It’s so unfortunate that so many yoga studios, “leaders”, influencers and the like create such a problematic space and bad name for yoga. I do yoga multiple times a week and it honestly is wonderful and extremely beneficial as a form of exercise and mindfulness. I have had serious injuries due to sports and overuse in my younger years and yoga has been one of the only things I can do consistently to improve my health and stay active. The studio I have found and go to regularly creates a wonderful, inclusive, non-judgemental and, most of all, very focused on just the benefits of moving and regular practice. Sad that the pseudo-spiritual and overkill exercise cult places give yoga a bad name. The good places do exist, I’ve been to several. Also been to the places you’re talking about too, sadly.
Helpful and clarifying of why I never could get on board with the "evolved " yoga vs the breathwork, stretching and mindfulness elements of it. Thank you
Jiu jitsu schools can be very much like this. You know something is wrong when most of the students and professors believe in flat earth and/or other wild stuff.
I do yoga 6 days a week with a studio for all the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. I also read the Bhagavad Gita and the Sutras, among other eastern philosophical works. This guy is spot on though. Your personal reasons for yoga are great, but he’s exactly right talking about the teachers who will say such and such a pose will activate the vagus nerve, or doing this posture will heal parasympathetic nervous system disorders, and that’s all bogus, or at the very least not backed up with any evidence. Then you get into the breath work workshops that claim to be able to shed past traumas and emotional turmoil. Now, I do think meditation and mindfulness can help you process that type of stuff, but it’s hard to prove and it certainly shouldn’t be pushed as hard as it is in the yoga world. Look I love yoga and I will continue to do it and promote the practice to people I know, but I stop well before all the cult-y aspects of it. I’m also a man of science and work in healthcare, so I immediately counter all claims that are unsubstantiated. There’s plenty of good to come from yoga, but just like religion, it should be personal and should not come before your own autonomy and good sense.
Kudos, David. After I had covid in 2020 before vaccination was available, as a member of the hip community, The Conspirituality Podcast gave me a great baseline for critical thinking. I haven't listened in a couple years, but it was an essential resource for me.
Yoga has helped me tremendously. My understanding is that it connects body, spirit and mind. It has helped me more relaxed and live in the present moment. The practice has heeded to be less critical of others and of myself while gaining more patience in my everyday life. I don't preach it to others and I never was in a cult. Having said that David, you have mentioned you live in Western Massachusetts. There is a wonderful retreat center called Kripalu and you could treat yourself to a nice respite of some yoga, nutritious food and relaxation. No one will try to convert you or try to indoctrinate you. I am sure you have heard of the place and maybe you have been there already. Namaste!
I'm afraid that the closed minded like to throw out the baby with the bath water. Yoga claims to have specific health benefits based upon a long history of observations. It is not intended as a quick fix, as westerners always demand. This is also true of a other alternative medicines. You need patience and discipline to realize the effects. You who worship western medicine and Big Pharma tend to lack both.
Interesting conversation. I wish there was more discussion about the bastardization of yoga as it exists in the West, when yoga is usually practiced in the East as a decentralized cultural philosophy. There are cultish institutions in for yogic and related philosophy in the East for sure, but it's not as much of a toxic industry as it is here
So so glad he mentioned Teal Swan… She makes my skin crawl, I'm a licensed mental health professional and the bullshit she throws out is so narcissistic and the antithesis of yoga
My practice of yoga is to generally do it in front of my computer desk while watching videos like The David Pakman show. In its basic form, it's just exercise. I have a set of 15 poses that I do regularly and I consider it to be similar to running, spinning, and lifting. What I like about yoga is that I can do it while I'm doing something else. I listen to podcasts and music when running and spinning as well. I've talked to a fitness center manager who went to get yoga instructor training to get a certification and she did get into the spirituality stuff but she thought that that aspect was nuts. She said that there's this strange side of yoga that isn't part of the typical peer-reviewed research world that she came from.
The first lesson in meditation =cut yourself off from all sensory input. See on utube Ramana Maharshi Be as You Are Chapter 12 Experience and Samadhi =Sahaja samadhi-the unified field of awareness or Born Again.When the ego is destroyed along with its karmas.
With all due respect, you’re not doing yoga, yoga isn’t something you “do”. Yoga is a lifestyle that most people in the western hemisphere know very little about. What you are doing are yogasana-based stretches, but please, don’t say you “do” yoga. 🙏
This definitely happened with what was my favorite yoga UA-cam channel, Boho Beautiful. I loved their challenging yoga classes from years ago but now they have this podcast and they’ve gone all in on the anti vaccine, plandemic conspiracy and even the spiritual end times stuff. What bothers me the most is I myself am kind of a hippie at heart and am drawn to the back-to-nature elements and the left wing components that are anti big pharma and pro environment, but the wellness-to-conspiracy theory pipeline of today is all in on the far right QAnon-type nonsense.
@@astounded4546 If it's not liberal, it's not divine. New Agers hide behind "love and light" which seems liberal but looking back, none of them actually had any liberal values such as equality regardless of race, nationality, and sex. A couple of them even condemned LGBT people calling us degenerate which is just pure fascism hidden behind "love and light".
@@alphabetpeople2902 Interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing. On a certain level, I agree. I think that the root of all emotional pain is from the fear of not being able to express oneself authentically. While we’re all unique, that’s a commonality that we all share. I just wish that understanding and empathy could be encouraged culturally and not perpetrated politically.
David, thank you so much for approaching this subject. I didn’t know your guest, but will be checking his content after this video. As a woman in my early 60s, with many years of suffering unresolved chronic pain and fatigue due to autoimmune disorders (induced by stress, not hereditary) and having tried lots of medications with no results so far, I have been recommended all sorts of ‘new age’ stuff: mindfulness, cleansers, spirituality, diets, reiki, etc., and of course, yoga. I’m a 100% secular person and will never fall for any of that mumbo jumbo or any self-proclaimed guru, personality, influencer, swindler, grifter or people of similar stripes. Wake up, people, enough is enough!!!
