@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”
It’s a very extensive piece that discloses their experience and involvement & suggests constructive ways forward, really worth a read I feel: www.yoganidranetwork.org/article/total-yoga-nidra-and-swami-satyananda-where-we-stand-now
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.
With much respect to you,
Namaste