Dialogue Ireland has received reports about Japa Yoga over the past year. When one went on line there seemed nothing put an empire of people involved in every county.
japameditationireland.ie/about-japa/what-is-japa-meditation/
https://ie.linkedin.com/in/dennis-curran-694768102
The issues involved seemed to involve excessively expensive courses, trips to India and totally inappropriate sexual contact between participants and therapists/ Yoga teachers.
There was a level of fear and the sense that these folks could read their mind from a far and a form of magic was taking place.
In order to understand this context we need to see what has happened in Ireland since around the time Bishop Casey fled Ireland having fathered a child.
Catholicism was a command style religion similar say to communism and unlike Protestantism where the individual is involved and the individual conscience is formed. Here in Ireland as James Joyce put it there are nets set out to catch you before you are born. Mass baptism and the control of the National Schools has meant that literally our children have been ‘brainwashed.’ The central secular curriculum has been infected at the core by a religious ethos. This has created an Apartheid system where our children are not brought up together in the same local school. Our constitution which states the state will not endow any religion does the opposite. In the face of the child abuse collapse of Catholicism many have rushed like the Gadarene swine from one cliff to another.
So it was Buddhism which had President MacAleese supporting the violent sexually deviant Sogyal Rinpoche in West Cork. She had her photos up on his site. Also Tony Bates of Headstrong, and Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy gave succour to this centre and refused to speak up against the abuse. This a major issue and now you would think it had nothing to do with Sogyal.
https://dialogueireland.wordpress.com/category/buddhist/tibetan-buddhism-lamaism/
The point being made is that it takes a case like the woman in Tipperary whose husband went missing to raise these issues.
So as the Catholic Church is in free fall instead of defining itself according to its own spirituality and tradition, it begins to try to resell itself by Hinduising or packaging its teaching in Hindu or New Age categories. Some go deeper into fundamentalism and at the same time as holding pre natal pro life stances they also find no problem in supporting the violence which gave rise to this state. Catholicism now becomes reduced to a particular view of the 8th amendment. So there is complete spiritual uncertainty and is this environment and with the crash we find many rudderless. We don’t want to take away from the stories of those who have sent their stories to us for publication, but wanted to try to place them in a context. Also feel free to disagree with my analysis and do use our comment section to make your views known.
The name of Shashey Dubey keeps coming up and again we would welcome information which would assist our research in our understanding of Japa Yoga. We published and article by Freya Watson as according to my sources she has had some connection to Japa but is also deeply involved in promoting Lamaism and protecting that infrastructure involving the Dalai Lama.
Our first witness:
I was a member of Japa Ireland for a number of years. I left because although there were a lot of tell-tale signs throughout those years, I finally got to the stage where I could no longer ignore them. My wife and friends seemed to see the signs long before I did, but I couldn’t be told, and grew very defensive of the group if anyone dared to say anything. They work on the premise of empowering people, yet make people feel so fearful and dependent on them by using their issues and weaknesses against them.
What started out initially as a small meditation group has morphed into a huge money spinner. You’re encouraged to ‘advance’ yourself and your healing by enrolling in courses run within Japa Ireland, namely Advanced Meditation (€1500 for 1 year), a Teacher’s Course (€4000 for 2 years) and a Healer’s Course (€6000 for 2 years). NONE of these result in any certification or legitimate qualifications. The courses have no structure and the topic for each day is decided that morning. The courses are designed to be used within Japa Ireland alone so that you remain a part of the system. If you don’t do these courses (and other workshops within), you are made to feel that you are not serious about your healing, and are wasting your time.
Another main money spinner is the trips to India. Japa Ireland runs four trips per year to India, at a cost of €3800 per person, with approximately 65 people per trip. I went on three trips there, and once I copped on to myself and left Japa Ireland, I investigated the cost of everything myself, and I struggled to get the cost up to €2000 per trip with everything included. I feel that the excess costs allows Dennis Curran (or ‘Master’ Dennis, as he wants to be called) to bring his family members to India. Shashey Dubey or another ‘Master’ then tells people that they need further healing, and need to make another couple of trips to India, at their own cost of course.
