By Rick Ross
Introduction
My work in the area of cults, controversial groups and movements began in 1982 and has included professionally consulting with hundreds of affected families, mental health professionals, attorneys, clergy, law enforcement and the media.
I have been qualified and accepted as an expert witness across the United States in numerous court cases. This has included testimony given in United States federal court, after being accepted as an expert through a Daubert hearing.
My court testimony typically is focused upon the behavior of destructive groups, their persuasion techniques and the undue influence that such groups often gain over adherents.
I am the founder and Executive Director of the Ross Institute of New Jersey (RI). RI is a nonprofit tax-exempt educational institution devoted to the study of destructive cults, controversial groups and movements.
Researchers and the media often use the Ross Institute Internet Archives as an informational resource. It contains thousands of documents and hundreds of subsections about various cults, groups, movements and related topics and is an institutional member of the New Jersey Library Association.
Each year, through my work at RI, I respond to thousands of inquiries.
One category of groups listed within the archives and responded about on a regular basis is “Neo Eastern Groups,” which includes controversial groups and movements based upon meditation and yoga practices.
I have been specifically asked to review relevant material, including complaints and personal accounts of former employees, students and families, in order to evaluate if the Yoga Room led by Peri Ness DeFay fits the definition of a destructive “cult.”
Self-Realization Fellowship and the Yoga Room
The Yoga Room was once located very close to a Self-Realization Fellowship Temple. Ms. Ness DeFay frequently invoked the names of SRF founder Parmahansa Yogananda, its current leader Sri Daya Mata, and Mukti Mata another long-time SRF devotee.
Peri Ness DeFay seems to use SRF in an apparent effort to legitimize her own authority.
SRF books, CD and other materials were displayed and on sale at the Yoga Room.
However, Peri Ness DeFay is not professionally associated with SRF
The Yoga Room teaches what has been called “Synergy Yoga.”
A sign once posted at the Yoga Room stated that the “Synergy Yoga Center is not affiliated with the Self-Realization Fellowship.”
SRF unlike the Yoga Room is an international organization. One of its centers is in Encinitas, California, the former location of the Yoga Room.
Though at times controversial, SRF is a relatively benign group. I have received few significant complaints about it historically.
Defining a destructive “cult”
Former employees and students of Peri Ness DeFay and affected families have called the Yoga Room a “cult.”
Noted psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton developed the following definition of a cult. This definition is focused primarily upon three principal criteria and was first published in a paper titled “Cult Formation” in 1981 by Harvard University.
- a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;
- a process of coercive persuasion or thought reform;
- economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
In my opinion Peri Ness DeFay’s Yoga Room fits well within this definition as described through the three criteria outlined by Lifton.
- A charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship.
According to former Yoga Room student Terry Rondberg’s book (“A Cult on the Coast”) “students and employees” could be seen “clinging to Peri like slaves cling to their master.”
Ms. Ness DeFay purportedly was seen as a “prophet” where her devotees might “find themselves” through her ‘Original Flow.’”
According to Rondberg many perceived Peri Ness DeFay “as some type of ‘goddess.’” And when she entered a room “all employees had to remain silent, put their hands in prayer position and bow their heads to Peri.”
Her next door neighbor Ed “once witnessed several women strewing flower petals at Peri’s feet as they walked toward her house, then opening the door for her as though she were royalty.”
Ms. Ness DeFay assumed the title of “Master Teacher” and was referred to by participants at the Yoga Room as “Peri Ness…‘our founder and Master Teacher.”
Terry Rondberg observed Yoga Room graduates “in front of Peri on their knees” giving a speech about “their appreciation” and to offer “praise for Peri’s presence.”
Yoga Room students also believed that by staying in a room with “Master Teacher” they might “be blessed with Peri’s healing energy” and that “she exuded ‘healing vibrations.’”
According to one Yoga Room publication, which outlines the “Apprenticeship Program Requirements,” if Ms. Ness DeFay is not able to attend a class she will somehow be “sending…her love and energy!”
Former Yoga Room employee Roxanne DePalma reportedly kept “a large photograph of Peri posted on [a] ‘prayer wall.’”
Another past supporter of the Yoga Room Jeannine concluded, “Everything is all about Peri. The world revolves around Peri…There is no reality check for her. She has no boss, no board of directors…”
- a process of coercive persuasion or thought reform
Within his description of “Coercive Persuasion and Attitude Change,” sociologist Richard J. Ofshe explains, “Coercive persuasion and thought reform are alternate names for programs of social influence capable of producing substantial behavior and attitude change through the use of coercive tactics, persuasion, and/or interpersonal and group-based influence manipulations.”
