Deep Throat's Daughter, The Kindred Free Spirit

The heart of the practice of Adidam is "the devotional and spiritual relationship with Adi Da Samraj," says an Adidam Web site, and "to bring one's life and body-mind into greater balance." Its purpose is "to transform every moment in life -- whether one is eating, sexing, meditating, doing business or whatever -- into Divine Communion."

It is unclear how many devotees Adidam has, though some sources estimate a few thousand. Adidam study groups and bookstores can be found in major cities around the country, including one in Bethesda, where several phone calls went unanswered and where no one could be found yesterday. Messages left at Adidam's main ashram in Fiji, as well as its main stateside sanctuary in Middletown, Calif., and an office in San Rafael, Calif., were not returned.

Steve Hassan, a licensed mental health counselor and a Boston-based cult expert for nearly 30 years, says Adidam fits the classic cult model. "I have counseled victims of this man," says Hassan, " . . . a couple dozen over 20-plus years," including as recently as 2002.

Felt finds the questions about Adidam troubling. Her pleasant disposition turns testy when she is pressed to discuss past allegations against the guru.

"That's all way far in the past," she says by telephone. "This is 20 years ago, 20 years ago, that you're digging up stuff."

She would like us to focus, instead, on 30 years ago -- on the Deep Throat story. She has three sons, and the youngest, Nick Jones, 23, is in law school. There are bills to pay and she has been quoted as saying she hopes the story will make some money for her family.

But neither she nor her family nor their lawyer, John O'Connor -- the author of the Vanity Fair article -- will discuss any aspect of the family's background or the Deep Throat secret.

Joan Felt and her younger brother, William Mark Felt Jr., now 57, were born as their father's career was taking him to FBI field offices all over the United States, from the District to Seattle, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas.

By the time he returned to headquarters and settled down with his wife, Audrey, on Wynford Road in Fairfax to begin his ascent up the FBI ladder, daughter Joan was off to college.

She received her bachelor's degree in Spanish at Stanford University in 1965, then took off as a Fulbright Scholar in Chile. She extended her Chilean stay from one to two years with a Rockefeller Foundation grant.

During those years, Felt studied theater and performed in stage productions at the University of Chile, as well as six television programs.

Back at Stanford, Felt earned her master's degree in Spanish in 1970, then taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz until 1972, according to her current boss, Suzanne Toczyski, chair of modern languages and literature at Sonoma State University. Felt has taught Spanish there for 13 years, as well as an occasional world literature course. She incorporates song and music, including her own guitar playing, in her teaching technique.