Publication Date: Wednesday Feb 11, 1998

COMMUNITY: Ex-Ananda devotee describes her 7-year ordeal

Palo Alto resident Anne-Marie Bertolucci may have won her case against the Ananda Church of Self-Realization, but her victory has come at a high price.

After the verdict was handed down in her favor on Thursday, Bertolucci told the Weekly that she has been afraid to go to her local coffee shop recently because of all the publicity surrounding the civil suit she brought against Ananda.

Her ordeal began in 1991, when a handout from Ananda caught her eye. She signed up for a meditation class and was soon attending Sunday services at Ananda's Palo Alto church. Ironically, the meditation class was to help her with stress reduction, she said.

In a matter of months, Bertolucci had left her job and her marriage, and moved to Ananda Village. According to her attorney Mike Flynn, Bertolucci, then 28, was one of the church's most enthusiastic devotees. She idolized its leaders, he said, which made it all the more difficult when things began to go wrong. In August 1994, she left the church under a cloud. Three months later, after visiting a cult de-programmer and an attorney, she filed a civil lawsuit against Ananda, alleging that she was sexually exploited by senior minister Danny Levin, who was vice president of Crystal Clarity Publishing where she worked. She also alleged that J. Donald Walters--known to devotees as Swami Kriyananda--made unwanted sexual advances toward her when she turned to him for help.

That was three years ago, and, although the jury ruled in her favor last week, Bertolucci's ordeal is still far from over. She is considering moving from Palo Alto to put this chapter of her life firmly behind her, she said.

"It's been such an ordeal," she said. "I've had my character absolutely assassinated and that's been very difficult."

For the last year and a half, she said, a private investigator has been interviewing all her friends and acquaintances.

"You really find out who your friends are," she said. "Some of my friends are still with Ananda. Some of them testified against me."

Bertolucci said that she threw herself into her work as a computer programmer in San Francisco and visited her therapist regularly to help her come to terms with the ongoing harassment.

"At first I thought I was alone," said Bertolucci in an interview with the Weekly in 1996. But after Bertolucci filed her lawsuit in 1994, seven other women came forward to say that Walters sexually "used" them. although he was supposed to be celibate. She said last week that she probably would not have had the strength to continue with her case if she had been the only one.

"When I learned what other people had gone through, I decided to go forward," she said. "If it was just me, I probably would have just carried on working."

Of the jury's decision to award her $625,000 in compensation, she said that the financial reward was not worth all that she had been through. Her legal expenses have been astronomical, she said. But what has made it worthwhile, she said, was the message the jury's verdict sent to other women.

"A lawsuit was really the only way to stop it," said Bertolucci in a 1996 interview. "I felt it would be a way of warning other people, especially young women."

There is one other ray of light at the end of the tunnel for Bertolucci: she is hoping to get back together with the husband she left in 1992 to join Ananda.

"He strongly disapproved of Ananda, which is what caused the rift between us," Bertolucci said.

Since she left Ananda, her husband has been very supportive, she said. He could sometimes be seen consoling her in the Redwood City courtroom as the trial unfolded the last three months.



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