This is accomplished according to Ofshe by “intense interpersonal and psychological attack to destabilize an individual’s sense of self” and “to promote conformity” within the framework of “an organized peer group.”
Ofshe divides the process of coercive persuasion into four key factors or socialization schemes:
- The reliance on intense interpersonal and psychological attack to destabilize an individual’s sense of self to promote compliance
- The use of an organized peer group
- Applying interpersonal pressure to promote conformity
- The manipulation of the totality of the person’s social environment to stabilize behavior once modified
One former student labeled Peri Ness DeFay’s brand of coercive persuasion “remote controlled,” which was initiated and/or intensified by something literally called an “intensive.”
The 10-day intensive course offered by the Yoga Room appears to be one of the most organized socialization schemes devised by Peri Ness DeFay “to destabilize an individual’s sense of self” and “promote compliance” through “the use of an organized peer group.” And it apparently was used effectively to apply “interpersonal pressure to promote conformity.”
Each intensive reportedly “began about 7:00 AM and ended anywhere from 6 to 7:00 PM.” Students were “encouraged to eat as little as possible” and to “sleep when the 10 day is over and have as little communication with anyone not participating…including family and friends.”
The intensive included proscribed times for meditation, yoga exercises and “therapy” with both “Peri” and through “Partner Yoga Therapy.”
According to participants the intensive rendered students “weak from lack of nourishment and [exhausted] from the intense yoga practice,” which included repetitious exercises called “sun salutations,” meditation and prolonged chanting.
One chant recited during the intensive reportedly was “I am the bubble, make me the sea.” This recitation is used by the Self-Realization Fellowship to denote a benign sense of oneness, but within the Yoga Room it was used to represent “sacrificing one’s individuality and uniqueness,” according to former student Melinda DePalma.
Likewise repeated confession was encouraged through so-called “yoga routines,” which emphasized “‘sharing’ personal experiences.” This often included disclosing “some traumatic experience” through what was called a “share circle.”
One former student summarized, “This is where Peri gains your confidence, learns your deepest secrets and weaknesses.”
A more extreme example is the written confession of Terry Rondberg (January 12, 2008), which was the result of personal pressure devised and directed by Ms. Ness DeFay. (“A Cult on the Coast” page 83).
Despite being “falsely accused” Dr. Rondberg nevertheless confessed to “performing a spinal adjustment, which hurt” Ms. Ness DeFay.
This example parallels what Lifton calls the “Cult of Confession.”
Within his book “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” Lifton explains, “Confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal, and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. There is the demand that one confess to crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that is artificially induced, in the name of a cure that is arbitrarily imposed.”
Many Yoga Room employees and students have related “personal stories about how Peri Ness DeFay attempted to isolate them from their friends and family” (“Cult on the Coast”).
This can be seen as an expression of the scheme cited by Ofshe, which emphasizes “the manipulation of the totality of the person’s social environment to stabilize behavior once modified.”
Roxanne DePalma explains that she “was being admonished by Peri that her ‘energy was low’ after she spent time with her family.” She was also told not to communicate with her sister for one year and that Peri “loved [her] more than [her] mother…”
“Even when I was vacationing,” DePalma said, Peri had to know where I was and she had be in contact with me daily.”
Roxanne DePalma’s experience provides an example of the social control exerted by the Yoga Room and what was meant by the description “remote controlled.”
Another former student Matt Caron observed, “I put everything I had into the [Yoga Room] and was spending all of my time there and never seeing any of my friends.”
Subsequently, for those that might doubt, question or disagree with Peri Ness DeFay’s pronouncements, instructions and/or teachings there was ongoing and continued pressure to conform through various schemes that she employed to gain compliance and maintain control.
Derek, a former Yoga Room student, explains what Peri Ness DeFay categorized as the opposite forces of “dark and light.” Specifically, those that failed to comply and displeased her were likely to risk taking on “a lot of dark energy,” as opposed to the Yoga Room, which was characterized as “a lot of light.”
Ms. Ness DeFay warned her critics (email to Matt Caron August 22, 2007), “It is extremely bad karma to bad talk the Yoga Room…It is completely and utterly bad thinking and bad karma,” she reiterated.
Matt Caron summarized, “Peri…used spirituality to control people and that is absolutely wrong.”
