Timeline of events and the healing process involved

TIMELINE

2008: Incident of misconduct with Ms. Michelson.

Late December 2017: Ms. Michelson reaches out to Mr. Kranz and informs him that she would like to talk about the incident. Within a few days the two have a 1.5-hour video meeting discussing the events, which ends with both parties feeling a resolution to the matter.

March 2018: Ms. Michelson informs Mr. Kranz that she has decided that she doesn’t think he gets it after all and is going to pursue the matter further.

April – June 2018: Ms. Michelson contacts Shambhala’s International Care and Conduct Committee outlining her complaint. They dismiss the complaint as not meeting their minimum standard of harm.

July 2018: Shambhala Care and Conduct Committee meets with Mr. Kranz informing him of the allegations of misconduct and he provides his statement to them, meeting with them a few more times in the coming months.

During this time, Ms. Michelson contacts the Olive Branch, a third party organization contracted to help resolve misconduct issues in the Shambhala community. They also inform her that her complaint does not meet the criteria of the new Care and Conduct policy.

July 2018: Ms Michelson posts in a Facebook group she created called “Societal Lhasang” the story of what happened with Mr. Kranz without naming him, but providing enough details that one of Mr. Kranz’s close students recognized who was being talked about and asked Mr. Kranz about it. Mr. Kranz shared openly his version of events and the student is very supportive and understanding, though concerned about the impact on other students in the group and their path.

August 2018: Ms. Michelson informs leaders in Shambhala that she will be publishing a story about the incident and including their names along with Mr. Kranz’s name. Mr. Kranz then requests mediation with a third party mediator agreed to by Ms. Michelson. During the mediation process no date is set for closure of the process. The two agree to produce a joint statement regarding the incident to model healing for the community.

During the mediation process the two are unable to agree on the recollection of events in the same way and decide to do separate statements to be released together.

September 2018: Ms. Michelson informs Mr. Kranz that his statement needs to be done that week. Mr. Kranz responds that it is being reviewed by trusted mentors and will be done shortly. Mr. Kranz is also only a day or two away from teaching a public retreat at this time. The following day Ms. Michelson says this process is no longer serving her and releases her statement on social media, breaking out of the mediation agreement.

Later that year, the Boston Shambhala community initiated a community harm issue regarding the matter with Shambhala International Care and Conduct Committee. Ms. Michelson is invited into this process and agrees to be bound by the outcome, as Mr. Kranz would be, of the determination. Mr. Kranz offers to step away from teaching in Shambhala for 3 months, entering a process of reflection, entering therapy, and pursuing education around gender and power dynamics. Ms. Michelson is requested in the process not to go back on social media regarding the incident. When the Care and Conduct Committee rules that Mr. Kranz has volunteered to step away for three months, and does so, Ms. Michelson, against the agreement, returns to social media posting about her dissatisfaction with the process.

Mr. Kranz engages in weekly therapy to the present date and weekly education and training regarding issues of gender, power, boundaries and psychology.

Throughout 2019 and 2020, various anonymous posters protest against Mr. Kranz still teaching in Shambhala by posting on forums such as the Shambhala Network, Facebook and Reddit.

In November 2020 an anonymous poster shares a dehumanizing and defamatory post title on Reddit protesting Mr. Kranz’s advertised teaching in Gainesville Shambhala.

Currently this post ranks on the first page of Google when searching for Mr. Kranz’s name.