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Concern Over Yoga Class : City Program Linked to Sect
More articles on this topic: Science of IdentityConcern Over Yoga Class : City Program Linked to Sect
The Gold Coast City Council has unwittingly entered into a relationship with an organisation that has communes on the Gold Coast and preaches polygamy and arranged marriages.
As part of its Active and Healthy Program the council has joined forces with the Australian School of Meditation and Yoga to offer yoga classes, which past participants claim are a gateway to the Science of Identity organisation.
A former member of six years, who wanted to be identified only as Ashley, said he joined when he was 15.
“My friends were semi-part of it but had slackened off and I started getting guitar lessons from one of their fathers,” he said.
“We started talking about religion and just before I turned 16 (the group’s leader) was coming to Australia so I came to the Gold Coast for a year.”
The Australian branch is based on the Gold Coast and Brisbane. When his parents became worried about him leaving home Ashley was told by one of the disciples to ‘just lie’.
The group encouraged him to leave his family and Ashley was told that his mother and father were not really his family, just random souls he had encountered.
“I moved up there and lived with my friend’s father and his then girlfriend and things slowly started to turn weirder,” he said.
Ashley said the leader – who is known to members as Srila Prabhupad, meaning ‘he who is in the position of God’ – told members other people were demons who were obsessed with sex.
He also preached arranged marriages and polygamy.
Another former member, Cara James, said the leader’s own wife used to be another disciple’s partner but she was given to the guru as an ‘offering’.
“I moved to the Gold Coast from Sydney after going to a few classes in Sydney, and they had me working at the massage shop in Brisbane,” she said.
“People would come to what they thought was a free yoga class and walk out in the middle of it because they didn’t know it was going to be a religious meeting.”
Gold Coast City Council Community Services director Colette McCool said she had been informed of the allegations by a staff member.
“These allegations are very disturbing and I have personally referred them to the police,” said Mrs McCool.
“Of course, the school must be given the chance to respond because the allegations are not proven.”
The Australian School of Meditation and Yoga did not return calls from The Bulletin.
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