The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition and the Creation of Sacred Community In Lima, life was increasingly difficult. Revolutionary extrem- ists were creating chaos as counter-insurgency forces struggled to maintain control of the city. In December of 1985, to com- memorate their leader’s birthday, Shining Path bombed ten banks, a shopping center, a judicial office, and eight electrical towers. As a result, residents suffered through electrical black- outs almost every day. The soaring inflation and hoarding of durable goods by merchants made it difficult to find even the basics in stores. We were standing in bread lines while gun- fights were erupting in the streets! I was anxious to provide my daughter and myself with a life of greater opportunity and less danger to life and limb. I yearned to go back to the United States.
psychology department at the University of West Georgia. My full-time work consisted of heading up the Spanish department, teaching World and Social Sciences, and coaching the women’s varsity soccer team at a private school to offset the cost of Andrea’s tuition. As if that wasn’t enough, on the evenings when I didn’t have class, I began to hold RAMA study group sessions in my home. After our trip to meet the RAMA guides in the desert, don Sixto had asked me to become the southeastern coordi- nator of RAMA study groups in the United States. I also had a handful of psychotherapy clients I would see on Saturdays. My days and evenings were full! At the university, I shared my small office with some very interesting personalities.
It was the spring of 1986, and don Benito had just made his earthly transition. My daughter’s maternal grandparents were moving to Florida to live in a retirement community. They had been kind enough to allow my daughter and her emotionally unstable mother to live with them until the com- pletion of my two-year fellowship work obligation in Peru. I missed my little girl terribly. I knew she missed me too: I had seen how much she needed me during my near-death experi- ence at the end of 1984. So, with great relief in my heart, I traveled to Durham, North Carolina, to pick up Andrea and to settle with her in Carrollton, Georgia. It was the fall of 1986. I took a part- time faculty position in the 25 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM ♥ October 2014