Scamfluencers - The Yoga Hustler | Gurus Gone Wild | Part Two

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

As Guru Jagat starts spewing dangerous conspiracy theories, her followers become determined to expose her for what she really is: A fraud. Their revelations, coupled with explosive new allegations from other members of the kundalini yoga community, force everyone to choose a side: Guru Jagat or… reality.Support us by supporting our sponsors!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to scam influencers ad-free on Amazon music. Download the app today. A heads up to our listeners. Today's episode discusses rape and sexual assault. Listen with care. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Sarah, have you ever noticed that with all the scammers

we've covered here, they've at some point been legitimized by a big time institution or celebrity? Like, they appeared at some point been legitimized by like a big time institution or celebrity. Like they appeared on Oprah or they were in Goop or like they gave a TED talk or something. Yeah, I think it's because you know celebrities love endorsing some kind of new agey thing that will help them get enlightened and feel maybe a little bit less bad about hoarding wealth. Yeah, wow, yeah. I think that's exactly right. Well, Gurujagat has been propped up

by celebrities, glossy women's magazines, and business reporters. But now she's about to get the most prestigious stamp of approval yet, this time from the Ivy League. Gurujagat struts onto the Harvard Divinity School campus, wearing what appears to be very beautiful curtains. They're mustard yellow, they're all drapey, it's very prairie chic.

As ever, she's wearing a tangle of necklaces and a poorly tied turban. And the building she's booked to speak in is as east coast as it gets. It looks like a gothic church. Just a month ago, she was invited to hang out backstage at the Grammys with her friend, Alicia Keys. Oh my God, this is so crazy.

I knew she was like friends with celebrities, but I didn't know she was like, oh, let's hang out backstage friends. And now on March 5th, 2019, Grew Juggeth is here at Harvard to speak on a panel about quote, the business of spirituality. So for her, it's a huge honor, and it's all happening.

And as Juggett takes her seat on the stage, she can't help but feel pretty fucking great. Like, this isn't bad for a blue collar college dropout. And the panel kicks off with a question about reconciling spirituality and making money, and grew Juggett jumps right in. In my teacher, Yogi Bajan says that the business and money are some of the quickest ways,

including romantic relationship, to become conscious. She's speaking with such certainty, but I legitimately do not know what she is trying to say here. And everyone's nodding along like they understand it. Yeah, everything she says is like word salad. It's chauvinistic, basically, around what it looks like to be spiritual, what it looks like to be, you know, a person of God or a person of doing a higher calling. In this case, she's telling the Harvard students that you don't have to choose. You can be ambitious, rich, capitalist, and spiritual. That making money will help you connect with your higher power.

Okay, so she's saying, ladies, you can have it all. Yes, she is leaning in Sarah. She's leaning all the way in. Amazing, amazing. And the students who are all clearly quite ambitious themselves, they eat it up. Guru wants everyone in the room to know how hard she's worked for this moment.

Struggle, struggle, struggle. I mean, if you're an entrepreneur, what are you doing? You're up all night thinking about how to be the rent. I mean, that's a welcome to the party. At the end, Guru gets a round of applause. This is Guru Jagat at her peak, influence, success, and delusion. Because her own beliefs are about to take a turn, a hard right turn. And it'll take an act of God to bring her down. Many involved in crypto saw Sandbankman Freed as a breath of fresh air from the usual Wall Street buffs.

But in just one month, his crypto exchange would collapse. From Bloomberg and Wondery comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docuseries about the wild rise and fall of FTX and its founder, Sam Bankman Freed. Listen to spellcaster on Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical

industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. From Wondry, I'm Sachi Kohl, and I'm Sarah Hagi, and this is Scamful Insurs. And our last episode, we met Guru Jagat, a celebrity yoga teacher at the height of her power. But the Kandallini community is about to get rocked by explosive allegations from former members, which forces everyone to choose aside. Guru Jagat, or reality. This is episode two in our two-part series, Guru's Gone Wild. It's the day before Halloween, 2019, and Guru Jagat is in the middle of a forest in Scotland about to get married. The scenery is enchanting, there's 200-foot trees covered in mist, green as far as the eye can see, and Guru Jagga is overcome with the beauty of this moment. She's surrounded by a small group of friends and family and about to wed the love of her life.

