@conference {1496686, title = {Investigating Alternative Spiritual Movements: What Experience and the Law Tell Us About Sexual Abuse in Alternative Spiritual Communities.}, booktitle = {Uses and Abuses of Power in Alternative Spiritualities}, year = {2023}, address = {Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA}, abstract = {Abstract: Drawing on court cases and client testimonies, as well as the presenters{\textquoteright} personal experiences from the worlds of law, academic research, and as activists and former spiritual community members, this panel presents a synoptic overview of religious movements accused of sexually abusing their members and considers how the legal system is dealing with these inherently abusive practices.

Presenter bios: Carol Merchasin is an attorney who leads a practice group litigating sexual misconduct in religious, faith-based and spiritual communities at McAllister Olivarius. She was previously a partner in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis \& Bockius and director of Morgan Lewis Resources, where she conducted dozens of workplace investigations and taught investigative techniques to human resource professionals at many Fortune 50 companies.

Jens Augspurger is a dissenting former member of the ISYVC (Sivananda Yoga), a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at The School of African and Oriental Studies in London (SOAS) and a doctoral fellow of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Foundation).

Angela Gollat is also a dissenting former member of ISYVC and together with Jens Augspurger, a founder of Project Satya, a grassroots community group dedicated to supporting women who came forward with allegations of sexual assaults by teachers within Sivananda Yoga. She has a master{\textquoteright}s degree in Women{\textquoteright}s Studies from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Presenter affiliation: McAllister Olivarius (Merchasin); The School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) (Augspurger); and Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Foundation) (Augspurger)}, author = {Merchasin, Carol and Augspurger, Jens and Gollat, Angela} }