Moon River

On August 2020 at Atterbury Theatre, Pretoria, South Africa Amira Willighagen came out of Covid lock-down briefly to perform her streaming show This is My Dream. She was only 15 years old. Below she performs Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany's accompanied by world-renowned South African classical and jazz pianist Charl du Plessis.

Red Dead

Old Town Road

Westward the Women

I would not have heard of Westward the Women had my daughter not told me about it. It was made in 1951 from a story by Frank Capra.

The story takes place in 1851. The working men of Whitman's Valley, California are discontented, as there are no women. Roy Whitman, their employer, tries to prevent his men from leaving by traveling to Chicago to recruit women willing to embark on the arduous journey to California in order to marry. 

Roy hires wagon master Buck Wyatt to lead a convoy of 140 women across the arduous wilderness. He predicts only 2 in 3 women will survive the tortuous trek. 

From a time when women were still valued and honored, Frank Capra crafts this masterly yet often brutal story. I hope my grandson will grow up to direct a remake.

Reaction to "Unshaken" (RDR2)

Unshaken is a song by American singer-songwriter D'Angelo. It was produced by Daniel Lanois, who wrote the track with D'Angelo and Rocco DeLuca. The song was written for the original soundtrack to the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2. The words are based on the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.

D'Angelo in 2012, who passed away in
2025 at the age of 51.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_vKmF8jeBTI

Norina Matchabelli's Channeling of Meher Baba

Norina Matchabelli 

In the 1940s some followers of Meher Baba in New York believed that Baba channeled "thought-transmissions" through a disciple named Norina Matchabelli, famous for the perfume brand as well as her time in the early 20th century as a famous stage and silent screen actress who went by the name Maria Carmi. During stage performances, including in Carnegie Hall, Matchabelli would enter a trance-like state, and the voice that spoke through her relayed Baba's messages, she said. But, according to fellow disciples Kitty Davy, Margaret Craske and Rano Gayley, Baba at one point remarked that Norina's claim that he was speaking through her in these public lectures were not his way of working, but that her talks did help his work anyhow. (Donkin's diary, 30 April 1943.)

 Lord Meher, online edition, Page 2410 - Footnote (retrieved May 19, 2026)

Maria Carmi in her silent screen days

Jiang Xueqin’s Most Embarrassing Prediction Exposed

Baba’s religion, folk religion, and tariqa

I wish to sketch out roughly the relationship between mystical scholarship, religion, and folk religion in the future of the Baba World.

1. Baba Tariqa
2. Baba Folk Religion
3. No Organized Baba religion

Baba’s manifestation among the masses will be slower than after Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammad. This is the meaning behind his saying he came to bring about the “slowest of all revolutions.” 

It really only officially gets kick-started in 2039 (in 14 years) when he predicted philosophers will come to pay homage at his tomb, as if some great mystery had been solved. 

What me and Christina and Stelios are doing now is the start of that revolution. Especially me, because I write. I have as much education as Joseph Campbell, an MA degree in my subject. Joseph Campbell earned his Master of Arts degree in medieval literature, specializing in Arthurian studies. So he was basically self-taught and invented his own field of mythological studies.

My MA was in philosophy, specializing in idealism, and my main reading was of Meher Baba.

In a mystical school, there are three things:

1. Official source texts (Baba’s books he himself copyrighted and signed, plus I.I. Folk religion is based on oral transmission and gets fused with other beliefs)
2. A teacher student lineage (That has to start somewhere so it starts with me and Brabazon. Clearly Ward Parks is not in this line as he published mock-Baba-books, not his own. And he is a precritical thinker with no training in idealism or even philosophy. He is a person who thinks he knows more than he does. He’s a real intellectual, but one who doesn’t know there are fields he doesn’t know. He did not leave a body of his own work.)
3. The focus is on spiritual transformation or the passing of esoteric knowledge (The focus of folk religion is on healing, protection, and blessing.)

So my written works and recorded talks are the very start of the new lineage.

