Non-Devotee
Contributors, Sources, and Helpers

In addition to our primary Source — Adi Da Himself — and the Adi Da Up Close staff, we have drawn upon, and are indebted to, hundreds of contributors, sources, and helpers as we created and evolved this site. It is a living example of what Adi Da calls "everybody-all-at-once"! We'd like to acknowledge and express our gratitude to as many of those contributors as possible.

Some of our contributors are not formal devotees of Adi Da. Many of the non-devotees listed below are professionals who have appreciated Adi Da's contributions in their own area of expertise: art, spirituality, social wisdom, etc.

(For a version of this page that lists all our contributors, both devotees and non-devotees, click here.)

Special thanks to all the people and organizations that contributed (and in some cases, created) the more than video and audio clips that are in our Audio/Video Library.

			Dr. Cristina Acidini is the Superintendent of the Authority for Cultural Heritage and State Museums in Florence, Italy. Audio/Video Library — In several video clips (here and here), Dr. Acidini speaks about the unprecedented exhibition of Adi Da Samraj's image-art at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, in February, 2008.
			Lis Addison is an award-winning composer and musician. Om Sri Da (excerpt) — From Lis's album, Seven Gifts.
			Albert Aprigliano was classically trained as a pianist at The Juilliard School of Music. For over thirty years, he has been a Manhattan cocktail pianist, serving as house pianist for many high class Manhattan restaurants, and providing accompaniment for numerous cabaret acts. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes two musical tributes to Adi Da from Albert (here and here), in honor of his intimate partner being Adi Da's devotee.
			Mary Murfin Bayley is a freelance arts writer. She was the dance critic for the Seattle Times from 1997 to 2007. Review of Not-Two Is Peace — Mary wrote a review of the Florence Dance Company's ballet theater event, Not-Two Is Peace.
			Dr. Monica Bietti is the Director of the Museum of the Medici Chapels. She was formerly with the Superintendency of Artistic Heritage of Bologna and Florence. Audio/Video Library — In several video clips (here and here), Dr. Bietti speaks about the exhibition of Adi Da Samraj's image-art at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, in February, 2008.
			James Edward Clarkez is a singer, composer, and producer from Penarth, Wales. He manages the Ty Cerdd recording studios at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay where he produces music in a plethora of styles and genres, from opera to rock to dubstep to pop. James has a first class masters degree in music from Bristol University. He has composed a symphony, Eleutherios: The Turning to Satsang, based on Adi Da's Teaching. Audio/Video Library — James produced the music for a video clip about The Ancient Walk-About Way.
			Paula Crema is an artist who is well-known for her exquisite mother of pearl, bronze and silver table sculptures. Audio/Video Library — In this video clip, Paula speaks about the exhibition of Adi Da Samraj's image-art at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, in February, 2008.
			Ram Krishna Das is a learned singer of Indian ragas. He Felt the Divine Avatar Singing Him — Ram Krishna Das and the story of his visit to Naitauba, where he sang for Avatar Adi Da Samraj, shortly before Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi. Devotional invocation — Improvised by Ram Krishna Das. From his album, The Sacred Names and Mantras of Parama-Sapta-Na Adi Da Samraj.
			Colin Decio is a distinguished British composer and concert pianist. He is the winner of the John Ireland Chamber Music Prize and the Birmingham Midland Institute Composition Prize. One of his works for full orchestra, Cosmic Mandala, was inspired by Adi Da's teaching about death, after death, and the nature of Reality. For more about Colin, visit his website. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video in which Colin performs his version of "The Lord of the Dance", in celebration of Adi Da's birthday in 2012. 39 second excerpt from Colin's orchestral work, Cosmic Mandala
			Brian Deschamp is a former Senior Advisor to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Audio/Video Library — In this video, Brian talks with great fondness about hosting Adi Da's visit to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1996, and how Adi Da's Blessing (and being Adi Da's "instrument" for conducting that Blessing in the right time and place) helped serve his work with the United Nations. He also discusses the uniqueness of Adi Da's Teaching and Revelation in the history of the world's great spiritual traditions.