I love that. It's a day before Halloween and she's probably in a costume. Well, aren't all wedding dresses costumes? I hate that I will ask this question, but who's the lucky man? Well, her husband to be is Tegnam, aka Austin Dunbar. No, you cannot go from Austin Dunbar to Tegnam. No. Honestly, he doesn't not look like a Tegnam. Oh, once you see the photos, but let me tell you a little bit about our friend, Tag. He grew up in Arizona and he's almost 20 years younger than Guru Juckit, who's 40.

In his vibe at the wedding is Scottish Viking. He's got long brown hair and a bushy beard, and he wears a full-killed and tartan. Sarah, you'll love this part. According to former Rama employees, Tec has a foot in the world of online conspiracies, as in he may have been a friend of Q, if you know what I mean. Yeah. At her wedding, Guru Juckit is the ultimate Bohemian bride.

She has long, blonde beach waves, a lacy veil. She's in a white peasant dress. Her business partner, Hadi Jivan, also known as the toner bandit, he leads the ceremony. Well, grew cries, happy tears. Sarah here, you can take a look at this photo of them on their wedding day.

So we see our girl, Katie. She has a bouquet of wildflowers. She looks very determined and gazing at her with zero expression. And I mean, no expression at all is her husband. And he's wearing like a full Scottish get up and he's carrying a freaking lantern in the middle of the day. He actually looks like this is the first time he was let outside in a really long time. Like, you're gonna put an effort into putting on a whole fit at least brush your hair.

So usually in sick weddings, the couple circles the religion's holy book, but jug it, likes to spice things up, also known as ruin it. So instead, she and her husband circle Harijivan. So the implication here is that instead of the holy book blessing their marriage, they're being blessed by a living person. Imagine being like, yeah, there's this guy, I really hated, he's a toner bandit. Anyway, he blessed me for my sick wedding. Yeah. And she really seems to have it all. A thriving yoga studio, a podcast, a book published by Harper Collins. But what no one at the wedding knows is that she's about to descend even further into her own paranoia. And she's going to make her racist conspiracy theories public.

She isn't just committing to her new husband, but also to his fringe beliefs. And the fallout will cost her her reputation. beliefs, and the fallout will cost her her reputation. In early 2020, while Guru Jagat is still Google-eyed and in love, former Yogi Budgeon student Pamela Dyson is reeling after publishing her memoir. Her book Outs Budgeon as an Abuser and a Rapist. Now that her truth is out in the world, Pamela braces herself for backlash, and woof does she get it, mostly from the higher ups and budgets companies. But she also gets a ton of support.

Pamela is invited under the Project Hope podcast, where she tells host Jennifer French about releasing her book. It came out in January, mid-January, my book, and it blew up so fast. And then it just... Pam was abused took place decades ago between 1968 and 1984. And the book details how she sued Yogi Budgeon for financial, sexual, and physical abuse in 1986. But the multi-millionaire Yogi had the resources to fight her forever. So she finally settled out of court. So I was by myself and I was felt really hung out

to dry and it was exceedingly painful. I literally felt in my body like I was burning at this stage. Pamela explains that she thought about leaving the community for years before she actually left, but it just wasn't that easy. So I, you know, I was going to walk away. It's just I had nothing to walk away with. I had not been paid a salary, so I did not have money.

I did not have a car. I had given over everything I had 16 years ago. I feel really bad for her. Well, it gets worse because Pamela is just the beginning. Her book prompts multiple lawsuits and a full investigation. In all, 36 people report sexual and spiritual misconduct at the hands of Yogi Budgin. And this is according to an independent investigation

by Olive Branch, which is a firm that helps spiritual groups deal with abuse allegations. And Gurajaga is not ready to hear a single word against her former teacher. Despite the major cultural reckoning after Me Too, Gurujaga rejects every claim against Bajan. Not only that, she actually goes on the offensive, making the already heartbreaking allegations into something truly nuclear. into something truly nuclear.

