What's Growing in Zen's Gardner's Garden?

What's Growing in Zen's Garden?

One nice summer afternoon when I was about ten years old; my twelve year old sister and I were aimlessly killing time in our suburban backyard.  Dad was out getting the essentials for a backyard barbecue and mom was next door visiting with our neighbors.  Hearing an odd whistle we looked toward the gate to see it was the local paperboy, wanting our attention.  My sister walked over to talk to him, to see what he wanted.  I ignored them and kept playing with the dog.

Just a few minutes later I heard my sister scream loudly, and not a good scream either.
Dashing around the corner of the house I could see the paperboy attacking my sister, and ripping her clothes off as she desperately fought him off the best she could.  I understood all I needed to in that moment, and without thinking much about it I grabbed a stock of firewood off the woodpile and ran to help my sister.  So intent on his goal, the paperboy never saw my approach, or what hit him.  I smacked him as hard as I was able to with that piece of firewood, right up alongside his pervert head, laid him out like a wet sack on a slab.  Just then, the kid's luck ran out as our dad walked around the corner to see what all the commotion was about on this nice summer afternoon.  We didn't have to tell dad what happened, he could see for himself.  I'll never forget the look on that kid's face when he looked up to see my hulking father standing over him.

I was certain sure he was gonna kill that kid and bury the body under the woodpile, but he didn't.  In fact, he didn't even call the cops.  He knew this kid, and his parents, so for reasons I didn't understand then, and still don't; it was all hushed up, and nothing was ever done about it - like it never happened. 

But it did happen, it's happening still; every day around the world.  Whether its teachers having sexual relations with our children, or pedophile priests abusing & violating young boys with the tacit approval of the pope; child abuse in all of its ugly forms is rampant throughout this world and for the most part the subject is still being ignored and swept under the carpet, and I still don't understand why??

Perhaps the very worst form of pedophilia is when it is done under color of authority or assumed righteousness; such as with teachers, pastors and priests.  Those who hold themselves up to be admired and respected in positions of trust: who then prey upon our vulnerable, defenseless children are the very lowest and despicable form of the deviant pedophile. 

It was thru my morning emails the other day when I first read about what is now a breaking story across the alternative media world: Zen Gardner's admission that for nearly thirty years of his life he was one of the leaders of the child abuse cult known as Children of God, aka The Family, aka The Family International.  It's now been disclosed that Don Ferguson, aka "Zen Gardner" rose in the ranks of the cult being one of it's leaders, and their media chief in charge of "Image Management" and public relations, in other words, a professional liar as well as pedophile.

His job was to conceal the ongoing child abuse, and paint a rosy picture of the cult as wholesome.  It appears that he did such a good job he even forgot the depth of his own depravity because he now claims to have had no knowledge of the child abuse, and claims he himself is a victim.  C'mon Don, that's just cowardly dude!  You don't rise thru the ranks over 30 years to become one of the leaders without knowing exactly who was doing what to whom and when.  You don't become media chief in charge of image management unless you know the ugly truth, and are in fact totally complicit in it.  Your job was to hide the truth from the world, dress it up as something healthy & wholesome.  If you are now admitting you were there for all those years, fess up in full, it's good for the soul brother; and right about now I'd say your dark soul needs all the help it can get!

With a background in cult child abuse you'd be prone to think such a person would do his best to limit public exposure of any kind; but instead Don learned a few new age buzz words & catch phrases, maybe thumbed thru "Be Here Now" and turned himself into Zen Gardner then went hunting on the internet's alternative media cadre with his website so appropriately named Just Wondering?  I'll bet a whole lot of people are doing just exactly that right now, wondering WTF? 