But it is different than in the past. In the time of Shankara and Arabi there were already the established religions of Hinduism and Islam. They were already old.

So it is easy to spell out the relation between religion and mystical schools then.

Sufi mystical paths (tariqas) existed and were coalescing into formal orders before the time of Ibn Arabi. While Ibn Arabi revolutionized Islamic metaphysics with his teachings on Wahdat al-Wujud (Unity of Being), the organizational framework of the tariqa was already being established.

So this is like our time. 

“Orthodox Islam” came first.

Organized Sufi schools developed centuries after the beginnings of Islam.

Here’s the rough timeline:

• Islam begins in the 7th century CE with Muhammad in Arabia.
• Early Muslim communities focused on the Qur’an, worship, law, and theology.
• What people later called “orthodox” Islam — especially Sunni traditions based on Qur’an, Hadith, and early scholars — formed during the first few centuries.
• Sufism emerged gradually as a mystical/spiritual movement within Islam.
• Formal Sufi orders (tariqas) such as the Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, and Shadhiliyya mostly appeared between the 11th and 13th centuries.

So historically:

1. Islam itself came first.
2. Orthodox Sunni and Shia traditions developed early.
3. Organized tariqa schools developed later as spiritual traditions inside Islam.

That said, many Sufis argue that the spiritual teachings behind the tariqas go back to the Prophet Muhammad himself, even if the formal institutions and lineages were organized later.

Thus it is not a question of which comes first, the mystical part develops within the formal religion. It is not a set of separate sects of a religion. 

I’m sure the same is true of Hinduism and Advaita. These schools arise within the broader recognized religion. This is the same as me calling myself a Baba lover in my writing.

However, there is a big difference. Baba followers hate religion. So a formal orthodoxy can’t really form, with set customs or beliefs or even a canon of texts. The effect of this is that what I call “the Baba world” for lack of a better name, begins as a set of folk beliefs. 

This is why it was so confusing talking to Ben after writing about my vision for the future of the Meher Center. His mind is full of beliefs that have no solid source (such as Baba’s words or rational arguments), but are beliefs that are simply appropriated from the local religious culture, by word of mouth, and that fulfill certain basic psychological needs among the adherents.

So that is neither a religion nor a tariqa line. It is folk religion. It is deeply felt folk belief. This explains why he could neither quote Baba nor explicate a logical argument for anything he said. 

It had something to do with believing the Center had “good bones.” This is clearly an expression he heard somewhere. It implies a kind of metaphysical substantiveness. This is totally contrary to Baba’s teaching. Metaphysical bones are not in any serious tradition except materialism, and even there the idea is blurry. Baba teaches that the word is apparent, not substantive. And the Meher Center is no exception.

Anyone who studies Baba will know this. Anyone who relies on hearsay from the local community will not.

So in this unusual circumstance, where the Baba “leaders” in America are more concerned with cultural concerns like environmentalism and gender issues than theological matters, the tariqa lines are bound to evolve first. For there is no orthodox opinion to act as an umbrella. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the result will be like in my paper What I Now Think the Future of the Baba World in the West Is, where I describe the Baba world as breaking apart into very small but cooperative camps sharing notes and exchanging guest speakers at conferences.

This is a kind of hodgepodge of folk religions, with occasional intertwined mystical elements. 

It is out of these where true tariqa schools are bound to emerge, formed out of necessity by the few outliers with a real interest in science and mysticism and a respect for Baba’s books. 

A quick word about of books

The Ward Parks Baba-book inventions are liable to be the cause of great confusion in the future, perhaps as serious as the Suni-Shia schism or the Catholic-Orthodox schism. A separating of ways. For while these have their origin in Baba’s words, they were not set aside by him in his lifetime. But such books were liable to be assembled eventually. 

For me the canon is simple. It includes five books:

1. God Speaks
2. Intelligence Notebooks
3. Discourses
4. Beams
5. The Everything and the Nothing

Worthwhile adjuncts are Lord Meher, The God-Man, The Nothing and the Everything by Bhau, Stay With God by Brabazon, and Evolution of Perception and Evolution of Perception Re-Explained by me.

