Ananda Sangha (Swami Kriyananda)
Yogananda-derived organisation founded by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters, d. 2013). Operates Ananda Village (California) and global centres. Defendant in 1998 Bertolucci v. Walters jury verdict for sexual misconduct.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
+1 for the 1998 Bertolucci sexual-misconduct verdict against Kriyananda.
Profile facts
In context
Kriyananda left SRF in 1962 and founded Ananda Sangha in 1968. The 1998 Bertolucci v. Walters California jury verdict found Kriyananda liable for sexual misconduct. Continues post-Kriyananda's 2013 death.
Recovery resources
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service covering new religious movements.
- Sarlo's Guru Rating Service — Long-standing publicly-maintained guru-assessment site including critical material.
- Reclamation Collective — Religious-trauma-aware therapist network; relevant for post-exit identity-rebuilding.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Legal cases & controversies
- Bertolucci v. Walters (1998)
This profile is in progress — history, deeper BITE evidence and survivor voices are still being added. Contributions welcome via GitHub.
Timeline
- 1968Ananda Sangha founded by Kriyananda
- 1998Bertolucci jury verdict
- 2013Kriyananda dies
Sources
- Bertolucci v. Walters (1998) search ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J corrective: Moderate-band (CLCI 20) entry upgraded from Mainstream-comparator lighter palette to Eastern guru-led palette — Batch J's clci<21 fallthrough was too lean for the documented control vector of this category.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Mainstream-comparator lighter.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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