Ken Barlow's son and the humiliation sect: The extraordinary saga of how the Coronation Street star's actor son is helping run a very troubling 'cult'

Mail, UK/December 14, 2012

By Paul Brachhi and Tom Leonard

The British headquarters of the 'Enlightenment' organisation are based in a modern five-storey building behind wrought iron gates in Islington, North London.

The reception, on the ground floor, is manned by a middle-aged man with an American accent. Visitors seeking more information about the group, which draws on Tibetan Buddhism and Hindu mysticism for inspiration, are handed a leaflet entitled 'Meditation and Evolution'.

These are the buzz words of the Enlightenment movement - or EnlightenNext, as it is officially known - which claims to have thousands of followers and a 'membership base spanning 20 countries', including actor Linus Roache, son of veteran Coronation Street actor, Bill.

It emerged this week that 48-year-old Roache has made the extraordinary decision to move to the U.S. to become managing director of the group's New York office. His wife, Rosalind Bennett, is PR for EnlightenNext.

'I realised success as an actor alone wouldn't make me happy,' explained Roache in a recent interview. 'I needed to explore my spiritual side in more depth.'

So far, Roache, who made his name in the U.S. police series Law & Order and appeared in Julian Fellowes's ITV drama Titanic in March, has donated at least $75,000 (£46,000) to EnlightenNext in 2010 and 2011. His name is listed in the 'Donor Honor Roll' in the biennial report of the spiritual network.

It transpires that Roache joined EnlightenNext back in 1994, along with Jerome Flynn, who starred in the popular Nineties TV series Soldier Soldier. The late Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop empire, was also a convert.

The endorsement of such celebrities as Roache, a much-admired actor, who also appeared in the acclaimed 1997 film The Wings Of The Dove with Helena Bonham Carter, has undoubtedly added credibility to the organisation and increased its appeal here in Britain.

But critics have accused EnlightenNext of being little more than a cult. Certainly, its methods have attracted controversy and criticism.

So what does its leader Andrew Cohen encourage his followers to believe? It is almost impossible to say because his philosophy, such that it is, is couched in near impenetrable gobbledegook. But 'enlightenment through meditation' is probably the simplest way of putting it.

Even former followers find it hard to describe it more clearly, but some believe it has damaged lives. Take the British woman we spoke to this week, who claims her 16-year marriage ended after her husband became a follower of Cohen, who describes himself as a spiritual teacher and 'cultural visionary'.

'It was like losing my husband Mike to another woman,' said Helen McLellan from Stoke-on-Trent.

Others have handed over huge sums of money to 57-year-old Cohen's movement. They did so willingly, it should be stressed, but some have nevertheless come to bitterly regret their decision.

In the past, at least, Cohen's most committed 'students', as they call themselves, have ended up living at the group's American base, even if they're British. Former members have made allegations about the psychological abuse and bullying they suffered at the centre, set in more than 200 acres in Massachusetts.

This includes bizarre and humiliating punishments, such as having buckets of red paint poured over you or having your face slapped for failing to measure up, in one way or another, to the group's expectations. It's alleged that those under Cohen's tutelage have had to prostrate themselves before pictures of him.

But perhaps his harshest critic has been his own mother. She was once one of his students and that experience formed the basis of a book she wrote in 2009 which she called, with heavy irony, Mother Of God.

In it, she revealed how she used to address her son as 'Master' and accused him in the book of becoming egomaniacal and manipulative. The two have since been reconciled.

The book was among a number of alleged 'exposes' of Cohen in America over the past few years, but there has been almost no critical things written about him in this country, where it is a registered charity.

According to documents filed at the Charity Commission, one of the organisation's objectives is to 'advance moral or spiritual welfare or improvement for the benefit of the public?…?by promoting education concerning spiritual enlightenment'.

It is the group's 'advancement of spiritual welfare' that makes EnlightenNext eligible for charitable status. Charities, of course, enjoy beneficial tax arrangements.

The UK arm of EnlightenNext, which also covers its activities in Europe, had an income of nearly £600,000 and assets of £3.2?million, according to the accounts for the year to December 2011.

In the U.S., it had a turnover of $3.1?million (£1.9?million) in 2010, the most recent financial information available reveals. Around one third of that money comes from 'donor investors' and the rest from 'revenue-generating' operations, such as the sale of books and videos. A ten-day retreat in Tuscany, Italy, being advertised at the Islington HQ, costs more than £1,000.

EnlightenNext is a non-profit organisation - a phrase which is mentioned repeatedly in its publicity material - meaning that any financial surplus is used to further its aims.

Anyone who visits the group's website is encouraged to give at every opportunity: 'Donate now' ('support a revolution in consciousness and culture') … 'Donate Now' ('Help change the world from the inside out') … 'Please click here to make a donation' …

Home for Mr Cohen, 57, when he is not travelling the major cities of the world (he will be in London to give a talk in February), is the group's sprawling HQ in Lenox, Massachusetts, although his people have described where he lives as simply a two-bedroom flat in the grounds.

People who have met Cohen, born into a middle-class Jewish family in New York, say he possesses an 'alluring intensity' and that watching him speak is 'like a tunnel vision experience where you feel he's only talking to you'.

Cohen says he gave up early aspirations to be a musician and embarked on his chosen path after experiencing a moment of 'cosmic consciousness' when he was just 16.

In 1986, he began teaching his own blend of mysticism, which he called 'evolutionary enlightenment' - the story of which is told in his tome of the same name, price $16.47 (£10.20) - and two years later set up a global network of followers, which eventually became EnlightenNext.