So, grew Jugget, Honey Jivan, and the Rama Institute come out strongly against Pamela's memoir, and they deny all allegations. Juggeth is a feminist hashtag girlboss until, of course, it's time to actually defend women. Juggeth wearing huge 70s grandma glasses

and cocktail earrings, and forever in that white turban, she records the shaky Instagram video of herself bashing Pamela in her book, and Sarah, she looks so mad. This woman here, she conveniently finishes her book before she sued and before a million other things happened so that the story looks a certain way.

And then, Juggett's straight up stops making any sense. I have a very inside kind of view on what's going on, who got paid, what happened, how these things go on, and then I'm thinking it's actually robots. Um, okay, does she mean like bought accounts, does she mean like physical robots, like, beep,op-beep-boop, like I don't know why. Like what are we, what is a robot in this scenario?

Sarah, I don't know which frankly is something that I feel like I've said several times in these last two episodes, but actually here's the craziest part of her entire response to everything. Days after Pamela's memoir comes out, Guru Jagat tells Business of Fashion that she never even met Bajan, which is so bonkers because her entire public identity was based on her supposed mentorship from Yogi Bajan. What, like how can she deny something

that she established her whole life around meeting this guy? And now she's walking back from it? Yeah, it's really odd. And whether she truly knows her or not, I don't know. But Guru Juckith continues to stand by her man in the face of dozens of allegations from women against Yogi Bajan.

So she's never met this guy, and she's distancing herself from him, but she's also saying that he didn't do it? Yeah, she's trying to have it all. When Vanity Fair writer Hailey Faelin pressed his guru, Juggerto Respond, she says, quote, Yogi Budgeon is a historic figure

and he remains a historic figure. I'm not like spending my days trying to figure out whether George Washington was doing some things that I wouldn't agree with in 2021. It's the point she's making, like, listen, are we going back in time and judging all these amazing men for the things they did at the time that were okay?

But also, if we're using that logic, this was like 30 years ago. Yeah, I guess that's long enough to just sort of let bygones be bygones. So, Guru Jagat and the Rama cult, forgive me, I mean organization, will go to any length to preserve the legacy of their mentor budget. But soon, Guru Jagat is fighting for more

than just budget's reputation. She's fighting for her own. As stories about her abusive behavior begin to surface online, Guru Jagat faces the beginning of the end. So one of Guru Jagat's most vocal critics is her ex-assistant, Nicole Norton. Nicole's a 35-year-old self-proclaimed barikwa with dark curls and a strong yoga physique. Nicole worked for Jagat from 2017 to 2019, And our employment was weird from the start. On her first day of work, Nicole shows up,

raring to go, expecting to do like the typical assistant stuff. But nope. Her first task is to read a sci-fi book called The Pleiadians about an alien race who are fighting against lizard people. You know what, the scary part is that I know what Pleiadians are. They're humanoid aliens, basically. Yes, exactly. And after reading the book, Gurujaggit asks Nicole

to go out, hit the streets, and find her a real-ass Pleiadian. Because Gurujaggit wants to interview one for her podcast. Yeah, I mean, that sounds about right. It's like scouting for models in LA. You kind of walk around and you go up to people and you're like, pleadian? I'm getting some pleadian here. It's a really bad start to what proves

to be a nightmare job. And here's what Nicole says about it on the podcast, Scientology Fair Game. Every day I was getting yelled at, every day I was getting screamed at, fuck you, fuck this, You're all fucking idiots. Ugh. I got it.

Then in January 2019, Nicole travels to Europe with Juggett. She says Juggett's behavior becomes even more abusive. Here she is again on the podcast, signedology fair game. When we were in Paris, I didn't have juice in the fridge. So I got yelled at for not having juice in the fridge. Then I bought juice, put it in the fridge, and then I got yelled at because I'm clearly like attacking her and taking out my mommy issues on her because I bought too much juice, and now I'm trying to just spend all her money.

Oh my god. And wait, did Nicole ever like, does she try to leave around this time? Like what was her whole deal? Well, in December 2019, Nicole gets into a really gnarly car accident and she moves back home with her family. And that's how she finally gets the perspective that frees her from Guru Juggit, a car accident. And she's relieved. But also now she's mad.

