India Syndrome

we started off in Delhi. They visited Varanassi, the holy city where many go to die, their body ceremoniously burned and thrown into the sacred river Ganges. Then Bogaya, where more than two millenniago the Buddha reached enlightenment. This is where they stayed for the highlight of their trip, a

seven day silent meditation. I didn't lead the meditations. We had like a Tibetan Buddhist nun, a Swiss German Tibetan Buddhist non at this place, the Route Institute in both Gaya, and you know, we're meditating on like bliss, on Nirvana, on compassion. And you know, one of the meditations you do is you meditate on your own death. You meditate on the impermanence of life and concentrate on the moment of your own death and then use that to give

yourself perspective on what it means to be alive. For seven days, we're doing these meditations and we're not talking to anyone. And you know, I have a variety of students. I have people who are way out there in sort of the spiritual weirdo spectrum, and I have some very normal people. And there's this one student, Emily, who was probably like the best, brightest, most together student in the

whole group. You know, she was the type a personality who've got things done and you could always rely on. Emily was a twenty one year old from Charlottesville, Virginia. A devoted meditator and yogi back in the States, she came to India to experience something authentic, and after days of silent transformative meditation, what she experienced was unexpected. After the meditation retreat, you know, I'm not you know, I'm not talking to her at this time. I don't really

know what's going on her head. And she climbs up to the roof of the retreat center. It's at four in the morning or so, and wraps a scarf under her face and jumps off the building to her death. I don't know how you're feeling, but when I first heard this story, I was shocked and confused. How can a spiritual practice like meditation make you do something like that. Some would argue that through meditation, Emily reached some sort of enlightenment, which is one of the many objectives of

the four point five trillion dollar global wellness industry. But if that's the case, and Emily reached this elusive idea of enlightenment, then what is the cost of enlightenment death? This is a question I examined thoroughly in this podcast through stories of people who presumably died or disappeared on spiritual quests. And what I've learned so far from their stories and the experts I've spoken to is that enlightenment is a tight rope. There's a very thin line between

healing and harm. Look, I'm not demonizing the spiritual wellness industry. My investment in my own spiritual growth the past few years has gotten me through some devastating shit. The spiritual practices I ascribe to give me clarity make me feel grounded, less reactive, more in control of the uncontrollable. They bring me closer to something that feels like an inner knowing

where I trust myself. But I will say that through the research I've been doing and some stories will be sharing in this podcast, the idea of attaining enlightenment, something many of these spiritual or wellness practice is ascribed to do, has started to feel like pushing your edge, and some instances I describe it as a massochistic indulgence to create infinite release, which is something extreme sport fanatics can relate

to with their bodies. But how do you push your edge spiritually and what do you sacrifice when you do? If K two is the most savage mountain extreme mountaineers are compulsively driven to climb, then India, the mystical mecca, is that same extreme for spiritual seekers. I know this because I am a seeker and I'm your host, Caroline Slaughter. If you don't know what a seeker is, here are

a couple thoughts from people I've interviewed. Seeking for the next level of spirituality basically not being born into a human form again, learning all the lessons you have to in these human form so you can move on to the next realm. I think that's what a lot of seekers are looking for, some sort of profound experience outside of themselves. Someone who's looking for answers to life. Potentially, people who are looking for other options out of life.

Some of the people that do disappear in India, I'd say that's probably a driver with all the stresses and things that come with life, you know, seeking another option. But at that time I was seeking, you know, I didn't want to become a holy man, but I did want to become more enlightened. Even that is a bit of a con job. I think it's been oversold. Enlightened. I think being present with your life is pretty good. It's just about living in the light, meaning the truth

of who you are. A lot of people that will hear this podcast will be seekers like, don't go to India because this is a venus flytrap for your vulnerability. If you're listening to this podcast, I bet one of those explanations resonated or at least intrigued you, and maybe, like me, you won't. So want to know what's the cost of enlightenment? I asked Karney this question, which he answered with further insight on Emily a pseudonym Karney uses to protect a student's privacy. One of the main first

questions is, well, why did she do it? And so, as the director of the program, I read her journal and it sort of is this descent into madness. The moment we get into that retreat center. You know, she has this dream she records about, you know, someone falling off a cliff, which is sort of weird. And then she starts saying that I'm having all these visions while I'm sitting in this meditation, and I know that I'm on the cusp of something great. I know that I'm

