Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You (Hardcover)

~ Peter McWilliams (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1978, during a period of self-doubt and spiritual crisis, prolific author McWilliams (Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, Prelude Pr., 1993) met self-styled guru John-Roger. During the following 15 years of devotion and discipleship, he became a key John-Roger operative, ghostwriting such best sellers as Do It! and Life 101 (both Prelude Pr., 1991). Here, McWilliams offers his vivid, and sometimes vitriolic, reconstruction of that decade and a half, framed as a search for the internal and interpersonal dynamics that bound him. McWilliams's edgy humor and engaging style, which sets this book apart from other commendable cult-insider exposes (e.g., Mark Laxer's Take Me for a Ride, LJ 11/1/93), make this a magnetic read for even those little interested in New Age avatars. Add John-Roger's recently revived fame in relation to the California senate race and the broad popularity of his earlier titles written with McWilliams, and you have a hot topic. Recommended, especially for public and church libraries and for large academic religion collections.
Bill Piekarski, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Chula Vista, Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

McWilliams, an astonishingly successful self-published writer, became a follower of the self-styled guru John-Roger during the 1970s. When John-Roger "diagnosed" McWilliams as having AIDs, he also told the writer he had the cure: if McWilliams would write books, put John-Roger's name on them, and give him half the proceeds, he would talk to God. Brainwashed, McWilliams went along with it, and over the next six years wrote such successful books as Life 101 (a New York Times best-seller) while giving John-Roger the credit and the money. Now deprogrammed, McWilliams wants to (a) warn people about cults in general and John-Roger's cult in particular and (b) tell readers what a scumbag John-Roger is--a task he carries out with some relish. The chapter on how John-Roger also duped Ariana Huffington, wife of senatorial candidate Michael, is one of the dishiest in the book. Although McWilliams spells out how he came under John-Roger's spell, it still seems incredible that a brash, funny guy could actually believe that a chubby, balding con man was actually Jesus' best friend. It makes for an intriguing, witty book, though also a rambling and repetitive one. When McWilliams gave up gurus, he must have given up editors, too. Leon Wagner

Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: Mary Book / Prelude Pr (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093158034X
• ISBN-13: 978-0931580345
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #810,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars essential for understanding the psychology of devotees, December 21, 2003

By A Customer

Life 102 is something of a specialist's text. The average reader in search of juicy scandal might be overloaded with the level of detail in Mc Williams' book.

Contrasted with Steven Pressman's expose of John Rosenberg who became Jack Frost who became Kurt Wilhelm Von Savage who became Werner Hans Erhard in the book _Outrageous Betrayal, The Dark Journey Of Werner Erhard From EST to Exile_, McWilliams' treatement of his subject is far more personal, nuanced, and interior.

Both Pressman, a reporter who sought to unravel an objective fact pattern that existed behind the "Werner" persona, and McWilliams, a self help author, describe on an identifiable psychological type, the Narcisstic Charismatic.

Sinclair Lewis' fictional creation, the preacher Elmer Gantry,
is in all probability the best extended meditation on the Narcisstic Charismatic. Life 102 often reads like a surreal retelling of Elmer Gantry with a dollop of Flannery O'Conner's _Wise Blood_, a goodly helping of Madame Blavatsky, some fringe science fiction, and a shot of daytime television game shows seen under the influence of mind altering substances.

A very useful and compact work, _Hypnotic Leadership_ by Micha Popper, will be necessary reading for those who wish to have a better psychodynamic grasp of this subject.

McWilliams appears to be in the last throes of ambivalence with Life 102, as he has neither Pressman's journalistic ability to tightly edit his thoughts, nor Popper's academic clarity, nor Sinclair Lewis' gifts as a storyteller.

He does, however, offer an exceptionally detailed study of the thought processes which animate the Leader figure as well as those of the Followers. McWilliams has found himself in the unique position of being able to look both ways, how does the Leader impose his will on his group, and how the group enables and empowers the Leader. One soon detects the outline of a dialectical process of the Leader and the Follower creating and shaping one another in a stable, hermetic "reality maintenance contract".

The major task before this field is that of shifting from the idea of the Leader as an alien force that captures unsuspecting souls in his tractor beams to that of appreciating that the Leader is more a creation of his Followers (who then willingly transfer their inner authority over to him) than the Followers are a creation of the Leader.

The Narcissistic Charismatic appears to be a disturbed personality type who might otherwise be marginalized or ridiculed, but under certain social circumstances discovers the perfect fertile soil for his "gift" to bear fruit.

Peter McWilliams has done an excellent (thorough to the point of tedium) job of capturing many salient details that other writers have glossed over as mere noise or simple too much effort to belabor. However, in paying close attention to these datails, much like examining a good specimen under a microscope, one can indeed fill out one's mental portrait of the Narcisstic Charismatic personality type, his tactics of "thought judo", his obsession with loyalty and betrayal, the gradual hardening of the personality, the wish to invent a parallel reality in which one is a deity or a superbeing, the gross discrepancies between the way the Followers perceive the Leader (his hygeine, his idiosyncracies, the meaning of his behavior and utterances) and a more objective, indifferent observer would.

For these reasons Life 102 is highly recommended for all students of the Narcisstic Charismatic personality, not as great literature, but as a highly detailed blueprint of this style and how it operates.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on mind-control around! Entertaining, sad, & TRUE, September 26, 2003

By A Customer

How do I know it's true? I used to be a member of this cult and I know most of the people he talks about. Even when he doesn't mention them by name, I know who he means because of their circumstances. So I wondered if it was my former involvement that made the book such an incredible page-turner for me. But I've since let others read it -- people who never heard of MSIA before -- and they felt the same way. It's non-fiction but reads like the most compelling of novels, all the while enlightening readers to the ways we are all prone to mental programming...from cults, religions, governments, advertisers... ..any person or institution that might seek to benefit from controlling the way we think. If you only read one book about mind control, READ THIS BOOK! It's worth every penny, no matter how much the used copies are selling for. You might be surprised to learn that your mind is not as free as you thought...

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for anyone who has tried to leave a star, January 30, 1999

By A Customer

There is a lot of excellent information in this book for anyone who has been in a cult, certainly. I bought it for a slightly different reason: I wanted to hear how Peter McWilliams explained to himself the incredible stupidity of being sucked into such a bag of lies. I am satisfied with his descriptions, and the book is cheerful, and upbeat! Well worth the purchase price, and I am lucky to have stumbled upon it.

Like Peter, I consider myself to be reasonably intelligent, etc., and yet had been married to a person for 20 years (and tied up in court battles with him for the next 7) who was recently diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He was punitive, abusive, and selfish. I wondered if reading Peter's account of having made a similar series of terrible choices would help me in my recovery.

It did, and I highly recommend this book, and would love to thank Peter in person, if I could find an address for him. Also, like Peter, I was depressed in this negative relationship, so in 1992 I bought his book You can't afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought. Again, paralleling the author, as soon as my depression lifted, I was able to "get out" of the problem relationship. How interesting, then, that as the saga of disengaging reaches it's completion, Peter has again left me some "bread crumbs" to find my way home again.

This book is extremely valuable for anyone finding themselves in the unpleasant situation of feeling ridiculous for having succumbed to a bad relationship.