This is an audio transcript of ‘The Retreat — Bonus — The Insiders’
Madison Marriage
This episode discusses suicide and mental health. Please take care while listening and seek support if you need it. And if you’re just joining The Retreat on this episode, you may want to go back to the start of the series.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Madison Marriage
Since this series dropped earlier this year, my inbox has been inundated. One of the people who reached out to me is a man we’re calling Ben. His story really stood out to me. Ben’s experience at a Goenka retreat is quite like the other stories we’ve told in this podcast series. He’d gone into his first retreat relatively new to meditation, and things went well for the first part of the course. But towards the end, he found he couldn’t sleep for days. He told his teacher, but he was encouraged to continue meditating. The next day, he was directed to meditate alone in a cell. In the cell, he saw an intense image of a noose. That evening, he was overcome with emotion and again turned to his teacher’s support.
Ben
I cried a little bit to the teacher, because I was like, this is, you know, quite a lot. And they were like, no, this is like I think like, yeah, you’re doing a sort of amazing job.
Madison Marriage
Over the last two days of the retreat, Ben began to feel immensely powerful. He is one of nearly a dozen people to have told me they had a messiah-like experience during a Goenka retreat.
Ben
I was sort of like starting to feel a little bit messiah-ry, like although there was a couple of, like, short, sharp, intense experiences. The rest of it was like feeling like hugely sort of almost powerful.
Madison Marriage
On his penultimate afternoon, there was an earthquake in Nepal, killing 9,000 people. In his mania, Ben thought he had caused it.
Ben
And I remember like, you know, the birds coming up from the trees and like, literally I was like, I felt like it was, sort of my energy that sort of caused it… did actually feel quite biblical.
Madison Marriage
Then he started shouting strange things, disrupting the meditation sit. At one point, he jumped into a pond near the meditation hall. Ben says he was at the height of a psychological breakdown. And it was then that he was ejected from the centre.
Ben
They kind of asked me to leave, otherwise they’d call the police. So I sort of quickly got my stuff and sort of left.
Madison Marriage
Ben checked into a nearby hostel and experienced one of the worst nights of his life. He said he felt suicidal. In desperation, he returned to the Goenka centre the next day to beg for help. He came across the same teacher who had encouraged him to keep going.
Ben
Yeah, I kind of sort of said like, you know what state I was in, like. And then I kind of said, well, like, should I just kill myself?
Madison Marriage
Ben said the teacher simply looked back at him with an odd expression that bordered on a smile. It chilled him.
Ben
And then he sort of gave me this weird smile back, and then didn’t say anything.
Madison Marriage
And so did you leave of your own volition or did he usher you out?
Ben
It was just like, he was just like, look, the course is finished, leave. And I left.
Madison Marriage
Ben ended up being taken to a nearby hospital by a local who recognised he was seriously unwell. Ben was hospitalised for several nights. Once back in the UK, he received medical treatment immediately. Two months after leaving Nepal, Ben contacted the centre. He asked why he was not offered help when he was in crisis. They told him to just keep meditating. He wrote back again with concern for future participants and demanding change, but received no response.
Ben (letter to Goenka centre)
Namaste. I’m concerned that what happened to me might happen to someone else with disastrous consequences. I would like to know that you are putting procedures in place to stop someone harming themselves in the future. Can you give me any reassurance that something is being done?
Madison Marriage
He tried once more and never heard back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ben wasn’t the only one who was calling for change in the emails I received after the podcast launched. Some were from people I would call informed insiders. These were individuals who had become formally involved in the Goenka network. Some had devoted decades of their lives to it, but eventually, they became disillusioned. They understood the inner workings of this organisation, and they wanted to pull back the curtain on it. These informed insiders held the keys to so many questions I had been unable to find the answers to on my reporting journey last year. Were the people running these centres genuinely ignorant of the potential risks to participants? Or were they in denial? And why didn’t the network — when faced with meditators like Ben — respond appropriately to individuals in distress?
