Yet here and internationally, the result has been that many devotees seeking higher consciousness have instead found themselves more exploited than enlightened. One of the most successful Sexy Sadies to apparently conjure a Seiko watch from thin air was Sathya Sai Baba. Proponents of SSB claim that after he was stung by a scorpion, he transformed into the god Shiva, and the god Shakti. Oh, and Jesus Christ too. Worshipped by millions who believed he could miraculously conjure not only holy ash but also a range of stylish fashion accessories with a wave of his hand, Baba was soon top of the guru pops in India. Unfortunately, in similar fashion to the English entertainer Jimmy Savile, who was said to have ''groomed a nation'', Baba was accused of having used his charitable works and celebrity in India to win his country's trust and gain access to children he then sexually abused. Two documentaries, the BBC's The Secret Swami and Danish TV's Seduced by Sai Baba, feature harrowing tales from individuals who say that as adolescent boys, they discovered Baba was as horny as he claimed to be holy. According to these stories, guru-struck Western parents would allow Baba to hold private sessions with their sons, during which, unbeknown to them, their children were forced to perform sex acts with the man they called God. The insidious penetration of the natural protective instincts of parents is a particularly disturbing aspect of the way in which some Sexy Sadies operate. To the promiscuity promoting godman Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, children were an inconvenience. At his ranch in Oregon, he instructed his orange-clad devotees to disown the direct care of their sons and daughters, making them easy prey for predatory paedophiles. The book My Life in Orange by Tim Guest gives a heart-rending account of the pain he felt growing up as the child of a mother who was a Rajneesh disciple.

In one particularly poignant passage, he describes being lost and unable to find his mother, who was drugged up somewhere among thousands of carousing adults at a Rajneesh celebration. At this festival, he says ''many of the kids lost their virginity, boys and girls, 10 years old, eight years old, in sweaty tents with adults and other children''. Of course, if you wanted to start an adult movie franchise called ''Gurus Gone Wild'', you might want to turn to some of the leading lights of Tibetan Buddhism for material. Perhaps the most notorious Sexy Sadie from this tradition was Chogyam Trungpa, who claimed to teach through what he called ''crazy wisdom''. This was basically Trungpa's get-of-jail-free card for any sort of outrageous behaviour he chose to indulge in. If you ever find yourself being chastised for holding alcohol- and cocaine-fuelled orgies with people who have come to you for moral guidance, you too could try explaining that you are just a wild and crazy wise guy. Trungpa eventually drank himself to death, but not before appointing his successor, a Westerner who adopted the name Ozel Tendzin. The bisexual Tendzin enjoyed seducing straight men by telling them it would be spiritually advantageous to have sex with him. At least one man who resisted the guru's overtures claims he was raped. Tendzin contracted HIV, but continued having unprotected sex with students, one of whom was infected with the virus and died. Easy to see the crazy, hard to spot the wisdom. A Tibetan spiritual teacher prominent today, Sogyal Rinpoche, has recently had an involuntary starring role in a Canadian documentary series, Sex Scandals in Religion. He is a short, chubby, middle-aged man, and it's not immediately obvious why Rinpoche punches so far above his weight in terms of the attractive young women he beds in such impressive numbers. As this documentary reveals, Rinpoche's secret seduction technique is to promise his targets 50 shades of spiritual advancement in exchange for, as one of his regret-filled former lovers characterises it, ''a quick lay'' accompanied by a beating. This particular woman was sexually abused as a child and sought healing from her ordeal in Rinpoche's teachings, only to end up feeling abused again and deeply damaged by the rapacious man himself. Sadly, stories of sleazy swamis could fill more pages than a bookcase of Kama Sutras. Increasingly, victims are seeking legal redress against perpetrators. But when searching for a teacher of Eastern religion, it is still a case of believer beware.

In essential form, most Eastern spirituality seeks to foster the highest levels of ethical behaviour in human beings. Both Hinduism and Buddhism tell us those who harm others through sexual abuse will be on the receiving end of karmic consequences. This does not exclude gurus who claim to be gods or enlightened beings, accumulating wealth, power and millions of followers willing to play along and sometimes pay a high price for their submission. As Lennon put it, ''Sexy Sadie - you'll get yours yet, however big you think you are.'' Mike Carlton is on leave.