After growing a devout following in Slovenia, the Chinese grandmaster Aiping Wang, a charismatic guru who claimed she could heal incurable diseases with alternative medicine, set up a wellness retreat on a remote corner of New Zealand’s South Island. V.I.P. guests were charged up to three quarters of a million dollars for a lifetime membership and access to the guru. One man named Warwick hoped Aiping’s energy treatment would cure his H.I.V. A woman named Suzanne spent $1.5 million for Aiping to cure her mother’s cancer. Then things began to unravel. In 2004, the New Zealand government stripped Wang of the right to teach. In 2005, a bomb threat in the city of Tauranga was traced back to Wang’s center. Soon after, Suzanne’s mother died “a horrific death.” Journalist Phil Vine takes a closer look at the cult in a new podcast, asking the larger question of how the “wellness” trend can have life-threatening consequences. —Paulina Prosnitz