From the Special Investigations team at the Financial Times, this is a bonus episode of The Retreat: The Insiders.
One morning after the podcast’s release, I read through a listener’s email with lengthy documents attached. It cited Goenka’s origins and I learned that Goenka’s own meditation teacher acknowledged that extreme responses to intensive meditation were possible. Goenka’s meditation teacher in the 1960s, U Ba Khin — who is considered the 20th-century master of Vipassana meditation — gave talks on the practice. Two academics, Daniel Stuart and Swe Swe Mon, have done the hard work of translating his texts into English for the first time. They found that U Ba Khin himself accepted that it was, “very common for people at his meditation centre to run into serious difficulties in the process of meditation”. In the translation, U Ba Khin summarised an experience where hundreds of monks came together to meditate with the Buddha.
U Ba Khin’s translation
When those 500 monks meditated, the pure and peaceful force of the true Dhamma met intensely with the unwholesome stuff inside their bodies. The unwholesome stuff inside became frightening. They thought that life was too much suffering, immense suffering. It was better to end such suffering. With such a desire, they thought that committing suicide by cutting their throats was the best way to end the suffering.
Madison Marriage
It’s worth noting that the meditation these monks were practising was not the method that is taught at Goenka centres, but this text from his own teacher seemed relevant. It made me wonder if Goenka himself knew that people could have extreme adverse experiences while meditating, and whether or not other senior people within the network were aware that intensive meditation could provoke extreme mental distress among some students. If they were aware, why weren’t they providing adequate support to students like Ben? To try to get an answer, I talked to three different people who worked within the Goenka network for years.
Aishah wrote to me as soon as we dropped the trailer for The Retreat. She served on around 10 courses over 17 years and worked as a course manager five times. She said that the network is reliant on servers – volunteers who have previously attended one 10-day course – to keep it running.
Aishah
We were working. I mean, it’s like you’re up, you’re making sure that breakfast is on the table by 6.30am. You have to clean the kitchen afterwards, and then we all have to be in the hall for the 8am sit, then we have to go back to the kitchen and cook and make sure a meals are ready by 11. That’s a whole process. So it’s a lot of work. We were serving around the clock.
Madison Marriage
There are a few levels of people above the servers. There are the course managers who help attendees with their daily needs: fetching tampons or toothpaste. Above them are the assistant teachers who play Goenka’s teachings and meet with students. And then there are the senior teachers. And at the very top of the pyramid sits Goenka himself.
Aishah
You’re serving the mission of the Dhamma. That’s what you’re taught to believe.
Madison Marriage
This word — Dhamma — gets used a lot, Aishah says. And it’s taken to mean many things. But in the context of Goenka retreats, what we’ve heard is that Dhamma means purity of mind. And to follow Goenka’s mission is to constantly strive for purity of mind through meditation. On her first course, several things impressed Aisha.
Aishah
Let me just say I really liked the rigour. I loved the 12 hours, I loved it.
Madison Marriage
And as time went by, she became very committed to the organisation. But there were some things that never sat quite right with her. And when she tried to express her concerns, she said they weren’t taken seriously.
Aishah
And I remember I served on a course with black men, one of whom was asked to leave just because he talked loudly. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, but just from a cultural standpoint, people just were insensitive.
Madison Marriage
Aishah is black, and she says she was often subjected to racist comments from the other volunteers and teachers she worked alongside. One time, a teacher asked her whether graffiti on the wall of a centre was ‘gang language’. Other times she heard volunteers use the N-word. But she says although there was a hierarchy to the retreats, there were no formal reporting channels to address these issues.
Aishah
If you report and go and tell the teacher, it’s all about like, A, the first thing is observe. The second thing is, you know, just see if negativity is arising from you, you know, but, it’s a form of gaslighting.
Madison Marriage
Aishah felt like whenever she raised any critiques, the teachers found fault in her for being negative or unfocused rather than addressing the issues. And throughout her decades there, she said many of her concerns would go unaddressed. Aishah felt like her desire to remain active in mainstream society — where she directed films and was politically involved — ran counter to what other longtime insiders wanted her to do. She had wanted Goenka retreats to be a part of her life, but not all of it.
