Breath of Fire – Docuseries Review | Max

BREATH OF FIRE on Max is a new HBO Documentary in four parts. It’s ultimately a true crime about a cult and gets quite dark with serious consequences for many individuals and entire families. Read our Breath of Fire docu-series review here!

BREATH OF FIRE is a new HBO Original documentary on Max. This true crime story is covered as a four-part documentary where things escalate constantly. Not all episodes are equally strong, but there’s always something there to keep you hooked.

As with several other documentaries, we’ve covered, this Max docu-series is about a cult. It doesn’t start as a cult, but a yoga instructor becomes a guru and the head of the aforementioned cult. Just like a teacher before her.

Continue reading our Breath of Fire review below. Find it on HBO and Max from October 23, 2024.

From Yoga Instructor to Cult Leader

Actually, Katie Griggs, who you’ll see become a cult leader over the course of the four episodes in Breath of Fire, doesn’t even start out as a yoga instructor. Instead, she’s a YouTube astrologer who is still trying to find out what her true niche should be.

In 2013, Katie Griggs rose to fame as the face of Kundalini yoga, and then things began to – slowly but surely – move in the right direction towards her goal of becoming someone of importance.

She opens the RA MA Institute in Los Angeles, and as a yoga instructor, she wears a white turban and reinvents herself as Guru Jagat. In Breath of Fire, Guru Jagat’s evolution is being chronicled, but we must go back much further to understand, so an episode does just that.

We go back to the 1960s to reveal the secret history and origin of the Kundalini yoga practice itself. Including its expansion in the United States and its current presence in wellness circles.

From Katie Griggs to Guru Jagat

While the name Guru Jagat may sound like a person of importance, attaining this name (or title, one might even call it) isn’t as difficult as it may sound. Of course, Katie Griggs claimed to be the anointed successor of the late Yogi Bhajan. And that does sound very important!

Yogi Bhajan was a Punjabi Sikh who immigrated to the United States. The how and why are covered in the series, so I’ll let you discover that detail for yourself. In any case, Yogi Bhajan was the person who created and popularized a version of Kundalini in America in 1969.

As soon as you notice the year 1969, you’ll probably also realize that his timing was eerily good. It was a time when many people were looking for something new in their lives. All of them searched for meaning and purpose.

This resulted in them being part of a cult, which is obvious when they talk about it then. However, they clearly weren’t aware of how they were lulled in back when it happened!

As Guru Jagat, Katie Griggs was able to use another era. One where social media and a charismatic online presence can help you capitalize on virtually anything (just look at The Goop). For her, it was Kundalini which she turned into a multi-million-dollar spiritual empire.

When wellness turns into abuse

Unfortunately for both Yogi Bhajan and Guru Jagat, their empires couldn’t stand the test of time. Or even a little scrutiny. Promises of prosperity, physical health, and spiritual fulfillment were uncovered as a systemic culture of abuse that reveals the darker facets of wellness industry figureheads.

The drive for these people who become actual cult leaders is always the same; A desire for power and profit. And while Katie Griggs was clearly a well-intentioned seeker, she turned into a misguided guru and master manipulator as Guru Jagat.

Yet again, Breath of Fire is the kind of documentary that shines a huge spotlight on the connections between chasing the American dream, searching for self-invention, and suddenly being a part of a fanatical ideology.

In other words, it shows how you end up in a cult. Or find yourself leading one!

Watch Breath of Fire on Max and HBO

The HBO Original four-part documentary Breath of Fire is directed by Hayley Pappas and Smiley Stevens. It’s based on the Vanity Fair story by Hayley Phelan titled “The Second Coming of Guru Jagat” and journalist Hayley Phelan is also interviewed for this docu-series.

THE FOUR EPISODES CHRONICLING GURU JAGAT’S RISE

In episode 1 (October 23, 2024), we’re introduced to both Katie Griggs as she takes the name Guru Jagat, and also become familiar with her teacher Yogi Bhajan.

Episode 2 (October 30, 2024) gives us the backstory of Yogi Bhajan, and we hear from several of his followers and even a few of their children.

By episode 3 (November 6, 2024), we see how Guru Jagat is becoming her teacher Yogi Bhajan, and also repeats all the same misdeeds. This includes an increasingly erratic behavior of Guru Jagat herself as the spiritual leader of RA MA Institute.

Finally, in episode 4 (November 13, 2024), the online world that helped Guru Jagat grow is also used to turn against her. Not only discrediting both RA MA and Guru Jagat but also sharing stories of abuse. Then the pandemic hits and Guru Jagat becomes a conspiracy fearmonger resulting in both the deterioration of her health and business.

Through conversations with family, students, former employees, and followers, Breath of Fire is a docu-series that focuses on the stories of two prominent Kundalini figures. Yogi Bhajan and Guru Jagat – the latter being the main focus of this true crime docu-series.

It’s a multi-decade examination of the corruption within Kundalini yoga and a study of how to manipulate people. In other words, exactly like any other documentary about cults and those who create and lead them. I am utterly fascinated by those stories and this one is told well.

Breath of Fire debuts on HBO at 9:00 PM ET/PT and on Max on October 23, 2024. New episodes debut on subsequent Wednesdays until the final episode on November 13, 2024.