In the 1960's Ole Nydahl frequently travelled to India and Nepal in order to smuggle cannabis, LSD and heroin back to his native Denmark, where he would deal drugs. Eventually, he was caught, arrested and jailed for this. On his release from prison, and despite not completing the required 3 year retreat, Ole Nydahl started calling himself 'Lama Ole Nydahl' and started to build up a cult around himself. The 16th Karmapa, who Ole Nydahl breifly met in India during his drug smuggling trips, said to Ole Nydahl "You are not a Lama. You have met many Lamas, but you are not one of them. What you can do is tell others about Dharma, but you can't act like a Lama". He also, for a time called himself 'Lama Ole Nydahl PhD', despite also never completing his studies and dropping out to travel and smuggle drugs. He does now seem to have dropped the PhD again though - maybe after being caught out!

"It's good to see so many babies. Our cities are in danger of looking like black Africa." - Ole Nydahl

Now, he travels around the world for free (all paid for by members of the cult he created) and has regularly been accused of sexually abusing his female followers. When confronted about this abuse in an interview, he replied "There’s no teacher-student relationship involved in that. They’re Diamond Way Buddhists, but they’re not my students in that moment. They’re equal partners." So, he clearly beleives that it is fine for teachers to have sex with their students and cult leaders to have sex with their followers.

"There’s no teacher-student relationship involved in that. They’re Diamond Way Buddhists, but they’re not my students in that moment. They’re equal partners." - Ole Nydahl, when questioned about him having sex with female followers

Ole Nydahl's lectures (which every follower is pressured to attend at personal cost) have been described as having 'prevalent militaristic appearances, right-wing political views and fierce anti-Islam rhetoric'. He also regurlarly claims that people born who are born in 'black Africa' have 'bad karma'.

"I have two fears about the global situation: Overpopulation and Islam. These two things can destroy the world, which otherwise would be a beautiful place. We can try to civilize them." - Ole Nydahl

Ole Nydahl's racist views, especially regarding Islam, are well-known. In fact, he can't see to go for more than a few minutes without saying something hateful about Islam, or non-white people. Many ex-followers (see the personal experiences section) have mentioned how his lectures are 10% the advertised topic and 90% hate speech.

"We can now avoid that we have in a few years even larger ghettos of foreigners, which is undermining our society." - Ole Nydahl

On top of his racism and white supremacist views, he has made ridiculous claims about surviving jumping out of a plane without a parachute and being able to make rainbows appear in the sky at will through the power of his mind.

"People are reborn according to their merits. So, if they have been great sinners, they will be reborn into a very uncomfortable and difficult life, for example in Black Africa." - Ole Nydahl