Carol Merchasin Quoted in Report on Harvard Divinity School Conference

Carol Merchasin, Head of our Sexual Misconduct in Spiritual Communities practice, was previously invited to speak at Harvard Divinity School’s conference, Uses and Abuses of Power in Alternative Spiritualities.

Carol’s insights have been featured in the section Are Spiritual Organizations More Ethical Than Secular Ones? of a recent report.

Extract:

Scholar Jens Augspurger, whose research focuses on spiritual organizations finds a “very high prevalence of abuse in spiritual communities”(Merchasin et al., 2023).

Colleague Angela Gollat agrees, noting for example that “whistleblowers have come forward from nearly every modern transnational yoga tradition with reports of sexual and other abuses, and with remarkably similar defensive responses from leadership.”

Referring to the prevalent systems of privilege and power in the secular world, Gollat points out that spiritual teachings are often given by individuals who are “equally mired” in those same “complexities of dominant systems of power.” Unfortunately, spiritual communities often have particular blind spots that allow ethical abuses to play out through “unique mechanisms.” She finds that “the epidemic of abuse (and) lack of accountability… illustrate that the yoga community is as unexceptional as sports schools, the military, churches, etcetera, as a site of violence and oppression, which is very disappointing” (Merchasin et al., 2023).

Carol Merchasin, a colleague and attorney, spent many years investigating workplace abuses in large corporations, before applying her expertise to examining similar issues in various Buddhist and yoga communities. Shockingly, she finds emphatically that ethical standards in the spiritual sector are meaningfully lower than in the corporate sector, even while emphasizing that “corporate America is hardly a bastion of high ethical standards in the United States.” Despite the corporate world’s own shortcomings, she finds it to be much more effective at rooting out abuse than the spiritual sector(Merchasin et al., 2023).

There appear to be several factors that pave the way for this outcome. First, within spiritual settings those in power may exploit their positions while appearing humble and selfless, rendering such abuses particularly insidious and challenging to uncover.

Second, the phenomenon of priestly castes considering themselves special and above the people they serve is a well-documented phenomenon across diverse cultures and traditions the world over.

Merchasin finds accordance with this, describing a mindset wherein leaders in alternative spiritual organizations often consider themselves to be special, and feel they are above the law and answerable only to a higher power.

Merchasin (2023) contrasts this attitude with that of corporate America which has “spent billions of dollars trying to not be liable for lawsuits. They have a policy. The policy explains what behavior is not permitted, tells you how to report behavior that is not permitted. Then they investigate it.” She adds that “they understand what the law is” and take “action at the end of the investigations.”

Conversely, Angela Gollat describes how in some alternative communities “internal reporting systems were instituted offering the appearance of adherence to legal and ethical standards while functionally discouraging survivors.” Research has shown that “not acknowledging abuse may be psychologically damaging in itself” (Coker et al., 2000). Gollat concurs, finding that for victims who reported abuse but were “denied, ignored, isolated or vilified in response,” the resulting experience was “as traumatic as the abuse itself” and caused “ongoing deleterious health, emotional, interpersonal and economic effects”(Merchasin et al., 2023).

In a similar vein, Merchasin offers a devastating reflection on the subject of remorse: “I have found for an unfathomable reason that these organizations are almost pathologically unable to apologize…even when their own investigation found these things out… (and) corroborated” the allegations made.

Merchasin identifies five further key dynamics commonly at play within spiritual organizations:

• Spiritual bypassing
• Institutional betrayal
• Networks of complicity
• Epistemic injustice
• Wilful hermeneutical ignorance

Institutional betrayal refers to the harm or mistreatment that individuals experience when institutions fail to protect or support them, or actively cause harm. This can include situations where institutions prioritize their own interests over the well-being of individuals, or where they fail to take responsibility for their actions.

Epistemic injustice is a concept in social epistemology that highlights how certain social groups or individuals may be unfairly discredited in their ability to contribute to knowledge, share their experiences, or have their voices heard, including when testimony is not taken seriously.

Wilful hermeneutical ignorance refers to the deliberate choice to misinterpret information, to refuse to understand data or evidence in an honest and unbiased manner. This term combines “hermeneutical,” which relates to the process of interpretation, and “ignorance,” which refers to a lack of knowledge or awareness. It is a concept used to describe the ways in which individuals or groups may deliberately distort or manipulate information often due to a desire to protect their own power, privilege or agenda.

