Have you seen Jonathan Spollen? Missing in Rishikesh since February 3rd, 2012

Very sorry to go through the threads on Jonathan Spollen and Gerard di Cicci.Am sure they must be holed up somewhere in the Himalayas with some sadhus and saints in search of spiritual salvation.Point to be noted is that some of their their belongings have been found and no traces of combat with wild animals have been located.This gives me the impression that they must be holed up somewhere in search of spiritual salvation, and shall return to their families when they feel fulfilled.Will sure take photographs, try to speak with them etc. if I am able to locate and recognise them during my trip.By the way, I have a distant relation of mine too who left home with his wife in search of spiritual salvation........they did come back to inform their near and dear ones later on,and are still in touch with them,and they expressed their desire to live their lives as sadhu-sanyasins and are happy that way even today when they must be very old people.Their relations never came in their path, and allowed them to live their lives the way they wanted.They are now in some ashram in Kerala amd travel the length and breadth of the country,keep their near and dear ones informed about their well-being and where they actually are,and are happy the way they are. By the way, the distant relation of mine was well established and well-placed in service when he and his wife chose to give up normal life and live the life of sadhus-sanyasins.May be Jonathan and Gerard both felt the feeling come from within, and when the desire comes from within, there is no mighty force that can obstruct that path......neither parents nor family, nothing.But at some point of time they must keep their near and dear ones informed of their decision and their well-being so that no agony is caused to them. Judging from what I have gone through in the Jonathan Swollen thread which states that Jonathan parted with his girlfriend,left his job,was suffering from some kidney ailments, and most importantly was of the age when a person is most likely to embrace the life of sadhus/sanyasis etc., it appears to me that his could be a case of trying to attain spiritual salvation when a lot is lost in life, and he may actually have already become a disciple of some group of saints/sadhus.Having travelled in the Garhwal Uttaranchal, I shall vouch that the sadhus/saints are very pure people who have nothing in life except for their bare clothings, but have the mother nature and the Almighty beside them always, and they do take care of each other, irrespective of colour,language,country et al.I still feel Jonathan would be in some ashram, probably in Gangotri or Yamunotri or Kedarnath or Badrinath dueing these days as the plains of Haridwar and Rishikesh are very hot these days and the sadhus/sanyasis move to the upper Himalayas in summer for spiritual salvation.The fact that only one backpack of Jonathan was located while the other could not be found suggests that he, after meeting up with a group of sadhus/sanyasis, would have moved with his other bag after discarding all his material assets, and may have donated his camera (or may be it could have been picked up by some local boy from the site of the backpack later found).
Regarding Gerard, dunno what he was doing in that area during that time of the year when it snows heavily there.Besides he was not of the age or capability to embrace the life of sadhus/sanyasis.

Sure will post any information that I may happen to locate at any point of time, now or in the future.

For the families of Jonathan and Gerard, I must say that they must never give up hope.May be some day when they feel like they have attained salvation, they may contact their families.As I just said, I have a living example in my distant family.

Mod Note: this post has been moved here from a different thread.

If Jonathan would have been more specific about his probable 'Spiritual journey' while speaking with his Mom, it would have been so much easier for them and others to try and focus on that area and look for him.

I humbly request all the fellow and future travelers to make it a habit that no matter how much in a holiday mood we are, no matter where we are heading to, no matter we dont care about those back home, no matter how much we are enjoying the solitude, but please keep your families/well wishers posted about your next probable movements. That way, if anything goes wrong like it happened with J, at least the people who care will have a road map to follow in the pursuit of their loved ones.

P.S:- To David and Lynda, I know it must be hard for you to read all the comments here. Specially the one's with other probabilities. But please be positive and keep praying. Who knows J might need those prayers.

P.P.S:- Please give a thought about engaging private detectives as I had suggested earlier. Volunteers do give their all, but someone professionals might be better in such circumstances.

Oh no, this is tragic, to see that a Belgian girl, Debbie Maveau, has also gone missing and now been found dead, and that in the same area another girl had gone missing two years previously, never to be found.

In continuation with my above post, I reiterate my view that the parents and relatives and other well-wishers of Jonathan should continue to put their best efforts in searching for Jonathan, and should leave no stone unturned in this matter.However,it is also my belief that Jonathan must be holed up somewhere with a group of sadhus/sanyasis in search of spiritual salvation, as I do not find any explanation for the recovery of some of his belongings including money,that his cards have not been used for withdrawing money,that the other bag that he was carrying has not been recovered etc.If one of my distant relations who was a Professor in the Indian Institute of Technology could leave home alongwith his wife at around the same age as Jonathan so as to become a sadhu/sanyasin for attainment of spiritual salvation, I think there would be many others that way.Many of the sadhus/sanyasis would be educated people just looking for that something in life which we commoners would never be able to understand.However it is my firm belief (as was the case in my extended family) that some day,Jonathan would definitely call up his parents to inform them about his well-being,and maybe he would come home for a day or for a few hours,but I am cent percent sure that any sadhu/sanyasi will never ever make a permanent return to normal family life,probably because after experiencing the other life of a sadhu/sanyasi, the life of a common citizen would have become non-existant in their dictionary.And that is what is meant by spiritual salvation.......detachment from all earthly things, and attachment for everything spiritual including mother nature.

