Dru Yoga, formerly known as the Life Foundation and headed by self-styled guru Mansukh Patel, has been the subject of claims it is engaged in cult activities. A yoga conference held at Epsom College has been linked to an alleged cult that has been accused of exploiting its members,the company wholesale yoga mats.

College staff were forced to monitor the week-long event organised by North-Wales based Dru Yoga after receiving complaints about the organisation last week.

Former members of the Life Foundation have accused the organisation of exploiting them financially, sexually and psychologically in the past.

The organisation denied it was a cult or that members had been exploited.

Dru Yoga’s annual conference was historically held at Bangor University in North Wales but it was banned two years ago, forcing it to look for alternative locations.

It had attempted to gain affiliation with Bangor’s Student’s Union in 2006 but was refused permission after concerns over cult activities.

A copy of minutes of the meeting said: “[Dru Yoga’s] affiliation was refused as they are associated with the Life Foundation, an organisation based in Bethesda which allegedly engages in cult practice.”

The organisation has also been investigated by police in the past and is listed as a cult on the website Cult Information Centre.

Ian Hawthorn of the CIC said: “We have been concerned about the activities of the Life Foundation for many years.

“I have received lots of calls from people concerned about the group, many of whom are ex-members.

“The concerns I have regarding this group are the same as those I have about much larger groups, such as the Moonies.”

A North Wales police spokeswoman confirmed they had investigated complaints of fraud about Dru Yoga, but were not currently investigating them and no charges had been brought against the organisation.

Hundreds of yoga students attended the various classes, some flying in from as far as Canada, Kenya and Australia.

Epsom College headteacher Stephen Borthwick said his school contacted Bangor University with their concerns and kept the group under observation throughout the week.

“Some of the allegations go back some time and some go back to a couple of years ago,” he said.

“We contacted Bangor University and the people we spoke to gave us no reason to be concerned.

“There is a reasonable small residential community scattered in the school and none of those people said they were concerned at anything the group was doing.

“I need to be able to talk to everybody, but so far the feedback I’ve had about them has been okay.”

Chris Barrington, a director of Dru Yoga denied they were involved in cult practices and claimed that former members of the Life Foundation had fabricated rumours in an attempt to discredit it.

He said: “Several people who were involved with us went their own way and as a result started making some outrageous stories out what we do. “

“When you wear athletic wear, it says to the world, ‘I have great style, but I’m relaxed about yoga mat. I don’t try too hard, but I still look great,’ ” says Mary Chino, marketing and visual merchandising manager for Athletes World. “It also shows off a fit physique, but not in a way that’s overly revealing.”

Chino says there are three trends in active wear this season: the new sports, back in the day and the evolution of modern basics.

The changing face of sports — and their apparel — is a big hit for back-to-school students, especially with young men. Evolving beyond traditional sports such as basketball, football and hockey, action-oriented activities such as skateboarding and mixed martial arts are hitting it big with students.

“Look at skate shoes,” says Chino. “They were originally a sport-designed shoe with more padding and a boxy shape to protect your foot with yoga mat. Now the popularity of skateboarding has caused everybody to wear this silhouette across the country. Vans skate shoes ($69-$79) can be seen on teens across the country.”

Action-packed mixed marital arts are also spilling onto the fashion scene with the rising popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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People are drawn to yoga these days for many reasons. Some people simply hope for increased health and fitness (wholesale yoga mats), or may be seeking relief for a specific physical condition. Others are seeking a way to manage stress. Yoga can also complement medical science and therapy for specific conditions such as depression and anxiety. Yoga has also become known as a good way to prepare for child birth. It helps less able-bodied people to get into shape.

While hearing how yoga has enhanced so many people’s lives is enough of a reason to make this practice part of your weekly or even daily routine, a recent scientific study has further validated the benefits that have been talked about for years.People have been proclaiming the many benefits of yoga for centuries.

Some of the praises for this ancient discipline include greater flexibility and strength, improved energy levels and sleep, and a calmer, more contented mind. People love it because it is not only a powerful way to get into shape physically; it is also a fantastic way to feel more emotionally harmonious. It offers a holistic approach to coping with the challenges of daily life.

