Raped beaten and still stalked by Amma cult – book review

Australian Gail Tredwell was frequently raped, beaten, abused and exploited during her 20 years as slave to billionaire religious Indian cult leader Sudhamani Idamannel aka Mata Amma Amritanandamayi. It's a sad but true story which has been validated by several Amma disciples accounts.

Physically exhausted and mentally destroyed by the Amritapuri ashram torture program, it took Gail 15 years to summon up the strength and courage to write this enlightening book about her path to real joy and freedom.



"Holy Hell: A Memoir of Faith, Devotion, and Pure Madness" starts with Gail's escape while being hunted by the rapist head of Amma's organization and one of several supposedly celibate Swamis who were having sex with Amma. Big Swami (aka Big Swami Balu and Swami Amritasvarupananda) searched devotee houses and interrogated people in a desperate bid to find and silence Gail. It's a nail-biting, edge of your seat kind of Jason Bourne tension that has you rooting for Gail's escape. Well written, I am still shaking with adrenaline!



Amma's cult continues to harass Gail to this very day as demonstrated by a wave of fake posters who spam Amazon with hundreds of posts containing links to two Amma sites devoted to libeling Gail. Ten outrageously untrue and spiteful Ammbot posts have been removed by Amazon already but the kamikaze Ammabots keep on robotically posting their hate because they fail to know love. Ammabots please note that this is Amazon for book lovers not a book-hating Amma-zone!



Gail had to overcome many psychological barriers to write "Holy Hell" including Stockholm Syndrome and PTSD. She even felt guilty about leaving behind 200 ashram women who had depended upon her support.



Gail describes how she hid cuts, bruises and Amma's violence from her friends and family. Amma's giving of charity money to build large Kerala houses for her relatives indicates massive fraud. Amma's overseas income is India's largest import. Although Ammachi claims to be a religious saint she refuses to open her business accounting books or to be transparent about her assets. Very fishy!



Gail is not the only victim to Amma's terrorism, Anyone who writes a book about Amma gets threatened. Amma tried to jail policeman Sreeni Pattathanam for writing a book "Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities) " which linked Amma to at least 5 murders, fraud and exposed her supposed miracles as scams. Amma leader and writer Taavi Kassila was ordered by Amma to lie in his book "Erään etsijän tarina" (as reported in an article Totuus vai maine?).



Mata Amma Amritanandamayi is worse than Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara and Charles Manson put together but as with the pedophilia of Satya Sai Baba, the West is slow to wake up to the danger in the midst. Amma's Amritapuri is the location of suspicious suicides, murders and psychotic breakdowns. The most recent ashram murder was that of Satnam Singh, a 25 year old Brahmin boy who tried to get Amma's counsel.



Gail's book tells how she escaped the clutches of a religious fraud and eventually regained her sanity and dignity. I would recommend this book to all religious seekers, travelers, academics and journalists. Top 5 star rating! Thank you Gail for your courage, insights and humor.

Amma Contracted Taavi Kassila To Lie About Minister Relationship

Amma ordered Rishi Taavi Kassila to lie in his vain 'kiss and tell' autobiography about his relationship with former Finnish minister Tanja Karpela. Amma then forced Kassila to sign a contract declaring that Kassila had written lies. Strange then that Amma and her organization later issued a public statement which implied that they did not know Kassila after deleting all references to Kassila from over 35 webpages of amma.fi .

This evidence was revealed in a text chat between Kassila, who was supposed to be a celibate Amma ashram monk and a jilted girlfriend in her blog 'Tarina rakkauden apostolista'. The blog which was closed down by order of Finnish government officials contained a signed testimony of a teenage girl who Kassila had stalked and tried to seduce.

Kassila, a former film director, has a history of using women to gain fame, power, money and sex. Kassila targets vulnerable women for multiple secretive, short-term relationships. Tanja Karpela, a former Miss Finland who had several difficult divorces after meeting Amma, was used in Amma publicity campaigns which negatively affected her political career. Karpela's colleagues advised her to not go to Amma's Amritapuri ashram just before a tsunami hit it. Kassila irresponsibly and dishonestly told the media that he would protect Karpela whose life had been threatened if she arrived at Amma's Helsinki meeting. This was ironic because Kassila has a reputation for using, abusing and destroying women. Kassila had even used fake names of women to harass and cyberstalk a former girlfriend. The attacks had originated from Kassila's internet address.

The text chat also revealed that Kassila was afraid of a “jealous woman” who had a photograph of him with “his pants down”. This supports the claims that Taavi Kassila used the internet and Facebook to swap sexual photos with women who are half his age. Kassila was afraid that the scandal would wreck his reputation as an Amma monk and yoga and celibacy preacher.

The original text Tarina rakkauden apostolista: Totuus vai maine? may be read with Google's translation: The story of love's apostle : Truth or reputation?

Amma asks her followers to lie for her and has installed serial rapist 'Big' Swami Balu to run all her affairs. Amma and her organization cannot be trusted. Amma while currently touring is asking her helpers to lie in an attempt to smear her former secretary Gail Tredwell aka Gayatri aka Swamini Amritaprana. Amma is avoiding media interviews too. This simply proves that Gail Tredwell's book 'Holy Hell: A Memoir of Faith, Devotion, and Pure Madness' is the dynamite of truth which will cause Amma's house of lies to fall.