The love gurus: Sex with swami

A rash of sex scandals involving holy men has many in "new India" questioning an ancient tradition.

Swamis, or Hindu holy men, are getting a bad reputation in India. Several scandals have broken recently involving Hindu holy men and gurus who have committed sex crimes. In this picture, Naga Sadhus, another name for Hindu holy men, queue to have a dip in the waters of the Ganges river during the "Kumbh Mela" or the Pitcher Festival, in the northern Indian town of Haridwar, Feb. 12, 2010.

BANGALORE, India — The Roman Catholic Church isn't alone when it comes to scandal lately.
As the debate rages in the West about the ungodly behavior of godly men, a series of sex scandals involving India’s assortment of god men — called sadhu, baba or swami — is making skeptics out of many Indians.
“Most god men are self-proclaimed, and they are being increasingly outed as hypocrites and fakes,” said Ravi Ghatge, a retired banker in Bangalore. “Then everybody finds out that there is not an iota of spirituality in any of them,” he added.
India has long held a thrall in the Western mind as a land of wandering fakirs and saffron-robed holy men with matted hair. In this birthplace of several leading religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, magic and mysticism still rule.
But rapid urbanization is making the holy men of the old all but disappear from the landscapes of cities and towns.
In their place, a new breed of modern charismatic god men are holding sway, some of them saffron-robed, some of them bejeweled and others sporting wild hair-dos.
Many of them command cult following, run huge ashrams on large expanses of land, own luxury cars, television channels and lavish homes. They flourish as their supporters make large donations in cash and kind. The god men jet set around the country and the world serving their flock of devotees.
But here's the problem. The god men aren't, exactly, godly.
In recent weeks, in New Delhi a holy man called Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakootwale was exposed for running a huge call girl racket with over a 1,000 girls that serviced, among others, politicians and influential people.
In Bangalore, Swami Nithyananda — whose ashram had several branches in the United States and all over the world — was caught on camera having sex with an actor. Even as his shell-shocked devotees called for action, Nithyananda first said he was being framed by a digitally altered video. When a second tape with yet another actor surfaced, he admitted to the incident and fled the ashram with police hot on his tail.
Other swamis have been charged with cheating, rape and child sexual abuse. The wave of scandals involving holy men had one leading newspaper headlining, “baba black sheep, have you any scruples?”
Now middle class India’s mindset is dramatically turning against India’s godmen, says Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalists Association. “The so-called god men don’t want to wear saffron robes anymore because they fear they will be attacked on the streets,” said Edamaruku who has long campaigned against swamis and babas.
His network of over 200 branches Indiawide has exposed many a fraudster swami and fake sadhu. “They are nothing but common thieves and scamsters who exploit the vulnerabilities of the poor and the illiterate,” said Edamaruku. He says he has more viewers for his rationalist exposes on television than all the viewers of India’s 32 religious television channels put together.
On the other side, however, are devotees such as Jayeshwari (who wanted to be identified by a single appellation, her spiritual name), who says she continues to be a staunch follower of Nithyananda.

Convicted sex offender charged

Robert Bridgeman, a twice-convicted sex offender and former high school teacher, had his visit to Niagara Falls extended Saturday when Niagara Regional Police charged the Pickering man with luring a young person over the Internet to a Niagara Falls hotel to have sex.

The 52-year-old former Canadian Football League player appeared in a St. Catharines courtroom Sunday morning where a justice of the peace ordered him to remain in custody until Wednesday, giving him time to contact a lawyer before having a bail hearing.

Once a highly regarded football coach at a London high school, Bridgeman wore a black T-shirt with a sports company logo embroidered on its neckline, blue jeans and just socks on his feet as he stood in the prisoner box during Sunday morning's bail court session. He's fairly tall with a medium build. His hair is short and greyer than it appeared in newspaper pictures taken a decade ago.

Bridgeman and duty counsel W.J. Garry Bracken spoke in hushed voices as they conferred about when he would make his next court appearance.

Justice of the peace Bruce Phillips imposed a publication ban on the victim's identity, banned Bridgeman from contacting the victim or witnesses while in custody, and banned the media from reporting evidence submitted during the bail hearing.

Niagara Regional Police arrested Bridgeman Saturday. They charged him with luring a child and sexual interference.

