An Arizona television station, KPHO, had a show this week about the Sedona-based Dahn Yoga, a group that’s still fighting litigation that alleges it caused one of its members to collapse and die of heat exhaustion on a desert hike in 2003. The story raises the question of whether the group is a “cult,” with a strong lean toward the “yes” direction from KPHO. They refer to “cult expert” Steven Hassan as a source of information. Hassan’s website describes him as an authority on “mind control.” The notion of “mind control,” of course, remains heavily disputed – if not debunked – in the academic and theologian communities.

He tells the station, “If it quacks like a duck and has feathers like a duck, at a certain point you have to say it's probably a duck. In my opinion, this group is one that I really warn your viewers about.”

The controversial Rick Ross, another “cult expert,” has posted a long stream of testimonials by former members of Dahn, Dhanhak Yoga, or Dahnhak Toa. Ross and his associates are questionable authorities at best. In 1995 Ross was found guilty of conspiracy to violate an individual's right to civil freedom along with the Cult Awareness Network (which is associated with the Church of Scientology, argued by many to be a cult in its own right). Ross should probably not be fully trusted and the connection between Scientology and the CAN is downright ironic, but it can't be denied that these testimonials say some frightening things about the Dahn group.

Reading down that page, a few things become apparent about Dahn Yoga. The leaders of Dahn are aggressive, hard-selling, somewhat manipulative, and interested in profit. Many people have remarkably negative experiences with them. They also target people who are extremely susceptible to being scammed.

But very little, if anything on that page depicts the Dahn Yoga group as being capable of murder, whatever other offensive things they are capable of.

The underlying question is this: what is a cult? The connotation it carries in our society differs from the technical definition. Whether or not this connotation has a valid purpose is entirely open to debate.

Since the late 19th Century, many yoga teachers (Swami Vivekananda, Swami Abhedananda, and Paramahansa Yogananda, to name a few) have been branded as charlatans and their schools cults. It is something of a media pastime.

Where is the line between freedom of religion and a group of nuts participating in something so awful that the group should be condemned entirely and seen as a societal threat?