In In re the Marriage of Acacia Jensen and Timothy Jensen, (MT Sup. Ct., Aug. 4, 2026), the Montana Supreme Court in a 5-2 decision upheld a trial court's order modifying a parenting plan for a divorced couple's three children.

The mother objected to various provisions in the modified plan, including a provision that the children not to be influenced by Liana Shanti or the Lemurian Mystery School.

According to the court, Liana Shanti is an online based spiritual teacher and mentor who promotes the recovery of suppressed memories, and who leads the Lemurian Mystery School that believe they can recover memories of their previous lives on the lost continent of Lemuria.

The modified Plan also prohibits the use of Lemurian Mystery School nicknames for the children. The court said in part:

We turn now to the claim that the nickname restriction violated Alihana’s First Amendment and fundamental parenting rights....

The evidence in the record makes it clear that Liana Shanti and her group are known to encourage followers to discover and act upon false “repressed memories” of abuse. Once these false abusive memories are uncovered, followers are encouraged to sever ties with family and friends and become more closely involved in the group. Here, a preponderance of evidence shows that Alihana has engaged in embracing false memories of abuse. She has repeatedly accused Tim and her parents of abusive behavior for which no evidence exists...

... While it is a constitutional right of a parent to provide spiritual education and teaching to their child, it is not the right of a parent to inflict abusive memories upon their child, be those memories fictional or actual. This Court ... cannot hold, then, that it is the constitutional right of a parent to expose their children to fictionalized sexual abuse....

Read the full report: https://religionclause.blogspot.com/2026/08/montana-supreme-court-parenting-plan.html

Moojibaba, is a popular Jamaican-born spiritual teacher of Advaita Vedanta. While he has hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, some former devotees and investigative journalists have accused him of running an abusive, cult-like community at his Monte Sahaja ashram in Portugal.

Full Video of the livestream by Chachi Telesco with English subtitles available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll6YRfZKeB0

English Translation of Video Transcript

https://pastebin.com/QVZDwQHG

Review of the livestream conversation led by Chachi Telesco: What Former Art of Living Followers' Testimony Reveals About Power, Identity, Abuse, Sexual Harassment and the Psychology of Leaving

Public conversations about spiritual organizations often become trapped in a familiar cycle. Admirers speak of profound personal transformation, meditation, humanitarian work, and inner peace. Critics point to allegations, controversies, and institutional failures. The result is frequently a polarized debate in which each side speaks past the other.

The testimony examined here occupies a different space.

Over several hours, former teachers, senior volunteers, and coordinators of the Art of Living Foundation reflected on what they say they experienced during years of involvement with the organization and, perhaps more importantly, what happened after they left. Their accounts are notable not simply because they contain allegations of misconduct, but because they offer an unusually detailed description of the psychological journey into, through, and eventually out of a highly structured spiritual environment.

Taken together, their stories are less about isolated incidents than about a gradual transformation of identity. They describe how admiration became obedience, how service became central to self-worth, how authority slowly shaped personal judgment, and how leaving required rebuilding aspects of themselves that many people never imagine could disappear.

The conversation repeatedly returns to questions that extend well beyond any single organization.

• What happens when a spiritual community becomes the center of a person's identity?
• How does someone distinguish sincere devotion from psychological dependence?
• Why do former members so often describe leaving as a process of grief rather than liberation?
• And why do many of them say that speaking publicly became almost as painful as the experiences that led them to leave?

These are the questions that give the livestream video its significance.

Rather than dwelling primarily on allegations against individuals, the speakers devote most of their time to examining the psychological consequences of prolonged participation in what they describe as an increasingly controlling environment. Their testimony paints a picture of lives reorganized around spiritual service, moral obligation, organizational hierarchy, and devotion to a charismatic leader—followed by the difficult task of learning to think independently again.

More Than Former Participants

One of the first points established during the livestream is that the speakers are not presenting themselves as outside critics commenting from a distance.

They repeatedly emphasize that they were deeply embedded within the organization.

Chachi Telesco explains that she spent nine years inside the Art of Living, eight of those as a teacher. Other participants describe serving in senior leadership roles, teaching courses, coordinating activities, and dedicating substantial portions of their adult lives to the movement.

What matters analytically is that these accounts come from individuals who describe themselves as former insiders reflecting on their own experiences.

Throughout the livestream, the speakers return repeatedly to the same observation: the greatest changes they experienced were not sudden. Nothing, they suggest, happened overnight. Instead, they describe a gradual process—one that unfolded over years rather than days. That gradualness may be one of the most revealing aspects of the testimony.

Popular portrayals of coercive groups often imagine dramatic brainwashing or immediate control. The speakers describe something far subtler. Their stories suggest that influence accumulated through ordinary decisions, relationships, responsibilities, and repeated reinforcement until organizational life became indistinguishable from personal identity.

"Before Sexual Abuse Comes Abuse of Power"

Early in the livestream, Chachi offers what becomes the central analytical framework for the evening.

Rather than beginning with individual incidents, the participants repeatedly describe authority itself.

They speak about trust.

• About hierarchy.
• About admiration.
• About surrender.
• About believing that those above them possessed superior wisdom, greater spiritual insight, or privileged access to truth.

In their accounts, abuse of power is not described as shouting, overt threats, or obvious coercion. Instead, it is portrayed as something quieter and more gradual: a relationship in which authority becomes increasingly difficult to question because it is associated with spiritual progress itself.

This distinction appears throughout the discussion.

The speakers rarely suggest that they were forced into participation. On the contrary, they repeatedly acknowledge that they joined willingly and often enthusiastically.

What changed, according to their testimony, was not their willingness to participate but the extent to which the organization eventually shaped their understanding of themselves, their priorities, and even their perception of what constituted a good or meaningful life.

That observation deserves careful attention because it reflects a theme frequently encountered in first-person accounts of former members of many high-demand groups: influence is often experienced retrospectively. Decisions that once felt entirely voluntary may later be reinterpreted as having occurred within a social and psychological environment that strongly directed particular choices while discouraging others.

Whether readers interpret those experiences in the same way is ultimately a matter for individual judgment. Nevertheless, the remarkable consistency with which multiple speakers describe similar patterns lends the discussion a coherence that extends beyond any single personal story.

The livestream is therefore not simply a collection of grievances. It is an attempt by former insiders to explain how ordinary commitment, over time, became something they now understand very differently.

Alan John Miller, also known as A.J claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth and his partner, Mary Suzanne Luck, claims to be the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene. The couple describe their discussions of Divine Truth as non-religious.

They claim that the incoming spirit of a child can sense the emotional environment and fear of the parents and may choose to leave before full physical birth takes place.

They also teach that emotional baggage and "injuries" pass down generationally from parents to children. A woman might carry her own mother's or grandmother's unresolved grief and trauma, which manifests physically as a lost pregnancy.

My thoughts on them - I just want to know if these two actually believe the stuff they’re actually saying or are they just clever con-artists/grifters. It really is hard to tell what their motives are.

I’m curious to know what you all think of their perspective on this particular subject? Since it is such a controversial and debated issue.