Southern Californians have been exposed to more New Age
teachers than perhaps any population in the United States.
Yet the forty or so people seemed unprepared for Atmananda,
who strode into the lecture hall twenty minutes late, with a can
of diet soda in one hand and a pack of green gum in the other.
I assumed that many of the Birkenstock-clad seekers drank natural
fruit juice and did not chew gum.
"This evening I'd like for you all to hold hands and be
like reeeally mellowwww," said Atmananda, mimicking
the way some people spoke in San Diego's flourishing holistic community.
There was tense laughter. A few people left.
"Those who take themselves too seriously on the path to enlightenment,"
Atmananda said in a more dignified tone, "tend not to get very far."