I'm from India, and the first time I practiced yoga was when I came to the US. Yoga is way more popular in the US than in India, a mostly impoverished country where the majority of people don't really have time and money to spend on themselves. I must say yoga has helped me. It grounds me and allows me to be mindful and connected to my body. Yoga and meditation and exercise together help keep my anxiety at bay. I think it can be part of a balanced and healthy lifestyle, but overselling it as the answer to all kinds of spiritual and health crises is wrong.
The important point of yoga is that people can find a way to exercise/move their body in a way that they find joyful… Some do it for mental health, some do it for physical fitness some do it for spirituality… There's no right or wrong, there's just different branches just like there's different branches in various religions
This interview gives me the simultaneously pleasant and unpleasant feeling of hearing almost perfectly likeminded people. A difference of opinion might have been more inspiring, but there will be other opportunities.
I caught my ex-girlfriend having an affair with her yoga instructor. I told her I understood she had been brainwashed by him and wasn't responsible for her actions and that I would have no problem forgiving her. But she said she wasn't brainwashed, her yoga instructor just had a way hotter body than I did. OK. That may have been objectively true. But I still think she was in a cult.
Just like any physical practice, Yoga can become excessive and counterproductive. But if you are really practicing, then "balance" should be what it's all about.
I love yoga, I was involved in classes 2008-2013...I've kinda dropped off but still practice occasionally on my own but it isn't surprising to hear yoga culture is getting culty.
I stopped going to far east massage therapy for some of the reasons you discussed. I only go to western medicine pt for therapy now. Great topic, this is a nice breath of fresh air from the daily Trump drama.
Thank you for sharing real Truths! Yes, of course when I first heard about all this, I was in disbelief.... only because, "everyone else is doing it". It wasn't until I did research in the roots of yoga. Same with Christian "holidays" > check the roots for yourself! Don't believe anyone about anything... unless you see the answer for yourself. We live in a time where this is quite easily possible. Check more than one, REPUTABLE site, check historical docs, etc. The answers are there, waiting to be found! 😀
Several points here… A family member spent several months at an agama yoga ashram in Thailand in the 2010s. She had sexual relations with one of the instructors there and believed in practices they taught such as drinking your own urine. If you google agama yoga, the words cult and rape come up. Having said that, I love yoga for the stretching and mindfulness aspects, including positive visualization. Interestingly, it was a yoga instructor who first introduced me to the term conspirituality. There are definitely mental and physical benefits to yoga. It’s a matter of using caution and common sense, and knowing the difference between mindfulness and mind control. Sadly I’m no longer in touch with this person as she bought into all the crap agama taught. Another point… please don’t conflate massage therapy with conspirituality. There’s a big difference between therapeutic massage, as practiced by a registered massage therapist, which is extremely helpful for soft tissue injuries, and so called relaxation massages.
I found it interesting when I learned that yoga poses were originally derived from an organic, spontaneous reaction resulting from the manifestation of energy within the body in order to channel it, rather than a way to replicate the experience - a roots to branches approach rather than the inverse. Otherwise, it’s a great form of exercise.
The word "spiritual" is an automatic red flag for me. The word is inherently vague and subjective and does not connote anything practical or meaningful. People associate it (loosely or strongly) with the supernatural, and that's where things go off the rails. Anyway, my niece is a Reiki practitioner, despite my best efforts to disabuse her of that nonsense. And what nonsense it is! I think she truly (but wrongly) believes that she is channeling the energy of the universe to heal her patients. However, it ceases being fun and games when people with real ailments seek her for treatment instead of actual doctors. She once said that one of her patients has MS and then implied that Reiki is helping/curing the MS. That got me quite upset, as I hate seeing people wasting their time and money on useless treatments. But it's a vicious circle because the placebo effect tricks both the patient and the alternative medicine practitioner into thinking that what they're doing is working. My niece is a lost cause, but we need to AGGRESSIVELY teach kids science and critical thinking skills starting at a young age. There is way to much woo in this country.
Way to discredit Yoga. Yoga comes from ancient practices that originate in India. It comes from the Sanskrit word “yog” or “jog” which means to join. The goal is to discover the entirety of your being and energy. It is a whole body of practices that include not only physical and breathing exercises, but also meditation and just everyday actions (karma yoga). If you want to understand the scope of it, and it is vast, you should invite someone who actually has some knowledge of what it means
I think they were trying to discredit yoga as it exists as an industry in the west. I'm sure most yoga teachers in America don't actually know the philosophy and cultural history of it
He doesn’t discredit yoga nor is that the goal of this interview. The point of this interview is to bring to light the cultist segment in the yoga world that makes claims that are neither rooted in the ancient tradition nor based on modern evidence.
@@jmelande4937 Matthew Remski is a self styled yoga practitioner. There are a about a billion plus of those, including yours truly (and I have been practicing since I was a child). Just because scammers or new age bs artists are pretending to be yogic masters, doesn’t mean we need Mr. Remski to ‘splain yoga. He (Remski) makes several unfounded claims about what yoga is or isn’t. There isn’t enough time or space here to dispute those assertions but suffice to say Mr. Remski has a lot to learn about yoga. If cafeteria yoga is your thing, then fine. But then don’t claim to represent a body of work about which you know so little.
@william clarke yeah but Carter was above all a very good and intelligent human being who genuinely worked to make the world a beter place. Most of us are tw@ts and cun+s and end up trying to make everyone else as miserable and useless as we are by telling everyone what they must and must not do.
This is what I call MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!!!!! Anything that helps you to deal with stress, help with bodily aches and pains with the added benefit of learning how to breath, Yeah alot of people don't breath deeply, then it's fine by me!!! This world is crazy when Scientology can be considered a religion and yoga a cult! People seem to have WAY too much time on their hands.
