AlwaysColdHands thanks I'll check it out. I'm currently doing classes on Yoga International. Sleep yoga is fab making yourself super comfortable with pillows and blankets and being so relaxed.
I was just wondering whether the posters here were aware that yoga nidra was invented as part of the techniques recommended by the Satyananda yoga school, an organisation that was and is embroiled in a massive scandal relating to the sexual abuse of followers, including the sexual abuse of children by "Swami" Satyananda and other swamis and gurus at the school?
Sensible people, concerned about the sexual abuse of women and children within Satyananda have called for a boycott of all the teaching methods used at Satyananda (aka Bihar Yoga), including yoga nidra, until reparations have been made to the many victims and survivors of such abuse.
I met a teacher of yoga nidra fairly recently and her response to my concerns about her links to the Satyananda school was to claim that she felt very personally deceived by the abusers, some of whom she appeared in photographs with that were still published on the internet. She complained that she felt very violated by being identified in the photos and that people might assume she was a sexual predator herself or tar her with the same brush. She seemed unable to comprehend that it was not all about her and that many people's lives had been ruined by rapists and paedophiles within the school.
I struggled to understand how someone who had been so deceived and lived in the centre of a deeply abusive yoga school felt comfortable about continuing to teach its methods.
My concern about yoga nidra, apart from obvious concerns about the lineage of teaching being developed by rapists and paedophiles, is that yoga nidra techniques were designed to facilitate euphoric trance induction, a kind of natural high if you like. This in itself is not a bad thing, but when it is encouraged and used by people who associate with paedophiles and cults it can facilitate exactly the kind of brainwashing that results in people ignoring rape and child sexual abuse, when such abuses are committed by swamis and gurus.
I would very strongly advise that people boycott and avoid yoga nidra for the reasons I have detailed here.
I gotta say, I'll often judge a yoga class on how good the yoga nidra at the end is! The last lady I went to was amazing and gave everyone a little head massage during it as well.
@hoodathunkit
Many schools of Yoga have been subject to similar revelations recently (eg ashtanga) and whilst that means that I might no longer practice in front of a picture of Pattabhi Jois, or refer to him as Guruji, it doesn’t mean I will boycott a practice entirely. Same goes for Nidra. It just means that I will be hyper aware of these things and ensure that as I practice, and teach, I will amend accordingly. A practice that has such valuable benefits to so many people should not just be boycotted, it should evolve and be practiced in a more conscious, ethical and reputable manner. ❤️🙏
@ AlwaysColdHands
You said "Many schools of Yoga have been subject to similar revelations"
You're not kidding. Abuse is rife at all kids of apparently benevolent yoga schools and retreats.
I cannot force anyone to boycott any yoga practice obviously. I have sufficient experience of knowing people involved in criminal and abusive yoga schools to appreciate that engaging in rational arguments about these delicate subjects is fairly pointless.
You feel that the practice is so valuable that the fact that it was developed by a paedophile rapist is inconsequential. Your call. I'm not even going to try to debate the subject with you.
For anyone who is new to or unfamiliar with yoga nidra the blog linked to in my earlier post says it better than I could.
"Some Thoughts for Satyananda Yoga Outsiders
For ten years, I’ve carried around a little blue book called Yoga Nidra, written by (or transcribed from talks by) Swami Satyananda. It was produced by the Yoga Publications Trust. At home, it sits on my shelf beside at least twenty other YPT volumes, with their primary-colour spines flashing like a row of crayons. Yoga Nidra details a technique I first learned and fell in love with during a yoga therapy training in California. The practice has been profound for me in many ways.
But I don’t know how I can continue to use this method, much less teach it to my students, now that this testimony against Satyananda has accumulated. The notion of leading people into a vulnerable, trance-like state by using a technique that was invented by an alleged rapist who then validated it by correlation with obscure medieval sources is intolerable to me. The power and utility of the methods emerging from Satyananda’s legacy rest on an implicit appreciation of the man’s integrity, which is now under serious attack."
If people think that getting warm fuzzy feelings from yoga nidra is more important than little thing like child rape there is nothing I can say or do to alter their opinion.
For those who have not yet tried it, my advice would be to avoid like the plague.
I won't be boycotting any yoga practice that is beneficial to me despite the guru scandals. The point is to connect to our higher consciousness and not get swept away in narrative and perception.
The practice is beneficial no matter what a man on a power trip has done.
@hoodathunkit
For the record, I will take objection to your assumption that I think “warm fuzzy feelings....are more important....than child rape”. That’s an incorrect and extreme interpretation of my post, and unfortunately, I have worked with many agencies involved in paedophilia so that I do have more knowledge of this than perhaps the average person. So, I’m not minimising child abuse.
“Warm fuzzy feelings” is perhaps, I may suggest, also minimising the effects of a practice that nourishes & supports many people whom desperately need it. The teachers I know who teach Nidra do it in such a way so as to offer a respite and restorative practice to many people who really need it. With all due respect to them too, any practice is diluted and re-interpreted and many of them may be unaware of recent abuses, or its association with Satyananda.
I’d proffer that proposing to boycott it entirely is a bit like someone saying they wouldn’t take a medication or treatment for serious illness or infection if they knew the creator of it had later been found to have commmitted similar crimes. It’s not a way to reverse or negate what has happened.
