
How To Not Be A Cult | Protecting Your Autonomy in Spiritual Communities
From For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish by Nishanth Selvalingam
June 7, 2026 · 1h 47m · Season 8 · Episode 266
About this episode
The episode discusses the emergence of hierarchies in spiritual communities and the importance of protecting individual autonomy.
It is very, very easy even in a community centered around anti-establishment revolutionary values for hierarchies to emerge spontaneously: its usually the weirdest, most eccentric clown that rises to the status of outcast king of the clowns in a circus gathering of weirdo outcasts that we call "sangha". And after all, what is a spiritual community but a gathering of weirdo outcastes for whom community and sense of belonging have been withheld by mainstream society? Its this very need ...
People in this episode
Host: Nishanth Selvalingam
Topics covered
- spiritual communities
- autonomy
- anti-establishment
- hierarchies
- sense of belonging
Keywords
- cult
- spirituality
- community
- hierarchy
- autonomy
- belonging
- anti-establishment
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