Increasingly, more and more Americans are engaging in the practice of Yoga.
Men now make up 23% of the 15 million yoga enthusiasts within the US. “They’re in it for the exercise and the physical benefits—hold the chanting and the New Age vibes,” reports Newsweek.
But beware. Some groups called “cults” use yoga as a means of recruiting new members and exercise is not all they are teaching.
Some yoga groups and teachers are essentially interested in proselytizing. And if you are not interested in their beliefs, their yoga classes are probably not for you.
Controversial organizations such as 3HO and Integral Yoga International (IYI) may practice “yoga,” but they also promote a student/guru arrangement and religious belief system with an authoritarian figure at the top.
A plethora of neo-eastern gurus and “New Age” types are hoping to cash in on the yoga craze.
Health and diet “guru” Dr. Dean Ornish says “he has found evidence that yoga can help fight cardiovascular disease” and this may be true. But Ornish himself is a long-time follower of IYI and its recently deceased Swami Satchidananda.
So it seems that there may be more to the diet doctor’s regime than meets the eye.
Newsweek appears to have carefully avoided endorsing any particular yoga school or teacher, which is wise. But others in their enthusiasm regarding this pop craze have been less prudent.
Supermodel Christy Turlington’s yoga book praises many groups, which have been referred to less glowingly as “cults.”
Donna Karan once promoted IYI within Vanity Fair magazine, without apparently doing much of a background check.
Don’t make Donna’s mistake.
Researching a yoga school or class before enrolling is certainly wise. Most are perfectly safe places to exercise and get in shape, but some are worrisome.
“Check first, enroll later,” might be a good motto.
A quick rule of thumb might also be, if you see some guru’s picture on the wall, or religious statues in the entrance area or practice room, something more than yoga might be lurking within the instruction.
Newsweek says, “There’s a yoga bonus: the way it sharpens your mental game…the meditative breathing calms their nerves and hones their focus.”
Maybe so, but meditation can also render practitioners more suggestible. And it’s important to understand just who you are becoming suggestible to and within what type of environment.
A group with a hidden agenda can use meditation to download its program.
Again, the overwhelming majority of yoga schools and classes are benign, healthy and likely to be beneficial to their students.
The point is to be an informed consumer.
In an effort to establish meaningful criteria for judging yoga teachers the California Yoga Teachers Association has established a Code of Ethics.
This code can be a useful tool in gauging the behavior of yoga teachers, how they treat their pupils and conduct classes.
no comment untill now