The charges resulted from an investigation by Niagara Falls detectives and the Internet child exploitation unit whose members were looking into information about a man using the Internet to lure a young person to a Niagara Falls hotel for sex.

Their investigation led to police to a hotel where officers seized what was described as "sexual paraphernalia" and a computer. Police allege the man had on two other occasions visited Niagara Falls, rented a hotel room and had sexual encounters with the youth.

Police did not disclose the age of the alleged victim, whether the young person was a boy or girl, where he or she is from, or which hotel the incidents are alleged to have taken place.

The police statement described Bridgeman as a "convicted sex offender," but did not elaborate.

But the London Free Press published a dozen stories between 2000 and 2004 about Robert William Bridgeman, a former high school teacher and football coach in London, who was convicted of sexual assault and gross indecency against a boy, a family friend, who was under 18. The crimes occurred between 1983 and 1989.

The Free Press reported Bridgeman was 42 when he was charged in 2000. When he was prosecuted for the London incidents, he was working in Pickering at St. Mary Catholic school.

In March 2002, he was sentenced to 18 months. An appeal of those convictions was unsuccessful.

In May 2002, Bridgeman faced more charges for similar offences between 1985 and 1986 -- against a student at the school where he taught. In 2003, he was convicted of gross indecency in the second case and sentenced to four months in jail.

In 2004, the Ontario College of Teachers, which regulates the profession, revoked his licence to teach, denying him the chance to reapply until 2014, according to QMI Agency stories.

Hockey coach in sex abuse case pardoned

One-time junior hockey coach Graham James, seen in 1997, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of teenage players, including ex-NHLer Sheldon Kennedy.
OTTAWA–Graham James, the junior coach convicted of sexually abusing his players in a case that rocked the hockey world, has been pardoned by the National Parole Board, The Canadian Press has learned.
Though the pardon was granted three years ago, it comes to public light only now as a result of a previously unknown accuser contacting Winnipeg police.
A shocked Prime Minister's Office, notified of the pardon, called it a "deeply troubling" development that demands an explanation from the parole board.
James, now 58, pleaded guilty to sexual assault after two of his former teenaged players, including ex-NHLer Sheldon Kennedy, came forward with stories of abuse from 1984 to 1995. James was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison in 1997.
His whereabouts are unknown.
"I'm not forgiving of what is going on here," Kennedy told The Canadian Press Sunday night. "He can go and do whatever he wants to do and he can bluff his employers because nobody knows what his background is because it's erased."
Kennedy added, however, that putting James back in the public spotlight could be a good thing.
"Graham's conviction brought with it a lot of change and his pardon coming to light is only going to bring more change," he said.
The latest accuser, who says his encounter with James preceded Kennedy's by four years, is still deciding whether to follow former NHL star Theoren Fleury in lodging a formal complaint with police.
Fleury went to police in January after publishing a memoir detailing years of alleged abuse by James.
"I'm shocked and mystified," said Fleury in a statement Sunday.
"Obviously nobody was proud of the decision or it wouldn't have been a secret."
The latest accuser spoke to The Canadian Press on condition he not be identified. He was never coached by James but said he was targeted in 1979-80, as a player with prospects.
Now a lawyer, the man said he learned of James's possible pardon through recent discussions with Winnipeg police.
The Canadian Press subsequently discovered that James was pardoned on Jan. 8, 2007. The pardon was signed off by Pierre Dion, a full-time member of the Appeal Division of the National Parole Board who also has a clinical psychology practice in Ottawa with court experience in child protection cases.
Dion was appointed by the Liberals and re-appointed by the Conservatives. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
A pardon does not erase a person's criminal record, but it means the information doesn't show up on checks of the Canadian Police Information Centre, a key law-enforcement database used by police forces.
In the case of someone convicted of serious sex offences, the name is flagged in the CPIC system. According to the parole board, that means details of a conviction would be discovered by a check done when a person applies to work with children or other vulnerable people.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while noting the independence of the parole board, expressed shock the government is learning of the pardon only now.
"The Prime Minister has asked for explanation" said Dimitri Soudas.