American Yoga is not the Yoga practiced in India. Read Yoga Bodies by Mark Singleton, a history of how a lot of American Yoga evolved from poses inspired by western gymnastics and military exercises that Indians adapted. (Sun Salutation is a flowy Burpee etc) The idea of saluting the Sun is very old, but the Sun Salutations we do now (surya namaskar A and B) were developed by militant yogis who used their positions as holy men as a guise to train militia groups to ready for battle against British colonizers.
Our rabbi once said that if you used yoga as a strictly exercise practice, then it was ok. If you used it as a religious tie or a spiritual tie then it was not ok for Jews because it would violate our constant assertion that G-d is one.
No mention of the philosophical and historical theory of yoga and what it actually is, instead painting a completely inaccurate portrait and even smear of yoga practice.
Yoga done as a mere physical practice, without the context of the yamas & niyamas becomes a hollow shell. Knowledge of & adherence to these common sense guidelines would prevent much of the exploitation he's referring to.
Gday David, from Canberra. Just finished Jeff Guinn's book on Jimmy Jones and Peoples Temple for the 2nd time. Susceptible, gullible, needing love? All mad.
i have mixed feelings listening the speaker's message & not exactly sure on his personal yogic background: but within the yogic context, all yoga can not be put in one same box at all. because there is a huge gap between mainstream yoga & traditional yoga. Also, there are quite few yoga traditions, they differ in their selection of techniques. But certainly the 200hrs Yoga Teacher Certificate by a modern organisation called Yoga Alliance is a completely mainstream yoga phenomena which imho has created lots of problems like lack of expertise & mess. According to tradition, one requires a totally different level of expertise, often many years of personal contact & learning from a Master - someone full-time dedicated to yogic lifestyle. So, we have 200hrs minimum in mainstream yoga vs 12 years in traditional yoga. OK, these are probably extreme realities, of course we have mainstream teachers going for a 300hr & 500hr & more further trainings to upgrade their expertise & in some traditions 12 years has been diminished as well. But still there is a huge gap between the two, the one thing i personally know is this is felt only once teaching out there, now imagine a case in a studio in which all teachers are more or less same level under mainstream yoga alliance teaching their vinyasa style down doggy with music & namaste type fo thing, and another teacher who has spent years learning & practicing in a tradition teaching a completely different approach from zero. Well, most students when they attend the traditional yoga class they feel like this is weird & different than the rest, it is more profound, slow, calming, deep yet they tend to judge it too quickly & really get attracted to it or they feel repelled. there is such dichotomy. also there is unhealthy competition dynamics in yoga studios because at the end of the day they are a business & are run by people who do even practice yoga but are after profit because yoga industry is booming. so, there are many issues in the modern yoga world, i do agree. and there needs to be light on it by expert people who are competent enough to have undergone a long extended experience in both worlds: mainstream & tradition. i have heard a lot of criticism around yoga, but not so much constructive solutions btw. and that is the easiest thing to sit there & give your opinion as good as it may sound.
Sivananda yoga in Israel has a base in the Bahamas which resembles a cult. They convince Jewish people that Hinduism isnt a religion and that bowing down tp Hindu gods and chanting doesnt contradict judaism(it does)and that you can accept all religious figures and still be a practicing jew. The mind control is in the lack of criticism,they are separate from the European sivananda in the way they convince wealthy Israelis to travel to Bahamas and work for free. Sivananda is a cult. They offer yoga courses and teacher training at a cheap price cause they indocrinate . During the recent war in Israel they claimed to help but though yoga helps they were mainly busy with their Hindu practices that contradict the Jewish religion of not worshipping statues and people as god figures. They are supposed to be monks and nuns..etc. if you disagree with anything you are considered negative thinker. The yoga for kids course teacher is a big exception.That yoga doesnt involve indocrination at all and the teacher ia great. I feel i learned a lot but in hinsight a teachers course that involves 95%Hindu religion teachings doesnt really offer tools to teach yoga😮
Yoga teaches are certified, and, from what I understand, it is a rigorous practice. In the beginning of yoga, it's purpose was for fertility benefits as a central theme. This was in ancient times when western medicine was not present or accessible. So, now- what do you do, just take it out? It is meant now to compliment such goals, not quantify or guarantee absolute results. From what I am aware, the postures are explained historically and in a mature fashion. No one is going to suggest that yoga will cure your fertility problems, for example.
One day modern science will catch up with real ancient Yoga. At this stage science has not scratched the surface. Cutting edge stuff on "Consciousness is all there is" podcast by Harvard and MIT trained Dr Tony Nader.
🎯 The view presented here is terribly simplistic and ignores any yogic history beyond 70 years. It's a false paradigm to say: either it's 1) exercise and stretching or 2) it's a cult. It's a spectrum with a large and varied middle section.
Yes, sir. I agree, 100 %. One serious student of Buddhist Yoga is: His Holiness the xivth Dalai Lama of Tibet. I've met him in Dharamsala, H.P. India, July 1982, Jan. 1988 and April 1990. I met his Senior Tutor: H.H. Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, (1908-1983), July 14th, 1982. The Dalai Lama is one who is the virtue of Yoga Practice and the Link between Modern Science of the Brain and ancient practice of Hatha Yoga, of India. For those who are curious, q.v. the March 2005 issue of "National Geographic Magazine", pp. 1-33, entitled: "What's in your Mind", with a photo of: Tibetan Buddhist teacher & artist: Dru-Choegyal Rinpoche, all hooked up to Electrodes, to measure his brain activity. This is well worth reading. One famous quote of the Dalai Lama is: "Define consciousness?". Thank you again, Mr. Pakman.