becoming something more. Time is changing around me, I am achieving something awesome. And the last words in her journal are I am a Bodhisatfa and all she has to do is leave her body and she will get to that next level and Mahayana Buddhism, are you? Sat Fi is a person who's able to reach nirvana, but delay is doing so in order to help every other being in this world achieve the same state. The literal translation

is essence of enlightenment. According to Carney. Emily wrote in her journal that the meditations had given her a profound understanding of the universe. She could see how her countless past lives had made her a perfect vessel for enlightenment. The only thing preventing her from a transformation into something greater than herself was her body. You know, when you're meditating, the world seems to change, like almost like if you're

when you're on a drug. You know, you might be sitting there and you might not notice the passage of times. The sun might appear to arise very quickly. You know, that's happened to me a few times, or you might you might be having these new types of thoughts that you've never had before. You're like, wow, I'm on the this is amazing. I have a vision in something new and you feel like there's something really big. And I think what she wanted is to capture that moment. So

there's this desire to find stasis. And death is a type of stasis, right, death like ending everything is like well, I know, I know I can stomp it right here, And I think that's what was going through her mind. After Emily's death, Karney had the responsibility of getting her body back to the States, which wasn't easy with India's one hundred and four degree heat, threatening the decomposition of her body, and the channels he had to go through

to get Clarence. This tragedy and it's aftermath shook Karney to his core. You witnessed that when he speaks about Emily in a twenty fifteen Ted talkie Dead, It's personal and its effects stayed with him, making him further question her motive. So I began to wonder how many other stories out there are there like Emily's. It turns out that people going to India looking for transcendence are fairly common. Some of them find it, and some of their stories

don't turn out well. I collected six journals of people who had taken their own lives on meditation retreats. I came across the names of Ryan Chambers and Jonathan Spollen, both of whom disappeared from the Holy City of Rishakesh within a few years of each other. I found a mental hospital in New Delhi that admits one hundred Western travelers a year suffering from a condition that they now

call India Syndrome. Now, Carney just touches on Ryan Chambers and Jonathan Spollen, two stories that we deep dive into in this series. And one that I felt a personal connection to. So at this point, even though they're involuntary poster children of India syndrome, I don't want to lump them under that label until we've further investigated this phenomenon and you've heard their stories told from their families firsthand. But before we get into all of that, I want

to introduce you to someone. Hey, how are you holding up? This is in Qita, my co producer and Delhi. We've been working together on this podcast through COVID the US election, which we're in the midst of when I recorded this. How's everything going there? I'm fine? Oh, all my family members have tested COVID positive. The world has been in turmoil during the eight months we've been working together, and during the short stint of knowing in Quita, both our

grandfathers have been sick, mine passed away. We've had family nieces, dogs hijack our zoom calls and on all the personal life stresses that are magnified during this pandemic, and you've got an instant friendship between two co workers from vastly different places and backgrounds who share more similarities than those differences. Someone who's not obsessed with rigidities. Who's not so what it about having all the answers but knowing that there is as much unlearning in life as it is learning.

That's in Keita's definition of a seeker, which she would consider herself. But she's also a journalist and my north star on this podcast. We've only met via zoom. A friend introduced us after I told her I needed to find an experienced and thorough investigative journalist in India. She introduced me to a Keita and I introduced Enquita to

India syndrome. India Syndrome was coined by the French psychiatrist Regis Erroll, working as a psychiatrist affiliated with a French consulate in Bombay for a period of sixteen months from nineteen eighty five and nineteen eighty six, at All saw a total of two hundred patients, of which fifty presented

with psychosis. Of those fifty, twenty one patients had schizophrenia and therefore prior histories, fourhead psychosis associated with drug use, and fifteen patients had what appeared to be borderline personality disorders. It is these fifteen patients thirty percent of patients presenting with psychosis who are diagnosed as having voyage pathogen or

traveler syndrome aka India syndrome. In Adull's psychiatric opinion, India syndrome is a travel related psychosis that occurs during travel to destinations with high religious, spiritual, cultural, or esthetic value, and to Westerners, India is an exotic locale charged with spiritual meaning. Here's Carney on this. It's the idea whe you go to a new place and you're in a totally different cultural context, and when you do that, it's an isolating dealing and then you have some sort of experience.

