Abuse in Yogi Bhajan's 3HO Kundalini Yoga World
At the age of 14 KartaPurkh was seduced with lies by her sister and Yogi Bhajan to spend the summer at Espanola at the Women's Camp.
Her 1986 court case mentions in paragraph 39 :
… she even altered her lifestyle and educational plans and affiliated herself with Bhajan’s cult, thereby permitting herself, at the age of 14, to be subjected initially to the thought reform process perpetuated by the defendants.
The lawsuit includes a long list of lies and deceptions she had to endure.
They call them misrepresentations of fact (including material omissions of fact) used to convince KartaPurkh to join the community.
Some of the lies and deceptions
- The circumstances at the Women’s camp: there would be horses to ride. That is ‘the’ way to seduce a 14-year-old girl, right? In reality the horses were not available to her.
- The financial conditions: YB would pay everything for her. In reality she had to pay.
- The opportunity to study new music, martial arts, women’s studies, vegetarian cooking, child rearing, etc.. In reality there were only the indoctrinating lectures by YB.
- That Yogi Bhajan was a great master with high qualifications and merits. YB said that
- he studied under Direndra Brahmachari for 22 years, reality was a few days
- he taught ‘ancient’ Kundalini and Tantric Yoga while he created the sets
- he was recognised in India as a yoga master at 16 which was not true
- that in 1971 he was bestowed with the title ‘Mahan Tantric’
- that the yoga was designed to benefit in many ways, while it was designed to bring her in a status of extreme suggestibility that was exploited by YB and his followers as part of the thought reform process.
- that the diets describe would have curative and beneficial effects, while they were designed to mentally to mentally debilitate and provoke a state of extreme suggestibility.
Things that they did not tell her
- That YB was sexually involved with her sister and other members of the group.
- That 3HO was so closely intertwined with the Sikh Dharma Brotherhood that the religious part was omnipresent.
- That the respect for women was only present during the lectures while in truth women in 3HO were relegated to inferior roles and position, acting essentially as servants.
- That 3HO was not the charitable organisation that took care of the advancement of individuals through education and science but was dedicated to the ostensibly religious objectives of the Sikh Dharma and personal objectives and benefits of Yogi Bhajan himself.
- That she would be slowly but surely isolated from her friends and family and other outside influences.
Be aware that these are only fragments of the truth.
Many more stories are out there, told and untold.
Telling these stories is needed. It is a prerequisite for justice and reconciliation.
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