Yoga is amszing but i think we can agree on some spiritual rules of nonviolence and what made me critical were rules of not eating onion or garlic.I am jewish. Also no deep discussion of what it means to be a jewish person facing violent terror and the need for self defense.. Also i am now vegan cause milk is allowed and yet the suffering of cows and the health problems associated with milk ignored. Milk is for babies and is specific for the species. Human beings who consume milk are not only harming cows they harm themselves cause it isnt the nutrition for adult humans or children or babies and yet Indian traditions dictate strict rules that make no sense. I also find coffee in moderate use is good for me .. The strict rules lacking logic indicate a cult and everyone who has no qualification can preach teach .those are also signs of a cult.
I've been getting messages for twenty years and I've never heard of anyone saying you should get more massage after being sore from a massage. You drink water after because lactic acid builds up during massage.
I was with you until you brought up the lactic acid. The reason you need to drink water is because the massage causes micro tears in your muscle tissue which results in inflammatory edema developing in your muscle tissue, which sucks water out of your blood and lymph tissue and resulting in a relative dehydrated state. The inflamed muscle also releases a boatload of kidney toxic myoglobin (Google rhabdomyolisis if you’re curious). That combination of myoglobin and dehydration can be bad for your kidneys and can make you feel crappy in general. Lactate is NOT involved. Lactate is a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism. Massage doesn’t increase metabolism enough to build up lactate.
Once we penetrate the deep levels of substratum and find the correlation between ourself and the manifold sentient beings , the animal and mineral world and part the elements .... once prepared and the quintessence brings forth the colors of the rainbow and all the animals become parts of the human composition and a elephant is a heart, a swan a ear , a alligator the pancreas , The sun gazer the pineal gland, the whale the lungs, fish the veins , the snail the brain and the blood the ocean, breath the fire ,flesh the earth , air the imagination. ... only then can we understand we as beings are one and so is our fellow creatures a part of our current state of being ness . Then you dig deeper into the secrets far greater and are not the mind I am vanishes . Ego is no more . All is a illusion .Vanity . The point is not the point it is the circumference of the point within the center of the point within the circumference of the center. Namaste 🙏🏿 And every time we eat
Yoga means to yoke - join. Join with some Indian god called Brahma. The exercises are to facilitate the process. Are the excerxises good for you? Yes it seems. But you can't divorce yourself from what it is developed for. It would be like playing with a Ouija board and believing since I'm not a believer it doesn't work. You're engaged with principalities and powers that are very dangerous.
This interview is disappointing enough that I stopped halfway through. I'll finish it later and see if there's a walk-back somewhere, but I'm not hopeful. The problem I'm seeing is this: many, many facets of life involve knowledge-hierarchies - authority based in 'advanced' understanding - and Mr. Remski has seemingly created a dichotomy in which any understanding that does not conform to or make sense within some status quo understanding of the world is cast as misguided, manipulative, depraved, and otherwise cult-like. It's a pronounced bias: an "I don't get it so it must be wrong" moment that doesn't serve anyone well. I mean, with all due respect to modern medicine, there is an unmistakable charismatic/performative element to it: the white lab coats, the ostentatious tools and offices, the insistence that patients must wait respectfully for the master and heed his pronouncements... It's common enough to see a doctor abuse his position of authority for his own interests, but when we see that we call it malpractice (not cultism) because we've bought into the basic tenets of the authority structure. I agree that there are manipulative practices intrinsic to 'cult' structures that one needs to be wary of. I disagree with the idea that we can label people or practices as 'cultish' merely because we reject what they claim to understand. That's just an exercise in ignorance.
Wypipo should stop appropriating BIPOC religious practices, and other wypipo should stop discrediting BIPOC religious practices for their community’s failures. Do better.
@@iadorenewyork1 Mysticism is about non-duality with the clear intention of erasing individuality which is insane in and of itself bcos I don't wanna give up on my individuality, not even in exchange for divine love. Why can't God just love us without taking away our individuality? But the insanity doesn't stop there, they actually use non-duality to excuse Hitler bcos apparently everyone is God and so nothing can be wrong. Believe me, mysticism is fascism. The only ideology that respects individuality is liberalism and so it's the only divine ideology/philosophy as far as I'm concerned. I even utterly reject socialism bcos it's a collectivistic ideology. All collectivistic ideologies lead to fascism, socialism is no exception. About a month ago, I wasn't aware that mysticism was the most collectivistic philosophy making it the most insane of them all.
It’s so unfortunate that so many yoga studios, “leaders”, influencers and the like create such a problematic space and bad name for yoga. I do yoga multiple times a week and it honestly is wonderful and extremely beneficial as a form of exercise and mindfulness. I have had serious injuries due to sports and overuse in my younger years and yoga has been one of the only things I can do consistently to improve my health and stay active. The studio I have found and go to regularly creates a wonderful, inclusive, non-judgemental and, most of all, very focused on just the benefits of moving and regular practice.
Sad that the pseudo-spiritual and overkill exercise cult places give yoga a bad name. The good places do exist, I’ve been to several. Also been to the places you’re talking about too, sadly.
Me too, I am a practitioner and find my yoga studio to be inclusive and science affirming.
Helpful and clarifying of why I never could get on board with the "evolved " yoga vs the breathwork, stretching and mindfulness elements of it. Thank you
Jiu jitsu schools can be very much like this. You know something is wrong when most of the students and professors believe in flat earth and/or other wild stuff.
I do yoga 6 days a week with a studio for all the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. I also read the Bhagavad Gita and the Sutras, among other eastern philosophical works.
This guy is spot on though. Your personal reasons for yoga are great, but he’s exactly right talking about the teachers who will say such and such a pose will activate the vagus nerve, or doing this posture will heal parasympathetic nervous system disorders, and that’s all bogus, or at the very least not backed up with any evidence.
Then you get into the breath work workshops that claim to be able to shed past traumas and emotional turmoil. Now, I do think meditation and mindfulness can help you process that type of stuff, but it’s hard to prove and it certainly shouldn’t be pushed as hard as it is in the yoga world.
