Choosing a teacher wisely

A directory can show you who is out there. It cannot tell you who is good for you, and it cannot tell you how someone behaves when nobody is watching. That part stays with you, and this page is here to help you navigate it with care.

What a listing here means

Being listed on Paths Are Many is not an endorsement, a recommendation, or a guarantee of anyone's conduct or competence. It means we have identified a teacher whose work may be relevant to someone exploring that particular path.

We cannot comprehensively vet every person listed here. A listing reflects visibility, not verification. Someone with a full calendar, a beautiful website and an established lineage can still cause harm, while someone quiet and difficult to find may be an excellent teacher. A directory cannot reliably tell those apart. Discernment takes time.

Look at conduct, not only credentials

Spiritual teaching often comes with far less outside oversight than many other roles involving trust and authority. There may be no independent licensing body or complaints process, and structures of accountability vary greatly between traditions and communities.

Titles, ordinations and transmissions can tell you something about training or lineage, but not necessarily how someone treats the people in front of them.

So watch the ordinary things.

How does this person speak about students who left? What happens when someone disagrees in the room? Is money discussed plainly? Are boundaries clear? Does the teaching help you become more able to live your own life, or increasingly dependent on the teacher or community?

Questions worth asking

• Who holds this person accountable, and what happens if a student raises a concern?
• Is there a written ethical code, and is there someone a student can approach who is independent of the teacher?
• What does the full financial commitment look like, including anything expected later?
• Are former students free to speak openly about their experience?
• Is there a history of serious complaints or controversy, and if so, how was it addressed?
• Are boundaries around money, sexuality, intimacy and authority clear?

Worth pausing on

None of these is proof of wrongdoing on its own. But they are reasons to slow down and look more carefully:

secrecy around money or organisational structure; pressure to commit quickly or give more than you intended; contempt for people who question or leave; discouragement from speaking with outsiders; a teacher whose personal needs gradually become the group's responsibility; claims of spiritual attainment that appear to place someone beyond ordinary ethics; or blurred boundaries between teaching, authority and intimacy.

Take your time

Read more than one source, including sources that are independent of the teacher or organisation. Where possible, look for accounts from people who are no longer part of the community as well as those who remain.

Talk to students in person if you can. Attend something small before committing to anything long, expensive or residential.

A teacher worthy of your trust should not need you to suspend your judgement in order to follow them.

If something has gone wrong

If you have been harmed, or are unsure about something that happened, you do not have to work it out from inside the community.

Speaking with someone independent can help: a trusted friend, therapist, safeguarding professional, or an organisation that works with abuse and ethics in spiritual or religious communities.

Distance and outside perspective can sometimes make things visible that are difficult to see from within.

Your safety and wellbeing come first. Nothing on this site is worth more than that.