A little ISTA update featuring Steve Hassan

Bronwyn Rideout - 25 September 2023

September has been an interesting month in ISTA land and its adjacent islands. Motivated by reports that the neo-tantric NGO was resuming activity in Israel and holding a workshop in an undisclosed location, the Israeli Centre for Cult Victims issued an official statement (available in Hebrew and English) on September 8th. The statement outlines, in explicit detail, the content of the first two levels of the ISTA programme and the multiple conduits for exploitative activity, in particular the lack of detailed information that students receive about the workshops (which was also indicated by Morgan Penn in the Sex.Life podcast). While it stops short of outright declaring ISTA a cult, the centre does state that it has taken an interest in ISTA activities and notes that in Israeli penal law, spiritual teachers are forbidden from having sexual relations with students.

It didn’t take long, however, for ISTA to issue a response in kind. On September 12th, ISTA issued an almost point-by-point rebuttal to the centre’s concerns. I cannot comment on the points which ISTA states are false but, from an outsider’s perspective, ISTA makes several PR missteps. Many of their counterpoints assert that the Israeli Centre for Cult Victims’ brief, matter-of-fact descriptions misrepresented and sensationalised their activities and especially take issue with the unnamed testimonials that the Centre is basing their claims. Below is a quote from the ISTA response; the text in black is what ISTA selected from the original statement and ISTA’s full response this this point is in italics:

“ According to testimonials, the ideology revealed from the content of the workshops links spiritual and mental development to willingness to participate in different sexual activities, including activities in a social space and/or group sexual activities.

The undefined “according to testimonials” is used as a basis to make a completely inaccurate statement. ISTA does not connect spiritual and mental development to willingness to participate in sexual activities. On the contrary, graduation from Level 1 is based on the individual’s capacity to express and uphold boundaries, practice consent, and make sovereign decisions. Many successful graduates of ISTA Level 1 have completed the whole program without engaging in any sexual activity with anyone. It is disheartening that the Center is willing to make assumptions about the spiritual or educational values held at ISTA without any effort to conduct an objective inquiry.”

And a similar quote:

“ Moreover, complaints have been submitted to various bodies, including law enforcement agencies, against prominent figures associated with the organization or that have been associated with it in the past. The complaints raise suspicion of sexual exploitation, encouragement into (and glorification of) prostitution, animal abuse, abuse of power and hosting of group activities that may leave participants with long-term harm.

Without any objective proof, the Center speaks about complaints being submitted to authorities, violating the presumption of innocence, and listing a series of grave accusations that, to ISTA’s knowledge, have never been brought against ISTA.

ISTA is not sure how to address these “suspicions” because, in the “guilty-until-proven-innocent” stance that the Center is adopting, any resistance or defense is futile. There will never be enough proof of ISTA’s good intentions if “suspicions” and unclear “complaints” are taken as proof of ISTA’s wrongdoing. ISTA can only engage with such “complaints” when they are clearly brought either to our attention, or to the public eye. And so far, none have.”

Maybe the people making these “complaints” decide to bypass ISTA because, I dunno, no one is obligated to only talk to the group where they experienced harm? Maybe some of the complaints require a response far above ISTA’s paygrade. I think that the last sentence, And so far, none have, has been demonstrated to be inaccurate.

Further missteps include:

• “Many successful graduates of ISTA Level 1 have completed the whole program without engaging in any sexual activity with anyone.” Hard to tell if this aligns with the Participant FAQ page, under the section Can I choose which exercises or ceremonies I participate in? Can I skip some of the sessions?: “It is definitely possible (although not very common) for someone to complete the whole Level 1 training without taking part in any single ceremony.” The technicality with the latter statement is, most likely, that it is only referring to skipping out on a specific activity (in this case, the ceremonies) whereas the rebuttal is simply about engaging in sexual activity with other people. ISTA could clarify if they have a single-player mode for both sessions/ceremonies because they do refer people practising celibacy being drawn to ISTA

• Their response to the following: “Regarding the follow-up workshop, called “Level 2”, reports were obtained describing ritualistic animal slaughter ceremonies, ceremonies that involve sexuality and death, insertion of carrots into participants’ anuses, and more.” They only respond to the “Ceremonies involving sexuality and death” and not the other two. ISTA does acknowledge elsewhere on their website that some offerings of their Level 2 course have included the opportunity to witness the compassionate killing of an animal but deny that any animal would be “… subjected to unnecessary suffering, hardship, or be used as part of obscure rituals”. As opposed to non-obscure ones, so to speak. But jokes aside, this clarification is in the Media section of the website but a well crafted response would have addressed and linked to that point here as well. There is no official comment on the website about applying a root vegetable to the root chakra.

But the biggest mistake of all is trying to bring Steve Hassan into the mix. ISTA takes umbrage with being called a cult which, in the English version of the document, the Israeli Centre for Cult victims does not do; instead, they voice their concerns regarding about ISTA’s cultic conduct.

It is important to clarify that ISTA didn’t state that Hassan himself said they weren’t a cult but that by his criteria that the implication that ISTA is a cult is misplaced. Again, that claim wasn’t made by the Israeli Centre for Cult Victims in its English language statement.

Back to Hassan. How much information he has on ISTA is unclear but he only references the Centre (as Infokotot). Hassan states that ISTA’s leaders are not acting responsibly and points out that there are a series of ethical behaviours, which are listed on the Influence Continuum and should be used alongside the BITE model, which places ISTA on the Destructive/Unhealthy end of the spectrum. He offers very general advice for past ISTA participants, encouraging people to read his books, listen to his TedTalk, and seek out narratives from former members before reflecting on their own experiences. As for Hassan’s personal opinion, he is concerned with what he understands to be abuse of authority, stopping the free flow of information, and boundary violation within ISTA but doesn’t go any further.

Talk about playing yourself. Let’s hope we find out soon if ISTA will issue a rebuttal against Hassan.