So far, none of their attempts to communicate their experiences has been met by official Institute willingness to investigate their charges. I like to believe that somewhere inside of him, he is the good person I believed him to be. Swamis, he explains, are renunciates who take vows of abstinence which include giving up sex, wine, and red meat, as well as other stimulants to the physical senses. Megan remembers asking him why he was trying all this on her. I just don't know that it makes sense to go run around trying to evaluate other people, when you haven't evaluated yourself.". Swami Rama made Carolyn his appointments secretary in August also. After teaching, studying, and traveling throughout India and Europe, he came to the University of Minnesota in the 1960s, where he taught Sanskrit and Indian religions. She would start with handling the appointments and then she would make his plane reservations, scheduling lecture tours. And she was afraid to leave in her old car because a freezing rainstorm had covered all the roads with ice. She would live with him in the house he was buying. And she would help him write books. Put that letter in the 'goofy file.'" 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 Swami Rama died in 1996 at the age of 69. Rajmani explains the basic goals of the Institute's tradition of yoga: "The most important part of the practice is nonattachment." They are instructed to have "no emotional relationship inside or outside the Institute," and residential program directors are charged with monitoring disciple's behavior and attitudes to make sure they conform to Institute expectations. In some states, a patient has the right to sue her doctor or psychotherapist for malpractice even if she originally consented to sex, because people under psychological or medical treatment are considered too vulnerable and dependent to give free and full consent. He explains that Nuernberger was just a graduate student, inexperienced and lacking in professional judgment, when the incident with Marston occurred: "At a time when he was learning to be a therapist and thought that someone is asking for you to reach out, you reach out and you touch them and you let them see your feelings, and I think that was very bad." During this spiel, she says, he put his hand on her buttocks, but she told him she wasn't buying it. Anyway, he said that our relationship would be exclusive, I'd be like a spiritual courtesan. Elmer and Alyce Green observed that Swami Rama could produce different brain waves at will, including theta and delta (sleep) waves, while remaining aware of his environment. "Anyone who lives a public life can go through such remarks;& you have heard about all that blackmailing" of famous, rich athletes, he explains to me in the spring of 1989 at the Honesdale ashram. A world 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. 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. He also sent out a letter resigning from the board. I mean, he's giving you the teachings and you're going to use the teachings to evaluate him? Brian says he did not realize at the time that a conviction for fraud could have lost the Institute its federal tax-exempt status as an educational institution. 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. Is it not better to follow someone who has charted the path?". The daughter of an alcoholic, she longed for guidance from a spiritual authority figure. ", Pandit Arya is not so reluctant as Dr. Ballentine to articulate is how one can recognize a worthy guru. Expert wellness consultations direct to your home. After dismissing the other workers, she says he repeated the familiar litany, but this time he slipped in a new message. Minneapolis was the site of another Institute-related scandal in 1981. HIT ranked under Top Commerce Colleges in All India by The Week 2022. 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. He says that Swami Rama has been his guru since he was a child in India, and that he came to the U.S. at Swami Rama's request to head up the Honesdale ashram. The Institute's "scientific" approach to yoga has made it a success, attracting long-term spiritual disciples as well as large numbers of people who merely want a boost for their psychological or physical well being. How could she be the only one who realized what was going on? she remembers him demanding. Host to HI Mission Programs, seminars as well as private events, we offer five fully equipped practice spaces and comfortable, modern guest amenities. Carolyn and others say Megan caused a scandal in the Honesdale ashram by breaking the silence surrounding Swami Rama's sexual behavior. Pandit Rajmani cannot entertain the notion that the women's stories could be true. Meanwhile Janet,* a Honesdale woman who worked as the couple's babysitter and housekeeper at the time, says she received threatening phone calls at Brian and Terry's house, asking if she was alone with the children. And he abruptly dismissed her. There's no need for finding out, if I know it is completely wrong.". Residents are expected to donate a large portion of their labor, and they must sacrifice personal freedoms and privacy. I informed him that I had interviewed women who sought him out because they respected him and trusted him to be interested in the truth. $1.9 Million Awarded In Swami Sexual Case, https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/06/us/1.9-million-awarded-in-swami-sexual-case.html. "Nirvana is one," Carolyn says she told him. A pearl necklace that Brian had bought from Swami Rama as an "investment" was appraised at roughly one-third of the $100,000 he had paid for it. She walked around New York City for hours, until it was time for her bus to return to Honesdale. And there is a statement, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'" Carolyn felt important, entitled to be there because she was one of his secretaries. Megan*, a former graduate student in the Eastern Studies program, wrote a letter to the Jesuit administration of the University of Scranton saying that Swami Rama was subjecting women students to sexual exploitation. In private sessions, ex-disciples say, Swami Rama has arranged marriages and instructed disciples to break off relationships. 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. The lawsuit I heard rumors about in New York City never materialized. But the siddhis can be an ego trap. "This sudden animosity indicates that there is something fishy in the statement of this person. Terry, who is now a practicing psychotherapist, says she believes Swami Rama's behavior is compulsive-he can't help it." Or maybe he needs to have sex just to release energy so he can meditate better. 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.". 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. "I only needed one person to corroborate my experience," Megan says now. "By their fruits you shall know them," he says, paraphrasing the Bible. Himalayan Institute of Technology Ranking and Awards. Swami Rama called a meeting to defend himself. Himalayan glaciers are melting twice as fast since 2000 as they were in the 25 years before due to human-caused climate change, a 2019 paper published in the journal Science Advances found. Friends of the two couples set up a "truth booth" outside the entrance of the Institute's first annual congress in 1976. 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. 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?" Lecturing and teaching worldwide for more than a quarter of a century, he is the author of fourteen books, including his autobiography Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, the best-selling At the Eleventh Hour: The Biography of Swami Rama of the Himalayas and a regular contributor to Yoga International. Our endeavors are distinguished by their living connection to an ancient wisdom tradition of the Himalayan Masters, expressed through a unique offering of online and in-person mission programs. Discover our new online platform for community, courses, and content. During a series of biofeedback experiments in 1970 and 1971, Drs. What Ballentine does not mention is that a second jury judged Nuernberger guilty of unprofessional conduct in his treatment of Nancy E. Williams, another former client, on February 17, 1981. But Swami Rama's disciples do not hold him to these standards. As the couple started making arrangements to move to England, they received another blow. 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. 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