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"interns" were mirroring the same chauvinistic, patriarchal, and rape-culture behavior that <br /> Robert models. Disrespectful towards women, assuming they could take from them, offering <br /> massage and then trying to put their hands inside of the woman's vagina completely <br /> unconsenually. It was disgusting. I left in a hurry and on the way out Robert approached me. He <br /> wasn't traveling he was there preying on young women who came to his retreat center looking <br /> for authentic healing. He did not recognize me when he approached me and hit on me. I looked <br /> him in the eye and told him I had no interest in speaking with him. I still had the trauma locked <br /> up inside of my body. <br /> I barely spoke of either of these experiences for nearly three years after the first incident. It <br /> wasn't until I heard stories of Robert drugging other women that I had a cellular memory of what <br /> happened to me. It unlocked some of the pain I was carrying and the memories I had hidden <br /> away in my subconscious came flooding back. Since then, I have had to go extensive therapy <br /> and have found out that this is normal reaction in traumatic events, called Repressed Memories <br /> or in more extreme cases Dissociative Amnesia. With these memories returning, I began to go <br /> public with what happened to me through Robert Silber's actions. While a Community <br /> Accountability group was organizing in Puna Hawaii in early 2017 to bring claims of Robert's <br /> violations to his and the community's awareness and to find justice, he continually denied his <br /> actions and responsibility. <br /> At that time, I felt I did not have the resources, support or courage to continue on and bring my <br /> experience to the police. A few months later, in May 2018, my best friend and previous <br /> romantic partner Mario Benassi Jr. suddenly drowned in the river at age 23. It has taken me the <br /> past year and a half to recover from and caused me to put the Robert Silber case on hold. <br /> In August of 2019, 1 became aware of the community initiative being re-activated to hold Robert <br /> Silber accountable for his actions. More claims and people with stories of their personal <br /> experience with his manipulation, unconsensual sex work, contract breaking, and more are <br /> readily available to read on the internet. Today there are at least 400-500 comments on a public <br /> thread reporting Robert Silber's violations with testimonies of"shady business practices" to <br /> "habitual boundary violations." I am finally stepping forward with my story because I do not want <br /> others to be harmed as I was. I do not want him grooming and modeling to more men that this <br /> kind of behavior is OK. He has been a strong influencer and that has caused people to defend <br /> him in the past. Today more and more people are admitting the truth and coming out of the <br /> manipulative cloud he has hung over the heads of many. I am hoping that the legal system of <br /> Hawaii can stop this man and bring justice since community efforts have not been enough. <br /> Furthermore, he has been kicked out of the International School of Tantric Arts, the Ecstatic <br /> Dance Festival will no longer work with him, he has been reported to list servers such as Yoga <br /> Trade as "exploiting women sexually and volunteers for work." In my own and many other's <br /> experiences, he is an incredibly unsafe person to have on the islands, particularly because he is <br /> working in the "healing" and "tantric" sex-field on the islands. I believe he should not be <br /> permitted to be around children, young women or working in any sort of healing modality. I also <br /> recently learned that he is marketing himself as a "Licensed Massage Therapist" but has not <br />