AOL USA president plugging for his book and his master!
Michael Fischman who seems has no joy or real laughter left in him, but huge reservoir of ego, after years of manipulation and sick psychological games played on him by his master SriSri, to mold him into a puppet, is now trying to convince us through his book what a great spiritual Master SriSri is. He looks and sounds so fake in his promotional video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNza6cG0VQg , like a zombie robot churning out what all brainwashed teachers of SriSri have been trained to tell you. Just another variation of the same theme, i.e. how bad and useless they were before and how SriSri saved them and how wonderful they are now!!
I wonder if in his book, he has written anything about how SriSri would pit him against John Osborne, playing their hatred against each other to his advantage and amusement. I wonder if in it Mickey refers to his numerous affairs, some of them very unethical and inappropriate, using his position of power within AOL (quite common among senior AOL teachers and even some juniors!).
What Mickey cannot hide is his huge ego, having reached acute stage of the illness. In his video and the associated website, stumblingintoinfinity.com, he compares his book to Autobiography of a Yogi and even more:
“Stumbling Into Infinity is part of a long tradition of spiritual memoirs that began with St. Augustine’s Confessions, 1,600 years ago. It joins such books as Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and Carlos Castaneda’s Teachings of Don Juan, …”
Somewhere else he compares it to “Eat, Pray, Love”!!
“Think of it as the male version of Eat, Pray, Love, along with a healthy dose of Autobiography of a Yogi.’
Even the subtitle reeks of his ego:
“Stumbling Into Infinity: An Ordinary Man in the Sphere of Enlightenment”
No Mickey, not even in a thousand mile radius of enlightenment, not you, nor your fake guru! He only deceives himself by calling his journey a “blossoming of love and devotion.” He has ended up as a totally obsessed man, full of hatred, ambitions, chained in his soul and body, acting like a dog at his master’s feet, fighting for a scrap of bread or some attention from his master. Totally stripped out of any humanity or authenticity, he fancies himself as an inspiration:
“I hope my writings are an inspiration to experience a life of greater truth, fulfillment, and love.”
So sad to see Deepak Chopra writing a praise of this book. Deepak, who of all people, should well know the inner sagas of gurus like Maharishi and Ravi Shankar! And this one, by Carol Kline, made me laugh, her ignorance obvious:
“Ultimately, this book will inspire you to see how much better your life – and the world – can be through meditation, service to others, and deep gratitude.”
Service to others? Which service to others? Mickey lives off AOL income and SriSri and family live off the money they fleece from people in the name of charity! These people are only serving themselves and their own sick egos! Someone should send this blog’s and Klim’s blogs URLs to Deepak and Carol and tell them to educate themselves before helping to promote a sick organization, a sick guru and his sick “president”!
There is no mention of where the proceeds of this book will go to, to AOL coffers or to Mickey, even though one can safely assume it will be to Mickey’s and that the book will be promoted heavily through AOL network. At least let’s be grateful he doesn’t claim the proceeds will go to Taihiti youth, not yet anyway!!
Mickey has been working on this book for years and years. He had to write and re-write it again and again as SriSri was never happy with any version, causing great frustration for Mickey. I wonder if the blessing for it was finally granted now to counteract some of the negative publicity SriSri has been receiving this year.
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Beyond The Art of Living 
MF is a real fake. Unpleasant energy to be around. Browsed through the book. It’s a dull narrative of his mediocre past told in a poorly disguised self-congratulatory tone with paraphrased basic course knowledge sutras ineffectually thrown in here and there, as if they were some kind of original insightful discoveries.
This is how the press release of the book describes Ravi Ravi.
“multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (who got warring parties to lay down their arms after a bloody decades-long struggle).”
Pathetic frauds. And where did he make warring parties lay down their arms. Ravi Ravi as part of the sangh parivar of the hindu right was fanning flames of violence in Gujarat and Ayodya. As far as Kashmir and Srilanka is concerned. The srilankan army decimated the LTTE by force to bring in peace. Kashmir is as usual burning. Ravi Ravi is on no consequence and even never mentioned anywhere in any of the news about these places.
AOL has resigned itself to calling Ravi Ravi as multiple nominee for nobel prize. BTW Nobel nominees are never announced and Ravi Ravi was never in the recokoning inspite of AOL’s high pitched and highly funded PR.
Yes, I saw that too and thought exactly like you. That will be subject of another post though! RS’ expertise is creating conflicts and feeding off them. In any conflict his only interest is how he can make some fame and money for himself, to the detriment of those involved.
What’s with the praise for Deepak Chopra? He’s no better than these gurus, with his “quantum spirituality” and other fancy sounding nonsense, out of which he makes his millions from gullible people.
http://www.apenotmonkey.com/2010/03/08/dee-quack-chopra/
If I were a real guru, I’d consider an endorsement from Deepak Chopra a certificate of failure in my life.
