Hal Blacker

Hal Blacker is a former devotee of Andrew Cohen. He was editor of Cohen’s magazine What Is Enlightenment? magazine. His WHAT Enlightenment ??! blog, which ran from 2004 to 2007, and includes post by many former students, telling of their traumatic experiences, is an important and voluminous source of information regarding the dysfunctional, at times seemingly sado-masochistic, nature of Cohen's teaching methods and his community. Perhaps more than any otehr source of uinformation, this excellent blog served to dispell the aura of "crazy wisdom" self-righteous around Cpohen, showing it for what it is, abusiveness put out by a narcisstic and dysfunctional individual.

There was also an attack blog set up to discredit Blacker, I am reminded of my own experience in the Sathya Sai Baba community

The polarisation of Cohen's followers and ex-followers into supporters and critics, and the lack of love between them, is the same as that found with all controversial guru figures and spiritual teachers, including Sathya Sai Baba, Adi Da, Nirmala Mataji, Ken Wilber, and many many others

Blogs

WHAT Enlightenment ??! - Blacker's blog, an important source of information regarding the abusive behaviour of Andrew Cohen. The name is a play on Cohen's What Is Enlightenment? magazine. The blog ran for 2 1/2 years, from October 2004 to April 2007. See also Enlightennixt for the important archives and early posts constituting the essential WHAT Enlightenment ??! blog articles. They provide an introduction to the entire archive of WHAT Enlightenment ??! articles, along with comments.

Criticism

WHAT Enlightenment Uncensored $$$ - this blog is a response to WHAT Enlightenment ??!. Like WE it is no longer active (most recent post Dec 2005). The sarcastic and aggressive accusatory tone is reminiscent of Sathya Sai Baba abusive devotees Moreno and De Witt - shadow projection, emotional invective, and all. This seems to be the lot of any who try to expose abusive behaviour by so-called spiritual masters.