Enlightenment, freedom and belonging were just three of the promises Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh promised his thousands of followers. But in return, they had to pay several thousand dollars to take his courses or for the privilege of living and working at his Oregon ashram.
Rajneesh, also known as Osho, was one of the most famous and controversial spiritual leaders of the past century. Blending an ideology of free love, dynamic meditation and Eastern philosophy in the 1960s and ’70s, he attracted worshippers from across the world to his Indian ashram in Pune. Then when the organisation grew to host around 30,000 visitors and faced investigation by the Indian government, a much larger commune was opened in the US.
This vast former ranch in Oregon was transformed into a New Age utopia where the “orange people”, as they were called due to the colour of their robes, lived collectively. They worked on the land, grew organic food, raised children, practised meditation and listened to their guru’s 90-minute daily discourses. But the idyll they hoped for had turned sinister by the mid ’80s, when disputes among the commune leaders led to accusations of conspiracies, widespread poisoning and wire-tapping.
A plot to assassinate Oregon’s state attorney was uncovered and Rajneesh – who famously had an incredible fleet of 93 Rolls-Royce cars – came under scrutiny and was deported from the US for immigration fraud. Years later, children who grew up on the commune would tell of widespread sexual abuse by the adult members of what is now widely believed to have been a cult.
” I accidentally joined a cult!’
The Neon docuseries Breath Of Fire explores the life of yogi Katie Griggs, aka Guru Jagat, whose followers later reported a dark side of her behaviour and beliefs in conspiracies. Dubbed “the Kim Kardashian of the spiritual world”, Griggs promised worshippers prosperity, health and fulfilment. One follower tells how Griggs told her, “The more money you give to your teacher, you rise the ranks
of spiritual attainment.”
In 2021, US musician Zolita (left) released a series of TikTok videos about her experience of Griggs’ teachings entitled “How I accidentally ended up in a cult”. In them, she spoke about how amazing the daily 90-minute yoga sessions made her feel, which helped her ignore how there were other “culty” aspects to the RA MA Institute.
“So much of the practice was about mind control,” she explains. “Isolating you from society by making you wear specific clothes… Sleep deprivation and exhausting exercises, and telling you your intuition’s wrong.”
Spiritual path
In November 2023, yoga sect leader Gregorian Bivolaru and his followers were arrested in France after being suspected of rape, kidnapping and human trafficking. The Romanian man, who referred to himself as a “guru”, established the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA) in his homeland, where he was convicted of raping a minor in the ’90s. He later became known as Atman. The cult promoted “erotic tantric yoga”, but it’s been alleged that hundreds of Bivolaru’s female followers were coerced into sex work as part of his teachings. Bec Sonkkila spent a month at an Indian yoga school connected to MISA and soon found herself drawn into its murky world.
“A lot of it was very beautiful and amazing,” says Bec.
“The really messed-up stuff is hidden so well, you just don’t really see it until you’re around a while.” She alleges many female members are coerced to believe sex work “is more beneficial to their spiritual path than living with their family and practising yoga at home”.
Problematic guru
Another controversial yogi was Bhajan, who died in 2004 after bringing kundalini yoga to the West in 1969. When yoga enthusiast Pamela Saharah Dyson was 25, she met Bhajan and was quickly entranced by his teachings, becoming a loyal follower who spent the next 16 years as his secretary, following his lifestyle and philosophies. But in 2019, Pamela released a memoir about her relationship with the married guru that exposed his problematic behaviour and opened the floodgates for other women to tell their stories of sexual abuse by Bhajan.
Despite this, one of his most famous disciples disputed the allegations. Colorado-born Katie Griggs, otherwise known as Guru Jagat, defended Bhajan and used his teachings at her yoga school. She soon became so popular that celebrities like Alicia Keys, Demi Moore and Russell Brand flocked to her RA MA Institute in California. Then came the anonymous claims that Griggs had created a toxic workplace and was abusive, prone to lying and underpaid her employees. But despite being accused of running a “cult within a cult”, Griggs built a million-dollar business before suffering an untimely fatal heart attack at 41.
