I found Australian cult The Family’s left-behind library. Here’s what their books reveal

For more than five decades, Australian cult The Family has sparked both fascination and controversy. Founded in the early 1960s by yoga instructor turned spiritual guru Anne Hamilton-Byrne, this New Age group – predominately based in and around Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges – was estimated to have numbered about 200 people at its peak. Many were from educated middle-class and professional backgrounds.

Hamilton-Byrne illegally adopted 14 children, who were raised, along with roughly 14 others, by women called “aunties” at a secluded property in Victoria’s alpine region of Lake Eildon. It was raided by police in 1987. Former child members recall strict schedules marked by spiritual exercises, minimal meals, and harsh discipline.

The Family’s leader claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. She taught an eclectic blend of Christianity, Eastern philosophy and mysticism. LSD use was central, used as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. When she died in 2019, aged 98, she left behind no formal written doctrine outlining The Family’s alternative beliefs – only a handful of (privately circulated) cassette recordings.

Determined to piece together The Family’s extensive worldview, I visited the abandoned Santiniketan Lodge, once the group’s primary meeting place, shortly after it was listed for sale last year.

In a small room scattered across stained carpet lay remnants of a forgotten library: dust-riddled books on yoga and meditation, histories of medieval saints and mystics, cosmic education, life extension and biographies written via psychography (spirit writing).

With permission, I gathered a selection of these books – 18 in total. I chose titles with similar themes, those referenced in past research on The Family, and books with distinct annotations or identifying names inside their covers.

One by one, I read them. Together, they reveal telling insights into the ideas that shaped Hamilton-Byrne’s eccentric teachings and were used to justify some of The Family’s more coercive practices.

This is what I found.

Yoga and eastern philosophy

Many of the books at Santiniketan Lodge were devoted to the practice of yoga and meditation: titles like The Collected Works of Ramana Maharishi, Autobiography of a Yogi, Science of Breath, and Hatha Yoga or the Philosophy of Physical Well-Being. Most were written for a Western audience. They would have once circulated among adult members for daily practice.

Prior to establishing The Family, Anne Hamilton-Byrne was a student of Swiss national Margrit Segesman, who pioneered yoga in Australia during the 1950s. Hamilton-Byrne would later go on to instruct her own Hatha Yoga classes throughout Melbourne and Geelong. Eventually, she wove this ancient Indian practice into the core teachings within The Family.

Hatha Yoga emphasises the connection between body and mind, with asanas (postures) held for extended periods to encourage strength, discipline and awareness. Central to yoga philosophy is the belief that a healthy body and nervous system are essential for sustaining mental focus during meditation and concentration. Hamilton-Byrne taught these principles. She encouraged members to adopt a predominantly vegetarian diet and abstain from alcohol as a means of supporting one’s “spiritual energy”.

It wasn’t just the adults who were taught the benefits of yoga: the children were, too. In her 1995 memoir, Unseen Unheard Unknown, Sarah Moore (published under Sarah Hamilton-Byrne) describes the monotony of growing up. Days began with an hour of Hatha yoga, followed by listening to Hamilton-Byrne’s recorded teachings, chanting mantras, completing schoolwork, reading Hindu scriptures and Zen philosophy. Three bouts of meditation were interspersed throughout the day.

Seeking the spiritual path

Dr Raynor Carey Johnson was a renowned physicist and academic, a former master of Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne. He was fascinated by mysticism and the paranormal. In his later years, he found a guru, or master, in Hamilton-Byrne. He became a prominent member of The Family during the 1960s.

Johnson had been involved with The Family for nine years when The Spiritual Path was published in 1971. The book was intended as a guide for “spiritual seekers” hoping to find God-consciousness, or a spiritual awakening – a state of unity with God.

The text blends familiar Judeo–Christian practices of prayer and service from the West with Hindu–Buddhist concepts of meditation and reincarnation from the East. Elements of Jungian psychology, particularly individuation, are paralleled with spiritual transformation across religious traditions throughout the book.

Johnson explains that once an individual has been initiated on to the path, “a Master will often take charge of their karma”. That master will remove negative experiences, or actions from past lives, to enable spiritual progression.

This is what happened in The Family. Hamilton-Byrne employed a rather distorted version of karma as a tool of control. Members believed without devotion to her, they would continue to experience the cycle of suffering on Earth until it was resolved, delaying their ultimate unity with God.

The idea that a master can resolve one’s negative karma raises serious questions about authority and dependence. This dynamic is often evident in religious cults, where the leader (whether guru, master, or priest) is portrayed as the sole gateway to the divine (or God).

Former member Ben Shenton, raised in the cult, recalls how his mother’s unwavering devotion to Hamilton-Byrne left her vulnerable to spiritual exploitation. She believed any challenges or setbacks in her life were just lessons to be learned, due to mistakes made in previous lifetimes.

Johnson’s goal of helping others find spiritual meaning provides a valuable foundation for understanding The Family’s beliefs. Yet these idealistic teachings stand in stark contrast to Hamilton-Byrne’s real-life practices, where control and power seemed to be the priority over genuine spiritual growth.

Psychedelic exploration

As I flipped through Satsang with Baba: Questions and Answers with Swami Muktananda, one major detail stood out: underlined passages in pencil, focused on the negative use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) during meditation.

A name was also pencilled on the inside of the book’s cover, marking it as belonging to one of the former children who grew up at Lake Eildon. To understand why a child might be interested in reading about a guru’s thoughts on hallucinogens, we first have to understand The Family’s relationship with drugs.

When LSD was legalised in Victoria during the mid-1950s, its potential benefits for treating mental disorders were promoted by a small circle of Melbourne psychiatrists, including Dr Lance Howard Whitaker, who would later become a prominent member of The Family.

Whitaker was able to get ampoules of LSD in liquid form straight from Sandoz. It quickly became the drug of choice within The Family and was administered to adult members (and children when they turned 14) during sessions known as “clearings”. It was believed the drug could help unlock unconscious memories from childhood or past lives, bringing buried traumas to the surface, where they could repent and be forgiven.

Satsang with Baba was transcribed from a spiritual discussion between Swami Muktananda and his pupils in India between 1971 and 1974. It was shared and taught among Hamilton-Byrne’s followers, especially the children, who admired the Siddha Yoga guru – possibly more than their supposed biological mother Hamilton-Byrne.

Satsang with Baba mostly addresses broad spiritual concerns from his pupils, but it’s Muktananda’s stance against the use of drugs to expand consciousness that appealed to the book’s owner (judging by the underlined passages). While it might offer a short fix, “one should be able to enter the inner world without the aid of these drugs. That is true growth.”

Traditional yogis have often dismissed drugs as a shortcut to God-consciousness. These underlined passages suggest even the children at the time may have questioned Hamilton-Byrne’s reliance on LSD, which she used as a tool for transcendence and control.

Other texts in the left-behind library included books on Christianity, Catholicism, theosophy and spirit writing – and Raynor Johnson’s personal copy of Letters from Mother: A Family Biography in Two Worlds.

The books I read helped me place Hamilton-Byrne’s teachings in a broader context. The Family’s religious framework blended elements of Eastern philosophy with familiar Christian imagery and interpretations, emerging at a time when New Age spirituality and countercultural beliefs were gaining momentum in Western society.

Its quest for transcendence often came at the expense of ethical boundaries – a pattern that would define its legacy and cause more harm than good. While this doesn’t excuse the contradictions and distortions Hamilton-Byrne later imposed on her followers, it did help me understand the appeal of both her teachings and the era that enabled them.

Caitlin Burns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.