She's really mad. And Nicole gets out just in time. Because Guru Juggit is about to go from tyrannical to dangerously disturbing. And I feel like a... It's June 16th, 2020, and Sundeep Morrison, a non-binary activist and filmmaker, is speaking on a panel at the Rama Yoga Studio in Venice.

And while listening to Guru Jagat speak about sick culture, Sundeep begins to feel... Hmm, condescended to. Guru Jagat tells the crowd that her teacher, Yogi Bajan, was an intersectional feminist before the term was even coined. Because he took practices that were only taught to men and brought them, not only to women, but specifically he brought them to white women in the West. I mean, when we talk about intersectional feminism, it includes white women in the West.

Yes, I do believe that that is what Kimberly Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectional feminism was talking about the whole time. Just, you know, people didn't understand it. So Guru Jagat then tells the crowd that one of her teachers' disruptions was having women like her, wear turb turbines, like warriors. And Guru Jagatth goes on to explain a completely colonialist theory on the origin of the word

yoga. He actually said that yoga did not come the word, did not come from the East. It came from the Bible. He said it came from the word yoke, and that the Hindu kind of gurus that came to the west took the word and had to basically appropriate there kind of coming to the west and getting western students and said that it was a Sanskrit word. First of all, what? And she's saying this again with like total confidence, like she's spewing this garbage water out of her mouth. She cannot stop herself and she says it like it's the truth.

Yeah and Sarah, don't forget, Sundeep is sitting right there on the panel and Sundeep ends up filming Juggit and post the clip on Instagram with the title, Woman White Splains Sick and Yoga. The post accuses Juggat of erasing sick history and spreading misinformation. And Sarah, I need you to see this post. It says, When she's asked to respond to allegations of cultural appropriation, Guru Jagat, of course course acts like the victim.

She's whining about how you can't follow your soul's calling anymore if you're from a Western culture, yada yada yada. And if that performance on the sick panel isn't bad enough, Jagatth also fully defends an employee who described Black Lives Matter protesters as, quote, cockroaches in the company wide WhatsApp. Gurujagat accuses BLM protesters of being organized looters, echoing an already debunked and super racist theory from right-wing media. Wow, you don't say I could have called this ages ago. Yeah, and Sarah, that just scratches the surface.

Her platform, once used to promote wellness and capitalism, soon becomes a hotbed of any cosmetic conspiracies, bizarre theories about lizard people, and of course, COVID denialism. It's a month after the panel, and Grigjuggeth is straight up relaxed. She sits on stage at Rama without a mask, and she allows her yoga students to go maskless as well, which is against LA County rules. Yeah, but you're forgetting that COVID isn't real.

Yes, Sarah. I mean, obviously the lizard people made it happen. Well, Gurujuggit is hosting a workshop called Camp Grace, and she's preaching to her students on her Instagram page, not to believe the COVID quote hype. This is a part where if you start to put together some of the pieces of the news that's getting not reported on and all this stuff, there's explosions all over the planet in ways that people we don't know what's going on.

So you could say, okay, are we, I mean, the reason why we're being told to stay home? There were actually in some sort of alien war. It honestly echoes like, do you remember at the beginning of COVID, there were all these people who were like, COVID isn't real. It's that the government needs to change all the batteries and the cameras and the cameras are actually all the birds. I mean, as far as COVID conspiracy theories go, this one is underrated, really. It gets worse because, of course, Gurujucket starts inviting conspiracy theorists onto her podcast, Reality Riffing. COVID deniers QAnon promoters anti-semites.

One guest, Keri Kacity, falsely claims that COVID is caused by 5G networks. Another, David Ick, agrees with Cassidy about 5G, and additionally believes that the world is run by a cabal of shape-shifting reptilian beings. Wow, I am not surprised, also basic. But not everyone is on board with this thinking. Students and employees are leaving Rama and the magazine articles about Jagat that shipped from puff pieces to full-on investigations. And Guru Jagat's former followers aren't just leaving her yoga studio. They're speaking out about their experiences on podcasts, on on social media. And one of those

accounts is about to blow the lid off Guru Jagat's story and expose her for what she really is. A fraud. So around the same time that Gurujucket starts spewing lies about how COVID is caused by 5G, her ex-assistant Nicole Norton moves back to her hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, to live with her family. She needs time to recover from being shamed and abused by Gurujucket. And then, on July 17th, 2020, Nicole discovers an Instagram account called Rama Wrong.

