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INFORMATION RELEASE

>From the GBC Executive Committee

 

8 August, 1998

 

The Executive Committee learned yesterday that Harikesa Swami has, without

his knowledge, been regularly taking powerful psychotropic medications for

the last ten years.

 

In 1988, Chitesvara dasa, a well-known tantric healer from Orissa,

prescribed daily doses of a therapeutic powder that he provided to Harikesa

Swami.

 

Harikesa Swami took it daily until February 1998, when he abruptly stopped

taking the medicine. Chitesvara said the blue-colored powder, which he

called "vibhuti," was the ash left from his fire yajna.

 

However, a state criminal forensic laboratory in Sweden reported on August

5th that the power contained two commercially manufactured psychotropic

drugs. They are Trifluoperazine (brand name, Stelazine), which is an

antianxiety and antipsychotic drug. The other drug, Trihexyphenidyl (brand

name, Artaine) is an anti-parkinsonian medication. Its purpose seems to be

to counteract the side effects of Stelazine, which sometimes produces

symptoms characteristic of Parkinson's disease.

 

Devotees who had become suspicious of the "vibhuti" submitted it for

forensic analysis.

 

A psychiatrist consulted about the drugs and their possible effect on

Harikesa Swami said that Harikesa's recent extreme behavior was typical of

the effect of a sudden withdrawal from the medication contained in the

"vibhuti." Physicians are careful to reduce the dosage of these drugs

gradually, he said. Otherwise, there is a great danger of an induced

psychosis He described Harikesa Swami's recent behavior as "episodic

paranoid schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations." This, he said, is a

the kind of reaction produced by abrupt withdrawal from the drugs found in

the "vibhuti."

 

The Executive Committee arranged yesterday for Harikesa Swami's current

therapist to be informed of these facts.

 

by Ravindra Svarupa dasa

for the GBC Executive Committee