Sadhguru on Dr k

[Elliott]

16 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

 

Are you going to deconstruct this quote for me too?:

 

I have no ill will toward you, but I'm probably just not going to talk to you, it's like we're from two different planets.

Edited October 15 by Elliott

[Monke]

@Leo Gura There have been some pretty serious allegations against him and the Isha foundation. I have no idea how valid they are but it's quite the rabbit hole actually. 

[Carl-Richard]

13 hours ago, Elliott said:

I have no ill will toward you, but I'm probably just not going to talk to you, it's like we're from two different planets.

Wait, did you say "the strong position" when I said "a strong position"? I didn't read that correctly until now. But yeah, if you read me say "something you didn't have a strong position on" and you interpret it as "not having the strong position", maybe we are on different planets indeed.

Edited October 15 by Carl-Richard

[SamC]

On 2025-10-10 at 2:25 AM, Carl-Richard said:

@everyone, I'm curious, who here feels energy when watching/listening to Sadhguru?

I use Sadhguru and his videos all the time. Listening to Sadhguru and music related to Isha raises my concioussness. 

I've felt energies from him and his consecrated yantras that Isha sells during psychedelic trips and connected to them and Sadhgurus energy many many times when I am sober aswell.

He is legit.

@Carl-Richard 

 

Edited October 15 by SamC

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, SamC said:

I use Sadhguru and his videos all the time. Listening to Sadhguru and music related to Isha raises my concioussness. 

I've felt energies from him and his consecrated yantras that Isha sells during psychedelic trips and connected to them and Sadhgurus energy many many times when I am sober aswell.

He is legit.

@Carl-Richard 

 

Do you know who Rupert Spira is, at all? If so, Do you think Spira's and Sadhguru's retreats would be very different?(aside from no yoga), in regard to 'raising consciousness'.

Edited October 15 by Elliott

[SamC]

40 minutes ago, Elliott said:

Do you know who Rupert Spira is, at all? If so, Do you think Spira's and Sadhguru's retreats would be very different?(aside from no yoga), in regard to 'raising consciosness'.

I haven't been to any Spira retreat personally but if one goes there and experience that it raises their concioussness, then it raises their concioussness and it's not a difference in that sense. Concioussness doesn't discriminate - there are many paths.

It's hard to say what is more powerful though and that can only be discovered by direct experience. For me Sadhguru's teachings is the highest but he is not the only highest path. It's very much possible Spira also can lead people to enlightment and blissfull states.

I have had peak experiences similar to Ayahuasca during an intiation done by Sadhguru and states higher than extsascy after doing his practices.

It's possible Spira can lead you to those states aswell but since I haven't experienced it, I don't know.

 

@Elliott

 

Edited October 15 by SamC

[Elliott]

36 minutes ago, SamC said:

I haven't been to any Spira retreat personally but if one goes there and experience that it raises their concioussness, then it raises their concioussness and it's not a difference in that sense. Concioussness doesn't discriminate - there are many paths.

It's hard to say what is more powerful though and that can only be discovered by direct experience. For me Sadhguru's teachings is the highest but he is not the only highest path. It's very much possible Spira also can lead people to enlightment and blissfull states.

I have had peak experiences similar to Ayahuasca during an intiation done by Sadhguru and states higher than extsascy after doing his practices.

It's possible Spira can lead you to those states aswell but since I haven't experienced it, I don't know.

 

@Elliott

 

Knowing only what you know right now, would you pay $3,500(33,000 Swedish Krona) for an advanced Sadhguru retreat, if that was within your personal budget? Would you buy a $3,500 Spira retreat, if it would also be within your budget?

Edited October 15 by Elliott

[SamC]

1 hour ago, Elliott said:

Knowing only what you know right now, would you pay $3,500(33,000 Swedish Krona) for an advanced Sadhguru retreat, if that was within your personal budget? Would you buy a $3,500 Spira retreat, if it would also be within your budget?

Sadhguru Yes,  Spira No

[Carl-Richard]

3 hours ago, SamC said:

Sadhguru Yes,  Spira No

Do you believe that Sadhguru and Spira, if they were allowed to be completely honest and not concerned about optics, would claim that they are able to enlighten people through their work?

Edited October 15 by Carl-Richard

[SamC]

12 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Do you believe that Sadhguru and Spira, if they were allowed to be completely honest and not concerned about optics, would claim that they are able to enlighten people through their work?