This study was published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Nineteen individuals were assigned to either an hour yoga session of postures and conscious breathing, or a 1 hour reading session. It was important to the creators of the study to compare two activities that have been known to be relaxing and pleasurable in order to ascertain the true power of yoga.

Individuals who completed the yoga session had a 27 percent increase in GABA levels on average. However, those who read saw no change in the levels of this brain chemical.

The level of GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) was tested before and after the session. All subjects were then assessed for brain levels of GABA both before and after the session. GABA is a brain chemical that has a generally calming, anti-anxiety effect within the brain.

Both the meditation and the yoga sessions are eight weeks in duration, and cost $65 for YMCA members, and $96 for non-members.

For meditation class the Y provides the chairs. For the Hatha yoga, everyone should bring an exercise mat, a blanket, and a small pillow to class.

The YMCA’s Fall I 2008 session of yoga begins Thursday, Sept. 11. A new meditation class will be offered from 6-7 p.m., and All Levels Yoga (beginner through intermediate) meets at its new time, from 7-8:15 p.m. Classes are held at Camp Yomechas Lodge, 375 Wareham St. (Rte. 28). Phone 508-947-1390 or visit the website www.yogawww.com to register.

From the moment participants turn off Rte. 28 onto the camp road, the serenity of this natural setting allows daily cares to recede, and everyone is ready to delve into their class. Meditation class teaches a new technique each week to help everyone relax and renew. The Hatha Yoga class utilizes three ingredients: stretching, breathing, and relaxation to coax the body into classic yoga poses, so one leaves the class refreshed and optimistic. Nancy Brady Cunningham has over 30 years experience teaching yoga, and is also the author of five books about meditation and ceremony, two of which are available at the Middleboro Public Library.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Salisbury is located at 2812 Old Ocean City Rd. A Saturday yoga class is held at 10 a.m. with instructor Audra Coldiron at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Salisbury. Cost is a $5 donation. E-mail audra@audracoldiron. com with questions.

A morning yoga class is held Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 a.m. in Salisbury University’s Guerrieri Center in the Multicultural Spiritual Room, taught by Phillip Johnson, registered yoga teacher. Cost is a $6 donation; SU students are free. Send questions to omomomphillip@verizon.net.

A lunchtime yoga class is held Wednesdays at noon at Salisbury University’s Guerrieri Center in the Multicultural Spiritual Room. Chrys Egan, Kripalu yoga teacher, is the instructor. Cost is a $6 donation; SU students are free. Send questions to cnegan@salisbury.edu.

It’s the origins of the eight-syllable Sanskrit phrase that gives her pause and yoga mat.

“What language is that?” Barnett-Lewis, 13, asked during a teen yoga class in Riverwest, Wis., this month. “Where’s it from?”

Many youths are engaged in the usual pastimes: chatting on front porches, watching TV and playing video games. But Barnett-Lewis and a small group of teens are learning how to better control their bodies and relax when their emotions run high. Sometimes they get a few language and geography lessons, too.

The class is part of a growing effort to demystify yoga - a practice with roots in India that combines movement and meditation - and make it accessible to young people.

In Milwaukee, the key has been offering scholarships and partnering with local organizations that more typically work with urban teens, said Peggy Hong, who teaches Barnett-Lewis and seven other youths at Riverwest Yogashala. The studio became a nonprofit yoga center a year ago and started raising funds to subsidize classes for low-income students. A partnership with the Human Development Center, a social services and youth development agency, has helped broaden the circle of teen participants.

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1. Free intro yoga class
— 6:45 p.m. Thursday, The Yoga Loft of Bethlehem, 521 E. Fourth St., third floor. 610-867-YOGA, there you can buy the best yoga mat. theyogaloftofbethlehem.com
— Check out a Kundalini Yoga class and what else The Yoga Loft of Bethlehem has to offer. Call to reserve your spot.