Aishah
When I would say, you know, I’m an activist and I’m trying to figure out how to manage being an activist and being, you know, Dhamma practitioner, they would just be like, Dhamma is activism. That is the only activism you need. It is this missionary project where the most important thing is to spread Dhamma, which means taking courses and serving courses.
Madison Marriage
This focus on total devotion within the Goenka network was revealed to Aishah in other ways too. When students on the retreat struggled, servers were told to have one top priority.
Aishah
If students need to leave the course, you do all that you can to keep them on the course. The teachers, they are also held at a spiritual level responsible for if someone didn’t complete that course like, you know, that they are responsible for this person not getting the seed of Dhamma.
Madison Marriage
Aishah says if a student could not be persuaded – if they decided they had to leave, or if their behaviour became too disruptive – the course managers and teachers removed them from the site as quickly and as quietly as possible. She recalled one incident in 2005 when a young woman started to struggle with the course. By this point, Aishah had moved up to be a course manager and was asked to supervise the woman as she packed her things. Aishah helped the woman — who was crying — get her bags into her car. The woman started driving away, then circled back to the parking lot.
Aishah
And she said, I can’t, I can’t go home now. I can’t drive. And so she was like, can I stay? I didn’t even think I was an auto pilot. I was like, of course, you can stay. You don’t have to go. And then I called the teacher. The teacher was just like, what, who gave you permission? This isn’t a halfway house or whatever. She has to go.
Madison Marriage
When the teacher instructed Aishah to tell the woman to leave the centre again, Aishah again refused.
Aishah
I said, she’s upset. She can’t drive. And the person was like, we don’t want her spreading negativity to the other students. You know, she was like, her energy is decided. She determined that she was leaving and once you determine that, you’re gone. We cannot have this energy on the campus.
Madison Marriage
Perhaps the most inside look Aishah was able to get beyond her own personal experience was when she received a copy of the text given to the teachers who run the retreats. It’s a bit like a manual.
Aishah
I read it cover to cover on a course. This is not supposed to be shared beyond the teacher, so everything is so secretive.
Madison Marriage
We obtained a copy. It’s older. A former teacher told us this version was published in 2013. But it underlines everything Aishah observed. We had to producer read from it.
Course manual
Goenka’s advice states: never become irritated by criticism. Whatever comes, accept it smilingly. Always have metta for somebody who is criticising because that person is ignorant. Have compassion so that this person can taste Dhamma.
Madison Marriage
There’s that word again: Dhamma. In an effort to obtain purity of mind, this instructs teachers to give compassion, but not necessarily to intervene when concerns are raised. Then there are the instructions to pressure people to keep meditating and stay on the retreat, despite any struggles that come up.
Course manual
Try to convince the student, leaving would not be good for you. The difficulty you’re facing is quite natural. Quite a few students faced the same situation because this is an operation of the mind. Try to convince this person to stay one more day. One more day. And when the storm is over, the course will become easier for this person. Use all your compassion to keep them. But if they don’t want to stay, let them go.
Madison Marriage
Aishah told me she thinks that intensive meditation can awaken trauma. She herself is a sexual abuse survivor, but in her experience, the teachers on Goenka sites had no real protocols for dealing with students who had severe reactions to the retreats.
Aishah
I know that most of the teachers are not trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive. There’s no real protocol, or there wasn’t a protocol for what to do if someone is having a trauma response. You’re treated as like you’re not a good athlete. You must not be working out properly or you know, that kind of thing.
Madison Marriage
Ultimately, what Aishah says, is that from her point of view, teachers are aware that these issues can occur, but they have no real protocols in place for dealing with them. The focus is so much on the doctrine of Dhamma that individuals who struggled with the Goenka regime were seen as disruptive, rather than being properly supported.
We’ll be back after the break.