Look I love yoga and I will continue to do it and promote the practice to people I know, but I stop well before all the cult-y aspects of it. I’m also a man of science and work in healthcare, so I immediately counter all claims that are unsubstantiated. There’s plenty of good to come from yoga, but just like religion, it should be personal and should not come before your own autonomy and good sense.
Kudos, David.
After I had covid in 2020 before vaccination was available, as a member of the hip community, The Conspirituality Podcast gave me a great baseline for critical thinking. I haven't listened in a couple years, but it was an essential resource for me.
Yoga has helped me tremendously. My understanding is that it connects body, spirit and mind. It has helped me more relaxed and live in the present moment. The practice has heeded to be less critical of others and of myself while gaining more patience in my everyday life. I don't preach it to others and I never was in a cult. Having said that David, you have mentioned you live in Western Massachusetts. There is a wonderful retreat center called Kripalu and you could treat yourself to a nice respite of some yoga, nutritious food and relaxation. No one will try to convert you or try to indoctrinate you. I am sure you have heard of the place and maybe you have been there already. Namaste!
Interesting topic and a good guest. Do more long interviews like this, please.
Once again I am moved to say all things in moderation, nothing in excess.
I'm afraid that the closed minded like to throw out the baby with the bath water. Yoga claims to have specific health benefits based upon a long history of observations. It is not intended as a quick fix, as westerners always demand. This is also true of a other alternative medicines. You need patience and discipline to realize the effects. You who worship western medicine and Big Pharma tend to lack both.
“Intrusive eye contact” I had no idea why she made me uncomfortable for years and I think you nailed it like it was obvious.
Interesting conversation. I wish there was more discussion about the bastardization of yoga as it exists in the West, when yoga is usually practiced in the East as a decentralized cultural philosophy. There are cultish institutions in for yogic and related philosophy in the East for sure, but it's not as much of a toxic industry as it is here
So so glad he mentioned Teal Swan… She makes my skin crawl, I'm a licensed mental health professional and the bullshit she throws out is so narcissistic and the antithesis of yoga
My practice of yoga is to generally do it in front of my computer desk while watching videos like The David Pakman show. In its basic form, it's just exercise. I have a set of 15 poses that I do regularly and I consider it to be similar to running, spinning, and lifting. What I like about yoga is that I can do it while I'm doing something else. I listen to podcasts and music when running and spinning as well. I've talked to a fitness center manager who went to get yoga instructor training to get a certification and she did get into the spirituality stuff but she thought that that aspect was nuts. She said that there's this strange side of yoga that isn't part of the typical peer-reviewed research world that she came from.
The first lesson in meditation =cut yourself off from all sensory input.
See on utube Ramana Maharshi Be as You Are Chapter 12 Experience and Samadhi =Sahaja samadhi-the unified field of awareness or Born Again.When the ego is destroyed along with its karmas.
@@tr7b410 Yeah, sounds like sleep.
With all due respect, you’re not doing yoga, yoga isn’t something you “do”. Yoga is a lifestyle that most people in the western hemisphere know very little about. What you are doing are yogasana-based stretches, but please, don’t say you “do” yoga. 🙏
@@mariMar808100%
Excellent. Ty
This definitely happened with what was my favorite yoga UA-cam channel, Boho Beautiful. I loved their challenging yoga classes from years ago but now they have this podcast and they’ve gone all in on the anti vaccine, plandemic conspiracy and even the spiritual end times stuff. What bothers me the most is I myself am kind of a hippie at heart and am drawn to the back-to-nature elements and the left wing components that are anti big pharma and pro environment, but the wellness-to-conspiracy theory pipeline of today is all in on the far right QAnon-type nonsense.
I'm thinking any version of mysticism is controlled opposition. Not at all liberal.
Is it possible that your devoutness against the right may have compromised your assessment of balance and objective scrutiny?
@@alphabetpeople2902 That doesn’t leave much room to grow, much less, wonder.
@@astounded4546 If it's not liberal, it's not divine. New Agers hide behind "love and light" which seems liberal but looking back, none of them actually had any liberal values such as equality regardless of race, nationality, and sex. A couple of them even condemned LGBT people calling us degenerate which is just pure fascism hidden behind "love and light".
@@alphabetpeople2902 Interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing. On a certain level, I agree. I think that the root of all emotional pain is from the fear of not being able to express oneself authentically. While we’re all unique, that’s a commonality that we all share. I just wish that understanding and empathy could be encouraged culturally and not perpetrated politically.
David, thank you so much for approaching this subject. I didn’t know your guest, but will be checking his content after this video.
As a woman in my early 60s, with many years of suffering unresolved chronic pain and fatigue due to autoimmune disorders (induced by stress, not hereditary) and having tried lots of medications with no results so far, I have been recommended all sorts of ‘new age’ stuff: mindfulness, cleansers, spirituality, diets, reiki, etc., and of course, yoga. I’m a 100% secular person and will never fall for any of that mumbo jumbo or any self-proclaimed guru, personality, influencer, swindler, grifter or people of similar stripes. Wake up, people, enough is enough!!!
Conspirituality podcast is fascinating.
Love love love the Conspirituality Podcast. Awesome to see David and Matthew meet!
I'm from India, and the first time I practiced yoga was when I came to the US. Yoga is way more popular in the US than in India, a mostly impoverished country where the majority of people don't really have time and money to spend on themselves. I must say yoga has helped me. It grounds me and allows me to be mindful and connected to my body. Yoga and meditation and exercise together help keep my anxiety at bay. I think it can be part of a balanced and healthy lifestyle, but overselling it as the answer to all kinds of spiritual and health crises is wrong.
The important point of yoga is that people can find a way to exercise/move their body in a way that they find joyful… Some do it for mental health, some do it for physical fitness some do it for spirituality… There's no right or wrong, there's just different branches just like there's different branches in various religions
Personally I wish a doctor would suggest more solutions to feel better, for example stretching.