The account is like an anonymous complaint line where ex-Rama students and employees can vent about their experiences. And let me tell you, they do not hold back. Sarah, can you read us the very first post on the account? Okay, we are tired of being silenced, disclaimer. We are no way being silenced. Disclaimer. We are no way affiliated with Rama or any of its related businesses slash employees.

Have a sunny day and we look forward to holding space for you. This is passive-aggressive yoga talk and I gotta know who is behind this. Well Rama wrong was started by a condolomy yoga student named Becky Lovell. Becky never met Guru Jag, but she didn't notice that anytime someone complained about Rama on social media, their comments would just magically disappear. So she decided to start an account where people could anonymously share their experiences at Rama.

And when Nicole Norton found out about the account, she DMed to ask how she could help, and the two of them had been running the account together ever since. Before this, the press on Rama and Guru Jagat had been overwhelmingly positive. But with Rama wrong, that changes. African-American employees and her accolades that she was a black woman inside a white woman's body? No, just no. As a black woman and a black woman's body,

what do you think that even means? I don't know, because all these super cosplaying as Indian, so I'm like, what do you mean? Your black woman inside a white woman's body pretending to be brown? Is that what this is? And when Guru Jagat starts getting questioned about her own behavior, she deflects.

She paints the people who complain about her as spoiled, sensitive snowflakes. She tells Vanity Fair Journalist Haley Phalan, quote, I'm a controversial figure. This goes with the territory. I'm not like love and light Suzy. I'm very direct, and I talk about shit people don't wanna talk about.

Okay, love and light Suzy, guess that's a thing. But the more Guru Jagat is criticized, the more she digs her heels in. She refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing. And if you disagree with her, you're a sucker. But Guru Jagat's arrogance is about to become her fatal flaw. Because what happens next will result in a shocking, irreversible twist of fate that no one sees coming.

All right, so let's fast forward a year to July 9th, 2021. Gurujugget is in Berlin teaching a weekend workshop called Inner Resourcing. It's surprising that she would be led into Germany without being vaccinated, but I don't know, maybe she's one of those people who publicly preaches against the vaccine and then secretly gets it. Regardless, after a weekend of talks about how COVID is fake and Western medicine is toxic, Gurujuggith is ready to relax. But her plans are derailed a few days later on July 13th.

It's really hot in Berlin and Guru Jagatth is on her fifth shower of the day, when she accidentally slips coming out of the bathroom. She falls down and bam, she breaks her ankle. She's whisked away to the ER. Even though it's just an ankle fracture, Guru Jagatth is really freaked out. So she decides to call her mom. She and her mom, Nancy, So it's just an ankle fracture, Gurujuckit is really freaked out.

So she decides to call her mom. She and her mom, Nancy, have been experiencing some tension lately. Nancy worries about Juggit's increasingly conspiratorial views. But when shit hits the fan, everybody needs their mom. So Juggit calls Nancy and tells her that she's really scared. Nancy advises her to rest, but unfortunately, slowing down is not in Jugget's wheelhouse. She posts to Instagram about her broken ankle on July 17th. Sarah, can you read us a snippet from the post?

Okay, I am both impressed by facing a deep fear alone in an operating room with openness and also so quickly back to fretting about what is next. So even though doctors advise her to stay in Berlin until she's healed, Juggith decides to fly back to Los Angeles. And that's when she realizes her ankle isn't healing well and she's going to need surgery. And Juggith is super annoyed. She's supposed to teach a workshop called Camp Ra and she wants to be better. She just wants to be done with all of this.

So she gets the ankle surgery, but afterwards, as she's recovering, she has a pulmonary embolism. It's when one of the arteries in the lungs becomes blocked, usually because of a blood clot that moves up from the legs. So it's not common for that to happen after a routine ankle surgery at all.

