A 2026 Australasian cult and religion update
Bronwyn Rideout - 6th July 2026
The past two months, but the end of June especially, have been a busy period in the cultiverse, with news bringing good, bad, and complicated feelings for survivors. In this edition, I’ll be sharing updates on groups we’ve previously covered and breaking stories relevant to the cultiverse on both sides of the Tasman. However, the recent guilty verdict in the ‘Ark’ murder investigation will not be covered this week, as it will be explored at a later date. The Bill Gothard and Christian Brothers sections address topics of a sensitive nature, such as suicide and intimate partner violence; if that’s not for you, then feel free to skip this article.
Chrissie Fire Mane’s Mana Movement has come to a halt (Original article published September 2nd, 2024)
Chrissie Fire Mane, now known as Christina or Christina Rose
Chrissie was first discussed in this newsletter as the leader of a retreat/reality show called Lost Resort. Over the course of the series, participants would engage in various new age practices to help heal their various traumas, with the help of Chrissie and her team of facilitators. While her branding at that point leaned heavily into her respect for, and inclusion in, Peruvian indigenous culture, Chrissie grew up in Australia and came from considerable wealth; her father, Bob Charley, is a well-known figure in horse racing.
At the time of 2024 article, Chrissie had become anti-vaccine, revealed herself to be a Jan 6th supporter, and was the leader of the MANA Movement. MANA was a wellness and personal development business that offered courses and retreats that were a mishmash of psychotherapy and new age practices, with a veneer of indigenous spirituality. Chrissy also posted that operations were moving to Utah, but nothing ultimately came of it. In 2025, Reddit user Lonely-Ad-3606 reposted their old, but thorough, critique of Chrissie, and provided some important updates. After 6 years of growth, Chrissie had not just rebranded as Phoenix Humanity School, she rebranded herself as just Christina, and shut down MANA’s sizable social media to start a new account for her new brand.
A bold choice, considering MANA had 20k followers, but also a frankly weird one. There is little difference between MANA and Phoenix Humanity. The MANA branding is still evident in several photographs, and their offerings are similar. You can judge for yourself by viewing the archived website here, and see the not-at-all subtle transition from MANA to Phoenix for yourselves. Asides from Lonely Ad’s series of reddit posts (which were frequently brigaded), MANA and its operations remain relegated to the fringes of the internet. This may be in part due to there being very few testimonies from ex-members available, with the small number that do speak out citing that survivors are afraid of retribution from Chrissie. The Phoenix Humanity School continues to operate online courses, and hosts retreats throughout Australia, North and South America, and in Europe.
Washington Post’s exposé on Tulsi Gabbard (Original articles published January 24th, 2023 and January 30th, 2023; Update published January 21st, 2025)
On May 22nd, Tulsi Gabbard resigned as the Director of National Intelligence in Trump’s cabinet. Tulsi was a controversial nomination from the beginning, with her confirmation delayed and marred with doubts on both sides of the aisle about her experience. There were also vocal concerns that Gabbard was under the thumb of Chris Butler, leader of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a Hare Krishna splinter group based in Hawaii with significant ties to New Zealand. Tulsi’s reason for leaving was the recent bone cancer diagnosis of her husband, Abraham Williams. Williams was born in Otahuhu, and also grew up in a SIF family and married Gabbard in 2015.
Within a month of Gabbard tabling her resignation, the Washington Post published an investigation by journalist Jon Swaine that claimed Gabbard was very much in contact and receiving directives from Butler. Swaine discussed a collection of correspondence he received from Gabbard’s ex-digital strategist, Rebecca Saltzburg. Saltzburg had recently fallen out with senior members of SIF that resulted in a messy legal case for her, and provided SIF with grounds to question her integrity. The memos and other missives have no named origin, and their recipients are people around Tulsi, but never to Tulsi herself. Still, the subject is Tulsi and she is not infrequently given instructions in a degrading manner. Swaine found several parallels between the memos and Gabbard’s actions in Congress, but he had minimal luck having anyone within Gabbard’s team, or at SIF, authenticate the communications. However, Sunil Khemaney, Butler’s second-in-command, did claim responsibility for a majority of the memos, but failed to confirm which ones were from him and which were from Butler; Swaine’s analysis of nearly 25,000 messages did not support Khemaney’s claim.
Swaine’s investigation took nearly a year to complete, with no cooperation from SIF or Gabbard. On May 20th, Swaine emailed Gabbard to advise her that the article would proceed, but it is unlikely that the two are connected, or that Swaine’s investigation was the inciting issue. Speculations about Gabbard’s role in the White House had been circulating since March, some citing Trump’s displeasure at Gabbard’s refusal to condemn her former Deputy Joe Kent, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. The Atlantic commented on her recent invisibility from war and intelligence meetings similarly being a sign of Trump’s displeasure, and her ultimate irrelevance. The more conspiracy-minded wondered about whether the CIA’s removal of forty boxes of files from Gabbard’s office in 2025 were an indication of something being amiss. The files have yet to reappear, and are essentially the worst files to go missing in this day and age, as they pertained to the JFK assassination and MK-Ultra.
Early speculation suggests that Gabbard could make a comeback under a different regime, although Swaine also identified that Gabbard has an online rent-a-crowd filing into various comment sections, so maybe much of that noise is fabricated. In any case, the uncovered memos might mean Gabbard will have more of an uphill battle back to congress or any cabinet position.