			Ashoka Dhar is the first female dhrupad singer in India. She is the oldest disciple of the Late Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar Sahab of the great Dhrupad Maestro (one of the senior Dagar brothers). She lives in Kolkota, where she teaches at the Ustad Moinuddin Dagar Dhrupad Ashram. She was blessed to make a pilgrimage to Adi Da Samrajashram and receive the Darshan of Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj. I Felt Adi Da's Divine Power Immediately — Ashoka Dhar is India's first female dhrupad singer. She describes her spiritual recognition of Adi Da Samraj and her visits to Naitauba to sing for Him.
			Rishabh Dhar is a master dhrupad player. He lives in Calcutta, India, and is the son of the first lady dhrupad singer in India, Ashoka Dhar. Rishabh travels around the world giving concerts and workshops. He has been a visiting faculty member at many universities (including London University), and has worked as a composer and producer in the television and film industry. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes an interview with Rishabh, where he talks about living in the house of his music Guru for twenty years; and his time with Adi Da Samraj.
			Keith Ferrone is the director of the Florence Dance Company. He has collaborated with Adi Da (using Adi Da's Image-Art) in his production of Quattro Maggiore ("The Four Seasons"), and has continued to use Adi Da's Image-Art (after Adi Da's death) in the more recent work, Divina.com. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a couple of video clips (here and here) of Keith Ferrone talking about these productions.
			Peter Frank is the Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum and an art critic for Angeleno Magazine. He is an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post. He was a long-time critic for LA Weekly, a past editor of Visions Art Quarterly, and an art critic for The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News in New York. He was the Co-Curator of "Transcendental Realism: The Art of Adi Da Samraj" at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and the Moderator of the Art Panel, "Orpheus in the Modern World", at "Orpheus and Linead", the exhibition of Adi Da's image-art at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Beverly Hills, CA, 2011. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video clip of Peter Frank talking about Adi Da's image-art. He is also featured in this video clip.
			Stuart Gibson is Secretary to the State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board and a UNESCO senior expert consultant on museums and museology. He was the Director of Adi Da's 2007 Venice Biennale solo collateral exhibition. Audio/Video Library — Stuart is the narrator on several video clips. Transcendental Realism: The Art of Adi Da Samraj — Stuart introduced this presentation in the Film Museum, Amsterdam.
			Alex Grey is a renowned artist, and the author of Transfigurations and Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey. His work has been included in the album art of such popular rock groups as Nirvana and the Beastie Boys and a book of songs by the Talking Heads. Healers, body workers and "new age" figures including Matthew Fox, Joan Borysenko and Deepak Chopra have all used his work to describe the dimensions of body, mind and spirit. Grey's artwork has been exhibited worldwide, including Stux Gallery, the New Museum in NYC, and the Grand Palais in Paris. Only the Divine Presence — Alex writes about the profundity of his encounter with Adi Da, and about his subsequent painting of Adi Da. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video clip of Alex Grey talking about Adi Da's image-art.
			Laine Griffith is a Kauai resident and a music professor. Audio/Video Library — Laine contributes his musical talents to this video on Adi Da at Da Love-Ananda Mahal.
			Terence Gross is a multi-award winning film director and writer with credits that span US and UK feature films, commercials, television documentaries, high-end promotional films, and multi-media. He has worked with some of the greatest actors and sports personalities of our generation and has been critically acclaimed for his unique visual style. He wrote and directed the award-winning Hotel Splendide (starring Daniel Craig and Toni Collette) and directed The Day The World Ended (starring Nastassja Kinski and Randy Quaid). His clients have included Sony Columbia, BBC, Discovery Channel, HBO, and the UK Department of Transport. For more, visit the website of his production company, The Wild Night Company. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a documentary directed by Terence on the making of the first full theater production of Adi Da's epic work, The Mummery, in January, 2000, at The Mountain Of Attention.
