Bonus Sample: The Inventor of Yoga Teacher Training Was a Rapist Obsessed with UFOs

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.0 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda pioneered what has become a life transition ritual for the GenX and Millennial precariat: the Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) Programme. He was a cult leader rapist who thought yoga would help the world understand messages sent by UFOs. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.Not every YTT programme is bad—today's bonus host Matthew has worked in some good ones for over a decade. But on the whole, we're talking about an industry that has graduated up to 500K ppl over 50 years through a pseudo-educational process that has greased the epistemological pipeline towards conspirituality.YTTs are unregulated by any academic or professional consensus. They are driven by the anxious charisma of urban yoga studio entrepreneurs who need to sell big-ticket products to counter the rising overheads of the gentrification they're helping to drive. Their curricula offers a pastiche of uncited resources. They pad contact hours with sermons and meditation sessions. The typical YTT training manual is an unironic postmodern meat-grinder in which Iron Age philosophy and high school anatomy are blended with quotes from Carl Jung and Rumi. As an example, Matthew looks at a Jivamukti Yoga School manual from a 2007 training hosted at Omega Institute.Again: not all YTTs are bad, or lead to QAnon. But the ritual and charismatic pedagogy that most offer has a lot in common with the sacrament of redpilling—albeit more socially acceptable and aspirational. Conspirituality went viral in 2020. It's time to ask whether the YTT industry compromised a culture's immunity to it. Show NotesHello, YogAnon! Selfish Care Rituals | by Matthew Remski | MediumHow a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GENShielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GENJohn of Fraud. How did slack journalism and New Age… | by Matthew Remski | Medium Practice and All Is Coming – Matthew RemskiJivamukti sexual harassment lawsuit says the yoga studio is a cult.Jivamukti, Dark and Light: Holly Faurot, Sharon Gannon, and David Life Speak Out - Decolonizing Yoga Terry Eagleton in the New Statesman Re -- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Matthew here from the Conspirituality Podcast Team.
0:06.6	The following is a sample of the bonus episode we produce every week for our Patreon subscribers.
0:12.9	You can support our work and have full access to bonus episodes and other premium content
0:17.7	by subscribing for as little as $5 a month at patreon.com slash Conspirituality.
0:25.1	Thanks for listening and your support, which keeps us ad-free and editorially independent.
0:32.9	The inventor of yoga teacher training was a rapist obsessed with UFOs.
0:39.0	Well, that's a morbid Robert Evans type headline, but there's no lie.
0:44.2	Hey, everybody, it's Matthew here for another strict down bonus.
0:48.1	No music or poetry again this time.
0:50.4	Just one core idea, fleshed out as clearly as I can.
0:54.9	As I mentioned last time around, we're neck deep in a big project.
0:58.2	We can't quite announce yet.
1:00.6	And for me, this has limited the time I have for extras.
1:04.4	And also Omacron is starting to crush our province, and this means we'll be homeschooling
1:10.5	again in about a week's time.
1:13.3	And on that note, I can say from all of us that we hope you're bearing up okay during
1:17.3	this next wave of grief and helplessness, and that you have the support you need, and
1:23.3	that if it's not coming from your government, it's coming from family, friends, and community.
1:28.6	And speaking of support, thank you for your Patreon status.
1:34.9	It really helps us with this project.
1:37.5	It makes it possible, actually, so thank you so much.
1:41.7	The idea today is some history and then an open-ended question.
	...

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