunately, while the daughter still follows Lazaris and the mother does not, the strength of their prior relationship prevailed.

There have been other instances in the "magic time" where Lazaris has given what appears to me unduly needed and questionable advice to separate from family. Peny has stated that she is anti-family. Is it any surprise that Lazaris is also? Like his health advice, I think this is another area where people must be EXTREMELY cautious.

Hypnosis

Lazaris has gone through great pains to tell us when he is using hypnosis on us. He claims (as is the consensus of professional opinion) that to do so without our permission would be unethical. The problem is that most of us cannot figure out how his "meditations" differ in any way from his "hypnoses". If he makes such a big deal about the distinction, shouldn't we wonder?

There are powerful symbolic words and imagery that Lazaris often uses in his "meditations". Who is comfortable with their effect, given what seems to happen to those closest to Lazaris?

Channeling

In the chapter "Channeling & The New Spirituality" in Lazaris Interviews Book I (Concept Synergy Publishing - 1988), Lazaris himself raises some very interesting points regarding channeling:

Paraphrasing a paragraph on p47, Lazaris states that some entities are tricksters. He states how they come through offering some wonderful initial insights. One gets hooked to the entity. Then the entity starts screwing up your life.

In the last paragraph on p41, when discussing "Channeling & Discernment", he asks us to question whether the channeled material is applicable and useful or whether it is useless "mind-babble". He states that while it is curious and interesting to talk about ancient civilizations such as Lemuria and Atlantis, we must ask how this is going to help me become more of who am.

He warns in the prior paragraph about teachings that give you a sense of being less than who you are. Later on p42, he gives further guidelines relating to the discernment of channeled material. One of them is whether the material is consistent. On p57, he talks about people wanting the channeling to be a panacea. He talks about them saying they have found someone from other levels who is giving them all of the answers and will make their life work. He talks about them saying that they feel all they have to do is listen to all of the wisdom and have faith in it.

All of the above that Lazaris warns about I think applies to his own example. See the thread Can't say we didn't warn ya! for further commentary.

Lazaris claims that Jach is an objective trance channel. He claims that, unlike others, he is not subject to the distortions of Jach's mind. He also claims what a high level he is from (in the arrogant statement that he has long since moved past levels and to name a level and he will be there). Unfortunately, if we initially earn the trust of Lazaris and take him at his word, we assume that this description of him is also true. At this point, we drop all discernment.

There are two interesting stories posted by Katie and Jade in reference to how easy it is to get into an altered state and start getting information. Katie's refers to a group of adults who got into an altered state and received significant healing information. See Should we trust the words of Lazaris. Jade relates an experience (under the same topic) of a group of young teenage girls who had profound metaphysical experiences while playing a "spooky game". To me, the point to these stories is that just about anyone, especially with the help of a group, can have metaphysical experiences.

Some other points I would raise about channeling:

• Channeling, as explained, may be real, although other explanations are equally plausible.
• Channeled entities may or may not be who they say they are. They may not even be channeled entities.
• Channeled entities are fallible.
• Discernment must never be dropped when interpreting their material, even if the channel initially earns your trust.
• Channeling can also be totally faked.

For a thorough discussion of the channeling phenomena, I would suggest the 1998 revision of Jon Klimo's book titled Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources.

Is Jach a Fake?

There has been much discussion as to whether Jach is a fake. I outline the following broad categories of explanation:

1) Jach is 100% what Lazaris claims he is. Simply put, he is an objective trance channel that doesn't get in the way of the message. He is also actually an entity from "very high" levels. If one buys into this, then it is very easy, if not necessary, to buy into EVERYTHING he says.

2) Jach is a traditional subjective trance channel. His own process will distort the message to some perhaps varying degree.

3) Jach is 100% consciously faking the whole thing. He, Peny, and his staff have simply borrowed the work of others, added a view ideas and techniques of their own, and marketed the package to an unsuspecting audience.

4) Jach is subconsciously or unconsciously faking the entity "Lazaris" as a vehicle to express ideas he does not have the self-confidence to claim as his own. In addition to all of the reading and studying both he and Peny may have done, he may be getting some information from his own intuitive abilities. Explanations fitting into this category would be various psychological dissociative disorders that may be operative.

One reason people feel that Lazaris is real is due to the excellent job Jach does as a public speaker that they can not conceive of a human being performing. I take exception to that claim as I've seen people in other fields who are equally or more impressive. Also, there are many explanations that can describe why Jach is so different when he "channels Lazaris". The very well documented changes, both physical and mental, that occur with people who have multiple personality disorder can explain this difference. There are multitudes of other explanations.

