Patricia was extremely controlling and manipulative, demanding absolute loyalty. She was not above breaking up couples and marriages and creating matches more to her liking. Below is a brief description of how she broke up my relationship of almost 5 years.
I met Celine (my wife) in Morningland towards the end of 1977, just about the time when things were starting to get a bit bizarre. We dated all through 1978, then got married in 1979 at Morningland with Patricia and the Gopis as ministers. At that time we were both dedicated disciples.
Celine at that time worked at Morningland pretty much all day and into the evening, while I had a day job at a local decal manufacturer as a production artist. I was accustomed to coming home from work to an empty apartment where I’d get myself some dinner then head over to the Temple for evening activities. On this particular day in late 1982 I came home to find Celine there insisting we go out to dinner alone. This was a huge surprise! She said she’d cleared her schedule and mine with Patricia and the head honchos so that we could spend some time together. Something was up!
Right after we were seated she proceeded to drink several glasses of wine and get rather drunk. This was also a huge surprise. After she was numb enough she told me of a conversation she’d had with Patricia over the weekend. They’d been sitting together watching the Morningland band, of which I was a member, rehearse on stage for an upcoming event. Patricia had said to her, “Wouldn’t you just love to see him (meaning me) grow and flourish as fast as possible?” Celine of course said yes. (What else would one’s loving partner say?) Patricia then said to her, “You know, he really has just one major obstacle. Do you know what that is?” Celine said no. “Well,” she said, “that obstacle is you. If you want to see him grow you need to divorce him in order to remove that obstacle from his path.”
Hmmm. So, if I really love him, I need to leave him. Lovely.
Celine told me this through many tears and over several glasses of wine downed in quick succession. She said it was not something she wanted, and I knew it was not something I wanted, but we both knew it was something we really had no control over. At least that’s what we thought at the time. We were dedicated to Morningland and would do what was suggested. “Suggestions” from Patricia were, after all, orders from God, and you don’t ignore orders from God, right?
Again, lovely.
So, that’s a pretty typical example of how Patricia operated. You can be sure that her little speech to Celine was full of caveats proclaiming that we all have free will, and of course this is just what she sees (as the all-knowing seer), and of course she was not allowed to interfere with Free Will because that was sacred . . . blah blah blah. All of this made ludicrously hypocritical by her day-to-day actions and statements to the effect that not following “orders from the Master” could only result in the most dire of consequences for our immortal souls.
So of course, because we loved each other and because we were dedicated to each other’s spiritual growth, we had to split up. After we did it still took about another 4 months before I finally knew from the inside out that no loving God would create such a monstrous plan as this, and that my immortal soul probably stood a better chance “out in the world” than it did listening to any more “suggestions” from Patricia Sperato.