In recent years there have been week-long trips to Dingle added into the mix, which I attended once. One week in Dingle for €500. You get to sleep in a tent in a field while Dennis sleeps in a nice warm bed in an adjoining house.
Dennis Curran now also has a head office in the UK, in the exclusive address of Knightsbridge, and after being over there on business he bragged to the people in his classes that he had bought two pairs of Prada shoes at a cost of £1200, while I know a lot of people in the class struggled to pay for their course every month.
There’s a hierarchy in place within the system, calling themselves the Council of Twelve. The idea of this is to keep a person pushing to ‘better themselves’, which translates to investing more of their money. One starts off meditating, then you find yourself doing one or two (or all) of the courses over the years. Once you’ve completed these along with a few trips to India, then you’re deemed worthy of being considered to be a ‘Master’, which is more ritualistic nonsense. Only once you’re a ‘Master’ can you join the Council of Twelve, who makes all the decisions for the lowly minions.
I’ve personally seen or heard first-hand accounts of people who have had major life changes made for them, mainly by Dennis Curran and Shashey Dubey. People have gone to India and have changed their names as they were told their birth name ‘didn’t suit their energy’. People have been told to leave or stay with their spouse as ‘this is your karma’. People have been told to sell their house and invest in their own Japa centre. People have been told to leave their jobs and work within Japa, further tying you into the system.
It’s drummed into people the detrimental effects of gossip. Talking about people was very much frowned upon. So much so, that when prominent or long term members left suddenly over the years, you felt like you couldn’t talk about that person, ask after their whereabouts, or keep in contact with them again for fear that you would be perceived as a gossip (which was associated with working with lower energies). Also drummed into people was the word ‘Cult’. Dennis Curran would go into a rant during courses about people outside of Japa, and how he felt Japa was viewed by them. He’d make light of it by saying, “Oh sure we’re just a cult!” much to everyone’s amusement. It worked though, because I found when I was met with criticism of Japa by non-members, in my head I was thinking, “Dennis was so right – people are gobshites!”
Within the last year or two, Japa Ireland was hit with a large wave of people waking up to what was going on and leaving. But some of those who were senior members and have left feel like they can now absolve themselves from what they’ve been complicit in just because they’re no longer there. I have even seen some on Facebook trying to distance themselves, but they were a big part of the rot for years, and I hope they’re held accountable when the time comes.
Leaving was the best thing I ever did. Others weren’t so lucky and are still feeling the psychological effects of it today. There are people who have turned their backs on family and friends, in favour of Japa. There were (and still are) some very vulnerable people within Japa, who have given so much power to others over their lives. People who have every life decision made for them, and therefore when they leave, they feel like they’ve nothing. And I can guarantee that once you’re out, you’re cast out, never to return.
For those who are wondering about the underlying philosophy of Japa these remarks by Christine Chandler* might be of interest.
http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-02.htm
By the way Japa meditation is Tantra, it uses mantra chanting and visualizations and is being spread by the typical confused contemplative trained, meaning Tantra-trained psychotherapists, life coaches, healing arts people, i.e. those that Tantric Lamas focused on fooling for the last forty years, to become their ‘change agents’ to push Tantra on the unsuspecting masses. At least you are identifying yourself with Tantra, so you are more honest than the rest who pretend they are just bringing mindfulness meditation , the first cult technique Trungpa used with us, to get us to become people who never judged or took a stand on anything, even when it killed one of us, or when Trungpa was keeping a harem of students, some as young as fourteen. Why is Warren Jeffs in jail and Trungpa and his Regent, who killed one of his students with unprotected sex, and Trungpa keeping harems was not. Why is Lama Sogyal who modelled Trungpa, and kept harems that he beat, and abused, on ‘retreat’ and not in jail? Because the cult members of Tantra have infiltrated everywhere to make Tantra appear to be benign, bringing ‘happiness’ and harmony. No, it has allowed the perpetrators to be let off the hook, and the female enablers to protect the perpetrators, and the change agents of Tantra to confuse millions of young women around the world that Tantra is about goddesses and setting women and men free. No, it created the longest-lasting slave and permanent serf society in the world, that enthralled and enslaved their own people in Tibet, and still in India into a caste system, with women at the bottom of the heap, praying to be reborn a man.
