Teaching since 1971, the Himalayan Institute offers a wide variety of wellness supplies. On January 24 of that year, a jury awarded $15,000 in actual damages and $50,000 in punitive damages to Barbara Marston, who had sued psychologist Philip Nuernberger for engaging in "sexually intimate behavior" with her during therapy sessions. Megan says her feelings told her that something was amiss, but because of the social environment, she began to entertain the notion that the Swami's motives might not be what they appeared to be, and that his attempts at a con job might be a spiritual test. Yet the Institute's success comes at a high cost for many of those involved. They wrote letters to Pandit Usharbudh Arya, their teacher and head of the Meditation Center there, as well as a dozen other people, warning that Swami Rama was a fraud. Rather than being a saint, according to Green, Swami Rama is an advanced yogi and "a mortal with some ego problems.". No one can expand his consciousness if he remains egotistical. He bragged about his sumptuous homes in India and Japan and about his shopping sprees for designer clothes, she says. To judge by their price tags, these and other Institute programs must bring in a considerable income. We inspire, educate, and. Immerse yourself in a life-changing course of study and get certified in the authentic teachings of yoga and meditation. Whether youre retracing the footsteps of sages through pilgrimage in the Himalayas, or immersing yourself in the most incredible spaces the US has to offer, you will experience the life-changing power of yoga in action. The yogis, he says, have demonstrated these abilities in the past and continue to do so. She said no: She had been on a work crew Swami Rama had ordered to week poison ivy roots for his new garden, and she was covered with oozing blisters. He reportedly sat down on a chair next to her bed and proceeded to make sexual advances. Then, later on, when the right man came along, she would marry and be very happy. Despite this, our rural empowerment programs continue to thrive and grow as we work towards our goal of fighting poverty, illiteracy, and inequality through education, health care, and job creation. Perfect. The next day, she says, Swami Rama called her to his office and asked her if anyone had said anything to her. In order to believe in his perfection, they must rationalize behavior that others would judge to be tyrannical, cruel, or self-indulgent. The Institute used to offer an accredited masters program in Eastern Studies and Comparative Psychology through an affiliation with the University of Scranton. Although she told an institute official about the assaults and the institute was aware of similar complaints by other women, the complaint said, the center did nothing to stop them. I like to believe that somewhere inside of him, he is the good person I believed him to be. Carolyn says she knew that Swami Rama often promised his disciples he would take them to India or appoint them to important positions within the Institute-promises that rarely materialized. Our Honesdale campus continues to be home to a service-driven community of yogis, volunteers, and faculty-in-residence. But as she spent more time around Swami Rama and his inner circle, Megan says, the guru subjected her to a barrage of sexual harassment. According to Karen and George, no legal action resulted. A system that rewards a particular behavior or person and then arbitrarily ignores or punishes that same behavior or person can quickly lead even healthy individuals to develop profound anxiety and uncertainty-the antithesis of self-confidence. Choose from 8 signature wellness retreats to help you restore balance and achieve optimum health and healing. The Himalayan Institute community reaches across the entire globe. But the followers of such "enlightened" men are usually reluctant to find fault with them, since to do so could invalidate the students' own years of study and devotion. His response: "Listen, there are certain things which are based on witnesses-those are facts. On the contrary, they sought opportunities to serve the guru's every whim, or even to be abused by him: Megan remembers one woman saying she wished the guru would kick her. A leader in the field of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health, the Himalayan Institute is a non-profit international organization dedicated to serving humanity through educational, spiritual, and humanitarian programs. Mission Membership is an invitation to put your spiritual values into action by supporting our shared commitment to service while deepening your study and practice in the living Himalayan Tradition. At that, she says, he raged at her until she was sobbing, unable to speak a word in her own defense: No! But a deeper anxiety also motivated my visit: I'd heard a rumor that several women, ex-members of the Institute, were taking Carolyn's guru to court on charges of sexual misconduct. She couldn't make sense out of his behavior, because she found it impossible to believe that it was really about sex-and she repeatedly told him so. Brian didn't believe his teacher, and he spoke with several other Institute administrators and board members about Rose's claim of abuse. But Trescelli says she had to