Is India really safe? Who actually knows the statistics of how many travelers go missing in India? Statistics from the Indian Government or numbers drawn from the collective EU countries, USA, Australia, Canada, basically all embassies and consulates based in India. Also would there be a central place where a case such as Jonathans is updated? Some cases drop off the radar very quickly, lack of resources, lack of traction, rarely any evidence and the over reliance on the “he’s just gone on a spiritual wonder with a Guru or Baba”. Jonathan may well be gone with the Baba’s for a but its quite a long one and still not one sighting of him but the police are searching the many ashrams in the area. I hope that they are doing what they can to find out what happened to Jonathan and where he is.

I met Jonathan Spollen with Stefan in Rishikesh just a couple of days before he went missing. He was noticeably thin but quite chipper. He complained of getting over kidney stones, most travelers in India discuss their ailments or niggles that they are ironing out. He was sharp minded, definitely at that stage he was not showing any signs of mental illness and had mentioned that he speaks to his family and particularly his Mother regularly. We spoke for several hours about the spiritual supermarket and what was on offer. We also spoke about Sadhus, Stef and I know the area fairly well from previous visits and have encountered a mixed bag of Babas and Sadhus along the way and advised Jonathan to exercise caution. I spoke about a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner had lived with the Babas and discovered that they have their own version of the hypnosis. It is fast and effective way to manipulate thoughts to in turn modify behavior, used for therapy in the west. While being entertained in several Sadhu dwellings I was exposed to this hypnosis, but I was fortunate to learn how to stop the babbling Baba before he could clog my conscious mind while dropping messages to the unconscious mind. Jonathan seemed quite interested in this but never said he was going off to live with them.

Lynda’s sixth sense or Mothers intuition and David’s quick response in getting to India have been crucial to getting this massive campaign to where it is today. The amount of love and effort from all of Jonathan’s friends, family and volunteers on India Mike continues to be immense.

One of the few benefits of being a Sadhu is they get free travel on buses and trains!

This is my first post so I will have to work up ten mails to activate the private message facility. If Snifferdog or Silvieup would like to ask me anything, please PM Stef and Ruth for an email address.

I really hope that Jonathan is found safe and well. Look out at remote bookshops, he’s a book monster.

I find it hard to believe that nobody knows anything. Thanks for reading this far.

Kind Regards
Dermot

*bump* David & Lynda, any word? How are you guys getting on?

That is interesting indeed. I am now wondering whether there are any English Language Bookshops in Uttarakhand where bookworms congregate. If so, they would be a good place to put up posters and enquire about Jonathan.

Still hoping for some positive news.

They are mainly in Rishikesh at L'Jhula & R'Jhula so will already be covered.KK

this is disturbing.

Tourists occasionally go missing or turn up dead...either by foul play or by accident or just the desire to disappear {as in illegal immigration}in my very small country of New Zealand. I don't think it should be surprising that in a country as vast and as populated as India that tourists should meet the same sort of fates. Accidentally or purposefully.
It would be statistically impossible that the same sort of tourist disappearance incidents didn't happen in India.
Cheers, Vee

There is a problem, and has long been, with the occasional disappearance notably in some parts of the Indian Himalayas (but not just there, in India).

I think it gets cautioned against in all of the appropriate guidebooks.

I don't subscribe to any notions regarding some "secret (and secretive) brotherhoods (or sisterhoods)," but I think that just simply the combination of (any of...) dope + supposedly holy folks + starry-eyed foreigners + some of the usual myths that abound about this and then some regarding India, just may obviously not be the best of combinations. I mean you can see tourists getting f@£!ed up in the streets of Amsterdam, just over all that weed that frankly us Dutchies have gotten a little bored with. Then indeed some myths about this place, and all its supposed freedom and everyone being just really nice etc., sure. That is in fact true, to an extent. But of course there's always something beyond that extent. You don't suppose people don't get raped or mugged or murdered here, right? We're all just human beings, I guess. While I always feel comfortable here, the daily papers certainly are always full of it.

(Then recently there were a one people or a pair of them again thinking it seemed like a good idea to go trekking all by yourself in the middle of Spiti Valley. I don't know it there, but their questions didn't seem to indicate they knew India at all, and anyway I don't think that's a good idea, so without a guide or anything. I mean non-natural mishaps aside, you're just gonna be thoroughly screwed if you walk lost in such surroundings. Now indeed perhaps taking to irrational decisions trying to get out of there, etc. To do so, and so indeed to take exactly the wrong decisions, is indeed very common to all but the most experienced at what they're facing.)

You people saw the latest update on the Gérard Di Cicco case (post # 26 there)?: Missing Frenchman, last seen in Joshimath on 13 December 2011. Apparently they're just none the wiser.

