Date:   Sun, 29 Oct 1995 18:53:47 -0500
From:   soltemple@aol.com
Reply-To: soltemple@aol.com (Soltemple)
To:     Vladimir Alexiev <vladimir@cs.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother?

Vladimir,
I read your posting in the yoga newsgroup, and it made me feel very sad.
I'm sorry to hear this happened to your brother....
There are many psuedo "religious" groups that actually are dangerous. Not
because they teach yoga or meditation, but because they take all personal
power away from the individual. I'm not impressed with "yoga" teachers who
expect you to follow them or bow down to anyone. Many people practice yoga
and meditation, yet still have strong family lives and do not live as
hermits in this world. The main problem I had when I visited a local
Sahaja yoga group was the fact that people were led to believe that the
"spirit" came from outside of themselves...in particular from the
"teacher", a woman who did not impress me as being very loving or
knowledgeable. The fact is....some of these people get their own sense of
personal power from subjecting people like ourselves. Put her in an
everyday situation, and you will find she is as human as anyone else, and
might feel a little lost without people to "worship" her.
Love to you and your family,
Miriam


From: ari@speakeasy.org (Ari Lindemann)
Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother?
Newsgroups: alt.yoga
Date: 30 Oct 1995 23:36:53 GMT

Hello, Vlad, I am a victim of a Iyengar Yoga "guru". I cannot get into 
detail on the net but would be happy to start a discussion with you. I 
have been so concerned with abuse of power within Yoga Communities that I 
ahve started a non-profit group - White Lotus Dharma Center - a world 
wide network of those abused by teachers of Eastern spiritual traditions 
and I have had a tremendous interest. 

Please ignore people who call you "negative" or a "downer" on this 
newsgroup. Yogic people are here to give you compassion and understanding 
but there are a lot of "haters" and quite vocal at this who would further 
victimize you even after your tremendous loss. 

Blessings and prayers. Ari