Frances
I think they believe that they have discovered the kind of ultimate spiritual path, like any kind of evangelical organisation, or every church, any shul or mosque or whatever. They’ve discovered the truth. This truth is good for everyone, and the biggest imperative is to spread it as far and wide as possible.
Madison Marriage
This is Frances, who was involved in the South African Goenka network from 2003 until very recently. She attended nearly two dozen courses in total and served as a course manager four times over that period. Frances wanted to remain anonymous. So we’ve had a producer read her transcript. She said that during her years in the organisation, it was clear that growth was of utmost importance to the Goenka network.
Frances
I think that’s one problem is that they’ve prioritised growing over maintaining a certain level of quality, and so they do just have to take on anyone and everyone to serve courses.
Madison Marriage
Frances says, first and foremost, that this has created big discrepancies in the experiences at retreats.
Frances
Because it’s grown so quickly, there’s a huge spectrum. Like you can get someone amazing and very competent and very compassionate and responsible, and you can also get people who are like, frankly, horrible people. So there really is just this huge variability.
Madison Marriage
Frances also felt strongly that the network’s ultimate focus on growth led to improper vetting of the volunteers, and that newcomers to Goenka retreats need more help preparing for the intensity of the courses.
Frances
One of the risks is that the course involves a lot of sense deprivation in a way. So suddenly you’re not having sex, you’re not supposed to be masturbating, you’re not eating after certain times of day. You’re not watching TV series or listening to music or singing or dancing. So that’s what Buddhists call sense restraint. And I think if you practice sense restraint for a long time before you do a course, you’ll probably be fine. But I think it can be extremely dangerous if you’ve never done it before or if you’re not doing it in between courses. But if you don’t practice it regularly, it can actually feel like a form of torture for most people. My observation is it definitely can produce manic states in people. I’ve experienced that and I’ve seen it as well.
Elisa
You know, just logically, statistically, I probably wasn’t the only person that, you know, ever experienced an adverse effect at these centres. And so I really thought, you know, well, why wasn’t I informed of this risk and what does the organisation know about it?
Madison Marriage
This is Elisa. I heard from her about two weeks after the release of the show. She did her first Goenka retreat in 2022 and suffered badly afterwards.
Elisa
I was probably, you know. Almost near psychosis in, you know, my personal life kind of fell apart and things just felt like it was necessary for things to, like, self-destruct or something. It was this really strange feeling.
Madison Marriage
After that, she wanted to learn more about the organisation. First, she started googling.
Elisa
I honestly felt a little ticked off when I realised, oh, there’s like empirical, scientific, peer-reviewed research that documents meditators having, you know, adverse effects, especially in intense meditation retreats. You know, I thought, well, this should have been something that I was informed about.
Madison Marriage
Elisa was so bothered by this that she effectively decided to go undercover. She deliberately went back to work at several Goenka retreats, as a server and as a course manager, to get under the skin of the organisation.
Elisa
And so I went back, really with the intent to learn more about the organisation and to understand, you know, what they knew and to try to, you know, resolve my experience with it.
Madison Marriage
During a course she served in late 2022, on the very first day, the teacher told her to look out for any signs of mental distress among all the students. And then, as the course went on, to pay specific attention to one of the students. I found this interesting and Elisa did, too. It showed a tacit awareness among senior people within the network that mental distress is a possible outcome.
Elisa
For this particular student, the teacher, she was requiring that the student come in daily for interviews and the student did not want to do this.
Madison Marriage
This went on for a few days, but at some point . . .
Elisa
Going to the interviews was, you know, causing her some distress and she told me she just wanted to be left alone to meditate. And that seemed like a reasonable thing to do at a retreat.
Madison Marriage
Eventually, things came to a head. The teachers demanded that the woman leave the centre altogether.
Elisa
The centre managers would not tell her why. And so she refused to go.
Madison Marriage
The teachers told her she was trespassing. So they called the police.
Elisa
He says, call 911. Tell them she’s psychotic and she’s trespassing. And they did. They called 911. And the sheriff’s deputies came out and they interrogated this student for probably half an hour. And eventually, they took her off of the property and into town.
