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Mother of Victim: Were You Abused by Swami Chetanananda – Frank Report

Editor's note: We do not take a stance regarding these allegations. This article has been included for educational purposes to show how complicated situations like this can be for people to get justice. Find new after the article.

Swami Chetanananda appears to have violently, sexually, and psychologically abused a young woman named Eva a few years ago in the Portland Movement Center. She left by ambulance after what appears to be one of Swami's erotic strangulation sessions.

She is still recovering from her serious injuries.

Other women have accused the Swami of misleading them into degrading and dangerous sexual practices – including violent and exploitative BDSM and sex with random strangers.

Eva's mother, Jayne Lyons, is seeking help from women injured by Chetanananda.

By Jayne Lyons

I have met/and spoken with victims/survivors of J. Michael Shoemaker [Swami Chetanananda] and their family members.

I have been told about non-consensual sodomy, strangulation, rape, sexual violations, gaslighting, forced labor, forced drug use, stalking, and broken and bent family relations.

I have been told how those who escaped used self-medication (drug use) to dampen psychological harm and fear and those who had thoughts of self-harm. Those who were “abused” out of the cult when they were no longer useful to Shoemaker left with nothing and ended up on the floor at a friend's house or living in their vehicles.

They were too poor, too old, too “damaged” or sick to work or be a sexual plaything. I have reported all this to , but I am not the victim nor witness to the events, so my reports were considered hearsay.

Please come forward and denounce the abuse you witnessed or received from J. Michael Shoemaker, aka Swami Chetanananda, and his high demand, high control, criminal organization.

Sharon Ward and Swami Chetanananda

He does not abuse alone. His inner circle supports and abets his abuse:

  1. Sharon Ward
  2. Jim Brissette
  3. Jennifer Wilhelm
  4. Thomas Frabrizio
  5. Howard and Vivina Boster
  6. Jessie Sweeney

These are some of the “inner circle” who know about and have participated in the abuses.

What abuse can you denounce?

Swami with Tom Fabrizio

Fraudulently recruited and labor trafficked:

Were you recruited to join a “spiritual community”? Did you become “enlightened”?

Were you “given room and board” and required to provide labor by cleaning, cooking, gardening, or running errands, providing support for teacher training activities or “classes”?

Did you get W2 forms? Proper reporting of your wages for social security and Medicare credits? Did you get the wage and labor benefits and protections as required by Oregon State law?

Did you pay your “tuition” and still provide free labor?

If this describes your situation, this is human . It can be a federal crime.

Do you know of others who were treated this way?

Vivina Boster the Swami and Howard Boster

The trafficker, Shoemaker, and his inner circle saved money and benefited from your labor. This is classic labor trafficking. Denounce this practice: Call Paul Chang, Western Regional Coordinator for Human Trafficking

Paul Chang
Western Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator
US Department of Labor
Wage and Hour Division
Work: (714) 418-8620 | Fax: (626) 732-4934

Love Bombed, Groomed and Abused?

What can you denounce?

Were you lied to about Swami Chetanananda and his group?

Jesse Sweeny, Swami, and Marc Mordechai

Were you told your family was evil? That they wanted to harm you? That they were full of demons or mentally unbalanced? This was done to isolate you and make you vulnerable and susceptible to conditioning and conversion.

Were you showered with positive attention and induced to join a happy, functional group that proved to be a dysfunctional, abusive, and criminal group? This is love bombing, preparing you for conversion and abuse.

Were you exposed to activities that violated your ethics and values, and encouraged to accept these abusive behaviors? This is gaslighting.

It was used to condition you to accept your own abuse. Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse are all abuse, and physical and emotional harm is caused by all forms of abuse.

Did Swami Chetanananda “read” your future and use details from that reading to cause you to fear leaving the group? Were you told if you left you would suffer an accident? Go to jail, go insane? This is coercive control, used to abuse and harm you.

Were you sexually abused, sexually exploited, touched inappropriately?

If you lived at the Movement Center and performed “seva”, you lived and worked in an abusive environment.

Denounce this behavior and harm.

Contact Nathan Wollstein, Portland Police Detective
Detective Nathan Wollstein (# 39011)
Portland Police Bureau
Sex Crimes Unit
(503) 545-3482
[email protected]

Even if you feel “nothing happened to me”, you might hold details of abuses that could put Shoemaker and his inner circle in jail.

What did you see, what did you hear, what did you do? Moni, Jen, Natacha, Eva, Liz, Pia, Vanessa, “Pinky”, Laura, Jessica, Dan, Jes, Ayaz and many more have all been harmed while residents at an ashram led by Shoemaker. Yes, even his “flying monkeys” are his victims. Stand up for all his victims, denounce Shoemaker.