It took me a little while to get my head around it the morning I first heard.  I'd just opened my email after pouring my first coffee of the day.  Still rubbing the sleep from my bleary eyes, despite what I read, my mind was seeing that Zen & family had been captured by some south American cult!  I guess that's how much I didn't want to believe it.  You see, almost four years ago now I was contemplating starting a blog, and was a somewhat frequent visitor to his site.  After I'd commented on a few articles here & there, Zen emailed me saying he liked my style.  When I told him I was thinking about writing a blog, he encouraged me to write something, and submit it.  He posted my first article, and many more afterwards; he sent my stuff to other editors, I got noticed because of Zen. We became friends.  In time I had to walk away from Zen, as I could no longer overlook his loose affiliation with the truth in a few matters; & now I wish I'd never heard his name because then I wouldn't have this ugly feeling about one who was once a friend. 

That happens a lot with this guy.  For a while there, a nice little cyber community seemed to hang out at Zen's site, and it was kinda fun.  Then gradually I noticed some old timers just dropping away into oblivion, even as new personas would crop up to exchange thoughts in the 'garden'.  I dropped away as well, so did a lot of others.  This one goon would show up real brash & bold, and funny at first.  Before long this goon started making comments that were beyond rude, they were sexist and possibly even racist in nature, and Zen encouraged him, they became buddies.  That's when I left, when I saw thru a crack in Zen's facade and caught just a glimpse of the man behind the keyboard.

The Zen Gardner franchise is little more than an online cult.  He has his favorite followers who adore him and keep his commercialized website active with mindless chatter.  It was a while after I cut ties with "Zen" that I began to notice that he never really writes anything new or significant.  Every post he 'writes' is just re-hashed variations on stuff he's already posted.  He moves the paragraphs around a bit, sticks in a different image or two, changes the title; and that's about it.  He churns out a steady concoction of pop-new-age-psycho-babble mixed with noble sounding but meaningless tripe.  Always running about yelling "Shark, Shark," but never gets his feet wet.  His tirades have no substance because it's all a front.   There's no "there" there.

He's not the top cheerleader for the age of Aquarius; he's a cyber pied piper preying on the recently awakened spiritual seekers hungry for knowledge and leadership; and he is abusing & exploiting them as certainly as he did those children of god all those years ago.  It kinda makes me wonder just exactly what Zen is growing in his garden? 

I spent a while reading thru 75 some odd comments following his "My missing years" post and as expected, all but one lone commenter only had words of love and forgiveness for their spiritual guru.  That says a couple of things.  Obviously Don is only posting the favorable comments from selected followers, with but a single dissenter.  Seems kinda suspicious.

 Beyond that however lies a much deeper truth about how cults work and perhaps reminds us that the word Fan derives from and is a shorter version of fanatic.  There was a very rambling comment from a woman who claimed to have been born into the COG cult which seemed to be her way of claiming impartial status or something, yet even she echoed the diluted admission that not every child was abused, and not every leader knew.  Brainwashing, simple as that.  Happens all the time.

 It happened to someone I love, so I know very well indeed just how twistedly convincing pedophiles can be in justifying their diddling deeds.  They are masters of deception, like a chameleon; blending-in to seem part of the normal environment, so their prey never sees them until it's too late. 
I don't care if the man walks on water and feeds the starving; doesn't erase what he did in his past, doesn't make up for or balance it out in any way.  As one of his adoring fans put it "Your karma is clean Zen".  Do you now see my point about the brainwashing?  I wonder how many of his avid followers spent a single hour researching the COG, looking for the complete truth.  The first few minutes was enough to turn my stomach; how much could an avid fan tolerate?  Probably not much would be my guess.

Child abuse is a stain on your soul that may just be permanent for all I know, but I'm reasonably sure that coddling comments from the brainwashed kool aide drinkers won't balance that kind of karma.  Almost a third of those 75 comments seemed to come from other cult abuse victims who totally understand and forgive.  I told you is was rampant all over the world!!  They have to live in their little bubble world of "it never happened" in order to function at any level day to day.  I suppose it is the only way they can keep a bit of sanity about them. 

