Beyond the Illusion

As the eldest child of film director King Vidor and actress Eleanor Boardman, Toni Vidor grew up amidst the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden Era. After college, she rejected the life offered by her parents’ wealth and fame. From the late 1940s to the early seventies, she was an equestrian, healer, as well as a pioneer of alternative living. During this time, a process awakened in her that triggered a steady stream of psychic phenomena, some ecstatic, others terrifying. She became a spiritual seeker and met a dazzling array of teachers, none of whom satisfied her thirst for spiritual truth. By 1974, her children were grown and her tumultuous search had exhausted itself. Just as her inner crisis peaked, Toni met the American-born spiritual master, Adi Da Samraj. She spent the next thirty-five years as his devotee, on the wild ride of his dramatic, revelatory teaching work until his passing in 2008. With remarkable honesty and insight, Toni tells of her life as the devotee of an indescribably potent spiritual master. She recounts in vivid terms the miraculous phenomena in Adi Da’s company, as well the ordeals of the beginning spiritual practitioner. Versed in the traditions of esotericism, she describes the inner workings of the relationship between the disciple and a true adept-realizer - the hard realities and personal trials as well as the ecstasies and profound revelations that come with a life dedicated to the genuine spiritual process.