David & Lynda, again, any news? Just a word if you can would be nice.

agree

Well, I war really caught by surprise with the question "are you Jonathan".
No, I am not. I am a PhD Researcher from Brazil, and live in Bangalore. Will return to my country on this September!
Well, I would like to put some comments on some previous posts.
I am sorry to be positive. But in my own familiar background tow uncles had disappeared in Brazil, one appeared back to home with schyzofrenia and other was never encountered, till now. It has been about 20 years nobody has a clue about him, and we suspect he died abroad, because one of the news we got about his was that he found job in a ship, and also he sent some postcards from distant ports back to home before disappearing.
My idea about Jonathan disappearance is that he is engaged in some activity because some of the students here in Bangalore, in the Bachelor's degrees, DON'T send news to their parents or family. By the way, I will just walk one 20yo boy from the Philosophy course in 50 minutes to the post office because he is here for 2 months, and did not call or sent any letter to his family so far. THIS REALLY HAPPENS!
And thinking about Jonathan, who was in Rishikesh (or something like that, I just cannot spell it right), the town of seekers, he may found something. And if we are speaking about someone who was giving a break about his country environment, and that is quite obvious he was doing, once he was traveling alone, it makes a little sense to think that he possibly found a guru or something like that, and is discovering himself.
If he died, he would be spotted, unless he chose a remote area to die in, like the middle of forest or a remote mountain region... and if that's the case, then we should not find him.
In my country, Brazil, some tourists disappear as well. In the Amazon Forest, for instance. If they are not found, the natives from the region (not talking about indigenous peoples aboriginals and stuff like that, for this is just a myth about Brazil, but police and authorities who live in that area) find the person, alive or dead, in weeks.
Like the girl, found in Nepal after 16 days.
Also, in the Andes region, in the nearbies countries of Argentina or Chile, people get lost in the mountains, and are found in the same-a-like period of 14-21 days.
If you cannot find someone, it's pretty much more probable that this object (the human person) is moving, because if it was static, it would be found pretty earlier!
Or, in a very bad option, the dead body was eaten or buried.
If it was eaten, there are two options: one wild animal, that would not be cautious about covering its footsteps or another person, who also would not be so cautious because is obviously crazy.
But if the missing person was killed after a roberry, let's say, the body well hidden and so, then you would not find it.
But that's a remote idea to think about in India. If we were talking about Brazil, quite frankly, I would believe in assassination and stuff like that, because in some regions, like the Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo drugdealers' controlled slums, there is not State presence at all, and so nobody would have a clue.
But we are talking about India. India IS safe. It is a complete mess, for sure, but the cultural values of most the people are peacefully. Specially in a spiritual-seeking area like Rishikesh.
What to do?
In my poor opinion, call my family as many as possible.
And also, about Jonathan, keep looking. He is not static, at least not until now. He is not dead yet. He will be found!
And please, please, please!!!
Don't post stuff about disappeared people encountered dead or something like that. It is heart-breaking!
My uncle, who appeared home after 15 years, died among us. The other one? We hope he died peacefully, because we did not find any trace of violence in the steps we could know about him.
So, don't post such things... It is really heartbreaking for the family. I say that because I also am one of this kind of family.
I am pretty sorry for my poor English, and hope I could be understood.
Namaskaram!

Hi here, do you guys have any new facts. Its boring to waste time reading all the stories and created dreams - Hollywood, Bollywood and Mullywood supported - and it happened to my relative and so it has to be happened to Jonathan too. He is here and there.

Sorry for this, but most of the postings are not helpful.

Does anyone have information about the evidences for camping found at the place with the sleeping bag. which evidences, how many so to estimate how long he could had stayed there. (Fingerprints on this evidences or 'the hole garbage was placed by him, Indians are so clean'.) Where he had been first: campground with sleeping bag or the place with the confusing description about the docs and card, balled like rubbish, but places like sorted, 1 meter away of the others but in holes? Maybe my knowledge of english language is not good enough, maybe there is something else. I will be at Rishikesh in a few days and will spend some days for Jonathan and his search. Does anyone have GPS data of the places? painted map of the places and trails. How much money did he take before getting lost? At which days. What else on clothes had been found there. Is it all of his belongings or had been luggage stored anywhere else. Date and time!

He wanted to meet a friend at Delhi, but didn't. Had he been there and then back to Rishikesh or did he not use the bought train ticket and stayed.

I would not expect wild animals on such a place, crowded with humans, attacking him. There are more or less no attacks by bear, wolf, snake and leopard. Does anyone have other knowledge, which animal would this be?

Maybe a specialist doctor could let us know, with the ace he seems to have because of the stones, how long he would stay able to act and move with this. He seems to loose weight, maybe power too. Does not mean, he lost the weight because of the stones.

If fact, if he is alive and cut the connections, just a few people are able to find him.

Thanks for details to optimize my short time at Rishikesh and support me to do something productive in this case.

Tom

Welcome to IndiaMike, Tom.

I think that if anyone had any more information, it would be here. It's very kind of you to use your time in Rishikesh to look for Jonathan, and I'm sure that Jonathan's family and friends will appreciate anything you can do to try and locate him. Good luck!