You don't have to join a compound to end up in a high-control group. Sometimes it starts with a neo-tantra festival. A weekend workshop. A community that feels like finally, finally, you found your people.
Anke Richter is an international cult journalist, author of the bestseller Cult Trip (HarperCollins), and founder of Decult — the first cult awareness conference in Australasia. She spent six years inside ISTA (International School of Temple Arts) before becoming one of its most informed critics. She's also researched Centrepoint, Osho/Rajneeshpuram, and OneTaste firsthand.
This is Part 2 of a series. Start with the previous episode “The Men Behind Sexual Polarity Have A Lot to Answer For” — or read the full article on Substack (link below).
In this episode:
- Why smart, educated, well-resourced people end up in cults — and the myth that it couldn't happen to you
- What actually makes something a high-control group (and why “you can leave any time” doesn't disqualify it)
- How ISTA and similar neo-tantra spaces specifically target ex-evangelicals and ex-Mormons leaving purity culture
- The slippery slope from a weekend workshop to deeper entanglement — and what the escalation actually looks like
- Osho/Rajneeshpuram as the ideological origin of modern neo-tantra — and the documented child sexual abuse that history includes
- The playbook: how spiritual framing gets used to override consent and silence complaints
- “Acting from your wounding” and “stuck in victim consciousness” — the specific language used to shut down resistance
- The veneer of consent: why trauma-informed language and consent frameworks can be used as cover
- Why the word “victim” gets weaponized in these spaces — and why that needs to stop
- How David Deida's sexual polarity ideology functioned as a gateway into neo-tantra spaces for a generation of people, and why it is harmful
Resources mentioned:
- Cult Trip by Anke Richter — available wherever books are sold
Anke Richter: https://ankerichter.net
Decult — cult awareness conference and resources: https://decult.net
Red Flags in Workshops — free consent-forward resource for participants and facilitators: https://redflagsinworkshops.com
Part 1 — Have You Been Sold the Patriarchy's Version of “The Divine Feminine”? https://open.substack.com/pub/laurajurgens/p/have-you-been-sold-the-patriarchys
Get my free guide: Get Out of Your Head: A Starter Guide to Releasing the Pressure, Shame, and “Shoulds” Around Intimacy at https://laurajurgens.com/guide
More links:
Substack at https://laurajurgens.substack.com/
Pleasure Path Diagnostic here: https://laurajurgens.com/diagnostic/
About me, testimonials, blog, bookings: https://laurajurgens.com/
Wheel of Erotic emotions, go to: https://laurajurgens.com/wheel
Copyright notice: All content in this podcast is copyrighted and copying, scraping, data mining, or using the content to train AI is prohibited.
