Transcendence isn’t Awakening.

It’s Escapism…and the area with zero accountability.

The purely, transcendent teachings of radical non-duality ultimately results, and rests, in ‘ajata’ or ‘nothing ever happens.’ It is in this state of being — of ajata — which forms the airtight teaching giving the self-sealing permission for any action to lack accountability. While on the absolute level, ajata is an actuality. In our Human lives, this is deeply and highly problematic…and flawed when it comes to the potentiality of natural ‘error’ in Human actions.

Many years ago, I was beginning to realize the exact measure of the existential weight that had been forced upon me when I was made the ‘fall guy’ for the deceptions of non-dual teachers. It was around that time, when there was an intense non-resistance to ‘what is,’ that there was the experience that ‘nothing ever happened.’

Simultaneous to that experience was a threshold insight into a profound internal resolution with Nome (my former teacher) who had caused great harm to myself and my family due being made the ‘fall guy’ for their own actions. (actions agreed upon by teachers on the non-dual space).

I deeply wanted to see how all that harm had never ‘really occurred’…harm that has been described as akin to being “buried alive.”

⚛️ Ajata and the wide-open-door-to-abuse: https://integrityintruth.com/ajata-and-the-wide-open-door-to-abuse/

That profound non-resistance was well before I learned of the ‘auric block’ for purposes of relational control and ‘psychic implant’ for purposes of extreme violative surveillance and the deliberate separation of my family. After learning of those violations, non-resistance to what IS – or surrender – became impossible.

⚛️ When Spiritual Surrender is Actual Poison: https://leslieread.substack.com/p/when-spiritual-surrender-is-actual

Yet ajata is an extremely dangerous understanding without equal ‘weight’ given to the fact of our precious Humanity… and of the sacred responsibility of living in a Human form.

We are now seeing this in the current, and unfolding, story of Bentinho Massaro and his view of ajata without the FULL consideration and respect for our Humanity. (Around 2010, Bentinho had been sent to replace a spiritual community…SAT…which I was asked to leave due to my knowledge of the lies, deceptions and connections of Nome, Russell Smith and Candace O’Denver…who goes by numerous aliases.)

Myself and Bentinho

The demonstrative avoidance, or downright negation, of our Humanity as demonstrated by true radical Advaita leaves wide-the-door for actual harm that is, more often than not, condoned…or the very least, covered up, as in the case of this life.

⚛️ The Unseen Use of Spiritual Power (Siddis) for Control-Over-Others…in Contemporary Non-dual Teachings: https://leslieread.substack.com/p/the-unseen-use-of-spiritual-power


As a young girl I was involved in the formless, Mystical, aspects of Catholicism. This connection to The Christ was, undoubtedly, from multiple prior lifetimes.

⚛️ The Mystery of Past Lives: https://leslieread.substack.com/p/the-mystery-of-past-lives

Mystical experiences came naturally, with no pre-meditated practice of any kind. A natural, deep devotion to The Christ would manifest as states of what are now commonly referred to as ‘flow’ and ‘bliss.’

At that age, I had no idea about those descriptive words.

At some point, shortly after my confirmation (strikingly, my confirmation Saint of choice was Joan of Arc) I realized the church relied too much on a ‘fundamentalism’ (again, a term I did not have as a young girl) and which none of my experiences relied upon.

I ended up leaving the church by the time I was 10 or 11.

Years later, I became involved in the teachings of radical non-duality as taught by Nome and Russell Smith at SAT (the Society of Abidance in Truth).

Nome was touted as the “only” awake teacher in this country. The entire set-up at SAT only strengthened the notion of a seeker or a person separate from God/Source/Being, whatever word you choose to use.

Nome couched liberation (or awakening) in a minefield of avoidance commonly known as neti-neti: a process of the negation of everything…essentially mimicking a radical renunciation for purposes of transcendence.

There was so much avoidance that I actually raised my hand one day in ‘satsang’ and asked “Are we truly meant to be automatons??”

Of course, my question was brushed away…

⚛️ Patriarchal Neti-Neti: The Ultimate Tragedy of Dissociation & Spiritual Bypassing: https://leslieread.substack.com/p/patriarchal-neti-neti-the-ultimate

If transcendence is what one wants, fine. But don’t call it awakening or, even more so, enlightenment! Use transcendence to avoid this world. Use it to avoid your emotions. Use it to avoid everything in life that one might come in contact with. One may even use it to avoid taking responsibility for one’s own actions.

But that avoidance will have karmic repercussions where there has been harm.

The avoidance of responsibility was clearly in play when I was subjected to the extreme Gurdgieffian technique of isolation – actual criminality — during ‘The Compression Years”…years of isolation in which Adyashanti, and others, in partnership with my formers teachers, condoned.

⚛️ The ‘Compression Years’…of isolation and deliberate silencing (under a death threat) at the hands of non-dual teachers…in which Adyashanti played a key role: https://integrityintruth.com/clarification-of-videos/the-compression-years-2013-2015/

Recently, on May 29th, I received 4 phone calls…in rapid succession… from a long-time SAT member who was one of the very first I met around 1989.

I did not answer any of these calls.

The gist of the 1st call was that “There is really only one way out of the insanity of this world, and that is to transcend it.” He, perhaps rightfully, used the word ‘insanity.’

That call was immediately followed by another where he said “I regret having used the word insanity. There’s God’s goodness that permeates this life for sure.”

Who are drawn to teachings of transcendence? Those who want to escape? Those who are afraid of their emotions (also considered ‘unreal’)? Those afraid of responsibility? Those who are afraid of connection? Those who are afraid of death?

