Highden under scrutiny

The last time I wrote about Highden Temple, I noted that Bruce Lyon had been able to escape public and media scrutiny despite Highden's association with the controversial International School of the Temple Arts (ISTA) organisation.

On September 26th Ellie Wilde, former NZ-based ISTA facilitator, shared their story about ISTA and how her break from ISTA/Highden cut her off from her community. It's an important read in and of itself but it also opened the floodgates to talk about ISTA and Bruce Lyon. In a series of public posts that came afterwards, Lyon affirmed his position that Highden/ISTA is not therapy and that the work of ‘soul initiation' will always have the potential for trauma. Moreover, recent posts from the Highden Temple facebook page seem to place any trauma being more historical than as a result of temple training or the facilitators themselves.

But still, they've felt the heat. Highden has established its own aftercare support team with each of its three members graduates of Highden or ISTA; this fact is clear on the Facebook post but not on the website. This was a change but it was still a situation of “if you know, you know”, and wasn't quite cracking the public consciousness.

But that's all changed as Halloween arrived early on Friday with RadioNZ releasing two pieces on Highden Temple and ISTA, a segment on Morning Report and a longform article. This was followed up on Saturday with a feature in the NZ Herald's Canvas magazine about journalist Anke Richter's disillusionment with ISTA and the neotantra movement.

These pieces do a very good job of outlining the sexual boundary-crossing and the danger that is entailed by unregulated and unlicensed healers and facilitators. The RNZ piece also highlights that the covenant signed by participants, that one must take full responsibility for their experience, gives abusers a perfect cover because it denies the participant the ability to call themselves a victim.

No victim, no abuser.

Both of RNZ's articles mention that as a result of the ongoing negative attention that ISTA has faced “...significant financial loss, professional damage, and emotional distress” and are considering legal action. But ISTA and its financial entanglements with Highden are only a small part of Bruce's operation. At its heart, the Highden concept has been about the occult and that has been part of Lyon's model back when he first accessed the property in the early 2000s. Current course offerings scheduled through to early next year that aren't explicitly ISTA-related, although maybe facilitated by an ISTA-qualified instructor, vacillate the divide between the divine and sexuality. Further enriching the business model are Highden-affiliated, but not ISTA-affiliated, temples in Greece and Finland (although graduating from ISTA programmes is noted as being helpful).

This is where I find RNZ reporting falls a bit short. No one, as of yet, is trying to follow the money and as horrific as the allegations are, there is a voyeuristic veneer that comes with its focus about sex. Overlooking the religious and spiritual dimension embedded in the foundations of Highden means the average radio listener doesn't fully grasp why this particular brand of sacred sexuality is causing the wounds that it does.