Great! Very insightful.
This interview gives me the simultaneously pleasant and unpleasant feeling of hearing almost perfectly likeminded people. A difference of opinion might have been more inspiring, but there will be other opportunities.
I caught my ex-girlfriend having an affair with her yoga instructor. I told her I understood she had been brainwashed by him and wasn't responsible for her actions and that I would have no problem forgiving her. But she said she wasn't brainwashed, her yoga instructor just had a way hotter body than I did. OK. That may have been objectively true. But I still think she was in a cult.
Just like any physical practice, Yoga can become excessive and counterproductive. But if you are really practicing, then "balance" should be what it's all about.
I love yoga, I was involved in classes 2008-2013...I've kinda dropped off but still practice occasionally on my own but it isn't surprising to hear yoga culture is getting culty.
Interesting interview
I stopped going to far east massage therapy for some of the reasons you discussed. I only go to western medicine pt for therapy now. Great topic, this is a nice breath of fresh air from the daily Trump drama.
You MUST interview him again! So, what was that link between yoga and fascism!?!? I must know!!!
I think that form fitting yoga leggings may be a significant factor for a considerable portion of the market.
Thank you for sharing real Truths!
Yes, of course when I first heard about all this, I was in disbelief.... only because, "everyone else is doing it".
It wasn't until I did research in the roots of yoga. Same with Christian "holidays" > check the roots for yourself! Don't believe anyone about anything... unless you see the answer for yourself. We live in a time where this is quite easily possible. Check more than one, REPUTABLE site, check historical docs, etc. The answers are there, waiting to be found! 😀
Several points here… A family member spent several months at an agama yoga ashram in Thailand in the 2010s. She had sexual relations with one of the instructors there and believed in practices they taught such as drinking your own urine. If you google agama yoga, the words cult and rape come up.
Having said that, I love yoga for the stretching and mindfulness aspects, including positive visualization. Interestingly, it was a yoga instructor who first introduced me to the term conspirituality. There are definitely mental and physical benefits to yoga. It’s a matter of using caution and common sense, and knowing the difference between mindfulness and mind control. Sadly I’m no longer in touch with this person as she bought into all the crap agama taught.
Another point… please don’t conflate massage therapy with conspirituality. There’s a big difference between therapeutic massage, as practiced by a registered massage therapist, which is extremely helpful for soft tissue injuries, and so called relaxation massages.
Interesting vid. Thanks, David.
I found it interesting when I learned that yoga poses were originally derived from an organic, spontaneous reaction resulting from the manifestation of energy within the body in order to channel it, rather than a way to replicate the experience - a roots to branches approach rather than the inverse. Otherwise, it’s a great form of exercise.
The word "spiritual" is an automatic red flag for me. The word is inherently vague and subjective and does not connote anything practical or meaningful. People associate it (loosely or strongly) with the supernatural, and that's where things go off the rails.
Anyway, my niece is a Reiki practitioner, despite my best efforts to disabuse her of that nonsense. And what nonsense it is! I think she truly (but wrongly) believes that she is channeling the energy of the universe to heal her patients. However, it ceases being fun and games when people with real ailments seek her for treatment instead of actual doctors. She once said that one of her patients has MS and then implied that Reiki is helping/curing the MS. That got me quite upset, as I hate seeing people wasting their time and money on useless treatments. But it's a vicious circle because the placebo effect tricks both the patient and the alternative medicine practitioner into thinking that what they're doing is working. My niece is a lost cause, but we need to AGGRESSIVELY teach kids science and critical thinking skills starting at a young age. There is way to much woo in this country.
Way to discredit Yoga. Yoga comes from ancient practices that originate in India. It comes from the Sanskrit word “yog” or “jog” which means to join. The goal is to discover the entirety of your being and energy. It is a whole body of practices that include not only physical and breathing exercises, but also meditation and just everyday actions (karma yoga). If you want to understand the scope of it, and it is vast, you should invite someone who actually has some knowledge of what it means
I think they were trying to discredit yoga as it exists as an industry in the west. I'm sure most yoga teachers in America don't actually know the philosophy and cultural history of it
@@darcybhaiwala7057 Dude, no offense, but if Matthew Remski doesn't qualify as an expert on yoga very few people in the world do.
Did you watch the whole interview or are you a self-conscious wu salesperson?
He doesn’t discredit yoga nor is that the goal of this interview. The point of this interview is to bring to light the cultist segment in the yoga world that makes claims that are neither rooted in the ancient tradition nor based on modern evidence.
@@jmelande4937 Matthew Remski is a self styled yoga practitioner. There are a about a billion plus of those, including yours truly (and I have been practicing since I was a child). Just because scammers or new age bs artists are pretending to be yogic masters, doesn’t mean we need Mr. Remski to ‘splain yoga. He (Remski) makes several unfounded claims about what yoga is or isn’t. There isn’t enough time or space here to dispute those assertions but suffice to say Mr. Remski has a lot to learn about yoga. If cafeteria yoga is your thing, then fine. But then don’t claim to represent a body of work about which you know so little.
As far as this goes, what is the difference between a Southern Baptist congregation and a cult? Correct answer; none.
Not all of them are cultish. Carter is a serious Baptist, not a "holy roller".
@william clarke yeah but Carter was above all a very good and intelligent human being who genuinely worked to make the world a beter place. Most of us are tw@ts and cun+s and end up trying to make everyone else as miserable and useless as we are by telling everyone what they must and must not do.
This is what I call MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!!!!! Anything that helps you to deal with stress, help with bodily aches and pains with the added benefit of learning how to breath, Yeah alot of people don't breath deeply, then it's fine by me!!! This world is crazy when Scientology can be considered a religion and yoga a cult! People seem to have WAY too much time on their hands.
