In the shadows of the (Highden) Temple

How the jewel of the Manawatū became a modern-day mystery school and the controversy currently embroiling its association with the International School of the Temple Arts.

Part 2

Before you read further, I want to make it clear that this article is in no way an indictment about the sexual activities of consenting adults, or casting any aspersions or judgement on sex work. Instead, I am taking a surface view of some current controversies where the absence of effective mechanisms to address accusations levelled at ISTA are embedded in its foundation.

In this instalment I pick up with the next transition in the life of Highden Manor, with Bruce Lyon's vision of an esoteric, new age residential magic school having gone belly up, and the owner/cancer quack Finn Andersen keen to offload the property.

But before we move forward, we need to circle back to the dogma that underpinned the Shamballa school, and the non-”academic” activities that were occurring while class was in session.

Despite the name, the school's connection to Shambala Buddhism, a fairly recent and controversial branch of Vajrayāna Buddhism, is never explicit - but some overlap is evident. The most obvious one is the placement of 28 mandala stones around the campus.

Left: Mandala Stone at High Den; Right: Blueprint of mandala stone arrangement at Highden

Another borrowed element that is only evident once you look deeper into Lyon's output is the practice of transmission. Of course, references to Trans-Himalayan Teachings are not referring to the aforementioned Buddhist tradition, but instead refer to theosophy and the work of Helena Blavatsky and Alice A. Bailey. Both women claimed that they received telepathic transmissions from one Djwhal Khul, a Tibertan disciple of the Ageless Wisdom tradition and part of a brotherhood that was the origin of all the world's philosophies and traditions. According to Jon Darrall-Rew, Khul's transmissions with Blavatsky and Bailey were the first two of three phases which “...embody a continually unfolding revelation concerning the deepest mysteries of Reality, kosmos, the earth and humanity”. The third phase of Khul's teachings are said to emerge in 2025, when all ascended masters, saints, and other enlightened beings will gather and eventually function openly and visibly on earth; this will apparently lead to significant changes in humanity for the coming centuries.

But…but…but…preparatory teachings would emerge earlier than that. And, lo and behold, Bruce Lyon was the man for the job, collaborating telepathically with Khul from 2000 to 2005. Lyon compiled these transmissions into several books, the first of which can be read here.

Now that we've rounded out the past a bit, we can now move forward to the future…

The School Down Under! Years

In a transcript of a talk given by Suchitra Davenport, ownership of Highden was called into question at the end of the 2nd year of the Shamballa school, likely in early 2003. Davenport writes that this created a crisis for the core group. Fortunately two educators from the United States, Kent Ferguson and Wendlin Wagner, were interested in purchasing Highden as a boarding house for their high school study abroad programme called the School Down Under (SDU). While Davenport marvels at the sympatico goals of the Shamballa school and the School Down Under, a saved version of the School Down Under's website plays it very safe by describing the manor as the home of a small philosophy institute.

Ferguson had over three decades of experience as an educator, including 25 years as Headmaster of the Santa Barbara Middle School where he emphasised students' spiritual development by incorporating indigenous traditions and mythology. It appears he brought a similar outlook to SDU, albeit with a more Māori perspective, and balanced academics like practical geometry, biology, and history with a combination of esoteric and traditional after-school activities.

Under the name Fireseed LLC, Ferguson purchased Highden for $1.6 million from Finn Andersen. Under the initial application, Ferguson proposed that the property would be leased to provide outdoor education to international students for one session (20 weeks) each year, while also making the property available for events and private functions. And it seems that SDU and the Shamballa School co-existed on October 26th, 2003, with Davenport teaching an extracurricular class or two to students. Ferguson owned the property until 2008 or 2009, though operation of SDU seems to have stopped prior to that, and the property was on the market for three years. In March 2017, Isaac Davison of the NZ Herald wrote about ten foreign investors who were forced to surrender sensitive land in NZ in the last decade after failing to meet the conditions of their purchase, causing ire in the Winston Peters camp. Under the Official Information Act, Fireseed LLC was found to be one of the foriegn investors named.

