The spiritual leader of the Mahasandhi Foundation, in Abanilla (Murcia), JMCR, who was arrested in November 2023 for alleged crimes of illicit association, against public health for the handling of narcotic substances and against the environment for the alleged use of mercury in their ritualsis now facing a second judicial procedure for fraud. Two people who left the foundation and who gave rise to the police operation that ended with the arrest of the “lama of Murcia”, They have now filed a complaint against him, after their appearance as victims in the previously opened procedure was not accepted..
Both the two complainants and the spiritual leader and his number two in the Buddhist entity, AMS, have passed through the investigative court number 7 of Cieza this Wednesday, which has assumed the case. The two members of the organization arrived accompanied by their lawyers, with their faces uncovered and apparently calm, although they did not want to speak with numerous journalists who were waiting at the doors of the court. Yes, they have answered the questions of the judge and her lawyer, Pablo Martínez, who has defended her innocence since, as she insisted to the media, all the people who participate in the activities organized by the spiritual entity do so voluntarily. and without any type of coercion.
In fact, JMCR, who called himself “Total Transcendence” among his followers, is currently free awaiting trial and the foundation has continued to offer online sales of products and courses, and a dozen people continue to reside in its facilities. , which are located in an estate of about ten hectares that has cave houses, a meditation site with two buildings with large domes and various administrative and store spaces, among others..
As explained by one of the complainants, who identifies herself with the fictitious name of María, the entire complex has been built with contributions from followers, whom the false lama urged to make continuous donations. “They said that everything was done without financial gain, but everything was paid for. After the workshops, people were invited to buy products in the store, indicating what the minimum donation should be. Everything was false from the beginning,” explained the woman, who contributed around 50,000 euros to the organization. In the case of the second of the complainants, the financial contribution was much greater, exceeding 250,000 euros.
Furthermore, the most loyal followers, as were their cases, also contributed their work, always without contributions or contracts and without any financial compensation. María was linked to the foundation for a decade and even left her job to dedicate herself fully to the tasks that the lama assigned her, from administrative work to teaching Ayurveda courses. He claims that he was also one of the people chosen by the false lama to “purify mercury.”which they did without any type of security measures. He also paid for and built his own cave house, which he gave free of charge to the organization when he abandoned it. Her departure from Mahasandhi occurred in 2016, when the spiritual leader told her that she had broken some tantric vows, which motivated her to begin researching that philosophy to “amend” her mistake. It is then that, consulting documentation external to the foundation, he realizes that JMCR meets all the characteristics with which false lamas are defined. This is how she transferred him to number two in the organization and, as a result, they isolated her from her daughter, who continues to be linked to the foundation, and they “invited her to leave.”
María insists that the people who remain in the organization do not have critical capacity, since they are subject to the consumption of narcotic substances, they carry out long and hard work days to which are added few hours of sleep, a poor diet, with long periods of fasting, in addition to other practices such as vows of silence and situations of isolation and silence.
Therefore, his objective with this procedure is to promote that no person is ever involved in this type of situation again and that the people who are still involved, like his daughter, are “truly free” to decide. “Now they say they are free, but I have also felt free in that situation, and it is not true freedom,” he defends.
For their lawyer, Carlos Bardavío, the complainants were subjected to a situation of “coercive pressure” and “psychological manipulation” by the spiritual leader, which allowed them to be defrauded, since they were convinced to hand over their assets on the grounds that, of course, Otherwise, they would have bad experiences. In his opinion, there was a clear control of the personality of these victims, which could be considered a crime of coercion, in addition to the assumption of illicit association.
The two plaintiffs will have to undergo, at the request of the court, a forensic medical examination to determine their state of mental health, before deciding whether to open an oral trial.