Everything else read at your own risk.

I included myself in this list not because I’m exceptional, but because I’m alone and seminal. The publication of The Evolution of Perception preceded even that of Infinite Intelligence.

So its place is secure. Just as Stay With God and The Nothing and the Everything are secure.

The Meher Center

The Meher Center, where I grew up and about which I talk a lot, is a very special case and relevant to this discussion of the relation between folk religion, tariqa, and any orthodox Baba religion that might form.

It is important because it openly identifies itself as what Baba said he didn’t want, an organization. It refers to itself as a “religious organization,” and quite incongruously a “non-sectarian religious organization.” That means it’s a religious organization that does not endorse or prefer any religion or religious belief, but carries Baba’s name on it.

So, it’s like “The Meher Baba college of comparative religion.” Yet the Center does not engage in discussions or seminars in comparative religion. So looking at Baba’s words carefully — and ignoring the local folk beliefs about the Center — it is a good example of something earmarked for dissolution when its initial purpose is exhausted. I have already assembled those quotes in my paper: Baba tried to get them to give up their desire for a Center for him, but after being badgered he relented. 

Consider just this quote from that article: 

I do not wish to limit myself or bind myself with any such thing. I create things on a firm foundation and then pull them down.

Baba was literally responding to the original suggestion of the Meher Center. Even Baba’s use of the phrase “full foundation” reflects my friend’s reference to the Center having “good bones.”

I bring this up because it again shows the trajectory things appear to be moving in. They are moving away from a centralized organization, and toward a multi-polar religious movement.

And therefore, there is likely not to be an orthodoxy ever established, which would be unprecedented. 

The conclusion of all this is very obvious, and conforms to Baba’s own words on his movement. People are free not to leave their birth-religion. Baba said there are enough religions, not that there are too many. He said he would bring “the great and recognized religions and creeds of the world” together as beads on one string, not form a new religion.

This leaves only one possibility. There will be folk religions with no central authority, operating cooperatively but autonomously. And there will be “the great and recognized religions and creeds of the world.” 

This is what one can reasonably base on Baba’s words. Local popular beliefs may vary. The main completing popular belief among followers close to the Meher Center is that the Center will grow so much in some undisclosed time in the future, that people will have to be turned away. And then an undefined “they” will “make it a religion.” And that will be the end of the “good ol’ days.” None of this has any basis in anything Baba ever said.

It is a syncretic idea that combines Christian apocalyptic literature with terms Baba used like “break my silence” and “this Avataric manifestation will be the greatest.” 

The concerns of folk religion and mysticism are different

The concerns of adherents of folk religions include wanting blessings, protection, and the ability to know the future. This is why you get palmistry, tarot cards, astrology, and psychic healing. These are bodily concerns. They are different from the concerns of mystics, which have to do with knowledge and salvation.

So it is up to the mystic to be patient and understanding of the folk belief adherent, and not the other way around.

This would be the source of a distinction between tariqa strains emerging from Baba’s words and folk religion. For occult practices such as divination and divining games have basically no support in Baba’s teaching, unless unreasonably stretched.  

Folk religion is supported by the psychological needs of the group.

Tariqa is supported by scripture and reason.

Overlaps will occur. But the line is not hard to discern. They are very different interests and concerns. They are for very different places on the path.

Constantine tried to reach out to representatives of different schools to try to find unity in ideology. No one would wish to do that, or have the authority or influence to do that, today.

So there will only be “family resemblance” between groups. One will have to artificially come of with terms to include more than one, such as groups that accept Baba’s avatarhood. Or groups that believe some of his words and not others.

There is no fix for this. Those with administrative roles on the Center like Preeti, do not have time to study Baba’s words. The focus will be solely on managing the behavior of adherents to the folk religions.

The things I talk about here will become obvious clear and present issues in 20 years, and not much before then. This is due to Baba’s prediction about 70 years and the death of the baby boom.

