Last Born In The Wilderness

[Intro: 10:23 | Outro: 1:38:01] In this episode, I speak with yoga practitioner, teacher, and author of ‘Practice and All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, and Healing in Yoga and Beyond’ Matthew Remski. As Matthew revealed in his article ‘Yoga’s Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories’ published at The Walrus, contemporary yoga has an appalling and pervasive sexual abuse problem. “Modern yoga has been fraught with stories of charismatic male yoga teachers who promoted their teachings as spiritually pure and later abused, or otherwise took advantage of, students who believed their mentors were gurus or saints.” (http://bit.ly/2SFaNT8) Not only is sexual misconduct and abuse an all-to-common occurrence in countless yoga studios around the world, “somatic dominance” (as Matthew has termed it) is often employed by yoga instructors to assert control over their students, creating a dynamic that leads to “trauma bonding” — a crucial process that occurs between cult leaders and their followers as a