Usually it's an internal experience, there's a spiritual insight, and then that sort of insight it takes you over and you go mad. And in India it's India syndrome because there's a lot of Westerners who go over there and think that they have achieved something truly spiritual, unique and great. You don't go on a spiritual journey to India just randomly, right. Usually you go there with a bunch of ideas in your head already, and then you go there trying to

find it. Karney's twenty fifteen book The Enlightenment Trap features this phenomenon. In the book, he touches on twenty one year old Ryan Chambers story, an Australian who vanished in Rashikesh, India.

According to Karney, Ryan might have been one of the many Westerners who flocked to India seeking spiritual ennightenment, and there's some evidence will discuss later that points to that possibility, but we don't know for sure because no one a scene or heard from Ryan since two thousand and five will discuss Ryan's disappearance and the syndrome that potentially prompted it. After the break. As a seeker with a compulsion for travel and curiosity around all things spiritual, I wanted to

get to the bottom of this India syndrome thing. But what I realized is that it's just an entry point for a handful of other related culture bound syndromes. There's Stendall syndrome, which is a psychosomatic condition where a person will faint, hallucinate, experience confusion, or a rapid heartbeat while viewing an exceptional object, piece of artwork, or phenomena. The syndrome is unique to Florence, Italy, thus its other name

Florence syndrome. Then there's Paris syndrome, which is bizarre and noted primarily in Japanese tourists who are disappointed by their experience in Paris when there are expectations of Paris's beauty are not met. It leads to the same physical symptoms as Stenthol syndrome fainting, hallucinations, confusion, but also includes acute

feelings of persecution. But the one that's the most similar to India syndrome is Jerusalem syndrome, which I'll let journalist Jessica Rabbits, who's covered religion and spirituality in her work and wrote an article for CNN about India syndrome, tell

you about that. I'd written before about something called the Jerusalem syndrome, which is a syndrome where people get to this holy city and just become so overwhelmed by the power of it or by the expectations of what they thought it would be, that they kind of have a break and they believe they're the Messiah or any number of biblical figures. So I heard about the India syndrome and was just fascinated by the idea of it. And what I know of it is that it's like the

Jerusalem syndrome. It's this unusual condition that can afflict Westerners who travel to India and become perhaps delusional or in extreme cases disappear during these quests for enlightenment, and this

brings us back to India syndrome. I went down a rabbit hole researching India syndrome for this podcast, and I was admittedly drawn in by books and articles with the cryptic phenomena at their core, including Carney's book The Enlightenment Trap, which got my attention with passages about India, like some are drawn to India by accounts of the superpowers of dedicated practitioners yogis who can levitate, breathe for months while entombed underground, or melting giant swaths of snow with their

body heat, believing that they too will be able to accomplish extraordinary things. This quest to become superhuman, along with the culture shock, emotional isolation, illicit drugs, and the physical toll of hardcore meditation, can cause Western seekers to lose their bearings, seemingly seeing people get out of bed one day claiming that they've discovered the lost continent of Lemuria, or that the end of the world is nigh or

that they've awakened their third eye. Most recover, but some become permanently delusional, a few vanish or even turn up dead. This section of Carney's book is salacious and tantalizing. It makes spiritual curiosities and travel in India seem dangerous, and after what Carney went through with his Studentimily and the deep dive he did for his book, The Enlightenment Trap, it's a valid point of view because he's witnessed this

phenomena in real time. But to further examine this theory in our podcast, I want to take a look at the disappearance of Ryan Chambers, whose disappearance has been associated with India syndrome. Ryan was very creative and very artistic, and I picked that up at a very young age, around the age of five. So we were in a family of four logic based people and one creative. That's Diane Chambers telling me about her son Ryan. I used to say that he had the ability to sit and

watch paint dry. He used to sit in his own mind a lot and always appeared not very motivated. But as the years went on and he got older, I began to realize that Ryan was motivated by things that he was really interested in, so which is the case for everybody. But the fact was, I think it took him a long time to really find out what really motivated inspired him. Jack Ryan's dad explains what happened to

their son. On Wednesday, August twenty fourth, two thousand and five, John and he had been in India for two months and they went up north to Varonassi, spent a bit of time there, then went to Rishi Kish and from our understanding, they are only there for three days and one morning he just left the sh ram. He took off, left everything behind, He's wallet, his new sea tar that he'd bought in Varonassi, all his clothes, his wallet, and he just disappeared, never to be seen again. Jack and

Dianne made the biggest impression on me. They have so much love for their son, and their resilience in the face of his disappearance is moving. Even though they've lived through a hellish rollercoaster ride of multiple investigations, false leads, and scams around Ryan's disappearance, they're still helpful and they're open to telling his story. He never actually said what it was that he wants to go to India four.