			Lex Hixon (1941 - 1995) was a religious scholar, mystic, and radio interviewer who extensively explored the great religious traditions. He received a Ph.D. in comparative religion at Columbia University in 1976 and lectured at the New School of Social Research. He hosted the show, "In the Spirit", on WBAI from 1972 to 1989. He founded Free Spirit Journal, and documented his explorations in nine books and many articles. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes the 1974 film, A Difficult Man: The Miraculous Activities and Radical Spiritual Teachings of Bubba Free John. Lex introduced the film, speaking about the spiritual traditions of the past and Adi Da's new spiritual offering.
			Gregory Hoblit is the Emmy Award-winning executive producer of such well-known television series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue. He also directed several major movies, including Primal Fear (1996, with Richard Gere), Fallen (1998, with Denzel Washington), Frequency (2000, with Dennis Quaid), Hart's War (2002, with Bruce Willis), and Untraceable (2008, with Diane Lane). Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes the 1974 film, A Difficult Man: The Miraculous Activities and Radical Spiritual Teachings of Bubba Free John. Gregory was the producer and director of A Difficult Man. It was his first film, and it jump-started his career. Steven Bochko (who would eventually co-produce Hill Street Blues with Hoblit) "had seen and admired Hoblit's documentary, A Difficult Man, about the Northern California Guru Bubba Free John, and later hired him to produce Paris, then Vampire." (p. 252, Todd Gitlin, Inside Prime Time)
			Michel Karman is world-renowned as a master printer. His services are in great demand by many well-known photographers including Helmut Newton, Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Greg Gorman. Recently, The Corbis Collection invited Michel to hand-select and print 75 of the archive's most striking (some never before) images, and give them new life in a special limited-edition presentation, "The Living Lens: 75 Limited Edition Prints from the Bettmann Archive." Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video clip of Michel Karman talking about Adi Da's image-art.
			Donald Kuspit is one of America’s most distinguished art critics. Winner of the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism (1983), given by the College Art Association, Professor Kuspit is a Contributing Editor at Artforum, Sculpture, New Art Examiner, and Tema Celeste magazines, the Editor of Art Criticism, and on the advisory board of Centennial Review. He has doctorates in philosophy (University of Frankfurt) and art history (University of Michigan), as well as degrees from Columbia University, Yale University, and Pennsylvania State University. He is Professor of Art History and Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and has been the A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University (1991 - 1997). The Female Nude in the Art of Adi Da Samraj — "It is a rare artist who can convey, convincingly, the sense of being face to face with the source of being. Adi Da can clearly live in the depths without succumbing to their pressure, bringing back pearls of art to prove it."
			Dr. Ervin Laszlo is the founder of the Club of Budapest World-Shift Network. Audio/Video Library — In this video, Laszlo talks about the "Deeper Level" that Adi Da is "plugged into" and from which the wisdom in Adi Da's book Not-Two Is Peace comes, and with which all others can resonate and connect, enabling world transformation. He also talks about the timeliness of Adi Da's call for a Global Cooperative Forum.
			Barbara Marx-Hubbard is the founder and executive director of The Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Called by Buckminster Fuller "the best informed human on the concept of futurism", Barbara is an internationally known lecturer and the author of several books, including Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence. She is the co-creator of an intentional cooperative community in Santa Barbara. The "Adi Da Frequency" — Barbara describes how she found Adi Da, and how she draws upon the 'Adi Da Frequency' to help her work in creating a better and more conscious future for humanity.
