r the start of the "Statement," Rama lists the names
of "credible persons who can verify the truth of my assertions." I
glanced at the names. "Karen Lever." True, she had been accepted at a
number of medical schools, including Stanford. She *was* extremely
bright. But as Rama's mouthpiece, she was the one who had threatened
dissenters with serious harm. "Dr. Wayne Surdam" and "Dr. Ermano
Rambaldi." True, they were an award-winning UC Berkeley scholar and a
UCLA geologist respectively. True, they *had* taken the study of
spirituality to heart. But they had never gotten close enough to Rama
to observe his *other* side. "Richard Loftin." I did not know him.
But during nightmare weekend in Seattle, he reportedly sat across from
the three tripping women and giggled.

Rama continues in the "Statement":

Annie Eastwood alleges that we had a single
sexual encounter over five years ago in my
home in Malibu, California. She has told the
press that in hindsight, she now views the
sexual encounter we had together as forced.
She has alleged that during the course of an
evening together I brandished a hand gun. She
then states that she had sex with me out of fear.

Rama then claims:

... at no time during our evening together did
I brandish a hand gun.

Anne looked up from the "Statement" and said, "But Rama explicitly told
us at the meeting in Malibu that he *did* take out a hand gun that
night with Annie."

"Maybe," I replied, "Rama is playing off the difference in meaning
between *holding* and *brandishing* [waving] a hand gun."

"What Annie perhaps did not know," Anne added, "and what Rama fails to
mention, is that he nearly *always* slept with a gun by his bed."

Rama writes:

Ms. Eastwood continued to attend my seminars
for another year after our night together.
This would not seem to be likely behavior on
the part of a person who was allegedly forced
to have sex at gunpoint.

"No," I thought. "But perhaps on the part of a person who has been
psychologically and sexually manipulated and abused."

Rama continues:

Now, five years after the event and in concordance
with a group of persons affiliated with Cult
Awareness Network, she has decided that a gun
was present during our encounter and that she
wa