Hello,
This is Russ. Sorry it has taken a while but I have been busy training my replacement and have been busy in general.
I know you are doing your best to do something good. I would like to take a moment and clear up a couple of things about the school.
Hello Russ and welcome to the thread.
Thank you for making an appearance, as I said in a previous post there are a lot of issues regarding your various businesses that it would be helpful to have some clarification on, so your participation in the thread is appreciated.
First, there is no sexual contact of any kind. Students are under strict dieta while on course. This is described in detail on the website. That is a normal yogic training principle for intensive work and is also common in the Andes, Amazon, and Mexican highlands. That includes anything up to and including masturbation. The original comment on the website with regards to Tantra was clearly stated as being related to traditional belief patterns in which all things are part of the divine. I am not going to get into a lesson about Tantra here but there would have been absolutely no reason to conclude that sexual practices even MIGHT have been a part of training from the website. Further, the website clearly indicates the presence of dieta. Anyone who took the time to read it would see that clearly indicated and it always has been.
Thanks for that Russ.
I always use a proxy server to check out websites and I would be grateful if you could please provide a link to the page you refer to as I could not see it the last time I checked. This could just be a problem with my proxy settings, but I would like to check out the information that you describe and a link to the page would be appreciated. Thanks.
You clearly advertised Tantra as a part of your event and I am just curious as to what people might expect and actually experience in relation to the tantric element of your event. Could you please provide more details? This is extremely important.
IME there are plenty of websites advertising pseudo-tantric workshops and they usually add a proviso saying "no sexual intercourse will be taking place" or "there will be no sexual activity at the event", which I always find interesting as the events typically include activities such as intimate / genital massage and other activities that most people would consider to be sexual. I suppose that is exactly why they have the provisos at the end. When I read advertisements for a flower arranging classes they tend not to have provisos stating "no sexual intercourse takes place during the class", presumably because people do not associate flower arranging with sex. At least not where I'm from they don't. A room full of people massaging each others genitals, and yes I can see how anyone unfamiliar with that kind of activity might need something written down to explain to them that there is no sex taking place.
As with your business I could only see references to tantra but with no specific information. IME the combination of tantra and shamanism tends to be associated with serious criminality. I am NOT saying that you are involved in criminality but I would be extremely grateful if you could please direct me to the pages on your websites where the tantric elements of your events are described in greater detail.
Second, students have never and will never pay for ceremony. Some courses have optional ceremony but the students pay for their lodging, travel expenses, teachers and so on. This is the norm in the Yoga world. The courses cost a lot to run and are basically month long adventures in other countries. There is no reason for them to be free. The course costs are the same or less than other major Yoga organizations and having worked with many I can honesty say it delivers a lot more. This is a Yoga school and the practices are by far mostly non-medicinal with opportunities to explore part of the host culture included.
You see Russ, this is where things can get quite tricky. If you bundle in Native ceremonies with yoga, tantra and shamanism, and charge a package price for the lot, then of course you can claim that the ceremonies are free and that they are just an add on to the other, paid for, elements of your event. This seems to be what you are claiming yes?
Herein lies just some of the problems. I think, as I said in my earlier post, it would be helpful to have details of who the native people are who are delivering the ceremonies and what their lineage is.
It is common practise at newage events (the mishmash of yoga, shamanism, tantra and native ceremonies clearly indicates that your event is a newage event) to hire actors, frauds and other dubious people to run the "ceremonies". This happens because real medicine people live to serve their communities. They do not abandon their communities to attend yoga festivals as workshop leaders. So you see, it really is important for you to provide some clear information as to who these medicine people and shamans are who are running these ceremonies as part of a large, commercial newage event.
Third, I am not nor have ever been the owner of the school. I was the field director for years but am moving on now. We have an excellent replacement trained.
So who owns the brands / names / businesses associated with your shamanic yoga and world karma yoga day events? What is the name of the person who will be held accountable should anything go wrong?
Fourth, ceremonies will have a local facilitator present from now on. We often did in the past. The problem with this is that they are generally not trained in all of the methodologies we use. It is a balance. We have had locals train with the school to increase their knowledge. To suggest that people with years of training cannot run ceremony because of their skin colour is not really reasonable.
I am confused by this. What do you mean by "locals"? Are you saying that non-native people will be running the ceremonies? What training do you provide and if you are the expert in all of this who trained you? Please do provide some information about lineage.
Fifth, the assertion that shamanic practice are locked in time and do not evolve is a contraversial one to say the least. The same is sometimes said of Yoga when in both cases there is tons of anthropological evidence saying the exact opposite. There are many flavours of practice and I am sure you are aware of the dangers of the term shamanism in the first place. In areas like central and south america where the "shaman" is more likely to be a curendero or healer than a priest many of the basic assumptions of this site fall apart.
