I practiced yoga with Bill. Bill had led/guided/taught 25,000 classes (according to Bill) before I showed up at the studio. He was a healer, as was his wife, Sandy. Bill was an engaging character and he made yoga interesting. I listened but kept my discernment. I healed there for 5 years.
I have plenty of insights into those years, perhaps I'll write more. The distance from time helps. Bill was very influential on my life and present-day thinking. I want to share this memory:
SCENE: class in session. Full length mirrors all around.
... as you look into the mirror, see the glass. Behind the glass is a silver coating. It is against the beige paper of the drywall, backed by a thin cardboard, next is a half inch of gypsum, another thicker cardboard, a three-and-a-half-inch air space filled with insulation. Another layer of cardboard, half inch of gypsum, a thin layer of cardboard, beige paper, a silver coating, glass... and you are in Vicki's Beauty Salon (the retail space next door).
And ding-dong- dang it, if my mind didn't explode into what I had envisioned for Vicki's. I had never set foot in Vicki's. Later I did and my mental image reflected a Fantastic Sam's or a franchise type stylist - the one I'm most familiar with. Vicki's was a beauty salon not unlike others, but not what my mind blast gave me.
Lessons can be gleaned from this experience. It isn't about seeing through walls:
a) Don't Believe Everything You Think - This is the mantra of Synanon. You can look them up. Not a fan, but a great slogan.
b) How Suggestable You Are - I was NOT in Vicki's Beauty Salon. Yogis and Yoginis realize how vulnerable you are in a deep relaxed state. Hypnosis needs to be recognized and avoided. This example was a mind exercise I willingly partook with Bill's guidance..
American yoga is at a state a notch above the 80's aerobic craze (Imagine that - MORE oxygen is better). My experience is most people did Hot Bikram Yoga for the physical work out which was considerable. You got in shape and lost weight quickly. The series of poses was developed by a weightlifter, no shapeshifting, animal-headed gods, thank you. Bill made the difficulties fun. No one went home mind-controlled, as far as I could tell.
"Do you know elephants can't wear high heels? They don't have Achilles tendons."
"If you stretch your 22 vertebrae 1/22nd of inch each day, after 22 days you will be an inch taller."
"This town is a City of Trees designee because this studio exhales so much CO2 into the atmosphere."
c) A Thinking Process - Use the same technique when looking at a tree. Bark, xylem, phloem... I don't know much from there. Doesn't it make you curious to see what is inside a tree? Do you ever intuitively sense to 'see right through' someone? On the inverse, can't take your eyes off someone? We are all naked under our clothes, striptease is always enticing. Medical drawings look so much more interesting. Chain links are all inter-connected.
Unlayering, as an analytical solution to any problem takes a cautious step-by-step process to achieve resolve. Focus cognitive skills to slowly allow the next action to complement the last. Emotion has little to do with it.
Yogis in 6th century India were considered sinister, magicians, sorcerers. It was claimed they could possess a dog and make it run ten miles then emerge, explaining how they could be seen in two different towns the same day. Yoga, it seems, is the art of merging into your surroundings, inanimate or not.
Yoga has been beneficial to me on many levels, not sinister, and I still practice daily to healthy results. A helpful example from the past,
My best wishes to Bill.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2022
Sinister Yoga*
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2022
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