It's a total freak thing, but it's very possible that Juggeth's decision to fly back to LA before her ankle healed was the reason this happened. And in any case, the pulmonary embolism causes her to go into cardiac arrest. And in short, Grue Juggeth has a heart attack. And at 41, she dies. What? She dies? Yeah. She's dead. She's dead. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, that's it. I truly, truly did not see this happening. I thought she was gonna end up in jail. And the circumstances of her death are so weird that some people question if Juggith is really dead at all.

Here's this woman who seems so strong and vital, yet she gets taken down by a broken ankle. It's unfathomable, but Vanity Fair got a hold of Juggith's death certificate and her cause of death is verified. She died of cardiac arrest caused by the surgery-related embolism. The condolony world, Gurujagat's husband, and her family are all devastated. It's a bizarre ending to a truly wild ride.

And it also leaves a lot of unanswered questions about the future of the Rama Institute. Her devoted followers are left wondering, where do we go from here? from here. Just shy of a month after her death on August 9, 2021, 500 friends, family members, and fans gather at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for Guru Jagat's funeral. Okay, I am still reeling at the fact that she's dead. Oh my god. Also, that cemetery is really expensive. It's all celebrities. And considering she always wanted to be famous,

it's kind of fitting that she's buried alongside celebrities like Cecil B. Demil and Rudolph Alentino. And the stage is decorated with a spray of white flowers, a six-foot-tall geodrock, and a large black and white photo of a smiling Katie Griggs. Multiple microphones are set up on the stage for speeches, musical performances, and prayers. It's less like a funeral and more like a concert. There's a 36-minute meditation,

and then White Sun, which is Huddy-Geevon's band, does a performance of amazing grace with a gong, and then a parade of friends and loved ones give you legies. Griggs's brother gives a speech. He got into me, she was a sister, she was a teacher, a friend, support system, good personal reference, landlord, neighbor, adversary. In moments, we were enemies. Meanwhile, Hadi Jivan, aka the toner bandit, looks like a Harry Potter villain with this huge white beard and linen robes, and here's how he remembered Guru Juckit. He was the perfect person, and she was a punk rocker, she was a rebel, she was a blazingly

articulate and funny, and she did the absolutely perfect job. Oh my god, this is like peak someone dying and being remembered for something they're not. Yeah, I mean, people change perceptions in their grief. Uh, this is a, this is a total rewrite of her history. But these are also people who were always defending her anyway, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And as day turns tonight, Juggits' widower, Tecnaum, takes the stage. Wearing a black suit in his signature frizzy beard,

he gives a really intense speech. To my precious jewel, grew Juggits. I was born looking for you and spend our life together looking into you. I found you in this life and I shall find you in the next. Okay, I would be lying if I said that wasn't a little bit sweet. It's kind of sweet, isn't it? It is. I mean, hey, crazy people can be in love too.

Duff is a great equalizer. After the eulogies, they play an edited home movie type of thing, and then the funeral ends. The Rama world is now completely adrift. Not only is it a funeral for Guru Jagat, but it's like a funeral for the entire Kandallani community as well. Two of the most important teachers, Budgeon,, and now Juggith, are dead, leaving a trail of bad press behind them. There's no charismatic leader, just a bunch of lost practitioners with no idea how to move forward.

Not long after Guru Juggith died, Rama began promoting tickets to camp grace. A women's camp devoted to deteriorating the patriarchy. It was led by, just you wait, Hattie Jivan. The freaking nerve of these people. The toner band, it's back baby. Oh my god. This is truly an exhausting group of people, and I need to know, like, what's up with Rama wrong? Is it still happening?

Has it turned into like a whistle blowing account for the industry at large? So these days, it mostly exists to circulate news its followers will be interested in, like about a documentary on Guru Jagat that HBO ordered, and it tries to tackle the open questions about Kandallani. Here's how Rama wrong found her Becky level

summed it up on the podcast, Scientology, Fair Game. The larger conversation is, should this larger corporation that controls all of the for-profit and non-profit businesses that are linked to Yogi Bajan, should they be shut down or should they be held accountable? Who should be held accountable? Who is actually responsible.