Sadhguru already claims that. I don't know if Spira would claim that. It feels like Spira is more " realize that there is only One and there exists no master but yourself" and Sadhguru is more like " I am the path, become me and you will be everything.

They have different styles but in the end it's all concioussness and different paths work for different people.

@Carl-Richard

Edited October 16 by SamC

[Carl-Richard]

14 hours ago, SamC said:

Sadhguru already claims that. I don't know if Spira would claim that. It feels like Spira is more " realize that there is only One and there exists no master but yourself" and Sadhguru is more like " I am the path, become me and you will be everything.

They have different styles but in the end it's all concioussness and different paths work for different people.

@Carl-Richard

But wouldn't Spira claim that embodying this teaching (that he happens to be teaching) leads to enlightenment? See how the framing ultimately is indeed about style and not substance?

The flip into the absolute of "there is just the One, there is no teacher or student" is probably mainly a tool for pointing to the truth, maybe also an optics tool. But the substance is that he is a teacher and he is teaching enlightenment, he believes his teachings work, and therefore he would honestly have to answer "yes, I do believe I can enlighten people".

But maybe @Elliott would say "optics matter, it decides how you pull people in and sets their expectations". That is definitely the case, but how much is it the case? If you're already paying 4000$ for a retreat, are you not already sold?

And what if the optics of "I'm so enlightened that there isn't even a distinction between teacher and student", what if that is more alluring than the alternative? It's the case in music, humor, sex, that it's often that which is denied or left unsaid, or the gaps inbetween, or the play of subtlety, that causes the most excitement. And for spirituality, maybe particularly so.

Edited October 16 by Carl-Richard

[Elliott]

 

 

Edited October 16 by Elliott

[Willie]

On 10/9/2025 at 1:53 PM, Leo Gura said:

I don't know why you guys keep hating on Sadhguru. He says correct things.

Probably bad optics and vibes.

[Carl-Richard]

@Elliott "There is no teacher or student, there is only the One" is a marketing trick to make him seem more enlightened and is more effective for drawing people in than saying "I'm enlightened and I can enlighten you". The latter is actually the most honest position, the former could be the position concerned about not turning people off. Prove me wrong

Edited October 16 by Carl-Richard

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, Carl-Richard said:

@Elliott "There is no teacher or student, there is only the One" is a marketing trick to make him seem more enlightened and is more effective for drawing people in than saying "I'm enlightened and I can enlighten you". The latter is actually the most honest position, the former could be the position concerned about not turning people off. Prove me wrong

Could absolutely be the case, very plausible. I would only disagree with "most honest", I would say 'less dishonest', but we probably mean the same thing.

If you want to ask me a question, go ahead. It's hard for me to imagine you care about defending Sadhguru this much, is it just about my seeming to dance around in discussion? I knew about Sadhguru and had this opinion before this thread. I just don't value elaborating much in comments unless asked. People misunderstand each other a large amount of the time and there's so many different perspectives that interact with online comments, it's usually a waste.

Edited October 16 by Elliott

[Wintermute]

Interesting thread.

Don’t y’all think that spiritual teachers have to be “con men” in some way? Maybe “con men” isn’t quite the right term here, since it implies ill will. How about “tricksters”? Tricksters who don’t actually want anything from you, but are trying to fool you into the spiritual path for your own growth — for your own good. It’s morally grey, I admit, but that’s been one of the methods for a long time. There’s even a whole article on wiki about Divine Madness (theia mania). A lot of those figures were probably such tricksters.

I think there’s a fine line between genuine teachers who mean well and actual crooks who are just selling a flashy show with fireworks but no real value.

The Bible says we should judge them by their fruits. =)

I’ve read the whole thread, and it seems like quite a few people here have actually tried Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering and his approach to kriya yoga.

So how about we just ask them point blank about their purely subjective experiences? After all, it’s pretty hard to design a valid, foolproof scientific study on something as complex as yoga. We do have some data from PubMed, sure, but in my view, that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the subjective reports of those who’ve walked the talk and have something to share.

I’d really like to hear your stories (@OBEler @Carl-Richard @Ishanga @The Blind Sage @SamC), and I think they could be useful for others too. You mentioned there were some benefits — but what exactly? And how long did you practice before you started noticing results? Were the results mostly psychological? Physical? Or maybe something more esoteric, like subtle body experiences, energy, kundalini phenomena? What about more low-key effects in daily life? Maybe some of the people you know personally had some interesting experience with it as well?