Even if the Meher Center tries to exert influence then, it has no religious opinion, so would not be able to do so. It will be forced to disband or turn into something else. 

Consistency

All that I’ve said and written on this subject has been consistent. There won’t be a Baba orthodoxy, or a centralized church. Rather there will be diversity and a certain amount of chaos. You can either have unity in orthodoxy or chaos in diversity. This time Baba will allow chaos in diversity. 

The Baba lovers cannot sit down and discursively figure any of this out. Therefore, they have contradictory visions. They picture that ‘everyone will come’ to Baba, yet there will be ‘no established religion or teaching.’ Masses will flood to the Meher Center, but the Meher Center will not be for any one opinion about Baba, nor exert control over groups, and will not even show the slightest interest in theology. The unity they envision will be caused by what?

The Baba lovers near the Center don’t get it that their belief that the Center is so sacred, so much so it needs an archive, will not be a universal opinion. It is the opinion of a group of geriatrics who don’t even like young people, and make fun of them and all the things they like. 

What is the difference between these names?

Meher Spiritual Center

Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

Only one has the name “Baba” in it. One manages his tomb. The other is a “retreat for renewal.” A cheap resort. What is spiritual renewal? When do you know when you are getting it? 

The thinking is New Age, not spiritual.

I have been remarkably consistent on all this. In my paper The Religiology of the Baba World I concluded that by rejecting religion the Baba lovers wound up creating folk religions. I wrote there:

It’s very ironic. Because Baba lovers have over the years repeated a trope that goes, “They’re gonna make it a religion.” And they sigh like it is an unavoidable travesty that an undefined ‘they’ will stupidly do this in the near future. The irony is that this ‘they’ that these Baba lovers dread is themselves.

By the time Baba returns in 650 years, his lovers will wish he had established a formal religion, for they will be exhausted by arguments, no matter how well-intentioned those arguments are liable to have been. 

And I said the same in my video The Baba World - Chris Ott Talk 3: The Future of the Baba World. For I described a multi-polar Baba world of the future, in line with the multi-polar geopolitical new world that will gradually unfold. 

I am proud that I have at least been consistent on these points, even if I turn out to be wrong.

The First Avatar to Emphasize the West

Meher Baba is the first avatar to focus on the West. 

Baba was born in British India in 1894. London was the new Rome of that period. 

Dr. Chakradhar Deshmukh

Baba's Discourses were worked up from his notes taken by Dr. Chakradhar Deshmukh, a professor of philosophy with his Ph.D. in both Western and Eastern philosophy from the University of London. 

In 1944, at the Breton Woods Conference, the capital of the new Anglo-American Empire was officially moved to the USA. 

In 1955 God Speaks was published in New York in English.

While Baba toured the world during his lifetime, he spent his longest continuous periods in the U.K., the U.S.A. and Australia, all English speaking countries.

All of Baba's books were originally published in English. 

In his lifetime the majority of Baba's followers were in India and the English speaking Western countries. 

At the time of Mohammad the seats of world power were the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) and the Persian Empire (Persia). England at that time was only a collection of brawling Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, far from being a major world power. The Americas and Australia had not been discovered by most of the world yet and did not have writing or the wheel. 

So, if one considers what locations had the greatest international influence at the time, it makes sense that the Avatar would focus for the first time on the Western Empires. 

Baba in the Los Angeles Times 1956

I say this because in recent centuries the West has advanced materially, all of which occurred since Mohammad, but it has been left pitiably behind in regard to spiritual philosophy. 

Non-dualism was developed in India in the 8th century and in Muslim Spain in the 12th century. But the Americas and Europe are still struggling with pitiful issues like the problem of evil as left off by Saint Augustine in 5th century Roman Empire -- where it has only stagnated since. And it is frankly now grossly behind.

I believe that due to Baba's intellectual influence through his books, the Western world will now begin to catch up in the coming centuries.

What I Now Think the Future of the Baba World in the West Is

I've been watching this Baba world since I was four years old when our family heard about Meher Baba from another family of Baba lovers, the Rileys. 

