Review : Leading lights

Are gurus bonkers or blessed? Insightful or insane? Or does one lead to the
other? Some of the most awe and anger-inspiring figures of the past 2000 years,
from Jesus to Jim Jones, come under the microscope in Anthony Storr’s
fascinating Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus (HarperCollins, £6.99, ISBN 0
00 638423 4). The inclusion of Jung and Freud alongside Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
gives an idea of the scope of Storr’s definition of a guru, and he reveals that
distinct personality traits or experiences of mental illness are shared by some
of his subjects. Read this book and you cannot fail to agree with his
conclusion, courtesy of Euripides, that “the wisest men follow their own
direction and listen to no prophet guiding them”. A pity that some
people—notably the Heaven’s Gate cult in California—didn’t heed
Storr’s advice before the arrival of Hale-Bopp.