Jimmy Brissette and the Swami.

You can ask Christine Mascal, a Portland lawyer, to bring a civil case against Shoemaker and his inner circle. Christine Mascal has gotten settlements from Shoemaker without going to court. He likely doesn't want to face a “discovery” in court.

He may settle fast. He is a coward.

https://mascal-law.com/
503-320-1020

You can ask Christine Mascal to listen to your interview with Detective Wollstein or Paul Chang. Detective Wollstein or Paul Chang will need to apply the state or federal statutes to determine if what was done to you or others is a crime, and if it falls within the statute of limitations regarding when the crime occurred. Using these criteria, if your complaint is considered not a “crime” and you suffered harm and abuse, there is the opportunity for a civil settlement.

Christine Mascal can help you gain a civil settlement. Civil settlements require a lower bar of evidence.

Just starting the process of bringing a case will make Shoemaker concerned.

The Swami and Jen Wilhelm 

He is an alleged coward and will not want to be taken to court. He has everything to lose if he faces “discovery”. He will lose in a civil court because he is allegedly a wicked, evil man who harms women much smaller than he is.

If Shoemaker cannot be taken to jail, all of us who have been harmed can bankrupt him through the out of court settlement process. Nothing done to you was your fault. You were fraudulently recruited, converted, groomed and abused by a well-oiled cult machine that has been doing this for over 50 years. Get justice and compensation for yourself, and encourage others to do the same.

The Raniere case Frank helped break has opened the door to applying human labor and sex trafficking laws to cult abuse.

Who better to apply the new approach than a man with a 50 year pattern of harm?

Additional resources

Editor's note: These were sent to us by an affected person. The “style” of some of the following links may be very sensational, so PLEASE BE WARNED you might encounter some difficult images. Again, we are providing this information for EDUCATIONAL, RESEARCH PURPOSES.

Links to all the the “Frank Report” articles through Oc. 11 about J. Michael Shoemaker, aka Swami Chetanananda. https://frankreport.com/2022/10/11/info-on-divine-energy-church-and-links-to-53-stories-on-most-violent-swami/ 

This link includes the information about BPJ: https://frankreport.com/2022/10/12/is-boster-victim-or-conspirator-plus-6-injuries-sustained-by-victims-of-swami/ 

Frank Parlato's contacts are in the articles. There are many sites about Parlato and his role in taking down NXIVIM. 

Here is a about Catharine Oxenberg supporting a candidate for District Attorney in the county where the NXIVIM abuses took place.  Getting legal action against the cult took all her royal/star power and the branding of other young, beautiful actresses that brought attention from the New York Times. https://www.facebook.com/PhillipsforSaratogaCountyDA/videos/1129109818000264/ 

Here is an interview with Dr. Steve Hassan and Paul Chang, the Western Regional Coordinator for Human Trafficking in the Dept. of Labor. https://freedomofmind.com/combating-human-trafficking-a-conversation-with-paul-chang/ 

There are more interviews and articles on Dr. Hassan's site about human trafficking within cultic systems of abuse. 

Need help?

The lawyer who is working with survivors of Shoemaker is Carol Merchasin. Here is a link to her law firm: https://mcolaw.com/team/carol-merchasin/ 

Resources 

International Cultic Association. https://www.icsahome.com/ This association has a help line number and also a list by state of therapists that are trained to work with survivors of cultic abuse and trafficking 

This website has information and lists of books and other resources for survivors of cultic abuse including trafficking: https://www.igotout.org/resources 

Shelter and Support to get out: https://dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Human-Trafficking-Resources.aspx 

https://saintfrancisministries.org/trafficking-research/ 

https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-issues/human-trafficking 

https://ovc.ojp.gov/funding/awards/list 

Additional notes from the affected party:

“If you find ways to connect the story to main line journalists that would be great! I am very upset that the Oregon Public Broadcasting company did an interview with the #2 of the cult, Sharon Ward without looking more deeply into her background as a member of a dangerous and damaging cult. Here is the link: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/01/25/what-it-takes-to-teach-a-dog-to-smell-death/

I am also attaching the police report of a “missing person” who “disappeared” from the cult.  In my opinion, Sharon Ward inserted herself inappropriately in the investigation and led the police around by the nose.  She duped them. The cult leader, Shoemaker most likely hurt Liz Bazzani.  Sharon lived with Liz for 40 years.  Liz also had/has a sister in the cult and she is not even interviewed nor Liz's ex-husband, a resident of Portland.  I am angry that Liz was just a body in the river.
 
The report is here.”
EYES ON TRAFFICKING

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original location.

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ABOUT PBJ LEARNING

PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.

 

EYES ON TRAFFICKING

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.

ABOUT PBJ LEARNING

PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.