SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY
RESOURCE GUIDE
This guide is intended to be of value to several audiences:
1) Spiritual organizations interested in improving their approach to issues of integrity, ethics and harm prevention. 2) Survivors of abuse and harm by spiritual organizations and individual teachers.
3) Individuals interested in increasing their understanding of the powerful and fraught intersections between spirituality and psychology.
ORGANIZATIONS & LEADING THINKERS
Dr. Willoughby Britton, Brown University, Cheetah House:
Dr. Britton is one of the nation’s leading experts on adverse affects of meditation and contemplative practices. Cheetah House “provides evidence-based information and support to individuals who have experienced negative effects from meditation; experienced unhealthy meditation or spiritual communities; and suffered religious & spiritual abuse or trauma. We aim to empower meditators, meditation teachers, & clinicians to make informed decisions around contemplative practices.”
Many spiritual institutions are lacking in awareness of the negative impacts that meditation and contemplative practice can have on some practitioners. These range from mild discomfort to outright psychosis and are said to affect up to 15% or more of practitioners. There is an urgent need for institutions to be more aware of these impacts and methods to address them.
Dr. Britton, is Associate Professor at Brown University Medical School and School of Public Health, Director of Brown’s Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory and founded and leads Cheetah House, specializing in helping meditators who are experiencing meditation-related difficulties and providing meditation safety trainings to providers and organizations.
Video: The Hidden Risks of Meditation — Dr. Willoughby Britton | The Tim Ferriss Show
Dr. Jennifer Freyd, Center for Institutional Courage:
The Center for Institutional Courage (CIC) is dedicated to transformative research and education about institutional betrayal and how to counter it through institutional courage. CIC sees a future where our institutions act courageously: with accountability, with transparency, actively seeking justice, and making changes where needed despite unpleasantness, risk, and short-term costs.
Founder Dr. Jennifer Freyd is internationally known as a pioneer in the field of trauma psychology and lifelong activist in the realm of sexual violence. Dr. Freyd has spent her life asking tough questions about power, abuse, and institutions. Dr. Freyd is known for coining the term and expanding the awareness of DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), a central behavior of abusers.
Video introduction here: The Cost of Silence: Power, Retaliation, and the Fight to Speak Out
A leading thinker, psychotherapist, Buddhist practitioner and teacher, and author exploring the intersection between Buddhist practice and psychology. Her article East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissistic Personality and Buddhist Practice is a thought-provoking exploration of the pitfalls of Buddhist practice for those individuals with unhealed developmental wounds:
“When psychological structures interface with the spiritual realm, new possibilities for healing and harm come our way. An important and arcane dance between the unconscious labyrinth of the psyche and the malleable sphere of the divine has begun. What transpires takes place on a spectrum from life-changing potential for psychic awakening to a further entrenchment of suffering and relational dysfunction…
What transpires can be a funhouse of psychological systems taking on the added complexity of relationship with the divine. For some, there are sufficient resources and self-awareness to negotiate this funhouse. In learning to calm the mind and explore our many human travails with compassion, life can become more joyful, less emotionally fraught as an expanding sense of possibility replaces chronic feelings of smallness and unimportance. For others, this added dimension can exacerbate the difficulties they experience in the world of mere mortals. Spirituality is no safehouse – just as in the realm of sentient beings, the spiritual world is a place ripe for projection, grandiosity and a sense of finally being spared the unpredictable chaos of human relationship.”
Conflict is Not Abuse (2016) is a seminal book exploring several important themes: 1) how abusive individuals and organizations may misuse legal and grievance processes to perpetrate further abuse on their victims; 2) how modern American culture has a tendency to mislabel the regular conflict that occurs in life as abuse; 3) the critical role of groups to support individuals who conflate conflict with abuse and may lack the skills to engage in the repair of relationships. Videos:
Mariana Caplan, Author, The Guru Question: The Perils and Rewards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher and Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path
Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT, E-RTY 500, is a psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and author of eight books in the fields of psychology, spirituality, and yoga. She is a leading expert on preventative practices for spiritual organizations in the area of ethics and integrity, and is a leading practitioner of healing from spiritual abuse. She is a strong advocate for spiritual teachers and leaders to make lifelong commitments to their own psychological development.
Scott Brown, A Restorative Justice Approach to Accountability and Repair
This webinar is one of the most inspiring and compassionate presentations of the five pillars of restorative justice, along with core principles and practices that support personal, interpersonal, and collective healing. Scott Brown is a mediator and restorative justice practitioner, life and relationship coach, transpersonal psychologist and author, with a master’s degree from Naropa University in transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology.
Connie Zweig, Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path
Connie Zweig, Ph.D. is a retired Jungian therapist and author of Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden power of Dark Side of Human Nature (1991), a groundbreaking anthology of 65 writers. Her book Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path: The Dance of Darkness and Light in Our Search for Awakening (2023), extends shadow-work into religion and spirituality and has established her as one of the nation’s leading voices on the challenges facing spiritual communities today. This recent video interview is a compelling and insightful overview of these challenges and possible solutions.
Heartwood Center - Spiritual Abuse Survivor Network
Offers a safe, compassionate space to heal and connect after physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and sexual abuse in Buddhism.
Association for Spiritual Integrity
ASI was founded in 2019 (originally as the Association of Professional Spiritual Teachers) to address the epidemic of abuse within spiritual communities. ASI holds regularly occurring webinars on various topics related to spiritual integrity and runs peer support groups for spiritual leaders and teachers.
Helps spiritual communities proactively reduce the impact of destructive discord by providing training on ethics, boundaries, leading governance practices, and conflict resolution.
Mitigating dHARMa’s mission is to offer care to those who’ve been harmed in Buddhist communities, and/or spiritually-adjacent high-demand groups. Website being launched in Oct. 2025.
Provides online courses to equip Buddhist leaders with the tools and knowledge to understand the importance of healthy boundaries in spiritual communities and to critically discern the complexities of boundaries, power and vulnerability in spiritual teacher-student relationships.
Greater Boston Zen Community (GBZC) - Resilient Sangha Project
GBZC is a sangha in recovery from clergy abuses of power and now aspiring to become a “Resilient Sangha,” committed to turning the suffering of teacher misconduct into sangha wisdom for the benefit of all beings. In keeping with our Buddhist commitments, we believe wisdom can only be discovered by turning toward what’s right here before us.
David Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness
Writer, educator, and trauma professional who helps people teach and practice mindfulness in a trauma-sensitive way.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
The following organizations provide comprehensive lists of additional organizations and resources relating to ethics and abuse within Buddhist communities:
Greater Boston Zen Community Resource List.
An Olive Branch Resource List.
Resources for Confronting Abuse in Spiritual Communities (Lion's Roar).
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This document is a work in progress compiled by Jeff Edelstein, a Buddhist practitioner since 1980; national-level public policy mediator since 1995; recent founder (2023) of Acts of Kindness Maine and the nascent National Institute of Kindness; and a scholar/consultant of ethics, integrity, courage, conflict and abuse within spiritual organizations and political systems. Jeff can be reached at jledelstein@gmail.com.