On Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 8:55:32 AM UTC-7, diamondsouled wrote:

I'm sure most here remember Hossein Danesh, the disgraced Canadian NSA
member from a few years back. Now that Landegg is no more, he's back
with the full support of the Canadian NSA:
http://bit.ly/cFF37J
As you can see in the poster, Danesh is referred to as Dr. and as a psychiatrist. This is completely untrue. He gave up the right to
practice psychiatry and was stripped of that rank by the governing
body of that profession as part of his settlement. He was accused of
sexual abuse not by one patient, not by two but by three patients.
To shield him, the Baha'i administration moved him away from Canada
where his reputation was in tatters to the lakeside resort in
Switzerland called Landegg Academy to be the grand-poobah there with a
paid salary. Now with about 15 years having gone by and people's
memories faded, he returns and is presented thusly:
"Dr. Danesh was an Associate Professor of psychiatry at the University
of Ottawa, establishing and directing the Marriage Therapy Centre. He
is an author, international lecturer and consultant, with more than 35
years of academic and clinical experience as a phsychiatrist and peace educator. He is also a former member of the National Spiritual
Assembly."
If someone is going to give a seminar on weight loss, you would balk
if they waddled onto the stage, wheezing from the exertion of having
to cart their massively obese form around. I think it is as ludicrous
to have a man who was disgraced and thrown out of his profession for
sexual misconduct to give a seminar on relationships.
Especially when the Baha'i community has no shortage of excellent and impeccable professionals that have the same or better academic qualifications. Why is Danesh given the star treatment? why are
seminars arranged for him? why are the seminars promoted heavily by
the NSA in Baha'i communities through the national Baha'i publication
and through LSA notices? why is the truth about his past hidden? why
is he referred to as "Dr." and a "psychiatrist" when he does not have
the right to use those titles by law?
Why indeed. The answer is as clear as it is unpalatable.

I am not Bahai' but I was lured to Landegg under the false pretense of a position in Administration, a masters degree, room and board, etc. When I arrived, it was obvious there was something very creepy going on there. It seemed like a cult of wealthy
Bahai' children and children from very impoverished countries. Luckily, several of the lovely people there took me under their wings, and I am thankful the I had this experience. However, as an outside observer, this man was very tyrannical. He was very
elitist. And just made lots of promises that were not kept. I could not stay there it was not the experience I was promised. I was shocked years later when I read information online about this sexual misconduct. I feel very lucky that he didn't choose me
to pry upon.

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On Monday, December 16, 2013 at 8:00:21 AM UTC-8, [email protected] wrote:

On Tuesday, July 6, 2010 1:13:32 PM UTC-7, Susan Maneck wrote:

On Jun 4, 10:16 pm, diamondsouled <[email protected]> wrote:

Had it only occurred once that would be gray. With Danesh there were 3 women who claimed abuse. If there were three there was likely several more who didn't come forth. 40-60% of victims of rape and sexual
assault do not report those assaults to the police. The percentage is even higher when the victims know the assaulter.

However you paint it Danesh was abusing his position of trust and authority with these women.

According to court records the 'abuse' these other women accused
Danesh of was putting his arm around a woman who was crying and taking
off his shoes during a session. For that reason the court dismissed
the case against him.

I am not privy to what happened, and I would hope people would be very careful about maligning people on the Internet, and putting out their criticisms without first absolutely looking at their own selves and responsibilities. "Breathe not the sins of

others..." is quite a high standard. If you have put out false info that is easy to access (I was just looking for the prayer "The Blessings" I think you are responsible to remove it - whoever posted it.

CG

3 different patients complained and he was stripped of the honor of being a practicing doctor. That is a HUGE deal. Don't bring religious scripture in to shame people who were needlessly victimized. I worked for this man. His is not healthy.

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On Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 3:40:28 PM UTC-7, NUR wrote:

On Jun 3, 2:13 am, diamondsouled <[email protected]> wrote:

This lax attitude towards sexual abusers in the Baha'i Faith and the converse hard line taken against several Baha'i scholars/intellectuals
for simply voicing their personal consciences/interpretations starkly outlines what presently ails the Baha'i Faith. That they see more of a threat to their religion from those who freely express their personal consciences then they do from perverts like Danesh is very telling
IMHO.

Cheers

Larry Rowe

Larry, I was around when this case broke out. My opinion of this guy
was the same as yours. But the more I think about it, the more it
dawns on me that on the sex abuse front, I don't think you can really
call Danesh an abuser in the same way you can call a child molester or
rapist a sexual abuser. The legal system in Canada is extremely PC-
obssessed and there have been cases of people whose careers have been destroyed over trifles. Danesh is an asshole for other more important reasons, but the more the facts of his case are interrogated, the more
it dawns on me that there was consensual sex involved in the romp
fests Danesh was having with his patients. It is his professional code
of ethics that prevents the man from getting involved with patients on
that level and then pigeon-holes the man as a sex abuser. But take
that aspect away, and there is absolutely no difference between what
happened with Danesh and his posse of willing women and what regularly happens behind closed doors in many corporate environments. He wasn't
exactly hypnotizing these women or raping them. They were obviously
putting out and so the sex was consensual, regardless that they
changed their minds about it afterwards. I think on the sex abuse
front this guy might have gotten a bum rap.

I worked for him at Landegg. It was like I was recruited. I remember sitting in his office when I first arrived and it was odd. The woman I was replaced had a career launch from working for him. They had a very odd relationship. Now knowing he had this
record, I can see she probably was one of these women. He was a typical boss misusing power.

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