2. Movie marathon
— Dusk until dawn, Sunday, Becky’s Drive-In, Lehigh Township. 610-767-2249, beckysdi.com
— There will be two screens of movies playing late into the night. Check the Web site for the complete lineup.

3. Pigs final stand
— Closing weekend of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs inaugural season, 7:05 p.m. today and Saturday, Coca-Cola Park, Allentown. Ironpigsbaseball.com
— See the Pigs take on the Syracuse Chiefs during the FINAL two home games this year.

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That teacher was Nick Gancitano, who kicked for Penn State against Georgia and Bulldog legend Kevin Butler in the 1982 Sugar Bowl. Walsh said Gancitano has since moved to Costa Rica, but he hasn’t kicked the yoga habit(yoga mat).
“My original kicking teacher got me into that actually,” Walsh said. “He owned his own ashram, which is like a meditation house, so he was into all sorts of stuff like that.”

“I used to be one of those kids playing sports that couldn’t touch their toes,” said Walsh, who does yoga “a couple” times a week.

“I remember my friend’s dad was a coach and one time he said, ‘I don’t know how you play without being able to stretch.’ So it’s funny, when my coach got a hold of me, it just clicked from there on.”

But Walsh isn’t the only yoga practicing Bulldog - probably just the only one who does it in his free time. During summer workouts, the team had the opportunity to strike their yoga poses a couple times of times a week, with mixed results.

“It was pretty tough, but it’s a good thing for your body so I should do more of it,” said Roderick Battle, a 6-foot-4 inch, 260-pound defensive end. “I’m sure people laughed at me trying to get in those funny positions.”

Yoga has some stereotypes that come with it, and it may seem like an easy target for Walsh’s more cold-hearted friends and teammates. But one fellow special teamer has chosen an easier one - the 57 Walsh sports on his back, an unorthodox one for a kicker.

“Yoga? Not as much as his number. I like to pick on him because of his number who with yoga mat,” said punter Drew Butler, Kevin’s son. “He’s got the ugliest number on the team. I pick fun of him and say hopefully if (ESPN’s) College GameDay comes to one of our games they’ll do a piece on how ugly your number is.”
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I learned about nutrition and changed my diet. I took classes in yoga and meditation and began to see an acupuncturist with yoga mat. I watched for early warning signs of problems and began to consider the spiritual aspects of what I was going through, listening to the voices I heard and exploring their meaning. At one point back in San Francisco, for example, I heard a loud voice telling me I had to do yoga or I would die. It was frightening, but I realized it was like the voice of an angry parent or guardian looking out for me. So that voice is why I began to practice yoga.

Since I was a child I’ve struggled with extreme emotions, voices and powerful out of body experiences. I remember falling to the ground once in third grade, writhing in agony because I believed something was grabbing my back. I saw cartoons projected on the ceiling, and my fear was sometimes so strong I fell mute. I often hid away, alone, overwhelmed and unable to describe what was going on.

At age 26, I hit a breaking point and wandered the streets of San Francisco all night hearing angry voices telling me to kill myself. I ended up on a locked psychiatric ward. For the next year, I was in and out of hospitals and homeless shelters.

My diagnosis was schizoaffective schizophrenia, and the treatment was powerful anti-psychotic medications. What the doctors had to offer didn’t help me, however. I left the hospital with more problems than I had going in, and I had to cope with the trauma of restraints, seclusion, plus a stigmatizing label that offered little hope for the future.

With nowhere to turn, I started to search for an answer on my own. In 2000, some friends in the Northampton, Mass., area let me stay with them, and I got a job in a local convenience store. Then I worked in a bookstore. The daily routine of a job, getting away from the memories in San Francisco, the small town tempo–it all helped. Step by step, over these difficult years, I learned a different way of responding to my madness.

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It was a suggestion I’d been hearing for years – everyone from my mother, to my doctor, to any number of bendy, mat-toting friends seemed to have an opinion – but it wasn’t until a well-meaning pharmacist delicately noted my frequent splurges on over-the-counter sleep aids that I finally sat up and took notice.