discourage her. The Himalayan Institute has been and continues to be home to a service-driven community of yogis, volunteers, and faculty-in-residence. Because I do not want to find out. So far, none of their attempts to communicate their experiences has been met by official Institute willingness to investigate their charges. Halfway through their meal, Carolyn remembers, Martha hesitantly said, "I know this will sound like a weird question, but has Swamiji ever asked you to have sex with him?" The Himalayan Institute publishes over 60 titles on yoga, spirituality, and holistic health, including the best-selling Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama and Yoga: Mastering the Basics by Sandra Anderson and Rolf Sovik. Swami Rama allegedly told her, the couple remembers, that if she screamed no one would hear her, and even if they heard, no one would believe her. Through her sympathy for what appeared to be his plight, and disarmed by his jokes, she says she allowed him to cajole her until she let her defenses down. The program seemed to provide the ideal family she'd never had, where everyone shared her values and spiritual goals. When the manipulation started to involve her meditation and spiritual practices, she says, she decided to confide in one man who had been at the Institute for a long time and who was planning to leave. Sexual contract between gurus and their American disciples is not a new or rare phenomenon. She took a meditation class at the alternative high school program she attended, and one evening her teachers invited her to a lecture by their guru, Swami Rama, who was visiting the Chicago area. Carolyn remembers being amazed: Could Swami Rama possibly be talking about sex? The jury called the abuse "spiritual incest . Meanwhile, Carolyn says, Swami Rama began singling her out for special attention. Put that letter in the 'goofy file.'" But the purified ego is a means in discriminating real Self from not-self-real Self from mere self. When she shared her news with the other residents at East West Books, they told her she should feel honored: She had been chosen, while long-time devotees had been denied the privilege. "I thought: 'Maybe it's the only way he can break through some stubborn barrier in my ego. He must see something special in me.'" Live online programs, on-demand courses, and hundreds of yoga and meditation classes. Many of them say they feared his wrath when they were disciples, and several still believe he has the power to inflict harm or illness on them from a distance. It was years more before she felt she had the right to be angry at her spiritual family, the staff and residents of the Institute who, she says, denied the signs of abuse all around them. She would start with handling the appointments and then she would make his plane reservations, scheduling lecture tours. They introduced her to the guru, and she remembers he made a fuss over her, slapping her cheek lightly and calling her a good girl. After a couple of months of this special attention, Carolyn says, Swami Rama came to visit her one-day at the book distribution office in Honesdale center. He reportedly smokes cigarettes, watches television for hours every day, and gossips, but his disciples rationalize this non-abstinent behavior: "Oh, Swamiji just smokes to bring himself down to the earth plane," or, "The TV is on incessantly just to give the student one more distraction to challenge his ability to maintain yogic balance," or, "all the stories Swamiji tells about other people are just to give the disciple the opportunity to develop objectivity and not get caught up in the meaningless gossip.". One evening she went out to dinner with Martha*, an old friend from East West Books Chicago. Swami Rama frequently invited them to parties in his private quarters, where they say he entertained them with funny stories and racy gossip. Irwin Schneider, the lawyer for the Himalayan Institute, conceded that it was morally wrong for the Swami Rama to have sex with the woman from North Carolina, a 19-year-old student at the time. The FBI has confirmed the existence of a file documenting the agency's investigation, but at the time of publication the file had not yet been released under the Freedom of Information Act. The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including Yoga International magazine, and humanitarian projects.The institute's main campus is located on (1.6 km 2) in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern . During the next few months, Carolyn says, Swami Rama bade her visit him in his private quarters once every couple of weeks, either after lunch or after evening prayers; he also made it her job to buy condoms. Carolyn says the "goofy" letters never got answered. At the meeting, Brian says, Dr. Ballentine presented letters from another woman, Karen,* who also claimed to have been sexually exploited by Swami Rama. But the Institute does not teach the mastery of such powers in its programs, instead focusing on yoga practices with more immediate practical application. But Carolyn says she stifled her doubts about the guru, transforming them into doubts about her own selfishness: "Because I'd rationalized that he was teaching me a lesson, I believed he must be teaching other women the