			Daisy McCrackin is an actress and a singer-songwriter. She has appeared in well-known television series (including Cold Case, Angel, and The Division) and movies (including 3000 Miles to Graceland, Halloween: Resurrection, and Atlas Shrugged: Part 1). She released her first EP, The Rodeo Grounds (Aeronaut Records) in 2009, and her next album, God Willing in 2011. She spent time in the Adidam community while she was growing up (see below). Audio/Video Library — Daisy's song, "Miracle", is the soundtrack to a video on the ballet, Not-Two Is Peace. On her time in the Adidam community: "From an early age I was searching for meaning in life. . . I became very drawn to a teacher named Adi Da Samraj, and I had begun to seriously study his books. My parents had studied with him in the past before I remember. So there was actually somewhere to go — to the Ashram [The Mountain Of Attention] where I saw Adi Da Samraj and got to live in an Ashram culture, on a sanctuary similar to the Ashrams in India. An Ashram is different from the regular world because, rather than exist to satisfy the ego, it is purposed solely to spiritual practice, and to understanding yourself. It was intense. I have great memories of it. I cooked in the kitchen for about 200 people (vegetarian food, of course). It was not glamorous, but I was so happy! My friends and I would run off in afternoons to swim in a small lake on the Sanctuary. I found it to be a wonderful, cooperative community where the arts are practiced and treated as a sacred act. I made a lot of great friends who I am still close with and it was a healing, powerful time in my life. Best thing I ever did."
			Elizabeth Midwikis graduated with a BA from Louisiana State University in interior design, and was a commercial interior designer for many years. She is now retired from that profession, and is a contemporary painter and printmaker. She lives in southern California and Kauai, Hawaii. Feeling Without Limitation — Elizabeth: "As I sat in the church, I was feeling Beloved Adi Da throughout my body and radiating beyond my body, by His grace. My eyes ran tears for the entire funeral service; but I was deep in the Heart, feeling everyone and their profound sorrow — and suddenly I noticed: there was no problem! Waves of deep love and sorrow flowed through me, seemingly radiating to everyone and beyond."
			Flo Morrissey is a singer and songwriter from London. Flo was featured in the Fall, 2015 Teen Vogue article, The 20 Artists That Should Be on Your Radar Right Now, and her first album has received glowing reviews from such eminent forums as London's Guardian. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes Flo's cover of "Love Comes To Here In Time" (words by Adi Da, music by Naamleela Free Jones), which she recorded as a tribute to Adi Da.
			Achille Bonito Oliva is an internationally acclaimed art critic and historian, and a teacher at La Sapienza University in Rome. He has curated numerous thematic and interdisciplinary exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including Adi Da's exhibit at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York City, September, 2010. Bonito Oliva was the Director of the 39th and 45th Venice Biennale. He has been awarded various prizes and recognitions, including the Valentino d’Oro, an international prize for art critics. He has authored and edited many essays and books on art, including Alighiero Boetti: Delivering Art to the World, Art Tribes, White and Other: In Any Case, Art, and Luca Pignatelli. Commentary at the Inauguration of the Exhibition of Adi Da's Art at the 52nd Biennale di Venezie — Oliva delivered the following remarks at the opening of Adi Da's Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2007: "I believe that art should always be a surprise. It must create, even in the critic, not emotion, but a sense of insecurity. When one views Adi Da’s art, it is easy to see 'pop art', 'op art', all the possible linguistic, ethnological, and iconographic references — but, in the end, the final work is always a surprise. With Adi Da’s work, I did not simply find myself in front of a new personal iconographic universe but rather in front of images that returned me to an experience of 'epiphany'." Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video clip of Achille speaking (as curator of the exhibit) at the opening of Adi Da Samraj's solo exhibition, 'Orpheus and Linead', at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, on September 9, 2010.
			Andrea Portera is a premier composer from Florence. His official catalog consists of over 100 works, including chamber music, symphonic pieces, and theater and ballet. His music has won many awards, and has been performed by famous orchestras and chamber groups. Not-Two Is Peace — Andrea was the primary composer for the multimedia ballet event, Not-Two Is Peace (both the 2012 and 2013 versions), based on the wisdom communicated by Adi Da's book of the same name. This series of clips provides excerpts from the July 22 and July 23, 2012 performances.
