In an era of #MeToo, the list of accusations and the accused continues to grow. The Indian Express lists allegations of sexual abuse against multiple yoga gurus: John Friend, creator of Anusara Yoga; Amrit Desai, creator of Kripalu Yoga; Muktananda, founder of Siddha Yoga; Swami Shyam, a Vedic meditation guru, Swami Rama, founder of the Himalayan Institite of Yoga and Philosophy; and Rodney Yee.

Of notable mention among religious/spiritual leaders and yoga gurus:

• In 2016, Bikram, the founder of Bikram yoga, was ordered to pay judgments in lawsuits alleging sexual assault, noting he acted with malice, opression, and fraud. He has since fled the United States and Netflix produced a documentary.
• In 2018, Netflix provided us with another documentary. This time on Osho, religious leader and mystic. Followers and accusers soon started sharing accounts of how Osho used psychology to encourage physical aggression and sexual encounters between participants of therapy groups. He was also accused of murder, wiretapping, voter fraud, arson, and mass poisoning. 
• In 2019, Patthabi Jois’, who is the founder of ashtanga yoga, grandson published acknowledgment of his grandfather’s accustaions of sexual assault. 
• Also in 2019, medium and spiritual healer, John of God, received his first sentencing as a convicted sex offender. Accusations have been received from over 600 women, spanning from the 1980s through his arrest in 2018. Ages could have spanned as young as 9 years old to 67. 
• Now, new and equally disturbing claims are being made public. The life and legacy of Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual mastermind that introduced the most widely practiced version of kundalini yoga, is now being questioned. Women and children are coming forward daily with accusations dating back to the 60s. 

The movement to make accusations against Yogi Bahjan known was jolted by Pamela Dyson, also known as Premka, whose book was released in the beginning of the year. The book description reads,

Premka: White Bird in a Golden Cage is a compelling and beautifully unfolding tale, offering a haunting look into a teacher/student relationship. This intimate memoir, written by one of Yogi Bhajan’s prized teachers and exalted students, is full of devotion, love, dedication, betrayal, loss and the healing unification of the self. It also reads as a love letter to a unique time in history—the ‘60s in Los Angeles and New Mexico, where love, music, art, spiritual exploration, often led to self-transformation. As a historical treatise and a spiritual mystery, this book offers unique insight into the origins of the Western Sikh movement and the proliferation of Yogi Bhajan’s kundalini yoga.

Pamela has since created a private Facebook group, PREMKA – White Bird in a Golden Cage. Please ask to join! Everyone is welcome. This seems to be the best resource, thus far, for this unfolding story and accusations. Be Scofield has distilled the following outline of what we know thus far:

• Former followers of Yogi Bhajan are speaking out about years of severe physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse. They claim he ran a destructive cult and groomed and abused children.
• Former long-term staff member Kate Felt claims Bhajan brutally raped her at the age of 20 while her sister Amrit Kaur Khalsa, who is the current head of Kundalini operations/3HO, helped him. She also alleges Bhajan kept her hostage with armed guards in the cult. 
• A new book by former staff member Pamela Sarah Dyson alleges that Bhajan had coerced her and other staff members into sex. Other members have reiterated her claim. 
• Yogi Bhajan stated in a lecture in 1978 that “Rape is always invited, it never happens, a person who is raped is always providing subconsciously the environments and the arrangements.”
• Bhajan was involved with several criminal operations including smuggling twenty tons of marijuana and weapons from Thailand, defrauding people with fake investment scams and overcharging people for jewelry. 
• Yogi Bhajan hoarded millions of dollars in precious jewels and gems, had the largest collection of ivory in New Mexico and owned nearly twenty luxury cars. He made millions of dollars off his Kundalini enterprise. 
• Bhajan coerced his followers to send their children away for years to his expensive training schools in India where they were physically beaten, emotionally abused and indoctrinated.
• He also arranged over 500 marriages and tampered with relationships, while shaming and ostracizing gay members.Bhajan groomed girls at a young age to be married off to his elite and wealthy friends. 
• The Kundalini organization runs a multi-billion dollar private military & security company called Akal Security that works with the U.S. Military. They worked with ICE to detain and ship migrants until group members organized a petition in 2015. A member on the global board of Akal says he is the “guru’s slave.”
• Bhajan died in 2004 of severe diabetes, obesity and heart failure after he had an illegal kidney transplant in India.
• Bhajan is still venerated by 3HO, Sikh Dharma and modern Kundalini leadership and teachers. 
• Those aware of abuses have been called “heretics” when bringing information to the governing members in the past. Many in leadership have known of the abuses but have actively been covering them up. 
• A scholar claims Bhajan made up the Kundalini poses, despite claiming they were ancient. Former staff members say some poses were “literally made up on the spot” during yoga class.

While I don’t find it to be my place to be the judge and jury, I do believe it is each of our right to demand accurate information as we make our individual decisions as to how to continue involvement in such movements as Yogi Bhajan’s kundalini yoga, and associated teachings and trainings. I also think it is time for a more authentic and transparent conversation in which we acknowledge the trend of spiritual gurus rise to fame and fortune and the associated accusations of sexual abuse. We can no longer be blind to that which is blatantly in front of us. I think the latest Netflix release, Kumare, lends us insight into how these men rise to prominent positions in permissive and egoic environments in which they are able to abuse their power. Watch it. Ask to join the Facebook group, PREMKA. Share your story. Demand transparency and accountability. These are #NotMyTeachers!