Using their own words, those 74 readers with positive comments seemed to say with a sense of unison, that "what Zen has done for the spiritual community makes up for all those long years of committing child abuse, and covering it up."  Where do these people acquire their sense of values from?  I am all about the power of forgiveness as a tool for spiritual growth and development.  Forgiveness; as in a victim of child abuse may choose to embrace the vibration of forgiveness, is kinda up to the individual who was abused to hold any value or merit.  Forgiveness by brainwashed fans holds neither!  I'm just wondering how quick to forgive those fans would be if Zen sexually abused their children.  Would it be OK on account of how much Zen has done for the spiritual community online?  Or is it more a factor of time, as in it was all so long ago who cares?  I suspect that for every life he helped ruin, someone somewhere cares, damn it!
So, the story is out there now, Zen Gardner used to be a leader in a child abuse cult. It is simply never OK to sexually abuse children, ever, period.  Everyone knows this!  There are some who will attempt to convince us that pedophiles have an illness.  Bullshit! Pedophiles are sexual predators who prey on every child they are able to.  There is no rehabilitation or healing from that mindset because every one released from prison offends again.  Predators, simple as that.

So, the story is out there now, Zen Gardner used to be a leader in a child abuse cult. It is simply never OK to sexually abuse children, ever, period.  Everyone knows this!  There are some who will attempt to convince us that pedophiles have an illness.  Bullshit! Pedophiles are sexual predators who prey on every child they are able to.  There is no rehabilitation or healing from that mindset because every one released from prison offends again.  Predators, simple as that. 

Do you know what happens when a child abuser gets tossed into prison?  They are pariahs who are subjected to random beatings around the clock by other inmates; and that's just for openers, it gets much worse.  I understand they get a vivid idea of how it feels to be helpless and abused in all the worst ways.  What goes around-comes around as they say.  Even societies worst criminals hate pedophiles, because they're predators, not just ill.  Pedophiles in prison are so outcast they often must be kept in solitary for their own protection.  I say they deserve NO protection, toss them all into gen-pop, then put it all on pay-per-view.  That includes Zen Gardner.  No sympathy for the devil here.  I sometimes catch flak for speaking my truth without filters, "it's just how I roll."  When it comes to those who prey upon children, the gloves come off, especially in Zen's case . 
As far as I am concerned "Zen Gardner" is a confessed child abuser, liar, a fraud, and a deceiver who re-invented himself as a star to take his lifelong predation global via the internet.  Zen Gardner, global predator.  Has kind of a ring to it.  If it were up to me I say he's lost his Earth privileges, and needs to be immediately put aboard a rocket and shot into the sun; then he'd really be a star!


Alas, the halls of power here and abroad are filled with sociopathic pedophiles and no matter how much exposure the subject gets they almost always stay in power, nothing much ever happens to any of them.  The same with the clergy.  It's as if they're under some kind of protection.  See what we get for sweeping it under the rug for a generation or two...it becomes close enough to normal that people just don't seem to care; and if that isn't just a little spooky to you, I submit that you need a checkup from the neck up







Full post permission granted Thanks to   Chautauqua    at: http://augureye.blogspot.com

The Cult of Zen Gardner: A Monster in Disguise

10 Aug, 2016  in Society  by Soren Dreier, Author: Steve – Philosophers Stone

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“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”

– Edmund Burke

By Steve – Philosophers Stone

Physically Sick

I received some devastating news last week from a close friend, a healer who had been taken into the confidence of the well known and respected author, speaker, radio host and interviewee commonly known as Zen Gardner. A few days earlier, after he’d told her that he’d been a member and leader of a cult for 27 years, not knowing anything about the cult, she did some research. What she discovered over the next few days had traumatised her to the point of physical illness as she began to understand the depth of abuse and cruelty to children practiced by the organization and tried on her own to come to grips with the fact that her friend Zen had immersed himself in it for almost 3 decades.

We should have known

Despite his personable appearance, this wordsmith has left devastation wherever he has been. Several well respected alternative community champions, dropped him because they felt that “something was not right”, while others, including some very well known and celebrities on their own merit haven’t yet got close enough to him to witness the dark side of Zen because it’s masked with a joyous good guy facade. The truth is much darker, as I will reveal.