Jeff Brown has some choice words for the transcendent addicted:

F**k ‘heightened’ consciousness – we aren’t birds. F**k transcendence addiction masquerading as evolution. F**k ‘non-duality’ that conveniently removes everything uncomfortable from the unified field. F**k ‘enlightenment’ without integrity. F**k patriarchal detachment models presented as ‘the’ royal road to the ‘Kingdom’ of God – what about the Queendom? (Our only hope). F**k ‘The New Earth’ as described by dissociative and disembodied pain bypassers. F**k  the yoga industry that feigns awareness it does not hold. F**k vertical spirituality that ignores what is happening before our very eyes. F**k  the bullshit soulebrities who don’t give a shit about humanity. F**k the guru who imagine himself realized. F**k the New Cage movement and it’s trail of lies. F**k any version of spirituality that doesn’t serve Humanity. F**k the story bashers. F**k victim bashers. F**k  the bloody spiritual lie. Embrace Enrealment before it’s too f**king late.

The ‘enlightenment without integrity’ one in Jeff’s list hits close to home. Everything… absolutely everything… about the spiritual teaching of radical non-duality was used to gaslight me in to silence.

What occurred in this life at the hands of radical non-dual teachers, alone, is enough to entirely reveal the hypocrisy of transcendent teachings.

If consciousness was the only thing that exists…if ‘nothing ever happened’…why would such existential controls have been placed over this life? Why would I have been silenced and isolated?

As Robert Saltzman recently wrote in his Substack entitled: “What’s Wrong With Nonduality: Inside the fortress of certainty”Yet the communities it generates are populated, to a striking degree, by people whose self-image is among the most defended one is likely to encounter.”  So much for transcendence.

This is a healing journey, and there’s no greater healing than being heard. Thank you for following my work and for being here…❣️

~Leslie on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/leslieread and at Integrity in Truth: Integrityintruth.com

The Tyranny of (the) Now…and other Spiritual Concepts

As many of you know, I’ve been reporting on the existential controls that can, and do, exist with non-dual (Neo-Advaita) teachers/teachings.

These controls have a surreptitious way of being masked and hidden especially under the cloak of numerous spiritual concepts.

As the Zen saying goes “Though gold dust is precious, when it gets in the eyes, it obstructs the sight.”

Born out of (the) fading patriarchal non-duality there have been many spiritual concepts that have endured and ensured the silencing of those who have been harmed by certain authoritarian-leaning spiritual groups.

Concepts such as using one’s own discernment derided as ‘judgement’…feeling the forbidden anger at deliberate abuse (sexual or otherwise) and facing the love-and-light crowd…pre-mature forgiveness where there has been zero accountability…and the list goes on….and on.

It is in situations of harm at the hands of teachers, that there is often gaslighting….using the very teachings themselves (especially with regard to stories)… to ensure the truth-of-a-situation never gets told.

However, there are very few spiritual concepts as potent and as radically dogmatic as the ‘tyranny of The Now’ (a perfection of descriptive words attributable to the great poet David Whyte) in silencing those who have an important ‘story-to-tell.’

A brief description of this concept is given by the Poet David Whyte as an introduction to his “Three Sundays” program on this topic: ⚛️ https://youtu.be/t1ajXYacgYQ?si=xXi9c0bHtCKq8TXj

Some stories need to be told…especially stories that reveal abuse at the hands of spiritual teachers.“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou 

There was/is the absolute necessity of telling-the-facts-of-a-story (some describe this with, yet another, spiritual concept of ‘blame’) …a process needed for removing the mantle of victimhood (there are indeed victims)…and of coming into a birthright of genuine authenticity.

I like what David Whyte has to say about this ‘tyranny of the now’ stuff:

“Maturity is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts; most especially, the ability to courageously inhabit the past, the present, and the future all at once; the wisdom that comes from maturity is recognized through a disciplined refusal to choose between or isolate three powerful dynamics shaping human identity: what has already happened, what is happening now and what is about to occur. 

Immaturity is shown by making false choices: living only in the past, or only in the present, or only in the future, or even, living only two out of the three.” ~ David Whyte

  • -Presence is available in an important recounting (most especially of harm and abuse) and healing of the past
  • Presence is available in this here-now…and 
  • Presence is necessarily available in the planning-for-a-future.
  • In all 3-timelines Presence is the common denominator…in all time-space(s). And, for Humans, healing in all three is necessary. 

“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.” ~James Baldwin

In an on-line conversation with spiritual teacher Rita Friedman she responded to the very beginning of my recounting the harm by saying:

“Those caught within this particular out-of-integrity drama, will have reckoning, trust me. ⚛️ https://integrityintruth.com/clarification-of-videos/

You may be one of those vehicles for reckoning but if there is you, there are others as well, and that is a strong karmic push that will occur.

Even if you never said a word, it would…and will…occur. But I suspect that it is there so that you can burn off the mantle of victimhood.

You are doing what you are designed to do as part of that burn off.” ~Rita Friedman

And THAT may be precisely why there are so many spiritual concepts around our precious individuation…it’s a potential threat against what is commonly known as ‘patriarchal, radical non-duality.’ 

The following link describes the existential danger of radical non-duality:⚛️ https://integrityintruth.com/the-existential-danger-of-radical-non-duality/

Timelines do not wield a stronger power over the Power-of-Presence. Attention is our super-power.

Thank you for reading…Warmly,

Please feel free to contact me should you have anything to share related to this content or any questions: ⚛️ Leslie@integrityintruth.com

(Image: Presence, courtesy Bing Images)