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World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed.
And in this new series, we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school only to uncover a world she never expected.
I feel that I have no other choice.
The only thing I can do is to speak about this.
Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation.
You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realize.
World of Secrets the Bad Guru Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Ellen Garland is perched on the deck of a small research vessel floating on the high seas of the eastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast, Australia.
Hanging off the side of the boat, Ellen's right ear is flat to the water surface.
She's listening out for the unearthly call of a humpback whale.
I don't exactly know why, but I've always wanted to study whales and I was just captivated, absolutely captivated by these majestic creatures.
Ellen closes her eyes and focuses, because, of course, she's not just listening for pleasure.
Back then, in the early 2000s, she was a young PhD student working alongside some of the most celebrated whale researchers in the world.
And she couldn't believe her luck.
Sometimes they sing so loud that the sound will actually come up into the air around you.
And so to actually see these animals singing, I was off for a massive adventure.
I'm Hannah Fry, a mathematician who studies patterns in human behavior.
This is uncharted tales of data and discovery.
Around 34 million years ago, a group of whales evolved a new way of eating.