Madison Marriage
Elisa was disturbed by this episode. Why did they lie to the police? The woman was coherent and making sense to Elisa.
Elisa
She certainly wasn’t having any kind of mental breakdown. She was not psychotic by any stretch. She was fully coherent the entire course and, you know, meeting all of the schedules. So they came up with a story that actually blamed the student, you know.
Madison Marriage
Elisa had a lot of questions. Had they been trained to respond in this way? Why were the retreat leadership so harsh with the student? Why did the situation escalate so quickly? Elisa couldn’t square the narrative. She sat down with one of the teachers afterwards.
Elisa
What she told me was that a lot of ‘stuff’ comes up for students on these retreats. And I said by ‘stuff’, what do you mean? And she says, well, sometimes, you know, people might experience past lives or they have mental health issues that they are trying to work out. And I told her that I thought they were negligent as the centre to know that this practice can bring stuff up for students and not have any way to help them. I said, this practice is supposed to teach us compassion, right? It’s like what they preach all the time in the videos. And I said, you know, where’s the compassion in this experience? You know, where is the compassion in calling 911 on somebody? And she just kept saying like, oh, you know, we have compassion. You just don’t see it or something, you know? I mean, it’s amazing how easily they blame the students for anything that, like, deviates from behaviour that they are expecting, when in reality it’s like they’re the ones that are concealing the information about, you know, what can happen to people. And having this intense practice and kind of what comes up for people, they’re concealing that from students.
Madison Marriage
After speaking to Ben, Aishah, Frances and Elisa — while their experiences across the centres were varied — it seemed increasingly clear that senior people on the inside knew that its techniques could lead to harm.
When this investigation was first released, the Goenka network flatly denied that its retreats could trigger mental imbalances in participants, and several representatives refused to engage with my questions. But that picture seems to have shifted somewhat. I received lengthy responses from several branches of the Goenka network for this episode. I will go into more detail on those responses later, but here are some points that stood out to me.
The centre in South Africa, attended by Frances, is the first Goenka entity to recognise to me that intensive meditation can trigger adverse psychological effects. It said that intensive meditation “can pose psychological challenges for some individuals”. This is an important admission.
Meanwhile, Barry Lapping, a senior teacher in the US who declined to comment for the earlier investigation, this time also sent a lengthy response to Aishah’s claims. In it, he acknowledged that trauma can arise during a course.
And the centre in Washington, attended by Elisa, stated that challenging or unpleasant issues may arise during a course.
Various branches of the Goenka network have now emphasised to me that they are upfront about their course being challenging. But telling prospective meditators that a course may be hard is quite different from telling them it might reawaken trauma or pose psychological difficulties. It seems like the network has come halfway towards acknowledging the extent of the difficulties students may encounter, which feels like progress. But the general Goenka website still states that its courses do not lead to mental imbalances.
And then I also came across a 14-page letter from an entity called the Vipassana Trust in the UK, in response to the finished podcast, detailing what they claim are false allegations. This went in the opposite direction. They claim that the basic premise of meditation-related illness is not real and that previous students have no proof that their severe psychological reactions can be attributed to meditation or Vipassana specifically. In one section, they quote mental health statistics:
Letter from Vipassana Trust
Suicide is the leading cause of death for both males and females aged 20 to 34, in some western countries. In the USA, there’s apparently suicide every 11 minutes. Every suicide is tragic and we feel heartfelt sympathy for the families, but Vipassana is obviously not to blame for that. Is it really newsworthy that a very small number of people who’ve done a Vipassana course in North America have also suffered one of, if not the most common causes of death for their age? Could it be that the number of such deaths and the incidence of serious mental illness is actually much fewer than what is statistically expected? In the context of a mental health epidemic, if there is a news story to investigate here, isn’t it that Vipassana is actually helping people?