In the early Nineties, it was known as FACE (Friends of Andrew Cohen Everywhere). Mostly comprising professional people under 40, it included teachers, lawyers and computer experts as well as actors like Linus Roache and Jerome Flynn, who lived together with other British followers in eight rented flats in a converted dairy in Belsize Park, North London.

Each morning and evening, students would meet for an hour of silent meditation. All self-centred thoughts had to be renounced. It was rumoured in the neighbourhood that some shaved their heads as a sign they had taken a vow of celibacy. A number of them are said to have pledged at least £40 a month to the cause, and in some cases, it is thought to have been more.

It was reported at the time that worried families had contacted the Cult Information Centre, a body dedicated to exposing abuse and brainwashing in pseudo-religious groups.

The CIC's spokesman was quoted as saying the families had described their loved ones as 'going through the changes in personality that you would expect from those involved in any of the groups we're concerned about', including an alleged loss of critical ability.

Yesterday, when contacted by the Mail, the CIC confirmed that it had received a number of complaints over the years about Cohen's Belsize Park community. But, it seems, there were said to be far more bizarre things taking place inside Cohen's communes around the world, not least in Massachusetts, which became the global headquarters of the enlightenment network in 1998.

One man who knows Cohen well is William Yenner, who was Cohen's business manager for 25 years. He become disillusioned with Cohen's methods, but had already handed over a cheque to EnlightenNext for $80,000 (£49,000).

'It was at my lowest point,' said Mr Yenner, speaking from his home in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He was given his money back, he says, when he left in 2003, but only on condition he signed a confidentiality agreement that prevented him from disclosing details about EnlightenNext for five years. The agreement expired in 2008 and, shortly afterwards, Yenner's book about Cohen was published, entitled American Guru: A story Of Love, Betrayal And Healing - former students of Andrew Cohen speak out.

One chapter is named 'The Dark Side of Enlightenment' and includes a section on 'disciplinary face slapping'.

'In some cases, Andrew [Cohen] would direct one student to slap another,' wrote Mr Yenner. 'In others, he administered the slaps himself. I myself was slapped on two occasions, once by a woman and once by another man. I also remember having to do 1,000 protestations (bowing in reverence) in front of a picture of Andrew, which would take me two or three hours.'

A female student who displeased Cohen, he says, was summoned to a basement room where 'she was met by four fellow female students who, having guided her on to a plastic sheet on the floor, each poured a bucket of paint over her head as a "message of gratitude" from Andrew.'

There were strict rules around relationships. 'If Andrew didn't like how a relationship was going, he would encourage it to end,' said Mr Yenner. 'No one would consider a relationship with someone outside the "community". Even couples who joined together were sometimes encouraged to separate. This happened even if they had children.'

Yenner claims it was also common for students to curry favour for perceived transgressions by buying Cohen gifts or making donations - dubbed 'the currency of forgiveness'.

Those who decided to leave the fold, he says, tended to flee in the night and Cohen would sometimes send other followers to find the 'escapees' and persuade them to return.

One student, it is alleged, who had a 'beautiful' Saab car, was persuaded to get rid of it because it was deemed to be a reminder of his materialistic lifestyle. He is said to have taken the vehicle to a scrapyard where it was placed in a crusher. To 'maximise the effect', the student himself was invited to press the button on the crushing machine.

Another bizarre custom was a 'push-up marathon' every Sunday. 'We'd do a series of 30, then rest our arms, then do another series of 30,' said a former member in a book he also wrote about his time with Cohen. 'You just had to keep going for as long as you could.'

Others quoted in Mr Yenner's book told of having to stand in a lake in the grounds of the Massachusetts HQ. Then there is the story of Helen McLellan from Staffordshire. She says her experience is testament to the way outside relationships are disapproved of by the group.

Mike and Helen McLellan were married for 16 years. They had a young son and Mr McLellan was head of music at a private school in Staffordshire. Then, one day in 1993, someone bought him some tapes of Andrew Cohen.

He soon became an ardent follower, culminating in him going on a 12-day retreat in Switzerland. He returned a changed man, says his wife.

'He was always taking our son to the park, and we used to talk for hours on end,' said the now 69-year-old Mrs McLellan, who lives in a semi-detached house in Stoke-on-Trent. 'Afterwards, he was unhappy and not interested in talking about things. He became completely absorbed in himself.'

Within a few years of her husband listening to Cohen's tapes, Helen and Mike separated. Her story later appeared in the local paper in 2000 under the headline: 'Ex-wife claims marriage ruined by religious cult.'

'Our son is still in contact with him,' says Mrs McLellan. 'He always makes sure to pass on his love to me, but I know nothing of what he is doing, although I believe he is in London.'

We also spoke to a family in the U.S. who tell a similar story to Mrs McLellan.

This week, after the Mail put these allegations to EnlightenNext, it issued the following statement: 'It is common for organisations such as ours to face criticism from time to time. In this case, the critics are a small minority who have not been involved with EnlightenNext for over a decade or more.

'As we're sure you can appreciate, EnlightenNext cannot comment directly on any one individual's experience, as it would violate both their and other individuals' rights to privacy. Andrew Cohen continues to have a positive impact on many hundreds of people around the world.'

Meanwhile, Linus Roache has spoken to Spirit And Destiny magazine about what his father - Coronation Street's Ken Barlow - thought about his involvement with Cohen. Roache Snr has often spoken about his belief in spiritualism and reincarnation. He briefly became a druid in the Sixties and celebrated the summer solstice at Stonehenge.

His son said: 'Dad has always been -and still is - a great influence on me. He has always stood up for spirit, staying true to his beliefs… and I like to do the same with regard to my own true beliefs, regardless of potential criticism or mockery.'

You can be sure, though, that the path to enlightenment for the much-admired actor is unlikely to involve face-slapping, being covered in red paint, or standing in a freezing lake.

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