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zandtao so wanted Russell to be what he was not!
bill was not in the UK when Russell became famous although some little had seeped through to his recluse - to bill that little meant he was just a famous dickhead. Then mid-2010's he began listening to "Under the Skin", and was impressed - so impressed there were a number of blogs containing "Under the Skin" interviews. This Eckhart interview was one of them. bill also read his books that had a pleasant simple clarity.
Over the internet zandtao even followed Russell to Commune thinking perhaps there was a spiritual community for him - sadly only a community of +1 who he is still in touch with. He had hoped that Russell was a Saul-to-Paul, a Michael Beckwith transformation, a kindred spirit; to be fair to himself he never thought Russell was 100%-dedicated but he was not prepared for what happened.
There came the Dispatches program in which allegations were made of sexual misconduct in his dickhead years. During those times the dickhead was on drugs, and if understanding of his timeline is correct he stopped the drugs but still professed to be a sex addict. Apparently there was a whole toxicity around him in which girls readily consented and BBC fixers also apparently enabled that consent. But was it 100% consent? Dispatches said no, and produced evidence of allegations yet to be tested.
Following the allegations Russell claimed there was 100% consent, and fled to the States. bill communicated with Commune who - with sadness because of previous good work - immediately and correctly dumped him. bill so wanted Russell to be on the spiritual path but as far as zandtao can now see he is not. In the US he became a right-wing jock rejecting the spirituality of Under the Skin and finding Jesus; Russell even began supporting Trump.
zandtao does not encourage you to listen to Russell now. This interview and the other blogs are sound but given his behaviour since Despatches Russell does not have sila. As a dickhead he clearly had no sila, but Under the Skin and in his books on the 12 steps and revolution he was considered sound. However all of that has to be questioned as it has not borne sila's test of time. So sad!!
Further Commune was not zandtao's community either. zandtao is unsure whether Jeff Krasno, an organiser of Commune, would accept the following. Firstly given the theme of this appendix zandtao is absolutely not trying to impugn any question of Commune or Jeff lacking integrity. However zandtao draws a strong distinction between well-being and spirituality, and considers that Commune is a professed well-being community. As zandtao is focussed on the spiritual he was moving away from the well-being community, and that is now mostly severed. If you seek well-being, feel safe in going to Commune.
This appendix was written in Oct 2025 a few years after Viveka-zandtao. zandtao had not intended to update the book but if someone reading had not heard about Russell's history zandtao does not want any of this to be a recommendation - just a testament to zandtao's personal folly.
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