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Take Me for a Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult
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About Take Me For A Ride: Coming Of Age In A Destructive
Product Description A lyrical account of a young man's mystical quest, Take Me For A Ride takes the reader in and out of the grip of a brilliant, sensitive, seemingly benign cult leader gone mad. Take Me For A Ride is the story of Mark, who, at the age of seventeen, longs to see for himself what lies beneath the surface world of reason. Mark's spiritual path takes an unexpected turn when his meditation teacher, Frederick Lenz, learns to use fear, sleep deprivation, and LSD as tools of persuasion. After leaving Lenz' inner circle, Mark faces headwinds and haunting memories as he bicycles across America. More than a vehicle for exercising and exorcising subtle ghosts of the past, the bike trip serves as the frame through which this combined adventure story, self-help book, and expose is narrated. From Library Journal The thousand American followers of Fred Lenz (a.k.a Rama) accept his claim to be the simultaneous incarnation of Hindu deities Vishnu and Shiva; accordingly, they finance his empyrean lifestyle, complete with Long Island mansion. Joining Rama's group in 1979, 17-year-old Mark Laxer and his brother David quickly became members of the inner circle. This work chronicles Mark's faithful service to his guru until 1985, when, he alleges, Rama's descent into exploitation and deception finally became intolerable. While his portrait of a charismatic leader's slide into madness is gripping, perhaps more important here is Laxer's disclosure of some of the motives impelling young people to immerse themselves in cults. Except for the author's distracting tendency to toggle timeframes without clearly identifying them, the work is well written. Recommended for libraries with a strong interest in cults and "alternative" spiritual quests. - Bill Piekarski, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Chula Vista, Cal. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review All students of human nature will delight in Mark Laxer s insightful story of his personal journey into a new kind of American cult that interweaves pseudo-spiritual goals with money-making, computer, hi-technology ambitions. He shows us the subtle techniques used to seduce bright college students and graduates into this cult and the powerful forces that bind members to their charismatic leader. My students have enjoyed the narrative and learned much from this analysis of the psychology of cult indoctrination in Take Me For A Ride. --Professor Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., Psychology Department, Stanford University This is a very important work...It is today s Darkness at Noon... --Herb Rosedale, President, American Family Foundation While his portrait of a charismatic leader s slide into madness is gripping, perhaps more important here is Laxer s disclosure of some of the motives impelling young people to immerse themselves in cults...the work is well written. --Library Journal About the Author Long ago, Mark Laxer's quest to understand the bigger world landed him in the inner circle of a brilliant, charismatic guru gone mad. After writing Take Me For A Ride and weathering a $30 million lawsuit, Laxer continued the quest by writing The Monkey Bible, which asks science, religion, and mythology what it means to be human. Laxer runs a software corporation, a storytelling gathering, and a wildlife conservation organization. In 2004, he invented virtual ecotourism.