The need to placate Peny and express his never ending love for her may also factor into various explanations (especially #4).

Everyone has different opinions as to what is actually going on. In my own case, I rate each explanation with the following probabilities of being accurate:

#1:0%
#2:30%
#3:10%
#4:60%.

It is interesting to note that without exception, people have noticed that the quality of the material has started deteriorating since the mid 80s. This is consistent with all explanations other than the first.

Cults and Mind Control

There is little question that C:S has certain cult-like similarities. Lazaris uses certain "mind control" techniques that are clearly manipulative. There are many web sites that detail information about cults and mind control. Please consult the highlights section for details on such sites. Don't be put off by being lumped together with Moonies and Scientologists. Read what is said and draw your own conclusions.

Steve Hassan (www.freedomofmind.com) makes a distinction between cults and destructive cults. I think C:S started out as more of a non-destructive cult, but is starting to degenerate into a destructive one. The behavior of the C:S group, especially as evidence in their forum, is the first sign that something is amiss.

Steve's site also talks about "love bombing" (We will love you forever and a day...):

"Mind-control techniques such as love-bombing are designed to bypass a person's intelligence and especially his critical-thinking skills. When a... person suddenly receives an overwhelming amount of love and acceptance, it is extremely difficult for him to stand back and assess the reasons for this or question something he desperately doesn't want to have disappear."

I think if you evaluate many cults you will find that most start out by someone having some sort of divine contact or inspiration. As time marches, the eventual power and money seems to get the better of them. They then start to display increasingly unacceptable and controlling behavior and slowly lose their original divine contact. Some go to the extreme (e.g., Heaven's Gate, Branch Dividian's, etc.). Others are finally stopped by authorities. Others continue along, successfully dodging attacks.

If a cult is not destructive in the classic sense, I think there is still danger whenever members of the group stop thinking for themselves - even if just for a little. I have noticed this tendency amongst many friends of Lazaris.

See the Cult and Mind Control section of the highlights for more information.

A Parable

Katie presents the following parable:

We see two men crawling through the desert, they are sunburned and parched, their eyes are bulging out, and they look close to death. All they can dream of is a glass of cold clear water.

As they crawl along they are plagued by the visions of oases, which always turn out to be mirages. They are losing hope.

Just as they are gasping their last breaths, they see ahead a brightly decorated tent in which stands a finely and colorfully dressed man. Next to the tent is a big sign, which says WATER. The parched men are sure this is just another mirage, but as they crawl closer they begin to realize that finally their hopes have been fulfilled. This is for real.

The jolly friendly man greets them and bargains with them for the last of their belongings. They give him the contents of their pockets, (maybe they had treasure in their, I forget), but what they have, they give for a life saving glass of water.

As they drink they are so relieved and grateful to this happy go lucky stranger, to them he is the most beautiful man on earth, and the price he charged for the water was irrelevant. Such was their need and desire for the cool refreshment he provided in their moment of dire need.

Now the camera pans back, and we see the bigger picture. The big beautifully decorated brightly colored tent is obscuring from view a true oasis where this cool clear water flows abundantly, free and available to all.

So What?

Given all of the above, there are those who still say "So what?". They feel as long as the techniques appear to be working for them, they don't care what is going on behind the scenes and appear to care little if Lazaris is whom he says he is and lies to us. I am not in a position to judge if they are on their right path. I only ask that they consider these questions:

• Do you think it is possible that the positive feelings of love and energy that you have experienced and attributed to Lazaris are actually due to your own internal processes?
• Have you considered that the positive changes that you have observed may be due to other explanations?
• Do you use your own thinking to evaluate which of the techniques you will use and what of his teachings you will accept?
• Have you consulted your inner guidance to see if this is still the right path for you to be on?
• Are there more appropriate (and most likely cheaper) ways to continue your spiritual development?
• Are you afraid of betraying Lazaris? If he is anything close to what he says he is, do you think this would be possible when you are simply applying discernment as he oft suggested and you are honoring your own path?
• Do you worry at all about what has happened to those who have been closest to Lazaris, espeically thos who have been with his teachings the longest?
• Are you concerned about the declining quality of the material?
• If you had known about all of this information before you started following Lazaris, do you honestly think you would have continued?

I think there has been enough material presented to give anyone pause for serious thought.