The Ishayas' Ascension / The Bright Path

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Carolyn Millemon learned about a form of meditation called ‘Ascending’ at a weekend workshop in Western Australia when she was 21. The technique supposedly came from an ancient order of monks in the Himalayas known as The Ishayas. A couple of years later, in North Carolina, she decided to dedicate her life to the teachings. But a decade on, some of the behaviours of her own teachers weren’t sitting well with her. Looking back, she sees that the organisation she’d become enmeshed with was a cult.

EPISODE LINKS

• MSI and the Ishayas — posts by user ‘scribe’ archived from now defunct FACTNet forum, late 2004 to early 2005

• The Ishaya’s Ascension — by MSI, Sedona Journal, May 1997

• First Thunder: An Adventure of Discovery — by MSI, 1996

• Group Claims TM Movement is a Cult — by Phil McCombs, The Washington Post, 2 July 1987

• Para — by R. Vaughn Abrams, Seven Suns Publications, 1986, The University of Sydney Rare Books & Special Collections listing

• Sedona Journal of Emergence — About page, visited February 2023

• Biodome Drive property — on Google Earth, accessed March 2023

• The Society for Ascension — North Carolina Secretary of State listing, accessed March 2023

• The Bright Path Ishayas + Maharishi Krishnananda — Cult Education Institute forum, includes post by user ‘FlatEarthRound’ which shares an email circulated to teachers in 2008, posted 19 July 2020

• the bright path — Cult Education Institute forum posts from 2009

• Ishayas - their connection with TM?? — Cult Education Institute forum posts from 2005

• The Bright Path — official website

• Offshoot groups which may or may not be problematic: The Ishaya Foundation, Ascension (Ishtar), The Ishayas’ Ascension, The Ishayas’ Ascension (yes, these do appear to be different), 

• The Lineage — page on The Ishayas’ Ascension website, accessed March 2023

• First Sphere Ascension Weekend Course, Warrandyte, Vic — event listing for 24 March 2023

• TIF Publishing Co. — publishing arm of The Ishaya Foundation