Madison Marriage
But what about the many people who identify as survivors of Goenka retreats? The scores of sources who got in touch with me in response to the series said that when the Goenka course went wrong for them, their experience was not acknowledged as possible or even commonplace. And they thought they were alone. That they had done something wrong. Almost all of them said they felt a huge sense of shame for having failed. I’m not surprised they felt that way. But they wanted to share their experience so that if anyone else went through the same thing, they would not blame themselves.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Aishah
I’m at a point now, you know, I’ve been out of the organisation for five years, that I’m not even sure what can be salvaged, to be honest with you. I don’t really want anyone to serve. I don’t want anyone to sit a course, because I think that the way things are so much, it would have to be a major, major overhaul. I’m not sure what can happen other than an overhaul. I’m not sure. And almost kind of a deconditioning.
Elisa
Because Goenka did not believe that this practice and technique can cause adverse effects, this organisation really can’t admit to it, because they are adhering to his teaching, and the students are the ones that are being hurt the most by that.
Ben
You know, until I did a bit of research, but like afterward, I literally thought I was the only one that happened to which was like even more scary. You know, if someone’s listening to this and was like, OK, this has happened to hundreds of people, that would have instantly made me feel OK, because I think, like the trickiest thing of the recovery was sort of like being, oh, this is only happened to me. What does this mean? Why has this happened? So, you know, having more sort of information out there for people I think is a good thing.
Elisa
Sadly, this organisation will not inform people of the risks. They will not inform their students of the risks. So that has to be done by people like you.
Madison Marriage
The Lumbini centre in Nepal where Ben did his retreat, did not respond to a request for comment.
But here are the extracts from the detailed statements we got from several Goenka representatives in response to the allegations made in this episode. We’ve had producers read some of their responses.
Barry Lapping, the senior US teacher who responded to Aishah’s claims, said there is no place for racism within the Goenka network.
Barry Lapping’s response
Racism is totally against what we teach and practice, totally against our code of conduct and totally against what we stand for. It has no place in our centres.
Madison Marriage
He said that the servers on retreats are there voluntarily and can take breaks whenever they want.
Barry Lapping’s response
No one is ever forced to do anything. It is essential that the desire to serve comes only from an individual’s own volition.
Madison Marriage
And that there is nothing evangelical about the network.
Barry Lapping’s response
There is no missionary or proselyting aspect to our work. We exist only to teach Vipassana meditation to anyone who, with an open mind, requests to learn it.
Madison Marriage
Barry also addressed Aishah’s concerns about students being pressured to finish the course, even if they were experiencing psychological difficulties.
Barry Lapping’s response
The courses are intensive and challenging. The teachers give responsible encouragement and support so students can understand the technique and apply it to their own unique circumstances. We always take a safety-first approach and err on the side of caution.
Madison Marriage
And when it came to Aisha’s claims that intensive meditation can awaken trauma, he — in some ways — acknowledged that this is true. He also said the teachers are trained on mental health guidelines in order to support the students.
Barry Lapping’s response
If someone has experienced psychological trauma in the past, that trauma may arise during a course. By practising Vipassana properly, one can begin to eradicate this trauma at the root level of the mind. If memories or emotions associated with trauma arise on a course, and the student is not able to work with the technique of meditation, we are not prepared to take a risk with anyone’s health. In that case, we would gently bring them out of the course. In rare cases, if a person is very unbalanced, we would contact the student’s family and/or mental healthcare provider.
Madison Marriage
He added . . .
Barry Lapping’s response
We don’t recommend Vipassana courses for people with serious psychiatric disorders and ask people to fully and honestly disclose their mental and physical health history in the application process. Only after going through this process will we carefully assess whether the course is appropriate for them.
Madison Marriage
The centre in South Africa that was attended by Frances, said . . .