			Celia Rabinovitch is an artist, writer, and teacher. Her paintings have been exhibited in solo shows in Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe, including Quattro, a four person international show in Vienna, Austria (2000) the Florence Biennale (1999) The Grotto Cycle, California Institute of Integral Studies (2003); Industrial Romance, University of San Francisco and Gallery, Winnipeg, YYZ, Toronto; Emily Carr Institute; Plug-In and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Her book, Surrealism And The Sacred: Power, Eros And The Occult In Modern Art (2002), uncovers new territory between the history of art and the history of religions. She has taught art and cultural and art history at Stanford University, U. C. Berkeley, The California College of Art and the San Francisco Art Institute, the University of Colorado, McGill University and as a Visiting Artist at Syracuse University (1990). Currently she is Professor and Director of the School of Art, the University of Manitoba. “Tacit Glimpses”: A Review of Adi Da Samraj’s “Transcendental Realism” and “Aesthetic Ecstasy” — "Adi Da extends and expands an alternative understanding of art that has run like an underground stream through history: appearing intermittently in the meditations of the scholar-artists of China’s T’ang dynasty; in the writings of Leonardo and Michelangelo in the Renaissance; and in the aesthetic theories of Kandinsky and Mondrian in the modern era."
			Pien Rademakers is a gallerist who runs the Galerie Pien Rademakers in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The gallery translates her passion for art into carefully composed exhibitions. Its focus is international photography and also the works of new, talented artists. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes a video clip in which Pien expresses her deep appreciation for Adi Da's Image-Art, and her personal commitment toward seeing it get wider distribution.
			Carol Raphael writes for EnlightenNext magazine (formerly, What Is Enlightenment?). The Heart Was Released From Images: The Art of Adi Da Samraj (pdf, 2.4MB) — "Brancusi said that 'one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself by approaching the real sense of things.' What Adi Da is doing, though, is not really simple, either visually or metaphysically. His imagery is both highly complex, in terms of its composition and its execution, and startling pure or uncomplicated at the same time. Remarkably, he is attempting to transmit the totality of pure consciousness by means of the specificity of the manifest world — and he's succeeding."
			Ed Reither is the creator of The Beezone, and is a strong advocate of Adi Da's Teaching. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library contains many audio and video clips from Ed. The video clips include: conversations with Frank Marrero about the seven stages of life; and interviews with devotees.
			Roger Savoie is a philosopher, writer, and translator. He is the author of many books, and has written for such prominent magazines as La Revue 3e millénaire. Click here to visit his website. Related Books by Devotees — Roger has written the book, La Vipère et le Lion: La Voie Radicale de la Spiritualité (The Viper and the Lion: The Radical Spiritual Way) about the Way of Adidam in the context of the Great Tradition of spiritual, religious, and philosophical traditions.
			Michael Sheppard is a classical pianist who trained at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied with Leon Fleisher and Ann Schein. As one of two 2003 Classical Fellows of the American Pianists Association he toured Southern Asia and the Middle East in collaboration with the Cultural Programs Division of the United States Department of State. Upon his return he made his Kennedy Center debut. Michael has received critical acclaim as a grand interpreter of transcriptions of operatic tunes as well as American musical theatre in addition to the traditional piano repertory. Baba Da's Great Tradition Improvisation Fusion Orchestra— Ecstatic improvisations in the Presence of Adi Da Samraj, at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, California, in 2005. John Wubbenhorst (flute), Michael Sheppard (keyboards), Byron Duckwall (cello). From the album, Baba Da's Great Tradition Improvisation Fusion Orchestra.