He'd never travel overseas before. He got in touch with John and said, do you want to go to India with me? In the summer of two thousand and five, Ryan backpack through India for two months with his friend John, the childhood friend. But when they had Rishi Kash, something was off. It was in the evening here and at nine o'clock in the evening comes to mind, which is probably about right, because I think there's about a four or four and a half hour time difference, and there

was something not quite right then. And I questioned him about it, and he said to me, he said, I don't know who to trust anymore. He said, I want to come home now. He said, I want to come home, and I want to come home now, and so he just I think he was in a country that had shaken him with the reality of what was going on and how people lived in how poor people were and all of that, and I think his mind started to get a bit out of control, and I think he

knew it. Ryan's reaction to India makes total sense. One person I interviewed described India as an assault to the senses. It doesn't ease travelers in Kearny has additional thoughts on the culture shock people experience in India. It's a very chaotic environment. The streets are our madness, the laws all seem different. The way people interact with each other's just very can be very, very overwhelming. So you go through culture shock when you're there, and when so you're already destabilized.

Let's say you find an ashram and all of a sudden, it's like little waste piece. You go from sort of like very fight or flight to very very rest and digest and sort of like calm. Ryan was at the Vadna Khidden us room when he called us mom the night before he disappeared. Here's Danne discussing the rest of a phone call with Ryan. We talked about, you know, him having a chat with John, and he'd had the discussion with John and he was actually, you know, going

to plan to sort of head home. And so then I had a bit of a sleepless night that night, not really, there was something unsettling going on then. And so then when John rang and he just said, look, he said, Ryan's gone missing. He said, We've gone everywhere today. They'd hired motorbikes and some other people that he'd met, and they'd gone to a lot of the places where

they'd they'd been together and whatever. And I've got I think to about four or four thirty in the afternoon there, and John started to really worry then, and he said, look, he said, we've been looking for him. He said, we can't find him anywhere. He said, should I go to the police. And I just said, straight away, absolutely, I said, I knew. I just knew that something was drastically wrong.

Hours after Ryan spoke to his mom, as soon as the ashram gates were opened, he fled without his wallet, phone, a shirt. He wasn't even wearing shoes. He didn't tell John. He didn't hurt anyone at the ashram. He just left. But it's not Ryan's disappearance that made him the first poster child of India syndrome. It's what he left behind. Diana is paging through Ryan's diary of intricate pen drawings

and notes. Yeah, he's some amazing stuff in here. And that one is my brain map without chrono, whatever that means. Below this drawing our rivets, squiggles and circles making up what looks like a brain inside the brain are lines like flow or follow, not far enough and will you make it? But this Ryan's absolute last entry in his diary says as what labeled Ryan a victim of India syndrome. If I'm gone, don't worry, I'm not dead. I'm just freeing minds. And to do that I had to free

my own. That entry defined Ryan as a spiritual seeker, and you can see why. It's a pretty cryptic existential message to leave behind. But it leads me to ask why did the entry automatically label Ryan a seeker on

some sort of spiritual quest? I mean, if Ryan had been traveling through Italy at the time of his disappearance in this journal entry was found, what does words have the same impact, in other words, as the mystique of India and the mysterious phenomenon India Syndrome that's pinned to it, overshadowing the truth of what happened to Ryan. Here's the thing. India syndrome is a theory. It's just that a theory.

Even Carney said it was not an officially recognized disease, though he does believe, along with many others I interviewed for the podcasts, that it's a real phenomenon and a dangerous one. He also believes it affected Ryan Chambers, and

like other media outlets, penned Ryan a spiritual seeker. Obviously, Ryan's last diary entry about freeing minds but first having to free his own was cryptic, but unfortunately, because his message was found in Ratia Cash, a spiritual hotspot in India, it allowed authorities to write him off as someone who chose to vanish, and it gave the media free rain to identify him as a victim of India syndrome, which gave Ryan's tragic disappearance a closure his family still doesn't have.

But all of this points to a bigger issue surrounding India Syndrome, which is Westerners creating a narrative around the unknown, in this case India. But as someone born and raised in India, I want to get a key to his thoughts on India Syndrome. I had not heard about India syndrome before you mentioned it, before I started working on the podcast. I believe human beings love to label in order to understand, no matter how limiting that label might be.

