About this episode

Anke Richter discusses her experiences with harem culture in ISTA and the complexities of sex positivity in tantric communities.

This week is part 2 with Anke Richter, journalist, author of Cult Trip, former member of Tantric group ISTA, and founder and director of New Zealand’s cult conference DeCult. In part 2 with Anke, she explains how the founder of International School of Temple Arts had constructed a sort of harem culture and was sleeping with all the women, where the line is between normal dating in a community vs. coercion, and how her journalistic investigation into a different tantra group while still actively in this one finally set off her alarm bells. They discuss what’s positive about the tantric world, how the flip side of sex-positive groups can be a pressure to act sex positive when you don’t actually FEEL sex positive, and why she started cult conference Decult. SOURCES Cult Trip DECULT See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Guest: Anke Richter

Topics covered

• harem culture
• tantric groups
• coercion in relationships
• journalistic investigation
• sex positivity
• cult conferences

Keywords

• harem culture
• ISTA
• tantra
• DeCult
• sex positivity
• cult investigation
• Anke Richter

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: International School of Temple Arts, DeCult

Books & works: Cult Trip

More episodes of Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

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• Michele McPhee – The Polygamist, the Criminal, and Their Multibillion-Dollar Scam · August 19, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Anke Richter, Part 1 - Ecstatic Dancing, Tantric Sex, and Joining ISTA · August 5, 2026 · 59 min
• Sophie Fergi, Part 2 - Living with Piper, Constant Control, and Being Shunned by the Squad · July 29, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Sophie Fergi, Part 1 - Kidfluencing, Joining the Squad, and the Dark Side of YouTube · July 22, 2026 · 44 min

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