You will find her book here.
* https://www.amazon.com/Enthralled-Guru-Cult-Tibetan-Buddhism/dp/1511543469/ref=cm_aya_orig_subj
Filed under: Hindu, Japa Yoga, Therapy, Tibetan Buddhism = Lamaism |
Dialogue Ireland 
Diane Wynne, did you read the article about the next trip to India?
“While I don’t like the sound of Shashi’s behaviour, I wonder have you any evidence at all that the number of women you mention were actually assaulted?”
What do you think? Would we publish this without evidence? I have had first hand evidence from February of last year. I have been told that women who had been abused were going to the police. I have not yet heard of one case where they have gone to the police. Why is this? 1. Because you under pain of death or magic believe if you go are a bad person. 2. You believe the guru to be godlike. 3. You feel a bit of an idiot. Also how do you go when the teachers who are now leaving persecuted you to go on the trips and they have not as yet called a press conference to declare they are leaving and naming the abuses they were involved with. They want their cake and eat it!
“I have gone to several meditations in a Japa group and had been interested in going to India – until I read this article.”
are you not lucky you read the article, but are you so under the influence you even raised the issue of going. Do feel free to call to discuss. You are one of the first persons to actually leave a comment on Japa. We will have to try to get a documentary done on Japa.
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While I don’t like the sound of Shashi’s behaviour, I wonder have you any evidence at all that the number of women you mention were actually assaulted? I have gone to several meditations in a Japa group and had been interested in going to India – until I read this article
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Chris I think you have in a fair and objective manner put your case to Freya. I hope she does not try to divert or duck and dive. That she now a couple of days later addresses the issues you raise. Thank you for the clarity of your response and for taking the time to assist our readers. I will await till Freya answers this and earlier comments you have made, then I will call her.
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If you don’t know what Lamaism is Freya, read my book. You have been enfolded in the Tantra of Trungpa Rinpoche’s Kagyu Lineage, and don’t seem to know it. Also, the elephant in the room you don’t see, is Elephant journal, the flagship, online magazine promoting and recruiting for the Shambhala cult, and teaching its cult technique mindfulness for the last 40 years, that teaches people not to judge, even not to perceive sexual abuse as sexual abuse anymore. Thus the heading, taking sexual advantage or assault. Which appears to be the main thrust of your article , i.e. making sure that women who have been clearly traumatized or abused, start doubting whether they were. Which is what all cult systems do: disempower the members with doublespeak and confusion. The cult Shambhala, which you have written for constanty through its recruiting vehicle ‘Elephant Journal’ whose sole purpose was to seek out the yoga students and healing arts students that would be easily seduced by ‘spiritual sexuality’ and goddess myths, doesn’t consider harems as wrong, serial sexual relations with gurus are relabeled ‘blessings’ who tell them they are so lucky to be sleeping with these selfish boy men on thrones, like Waylon Lewis’ Sakyong II guru to adore, Trungpa’s son, who has a throne that needs a ladder to serve him tea, and whom he prostrates to, three times, every time he enters his room for an audience, a group where I witnessed him quivering and groveling around his guru, And who promotes or at least confuses people about polyamorous relations, as you have with their double speak article. It is no longer the case that they need full fledged cult members. These cult Lamaist groups just needs the enablers who don’t even know they have been influenced by Tantra Lamaism. which is about nailing all female energy down, substituting real equal rights with fantasies and idealizations, and profound confusion.
Lamaist influences = Tantra= and these influence starkly pops out in your writings, , because you are engaged in doublespeak’ throughout your whole article about ‘Taking advantage of Sexual Abuse, which is to let these abusers off the hook and not judge them, all part of the ‘its not this, its not that, it could be this, it could be that’ mentally where no one judges anything anymore, and never takes a real real stand on anything.
That is Tantra’s ‘no good no bad’ influence. So how will you help these women? By making sure they never go to the police and will be afraid that this would be too negative? Or be an indication of a lack of empathy for the poor assaulter, or that it showed they were sitting on a ‘mountain of hurt?’