The Shamballa school became an online entity for the time being, while Bruce's wife Sharon operated a cafe on site for a period; the couple finally left the property by mid-2007.

To the manor born! A break from magic, and back to business as a B&B

Avril Drucker and Andrew Michaels purchased Highden on December 18th, 2008 and moved in by the end of January 2009. Together the couple had experience in food service, building and renovating high-end properties, fashion, and interior design. They commenced an 8 month renovation project and started to reestablish Highden as a destination venue. By the end of 2010, Highden was back in the news in another Overseas Investment Office bust-up involving actual Buddhists. The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) is a branch of Buddhism that is opposed to the Dalai Lama, and intended to use Highden as a multi-use venue including a national centre for Buddhist study, a visitor centre, and as a spiritual base. While not on the market, NKT approached the couple with their interest in purchasing the estate soon after it opened, and their history at the time indicated that they were good for the money as they had a portfolio of high-profile and historic properties. With contracts signed and pending Overseas Investment Office approval, NKT withdrew its offer in August 2010 with indications that it was unable to meet some of the contract conditions. This was financially damaging for the current owners, due to the loss of revenue from missing the summer wedding season. Drucker and Michaels sued NKT for the difference between what the initial settlement was and the current value, as the property market had fallen by August 2010.

They were awarded a $1.08 million in a court settlement, and continued to own and operate Highden for several more years until returning it to the market at the end of January 2016.

Becoming buddies with Baba

2006-2007 was a weird time for Robert Nichols; his girlfriend left him, and his subsequent spiraling was captured for posterity on celluloid in the documentary Sex Magic: Manifesting Maya.

But, as the title suggests, there is more to the film than middle-aged pining.

Nichols, better known as Baba Dez, is a public figure, writer, and musician who teaches spiritual sexual healing with a heavy side of shamanism. His style is described by some as “neotantra”. For readers who are unfamiliar, neotantra is a western misinterpretation and appropriation of Tantra that hyperfocuses on spiritual sex or sacred sexuality. As the documentary demonstrated, how Dez goes about his practice is controversial even amongst fellow practitioners, and there have been incidents where he has crossed the line.

Dez originally made his fortune selling supplements, and after selling his business and retiring briefly in his 40s, he founded the Sedona Temple in Sedona, Arizona in 2002. Despite the efforts of Wikipedia editors to make Sedona sound as normie as possible, it is a hotspot for spiritual, wellness, and UFO aficionados alike; if you know where to look, it becomes obvious that the Sedona Tourism board knows where its bread is buttered. That may explain why Nichols' midlife pivot, and his vision for his temple, were much sexier and more emotional than the relatively more academic magic of Lyon. The Sedona Temple was not only Dez's home and base of operation, but other similar minded practitioners were also able to rent out rooms in return for a commission.

2007 was also the start of what would become Dez's second business success: The International School of Temple Arts (ISTA). ISTA facilitates workshops and gatherings on sexual shamanism and sexual healing, and through the format of a modern mystery school empowers its students by addressing relational and sexual dysfunction and trauma. The first offering was a week-long course called Daka/Dakini Training, which would become the rather silly Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Experience (SSSEx). As Dez took his teachings worldwide, he met other like-minded people, and in 2009 would cross paths with Bruce Lyon.

In 2010, Bruce moved deeper into the ISTA orbit due to his growing interest in incorporating sexuality and emotion into his work. 2011 was, according to Dez's bio, a turning point for Lyon's role in ISTA. Not only did Bruce join the faculty, he was also able to bring his business acumen into the redevelopment of the business structure and leadership of ISTA. Dez wanted to move away from being the perpetual leader or ‘guru', and desired a self-governing, non-hierarchical organism that didn't get bogged down with consensus. The idea was that while organisers and teachers are compensated for their time, there are no shareholders and no copyright as everything belongs to humanity. To a degree, this was seen as offering independence for faculty to organise events themselves, and it could be said that this decision decentralised ISTA - both literally and figuratively; a move that was good in the immediate sense, but problematic in the long term.