American Yoga is not the Yoga practiced in India. Read Yoga Bodies by Mark Singleton, a history of how a lot of American Yoga evolved from poses inspired by western gymnastics and military exercises that Indians adapted. (Sun Salutation is a flowy Burpee etc) The idea of saluting the Sun is very old, but the Sun Salutations we do now (surya namaskar A and B) were developed by militant yogis who used their positions as holy men as a guise to train militia groups to ready for battle against British colonizers.
Same as there are most likely a few honest republicans out there. A few.
Our rabbi once said that if you used yoga as a strictly exercise practice, then it was ok. If you used it as a religious tie or a spiritual tie then it was not ok for Jews because it would violate our constant assertion that G-d is one.
@@jesse_cole FY
No mention of the philosophical and historical theory of yoga and what it actually is, instead painting a completely inaccurate portrait and even smear of yoga practice.
Yoga done as a mere physical practice, without the context of the yamas & niyamas becomes a hollow shell. Knowledge of & adherence to these common sense guidelines would prevent much of the exploitation he's referring to.
Hahaha ha so right on with the lack of humor.
David, every religion is a cult. Only because the established ones have more years under the belt does not change that fact!
Gday David, from Canberra. Just finished Jeff Guinn's book on Jimmy Jones and Peoples Temple for the 2nd time. Susceptible, gullible, needing love? All mad.
I often as myself this question but w regard to karate training & other martial arts. I'm also a practitioner. 🥋
Oh god! Indigo children are still a thing?
i have mixed feelings listening the speaker's message & not exactly sure on his personal yogic background: but within the yogic context, all yoga can not be put in one same box at all. because there is a huge gap between mainstream yoga & traditional yoga. Also, there are quite few yoga traditions, they differ in their selection of techniques. But certainly the 200hrs Yoga Teacher Certificate by a modern organisation called Yoga Alliance is a completely mainstream yoga phenomena which imho has created lots of problems like lack of expertise & mess. According to tradition, one requires a totally different level of expertise, often many years of personal contact & learning from a Master - someone full-time dedicated to yogic lifestyle. So, we have 200hrs minimum in mainstream yoga vs 12 years in traditional yoga. OK, these are probably extreme realities, of course we have mainstream teachers going for a 300hr & 500hr & more further trainings to upgrade their expertise & in some traditions 12 years has been diminished as well. But still there is a huge gap between the two, the one thing i personally know is this is felt only once teaching out there, now imagine a case in a studio in which all teachers are more or less same level under mainstream yoga alliance teaching their vinyasa style down doggy with music & namaste type fo thing, and another teacher who has spent years learning & practicing in a tradition teaching a completely different approach from zero. Well, most students when they attend the traditional yoga class they feel like this is weird & different than the rest, it is more profound, slow, calming, deep yet they tend to judge it too quickly & really get attracted to it or they feel repelled. there is such dichotomy. also there is unhealthy competition dynamics in yoga studios because at the end of the day they are a business & are run by people who do even practice yoga but are after profit because yoga industry is booming. so, there are many issues in the modern yoga world, i do agree. and there needs to be light on it by expert people who are competent enough to have undergone a long extended experience in both worlds: mainstream & tradition. i have heard a lot of criticism around yoga, but not so much constructive solutions btw. and that is the easiest thing to sit there & give your opinion as good as it may sound.
Sivananda yoga in Israel has a base in the Bahamas which resembles a cult. They convince Jewish people that Hinduism isnt a religion and that bowing down tp Hindu gods and chanting doesnt contradict judaism(it does)and that you can accept all religious figures and still be a practicing jew.
The mind control is in the lack of criticism,they are separate from the European sivananda in the way they convince wealthy Israelis to travel to Bahamas and work for free.
Sivananda is a cult. They offer yoga courses and teacher training at a cheap price cause they indocrinate .
During the recent war in Israel they claimed to help but though yoga helps they were mainly busy with their Hindu practices that contradict the Jewish religion of not worshipping statues and people as god figures. They are supposed to be monks and nuns..etc. if you disagree with anything you are considered negative thinker.
The yoga for kids course teacher is a big exception.That yoga doesnt involve indocrination at all and the teacher ia great.
I feel i learned a lot but in hinsight a teachers course that involves 95%Hindu religion teachings doesnt really offer tools to teach yoga😮
Yoga teaches are certified, and, from what I understand, it is a rigorous practice.
In the beginning of yoga, it's purpose was for fertility benefits as a central theme. This was in ancient times when western medicine was not present or accessible. So, now- what do you do, just take it out? It is meant now to compliment such goals, not quantify or guarantee absolute results. From what I am aware, the postures are explained historically and in a mature fashion. No one is going to suggest that yoga will cure your fertility problems, for example.
One day modern science will catch up with real ancient Yoga. At this stage science has not scratched the surface. Cutting edge stuff on "Consciousness is all there is" podcast by Harvard and MIT trained Dr Tony Nader.
🎯 The view presented here is terribly simplistic and ignores any yogic history beyond 70 years. It's a false paradigm to say: either it's 1) exercise and stretching or 2) it's a cult. It's a spectrum with a large and varied middle section.
Yes, sir. I agree, 100 %. One serious student of Buddhist Yoga is: His Holiness the xivth Dalai Lama of Tibet. I've met him in Dharamsala, H.P. India, July 1982, Jan. 1988 and April 1990. I met his Senior Tutor: H.H. Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, (1908-1983), July 14th, 1982. The Dalai Lama is one who is the virtue of Yoga Practice and the Link between Modern Science of the Brain and ancient practice of Hatha Yoga, of India. For those who are curious, q.v. the March 2005 issue of "National Geographic Magazine", pp. 1-33, entitled: "What's in your Mind", with a photo of: Tibetan Buddhist teacher & artist: Dru-Choegyal Rinpoche, all hooked up to Electrodes, to measure his brain activity. This is well worth reading. One famous quote of the Dalai Lama is: "Define consciousness?". Thank you again, Mr. Pakman.