If you don’t know you are connected with the Shambhala Lamaist cult whose lineage holder, Trungpa, kept harems of women, slept with hundreds of his students, and his Regent gave AIDS to his students by having unprotected sex with hundreds of young men, killing at least on of them, and that Tantra is actually a misogynistic, androcentric cult religion of medieval sorcerers and sadhus, that justifies the sexual exploitation of very young women for the lamas’ medieval alchemical beliefs that they can turn mixed genital fluids into immaterial essence, I suggest you start researching what you are promoting and involved with: the sexual abuse and exploitation of young women by Tantric gurus in India, Nepal and Bhutan, and now all over the West and they came in droves with their Tantra, spreading their amoral confusion.
It might be a good start for you to research what Tantra actually is, since you have made your new career about Tantra, and how it has exploited and sexually abused women for over a thousand years, and why India, where Tantric gurus thrive, has one of the highest rape cases of women and girls in the world, thanks to Tantra that you think will heal the world:
http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-02.htm
By the way Japa meditation is Tantra, it uses mantra chanting and visualizations and is being spread by the typical confused
contemplative trained, meaning Tantra-trained psychotherapists, life coaches, healing arts people, i.e. those that Tantric Lamas focused on fooling for the last forty years, to become their ‘change agents’ to push Tantra on the unsuspecting masses. At least you are identifying yourself with Tantra, so you are more honest than the rest who pretend they are just bringing mindfulness meditation , the first cult technique Trungpa used with us, to get us to become people who never judged or took a stand on anything, even when it killed one of us, or when Trungpa was keeping a harem of students, some as young as fourteen. Why is Warren Jeffs in jail and Trungpa and his Regent, who killed one of his students with unprotected sex, and Trungpa keeping harems was not. Why is Lama Sogyal who modelled Trungpa, and kept harems that he beat, and abused, on ‘retreat’ and not in jail? Because the cult members of Tantra have infiltrated everywhere to make Tantra appear to be benign, bringing ‘happiness’ and harmony. No, it has allowed the perpetrators to be let off the hook, and the female enablers to protect the perpetrators, and the change agents of Tantra to confuse millions of young women around the world that Tantra is about goddesses and setting women and men free. No, it created the longest-lasting slave and permanent serf society in the world, that enthralled and enslaved their own people in Tibet, and still in India into a caste system, with women at the bottom of the heap, praying to be reborn a man.
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I am at Maynooth at a seminar Freya and will answer you later. I made no reference to your beliefs which are so varied I would not even dare to argue with them. I am about influence not beliefs. I was interrogating your views not cross examining them. I suggested you address Chris Chandler about them. I did seek to join you on Facebook but you have not accepted my friend request. I feel the abuse of women should be our common theme. By the way it would not be appropriate for me to talk to Dennis Curran as in my role is to represent the victims of sexual assault and financial scams. No doubt we will meet in an appropriate forum. I am still not clear what you are doing to assist the victims especially as you had to deal with your own husband being involved. Again no one was claiming you were a member. It was rather if you were aware what was going on, why did you not act in a proactive way. I have now become a friend of yours on Facebook.
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It appears I’m being cross-examined here and have no wish to continue with the dialogue if it is only to challenge my personal beliefs. I am a grounded fifty year old woman in a happy relationship, with three children, a business career and a passion for writing. Surely the issue here is not me but the dynamics of a group I am not involved with? If I can be of further assistance, please message me or ring me and we can discuss it further. I”m not sure that my small amount of testimony is of any real value in making a case but I”m happy to offer it, if required. I would also suggest that Dennis Curran be approached directly and asked to respond.
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You are speaking to the Director of Dialogue Ireland who was approached by persons who will remain anonymous who have been scammed out of money and also have experienced what you have reported in regard to sexual assault. I have messaged you but you likely have gone to bed as you have not replied as yet.
I was not aware of it but was sent it by those who wished to raise questions about Japa as there seemed to be nothing about them in the public domain. Family members were going missing psychologically and were out to lunch and they were crying out for explanations. In light of the experiences of women over the past few weeks, I find this sentence illuminating? “..those who had allowed themselves to be taken advantage of.” I think you need to re examine your choice of words and your underlying views. Do you think you have missed an opportunity to actually call time on this abuse period?
