When I first met Acharya Rajneesh at his Bombay apartment in December of 1970, he was only 39 years old. With long beard and large dark eyes, he looked like a painting of Lao-Tse come to life. Before meeting Rajneesh I had spent time with a number of Eastern gurus without being satisfied with the quality of their teachings. I wanted an enlightened guide who could bridge the gap between East and West and reveal the true esoteric secrets, without what I considered to be the excess baggage of Indian, Tibetan, or Japanese culture. Rajneesh was the answer to my quest for those deeper meanings. He described for me in vivid detail everything I wanted to know about the inner worlds and he had the power of immense being to back up his words. At 21 years old I was naive about life and the nature of man and assumed that everything he said must be true.

Rajneesh spoke on a high level of intelligence and his spiritual presence emanated from his body like a soft light that healed all wounds. While sitting close during a small gathering of friends, Rajneesh took me on a rapidly vertical inner journey that almost seemed to push me out of my physical body. His vast presence lifted everyone around him higher without the slightest effort on their part. The days I spent at his Bombay apartment were like days spent in heaven. He had it all and he was giving it away for free!

Rajneesh possessed the astounding powers of telepathy and astral projection, which he used nobly to bring comfort and inspiration to his disciples. Many phony gurus have claimed to have these mysterious abilities, but Rajneesh had them for real. The Acharya never bragged about his powers. Those who came near soon learned of them through direct contact with the miraculous. One or two amazing occult adventures was all it took to turn doubting Western skepticism into awed admiration and devotion.

One year earlier I had meet another enlightened teacher known to the world as Jiddu Krishnamurti. J. Krishnamurti could barely give a coherent lecture and constantly scolded his audience by referring to their "shoddy little minds." I loved his frankness and his words were true, but his subtly cantankerous nature was not very helpful in transferring his knowledge to others.

Listening to Krishnamurti speak was like eating a sandwich made of bread and sand. I found the best way to enjoy his talks was to completely ignore his words and quietly absorb his presence. Using that technique I would become so expanded after a lecture that I could barely talk for hours afterwards. J. Krishnamurti, while fully enlightened and uniquely lovable, will be recorded in history as a teacher with very poor verbal communication skills. Unlike the highly eloquent Rajneesh, however, Krishnamurti never committed any crime, never pretended to be more than he was, and never used other human beings selfishly.