ISTA headquarters was initially co-located in Dez's Sedona Temple, but as that branch of Dez's life expanded, the Sedona Temple officially separated operations from ISTA in 2011 and established its status as a church in June of that year. However, the operations of the Sedona Temple were not viewed favourably by neighbours, and the city made their zoning process difficult. In order to recoup the costs incurred from the bureaucratic side of that venture, the temple leased space to the Phoenix Goddess Temple, who unbeknownst to the Sedona Temple were under investigation by authorities. In September 2011, the Sedona Temple premises was raided by local police seeking members of the Goddess Temple on charges of prostitution and operating a brothel.

Bruce and Baba's partnership continued to be productive. Bruce became lead faculty of ISTA in 2012, and in the same year they developed and introduced a second level to the Spirirtual Shaman course: Level 2 Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Initiation (SSSIn) Training.

It was truly a match made in pun hell.

The two then developed the week-long NZ Next Generation Teacher Trainings in 2012, which then merged with an apprenticeship program that Baba was already running at the Sedona Temple. This became known as the final course, Level 3 SSSEed (Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Seeding). Lyon's role in the faculty and governance of ISTA evolved over the next few years, and would culminate in a triumphant return, of sorts, in 2017.

Bringing the magic back to Highden

In 2016, Highden was back on the market. The Shamballa school was still ticking along in its online form but, for whatever reason, Lyon decided that it was time to buy the property for keeps. The purchase price was $2.4 million and, in his own words, Lyon signed a purchase agreement based on the verbal support of Baba Dez and a third party. When the third man backed out, Lyon posted a plea for funds on Facebook for $800,000 on February 23rd, 2017. While the standard loans and monetary gifts were accepted, there was also the option to join the project as an investor, or pillar, of the temple. Initially, he sought 12 investors at $250,000 each (yes, the total is more than $800,000. The extra money would be invested in the property).

Below is the initial plea for financial support from Facebook:

Beloveds I need your help. I am opening out in trust. i need your help and i need your love. Specifically I need your love-as-money.

I signed the purchase agreement on Highden based on the verbal support of two of my soul brothers - Dez and another friend . I wanted the money flowing into the project to be coming from the centre of love, trust, freedom and commitment. I wanted it to be solid in the core so that when others wanted to join they could feel the security of it being underwritten by those who had the capacity, the will and the love. Highden is to be a place of love and freedom. A Temple for the new era. It can't be founded on old values and structures. Yesterday i learned that the third person has hit significant turbulence in their affairs and can't proceed with the project. I began the process of looking at a back up plan with bank funding and everything in me started to contract. I don't want to be borrowing from banks. So I am turning out to my tribe. I am all in here. This is my stand for the temples. I'm willing to put all my available resources - close to a million dollars in to the project. I am unconditional and i love it. Dez, too is fully in and it feels so great to stand together on this ride. We know we are not alone in wanting there to be places where the sex and spirit, soul and body, the personal and universal can dance together in love and freedom. Places where the life force is activated and fully lived. Settlement is May 1 and i am about to go on an extensive trip to India, Bali, Guatemala and Brazil before coming back to ground at Highden. I don't have the space or the capacity for prolonged discussion with banks and lawyers. i trust myself. i trust love. i trust god/goddess and the wave of awakening that is moving through humanity. i trust you. Please feel into your heart if this calls to you and come back to me directly.

Here's what we need to settle - $800,000 NZ. -

Here are some of the ways you could help if you are so called.