When I was six years old, our family moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where we rented a house for a year as our new house was being built on the Meher Spiritual Center. We all moved in when I was seven. Here is a picture of me and my three sisters right after moving in.

Me and my three sisters in our new house on the Meher Center, 1966

It has been 60 years since that time. I have watched a lot happen and have some thoughts. Of me and my three siblings I am the only one that today believes in Meher Baba. I wrote a straightforward philosophical argument for why I still believe in Baba which you can read here. 

But the subject today is where I think the future of the Baba world -- the world of people who take Baba as the Avatar -- is headed in the near future. My idea of where it is going may surprise some people. 

The world is moving from a time of Empires and centralized world powers vying for authority over the planet to a time known as the multi-polar world. This is a world of unity in diversity, a time when small and large nations respect one another, and respect each other's sovereignty. How long it will take this new fairer world to materialize no one can say, but we are well into that transition. We are bound to see bumps along the way.

I see the same happening to Baba's followers. Rather than continued efforts to corral each other under a centralized authority, groups of followers of different stripes will feel free to go their own way, and interact peacefully with other groups. This is how mystical schools have always conducted themselves. Religions quarrel. Mystics share notes.

Take Sufi orders for example. Google says:

There is no exact official number of Sufi orders in the world today. While there are dozens of major, historically recognized orders, sub-branches and localized lineages mean the true count runs into the hundreds.

Why don't they fight? The reason is simple. The motivation to rule over others simply is not found in the mystical temperament. 

I see Baba groups of the future like this. This means that different groups may interpret Baba in different ways. Some may take Baba as a prophet, others as the Avatar, others as a philosopher. Others may see themselves as Christian, yet adopt parts of what Baba taught -- gradually integrating some of his teaching into their own.

As for the Meher Spiritual Center where I grew up, I see maintaining such a huge unnecessary piece of property increasingly impractical. I can easily see future generations selling off most of that beach front property, worth billions on the commercial market, and donating it to charity. That would be an event that would garner headlines, and set an enormous precedent for the kind of selflessness and compassion Baba's teaching inspired in his followers. I imagine a couple acres of it, adjoining Briarcliffe Acres and encompassing Dilruba, Meher Abode, and a relocated Saroja reading room remaining as a small easily maintained place of pilgrimage -- not a place where you stay and pay rent.

That is the sum of my personal vision. When I think of what Baba left behind of great importance, I think of his teachings. Baba devoted more than half of his Last Will and Testament to the copyrights of his written works. I see the future as a time of study and consideration of his words, of many schools of thought cooperating, sharing guest speakers, and generally getting along.

What of any groups that tried to establish themselves as a centralized authority? I see them as immediately derided as clownish imposters. For there simply is no way to get around the fact that Baba clearly stated he did not want such a thing. The newsreel of Baba stating this below is one of the most famous films of him ever recorded, and one of the only ones with sound.

 

Paramount screened the newsreel in 500 cinemas in England and more than 3000 in America. The first showing was in London on 14 September 1932.

So that pretty much sums up my opinion about the future of the Baba world in the West 

Obviously Baba's Trust in India will continue to perform its stated mission to preserve his teachings, maintain his samadhi as a place of pilgrimage, provide charitable, medical, and educational services, and advance his message of love, oneness, and compassion. 

So, why couldn't people do such a simple thing in the past? Until quite recently, say the last 200 years or so, most people in the world were illiterate. And books, when they were available, were extremely expensive. In lieu of people owning books, most devotional people memorized hymns and prayers. That and attending churches and mosques and listening to sermons.

But today, 4 out of 5 people in the world can read and write. And books are very inexpensive and even available for free in libraries. Baba's writing can be viewed on almost any cell phone simply by going to the Meher Baba Trust free online library. So the time when people had to amass together and rely on literate scholars and priests to tell them what Baba said and to interpret it is gone. Of course, there will always be a place for those who have studied certain works more closely, or who have an education that adds further context to what Baba wrote. But, such experts have always played a roll in mystical traditions.