ISTA lawsuit and podcasts (Our collection of ISTA/Highden articles)
Eyal Shaham, an Israeli who has been a key voice against ISTA, is being sued by the organisation for 3.6 million shekels, or 2.1 million NZD. The lawsuit claims that Shaham’s actions have caused them reputational and financial damage. The Israeli court denied that ISTA’s actions were an act of silencing, and ordered both ISTA and co-plaintiff Laurie Handlers to pay a total of half a million shekels as bond to continue the court case.
Cara Cordoni, one of the founders of the Safer Sex-positive and Spiritual Communities activist group (3SC), launched a podcast earlier this year that explores questions around accountability, dysfunction of power and repair that exist around all cults, not just ISTA. I was invited to talk about the history of Highden for an episode, but the whole series is well worth a listen. Fool’s Gold can be viewed on YouTube and most podcast platforms.
Christian Brothers lawsuit
The Congregation of Christian Brothers (or simply the Christian Brothers) is a Catholic religious community founded by Edmund Rice in Ireland, circa 1802. The Christian Brothers operated schools and orphanages worldwide, but since the late 1980s have been locked in unceasing court cases and child sexual abuse scandals dating back to the 1950s. The extent of their abuse of children is such that it has warranted its own Wikipedia page.
In my home province of Newfoundland, the first complaint against the Christian Brothers was made in 1974, in relation to the Mount Cashel Orphanage. From the late 1980s to the 2000s, Christian Brothers in Newfoundland, Ontario, and British Columbia were embroiled in criminal investigations and court proceedings. In 2011, the North American Christian Brothers declared bankruptcy, having paid out $27 million, but with 422 claims still filed (160 were from Newfoundland, and the rest from the US). Just over 50 years on from the first complaint, survivors in Newfoundland are still seeking compensation through various means. In 2026, the provincial government stepped in to cover some of the shortfall, in a case that found the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s vicariously liable for abuse that occurred both in Catholic institutions and by members of the Christian Brothers. However, the corporation has been under insolvency protection since 2021, and despite the sale of assets, a $80 million shortfall is projected.
So, what does this have to do with life down under? Many of the Christian Brothers who offended in Newfoundland were moved to dioceses across Canada and around the world. One such brother, Ronald Lasik, has been linked not only to Mount Cashel, but also to abuse of boys at schools in his native Chicago and at two schools in Australia in the 1970s. Lasik was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 1999, but only served half of that sentence before being deported to the United States. Lasik lived out his remaining years in a Christian Brothers’ residence before dying in 2020.
Lasik wasn’t the only Christian Brother engaged in sexual offences in Australia. The extent of the payouts ordered by the courts has placed both the Christian Brothers and their victims and survivors in a precarious position. Last week, lawyers for the Brothers advised lawyers of the victims still engaged in court cases that they are facing liquidation, and will run out of money in September. On July 2nd, the Australian court agreed to a pause on further payouts, as it is reported that while the group paid out $66 million AUD last year, the Christian Brothers still owe $774 million AUD - but only have $23 million in cash, and $213 million in property. Concerns were raised, however, around property transfers made by the organisation back in 2007, when Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) took over the Christian Brothers schools. An estimated 26 properties were transferred at amounts of $0 and $1. EREA now has over $1 billion dollars in revenue. and disavows any responsibility for Christian Brothers’ various liabilities.
The pause may provide some respite to Christian Brothers in New Zealand. The organisation has a total of $66 million NZD in assets in Aotearoa, including 5 high schools. But on July 1st, the Christian Brothers sent the school board and principal of St. Thomas of Canterbury’s College in Christchurch a court request for permission to sell the assets, which include the College’s land and buildings. The board intended to oppose the request.
Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer
Commonly known as The Sons, or The Transalpine Redemptionists, The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer was founded in 1988, and are part of a traditionalist Catholic movement that believes that there has not been a valid pope since 1958. There was a period of reconciliation with Rome from 2007 to 2026, when they officially rejected Vatican II. They established a monastery in New Zealand in 2007, and a small community in the Canterbury region in 2017, but came to wider awareness in 2023 when they came under scrutiny for performing child exorcisms. In 2024, the group was ordered to cease their ministry under the diocese.
The group also operated a monastery on the Island of Stronsay in Orkney. It was from this monastery that a kiwi-born brother disappeared in April 2026, and his body was found a month later. Three other monks would successfully escape the island during the night within weeks of the kiwi’s disappearance.
Bill Gothard, founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles suffers from heart attack (Original article published February 7th, 2023)
On June 24th, Bill Gothard, 91 years old, fell into a coma after a heart attack. However, it took several days before even major Christian news platforms ran the story, and even then it was still just a rumour that no one had much luck confirming. Then, on June 29th, Gothard’s official Facebook page made the following post:
As of July 6th, there have been no further updates as to Gothard’s condition. This news has naturally led to mixed feelings amongst survivors, and contemplation on the widespread harm that the IBLP and its practices had on their family relationships and long-term mental health. The discourse was made all the more complicated with the June 28th suicide of R. L. Stollar, the blogger who first leaked the news of Gothard’s heart attack.
Stollar was a child liberation theologian, and an abuse survivor and survivor advocate. He also authored a curricula on child abuse awareness and suicide prevention specifically tailored to homeschooling families and communities. He was accused of embezzling from the non-profit he co-founded, and thousands of people on his mailing list unwillingly read his final letter when he posted it on his blog. The contents of that letter are not for everyone, but have given rise to very difficult discourse about survivors as perpetrators of abuse, the facade of healing and the failure to unlearn misogyny, and whether there is any reconciliation possible between his good works and his cruelty.
