I have never in my life had an interest in yoga. It always seemed like bullshit to me. I know that it’s good to stretch before and after exercise, but I never really understood why stretching needed a foreign name to make it seem more important.
When I started reading books on the occult, I was a bit surprised to see the concept of yoga popping up so frequently. Aleister Crowley was mad into it, and knowing that several of his books deal with the topic is precisely what prevented me from reading them. It’s clearly all a load of shit. Isometric exercises are important, but there’s nothing mystical about them.
A friend recently gave me this book. It did nothing but confirm my suspicions. Yoga is a bunch of crap for stupid idiots who think they’re smarter than they really are. The author mostly discusses the key figures who made yoga popular over the last century or so. All of them were lying hustlers. A lot of the books that they put out were the same kind of nonsense as the magical self-help crap I review here. None of it is based in research, and their sources are always mysterious yogis that they met at the top of a mountain.
It also turns out that a lot of these yogis have had links with the far right. Personally, I wasn’t really surprised or interested by this. Stupid people like stupid things.
I assume that anyone who goes to yoga classes is either dumb or really likes the smell of feet.
Nocturnal Revelries 
Instead of criticizing yoga based on books, how about actually trying it and seeing what it does for you? In my experience, yoga enthusiasts in the West tend to be liberal women and hippie-types. But it’s not about political associations; what you’re doing is like trying to discredit (pick your favorite sport or form of exercise) by finding some subculture you dislike that does it. Stupid. Thought you were smarter than this. Unsubscribed.
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Confirmed foot fetishist.
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What a horrible post. You are condemning others but come across as racist know-all yourself.
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The arrogance is deliberate, but I’m a bit confused about the racism accusation. The people I meant to disparage are westerners who get into yoga because it seems exotic and mystical. The book I was discussing focuses on how the “yoga” that has spread through the west is far removed from Hindu philosophy. Maybe I should have made that clearer. It’s more the cultural appropriation that I meant to ridicule rather than the culture itself.
You’re right. It is a horrible post that’s basically just rage-baiting. I don’t actually think everyone who does yoga is dumb. I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. I am very silly. Sincerely.
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