I have witnessed a couple of the “falling outs” between friends of Zen’s and always tried to stay impartial, not taking sides, but staying friends with both parties. When they’d escaped “the cult of Zen” they felt a huge sense of relief, as though a great burden had been lifted, though not knowing exactly what it was – they couldn’t quite put their finger on it.

What could I do?

After reading the e-mail in which Zen disclosed his involvement in this sordid organization, and talking my friend through the anguish and cognitive dissonance she was experiencing, my first action was to do some research. What was uncovered is shocking and made me so angry and ashamed that I too could be taken in by what turns out, in my view, to be a monster in disguise.

I knew I would have to bring this to the public arena, but what could I expect as a relative unknown in the alternative community (I always preferred to work behind the scenes, digging into the reasons and solutions behind the chaos wrought upon humanity at the hands of the psychopaths and their sycophantic servants). After all, I would be facing off against the established guru and cult leader, Zen Gardner – and his avid fans.

Twenty Seven Years

Currently going by the name of Don Ferguson, but known to all on the internet as Zen Gardner, he had joined the “Children of God”, which later changed its name to “The Family”, at the age of 22 to escape an abusive childhood. There he was to remain for 27 years working his way up the ranks to become a leader and a teacher in the notorious cult.

Zen always blames his youth – but 27 years…

Zen says he was 22 when he joined. Do the math: 22+27 = 49. Forty nine, and Zen paints the picture of youthful naiveté. You grow in 27 years, unless the conditions of the Cult with all of its abuse suits your soul… or lack of.

The conditions there appeared to have served him just fine, and being ‘promoted’ as a leader in the totalitarian Cult – not just a benevolent OUTSIDER (as Zen paints himself to be in his written disclosure). A leader in a controlling hierarchical environment where everybody has something on everybody else.

So I’m very sorry to have to ask this:

Zen – how much paedophilia did you witness in your 27 years? And yet you stood by and even participated in damage control.

How much abuse did you partake in?

It is simple Cult mechanics Zen, and you should know that, and so you are trapped by your own logic – the logic of ANY Cult.

This is so far out there. He paints himself ONLY as a lone hero trying to clean it up from the inside.

Read More

You put children in harms way, I do not care who does that and will not be silent about such matters. I know Steve very well and how much torment he went through writing this. This is true – please do not even start to excuse it.
-SD



Related: Chautauqua – What’s Growing in Zen’s Garden?



Thanks to: http://sorendreier.com

Well, I can honestly say this one surprised me this morning when I first read it pre-coffee. Hours later I am still stunned. I know.... nothing should surprise or stun us these days. facepalm

Zen started his site not long before this one started and I was also a frequent commenters like Chat and Peaks back then. I also stopped commenting there a few years back as I no longer felt a connection to do so. Though I still feature Zen here I do get what Chat means in his article.


So as I try to assimilate I was just wondering what you all might have to say on this?
Does this change how you view Zen's contribution to the so called awakened ones?

Here is the post from Zen that started this all:


My Missing Years


By Zen Gardner -
08/08/2016



by Zen Gardner
I’ve deliberately avoided this subject as it drags up so much controversy and a lot of traumatic memories besides the deep shame involved, but it’s time to lay it on the table. It certainly aligns with all that is happening vibrationally as well as huge events and changes in my own personal life as this shift turns up the heat, so here comes.

Following my original wake up and getting deep into spirituality and looking for how best I could change the world, at 22 years old I joined the Children of God, later to be known as The Family. Many of my generation tried various alternative lifestyles, new religious movements and the like, most of which turned out to be cults in one form or another, as was my case. I didn’t fully escape until 1999 after many years of trying to change the group from the inside because I felt I had to give it my best shot before leaving, having invested so much of my heart and life in it and what I thought it stood for during those many years and wanting to leave with a clear conscience.
Sadly the cult descended into heavier and heavier control systems and strange doctrines and serious endemic abuse that appeared as the years progressed into the later stages. If you’ve never been in such an insular setting with heavy duty militant religious indoctrination 24/7 this may not make any sense to you.
People I talk to personally about this era of my life always ask, “Why didn’t you just leave?” A good question, but unfortunately it’s a form of mind and spirit control that convolutes your reasoning and even basic sense of ethics as the programming progresses and wraps around your mind and soul, always justified by “God’s will” and “we are the endtime spiritual revolutionaries going where others have never dared to go” in order to pioneer a new world supposedly based on the literal teachings of Jesus, updated of course by a modern prophet.

