Tag: Yoga

‘Sex rabbi’ Eliezer Berland faces extradition from the Netherlands. A religious pirate radio broadcaster has been ordered off-the-air. And: what’s up with yoga’s popularity?

Also: information about the International Cultic Studies Association’s annual conference.

Once again a Scientology front group has been discovered infiltrating schools to promote the cult’s quackery.

Plus: the Scientology business is in full damage-control mode over Alex Gibney’s documentary exposing it to daylight. Meanwhile, it is using the dirty tricks its founder proscribed for dealing with critics.

Speaking of critics: we’ve got info about an upcoming anti-Scientology conference.

Yoga is a religious practice, but not the way this school presents it. Also: A heckler was video taped giving Benny ‘send-me-your-money-so-God-can-bless-you’ Hinn an ear full.

The European Union says you cannot have a religion or a belief that is free from criticism or ridicule.

That’s good news for Seventh-day Adventists, who believe that Christians who worship on Sunday are “daughters of the Whore of Babylon” and carry the mark of the beast.

And then there’s yet another look at Mormonism: religion, sect, or cult?

The U.S. Copyright Office previously permitted yoga poses and their sequences to be registered, even if those exercises were in the public domain, Laura Lee Fischer, acting chief of the office’s Performing Arts Division, said in response to an inquiry by an attorney involved in lawsuits the founder of Bikram Yoga filed against three yoga studios.

Bikram Choudhury, the millionaire founder of Bikram Yoga, believes his kind of yoga belongs to him — he has even copyrighted it.

Now, he has sued Yoga to the People for copyright infringement, seeking monetary damages and asking a federal judge to block Yoga to the People from offering its hot yoga class.

John Friend talked about the freedom of Anusara; it’s nothing like the more rigid schools that demand students repeat the same poses in the same way at every single class, nor is it the kind of practice in which teachers withhold praise, lest students become too egocentric. “Anusara is positive,” Friend said, resting his head on the back of his chair and absently caressing one of many highly polished orbs on an adjacent table. “It’s accessible. Easily applicable. And yet it has depth and sophistication.”

Consider those religions that focus on sin and damnation, on discipline instead of joy. “Fundamentally they say no,” he told me. “While Anusara is a yes.”

Yoga practitioners are criticizing a Missouri sales tax that applies to yoga classes, claiming they should be exempt because the lessons include spiritual elements.

Some practitioners think such a tax is unconstitutional. They argue that yoga, with roots in ancient Indian meditation, is as much a spiritual practice as an exercise routine and should be exempt from taxation.

Bikram Choudhury’s sweaty techniques are a hit with yoga studios. Now he wants his cut, writes Forbes.

Yoga is big business, racking up $5.7 billion in sales last year, and Choudhury has built a cultlike following.

Recent training costs: $10,500 per session, including $3,000 for room and board in Palm Desert, Calif. At two sessions a year, each of which draw about 325 trainees, that’s $4.9 million in annual revenue. To that add 15 speaking engagements, generating about $20,000 each in ticket sales, plus another few bucks from books and dvds. “I’m a yogi, not a businessman,” Choudhury demurs.

Now he wants another revenue stream: franchising fees paid by studios that use his name.