If you have a look at the page for the book on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Into-Infinity-Ordinary-Enlightenment/dp/1600376487/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280908219&sr=1-1
you will notice in the section “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” such classics as “Autobiography of a Yogi”, “Vasistha’s Yoga” and “Living with the Himalayan Masters”.
How on earth did they manage to do this, especially given that the book isn’t even out yet?
Scooby,
Eight people have reviewed the book even before the book is released. Guess who would have done this. The reviewers are no doubt the author himself along with other brain dead aol devotees.
SSHS – yes you’re absolutely right, in fact I noticed this after I posted the comment.
It looks as if someone (probably the author) sent round a “review template” and asked devotees to write something similar to it. Some appear to have just copied and pasted the template verbatim. Either that, or the same person wrote all the reviews.
Are the reviewers AoL teachers? In my brief stint with AoL I saw this guy a couple of times. No one had anything good to say about him. I heard the comment he was mean and disturbed more than once. I heard teachers from my area talk about how difficult he was to deal with and how explosive his temper was. Simple a book I won’t buy or waste my time thinking about. Perhaps that should be considered as my review in the reviewing process.But when did Deepak Chopra become a shill for Ravi Ravi?
with for the 6 out of 8 guys its their first book to ever review(in amazon) 😉
Is there a section in Fishman’s book describing in detail how he once, while at the ashram, having followed SSRS for a good bit, nearly beat one of his fellow AOL teachers to death? (Nearly meaning, he actually beat the woman to a pulp — a ‘lover’s quarrel’.) Does he tell how SSRS protected him by not allowing anyone to go into town to get a doctor for the woman? Does he say how relieved he was that the police were not called? Anywhere else, except perhaps in some village in Afghanistan, he would have been immediately jailed. The lady in question? Does he go into the small detail that the lady in question did not complain herself because she was in shock, bleeding, and couldn’t speak because he had throttled her so severely? If he does explain all of this, then perhaps his book is an authentic telling of how he has improved. If not, then it’s just one more AOL lie to bring in money and to boost some peoples’ ego. That Deepak Chopra endorsed anything written by such a person as Fishman shows how little he actually knows about the organization in spite of private meetings with SSRS and others. Somewhat disgusting.
In the tradition of Autobiography of a Yogi and St. Augustine’s Confessions ? Give me a break.
Those books are honest and truthful accounts – as you can make out from the video this book is for AOL propaganda. They don’t want to sell a book and talk about their experience – they want to sell you the Art of Living course. It’s just promotional material, disguising itself as “confessions”.
Can any recent ex-aol folks tell how much the negative press/blog sites affect AOL business these days. Do they talk about it in closed doors and how to take on these?
AOL is a different world, and money speaks volumes in this organization. It’s money power and muscle power that can make books sell and reviews be written.
I dont want to be judgemental, but it is really sad to compare any book to ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ , which is a Masterpiece.
There’s no stopping AOL now. It’s better to let the organization be- after all, you cannot make people in it ever see your way. Why will they see your way when they are in a different frame of mind? Why should they see another way at all?
The more we see the ‘glory’ of aol, the more we will get distressed. It’s clearly their day so let them have it!
The best thing is to see the true world from our own eyes. And be strong in our belief in the Infinite Force…
Empires have risen and fallen and so have companies (Enron & Worldcom).
Unfortunately along the way many have suffered, and yet out of the ashes like the rising phoenix those will come who will take a stand. To all of you who have spoken out know that you have helped me immensely. The truth just is, nothing more can be added to the ONE to make it more ONE. Once this is understood the process of liberating oneself from this fake organization and its Guru start taking hold. A taste a freedom is all it takes.
“In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to engagement, surprising actions generally lead to victory.” Sun Tzu – The Art of War
If the book is listed on Amazon then we can write reviews as well, and mention the links to this website and Klim’s website. And make reference to the guru papers. Does anyone know if one can delete these reviews.
The little giant has awakened
Perhaps you all can buy the book from amazon, give it a through, well-researched, and clearly written review of it on amazon with the appropriate number of stars, and then return it and get your money back, leaving the review up. People definitely read those reviews.
@Manju, who said:
“There’s no stopping AOL now. It’s better to let the organization be- after all, you cannot make people in it ever see your way. Why will they see your way when they are in a different frame of mind? Why should they see another way at all? The more we see the ‘glory’ of aol, the more we will get distressed. It’s clearly their day so let them have it! The best thing is to see the true world from our own eyes. And be strong in our belief in the Infinite Force…”
As far as stopping Evil, no efforts are futile, because everything is interconnected. Even relatively small effort can bring huge change. This change is already happening. May be that’s why they were in such a hurry to publish Fishman’s book now. So, I don’t see any “glory of aol”, or “their day”; and if you are distressed, who else?
