Be aware if a teacher speaks with disrespect about other schools or teachers, or describes others in demeaning terms, such as ‘shallow’ or ‘new-age-hippie movements’. If they disrespect others then it is likely at some point that they will disrespect your own intuitive wisdom.

Notice if a teacher believes themselves or the teachings they share to be ‘elite’, and flatters students for having chosen to be in this school, or to be learning from this individual. This kind of flattery is contingent on compliance: students only receive approval so long as they continue to regard the teachings as superior to all others.

One strategy to establish an elite, or to secure the supremacy of an individual, is to hide the source of power in secrecy, to give the impression that these teachings are so precious that not everyone is worthy to receive them. This strategy uses ‘inner circles’ and secret initiations as a means to create mystique and intrigue, adding the value of prohibitive rarity to the teacher who holds the secret teachings, because not everyone is permitted to receive them.

Notice how the teacher/s speaks about students who have moved on to other schools, or grown and developed other ways of practice.

Notice how the teacher/s and student/s relate to each other. Evident power struggles, conflicts or jostling for positions within hierarchies and ‘inner circles’ indicate a brutalising culture of oppression and disempowerment. If they are willing to oppress and harm each other, it is likely they will brutalise others too.

Notice the relationship between discipline and kindness in the school/organization or between the teacher and student. If there is a public harshness towards those who struggle in classes, or verbal cruelty in answers to questions in groups, this indicates that there is likely to be other kinds of violence hidden in other private places too.

Consider the balance between daily life and the amount of time that students are expected to do their spiritual practice. If daily life is being organized around required practice, rather than practice supporting daily life, this is likely to indicate an imbalance of other priorities within the school or teacher’s value system. Observe responses to those who admit they have not maintained recommended level of practices. Notice if it is easy to be made to feel guilty for doing less, when in fact the level of practice required is unsustainable within a balanced, healthy life.

Notice how the teacher/s and student/s relate to each other. Evident power struggles, conflicts or jostling for positions within hierarchies and ‘inner circles’ indicate a brutalising culture of oppression and disempowerment. If they are willing to oppress and harm each other, it is likely they will brutalise others too.

Notice if teaching methods permit students to negotiate safe and clear personal boundaries or if they push people to go beyond comfort levels, in particular around issues such as nakedness, closeness or pain. Notice if teachers observe their own professional boundaries in relation to preserving the sanctity of the student/teacher dynamic, or if they are having sex with students. Be aware that sometimes boundaries that seem clear at the beginning can be blurred through familiarity and time, sometimes over years, through a cumulative erosion of boundaries that changes the terms on which consent was originally given.

If there is no culture of asking for consent in public, or in introductory practices, then it is easier to override a person’s wishes later, or in private. It is not consent if you are too scared to say no. It is not consent if you do not know what is happening, and so cannot object. Some teachers have highly developed skills of hypnotism and control of subtle bodies, and use these to induce trance states. These were the skills that Mohan Singh used to rape women, and they are widely known in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra to induce intoxication and blissful states of arousal that put the entranced person entirely, and entirely unknowingly, under the control of the hypnotiser.

The personal is political. Listen to the expressed personal opinions of teachers and students in this environment. If there is racism, homophobia, sexism or condescension towards minorities or marginalised people, consider whether this is congruent with the higher moral ground that teachers occupy by virtue of their role as leaders in a spiritual community. Ignorant, personal prejudice is toxic, and is intensified by elitism. Hatred of others expressed verbally can indicate hidden levels of violence towards anyone who does not conform to values of the school.

Notice what level of power and knowledge teachers/leaders claim they have over students. If teachers always have an answer when students request guidance about their own lives, what level of agency does this permit students? Consider the advice given to group members by their leaders, and the levels of surveillance and/or disclosure that are accepted and expected in this environment. If teachers are believed to understand precisely where each student is in their individual process, (‘guru knows best’), then what level of omniscience / omnipotence do students believe their guru possesses?

Notice the decision-making processes of long-time students or devotees. Observe especially what level of personal responsibility they are willing to take for significant choices such as work, relationships or family life. If you see that many of these major decisions are ‘referred up’ to the guru, then consider exploring what role the devotees have given to their group leader. For example, people who worship a guru as god will often refuse to make any personal choices about lovers, or jobs, and may speak of it all being ‘God’s will’. In a cult where ‘guru is god’, this means that the guru is in charge of what lovers or jobs a person accepts. It may not be immediately apparent that students and devotees worship or regard their guru as a god, but the evidence of this will become clear in the nature of their choices and how they speak about the leader. If there are encouragements to ‘trust the spiritual guidance’ of the teacher on issues like clothing, sleep patterns, and food and daily rhythms, then consider that this might pave the way for larger scale abdications of responsibility in the future.

Notice the attitudes to sex, sexuality and relationships expressed by this teacher or existing within this community. Observe what is encouraged, what is discouraged, who is happy with the group’s sexual dynamics, and who is crying about it in the bathrooms. Observe the prevailing attitudes towards what is acceptable, and the accompanying value judgments. Spiritual bypassing is what happens when people claim that they are operating from a recognition of ‘transcendent one-ness’ when in fact they are failing to see the lived human experience of deep inequalities of suffering and/or to admit that their actions cause harm. Consider that sex-addicted male teachers who promote polyamory as a spiritual practice may use spiritual bypass to justify their ulterior motives.