same lesson, and I shouldn't begrudge his attention to other students.". Together we ate superb vegetarian meals in the Institute's dining commons and chanted evening prayers. When she questioned him, Megan says, he became angry and dismissed the women's suffering, saying that a little poison ivy could be good for them. Carolyn,* an old friend, called me collect. Treat yourself to a massage, meditate in the peaceful meditation shrine, or relax in one of the many attractive community spaces available on campus. [2] [ A spiritual center should pay close to $1.9 million to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted 30 times by the center's leader, a jury decided on Thursday. The Himalayan Institute publishes over 60 titles on yoga, spirituality, and holistic health, including the best-selling Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama and Yoga: Mastering the Basics by Sandra Anderson and Rolf Sovik. She says he arranged for her to meet him at the Gramercy Park Hotel and instructed her not to call him Swami in public. Both women and men say they blamed themselves and their own spiritual obtuseness when they repeatedly failed to discern and follow the shifting rules. The two women who wrote statements for the Cult Awareness Movement were among those involved: One stated that she was a patient at the Institute's holistic health center in New York City, and the other stated she was 17 years old when Swami Rama initiated a sexual relationship with her. He warns against relying too heavily on the inner voice: "When we look for the guru within, we only end up finding our own samskaras-vagaries of the unconscious mind are mistaken for directions from the superconscious. Finally I found an opportunity to broach the topic of the lawsuit with Carolyn. She was afraid to stay in her room, which had no lock on the door, or to use the hall telephone, because all calls had to be routed through the main switchboard. The lawsuit I heard rumors about in New York City never materialized. ", Shortly after Pandit Rajmani introduced her to Swami Rama, Megan says, the guru called her into his private quarters and told her that they'd been together in a past life, that he'd waited to meet her again in this lifetime, and that now they were reunited. Similarly, gurus in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions are supposed to be examples of self-mastery and right living. Nestled in the rolling hills of the Poconos, our stunning 400-acre campus is a gathering place for seekers from around the globe. Some were afraid of Institute retaliation; most were afraid of hurting their families, who in some cases do not know about the abuses the women suffered; still others were worried that their professional reputations would be harmed. How could she be the only one who realized what was going on? Live online programs, on-demand courses, and hundreds of yoga and meditation classes. Although the jury entered a judgment against Nuernberger, it also found that the clinic was not liable for his actions, so Williams failed to recover damages. Instead they deny the experience of the "unenlightened" women who are the guru's victims. Check our website! But the victims of what Jungian analyst Peter Rutter, M.D., has termed "sex in the forbidden zone" (in his book of the same name) submit to sexual advances because of a powerful psychological threat. From its beginnings 20 years ago, the Institute has expanded steadily to include some 25 branches and affiliated yoga and holistic health centers in the Midwest, the Northeast, Texas, California, and abroad. Brian and Terry say her family members at the Institute harassed her by mail and by telephone, with accusations that she had "a habit of inducing this sort of behavior from men.". But during the next three weeks, she says, she saw the Swami mistreating his disciples, especially the women, on a daily basis-yelling at them, ridiculing them, ordering them around, and occasionally kicking a woman in the buttocks when she was on her hands and knees weeding. When I asked Pandit Arya about the allegations of sexual abuse, he admits that he was very disturbed when he first heard them. Himalayan Institute | Honesdale PA Dr. Ballentine says he has good reason to think that Marston "was very anxious for [Nuernberger] to go further, and he didn't. According to the stipulation he signed with the Board's Ethics Review Panel, Nuernberger admitted that he terminated a counseling relationship with "Victoria S." during the third session in order to enter into a "personal relationship - such relationship to include sexual contact.". His early American followers had been spiritual seekers of the counterculture who found their guru at his ashram on the banks of the sacred Ganges in Rishikesh, India. She loved him like "a second father," she says, "and the real tragedy is that this is how our relationship ended. Carolyn says she told him no, it "just didn't feel right." As the couple started making arrangements to move to England, they received another blow. He must also vow that he will not harm any living being. In the presence of others, we spoke only of positive or spiritual matters, in the deliberately modulated tones all the residents used. 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