“Psychological abuse and sexual abuse”

Beatrice Karinsdotter tells how she was drawn into a destructive group relationship in the book “Vilsna själars paradis”. She applied to a tantra school to find more meaning in life, but it soon turned out to be a dysfunctional group where a manipulative leader took advantage of seekers through various forms of abuse.

– The title refers to this feeling when people with an addiction problem come together. It can perhaps be compared to if a gambling addict comes to Las Vegas, then it is paradise for a while, she says.

“Drawn to the radical”

Beatrice Karinsdotter was drawn to the tantra school TNT, The New Tantra.

– I was drawn into this school because of the radical, confrontational energy and the fact that I had practiced tantra for a year and a half before and it had made a big difference in my life – in a positive way, she tells Nyhetsmorgon.

But she is critical of the school’s methods, which she believes have nothing to do with genuine tantra. In the book, she describes several traumatic events and experiences.

– In this confrontation, there was also a lot of abuse. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I have understood afterwards that we were subjected to mental abuse all the years in this school and spiritual abuse and sexual abuse. It became an everyday life for us, it became normal in the end.

The police report was dropped

She also describes how she is subjected to sexual abuse. But at the time, she didn’t understand that it was abuse.

– No, I didn’t see it that way and I think that many people including me who have been exposed to abuse and sexual abuse do not understand at the moment what they have been exposed to. But as soon as I had left and started to see this in a completely different light, I filed a police report on this.

What happened to it?

– It was put down because he and I were alone in the room when it happened. But it was for my sake that I filed this police report.

In the end, Beatrice Karinsdotter managed to leave the sect and today she works to help others who have ended up in destructive relationship patterns.