Seen At 11: Some Meditation Leaders Offering Enlightenment Are Ripping People Off, Customers Say

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Meditation, like yoga, has exploded in popularity recently.

But as the art of being mindful goes mainstream, CBS2's Dana Tyler exposed how the stressed out are being lured in.

Lynn Parramore wasn't always this calm as she is now.

"Like many people, I was a stressed out New Yorker," she said.

And like many people, Parramore looked to meditation to help learn to relax. And why not? The benefits are well documented.

"It lowers your cortisol levels; your stress hormones," said meditation teacher Kristin McGee. "It helps you with sleep; anger."

So despite the hefty $2,500 cost of the course, for which she said she had "real sticker shock," Parramore signed up.

After all, how could she put a price on achieving inner peace?

"Towards the end, there was a ceremony and we were given a special word that was going to be the key to our meditation practice, and we must never reveal it to anybody." Parramore said.

That word, Parramore was told, was her own unique mantra that would aid in her journey to enlightenment.

"Well later, I did research, and it turns out they have a standard list of mantras and they give them to people based on their gender and age," she said.

And she said her only enlightenment was, "I was ripped off."

And she's not the only one.

"He told us the price is $1,300 to learn this, but it was just all so vague," another woman said.

"It goes into this culty, weird religion kind of side that I don't like," a man said.

The idea of meditation may seem simple – sit, focus, breathe. But experts said the practice is deeply rooted in the spiritual, with many different branches.

And there are some people looking to capitalize on the mysticism of the ancient practice, said meditation instructor McGee.

"They'll start to rope you in and they'll start to ask you for more money, and it's this whole lifestyle that secludes you," she said.

It's a model similar to some cults, except the leader is called a guru, said psychotherapist Daniel Shaw.

"In the end, if it's a cult-like group, it's always the same story," Shaw said. "The leader is delusional about their power and expects to be worshipped, and this happens and you're sort of brought into that slowly, so that by the time you realize it, you're kind of caught up in it."

Martial arts instructor Karl Romain, who has been practicing and teaching meditation for 40 years, said just like with anything else in life, you need to do your research.

"Go online, look at the teacher's history, find out about, you know, what other people are saying about the teacher -- what system or style of meditation do they teach?" he said.

Parramore said now when she takes a meditation class, she pays no more than $15 for it.

"There's no magic secret to it, at all," she said. "I know that. I paid the price to find that out."

There are countless meditation centers with the sole goal of helping people clear their minds, offering classes for as little as $5.

There are also many free online tutorials and apps.