This is a CBC podcast.

You're about to hear a trailer for the brand new series of the BBC's investigative podcast, World of Secrets, The Bad Guru.

This season investigates a yoga movement which promised spiritual enlightenment.

But one woman, Miranda, a university tutor from London,

says she was brainwashed into performing on a live pornographic webcaming channel.

Keep listening to hear how Miranda's search for inner peace through yoga

leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking, and exploitation.

Thank you. allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

And in 2017, Miranda, a university tutor from London, joins a yoga school that promises profound transformation.

It felt a really safe and welcoming space.

After the yoga classes, I felt amazing.

But soon, that calm, welcoming atmosphere leads to something far darker,

a journey that leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking

and exploitation across international borders. I don't have my passport. I don't have my phone.

I don't have my bank cards. I have nothing. The passport being taken, the being in a house

and not feeling like they can leave.

World of Secrets is where untold stories are unveiled and hidden realities are exposed.

In this new series, we're confronting the dark side of the wellness industry,

where the hope of a spiritual breakthrough gives way to disturbing accusations.

You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realize. And it's like this, the secret that's there.

I wanted to believe that, you know, that whatever they were doing, even if it seemed gross to me,

was for some spiritual reason that I couldn't you understand.

...