Swami Chetanananda, AKA J. Michael Shoemaker, is the abbot of the Church of Divine Energy. He ran his church at the Movement Center in Portland from the 1990s to 2019.
The building is set back from the street in a quiet neighborhood.
Shoemaker moved his followers to Portland in the 1990s, after a period in Boston and before that in Bloomington.
He consolidated the centers that Swami Rudrananda founded.
Swami Rudranananda AKA Rudi, with Shoemaker and another lad.
After Rudi’s death, when his private plane crashed, Shoemaker became Rudi’s successor.
Shoemaker now lives in a mansion in a mountain, ocean setting in Gold Beach, Oregon.
His followers helped him move from the Movement Center in Portland in 2019, moving valuable art, ancient ritual objects, and priceless objects to Gold Beach.
His followers helped build a meditation room where he offers fire ceremonies.
They placed stone sculptures on the grounds and planted beds of blueberries and organic produce.
Shoemaker’s Church of Divine Energy seeks new young students to satisfy the labor needs of the church.
Many of Shoemaker’s followers are older and can’t perform the “seva” needed to keep up the Gold Beach hermitage.
Reportedly the church had to hire a gardener.
J. Michael Shoemaker AKA Swmi Chetanananda.
Among the services Shoemaker provides is creating and interpreting astrological charts of “loved ones,”
In some cases, he reportedly determined the stars revealed that if certain women had children, the babies would be born with disabling defects.
He also saw that the stars revealed that motherhood was not the destiny of some young women and marriage was inadvisable.
Long ago, Shoemaker revealed to his followers that he was an avatar of a Hindu Goddess. As a result, the followers believe Shoemaker has divine powers and offer him total loyalty and obedience.
His followers believe Shoemaker has the power to keep evil entities, such as demons and ghouls, who inhabit astral realms that intercut with the physical world, from attacking and harming them.
Some former Shoemaker’s ‘ashram’ residents told Frank Report he abused them.
Frank Report is investigating him.
Some former followers tell tales that seem horrifying. Others tell yarns that seem exaggerated and capricious.
Take the case of Daniel Glavin. He told Frank Report that he was abused and lured into drugs in the ashram.
By his admission, however, Glavin was a drug dealer and addict. He hooked up ashram members with drugs and made connections with dealers for the ashram and himself.
Glavin traded his drug connections for opportunities in the ashram and, not unlike Allison Mack in NXIVM, gained “things of value” for opportunities to participate in sexual activities with women and possibly men.
Glavin has said a lot on the record. The more he admits, the more likely Glavin will be charged and seek immunity.
There is evidence that he may be a coconspirator in sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering.
Should the authorities clamp down with widening nets, seeing where Dan and everyone falls will be interesting.
Glavin might also be a coconspirator in federal forced labor acts and face state charges for creating an unsafe work environment.
Glavin, high as a kite on drugs, operated and had others use heavy construction equipment, disregarding safety.
Glavin frequently got free drugs by selling drugs to others.
While Glavin benefited from his drug services and other functions, he may have forced others to work in dangerous conditions.
With RICO charges, the feds can go beyond the statute of limitations through connected predicate acts.
Glavin appears to have participated in predicate acts, one of which may have been removing asbestos illegally and gaining “something of value” from it.
Glavin may have covered up sexual abuse because he participated in it or received “something of value.”
Glavin tried to spin his role in bringing drugs by arguing he was weak-minded, and the Swami forced him to flood the ashram with narcotics.
Glavin met his girlfriend through the ashram, a woman who was strangely allowed to live for free and apparently.
Dan Glavin and Jessica Stirton sought to gain from the environment at the ashram. Now they seek to gain from accusing others whose activities were similar to theirs.
Glavin promotes himself as a victim.
His wife also tells a tale of victimization based on a single kiss by the Swami.
Glavin complains he had to stand by flaccidly while the Swami kissed his girlfriend in front of him, while he did nothing. He does not say if he participated in polyamory in the ashram.
Is Jessica Stirton a victim or opportunity seeker?
His girlfriend, now wife, Jessica Stirton, got free room and board and seems to have only endured a single kiss in an environment known for libertine behavior.
To call herself a victim is more than bizarre. It is laughable.
Another alleged victim told Frank Report that she was a victim. Then she admitted she initiated BDSM sexual contact, and it was consensual.
Still, another woman claimed Shoemaker abused her sexually, but, despite this, she recruited women for the Swami.
People like Glavin may exaggerate their victimhood while they are predators.
It is time to interview the Swami and others connected to him to discern the real victims.
Who got into it with “eyes wide open” and got something of value in return is the subject of further inquiry.
Swami Chetanananda, are you ready to be interviewed and tell you side of the story? You can call me at 305-783-7083.
You will get the professional courtesy of an off-the-record and confidential discussion of the ground rules of the interview.
Based on the curious lies and lies of omission of at least one husband and wife, a pall has been cast on claims of certain victims.
It is time to march forward with unhesitant truth.