“I hear it helps you sleep,” he said, eyeing my basket full of Benadryl and Tylenol PM.

If perfect strangers were starting to chime in on my to-yoga-or-not-to-yoga debate, I figured it was time to at least give this practice – which had, after all, been good enough for countless Indian holy men for three thousand years – a chance.

And so it was a few years back, a week before completely uprooting my life in New York City for an impromptu move to Martha’s Vineyard, I walked four blocks to the mammoth, glass-walled gym near my West Village apartment. I’d found a class schedule online and, unsure of what the yoga community would be like on the Vineyard, decided I’d better take advantage of the myriad course options while I still had them at my disposal.

I probably should have gathered from the room full of toned bodies – all silently stretching and carefully aligned to face each other and not the mirror – that I was in over my head.

That’s when the chanting began.

An hour and a half, a hundred forward bends, countless thwarted head-standing attempts, and two pulled hamstrings later, I realized I hadn’t just been doing yoga. I’d been doing Ashtanga yoga, a particular style known for its relentlessly fast pace, advanced postures, and emphasis on steady breathing.

That night I crawled into bed, swore I’d never do yoga again, and fell immediately asleep.

Fast-forward two months. I’d started adjusting to my new life on the Vineyard, and it wasn’t long before I realized that if it was yoga I was running from, I’d have to keep running. Everywhere I went and from everyone I met, the “try yoga” refrain became more impassioned and more frequent.

I quickly learned the reason: People on the Vineyard love yoga.

And not in a general, “because it’s good for you” way. More than a trendy form of physical fitness, yoga on the Vineyard is part of a lifestyle – a lifestyle that includes other holistic, healthy choices, like cooking with fresh, Island ingredients and enjoying the outdoors.

Slowly, these other elements of the Island way began to grow on me, and before I could say “downward-facing dog,” I found myself roped back in to the yoga circle.

This time, though, I did a little research. I had just taken a job as a waitress at Zephrus restaurant at the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven, and was eager to try one of the many classes available in the adjacent health club. I selected one from the schedule based on a single word in its description: gentle.

Gentle is good, I remember thinking as I rolled out my borrowed mat and began to reach for my toes.

The teacher arrived and quietly settled herself at the front of the room. We took a few deep breaths. Then a few more. Fifteen minutes later, we’d done nothing but breathe and think about how we were sitting. Once we got moving, I was relieved to learn that I could do just about all of the poses, but with so much quiet, my mind was racing. Every little sound – a neighbor’s breathing, a clank of a dish in the kitchen next door – set off a chain of thoughts that I was powerless to control. As I struggled to lie still in sivasana (the resting pose at the end of class), all I could think about was what kind of sandwich I should order before my shift started in an hour.

Because the class was convenient, I went a few more times, but eventually came to two very important conclusions: In order for yoga to work for me, I would need a little more movement and a little less quiet. Also, I’d need to find a class offered somewhere other than where I worked.

I kept my ears open and, after learning about a studio in West Tisbury, decided to meet a friend there one afternoon. On my way, I popped into Healthy Additions on State Road and bought a mat. I wasn’t completely sold on the whole yoga-for-life idea, but with most studios charging a dollar per class for mat rentals, I figured it would be a wise investment.

Tucked at the far end of a little cul-de-sac across from Cronig’s Market in West Tisbury, Vineyard Yoga can be tricky to find. After driving by once or twice, I turned into the gravel parking lot and joined my friend, already inside. I unrolled my new mat next to hers. We chatted quietly about our days and shared anxious smiles with the few people filtering in around us. The studio was clean and bright, with bamboo floors and one mirrored wall.

It also felt about a thousand degrees.

“It’s pretty hot in here,” I whispered to my friend, peeling off my outer layers.

“It’s always hot,” she replied. “It’s Bikram.”

Bikram? I didn’t have time to pretend I knew what this meant before Andy Estrella, the teacher and owner of the studio, arrived. The first thing he did, I’m pretty sure, was crank up the thermostat. The second thing he did was point us to the front of our yoga mats.

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