I am very troubled by this sentence and the ambiguity it represents.
The relevance then to our discussion is what? It has the effect of disempowering women and relativising the issue and leaving you walking away without taking a stand.
So what was it supposed to be about. Read through it as it is filled with moral ambiguity on a number of fronts.
I will leave Chris Chandler to address the elephant issue but as theologian and student of religion I find connecting Shamanic and Bahai very dubious. You know they claim to be both the fulfilment of Islam and Christianity and have tried unsuccessfully to set up a world government. This makes them a target of death in places like Iran. Like every other belief system it claims to be the only truth disguised under a number of relativistic fronts.
I see you have a faith in not making any group an absolute commitment, but in fact that is your absolute non commitment, but allowing yourself to do a kind of pick and mix. The relevance of not growing up Catholic did not take those issues away they just present themselves in a different way. Coming from Apartheid South Africa to Religious Apartheid Ireland and being the first person to who was a dissenter to study at Maynooth was interesting.
Thanks that would be good but as it is an area I have expertise in, it is best to directly respond to Chris.
But it is clear that Dennis Curran was also involved with these trips?
Please read that sentence again. There is deep moral ambiguity in how you view this person. The article suggests he also came onto you does it not? You are some observer who says he is basically a nice guy but comes onto women. I can’t believe I am reading this.
I really feel you are minimising this and your view that you could deal with this while you have allowed other women to be affected without intervention. This should have been exposed 5 years ago. The ambiguity is very troubling.
But you saw what was happening to women, to your own husband but you did not speak about it. You have intellectualised it and presumably now resolved issues with your husband. But what about all the thousands of Euro,and women who are totally distanced from themselves. The horror of it.
No it is not about teaching anything it is about undue influence and taking peoples freedom from them. What was your solution if only they said the Rosary or went to Knock or joined the House of Prayer. It is not about religion or beliefs but the loss of sovereignty. You seem to not see you actually were not part of the solution but an enabler as I read you here.
Perhaps you could outline how you have been trying to bring this to a conclusion? Sharing a post on this group, making a statement to the gardai, possibily assisting the woman in Roscrea who lost her husband like you did? It is as if you were external to this situation?
Having read your earlier section how you join the dots when you are an eye witness of this conflagration?
I send you the same as I have tried to have dialogue in confrontation, trying to wake the mind so it does not go down the kundalini route and close of the cells that release our thoughts.
I send you the same
Surely you must have a problem with Japa if it is being used as a tool of ideological subversion of ordinary men and women? I am not hearing the cry of anger. The painting The Scream by Munch?
https://www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp
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DialogueIreland,
I’m not sure who I”m actually speaking to here, and I’ll try not to take up too much space. Yes, a deeper conversation would be good – you can message me either through Facebook or my WordPress blog.
I was not aware that my article was being used on the site, nor the discussion that was taking place about Lamaism. It was an article that was written several years ago as part of a process of getting inside the minds of those who had allowed themselves to be taken advantage of and were questioning the situation. I was not aware of the scale of the problem at the time and wrote the piece from a place of trying to understand some of the dynamics by which someone can be both loving and supportive while also abusive. I don’t believe anyone is completely evil or absolute saint. Some may feel the article doesn’t go far enough but it wasn’t intended as a ‘name and shame’ at the time.
And with reference to Elephant Journal, I see it as a vehicle for stimulating thought and conversation. I don’t agree that it is an entirely Lamaist vehicle. I am neither a Lamaist nor a Buddhist, although I have found certain Buddhist and tantra practices to be useful. I also find Shamanic, Baha’i and many other perspectives useful. I am entitled to my perspective and would ask those who don’t agree to be considerate and polite in their disagreement. My quick read of the comments on the article are less than helpful to the overall point of moving our understanding and discussion on.
Ultimately, I make my own mind up based on my experience and understanding, and I encourage others to do the same, and to remain open to their own ability to grow and change. Organised ‘isms’ have never suited me and I have no affiliations or memberships to any particular spiritual camp, other than having come through the shamanic Four Winds Society and feeling a strong affinity with the shamanic approach to life. I also don’t have a Catholic background and so perhaps have less sensitivity to some of the issues around guilt, power and sexuality that my peers in Ireland have.
