ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the major themes under the broad headings: Attraction, Affiliation and Disengagement. Attraction includes participant's discovery of Siddha Yoga and aspects they found appealing about the movement. Affiliation focuses on the individual's engagement with Siddha Yoga and their experience of the growth of the movement. Finally, Disengagement relates to devotee's movement away from Siddha Yoga and their lives after involvement. The participants found many things attractive about Siddha Yoga and most continue to do so. Many of the participants experienced a palpable energy in the presence of the guru. For some, meeting the guru was the occasion of their initial experience of Shaktipat. However, there was also something eminently social about most individual's numinous experience with the guru. Some of what people experience as religious experience may be put down to a crowd effect or the charismatic appeal of a leader. The chapter offers some implications of the study and suggested directions for research.
