3HO Kundalini Yoga (Yogi Bhajan)

Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements · Harbhajan Singh Puri (Yogi Bhajan) · 1969 · Los Angeles, USA

What it is

3HO ("Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization") is a new religious movement founded in Los Angeles in 1969 by Harbhajan Singh Puri (1929–2004), known as Yogi Bhajan and, to followers, as the Siri Singh Sahib. It joined a form of Kundalini Yoga to a convert Sikh community, Sikh Dharma International…

Format

• Community calendar. The calendar includes the Summer Solstice gathering (first held in 1977, paused after 2019, planned again for 2023 at the SSSC-owned Ram Das Puri, New Mexico), women's camps, and White Tantric Yoga group meditation days, which resumed in March 2022. White Tantric Yoga is a…
• The therapist's frame. There is no published session count or format for working with members, and none is given. A workable sequence:

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Kundalini Research Institute (KRI, 1972): publishes the teachings and runs teacher training.
• Office of Ethics and Professional Standards (EPS): complaints, child safeguarding and the codes of ethics.
• Teacher training (KRI "Aquarian Teacher").

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• 3HO ("Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization") is a new religious movement founded in Los Angeles in 1969 by Harbhajan Singh Puri (1929–2004), known as Yogi Bhajan and, to followers, as the Siri Singh Sahib. It joined a form of Kundalini Yoga to a convert Sikh community, Sikh Dharma International…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• decisions made in panic or out of loyalty. It is working when the client has realistic options.
• reluctance to see doctors because of doctrine or past advice. It is working when care is joined up.
• the family's distress, and pressure to diagnose a member not in therapy. It is working when contact stays open.
• feeling pressured to forgive or reconcile, and retraumatisation in processes. It is working when the client's choice is informed and their own.
• splitting into all-good or all-bad. Watch for the client looking to the therapist for a verdict. It is working when the client can hold mixed feelings.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.