Surviving Modern Yoga

Grounded in investigative research and real survivor stories, Surviving Modern Yoga uncovers the physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by Ashtanga yoga leader Pattabhi Jois—and reckons with the culture, structures, and mythos that enabled it. The revised edition of Practice and All is Coming from Conspirituality co-host Matthew Remski Yoga culture sells well-meaning westerners the full package: physical health, good vibes, and spiritual growth. Here, investigative journalist Matthew Remski explores how cultic dynamics, institutional self-interest, and spiritualized indifference collude to obscure the truth: Harm happens in plain sight. Through in-depth interviews, insider analysis, and Remski’s own history with high-demand groups, Surviving Modern Yoga brings to light how we’re each susceptible to cult abuse and exploitation. He shows how, with the right kind of situational vulnerability and the wrong kind of guru, the ideas we hold close about ourselves—like It wouldn’t happen to me or I’d speak up for victims—fail to protect us. Remski reckons with his own complicity in spiritual power dynamics, and shares how a process of disillusionment allowed him to recognize harm. He does the same for readers, peeling back the veneer of yoga marketing to reveal the abuse, assault, and silencing perpetrated against seekers who trusted Jois as a mentor, their guruji—even a father figure. Each survivor speaks in their own words, on their own terms, reclaiming agency against an insular, in-group culture that enabled a charismatic leader’s devastating harm—and positioned him as its only remedy. Surviving Modern Yoga also includes practical tools to help readers: Understand how high-demand groups trap would-be targets Evaluate their own situational vulnerabilities Learn to listen for loaded, red-flag language Cultivate their literacy of cult tactics

This is a yoga book with a difference. In this guide, the authors embark on a ground-breaking exploration of the multifaceted challenges faced by yoga teachers in today's complex world. Drawing upon their experience in training yoga teachers, Theo Wildcroft and Harriet McAtee have compiled a collection of wisdom from some of the best-known and respected yoga teachers worldwide, including Peter Blackaby, Donna Farhi, Jivana Heyman, and Jules Mitchell. Through this collaboration, these experts address six key themes that resonate deeply within the yoga teaching community: critical thinking, honouring our sources, scientific enquiries, trauma, race and equity, and money and power. This book will teach yoga teachers what they need to know about honouring yoga's sources and surviving and thriving in the modern yoga industry.

Modern Yoga is a complete program of personal transformation. The book shows a path through the traditions of yoga, meditation, personal development and physical yoga practice. It is the work of one of Australia's leading yogis, Duncan Peak, founder of Power Living Yoga Australia.

Yoga is growing in popularity all over the world today, yet misconceptions about its original purpose and ancient roots abound. In this refreshing tale of the history of yoga, the author unveils the true heart of the tradition. A Brief History of Yoga is essential reading for all those who care about the past and future evolution of yoga.

A history of yoga’s transformation from sacred discipline to exercise program to embodied spiritual practice • Identifies the origin of exercise yoga as India’s response to the mania for exercise sweeping the West in the early 20th century • Examines yoga’s transformations through the lives and accomplishments of 11 key figures, including Sri Yogendra, K. V. Iyer, Louise Morgan, Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, Indra Devi, and B. K. S. Iyengar • Draws on more than 10 years of research from rare primary sources and includes 99 illustrations In The Path of Modern Yoga, Elliott Goldberg shows how yoga was transformed from a sacred practice into a health and fitness regime for middle-class Indians in the early 20th century and then gradually transformed over the course of the 20th century into an embodied spiritual practice--a yoga for our times. Drawing on more than 10 years of research from rare primary sources as well as recent scholarship, Goldberg tells the sweeping story of modern yoga through the remarkable lives and accomplishments of 11 key figures: six Indian yogis (Sri Yogendra, Swami Kuvalayananda, S. Sundaram, T. Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, and B. K. S. Iyengar), an Indian bodybuilder (K. V. Iyer), a rajah (Bhavanarao Pant Pratinidhi), an American-born journalist (Louise Morgan), an Indian diplomat (Apa Pant), and a Russian-born yogi trained in India (Indra Devi). The author places their achievements within the context of such Western trends as the physical culture movement, the commodification of exercise, militant nationalism, jazz age popular entertainment, the quest for youth and beauty, and 19th-century New Age religion. In chronicling how the transformation of yoga from sacred discipline to exercise program allowed for the creation of an embodied spiritual practice, Goldberg presents an original, authoritative, provocative, and illuminating interpretation of the history of modern yoga.

This book is the first study to engage directly with the transformations and adaptations of yoga in the modern world. It addresses the dialectic and ideological exchange between yoga's ancient precursors and modern praxis, and the development and consolidation of yoga in global settings.

The ultimate survival guide from Bear Grylls, former Special Forces soldier and #1 world-renowned "King of Survival" (Outside) For more than a decade, Bear Grylls has introduced TV viewers to the most dramatic wilderness survival situations, through his hit shows such as Man Vs. Wild. Now, with How to Stay Alive, Bear reveals to readers his full toolkit of survival tactics, from everyday basics like avoiding blisters to once-in-a-lifetime events like surviving a kidnapping. Opening with the most essential survival skills—assembling your survival kit, making a fire, building a shelter—and then moving on to more specific situations, such as escaping fire, dealing with harsh terrain, and handling medical emergencies, Grylls is a sure guide for any type of disaster situation. Readers will learn how to survive in a life raft, land a helicopter in an emergency, treat hypothermia and frostbite, escape from quicksand, and numerous other lifesaving tips. Richly illustrated with diagrams throughout, How to Stay Alive will be the definitive outdoor survival tome for years to come.