Uma Inder
Digital Jungle Compound
In this case the leader forbids use of social media and has her captives confine themselves to a specific online space - the digital equivalent of a jungle compound.
The Yoga Barn Guru: Inside Uma Inder’s Bali Cult - Be Scofield Medium
[medium.com]
Digital Jungle Compound
In this case the leader forbids use of social media and has her captives confine themselves to a specific online space - the digital equivalent of a jungle compound.
The Yoga Barn Guru: Inside Uma Inder’s Bali Cult - Be Scofield Medium
[medium.com]
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Uma (Inder) tried to cut off members from outside influence:
“Use of Facebook was shamed and for certain members Uma prohibited it. Cult members were encouraged to spend time largely with each other. Outside connections were labeled by Uma as ‘leaks in the shared container’ of practice. Over time cult members became more and more isolated within the cult.”
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While some members lived in Bali, others would travel to Bali several times a year to study with her. Some would go to Bali for several months out of the year or just a few weeks during a retreat. But members report it was easy for others to get sucked in regardless of how long they stayed. Uma then used an online forum to keep control over members.
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The online Google message board forum is “what tied things together internationally.” This digital platform allowed Uma to have active cult members in the “US, UK, Canada, Scandanavia, Russia, Mexico, Japan and elsewhere.”
Participation in the online forum was required of members regardless of where they were. The online chats consisted of in-fighting, sharing compromising information, discussing consciousness, in-depth descriptions of sex and Uma’s controlling dictates. All of this was used to control and even blackmail devotees. As one describes, “Members often spend the entire day verbally abusing others, confessing, and in group processing.”
One former member reflects about the time in the forums and spent in discussion groups in Bali:
“The sheer amount of time we stayed involved in them created isolation from other people. The environment was deliberately creating extreme psychological pressure (“break down”), and there have been sporadic instances of physical violence as well, as well as explicit and implicit threats of violence.”
The message board was how Uma kept her controlling influence over members:
“The forum was a place for us to pour our deepest thoughts and feelings out, and to receive Uma’s ever-poetic reflection on where we are “in False ID,” so that we can liberate the true self. Ultimately, the goal was dying, while alive. Dying into God.”