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In January of 2023, FT special investigations editor Madison Marriage received an email from a desperate father, named Stephen. In it, Stephen says his twin daughters have changed drastically. They’ve gone from promising young women with exciting plans for their futures to spiraling into despair and struggling to lead normal lives. Stephen believes the root of his daughters’ problems is a specific kind of meditation retreat.
Thousands of people go on Goenka retreats every year. High-flying tech bros in Silicon Valley rave about them. Getting off the waitlist is like getting Glastonbury tickets. It’s coveted. But some people go to these Goenka meditation retreats… and they suffer. They might feel a deep sense of terror, or a break with reality. And on the other side, they’re not themselves anymore…
Meditation is the sort of thing people get into for self-improvement…to ease stress and anxiety. It’s the kind of thing big companies offer free access to as a perk. It’s thought of as harmless. How could meditation cause damage to people?
The Retreat is the first series of Untold, a new podcast from the special investigations team at the Financial Times. The initial season is a four-part narrative investigation, led by Madison Marriage, the award-winning journalist and special investigations editor at the Financial Times.
The Retreat is the culmination of a 12-month journey, in which Madison attempts to understand the world of one organization. A world that drew in Stephen’s twin daughters, and so many others. A world that attracts individuals seeking self improvement or spiritual awakenings, but allegedly has caused real psychological and physical harm. Sometimes, with dire consequences.
Madison receives an email from a desperate father named Stephen. Over the past five years, he says his twin daughters have changed drastically. They’ve gone from promising young women with exciting plans for their futures to spiraling into despair and struggling to lead normal lives. He says his daughters have suffered terrifying damage. Stephen believes the root of his daughters’ problems is a particular network of intensive meditation retreats.
After hearing Emily’s story, Madison endeavors to find out how unusual her experience was, and discovers there are others who have suffered during or after a Goenka retreat — including her identical twin sister. What was happening to these people? Was meditation just the catalyst that unleashed latent psychological problems? Or did meditation cause their suffering?
Every expert Madison speaks to says that meditation-related challenges are real, serious, and can happen to anyone. Intensive meditation could unleash dramatic problems in an individual – even those who believed they were completely stable – without any prior warning that this was possible. And those affected suffered real harm as a result. This is the story of how far that harm can go. This is Jaqui’s story.
Madison learns of another death that occurred as a result of intensive mediation at a Goenka retreat. But what’s important about this death is that it occurred five years before Jaqui’s. Which means, the Goenka network had some knowledge of the dangers of intensive meditation. Madison questions whether or not the group acknowledges the potential dangers of the retreats and investigates whether any steps are being taken to improve.