			Rajesh Shukla is an art critic and the author of several books, including Contemporizing Buddha, Hindu Tantra Yoga, and Concerning the Spiritual in Art: An Indian Modern Art Perspective. He received his B.A in Fine Art and Philosophy from Allahabad University in 1993. He took Sanyasa for two years, and studied the six systems of Indian philosophy, focusing specially on Vedanta from the Sankaracharya of Puri, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati. He was the winner of the Lalit Kala Academy Scholarship Award for art criticism in 2005. He is currently working on a book, Buddhist Tantra Yoga. He lives and works in Delhi, India. The Ancient Walk-About Way of Adi Da Samraj — "Adi Da is the one and only artist whose art is beyond idiom. Adi Da is postmodern in this sense, because he knows the very locus from where things appear. Images are things, and they appear on the surface, carrying multiple messages of the locus. In this sense, Adi Da does not express, rather he creates. His images appear ‘as it is’ — an expression of Reality Itself."
			Lisa Paul Streitfeld is an art critic, curator, performance artist and novelist who delivered a paper, "Applying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to 21st Century Art", at the 2009 International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Conference in Dublin. She has written on metaphysics and contemporary art for The New York Times, The Hartford Courant, Art New England, and the international avant-garde. As regular reviewer (2000-2005) for Southern Connecticut Newspapers, she interpreted a 21st century icon, the hieros gamos, subject of her forthcoming four volume critical study. Modernist (R)evolution in Chelsea: The Premiere of Adi Da Samraj — Lisa: "Sundaram Tagore Gallery's New York premiere of the self-proclaimed avatar Adi Da Samraj (1939-2008) filled a vacuum existing in the art world expectantly awaiting the rise of the New since the tumult of the market fall. Curated by the Italian critic Achille Bonito Oliva, Orpheus and Linead celebrates a joyous union of opposites that polarized 20th century art into objective/nonobjective, abstract/figurative." (R)evolutionary! — This is an excerpt from an informal note Lisa published on her blog/memoir, Critical Trilogy: A Critic's Millennial Journey, on October 19, 2010.
			Hélène Tavernier is half of the French band, Angel Factory. Hélène grew up in a family of classical musicians and learned cello. When cello met computer, or more precisely, when Maurizio Fasolo of Pankow fame (the group providing the Florence Dance Company with electronic music over recent years) heard her duo play live in Lille, Hélène was invited to listen, improvise, then set her vocal melodies to the pieces Maurizio had prepared for Divina.com. Divina.com (video) — In this multi-modal performance (featuring the Florence Dance Company dancing against a projected backdrop of Adi Da's Image-Art that was constantly changing), Hélène Tavernier's role was to take texts from Dante and Adi Da Samraj, compose music for them, and then sing them (variously in Italian, French and English).
			Kenneth Welsh is a renowned actor. He spent seven seasons at Stratford, playing among many other roles, the title role in Hamlet. The next twelve years he spent in New York, where he appeared on and off Broadway. His film credits include The Freshman, Legends of the Fall, Crocodile Dundee II, The Day After Tomorrow, Absolute Power, The Aviator, and Margaret's Museum. On television his credits include starring roles in Empire Inc, Love and Hate, And Then You Die, Hiroshima, Edison, Smallville, Law and Order, The X-Files, and Twin Peaks. He has won six Geminis and one Genie (the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars and the Emmys). Not-Two Is Peace: Recitations — Ken recites selected chapters from Adi Da's book, Not-Two Is Peace.
			Steve Zerlin is a brilliant and versatile bassist, fluent with many styles. He is accomplished as a jazz musician on both electric and acoustic bass as well as having adapted the bass to Eastern modalities as a member of Facing East. He has toured India as well as extensively throughout the USA with many top artists including Jack DeJohnette, Dennis Chambers, Carl Filipiak group, Paul McCandless and others. He was cited in Jazz Times magazine (April 2004) for his unique style and abilities. Audio/Video Library — Our audio/video library includes the track, Bass Alap, from the CD, Facing Beloved, by Facing East, which features Steve playing fretless bass. It also includes a video of a a collaboration between Facing East and the dance group, DANCEVERT.