tmdriver

Hi

I recently attended a lecture by Bikram in Seattle at Bellevue College. My studio (Bikram) was promoting the event. It cost $60 to attend. I have been practicing Bikram yoga for two and a half years and I love it.

The 3 hour lecture was held in a gymnasium and the audience had to sit on bleachers, ouch. The stage was set up as some sort of a shrine to him and the person handling the sound was neurotic about making sure it was perfect or “his ass would be grass” as he put it (it wasn’t, the sound system was terrible, lots of awful feedback). Bikram himself arrived about 20 minutes late, which I felt was disrespectful to the audience who paid a lot of money. He talked non stop for three hours, mostly about how great he was, his cars, his jewelry and all the celebrities he knows. Many of the audience members were Bikram teachers and they treated him like he was a god or something, often reciting sayings or phrases I assume are part of the teacher training. I love the yoga, but having first hand experience with the man himself really turned me off of the idea of taking his teacher training.

My impression of him is that he is a man who would charge people $60 to hear him talk in a cheap, uncomfortable venue while his every whim is catered to. Huge ego, and that is putting it mildly.

I would love to attend the training in Costa Rica, it sounds amazing and I will look into it. I’m not sure if I can make it work this year, so hopefully there will be another one.

TMD