1. Unconditional gifts are always appreciated and result in energetic effects ten times their monetary value.

2. Loan us some funds - just short term to get through the settlement - six months max.. Bank interest is so paltry these days. If we have to borrow we'd much rather it came with love and we paid interest with love. As a man of integrity and of resources, inner and outer I give you my word you will get it all back. I think my word is more secure than most banks these days.

3. Join the Project as an investor. Be a pillar of the temple. We are going to do something really good for humanity and the planet. We are going to have fun doing it. We are going to generate a lot of resources so we can do it again….and again. The purchase price is $2.4m. We want 12 partners @ $250,000 NZ to give us $3m - the extra money over set up expenses will be used to develop the property further. There is enormous potential. There are many who have expressed some interest and now we need some certainty.

One of the key pieces of work we have both been doing in the last decade is restoring the relationship between sexuality and spirituality so that our collective erotic life is integrated and helps power, ground and manifest love. Money is another key energy that is linked to the sacral centre and sexuality. in most people and on the planet in general it is still controlled by survival fears and desires. The liberation of money so that it truly serves love is ahead of us. The immense surge of life force energy that comes when we release our contractions and open to the abundance that is all around us is awesome. I am feeling some of it now. My money, like my sex and my heart and my mind is not truly ‘mine' at all. It belongs to the ocean of life out of which it springs. I give it back in gratitude and experience the grace. This does not mean I am naive. I know how precious money dedicated to love is and I intend to look after that which I am guardian of, make it grow, serve more love, and seed many temples. And I want this wild tribe of lovers to experience a reunion of their inner riches with the resources of the earth. That ecstasy comes when we open.

so, beloveds, please help. help us stand for love, help us restore the temples on the physical plane. help us liberate ourselves more fully into the joy and fearlessness of being who we came to be. ....

.......Abundantly

B

Ever responsive to feedback, Lyon restructured the partnership plan to be a limited partnership with a minimum investment of $50,000 NZD.

By February 27th, 2017 he was able to secure $270,000, but was still $200,000 short by April 18th, 2017, at which time he was seeking $20,000 USD, one-year interest-free loans to get past the finish line. Somehow, Bruce made it across the line by the settlement date of May 2nd, with more than a little help from his ISTA friends. As such, despite being an organism without an office, ISTA is now associated with the permanent location of Highden Temple in the eyes of Wikipedia.

School was back in session, but instead of a postgraduate Hogwarts, the influence of ISTA can be seen throughout the current operation. Gone are the days of free tuition, chore boards, and a year-long curriculum, in exchange for a peek into the ancient mysteries. Courses at Highden are short, but cost hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on your accommodation choice. The signature offering of Highden, Temple Trainings, cost over $7,000. Prior to the pandemic, ISTA courses were also offered, but the majority of offerings appeared to be more aligned to his vision of a modern-day mystery school. The telepathic transmissions Bruce had back in the 2000s began again, and, as the pandemic wore on, it would be this approach that would carry Highden through with local interest in cacao workshops and other activities.

Bruce resigned from teaching ISTA training in 2020, but is still listed on the ISTA website as a former governance member. On December 2, 2021 Lyon made a renewed call for new investment on Facebook:

Highden Temple is looking for new pillars to help embody and flower the principles of our growing mystery school. The first cycle of grounding the temple is complete - the template for the teachings has been developed and tested over the last four years. The Temple is financially secure and sustainable, has no debt and is developing a new currency and soul based economics. We are part of a growing global network of similar temples landing as the soul of the world is emerging and finding anchor points for trying out new culture. We have had considerable international support in the landing process and are now looking for more kiwis or NZ residents to help hold this living experiment.

Highden is structured as a limited partnership with 10 pillars ( each holding 1/12 ownership ) and 10 posts ( each holding 1/60 ). Current entry for a pillar is NZ$300,000 and a post is $60,000. Financial accounts to end of March 2021 show a net equity of $4.8m and partnership equity per pillar $370k and a post at $74k so there is a 20% discount on asset backing. We have one pillar and one post available at this level. More important than the financial investment is the resonance with the principles alive at the core of the Temple and the willingness to contribute to its ongoing development.

