CULT 'GOD' IN HIDING

08/04/1987 Portsmouth Evening News

most of this text is difficult to read so there is a digital version below the image

see here for the other stories about John Yarr in the Portsmouth Evening News

The News

City Final

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1987

CULT 'GOD' IN HIDING

'Master' in sex scandal claims

NEWS EXCLUSIVE by FRANCES HARDY

THE SELF-STYLED God of the Lifewave religious cult has fled his luxury West Sussex home and gone into hiding, amid a string of sex allegations.

The 2,000-member organization founded in Portsmouth by John Yarr has collapsed amid allegations that Yarr - who termed himself Ishvara, or the Perfect Master - kept a "harem" of female devotees and abused his power to molest attractive women recruits.

Yarr demanded celibacy of his unmarried disciples, but hypocritically indulged his own voracious sexual appetites in a string of clandestine affairs.

Countless women devotees fell under his spell between 1974 and 1986, followers say. For 12 years the former film processor at Marconi, Portsmouth, hoodwinked them all, vowing loyalty and devotion to each one. And in a grotesque abuse of trust, he used his power as the "Messiah" to lure women and sexually assault them. Under hypnosis it is claimed he persuaded women devotees to recount lurid details of their sexual experiences.

And under the guise of teaching them yoga and meditation techniques and freeing them from sexual inhibitions, former members revealed, he would molest attractive female recruits.

The downfall of Yarr's empire was brought about by his own disciples. His sinister abuse and manipulation of his power came to me to light when one by one his lovers realized they had been deceived. Followers who had been steadfastly loyal to their god for 12 years, have now deserted him en masse. Yarr has fled from and sold the £150,000 home at Slindon, near Arundel, he bought with cult members' gifts three years ago.

At a secret meeting in the Midlands last month, infiltrated by The News, the sect was officially dissolved. But John Yarr was nowhere in evidence.

Yarr, a 39-year-old Irishman, is being guarded by a caucus of still-loyal followers at a secret hideaway at Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Only a handful of disciples know where he is - and they are refusing to disclose his whereabouts.

Meanwhile, disaffected cult members fear he could resurface as a "spiritual teacher" once the furore over his sexual misdemeanours dies down.

Even as the meeting, called formally to disband Lifewave, was taking place, a group of faithful Yarr disciples were setting up a splinter group called Seekers After Spiritual Truth, (S.A.S.T.)

Although he claimed to espouse the simple, celibate life, Yarr was in fact a greedy, vain and self-obsessed sexual pervert, say former followers.

While his followers adhered to a strictly monogamous sexual code, Yarr furtively indulged his own sexual appetite with his mistresses.

He flew into jealous rages when members of his "harem" grew attached to other men. He ordered henchmen to "curse" disloyal devotees.

Six of Yarr's "adepts" (spiritual teachers) have had nervous breakdowns and many are receiving psychiatric treatment. One has attempted suicide and one is still living as a recluse.

[picture]ABOVE, neo-Tudor splendour in the heart of the West Sussex countryside: the £150,000 house in which "God" lived.

[picture]JOHN YARR the man thousands called "God." Devotees were each issued with this photograph as a devotional aid.

In a series of exclusive interviews with former followers, News reporter Frances Hardy reveals the sordid truth behind the fallen idol. See Page 6.