You write that AOL members are “in a different frame of mind”, meaning brainwashed, right? “Why should they see another way at all?”- because in their deep stupor they increase and spread Evil. Every soul liberated or protected from AOL slavery is already a great achievement. And if someone, feels that it is his/her duty to fight Evil, they do it because they simply follow their Way, or “Infinite Force”, as you call it; if it is not your way, it’s OK. These people are usually not many and deserve deep respect for their courage. Results of their actions will sooner or later manifest to bring things into balance.
F***ing fraud propaganda…please….”stumbling into infinity”….yeah right. How about another book MF – “stumbling into millions”? Perhaps you could let us know how to make millions with simply the grace of a guru, without any sweat and hard work.
I am disgusted and sick of such orgs. that promise instant and easy liberation. One look at MF’s eyes and you know that he’s not been meditating at all! Go look at the tibetan monks or some of the real sannyasis of India and you’ll know what meditators eyes look like!
AoL has a pretty slick mantra – good music, good visuals, huge crowds and ONE MAN in the center of it all. It is bound to draw attention! It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Sorry to burst your bubbles AoL guys, but liberation is not about chanting JGD or hugging SSRS like your best friend. AND please, for crying out loud, name that rotten account of megalomaniac bs as ”my experiences with ssrs” or some other normal thing. “Stumbling into infinity” is only gonna make your pathetic lives all the more crappier…real spiritual progress can’t be “stumbled” upon…you have to give it your everything, just as you would’ve given your all to make it big in madison avenue. I’d appreciate MF as a good businessman, but all this “oh look i’m so holy n lucky coz i found ssrs” crap….gimme a break!!!!
Prairie Princess-lol yes, the reviewers on Amazon are all AoL teachers desperate to be in MF’s good books. They were trained by MF himself and count among his most favored sycophantic parrots.
Many volunteers have read the book. I don’t think the reviews on Amazon etc are manipulated.
I read the book too and it is well written though the focus is on Mikey more than on Guruji. It also mentions the ashram incident where Mikey gets another teacher at the throat in the Bangalore ashram.
A year back mikey had mentioned that the profits would go to AOL. Even if it doesn’t I do feel that he deserves the profits after giving his life to AOL.
It is true that Mikey is has a rough edge to his personality.(atleast that has been my perception) But then each one of us has some areas to improve on.
I support this blog( you can read my other comments on previous posts)
But at the same time I don’t want a character assassination of MF because I believe he is just as blinded as we were before leaving AOL.
I just read the reviews on amazon. No way these are real people. The reviews all have the characteristics of brainwashed AOL zombies shilling for their leader. They all sound like PR propaganda. It’s so obvious, it’s ridiculous. I only despair that many people who haven’t experienced this cult first hand or are not wise enough to see through will be taken by these reviews. Throw in names like other quacks like Deepak Chopra, and you’ve got yourself good sales numbers.
I think most AOL folks would like to write ‘Stumbling into Reality’ at some point in their lives – maybe soon after they realize truth about RS’s scam.
I bet this (Stumbling into Reality) is a good title for KLIM’s book.
I usually never read disgruntled people’s blogs but this one is too much. No basis, no data , just hatred.
Sounds just like the Nazis. Just pure blasphemy by the author with no proof whatsoever. You could be a person who was thrown out of this organization and just venting.
Sorry dude, you need to be more modern and rational. Does not matter what this org is like, but you definitely are fake.
Write a reasonable criticism in bawa blog and see that, brainwashed zombie like you wrote 10s of messages all were posted by skywalker just to so how much you guys are brainwashed beyond any one’s help. Oh yeah you never read disgruntled people’s blogs? O really – based on your logic this is not disgruntled people’s blogs or you just lie on everything? RS lackey’s lack logic whatever they spit out.
modern,rational??????? don’t these words contradict the whole AOL agendas n practices?
may be i’m confused 😉
@Iam sure this will not be posted
It’s ok for a victim to feel like a disgruntled. It’s not empty hatred – there is plenty of proof on this blog – many many first person accounts – go through them, and you’ll see the truth.
Comparing this blog to nazis – really ? If you know even a little bit of history, the organization that behaves like nazis is AOL – but I digress.
Coming to modern and rational – how about expecting the same standards from AOL. They are so caught up in superstitions and spreading myths.
Wow. I wonder if MF wrote his anecdote about the time he almost beat and strangled Rajshree Patel to death – the big AoL secret the few who know swore never to reveal, in conspiracy with their guru (to save everyone’s ass because that, in the world, is called “CRIME”) because he got “jealous” of her rendezvous with another man. I wonder if he wrote about the time he strangled another girlfriend. I wonder how humble and sincere he was in his writing about his “spiritual search” and life. I wonder if he revealed he suffers of constant depression and sicknesses. And finally, I wonder how much they paid or what they negotiated with Mr. Chopra for that short comment. I wonder if someone should write to Deepak and tell him he just endorsed a violent psychotic man who constantly bad-mouths him, considering him a fraud. Anyway, he probably did not even read the book, like he does not write his own!