I think the stance taken by Una Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli on the Yoga Nidra network site I recommended upthread is a very thorough one, particularly where they say:
“In response to the current findings of abuses within Satyananda ashrams, some have argued that this calls for a boycott of the yoga teachings of Swami Satyananda, in particular of yoga nidra, the technique for which he is perhaps best known. We can fully understand the concerns that lead people to draw such conclusions. We also know that there is a great deal more to yoga nidra than simply the technique devised by Swami Satyananda. Our perspective, as proponents of Total Yoga Nidra, gives us a professional and personal obligation to expand and liberate the potential of yoga nidra as widely as we can beyond the limitations of the practice devised by Swami Satyananda”
Clearly we have views at different points of the spectrum, and I respectfully acknowledge your view, as I hope you acknowledge mine.
For those who came onto the thread looking for knowledge & recommendations, I think it’s been useful for them to gain some awareness of this issue and different sides of the debate, as most people in a ‘typical’ Yoga class may have no knowledge of the complexity of yogic lineage and what’s emerging now.
In the studios and amongst the teachers I work with, gentle restorative sessions, meditation classes, sound baths & Nidra are the kinds of classes all selling out like hot cakes; an indicator of the stresses of modern life & I think it’s great that yoga students are discovering these tools and practices to help them cope.
I think the stance taken by Una Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli on the Yoga Nidra network site I recommended upthread is a very thorough one, particularly where they say:
“In response to the current findings of abuses within Satyananda ashrams, some have argued that this calls for a boycott of the yoga teachings of Swami Satyananda, in particular of yoga nidra, the technique for which he is perhaps best known. We can fully understand the concerns that lead people to draw such conclusions. We also know that there is a great deal more to yoga nidra than simply the technique devised by Swami Satyananda. Our perspective, as proponents of Total Yoga Nidra, gives us a professional and personal obligation to expand and liberate the potential of yoga nidra as widely as we can beyond the limitations of the practice devised by Swami Satyananda”
So Uma Dinsmore-Tuli is saying
"People are calling for yoga nidra to be boycotted because it was created by a serial sexual predator. I quite understand why people feel this way but I am going to carry on using yoga nidra because of reasons to do with expansion and liberation and whatnot."
seriously
Is this the same Uma Dinsmore-Tuli who calls her yoni shakti method of yoga "cunt power yoga"?
The same Uma Dinsmore-Tuli who endorses various tantric sex cults and "sacred sexual healing" where batshit insane hippies promote the idea that women can be cured of sexual trauma trapped in their vaginas via sexual massage and other sexual acts?
You can see Uma with a "sacred sexual healer" called Lady Cuntlove in this video
For the record I have no problem with women feeling empowered about our sexual and reproductive organs. I have no problem with the concept of "cunt love" or "cunt empowerment".
I am just sickened by the way that narratives around women's sexual empowerment and the healing of sexual trauma have been appropriated by cults.
@AlwaysColdHands
Do you believe that women can be cured of sexual trauma via vaginal massage?
Also do you have concerns about Uma's many associations with sex workers and spiritual movements that promote prostitution as a sacred path?
Serious questions
Love and Light, etc. yada yada great respect to you blah blah etc etc
Lady Cunt Love or whatever Colette Nolan is calling herself these days offers a variety of so called complementary medicinal (SCAM) treatments for various women's problems, and claims to be a sexual healer of sorts.
I chose the video with Colette as it shows that Uma refers to her yoga as cunt empowerment yoga.
I am not claiming that Colette is a sex worker, although certain of Uma's friends who claim to be healers do offer tantric massage as a service and would likely be considered sex workers by most people.
I have not provided their names here as I do not know their situations and whether or not they have been abused / trafficked / exploited.
Just a heads up
Racist, culturally appropriated sacred songs and ceremonies of native American, 1st Nations and other indigenous peoples are a red flag re abusive cults, especially when blended with "sex positive" takes on yoga / neo-tantra and other new age bullshit.
I am Yoga Teacher, Teach about Yoga Nidra,
Please avoid while Starting Yoga Nidra, Need "Sankalp" before doing.
The option of yoga nidra without sankalpa is also possible. If your goal in yoga nidra classes is to normalize sleep, then sankalpa can be excluded from practice. It all depends on your goals.
To start yoga nidra
If you are just starting to get acquainted with this practice, then your teacher should give all instructions for moving from one stage to another.
There are options for alternative express yoga nidra, lasting from 5 to 20 minutes. And although they can be carried out anywhere, they are designed for good knowledge of the technique of entering the relaxation state
Wow this is an enlightening thread! I must admit that the PP who wrote it helps with insomnia sells it well. However, I would feel affected by the links to abuse ... it’s awful that people in positions of power in the yoga community abuse power and abuse others. In my experience, I have heard some pretty crazy stuff from yogis and seen adults behave in the most bizarre, subservient ways around yoga teachers. However, yoga has changed my life, which is no exaggeration. Maybe it’s similar to the Catholic Church. Regular people with a strong faith shouldn’t be persecuted for abuse carried out by others...so complicated!
Is there any school of yoga that is ‘clean’? Vinyasa?
