The Inner Circle

My Seventeen Years in the Cult of the American Sikhs, Book 1

By: Peter MacDonald Blachly

Narrated by: Peter MacDonald Blachly

Peter Macdonald Blachly takes us on an amazing adventure, documenting the 17 years he spent in a spiritual cult, while providing candid insights into the circumstances and conditions that made him vulnerable to manipulation by a charismatic sociopath. His understanding of psychology and human weaknesses, and the lessons he draws from his own experiences are universal, making his memoir highly relevant today.

The book provides a riveting account of Blachly’s introduction to yoga, his arranged marriage, and a thrilling and entertaining view of India during the 1970s and 1980s, when he undertook multiple extended tours, studying and performing the sacred music of the Sikhs, teaching yoga to young people in New Delhi, and learning to read, write, and speak Punjabi.

Back in the United States, Blachly takes us on another adventure, leading the Khalsa String Band, which he founded in 1974, on a multi-city performance tour throughout North America, shortly after opening the “Golden Temple Conscious Cookery”, the first full-service vegetarian restaurant in Washington, DC. The stories are told with self-deprecating humor, and with compassion for those who were traumatized by the abuse meted out by their spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan, a self-styled messiah of the Sikhs.

Blachly manages to weave together these world-traveling adventures with his own spiritual journey as one of the first people to don a turban in the early days of the Yogi Bhajan cult, which he joined in 1970. Although he pulls no punches about his gradual disillusionment with the moral failings of his teacher, the book does not come off as an exposé. Rather, it is his self-awareness and clear-eyed examination of his own vulnerable sense of identity—which made him susceptible to Yogi Bhajan’s manipulations—that sets the book apart from other memoirs.

In the words of cult expert Stephen Hassan, "Whether practicing one of the world’s religions, following a spiritual teacher, participating in an authoritarian cult, or in the thralls of a charismatic political leader, The Inner Circle provides valuable and entertaining lessons."

©2021 Peter MacDonald Blachly (P)2022 Peter MacDonald Blachly

Engaging story...couldn't put it down...

I loved the author's voice! This book was very well written, and the author is so vulnerable, honest, and intriguing that I immediately bought the paperback version. I enjoyed the photos documenting this man's liminal experience in the early days of the burgeoning American Sikh community. The author was barely twenty when he was compelled toward the promise of community and spiritual meaning initiated by a powerful new “Saturn” teacher from India. At first, the author is swept up into luminous and exotic experiences, and at times it almost seems like he had found salvation.

But, this doesn't last long. While listening to the non-blaming way the author describes the "master's" behaviors I, as a reader, wanted to reach back in time to warn the young man to take heed of his teacher's dark side. It is palpable how naive and, therefore, how incredibly vulnerable he was to the gut wrenching psychological trauma that his teacher, “Yogi Bhajan,” exacted upon those who, like lambs to the slaughter, sought refuge in a "father figure."

And yet, the author's resilience shines through. I was wonderfully surprised by the recordings of the author's music inserted in various parts of the narrative, and wished I could find more of it. His main entree into Bhajan’s “inner circle” was through his savant musical abilities that were showcased in the Khalsa String Band, which the author created and with whom he recorded and performed in venues across the country and widely in India. It was fun to see the author seated on a high platform, wearing robes and a turban while playing music for dignitaries and crowds at the Golden Temple!

While this was a deeply personal narrative it also reveals the unfolding of near universal narcissistic abuse that defines the playbook of every cult leader, whether religious or political. That being said, this book is a “first,” specifically because it is told through the lens of a man with high functioning autism, who can write with fluent grace, and who developed his most beautiful voice and expression through music. How confusing it must have been to shine so brightly in the darkness that was Yogi Bhajan's perverse exploitation of Sikhism. I am impatient for the publication of Book II!