Nobody is saying that ceremonies are locked in time. People are concerned that ceremonies that are traditionally provided for the community by community elders are being appropriated, mixed with yoga, tantra and other completely different traditions and then being sold to a newage demographic for $$$$$
In actuality there is an overwhelming amount of very good academic research to indicate that the primary means of learning in many traditional groups is directly through communication with the ceremony and liniage has little or nothing to do with it.
Please provide links to this overwhelming amount of very good academic research.
I am very interested in this specifically as lineage is central to ceremony, at least in my understanding.
In cases where it does, many of the local people are beginning to travel themselves and incorporate things they learn elsewhere. This is normal cultural transformation. I am all for fundimentalist sectors keeping traditions "as they always have been". However the human species has always innovated and so has culture. All people have the right to learn and grow and innovate. Natives do too. To say that native people are any different is a clear form of romantic racism which I am sure you would decry if someone else was doing it.
It is an obvious tautology to suggest that cultures evloved slowly when they were highly isolated or that they did not charge for things before monetary systems were introduced. Cultural evolution and professional pay for people who work in something full time is the norm now in areas where there is broad exposure to other cultures, where monetary systems exist, and when the role of the "shaman" is more that of a traditional medical doctor than that of a priest.
Of course ceremonies change over time. Everything changes over time. What you are attempting to justify is the appropriation of culturally specific ceremonies and the dilution / corruption of those ceremonies with things like yoga and tantra. You are advocating a pick-n-mix approach to various culturally specific sacred traditions. What you are advocating is by its nature newage and offensive.
Sixth, I have almost no response to your assertions that the school is "probably" penetrated by organized crime and involved in human trafficking. What possible cause could you have for that assertion other than facebook contacts that number over 10,000? That is a highly damaging thing to say without any possible reason to see it is likely. You have a position of power and responsibility here and you could really use it for good... to bring up issues thoughtfully and genuinely. That is not the same as calling people you don't know horrible names and making baseless accusations. It is hard to even make time to answer for them. Many good people have had their lives postively impacted by this school and I am proud to have worked for it and will support it wholeheartedly in the future. They have taken a lot of time and effort to educate people on many of the same issues you yourselves are concerned about when few enough people do. I respect that and am trying to show respect for you as well.
I made no other accusation than to say that you had friends in your facebook page who are involved in trafficking in human beings (THB). This is not an accusation it is a fact. You have since deleted your personal facebook page so I cannot see whether you are still friends with those people or not.
At not time did I say that you, personally are involved in THB. I did say that your business would attract the attentions of criminal networks involved in THB, simply because it is inevitable given the interests and business brands that you share with them and that your target demographic customer is the same as their targeted victims.
I had anticipated that you would come here and express some concerns about this issue and that you would want to know more about the criminals involved in tantra, yoga and shamanism and who disguise their trafficking activities as "karma yoga".
Instead you just delete your FB profile and make a lot of noise about "accusations" you imagine I have made about you.
Are you interested to know more about the criminal networks who pose a very real danger to your customers?
Are you interested to learn more about them, dissociate yourself from them and maybe warn your customers about them?
I would be delighted to post a lot of well referenced information regarding the THB networks who you included in your FB friends list should you wish.
Finally, despite the fact that your conversation here would be seen by many calm people to be very rude and biased I would like to commend you on actually caring about something so important. We live in a world with a lot of apathy. I would like to see more people try their best to initiate thoughtful and important discussions about the direction we are heading as a species. On that note I wish you all the best and hope you continue to try to make the world a healthier place with better communication and intercultural dialogue.
Russ
Well thanks for that Russ, as I said before if you could please provide some information about lineage and about the native communities who are going to be helped and supported by your businesses it would be very helpful.
Your advertising materials state that the events will include ceremonies where people will be using powerful drugs including Ayahusaca, San Pedro and Peyote. I am sure you will appreciate that - legality issues aside - these drugs are not without their risks. People can be physically and emotionally harmed by the use of these drugs in ceremonies when they are lead by people who are not properly trained and authorised. Vulnerable people can be taken advantage of, financially and sexually, by plastic shamans. It happens a lot, which is one of the reasons why this forum exists. So please provide information regarding the people who will be holding these ceremonies and their lineage.
It would also be helpful to have some clear information about the nature of World Shamanic Yoga Institute and International Karma Yoga Day. What kind of entities are they? Are they businesses, or charities, or not-for-profit entities? Who owns them?
I would also be interested to know more about the volunteering elements of the WSYI. This is extremely important because criminal networks involved in THB recruit vulnerable people to do "karma yoga" (unpaid, voluntary labour) and then exploit them as enslaved labour. People who thought they would end up volunteering to help little old ladies, feed horses or do a bit of gardening end up working 20 hours a day in factories or on construction sites, or even as pole dancers or prostitutes.
I am NOT saying that this is what YOU are advocating, but I am just saying that if you are advertising opportunities to do karma yoga / voluntary work (as you are) that it would be helpful and reassuring to know exactly what kinds of voluntary work is expected of people and how it fits in with the other things you advertise.
Thanks again for your participation.