I think kriya yoga is an important part of self-actualization, and this is a great opportunity for us to learn more about it. 

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, Wintermute said:

Don’t y’all think that spiritual teachers have to be “con men” in some way? Maybe “con men” isn’t quite the right term here, since it implies ill will. How about “tricksters”? Tricksters who don’t actually want anything from you, but are trying to fool you into the spiritual path for your own growth — for your own good. It’s morally grey, I admit, but that’s been one of the methods for a long time. There’s even a whole article on wiki about Divine Madness (theia mania). A lot of those figures were probably such tricksters.

I think there’s a fine line between genuine teachers who mean well and actual crooks who are just selling a flashy show with fireworks but no real value.

No. You're confusing spirituality with ideology. The conmen are the ones that say "this is the path", 'I can do this for you'. They know they're lying, where are the people Sadhguru has enlightened? Spirituality is not a path, it's an endless realm in any and all directions, and each individual has individualized experiences. *Spirituality is not related to enlightenment. 

Edited October 19 by Elliott

[Ishanga]

@Wintermute For Me, before I discovered Sadhguru, I was very into "Self Help" or "Self Improvement" if You could call it that, ppl like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and many other, read many books on it, then I discovered Tolle's Book New Earth, and read it and it changed everything, its basically a book about Ego, and when You recognize Your Ego, You can't go back.  When I watched Tolle on Youtube, he was good but a bit boring then a suggestion for a Sadhguru vid came up and I watched it and that was it, he just had so much clarity about what he was talking about, so I watched more and found more clarity in what he said, so that was a sort of transformation..

When I did the basic practice after a couple of weeks I did feel a change, then after doing the online IE course there was more change, then I did an in person with Sadhguru in 2012 and was initiated into Shambhavi Mahamudra, and after that practice within a couple of weeks I was feeling very happy, very accepting of things and such, so it was profound...

I think what happens is we get used to it, and that is what he talks about, Humans never want to be in a box or situation very long, we get used to things very fast and always want to expand and "Be more than what we are right Now".  I don't watch many of his vids anymore since I deep investigated all of what he offers online already, once in awhile I review the inner engineering material and such, he provides lots for newbies and advanced practitioners, but the basics are this, set up an Experience of min Peacefulness within, then all will happen naturally, the accepting, the responding, the living NOW, this is not rocket science, we have a tendency to complicate things in life, its pretty simple if Your Blissful of Your own nature (this is not the goal of Spirituality, just the foundation), then You will naturally be inclined to Enlightenment!

[Carl-Richard]

5 hours ago, Elliott said:

No. You're confusing spirituality with ideology. The conmen are the ones that say "this is the path", 'I can do this for you'. They know they're lying, where are the people Sadhguru has enlightened?

According to you, all spiritual teachers are conmen. Some are just honest about it and tell it to your face. Some prop themselves up to keep plausible deniability, seem humble and more enlightened and sell more of their stuff. Which is a good thing irrespective.

Imagine you're at the top of the Eiffel Tower and somebody is selling parachutes. They are even jumping themselves. Even if they don't say to your face "I believe this is the way, I believe I can help you get to the ground", you see they have put their life on it (invested their life into it) and tried it themselves (used the techniques themselves). The conviction in their actions speaks more than their words.

Edited October 19 by Carl-Richard

[Elliott]

1 hour ago, Carl-Richard said:

According to you, all spiritual teachers are conmen.

Lie, the only one I've called a conman is Sadhguru, I don't consider the others mentioned here to be conmen. If Sadhguru would stop misleading people to think he has magical sauce they need, everything else he does is great, even the pay for Kriya. Charging for spirituality is fine, charging for something you tell people they need get's you into problem territory.

Quote

Imagine you're at the top of the Eiffel Tower and somebody is selling parachutes. They are even jumping themselves. Even if they don't say to your face "I believe this is the way, I believe I can help you get to the ground", you see they have put their life on it (invested their life into it) and tried it themselves (used the techniques themselves). The conviction in their actions speaks more than their words.

Sadhguru sells them a parachute, but to take the elevator down.... and calls it skydiving.

This is a good analogy you brought up. Spirituality is a form of tourism, but Sadhguru sells it as something else 'the sauce you need', "you are mentally ill, I have the cure".

You get what you pay for with Spira, sure some people HOPE it's something more. Some people hope the Eifel tower is cooler than it is, but when the ticket guy at the entrance tells them it's a life changing experience, he's a conman.

Edited October 19 by Elliott