About Brahma Kumaris Research
Brahma Kumaris Research was established in 2014 as a collaborative project to document and explore the history, culture, beliefs and lived experience of the Brahma Kumaris. Bringing together historical sources, scholarship, oral histories and long-term lived engagement, the project takes an anthropological approach while recognising the particular possibilities and responsibilities of insider research.
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The Researchers
brahmakumarisresearch.org
Tam Ramsay-Grounds, PhD, Anthropologist
Tam Ramsay-Grounds, who publishes academically as Tamasin Ramsay, is an anthropologist whose research encompasses spirituality, culture, health, environment and human–animal relationships. She joined the Brahma Kumaris in 1984 at the age of 18 and has since lived and worked within BK communities and retreat centres in Australia, India, Europe and the United States.
She holds a PhD in Anthropology and Health from Monash University and has undertaken long-term ethnographic research with the Brahma Kumaris, including extended fieldwork in Odisha, India. From 2010 to 2015, she represented the Brahma Kumaris as an NGO representative to the United Nations in New York.
Her book Custodians of Purity: The Mystical World of the Brahma Kumaris is a triple finalist in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The book draws on long-term participant observation, fieldwork and her experience as an insider-researcher. Tam’s continuing research explores the lived practices, spiritual technologies and evolving culture of the Brahma Kumaris.
“A good history offers a thick contextual description to past events. It offers multiples standpoints, allows a variety of views to form the narrative, and also presumes that people who read it are intelligent enough to decide on its probity.”
Patrizia Heise, MA, Clinical Psychologist
Patrizia Heise holds a Master’s degree in ethnology and comparative religion from Berlin and studied psychology and Jungian analysis in Zurich, Switzerland. She has practised Raja Yoga since the 1980s and lives with her family in Freiburg, Germany, where she runs her own psychoanalytic practice.
She teaches at the Jung Institute and has a particular interest in integrating spirituality and psychotherapy, processes of transformation, and contemporary spirituality in Eastern and Western traditions.
Wendy Sargent, PhD, Sociologist
Wendy Sargent was a sociologist and long-standing member of the Brahma Kumaris, which she joined in the mid-1970s. She lived and worked with BK communities internationally, including in Israel and Japan, and completed doctoral research in sociology.
In 2008, Wendy was appointed to undertake a historical reappraisal of the Brahma Kumaris following the rediscovery of early documents relating to the movement. She began gathering and examining historical materials, conducting research and developing a detailed chronology of the organisation's early history.
Wendy's archival and historical work became an important foundation for Brahma Kumaris Research. Following her death in 2010, her collected materials and unfinished work were inherited by Tamasin Ramsay and have continued to inform the development of this project. This website seeks, in part, to preserve and build upon Wendy's commitment to documenting the history of the Brahma Kumaris through primary sources and careful research.
“Sensitivity to criticism of the Brahma Kumaris need not cause us to water down the story and make it seem much less than it is.”
Linda Persson, BA (Honours), Oral Historian
Linda joined the Brahma Kumaris in 2004, when she began living and working at a retreat centre in Australia. Prior to this, she worked for twenty-five years in landscape gardening and horticulture.
Linda later returned to university, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and studied sociology, political science, library management, history and environmental management at graduate level. Her interest in social anthropology led to a teaching and research position in New Zealand, and she subsequently established an oral history practice integrating her professional skills, life experience and personal interests.
As part of Brahma Kumaris Research, Linda began recording interviews with BK Raja Yogis in Australia, contributing an oral-history dimension to the project.
“Oral History is a way to capturing and acknowledging peoples stories which are powerful tools of learning and teaching. Oral histories pass on culture, tradition and meaning through lessons learned, memories, narratives and life philosophies to others.”
Additional Authors
There are a number of others who are contributing and offering feedback to this website. Their contributions are greatly valued and we acknowledge their time, effort and good will in contributing to brahmakumarisresearch.org. Some, on the other hand, wish to be named. We are grateful for the historical work done by the administrators and members of brahmakumaris.info. Open access and the internet enable many to have an ongoing conversation, leading to greater understanding of this remarkable organisation.
Images and Photographs
Images and photographs here are used by kind permission from the Photography Department, Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu (Rajasthan) India and Art Department, Gyan Sarovar, Mount Abu (Rajasthan) India. Other photographs have been kindly donated by individuals.