Goenka South Africa centre
The Goenka network, as a decentralised and expansive organisation, is committed to maintaining the highest standards. While we acknowledge that challenges exist, such as the perception of pressure towards specific beliefs, concerns about screening and training practices and the safety of intense meditation practices, we also recognise the unwavering dedication of many teachers, course managers and servers. Their commitment to creating a secure and nurturing environment for students remains steadfast. We take all issues and complaint seriously. Our approach involves seeking guidance from experienced practitioners and professionals when necessary. Additionally, any legal infractions are promptly reported to the relevant authorities.
Madison Marriage
They added . . .
Goenka South Africa centre
Lastly, we acknowledge that intense meditation practices can pose psychological challenges for some individuals. To address this, we prioritise robust support and resources, particularly for those with undisclosed past experiences related to substances or mental health.
Madison Marriage
A representative for Dhamma Kuñja in Washington state, where Elisa served, acknowledged that challenging or unpleasant issues may arise for meditators and discourages those with pre-existing mental health issues from attending.
Dhamma Kuñja, Washington representative
It is well known that when one leaves all the external distractions of life behind, challenging or unpleasant issues may arise. We make it clear in the introductory materials that this is serious and difficult work. We discourage anyone with serious emotional or mental health issues from attending. There is clearly no attempt to keep information about the difficulty of the course from potential students. In fact, quite the contrary, we often discourage certain applicants explaining why and in some cases must decline a student against their wishes. Training workshops regularly include sessions on mental health screening, supporting students encountering difficulties during courses, and when to advise a student to leave a course.
Madison Marriage
They concluded . . .
Dhamma Kuñja, Washington representative
Although it is conceivable that a person could have a first occurrence of a mental health problem which was latent and would have been triggered sooner or later, in our experience, that is extremely rare. We do know some people withhold information on the application form so as not to be refused, and that’s one reason why we’re so careful to check in on people during the course. And people who don’t disclose their health problems might sometimes run into difficulties on the course.
Madison Marriage
Finally, two senior teachers in the UK, Kirk and Reinette Brown, also got in touch for this episode. They said . . .
Kirk and Reinette Brown
As each Vipassana centre around the world is a separate, independent organisation, it is not possible for us to give informed comment on any specific incidents in centres other than Dhamma Dipa. We would also like to reiterate that we do not hold ourselves out to be a mental health facility, nor do we claim to treat mental or physical disease. There is no recklessness on our part in that regard, whatsoever. Due to the obviously intensive nature of Vipassana courses, we have a long practice of discouraging people with serious psychiatric disorders from applying.
Madison Marriage
They also echoed what the centre in Washington state said.
Kirk and Reinette Brown
We acknowledge that statistically, it is conceivable that a person could have a first occurrence of a mental health problem, which was latent and would have been triggered sooner or later in our setting or elsewhere. The conducting teacher is trained to recognise issues as they manifest on the course, and will follow established procedures to ensure the safety of their students, including requiring them to leave the course to seek medical attention where appropriate.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Madison Marriage
The Retreat is the first season from Untold, a new Financial Times investigative podcast. It is produced by the Financial Times with Goat Rodeo. The series lead producers are Rebecca Seidel and Persis Love. Production on this episode by Jay Venables. Reporting by me, Madison Marriage. Writing by me Madison Marriage, Megan Nadolski, Jay Venables and Persis Love. Story editing from Ian Enright. Executive producers for the Financial Times are Topher Forhecz and Cheryl Brumley. Executive producers for Goat Rodeo are Ian Enright and Megan Nadolski. Mixing, editing and sound design by Rebecca Seidel. The series’ theme is Everyone Alive Wants Answers by Coleen. Additional music from Ian Enright, Rebecca Seidel and Blue Dot Sessions. Editorial and production assistance from Lulu Smyth, Tamara Kormornick, Louis Ashworth, Paul Aflalo, Joshua Gabert-Doyon, Petros Gioumpasis, Andrew Georgiades, Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan and Laura Clarke.
If you’ve been affected by anything in this series, there are some useful resources highlighted in the show notes. And if you want to share a tip in relation to this podcast, please get in touch with me, Madison at madison.marriage@ft.com. Thanks to you for listening and thanks to the many sources who shared their very personal stories with me.