Life inside a sex addiction clinic in the UK

Recovering sex addict Danny James: 'Suicide attempts meant there was always someone in the house'

UK sex addiction clinics are reporting a rise in the number of people seeking help, a fact being linked to golfer Tiger Woods admitting his affairs. BBC Reporter Gavin Lee was given access to one of the few sex addiction clinics in the UK.
The group begins in a similar way to how I'd expect an alcoholics anonymous meeting to start.
The clients sit together in a circle, and the first to speak is 27-year-old Danny James from Liverpool. "Hi, I'm Danny. I'm a sex addict."
Danny used to live in Blackpool and speaks openly about how he destroyed his relationship with his girlfriend and daughter because of his addiction.
"You could liken it to a drug. The hit after sex, I'd start to need that feeling more and more. After a while that feeling wouldn't last as long so you'd do it again and again.
"I started losing work, because I was concentrating on going out finding people to sleep with. Every day, I'd be straight into a pub, on the job and it wasn't that hard to find in Blackpool cause it's what most people come here looking for anyway, with hen nights and so on. It was kind of put on a plate."
Childhood issues
That cycle led to Danny breaking up from his partner and losing contact with his daughter. He lost his business and says he was depressed and disgusted with himself.
"It was only from going to therapy I realised there was something wrong. With me, there was a lot of back issues from my childhood. We went into those issues and rebuilt my life.
"I know it sounds daft but I did things like going to the zoo with somebody and just learn how to be normal again."

It got to the point where one of my parents would stay at home to keep an eye on me because they knew about the suicide attempts Danny, sex addict

Danny attends the Steven Pope Therapy Clinic in Blackpool every week, which costs him £40 an hour.
Paul is another self-confessed sex addict. He is a quiet member of the group and is reluctant to take part in discussions.
He said it started through boredom when he started to search for explicit content on his computer, which led to buying hundreds of DVDs and magazines.
He described his condition as obsessive, which also led him to become deeply depressed.
'Woods effect'
The centre has taken on 52 new clients in the past two months, compared with only a handful each month last year.
This rise appears to be reflected across the small number of sex addiction clinics in the UK. Therapists say the many new clients have cited celebrities such as Tiger Woods as the inspiration for them to seek help.

Golfer Tiger Woods' many affairs have been highly publicised

Steve Pope, who owns the therapy clinic in Blackpool, says the interest from people wanting help has been unprecedented.
"People are now coming forward to talk their issues through. Woods on one side has been to hell and back, as his family has, but he's saved lives and that's the Tiger Woods effect."
The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, a professional body set up to support research into sex addiction, has also recorded a rise in the number British clients seeking help.
Paula Hall, who is in charge of the service said many professionals were now looking for further training in this field.
"They're having more and more clients coming to them looking for services and up until now there's been little or no training for this in the UK."
'Troublesome' behaviour
The treatment in the UK is based on methods used in the US where sexual behaviour therapy is big business.
However, the term is not technically recognised as a medical illness. Professor Glen Wilson, a specialist in sexual behaviour at Gresham College, dismisses the idea that it could be an addiction.
"Whatever the celebs have we all think we ought to have as well, and of course the drug companies will want to get in on the act too. Once a behaviour has been medicalised they will come up with pills for it," he says.

I think to say that sex addiction doesn't exist is a real insult to the many intelligent men and women who suffer from the condition every day Paula Hall, psychotherapist

"There are tremendous pressures on medicalising behaviour which is no more than troublesome. It's not the same as drug addiction because it's not a hijacking of the circuits by a chemical, it is what the circuits were set up for.
"That is rewarding you for sexual behaviour which has reproductive and survival significance."
Many medical experts hold a similar opinion towards the term sex addiction. But Paula Hall, who's a trained psychotherapist, says she vehemently disagrees with their analysis and believes the problem has not been researched properly.
"The people out there still saying this does not exist do not understand the condition.
"It is not about sex, it's about that dependency and that compulsion, and I think to say that sex addiction doesn't exist is a real insult to the many intelligent men and women who suffer from the condition every day."
Despite the lack of recognition for the term sex addict, the clients in Blackpool say for them the addiction is all too real. The feelings are put into some perspective when I ask Danny what he thinks his life would be life without therapy.
"I'd be dead," he says. "There's no two ways about it.
"It got to the point where one of my parents would stay at home to keep an eye on me because they knew about the suicide attempts. I would have gone through with it. I'd be dead."