Anyone know of this group? The teacher of all teachers is the Maharishi Krishnananda Ishaya aka Wayne McConnell born in America 1948. Any info would be much appreciated.





Anon

Can someone please help me out there about this group. I honestly feel like the only one on this planet who has read their web site and shuddered because it is creepy. A member of my family has become so involved with this group and has spent £3,500 on a month's retreat in Greece and is now spending £11,000 on a five month retreat in Spain to become a teacher of ascension. The family member went on a First Sphere Weekend and had MIND DETOX with Sandy Newbigging who in some way is connected to The Ishayas of the Bright Path. From the very first I had a gut instinct that things were a bit weird but not having had any knowledge or experience with something like this I contacted The CIC in London UK. After reading recommended books and contacting a friend in the USA I finally found this site. I really feel I am fighting a losing battle to prove that this group is either legit or not.

I so want to be wrong with my gut feeling but apart from the history of the MSI etc I can't find an adverse comment on The Bright Path.

Hello

I'm interested to know more for very similar reasons, so if you do find anything please do post it up here - it'd be helpful.

In the meantime, here's a couple of threads with some info on...

This starts off similar to this thread and then quickly decends into a mumbo-jumbo slagging match between a follower of the practices and those who are questioning them. The replies of the followers are enough to worry me.

This might be helpful. Its a history of the cult/religion/whatever from someone on the inside who was there at the start. Again, the same followers try hard to derail the thread, but with much less success.

Regards

. I think you are right to fear for your relative.I don't like to panic you but my brother in law returned from an intensive six month course in Mexico this year and three months later committed suicide. The organisation as they like to be called where manipulating and controlling him right up until his last hours and spookily enough the man who is in charge of the Temple Lodge Ishaya base in the U. K. in Richmond was the last person to see him alive and gave evidence to the Coroner as to his state of mind. They are trying to say he was depressed and that worry over lack of employment lead to his suicide but there another very strange circumstances linked to his being an Ishaya monk which his family and friends believe are very relevant. It is to late for my brother in law make sure it isn't to late for your relative...please can anyone with anything to say about this organisation or cult or sect calling themselves Bright Path.Ascenders,First Spere or Ishayas please get in touch via this message board

Byzantium2

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother in law.

Thank you for the information.

Is there any chance you can expand on the "very strange circumstances linked to his being an Ishaya monk" you could mention more about? Similarly, any info on the "manipulating and controlling" things you alluded to? If you want to contact me via PM feel free. They sound quite pertinent.

I don't know anything about this organisation and how it links with your brother in law. The most I can say, is that if I was feeling significantly depressed, the last person I'd wanna see is someone in charge of something called an Ishaya Temple Lodge.

Thank you again.

Limey.

Bright Path are a cult not an organization .They fulfill more of the criteria than necessary to earn cult status .They are particularly touchy about being called religious although how anyone can swallow the concept of taking the names they do and taking vows to several different Gods and of course the great God Mararishi in order to become monks is hard for anyone who hasn't been brainwashed to swallow. If you want to get some sort of concept of how many of these monks there are about then simply type in Darshan Ishaya into a search engine and follow that search through a face-book site and keep repeating for every Ishaya name you find and then do that for every country in the world where they teach any sort of course . If you don't find the results revealing then I will be surprised.

I think you have every right to be concerned. I know only what I have learned through the internet as I have found it difficult to get answers without parting with vast amounts of money "to come and see for myself".
All I can say is that a very good friend of ours became involved with these people and he committed suicide 4 weeks ago, we are still trying to come to terms with his loss. He too went to Mexico at a cost of several hundreds if not thousands of pounds to train to become a teacher.
There are many unanswered questions we have for the people who got him involved with this but unfortunately that would involve meeting them and we do not have the stomach for it at the moment. He is constantly in our thoughts, having gone from a fun loving man who loved to plan and organise to something of an automaton whose converations were unfathomable and his response to all problems was to "be in the moment".
Where does all the money go? from what I know the delegates on these courses live very frugally and in spartan surroundings so I don't think you need many grey cells to work that one out. They also have centres in Richmond Yorkshire and Edinburgh, not quite as glamorous as Mexico or Greece but it makes my flesh creep to think of their prescence in the North of England. I would not normally contribute to a site like this but having seen your message, my heart goes out to you and anyone else with loved ones entangled with these people.
LM
UK

LM,

Sorry about your friend.

That "in the moment" stuff tallies with my experience as well. Though it is fair to say they're not entangled with the cult yet, and live perfectly normal lives. Its just reading this stuff, I'd hate it to develop into something more complex. Making that commitment (name change, 6 months away, etc) kinda forces one to search even harder for 'meaning'. The problems come if there is actually no meaning, then one is forced to choose the option of either saying "well it turned out to be bollocks", or searching even further.
Its the latter that is an issue.

Fortunately, the two people involved are fairly grounded, and I have difficulty imagining them discarding their family relationships, possessions, house, jobs, etc in the face of the teachings.

I am in the North of the UK as well (Manchester), and recall references to 'retreats' locally, and in Edinburgh, that my friends have attended.

My view is that if this develops any further (and the people close to me don't want to have any proper discussion), I'm tempted to speak to the Ishaya cult itself.

LT

I wish you well if you decide to speak to the Ishayas themselves as I have had little succcess in pinning the couple down about what goes on without being invited to get involved and part with money myself. Any answers at all are airy fairy and I admit doe s indeed sound a "load of bollocks" because there never seems anything concrete to base it on.
She was strange from the outset when he met her, never left him alone to be with his old friends, completely controlling and couldn't leave him alone for a minute- literally. There's a lot of bragging about the sexual side of things and any questions we had were met with smug looks and we were told " you won't understand" because we were outsiders in her eyes.
However we always thought he was well grounded too, a true Yorkshireman who wouldn't part with money lightly! So be warned, your friends may still be in the first throes of this and may chose to ignore you but I think any friend would try and deter them from getting involved.
Good luck, be interested to know how you get on. Have not made contact with the partner since our friend's death I am still too angry but very curious and keen to spread the word about not getting involved . I think it's a catch 22- in order to help someone you have to know what it's all about and that means joining up unfortunately which I am not willing to do.
LM

I am grateful for the cumminication via the open forum. It appears that I have every reason to be concerned and it also looks like one the hit market is the UK. I have found out during my search that the BP are in New Zealand and are coming under the name of NOWSPACE. Why change the name? There seems to be so many offshoots and I just wonder if this is to cover up or to totally bamboozle people like me.

I don't envy you Limey trying to watch your friends - I am still doing this with my family member as the other family member is now totally immersed in this group. You have to get their critical thinking working - not an easy task without confrontation. I feel that all I am doing is sitting and waiting.

'In the moment' seems to be the words which they are all brainwashed with. No past, no future just now - my thoughts are that they are churning out robotic zombies. Find peace, joy etc. - are we all supposed to sit and meditate for most of the day then go to meetings to talk. Who is going to pay our bills? How can we survive? Will no one work?

People take more time choosing a new car than they do investigating a group who hold seminars which COULD ruin their mental health.
My heart goes out to the family and friends who have lost a loved one with the BP as a common link. If only we had PROOF that their involvement with the BP caused their untimely deaths. Somehow we have to get proof.