As for the bulk of humanity who are not so inclined to study or learn new ideas, there will always be the major religions, along with churches, mosques, priests and imams. And of course there will always be atheists.

Racepath and the Sham Charities that Profit from it

Racepath is one of Myrtle Beach's oldest and most tight-knit historically Black neighborhoods. It is a unique "donut hole" of unincorporated Horry County entirely surrounded by the city of Myrtle Beach, located between Robert M. Grissom Parkway and Highway 501.

Jurisdictional Challenges: Because Racepath is in unincorporated Horry County, it relies on county police, fire/rescue, and services. This has historically led to longer emergency response times and challenges with basic infrastructure (such as lack of city trash pick-up).

Ongoing Revitalization: Horry County and local nonprofits have launched ongoing initiatives to fix this. Phase II upgrades—including new sidewalks, resurfaced roads, better street lighting, and improved drainage—are designed to bring the area’s infrastructure up to par with the surrounding city limits.

Racepath Community Learning Center: At the heart of the neighborhood is the Racepath Community Learning Center (managed by the nonprofit Phoenix Renaissance Inc.). It serves as a vital educational and cultural hub, offering after-school programs, early learning, and summer camps for local youth.

Community Values: The community operates on four core pillars: resilience, unity, property, and empowerment.

The Meher Spiritual Center, a nonprofit with reported assets over twenty million dollars, has been claiming to help "revitalize" the Racepath community for over sixty years. The above photos are recent, raising the specter that the help the Center claims to be giving is a public relations and fund raising ploy and nothing else.

The Meher Center: An Organization in Search of a Purpose

The Mission Statement for the Avatar Meher Baba Trust in India reads:

to preserve his universal teachings, maintain his Tomb (Samadhi) as a place of pilgrimage, provide charitable, medical, and educational services, and advance his message of love, oneness, and compassion.

The Mission Statement for the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, U.S.A. reads:

to maintain a non-sectarian retreat for rest, meditation, and spiritual renewal.

Here I want to discuss the differences between these two missions, and how the very different inception of these two nonprofit organizations account for it.

The original stated purpose of the Meher Center, by the two women who proposed the idea to Baba, was:

his messages could be conveyed to other centers throughout the world. And if he were more publicly known, enthusiastic workers would have a chance to actively spread his messages among the general public.

In addition it would create work for the women who would come.

For ourselves, it is not necessary; but it will be necessary for the other Western women who will be coming.

This was 1938, the same year Bill Wilson and Bob Smith formed Alcoholics Anonymous as a nonprofit entity in New York City. The purpose of AA as an established organization headquartered in New York was to serve as a central administrative structure for the fellowship. This was the same thinking used by the women who proposed to Baba establishing a Center for him. Such a "Universal Center," as they called it, would serve as a kind of central clearing house for sub-chapters around the world. 

They must have imagined women sitting at typewriters responding to queries and mailing out literature.

That conception made sense in 1938, but no longer does. What a room full of women was required to accomplish in those days can now be done with a simple website. For instance, all of Baba's books and messages can be downloaded freely from the Avatar Meher Baba Trust website administered from India. In addition, all of his books are available to order on Amazon. Finding out the essentials of Baba's life can be looked up in a moment on Wikipedia, and home movies of him can be viewed on YouTube, as well as many other free platforms.

The Meher Center in South Carolina was established in 1944. Baba visited it in 1952, '56, and '58. The claim that it was his "home in the West" comes from correspondence by one of its founders, Elizabeth Patterson, and does not originate in anything Baba said. Baba's home was his own house in Meherazad, India.

Meher Baba's house in India from 1944-1969

So, now let's look at the current Mission Statement of the Meher Center.

to maintain a non-sectarian retreat for rest, meditation, and spiritual renewal.

The idea people need a retreat for "spiritual renewal" is New Age. You will never find any similar concept in any of Baba's own teachings. This reflects the conditioning, culture, and lifestyles of the women who established the Center.