Were you offended by it at all? I am a little annoyed by it by the term India syndrome because I have traveled to a few countries in the West

and my experience hasn't mixed. But I am aware enough to know that I cannot generalize a whole place, an entire country on the basis of spending a short duration of time there, and it depends on a lot of a lot of factors what make experience there would be So to sort of take this big, simplistic term and believe that that is a general definition of a place, I feel is kind of reckless and irresponsible. The Chambers

also think India syndrome is off point. I asked Aaron Ryan's older brother if he thought Ryan was a seeker, as the media claimed, called the India for some sort of spiritual quest. No, no, not at all. I don't think he was ever seeking enlightenment. It wasn't spiritual in that kind of sense. So I don't think he was actually seeking for anything. I don't think he went to India to try and finances to anything. I don't think he went to India. I think he went there to

check it out. His parents agree. Personally, I don't believe in India syndrome. It's just something that journalists pulled out of the woodwork, because people do go missing, but people go missing in other places. I think a lot of people like to go to India because it's mystique's but whether something takes over when they're there, I really don't know. But India syndrome is just a name given by someone and I I don't think it's an illness as such,

or I don't think everyone's looking for enlightenment. The Chambers don't believe their son was a seeker, and they definitely don't believe in India syndrome. Even though Ryan has been consistently linked to the phenomena, they don't think it had anything to do with his disappearance. Aaron recounts Ryan's last conversation with Diane. His timeline is a little off from Diane's, but the sentiment is the same. He called Mum a few days before he went missing, saying I've seen all

I want to see. I want to come home. He was scared of something, you know that that was unlike him. And I met an Australian guy when I was there the first time who was with Ryan the night before he left and said he was running around the Ashram grounds trying to fly, which is kind of weird, unlike him, And apparently he couldn't sleep properly, and he went into someone else's room in the ashram, not John's, but another person's and asked if he could stay there the night

because he was just afraid of something. The guy said, no, go back to your own room. And then you look at his journal. His writing style was great, really comical, like he'd described, things were happening in such a vivid way. As Aaron points out pretty consistently, this erratic behavior wasn't like Ryan. Even his final diary entry was strikingly different from the rest of his entries, which says something about

Ryan Steed of mine when he wrote it. But then the last couple of pages, this big scrawl across the last two pages in colored markers, just saying something along the lines of if I'm missing, I'm not. I need to free minds, but first I need to free my own. And it look like an alternate personality had written it or someone else altogether. But one fact remains a mystery.

Where is Ryan's body? After almost sixteen years, Ryan's body has still not been found, which is rare in Rishi Cash, where drowned bodies wash up from the Ganges River daily, and where the wooded areas of the Himalayas though vast and dense are as one interview, he said, teeming with eyes you'll never see. So could Ryan still be out there? If we got a call today from Ryan, that would be a whole other journey we're on because he's going

to be in. He's not gonna be the same person that left, So like, what does that journey even look like? And to be honest, maybe maybe it's better off if you don't get that call. Who is that person going to be? Yeah, it's not gonna be the person I knew fifteen years ago. Bryan's is the first story we'll be sharing on this podcast, but throughout the series, we'll be investigating three disappearances and one death in India, with each case unpacking a different aspect of our central question,

what is the cost of enlightenment? Are these deaths and disappearances the result of a spiritual quest or is there something darker lurking beneath the mystical allure of India. He woke up in a train station in India, had no idea who he was where he was when he was, his mind a bit basically white. And she was taking all the details and she said, oh a lot. Where did he go missing? And I said in India? She said, oh, India,

of all places, not India. India as such has been known as the land of mystics and mischiefs in the West. So when you put something like India syndrome, obviously you are catching ibots. And I guess you think about it. There's a bit of a mystique about someone going missing, right like what have they gone seeking? And what are they? You know, are they? Have they reached this enlightenment? Have they? Are they now one of these kind of mystical people

in India. If you have any information or tips on Ryan chambers disappearance, please reach out to Jog Chambers at Jock joc k dot Chambers, C H. A. M. B. E. R. S at gmail dot com. Astray as a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. Today's episode of Astray India Syndrome was produced, written, and narrated by Me, Caroline Flodder and Kita Nand is my co producer, and Gabby Watts

is our supervising producer. Special thanks to Tiffany Morgan. Astray was scored by Jason Shannon, was sound designed and mixed by Tune Welders exactly. The producers are Brandon Barr, Elsie Crowley and Brian Lavin. Thanks for listening, School of Humans