Another past Yoga Room participant G.M. observed, “She was beyond questioning and her opinion was the last word for everyone.”
Those that disagreed with Ms. Ness DeFay were at times labeled as “evil.”
The negatively laden term most often used to label anyone not compliant and/or critical was that they were “out of integrity.”
There were at times also implied threats of so-called “karmic retribution,” directed at those that somehow upset Ms. Ness DeFay.
Peri Ness DeFay might also redirect criticism about her behavior in a manipulative scheme of role reversal. Those that criticized her were accused of “projecting” their negativity onto her. She explained to one former Yoga Room supporter, “Mukti Ma said…I will always be projected onto. It is my role.”
Peri Ness DeFay reportedly at times might “call someone ‘her Judas’ and compare herself to Christ,” again casting herself in the role of a persecuted suffering servant or martyr.
Thus almost any criticism potentially could be reversed to become a scheme utilized for interpersonal attack.
There was no legitimate reason to leave the Yoga Room, anyone that left was wrong, seen as negative and explicitly and/or implicitly denounced.
One employee was reportedly told, “If you turn your back on Synergy than you turn your back on God.” Conversely, those that agreed and supported Ms. Ness DeFay might be called “angels.”
In perhaps the most extreme example of interpersonal attack a Synergy Yoga instructor in France reportedly “suffering with cancer” was told by Ms. Ness DeFay that she was actually afflicted “because she refused to let go of the emotions that were holding her back and blocking her from being cured.”
- exploitation of group members by the leader
Training at the Yoga Room could be quite expensive. The 10-day “intensive training programs” were priced at $2,600.00.
Ms. Ness DeFay reportedly also pressured “employees to become a Synergy Yoga teacher,” which required taking “the $2,800 Practicum program.”
The California labor board investigated the Yoga Room. The most frequent complaint was overtime without pay and compensation made through work/trade arrangements, which is illegal in California.
One employee recalls Peri Ness DeFay explaining, “I do not operate on California law. I operate on yogic law.”
Most Yoga Room employees reportedly “were paid from $10-$15 an hour and received no health benefits.”
But Ms. Ness DeFay reportedly received a monthly “salary of $12,000” and “use of the company credit card” for personal expenses along with medical insurance.
Teachers in training did so-called “Seva duties,” which included teaching 108 classes without pay.”
The Yoga Room “failed to provide lunch breaks for employees.”
At times Ms. Ness DeFay denigrated, humiliated and by subjecting her employees to name calling and ridicule.
In once such case the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board in San Diego recognized the grievances of former Yoga Room employee Michelle DePalma. The agency stated in its decision, “Every person has the right of protection from bodily harm, from personal insult, from defamation, and from injury to his or her personal relations.” And the board specifically noted that that DePalma “quit her employment due to insults received from the employer.”
The turnover rate of employees at the Yoga Room was substantial. Peri Ness DeFay acknowledged in one email (June 2, 2008) that she had “employed over 200 people.”
Ms. Ness DeFay also contributed to and/or caused family estrangements and tension in relationships. She reportedly “urged [Terry Rondberg] to get a divorce…”
One “anonymous” former student posting at a Web site describes an emotional collapse that was “sort of a nervous breakdown” after one year at the Yoga Room.
But there was no legitimate reason to leave the Yoga Room according to Peri Ness DeFay.
Whenever someone left it was his or her fault. In one email to Jeff Calcara (June 2, 2008) Peri Ness claims that her employees left “mainly because of their deceit, dishonesty and their ego and their ignorance.” In another communication she cited their “dishonest, disloyal and bad behavior.”
Despite the complaints of former students, teachers, affected families and official opinion expressed by the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Peri Ness DeFay never accepted any responsibility for wrongdoing regarding the Yoga Room.
Instead, in an email sent to Jeff Calcara Ms. Ness DeFay concluded that “evil mongering people” and “monsters” had engaged in “a conspiracy” against her.
Notes:
Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., “Cult Formation,” The Harvard Mental Health Letter, February 1981.
Richard J. Ofshe, Ph.D., “Coercive Persuasion and Attitude Change,” Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 2001.
Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. “Thought Reform and Psychology of Totalism,” University of N. Carolina Press, 1989
April 23, 2009
Things changed when I started practicing yoga. The physical and mental disciplines I learned helped me throughout the day — AND at night. Almost all yoga students can attest to this benefit, but if we had any doubts, insomnia experts have confirmed this (interesting how we love getting scientific proof to validate our personal experiences).
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