Ep 6: International School of Temple Arts (ISTA), 'Neo-Tantra', Cult Abuse and Fake Mystery Schools

New York magazine published an article last week about ISTA, aka International School of Temple Arts, who are arguably known as one of the biggest players in the ‘sacred sexuality’ space.

Operating like an MLM, and often referred to by its critics as a new age sex cult, the ‘mystery school’, popular in Israel, had been plagued for years with accusations of sexual abuse, rape, blood sacrifice and a culture of victim blaming and narcissistic spiritual gaslighting.

In episode 6 of the Inner Alchemy podcast, I disseminate some of the points highlighted in the article with my own personal research and understanding of mystery school teachings and sacred sexuality/hieros gamos teachings. I’m also looking at the intersection of Kabbalah, the system of Jewish mysticism that underlies much of their ethos and how their interpretation of it sets participants up for abuse.