Breath of Fire

I'm a believer in the benefits of yoga and meditation it does work. You may need guidance but paying thousands for someone to tell you how to be still is a bit ridiculous. I grew up in a household where yoga meditation where a normal part of life even though it was weird to all the rednecks around me I had a true understanding of it from actual Indians that li we by the yogi life. My farther is Hindu so a true respect for this is something that I learned through him. I never wore a turban or the garbs you see white people wearing to show how enlightened they are. It's not about what you where at all but that's what mainstream money making America needs so like the sheep we are we go along. True meditation is truly only done and found by you. Anyone can do this and everyone should experience the benefits of it without having to pay for it or to pay someone to open you up. Knowledge of yoga and meditation can be found and learned through research. Good for this woman and her followers but bad for her karma and gaining a profit off of the beautiful experiences. We each have the ability to become enlightened teach yourself and be patient it takes time and is worth the time but I promise it's not worth the money. Namaste.

Breath of Fire takes on the daunting challenge of trying to convey the dysfunction, enabling, and vast criminality of a man named Harbhajan Singh Puri, who later re-imagined himself as Yogi Bhajan.

The focus of Breath of Fire is Katie Griggs aka Gurujagat Kaur, who was emblematic of many of Yogi Bhajan's manipulative techniques, which they both used effectively to dupe their followers. Her teacher, Harijiwan Singh is mentioned only briefly, and is another nefarious "guru" who is still leading what remains of Gurujagat's followers.

I would have preferred to hear more of the stories of the victim/survivors and far less from talking-heads who had only a peripheral knowledge of the community.

Katie Griggs mother, Nansy Steinhorn-Galloway, was especially heartbreaking to witness as she comes to terms with all that transpired.

The early followers of Yogi Bhajan, Peter Blachly and Leah Lamb-Allen were particularly compelling, painting a rich picture of the early days of the 3HO organization and what they found attractive about this new lifestyle that Yogi Bhajan was offering.

Mahani Khalsa's story was gut-wrenching to hear. So many of the children, born to the first wave of devotees, were brutally harmed. They deserve their own documentary to begin to adequately tell the world what happened to them.

At times, the use of weird, circus-like music, screaming yogis with horror music, and glib commentary, was strange and unnecessary. The stories held their own without all that nonsense.

I recommend this documentary for its truth-telling and for its exposure of the hypocrisy and grift that is rampant in "new age-well-being" spaces.

It has reached a worldwide audience, which is cause for celebration.

As someone with personal experience of this cult I found the series to be very good. It's important for this information to reach people as the cult is still doing their best to rope new people in. I was fortunate enough to see through them during teacher training as the facts didn't add up a lot of the time. I know the organisation is using their standard damage control about disgruntled former employees/students as can be seen in some of the reviews here. I have seen some of the communications sent out to the teachers about what to say with regards to this series. However, the number of testimonials from survivors and the legal documents speak for themselves.

This series is extraordinarily well done and manages to avoid the usual sensationalism that is a standard feature of most documentaries about cults. In large part this is due to the interviewing style of Hayley Pappas, whose compassionate and empathic approach elicited heart-felt and deeply moving responses. There were a couple of things that might have enhanced the series. I thought the "comic relief" of the bit explaining Kundalini Yoga was a bit silly, and the use of models and dancers dressed up to look like female yogis struck me as odd and unnecessary. The producers also left out a huge piece of the Kundalini Yoga culture, which was the music. Granted, the musical sound track was quite good, but for many in the cult, the music was a large part of the appeal. Overall, however, I give the producers high marks.

Breath of Fire is a fine, fascinating and frightening 4 part documentary about a lineage of Kundalini Yoga Masters. They get their students to wear white clothes and huff and puff, while pumping their arms every which way. This causes Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini yogis to get very stoned and gullible.

Kundalini Yoga students pay lots of money, and offer their labor for free, to experience Kundalini Crack. This cult is still going strong. It is a huge, global yoga mafia, with a history of lots of crime and horrible abuse of women and children. The founder, Yogi Bhajan, was pure evil.

To make it even worse, the cult members pretend to be Sikhs, but they aren't.

Of course, at some level all cults are the same, but this one deserves to be exposed and brought down. Sharing "Breath of Fire" is a great way to help that cause. It is NOT boring one bit.