But, as you suggest, I will separately look through the comments on the article and will respond, as time allows.
Now, specifically to your questions…
The article is written about my own personal experience on a small trip to India that was led by Shashi Dubey, taking in a number of holy sites, in 2012. It was not organised with Dennis Curran. I had been introduced to Shashi through a good friend and was in need of some time out, having two young children at the time. My experience of Shashi was that he was a very loving man, generous with his time but inappropriate in his treatment of women. It was this mixture that I tried to reflect in my article. My experience with him crossing my boundaries was minor compared to that experienced by others – possibly because I was a little more aware and less vulnerable.
I was never a member of the Japa groups here as I didn’t connect with their fear-based approach and lack of knowledge. My husband, however, was involved with Dennis’ group in Kildare and it caused considerable stress until he left. I can certainly speak about what I witnessed from my place on the fringes – the secrecy, the separation of members from non-members, the fear-mongering and the lack of factual knowledge.
If the group had stuck to simply teaching Japa – mantra meditation – it might have been okay. But they didn’t. They gave lifestyle advice, diet advice, psychological advice – none of which they were trained or experienced in, and much of which was incorrect. The dynamic revolved around obeying the master (either Dennis or Shashi) and although you’d imagine, in this day and age, that people would think for themselves, I have to assume that vulnerability and need will often lead people to make decisions they might not otherwise make.
I think that is probably clear enough for the purposes of a comment? As I mentioned, please feel free to get in touch if I can help bring the matter to some kind of conclusion. My biggest issue with the Japa movement in Ireland, that Dennis Curran and Shashi Dubey were involved in setting up, is the lack of transparency and the lack of response to the issue of women being sexually taken advantage of. I have no issue with Japa as a meditation practice in itself. I also have to say that I have no knowledge of what is currently happening within the group, other than being aware of Dennis launching himself under a new ‘identity’ with the publication of a book.
With warm regards,
Freya
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Thanks for coming onto the site to discuss the the situation. We published your Elephant article and in it Goldsun who has herself done extensive work on Tibetan Buddhism made extensive claims about your connections. It was in danger of diverting us from the Japa issue, hence I referenced that. Could you go to your article and address the points made about your links.
Could you tell us did your article specifically refer to events that took place in regard to your involvement on a Japa retreat? What are you referencing? You will note I did not put a link to Japa when publishing that article? However, I received it from a former member who told me it was connected to Japa. So it would be good to put the record straight. If it was would you be willing to be a witness in a case where a woman approached me who identified a very similar hit on her?
You have no connection to Japa now but did you have in the past? As I raised earlier is this a description of what happened to you in a Japa context or is it the description of what happened to someone else? How is it a misfortune to be connected to this person?
Without breaching confidence could you outline what this connection with Shashi Dubey was, and also the unhealthy dynamic around Shashi Dubey and Dennis Curran?
In February I received a report that was exactly the same as you reported in your article.
I refer you to comments by Goldsun on your original article and feel free to answer her there. Also we will provide you an uncensored right of reply to the charges made there and also give you free access to outline your view on Japa.
Thanks Freya and I would be delighted to talk to you or to meet up to discuss this in confidence. Thank you for your open and transparent reply.
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Hi,
I love to see that this issue is being spoken about. It would be good to get all the facts right, though, as there is a huge amount of gossip, fear and misinformation around it.
I should also say that I have no connection to Japa, apart from having had the misfortune of having been close to someone who was involved in a group. I did have a connection with Shashi Dubey for a while and was witness to some of the unhealthy dynamic that was around both him and Dennis Curran. I also have no connection whatsoever to Lamaism (not even sure what that is!) or to protecting structures around the Dalai Lama.
I’m happy to talk and fill in any gaps that I can.
Much love,
Freya
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This story does not shock me and I hope it’s the beginning of the end for Japa. I had a friend within this group, and the group have been exploiting people for money for years. Hopefully people will have the courage to speak out,
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