Yoga has seen the obvious cult. The documentary kind. The whisper network kind. The “how did anyone fall for this” kind.
But you don’t have to run a cult to get cult dynamics. You just have to teach for a long time. With the same room. The same rhythms. The same invisible rules nobody agreed to out loud.
Dependency can assemble itself. Not because you’re evil. Because you’re busy. Because you’re tired. Because the class system rewards loyalty and punishes doubt with silence. People start feeling inadequate unless they’re “in.” They stop checking other sources. They outsource their judgment to the vibe.
One sharp lens here is “near learner vs. far learner.” Some students can only take in what’s directly in front of them. They can’t easily cross-apply. They can’t zoom out. That makes them structurally vulnerable. If you don’t compensate, you exploit them by default. They’ll mistake repetition for truth and proximity for safety.
And yes, money is in the room. Teachers need to eat. Students need access. Ethics doesn’t live in a separate, clean drawer. If you know people are going to be some kind of way, because people are always some kind of way, you have a job to nip it early. Name the power. Build off-ramps. Point to other teachers. Make “no” normal.