And these ex-students have found that through sharing their experiences, they're able to heal and move forward. Finally, like Pamela Dyson, whose memoir was the beginning of the end for BUDGINS legacy. The bio on her Instagram page reads, speaking my truth, coming from an era when women's voices were muted, coming out whole after my life with yogi budget. And as the survivors of budget and jug its abuse heal, it leaves everyone wondering,

what is the future of the Rama Institute? And currently, the Institute is still up and running, and you can take classes there, which I actually did. I took a condolony class at one of the Rama studios in Manhattan a few weeks ago. Oh my god! I at one point almost had to leave because I started laughing because there was one position they wanted us to do where you sit cross like it and you have to have your hands out,

like you're trying to stop a car from running you over and then you just do pea signs for like 20 minutes, like straight up 20 minutes. That's crazy. Yeah. And while this is happening, like music is blaring and you're supposed to breathe really fast, frankly, you know what I'm like that? Oh, and I will say, the studio is also kind of like a shrine to juck it. Like there are photos of her there, sort of in these frames with flowers around them.

Like it's very clear that they are still following whatever she taught them. And, you know, my instructor was talking about her, not about her death, but certainly about what she, like, learned from her. Wow. All right, Sarah. I hope you enjoyed living in hell with me

for this two-part series. I do wanna take a little bit of time to talk about the scam, why it was so effective, and the damage our friend Katie Griggs left in her wake. I think the part of the scam that really spoke to people, especially like wealthy people, was this idea of letting go of guilt. She offered people a way to absolve themselves of things that they are part of, but guilty of. It's kind of like, you can be this kind of person and be spiritual. It's kind of the same way like you hear people go, you can believe in blank and still be

a feminist. And you're like, well, if you have to make that declaration, not necessarily, not me. And if you have to say it, then it probably isn't true. Right. I mean, the other thing is even the people who worked within Rama were also getting ripped off, right? Like, they were underpaid. They didn't get health insurance.

They were told to work on reasonable hours. You know, Gerjuggeth was like stealing money from her satellite yoga studios to pay for her lifestyle while like everybody's getting stiff. And you know what? No amount of gentle stretching is worth being treated like that, frankly. I mean, it is just crazy how she came from nothing

and was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this and she did it. She did it. She got to where she wanted and honestly, if she hadn't died, she probably would have been still super freaking famous. Yeah, without question,

we would be having a very different conversation about her right now. The scam probably would have just gotten bigger. I think one of the scariest parts of Gurujuggit is that she clearly had a lot of influence amongst really influential people, like not just celebrities, but she's being invited to Harvard

to talk about sickism. It wasn't just that celebrities were turning towards her and like we saw photos of them appearing at whatever, whatever, but legitimate websites and blogs and magazines were like, who's Gurujuggit? And it's like really crazy, because her legitimacy hardly ever came up.

Yeah. And honestly, her story had so many inconsistencies, and it was really disheartening to see a lot of media outlets not really investigate that. Like the fact that she had changed her name publicly to Gurujuggit, that on its own is so manipulative and weird, and it clearly tricked a lot of people into thinking she was the real deal. So so much of the influence is rooted in her just making shit up.

Wow, real talk, never trust a white woman in a turbine, and don't worship a living being. Just don't do it, just don't do it. A good lesson for us all. Hey, Prime members! You can listen to Scam Flensers, Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Wondery.com slash survey. This is episode two of our two-part series, the Yoga Hustler.

I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagi. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful, were Haley Falens' article for Vanity Fair, Haven O'Reckioh regrets its article for Insider, Cassidy George's article for Vice, Steffi Nelson's article for Los Angeles Magazine, and Marissa Meltzer's article for Harper's

Bizarre. Rose Cernow wrote this episode, Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole, and Sarah Haggy. Our senior producer is Jen Swan, Charlotte Miller and Tate Busby are our associate producers. Our story editor is Sarah Enny. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Sound Design is by Jay Rothman. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia.

Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for FreeZonsing. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Gems, and Marshall Lui for Wondering. you