Bikram Yoga
Template:Short description Template:Infobox yoga school Bikram Yoga is a system of hot yoga, a type of yoga as exercise, spread by Bikram Choudhury and based on the teachings of B. C. Ghosh, that became popular in the early 1970s.<ref name=Forbes>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Classes consist of a fixed sequence of 26 postures, practised in a room heated to Template:Convert with a humidity of 40%, intended to replicate the climate of India. The room is fitted with carpets and the walls are covered in mirrors. The instructor may adjust the students' yoga postures. Choudhury's teaching style was abrasive.<ref name="Delaney 2019"/>
Bikram Yoga spread rapidly across America and the Western world, reaching a peak of some 1,650 studios in at least 40 countries in 2006. Choudhury attempted to copyright the Bikram Yoga sequence from 2011, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 2016, facing lawsuits and accusations of sexual assault, Choudhury fled to India, leaving Bikram Yoga, Inc. to be run by others.<ref name="The Guardian"/>
OriginsEdit
Bikram Choudhury was born in Calcutta in 1944. He began studying yoga in 1969.<ref name="Schickel 2003">Template:Cite news</ref> He arrived in America in 1971, and soon began to teach yoga in health resorts in California.<ref name="Syman 2010">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1974, two pupils, Shirley MacLaine and Anne Marie Bennstrom, helped him to open his own school at 9441 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.<ref name="Syman 2010"/> He attracted celebrity pupils including the Hollywood dancer Marge Champion and the actors Keir Dullea, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, and Raquel Welch.<ref name="Syman 2010"/> Yoga classes were initially free, with a donation box. Maclaine told Choudhury he could not run an American yoga school like one in India, and he began to charge $5 for classes; attendance started to grow at once.<ref name="Syman 2010"/>
Choudhury later devised the 26-posture sequence of Bikram Yoga, based on the teachings of B. C. Ghosh.<ref name="Schickel 2003"/><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
StyleEdit
Bikram Yoga Beginning Series classes run for 90 minutes and always consist of 26 postures, namely a fixed sequence of 24 asanas and two pranayama (breathing exercise). It starts with a standing pranayama, followed by a standing sequence of asanas, a first savasana, floor asanas, the last pranayama named Kapalabhati which is a shatkarma (a purification), and a final savasana that ends the sequence.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The room is fitted with mirrors and carpets, and the yoga postures of students may be adjusted by the teacher, who can also adjust themselves using the mirrors.<ref name="Delaney 2019"/><ref name="Tripp 2013">Template:Cite news</ref>
The hot yoga style is practised in a room heated to Template:Convert with a humidity of 40%, intended to replicate the climate of India where it was created.<ref name="Bikram Yoga Basic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bikram Yoga trains its own teachers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They are taught a standardized dialogue to run the class, but are encouraged to develop their own delivery style.<ref name="Bikram Yoga Basic"/>
The author Brigid Delaney described seeing Choudhury in his first yoga studio in Australia, and was "shocked"<ref name="Delaney 2019"/> by the environment and by Choudhury's bragging and abrasive manner; she noted also the docility of his students and the "fawning"<ref name="Delaney 2019"/> atmosphere, writing:<ref name="Delaney 2019"/>
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GrowthEdit
Choudhury was extremely charismatic and persuasive, and this contributed to his success according to principal Bikram teacher Emmy Cleaves. He also had a philosophy of making pupils work through pain, and a "highly entertaining in-class patter," being happy to tell pupils "I am a butcher and I try to kill you ... but don't worry, yoga is the best death."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Syman 2010"/> By 1984, classes were priced at $20 (about $50 in 2019 terms).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That year, sports journalist Jack McCallum watched a class respond to Choudhury's verbal abuse "like eager cadets."<ref name="Syman 2010"/> Practice was so intense that it demanded "an entire identity" based on commitment to hard work, a regular yoga schedule, and verbal castigation. In short, "a complete religion of bodily purification" rewarded by "a feeling of pure energy."<ref name="Syman 2010"/> The franchise grew rapidly and spread to other countries. By 2006, there were 1,650 Bikram Yoga studios around the world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The franchise then declined somewhat, and by 2012, there were 330 studios in the United States and 600 worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In Africa, there were studios in Morocco and South Africa; in America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, 39 U.S. states, and Canada; in Asia, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the UAE; in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom; and Australia and New Zealand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Adverse health effectsEdit
A 2013 review of 76 yoga-related adverse events included 3 in Bikram Yoga. The three case reports consisted of one case of rosacea, one psychotic episode, and one of hyponatremia (low salt level).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Copyright ClaimsEdit
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Choudhury claimed, starting in 2011, that Bikram Yoga was under copyright and that it could not be taught or presented by anyone whom he had not authorized. In that year, Choudhury started a lawsuit against Yoga to the People, a competing yoga studio founded by a former student of Choudhury's and with a location near one of the Bikram Yoga studios in New York, and later started another against the Florida-based Evolation Yoga. Choudhury lost at first instance in both cases and appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeal ultimately dismissed his copyright claim over yoga poses in Bikram Yoga.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
As a result of that lawsuit, the United States Copyright Office issued a clarification that yoga postures (asanas) could not be copyrighted in the way claimed by Choudhury, and that Yoga to the People and others could continue to freely teach these exercises.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Sexual Abuse by ChoudhuryEdit
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Choudhury has faced multiple lawsuits alleging sexual harassment, assault, racism and homophobia. In 2016 he fled to India, where he continued to teach yoga. His former lawyer, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, took over the running of Bikram, Inc. in America, after she successfully sued Choudhury for $7M in damages and he fled the country to avoid payment.<ref name="The Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=newyorker>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The accusations against Choudhury were the subject of a 2019 Netflix true crime documentary, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator. The documentary also gave an exploration of Choudhury's early life in India, mostly told by Choudhury himself, in juxtaposition with the allegations and testimonies of various women who claim to have been assaulted and bullied by him. They argue that Choudhury was a charismatic but abusive and rude narcissist who took pleasure in mocking the physical appearances of his students, while holding financial and emotional power over many of them. Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator has since been challenged by Choudhury's lawyer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ReferencesEdit
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