NZ Skeptics Articles

Articles tagged with "highden"

ISTA (International School of the Temple Arts) and Highden make actual headlines

3 March 2025

I'm unreserved in my assessment that this has been one of the biggest weekends in ISTA/Highden history, just not for the reasons ISTA would have anticipated. Anya Kamenetz, writing for New York Magazine's The Cut, has written a damning piece on ISTA, with the subtitle of: “_Can a neo-Tantric sex group dedicated to exploring dark desires root out abuse?_”

Crossed Lines: Ascended Masters and the Kiwis who channel them

25 December 2023

For an island nation with a population of 5.3 million, I would hazard that we have more than our fair share of pākehā with a hotline to millenia-long dead Asians. And by more I mean a non-zero number, because mediumship is a paranormal practice/belief that has failed to provide any empirical evidence for its efficacy.

Sex.Life: The podcast that refused to put a name to it

10 July 2023

It's been a couple of weeks since the final episode of this season's (!!) Sex.Life podcast aired with a less than revealing Q&A. The poor folks at the Culty Conversations facebook page have had to endure my stream of consciousness written but you, lucky skeptics, get to benefit from the cliff notes.

Happy Halloween!

31 October 2022

This week I take a look at Halloween - today!, talk about Elon Musk's Twitter purchase, the Just Stop Oil campaign, and Bronwyn gives us an update about Highden Estate and ISTA.

Highden under scrutiny

31 October 2022

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.

In the shadows of the (Highden) Temple

15 August 2022

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.