London, UK - Michael Lyons, 51, styled himself as spiritualist Mohan Singh and victims were convinced he was linked to the Dalai Lama, it is alleged.
But in fact he is a 'sexual predator' who raped and assaulted new or potentially new followers that he found attractive, a jury was told.
Prosecutor Philip Katz QC said: "We say the defendant, calling himself Mohan Singh, is a sexual predator masquerading as a Guru and healer.
"We say he has been systematically raping and sexually assaulting those new recruits into his group who he found attractive."
Lyons is said to have attacked seven women from 1998 to 2008.
Wood Green Crown Court heard the victims would be brought to him after female devotees had praised him as being 'enlightened'.
He would then criticise them and ask about whether they were sexually abused in the past, it was said. He would also convince them that he could help them, the court heard.
Bearded Lyons, who wore a purple robe in court, left one victim feeling drained and unable to move after performing a 'violent' neck twist on her and giving her acupuncture, the jury was told.
The court heard how Lyons was surrounded by a large group of young women who would follow his commands.
One victim, an American, said he raped her in July 1998, during a trip to London.
She said he had shown her a film which left her feeling 'in a strange mental state' before suddenly Lyons - who she knew as Mohan - was on top of her naked.
She told police: "I said something to the effect that I didn't want to be doing this. He offered me more spiritual mumbo jumbo. He also said something along the lines that I was a tiger or a dragon."
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had convinced her to stop taking medication.
She told the court: "I threw out my medication at some time during the time with Mohan because this person I believed to be affiliated with the Dalai Lama recommended it and I believed him to be trying to help me."
Another alleged rape victim wept as she told the jury how she had been attacked at Lyons' flat in north London in June 2002.
She said in a previous job in 1998 a female colleague called 'Gina' had tried to persuade her to meet Mohan. She said: "She told me he was an enlightened person. She presented him as a spiritual, maybe psychic person."
Having declined those invitations, four years later Gina walked into a gym where the victim was now working and they agreed to meet up for a drink.
They met and Gina had brought along a large group of female friends, the court heard, before they eventually went back to a flat in Belsize Park where Lyons lived.
She told the court Lyons had criticised her for being Buddhist before emerging with a burning frying pan that smelt of herbs and wafted it around her mumbling incoherent words.
He then beckoned her to lie on a massage couch with the other women still around and Gina encouraging her, she said.
Once she was on the couch he twisted her neck suddenly, before remarking to the others: "Doesn't she look better". He then told her to walk around the circle of women who made comments about her, the victim said.
She said she began to feel 'uncomfortable' when she was singled out for special treatment like being given a blanket and particular drinks to sip from.
She told the court she "suddenly" came to her senses and wanted to leave but was told Mohan wanted to say goodbye and beckoned her to the massage couch again.
She said: "He manoeuvred my neck and it was so violent I thought he had broken my neck. I was completely stunned.
"Next I saw him putting acupuncture needles in me. He hadn't asked me. I didn't want him to put needles in me. I was just petrified.
"The girls said they were leaving and I said 'not without me' and Gina said 'He needs to finish his treatment."
After the acupuncture she collapsed and felt like she had 'no strength' before he ushered her into his bedroom and raped her despite her pleas for him to stop, the woman told the court.
Lyons, of Belsize Park, north London, denies five counts of rape and three counts of assault.
The trial continues.