Now download the original Charter for the Center, with amendments, dated 1959 here.

I wish to point out some interesting things. Apparently by Baba's order, the word "conservation" was removed from the set of purposes. See the second page headed Amendments to Chartered Purposes of Meher Spiritual Center, Inc, item (a).  

Today, conservation is claimed to be one of the main purposes of the Center. They are currently planning to build a multi-million dollar 'archive' to hold and conserve things such as the Center's gondola.

The Italian gondola in storage on the Meher Center

This was a gondola purchased by Elizabeth from a World's Fair and Meher Baba never road in it. It was simply for atmosphere.

But of even greater interest is the second added amendment in the same document, which was definitely added by Meher Baba's personal request. It is a provision for how the Center's assets are to be distributed when the Center is eventually dissolved, or as the provision words it, "in the event of the dissolution of the corporation." This, it states, should include scientific, educational, religious or charitable organizations, trusts or community chests.

Now compare this final provision requested by Baba in 1959 to his own words when the idea for a Universal Center was originally broached by the Center's founders in 1938.

For ordinary people involved in organizations, definite plans are necessary to maintain the organizations according to the funds available. For this, plans are to be made in advance, all arranged ahead, to establish the organization and conduct it; otherwise, the whole scheme would fail. But in the case of the Avatar, quite the contrary is true. His methods are strange, peculiar and quite the opposite of the world's. First of all, Avatars do not plan anything, and if at all they do, it is all an outward show, a bluff — all without any sound basis or firm foundation (such as provision of funds, et cetera). All is in the air with the risk of apparent failure at any moment. Yet, they do take the risk and indulge in the game, but their schemes hang in the air! And even if their schemes are going well and are on a sound basis, they may destroy them any moment. Such plans and schemes are created for some definite purpose as a means to a certain end. No sooner the end is achieved, the Avatars and Sadgurus will not continue running them, however flourishing they might be. Once their purpose is served, they are dropped. 

Today, the Meher Center can no longer figure out what its purpose is. It has become a place of cheap nightly rent for "spiritual tourists." It provides cabins much like a hostel does, and as Baba followers age (the average age is 76), the Center reaches out more and more to a New Age customer base that has no genuine interest in Baba or his message.

In fact, it is fast becoming what Baba said such Centers become when they are successful:

"... they form themselves into organizations or societies. For that reason, I create institutions and then dissolve them."

In 20 years the followers of Baba will mostly be gone. You can watch my video on this demographic trend here. There will certainly be some younger ones, but they will not be enough to support a 500 acre retreat with cheap rent. Something will need to be done.

This is a decision only those future aspirants can decide. One idea originally proposed by my daughter Megan, and worked up by us together, is that the Center be transformed into a botanical garden and raise and sell tea to support itself instead of renting cabins. Then, each year a Beads on One String Festival is held, with guests housed off center and visiting each day. Each annual festival would be dedicated to another Avataric religion, with special guests and unique culturally appropriate decoration, dress, and entertainment. This would celebrate our unity in diversity and keep the focus centered on God, in all His many garbs.

Or the land of the Center could be sold, and the money distributed to charities as Baba had specified in the Amendment he ordered by included in its charter. Obviously a small portion could be preserved as a memorial, including the couple of acres that now surround Dilruba and Meher Abode. And the Saroja reading room could be moved near them. This way it could remain as a place of pilgrimage.

Saroja Reading Room

In 1932 Baba said: 

No Spiritual Master brings religion to the world in the form it eventually assumes. His very presence is a blessing and radiates spirituality. He imparts it to others by personal contact. The so-called religions are an effort to commemorate that association with a great Spiritual Master, and to preserve his atmosphere and influence. It is like an archeological department trying to preserve things which only resuscitate the past. The living spirit being absent, religions or organizations gradually lose their glamour. The result is a mental revolt against the established order. Something more substantial and practical is required which expresses the life of the spirit. (Lord Meher, 1986 print edition, p. 1616)