But they can be hard to suss out. A wayward spiritual teacher can be irresistibly charismatic, promote an exciting vision, and already have a crowd of enthusiastic followers.
And you don’t see what you don’t see.
Their transgressions often occur behind closed doors among an inner circle of true believers. Their abuse may secretly take place with one adoring member (at a time) who has been told she or he is special.
At the same time, we humans have an enormous capacity to accept even bad public behavior that’s couched under the guise of a higher spiritual purpose.