But Jesus left the house. Doctrines, social pressure, intimidation, and literal brainwashing take the place of misplaced altruism. An awful lot of people suffered over the years while putting on a smiling face and continuing to do “good works” and “spread the gospel” despite the pain and eventual split characters that inevitably developed.
Worst of all the children suffered. And many horribly. Regimented school systems overarched their upbringing, with abusive leaders and teachers getting away with horrific things in the name of discipline, despite the fact there were many loving and wonderful people. That of course won’t make the “news’, nor those of us who tried to right the ship time and again, but that’s beside the point.
I was in a position of leadership in my later stages and it was very hard to witness and endure what I saw and experienced, as well as watching my own children suffer who are still in recovery decades later. Leadership was just executing policy from the top and the latest doctrines – or else. It was all oh so polite most of the time, but the punishments for rebellion and criticizing the highest inner sanctum were severe, and you had to learn to avoid those if you could.
The last stages of the official group were the very worst, where child abuse was taking place as a result of very deviant sexual “revelations” from the “Prophet”. So many were appalled and started planning their escapes, but many were caught in the snare and many innocent children, teens and young adults were abused. I was aware there were incidences and went after abuses in the area I was supervising. But I had no idea of the extent it was going on in top leadership and specialized “training centers”, the horrific details of which I later learned about like many others have in the documentaries and books covering detailed incidences which are available on line. Brace yourself, there’s some very nasty, tragic stuff.
But why didn’t I grab my family and jump on the first bus out of there and blow the whistle on the whole sham? Another carefully planned obstacle was the fact that my children were scattered in other locations and of course no one had any money so that was another control tool and I was in the middle of Brazil. Still, it’s no excuse, just explaining the circumstances, as the system was tightly controlled.
I have lived with deep remorse and shame for what I participated in and my gutless lack of conscious response. That many of these child abusers still run free is a travesty. I contributed to cult exposure efforts while inside and following my exit but I certainly could have done a lot more. Fact was, I wanted distance from it, as fast and as far and as soon as possible. I needed recovery as did my family and loved ones.
To allay anyone’s questions the answer is no, I never participated in any form of child abuse, except being part of a system that was tolerating and even currying it at inner levels. That I own up to, as well as the fact that the training and hierarchical system had become regimented and extremely abusive as well.
I’m sorry if this hurts anyone or you feel betrayed in some way. Many people have dirty laundry that they don’t think needs to be aired for one reason or another, but this is a biggie and you deserve to know this.
There are many like me who’ve been through similar traumatic long and short term experiences and then keep it silent. It’s very hard to convey the degree of spirit and mind control something like this wields and the resultant remorse and shame for having had anything to do with these prolonged abuse programs. Cults and isms are full of people from dysfunctional families looking for a real family and a co-creative community. Unfortunately they almost all go south as power corrupts, and spiritual power is the the most powerful – and controlling.
If anything this has armed me mightily against these types of systems and has been a driver of my desire to help trapped minds and hearts escape the “snare of the fowler”. I’m not proud about any of this but it’s been my life and I have to deal with it, and am determined to spend my life helping to heal others while exposing horrific dynamics like these.
This may not be as strident as some would hope who are indignant at the atrocities perpetrated by this cult. I’m telling this from my personal experience and years of having to deal with it.
If this is too much to take on board I understand, but please don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. The truths I’ve shared are stand alone and agenda free, except to do my part to help towards the liberation and enlightenment of humanity. I’ll continue to do so, whatever comes of this. That really doesn’t matter. The truth can defend itself just fine.
Much love always and thanks for listening,
Zen
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ZenGardner.com


Thanks to Zen at: http://www.zengardner.com
http://www.oom2.com/t40392-my-missing-years

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