I love this man. (Or these men, to be more accurate.)
Yoga is amszing but i think we can agree on some spiritual rules of nonviolence and what made me critical were rules of not eating onion or garlic.I am jewish. Also no deep discussion of what it means to be a jewish person facing violent terror and the need for self defense..
Also i am now vegan cause milk is allowed and yet the suffering of cows and the health problems associated with milk ignored.
Milk is for babies and is specific for the species.
Human beings who consume milk are not only harming cows they harm themselves cause it isnt the nutrition for adult humans or children or babies and yet Indian traditions dictate strict rules that make no sense.
I also find coffee in moderate use is good for me ..
The strict rules lacking logic indicate a cult and everyone who has no qualification can preach teach .those are also signs of a cult.
Learn yoga from a book, never have to go to some studio
Nithyananda cult interview Sarah Landry
I've been getting messages for twenty years and I've never heard of anyone saying you should get more massage after being sore from a massage. You drink water after because lactic acid builds up during massage.
I was with you until you brought up the lactic acid. The reason you need to drink water is because the massage causes micro tears in your muscle tissue which results in inflammatory edema developing in your muscle tissue, which sucks water out of your blood and lymph tissue and resulting in a relative dehydrated state. The inflamed muscle also releases a boatload of kidney toxic myoglobin (Google rhabdomyolisis if you’re curious). That combination of myoglobin and dehydration can be bad for your kidneys and can make you feel crappy in general.
Lactate is NOT involved. Lactate is a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism. Massage doesn’t increase metabolism enough to build up lactate.
@jmelande4937 thanks for the correct explanation lol.. they just made it seem like it was woo-woo to drink water after massage.
Yoga = Path
Depends on whether you think it is a firm of physical exercise, or a spiritual experience.
I have never heard anyone pronounce Möbius that way. Strange.
Once we penetrate the deep levels of substratum and find the correlation between ourself and the manifold sentient beings , the animal and mineral world and part the elements .... once prepared and the quintessence brings forth the colors of the rainbow and all the animals become parts of the human composition and a elephant is a heart, a swan a ear , a alligator the pancreas ,
The sun gazer the pineal gland, the whale the lungs, fish the veins , the snail the brain and the blood the ocean, breath the fire ,flesh the earth , air the imagination. ... only then can we understand we as beings are one and so is our fellow creatures a part of our current state of being ness .
Then you dig deeper into the secrets far greater and are not the mind
I am vanishes . Ego is no more .
All is a illusion .Vanity .
The point is not the point it is the circumference of the point within the center of the point within the circumference of the center.
Namaste 🙏🏿
And every time we eat
Yoga means to yoke - join. Join with some Indian god called Brahma. The exercises are to facilitate the process. Are the excerxises good for you? Yes it seems. But you can't divorce yourself from what it is developed for. It would be like playing with a Ouija board and believing since I'm not a believer it doesn't work. You're engaged with principalities and powers that are very dangerous.
This interview is disappointing enough that I stopped halfway through. I'll finish it later and see if there's a walk-back somewhere, but I'm not hopeful.
The problem I'm seeing is this: many, many facets of life involve knowledge-hierarchies - authority based in 'advanced' understanding - and Mr. Remski has seemingly created a dichotomy in which any understanding that does not conform to or make sense within some status quo understanding of the world is cast as misguided, manipulative, depraved, and otherwise cult-like. It's a pronounced bias: an "I don't get it so it must be wrong" moment that doesn't serve anyone well.
I mean, with all due respect to modern medicine, there is an unmistakable charismatic/performative element to it: the white lab coats, the ostentatious tools and offices, the insistence that patients must wait respectfully for the master and heed his pronouncements... It's common enough to see a doctor abuse his position of authority for his own interests, but when we see that we call it malpractice (not cultism) because we've bought into the basic tenets of the authority structure.
I agree that there are manipulative practices intrinsic to 'cult' structures that one needs to be wary of. I disagree with the idea that we can label people or practices as 'cultish' merely because we reject what they claim to understand. That's just an exercise in ignorance.
Line?! Cults?! Dunno what yer talkin' bout.
Hi David. Please also interview Sri Louise to get an alternative view to this problematic character.
I just use yoga as a form of exercise on my own on the floor in my bedroom twice a week. There is noting cult like about that practice
Nor does this interview insinuate that yoga on its own is a cult. It’s focusing on a particular woo woo segment of that world.
There is no line: stretching and breathing never needed mysticism. A doctor and a kinesiologist can help you with those things.
Wypipo should stop appropriating BIPOC religious practices, and other wypipo should stop discrediting BIPOC religious practices for their community’s failures. Do better.
This guy hasn't actually studied what yoga is.
Yup, mysticism is just another word for fascism. I've just realized that during the past month.
Wow, I totally disagree. One can exploit these things to try to control people, but that is not common, in my opinion.
@@iadorenewyork1 Mysticism is about non-duality with the clear intention of erasing individuality which is insane in and of itself bcos I don't wanna give up on my individuality, not even in exchange for divine love. Why can't God just love us without taking away our individuality? But the insanity doesn't stop there, they actually use non-duality to excuse Hitler bcos apparently everyone is God and so nothing can be wrong. Believe me, mysticism is fascism.
The only ideology that respects individuality is liberalism and so it's the only divine ideology/philosophy as far as I'm concerned. I even utterly reject socialism bcos it's a collectivistic ideology. All collectivistic ideologies lead to fascism, socialism is no exception. About a month ago, I wasn't aware that mysticism was the most collectivistic philosophy making it the most insane of them all.
LoL, people fighting at sporting events over their teams.... Anything can become a cult...... Biker clubs, music, patriotism....... Just saying.
YOGI