Closely related is the notion of wilful ignorance, which refers to a conscious decision to remain uninformed or to ignore information that one has the ability to understand, thereby avoiding knowledge that might lead to uncomfortable truths or responsibilities.

These two dynamics can show up in multiple ways, such as dismissing or trivializing someone’s experiences, refusing to listen to their perspective, or actively silencing their voice. Whichever strategy is used, the intention remains the same: by remaining uninformed about the experiences of others, they can evade the uncomfortable moral and ethical responsibilities that come with understanding the issues being raised.

Networks of complicity describes the web of relationships and behaviors within an organization or community that allow harm or wrongdoing to continue unchecked, often due to a culture of silence, fear, or allegiance. Members may prioritize their own interests, such as personal gain, status, or belonging, over the well-being of others, leading to a collective failure to address or acknowledge wrongdoing.

Furthermore, Angela Gollat observes that spiritual communities often suffer from “lineages of abuse” where generations of disciples become teachers, themselves with their own disciples, who then cover up and silence victims’ reports of misconduct against teachers higher up in the chain, thus “silencing survivors and enabling ongoing harm.” In other words, both students and teachers can become complicit in enabling or perpetuating the abuse.

Spiritual bypassing is a term that refers to the use of spiritual beliefs, practices, experiences or language to avoid dealing with emotional, psychological, or relational issues. It can apply to both individuals and organizations.

In individuals it involves using spirituality as a defence mechanism to escape from uncomfortable feelings, unresolved trauma, or difficult life situations, rather than confronting and processing them.

In the context of organizations, spiritual bypassing can occur when a group or institution uses spiritual rhetoric to avoid addressing systemic issues, power imbalances, or harmful practices within their own structure. This can include using spiritual language or weaponizing spiritual teachings to justify oppressive or exploitative behaviors, or to silence marginalized voices within the organization.

Examples of spiritual language used in this context include:

• “Everything happens for a reason.” (Justifying or dismissing suffering or difficulties)
• “Don’t dwell on the negative.” (Minimizing or dismissing emotions or concerns)
• “Holding onto anger only hurts you.” (Shaming or invalidating anger or negative emotions)
• “Just surrender to the universe.” (Avoiding responsibility or action)
• “You create your own reality.” (Blaming the person for their problems or circumstances)
• “It’s all an illusion.” (Minimizing or dismissing real-world issues or experiences)
• “Just trust that everything will work out.” (Implying no action is needed to address issues)
• “There’s no such thing as good and evil.” (Dismissing moral boundaries or accountability)
• “Just focus on the present.” (Avoiding discussion of past traumas or future concerns).

Aside from being top of Merchasin’s list, spiritual bypassing was mentioned by other speakers in the conference. Angela Gollat finds “spiritual bypassing or applying spiritual teachings to prematurely transcend or avoid grappling with harm” to be “common” in alternative spiritual organizations (Merchasin et al., 2023). Jac O’Keeffe agrees, and remarks that bypassing is often used as a tool to protect entrenched “power differentials” (O’Keeffe et al., 2023). Jens Augspurger sees spiritual bypassing as a “mechanism of control” and a form of “toxic positivity” (Merchasin et al., 2023).

In addition to these patterns Gollat finds that spiritual organizations “tend to protect abusers and come after victims” by employing DARVO as a tactic. DARVO is a model developed by Dr. JenniferFreyd that describes a common pattern of behavior exhibited by individuals when accused of wrongdoing. The acronym refers to a four-stage response where the accused denies any wrongdoing, attacks the credibility or character of the accuser, reverses the roles of victim and offender, and shifts the focus from their own actions to the victim’s behavior. This response is often used to deflect accountability, discredit the accuser, and maintain a positive public image, and can be particularly damaging in cases of institutional betrayal (Freyd, 1997).

Unlike corporations, where retirement age provides a natural mechanism for leadership turnover, spiritual organizations often lack such a mechanism, allowing leaders to remain in power for life and potentially entrenching unhealthy power dynamics even more deeply.

Augspurger also identifies additional factors that can be quite particular to spiritual organizations, including the “ongoing production of hagiography” and “continued glorification of abusers and their empires.” Furthermore he notes that “members often become dependent on the group or organization and the cost of leaving… just becomes too high,” which “secures their adherence to the group” (Merchasin et al., 2023).

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