© Daily Life, Australia
The 'G' word has long become obsolete in the yoga world. We're much too smart to fall for 'gurus' and their connotations of sex cults, brainless devotees and robes so fugly they need a whole new colour wheel to describe. Besides, we don't need gurus when we now have 'super teachers', 'head of lineages', and 'founder of X-style yoga'.
The terms may have changed, yet the game remains very much the same. Match a charismatic teacher with eager and often vulnerable students, add a touch of human ego and just enough mysticism that students won't question any dodgy practices too closely. Wait a few years, then watch the whole thing end up in court cases and recriminations.
The latest 'don't call them gurus' to end up in hot water are Bikram Choudhury, head of Bikram yoga, and John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, one of the fastest growing styles of yoga in the west. Last year
five separate cases were filed against Bikram by former teachers, accusing him of rape, harassment, assault, discrimination and false imprisonment.
In the Anusara case, John Friend has been accused of mismanaging company finances, using tantric sexual practices to order to 'heal' a student with whom he was having a relationship, and misusing his power in creating a Wiccan coven (which he named 'Blazing Solar Flames') with three female employees. The coven's practices involved 'sexually charged rituals' which were meant to serve as a 'battery' powering up the Anusara enterprise.
"It was certainly never the way that I had experienced Wicca," former coven member 'Melissa' told Daily Beast.
Comment: Oil spills are devastating to the environment and also toxic for humans:
What Sickens People in Oil Spills, and How Badly, Is Anybody's Guess
The Consequences of 'Drill, Baby Drill': More Than 90 Oil Spills a Day in the U.S.
U.S. railroad oil spills in 2013 surpassed previous four decades combined
Polluted America