The Shock Report

Dear Gabrielle,
Sheesh! That’s about the best I could come up with in response to all that. I don’t know what to say other than it’s all just too overblown. I guess I just have a series of comments about it all.

1. The editing of the document: All the ALL CAPS and RED and Highlighting make you seem out of control. Very un-yogi-like in my opinion. In all frankness, an editor would be able to clear that up quickly and make it more professional.
2. The insights you have are no more or less accurate/insightful than the 20+ teachers I’ve had at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Studio or New York’s Lower East Side. Each teacher brings his or her own insights to each class and no teacher can possibly know everything or be able to express everything. They are perhaps thousands of insights one could make during a 90 minute class. You’ve got your 30 most important and are declaring everyone else either wrong or willfully deceitful. I don’t think that’s really grounds for any sort of revolution or contra-Bikram movement. In fact, no teacher sticks 100% to the script. Just about every class, a teacher pauses to explain one or two poses in depth with unique and helpful insights. Just like I imagine you do with your most important ideas. Otherwise, a 90 minute class would take 3 hours.
3. The Lincoln Park studio in Chicago has a philosophy of using 20+ teachers for all their classes. I’ve heard most all of the good stuff you’re talking about and practically none of the bad. In fact, I’ve heard, “if you can you must,” many times and never been told to do anything I can’t do. Far far from it. For instance, I had slight knee twinge and was told in about a half a second to sit out anything I needed to sit out.
4. You’re attitude, not theirs, smacks of “it’s my way or the highway.” You seem to know exactly how to do everything. The power of yoga, and to a higher level, the power of learning is much greater when one learns something on their own. The light bulb moment is infinitely more powerful when we flick the switch ourselves. In fact, I learned all by myself about what my limits were in triangle, and why I was unable to do it right. My hips were poking too far back because my groin was too tight to get down properly. Now, I won’t even move the arms anymore until I learn to sit with my hips forward and I eliminate the turn in my torso. I haven’t moved my arms in weeks and not one teacher has said anything to me about it. They know I know my body and that I just need to work the sinking of the hips on my own time. They actually love that sort of stuff because it shows the new people how to work at your own pace. I’d rather take six months to figure my body out than have you tell me. Aha, the journey is what’s important, is it not? Your attitude also seems to lack humility. Humility might even open you up to learn even more than you know now. Right now, you claim to have all the answers.
5. I guess you had some sort of “split” with “franchised Bikram” at some point. Not to be a jerk but, why that happened isn’t really all that interesting to me right now. You seem much too much like a saleswoman and not a yogi. It just seems like opportunism to exploit some small weaknesses or imperfections in a large system, and make them seem… “HUGE!” A giant yoga system is bound to have some imperfections, and maybe someone has experienced something they didn’t like, but your advice that they should run for the hills at first sign is way too overblown and disingenuous. Now that I think about it, a big “empire” like that is bound to have people trying to knock it down. It’d be surprising if there wasn’t, so I guess you’re filling that role.
6. The “If this has happened to you” warnings show a lack of faith in the yogis themselves. They all have common sense and can formulate an opinion on their own. In every class there are people who do it their own way, for better or worse, despite the examples of others, and the voice of the teacher. What I mean is if they hear something they don’t like, they can dismiss it. And they will. They don’t need to be told to “run for the hills” because the benefits far outweigh a few mistakes that might happen from one teacher or another. And yes, they can leave, and yes, they wouldn’t come back if it wasn’t benefiting them. Who would go through that heat and spend all that money if it didn’t change their life? Not me. If they are being tormented, they generally wouldn’t come back. Problem solved.
7. “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” I can’t help but think that. I’m really curious how you would be able to accomplish all that you claim you can accomplish as a teacher. I take it that you do perform the poses as an example when you teach? You also claim to be able to fix a rabbit in 30 seconds? My example above about my unique situation with my groin muscle in triangle would require your undivided attention for at least a little while to point it out. So, how exactly are you able to do the poses and watch everyone at the same time? You must be talking about private instruction which definitely costs more than $6 to $12 per class, on average. If you have upwards of 20, 30, 40, or even 70 people in a class how can you do all of this? Your claims seem to be extraordinary and yes, “too good to be true.” And since, “everyone else is doing it wrong,” I can’t imagine how much your services would cost for a private 90 minutes. The $150 per month I spend on 20+ classes is dirt cheap relative to the health benefits and, without a doubt, the best money I could spend.

You’re whole vibe is negative negative negative. There are tons and tons of yoga schools around the country who are terrible at teaching. Bikram has the lineage to back his claims up, whether they’re right or wrong. You should focus on tearing down the “vinyasa flow” guru instead of Mr. Bikram and his direct students.