Probably the most common question I get when discussing this book is which real-life spiritual teacher the character of Ma is based on.  I’ve had people tell me that Ma and/or her teachings sound exactly like this Indian guru or that Western teacher.  But I didn’t base my portrayal on any of these people. 

When I created the character of Ma and her community, I sought to bring together those characteristics and teachings that were common to all the groups that I studied with.  There were certain themes, issues and dynamics that I saw repeated over and over again in the numerous spiritual groups I encountered, and it was these that I sought to capture in my book.  The fact that people see so many different teachers reflected in Ma and her lessons highlights just how similar most of these groups really are, despite the fact that their leaders would prefer to have you think otherwise.

John Safran Vs. God is imported Aussie show currently running on the Sundance Channel.  The season was originally filmed in 2004, but its very funny and cutting insights into religion are no less relevant today.  It is not, however, a show for either the easily offended or the squeamish: in the process of traipsing around the world exploring new religions for his own possible conversion, Mr. Safran takes potshots at many different faiths and experiences more than one bloody animal sacrifice in the process.

In one recent episode, John took a look at the premise presented in the book The Bible Code that predictions for humanity’s future are embedded in code within the text of The Bible.  In this very funny segment, John notes that the book, first published in 1998, failed to predict the 9/11 attacks, though the sequel, published after the attacks, shows that the prediction was there all along.  Mr. Safran then demonstrates that similarly vague predictions can be found when the catalogue of lyrics to faded rapper Vanilla Ice’s songs are fed into the same computer program used to decode The Bible.  It’s a fantastic example of how humans are very, very good at finding supposed evidence to support their beliefs no matter how irrational those beliefs may actually be.