Watch the Trailer for Agama, Jezebel's First-Ever Short Documentary
LatestAgama is the type of spiritual retreat that has, in the shadow of the wellness movement, become increasingly fashionable. Located in Koh Phangan, Thailand, it is a tropical, paradise-like community focused on nurturing mental and physical health, or as Agama’s website puts it, the “secret spiritual path of true Integral Yoga courses.”
But some Agama students say that what they found there was the opposite after interacting with Agama’s founder, Swami Vivekananda Saraswati, a Romanian national who is accused of sexual assault of 14 of his students, as reported by the Guardian. (Agama and the Swami deny the allegations.) In December, Jezebel sent Laura Brickman to Koh Phangan to speak to some of these accusers, and to try and unravel how a place meant for healing could become so toxic for them. Our full documentary will debut next week; in the meantime, watch the trailer above.