Ex-Siddha Yoga Discussion Groups

This page is maintained by Stuart. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me through my website or blog.

Siddha Yoga or SYDA is an organization promoting certain teachings and practices from the Hindu and Yoga traditions, and centered around a Guru who is presented as a Perfect Being. Swami Muktananda led SYDA in the 70s and early 80s. The current guru is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.

For details of various criticisms of Siddha Yoga by former followers, see Leaving Siddha Yoga; Searching for Truth. For a Yahoo email group open to ex-SYDA discussion, I recommend LifeAfterSY.

The most active discussion group for a long time was eXSY. In more recent years, it’s become problematic. The group falsely claims to be unmoderated. In fact, the group's owner has been known to moderate, ban, intimidate, or personally attack those who don't share his opinions.

Other groups that have appeared over the years include Blupearl, Siddha Yoga Open Discussion, and alt.support.ex-cult.siddha-yoga. These groups still function, though often with little activity, or with more spam than useful information.

The first and most active email list for people who'd left SYDA was LSY. There were months of interesting discussion on that list, and also plenty of "noise." It was shut down after much conflict in July 2001. If you’d like to view the archive, please email me.

The earliest postings to LSY (Dec 98- Feb 00) is still open for viewing here.