Yoga

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Yoga consists of several different forms of exercise, meditation, and physical discipline that originated in India. What most westerners think of as "yoga" is actually only one variety, "hatha yoga". Hatha yoga consists of long, slow stretches, and is known to help dramatically with flexibility and stress. It revolves around several "positions", held for varying lengths of time, along with deep breathing. Yoga advocates make a variety of health claims about yoga, crediting it with alleviation of stress-related and cardiovascular problems, including asthma and heart disease.^[2] Some of these claims are substantiated: research supports reports of the effects of yoga on alleviating chronic back pain.^[3]

Inverted yoga positions purportedly "restore bodily fluids" to the upper parts of the body, since in normal posture gravity forces them to drain to the bottom of the body. Also, yoga allegedly helps to balance the "energy" in the body. As such, it is often added to alternative medicine regimens for such serious ailments as cancer and AIDS.

Beyond this, yoga is also an ancient spiritual practice, one that most of the practitioners in the United States and Europe know very little about. Traditionally, it is passed on from a master (known as a yogi or yogini) to a student directly, not in large classes. Jains regard yoga as part of the path to absolute enlightenment.

Although it draws on ancient traditional ideas, what westerners think of as yoga was not a mainstream practice in India or anywhere else until the 20th century, and traditional yoga would be unrecognisable to the people down at your local class. Yoga as a physical practice dates back to the 1930s and to people such as Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. It became associated with the rise of Indian nationalism and with the need to promote a physically vigorous Indian culture capable of challenging British physical strength; hence it draws on the physical-fitness culture of the British army as well as on traditional Indian sports and European gymnastics, with many newly-invented poses. B. K. S. Iyengar played a role in developing and promoting modern yoga, specifically his own brand of Iyengar yoga, which he began teaching in the 1930s and popularised in the 50s and 60s via his friendship with Yehudi Menuhin and in books such as Light on Yoga (1966).^[4]

Bikram yoga[edit]

Bikram yoga is a comparatively new flavor of hatha yoga, created by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970's. It's also known as "hot yoga", and is a series of 26^[5] yogic postures conducted in a room heated to about 40°C (105 °F) in front of a mirror. Sessions are extremely stressful, beginning and ending with purposeful hyperventilation and involving the deliberate straining of joints and limbs. Because of these elements, there is a serious risk of heatstroke or tissue damage during a Bikram yoga session.^[6]

Bikram is unusually rigid in its specifications, with precisely 26 predefined postures, and extremely litigious about unsanctioned practitioners or rogue franchises, going to great lengths to defend its patented series of postures. As of October, 2015, the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Bikram yoga's 26 postures are not eligible for copyright protection. Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Kim Wardlaw stated that copyrighting such postures would allow for the eventual copyright of "many routinized physical movements, from brushing one's teeth to pushing a lawnmower to shaking a Polaroid picture."^[7]

The founder, Bikram Choudhury, exhibited all the characteristics of a cult leader. He has a long history of making bizarre exaggerated claims: according to one newspaper profile "he claimed to have been invited to America by Richard Nixon, and to have taught yoga to the Beatles and Nasa astronauts. He once told a class that he invented the disco ball." And if that isn't enough, "he launched Michael Jackson’s career, cured Janet Reno’s Parkinson’s disease, was once best friends with Elvis, and had experienced '72 hours of marathon sex, where my partner has 49 orgasms. I count.'"^[8] He amassed a fortune of $75m through his yoga, much of it coming from training camps for instructors who paid up to $10,000 for a 9-week course that entitles them to teach his methods and use his trademarks.^[8] He has also been accused of sexual assault or rape by several women, mainly at his training camps; Micki Jafa-Bodden was awarded $6.8m in damages for sexual harassment and other charges.^[9] In response, he fled the USA and his American company declared bankrupcy, while many Bikram yoga studios rebranded as "hot yoga".^[8][10][11]

Risks[edit]

• Inverted and semi-inverted yoga postures increase intraocular pressure, so these poses are contraindicated for those with glaucoma.^[13][14]
• Hyponatraemia (severe blood sodium deficiency) from Bikram yoga.^[15]
• Like most sports: torn tendons.^[16]
• Practicing yoga is sinful in the Roman Catholic Church.^[17]

Crank magnetism[edit]

Perhaps because yoga is part of alternative medicine, it has also attracted instructors who push other types of woo. Yoga influencers Guru Jagat and Stephanie Birch have pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory.^[18][19] Buti Yoga founder Bizzie Gold has promoted anti-vaccination.^[18] Sayer Ji, who runs GreenMedInfo, has denied that there is a COVID-19 pandemic.^[18]

Alan Hostetter, a police chief turned yoga instructor, runs an anti-COVID lockdown group, the American Phoenix Project.^[20] He was at the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.^[20]

See also[edit]

• Ayurvedic medicine
• Dynastic gymnastics
• Neti pot
• Transcendental Meditation
• Yogic flying

External links[edit]

• Yoga, Inc., a documentary about the rise of commercial yoga in America. The film focuses particularly on Bikram Yoga.
• Bikram Yoga

References[edit]