The Serpent Rising

In 1973, Mary Garden abandoned a promising academic career to spend seven years in India at the feet of such gurus as Rajneesh, Sathya Sai Baba and an enigmatic yogi in the Himalayan jungle - Swami Balyogi Premvarni. The Serpent Rising is her own story of the heaven and hell she experienced as she fell under the spell of self-appointed 'god-men'. What was thought to be a passing fad of the 1960s and 1970s has not disappeared. People still search for something better, and still surrender their minds and bodies to gurus and yoga teachers. The #MeToo movement has exposed countless men guilty of sexual harassment and assault. Now #MeToo is shaking the yoga world and gurus who claim to be enlightened, but who are in fact sexual predators. Most of their groups are sex cults. Recent documentaries such as Wild Wild Country (Rajneesh/Osho), Yogi, Guru, Predator (on Bikram Choudhury) and The Vow (Keith Ranierre, Nxivm) shine a light on how easy it is to fall under the spell of these charlatans.

Mary Garden is an author and journalist, with a PhD in Journalism (USC). Her work has appeared in many publications, including the Australian Financial Review, The Weekend Australian, The Guardian, Meanjin, The Humanist, New Zealand Geographic, Newtown Review of Books, Newsroom (NZ), Crime Magazine and Northern Times (Scotland), as well as scores of aviation magazines.Her memoir The Serpent Rising: A Journey of Spiritual Seduction, first published in 1988, recounts her years in India in the 1970s where she fell under the spell of several gurus who led so-called 'spiritual' groups that were in fact sex cults. It has had enduring appeal and won the High Country Indie Book Award 2021. Her biography Sundowner of the Skies: The Story of Oscar Garden, the Forgotten Aviator, a warts and all account of her father's extraordinary but troubled life, was short-listed for the NSW Premier's History Award 2020 for a work of international significance.

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