What was it like to be one of Trungpa’s “spiritual wives”? Of the five who survive — one of the women, who he “married” when she was 18, died of suicide at the age of 34 — only one has spoken out. Leslie Hays describes persistent sexual violence, being responsible for supplying the master with cocaine that was said to be mystical medicine, and watching him torture a cat. Some of his top students bent over backwards to frame such behaviours as spiritual teachings, or divine jokes.