If you feel the call to join us in this role please reach out to me on blyon7@gmail.com and we can have a preliminary chat.

Bruce Lyon

It appears Bruce and the business of Highden is currently thriving. Single-sex courses for preteens and their parents are now enrolling for the spring, ensuring a new generation is waiting in the wings. However, a series of disruptions and upsets within the ISTA may upend this success:

Andrew Barnes

Andrew Barnes was an ISTA contemporary of Bruce Lyon, rising through the ranks at the same time as our antipodean shaman. But rather than matching Bruce's upwards trajectory, Barnes was quietly removed from the ISTA faculty in 2016 due to a dispute over the eating of animal hearts during a ritual at an ISTA course. In 2018, Barnes was the subject of an investigation by Be Scofield about multiple accusations of rape and sexual abuse made against Barnes, with some assaults occurring during ISTA Trainings. To date, no formal charges have been laid against Barnes in relation to these complaints. Barnes was questioned by police in Bali in 2021 after an uproar about his ‘orgasm retreat' in Ubud, Bali. Barnes was not arrested, but released, and the course was cancelled. Barnes' signature workshop is called “Tantric body de-armouring”, which he has offered at least once in NZ.

Ohad Pele Ezhari

Ohad Ezhari is another contemporary of Lyon's in the ISTA organisation and, if Highden's website is correct, a financial contributor to Highden. Ezhari resides in Israel where a large contingent of ISTA graduates also reside. A former client of Ezhari's who spoke to Tel Aviv publication Haaretz (English translation provided here) gave a graphic description about being violated by Ohad. This accusation is recent; coming from a facebook group called Issues with ISTA and Highden Temple Trainings that was created in June, 2022. No further allegations have made it to print yet.

A significant portion of the article above considers the poor care given to women with previous sexual trauma who seek this alternative therapy. Sometimes, that trauma is accompanied by a deep distrust of police, the justice system, and traditional counsellors and therapists. However, while some participants benefit from this modality of treatment, others find that teachers can be ignorant about the range of trauma responses due to their limited training, which makes engaging with this brand of healer excessively risky in the first place. In discussions about ISTA and sacred sexuality that have come out from the Facebook group, current and former ISTA devotees are divided. Many agree that no one should come to ISTA until they have engaged in heavy-duty therapy. However, there is disagreement about whether ISTA's statements about participants' self-responsibility allows teachers to wash their hands of their role in an attendee's re-traumatisation. Many ISTA teachers, as is the case in many other spiritual circles, teach that the individual is responsible for whatever happens to them, thereby avoiding the existence of victim/perpetrator dyad. Others see that dynamic as a source of drama, and refuse to engage with it.

Baba Dez

While Baba Dez long stepped down as director of ISTA, and ceased facilitating teaching in 2019, stories of gaslighting and impropriety with women are still referred to vaguely, but with regularity, by bloggers. Again, there are no legal charges currently filed against him, but the organisation he founded is being called on by the community he brought together to create permanent frameworks to address current complaints, and to prevent future re-traumatisation. Dez's original plan was to return to teaching with ISTA but those plans may be up in the air given the current outrage.

Is there a future for Highden Temple?

The Issues with ISTA and Highden Temple Trainings Facebook group cannot be good for PR. But outside of Facebook Bruce has been able to escape unscathed, with neither the group or the survey reaching the first three pages of Google search. Instead, Bruce is investing his literal and figurative energies into establishing his international network of Temples; There is one in Samothraki, Greece and another in Köyrä Village, Finland (called Nikkilä). In the Facebook realm, but outside of the aforementioned group, Bruce and Highden simply don't have the same profile as Baba Dez and the broader ISTA brand. This may be the very magic spell that keeps Highden Temple rolling through to the “banner year” that 2025 promises to be.