Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual ...

299 Pages·2013·17.95 MB·English

by  Angelique Lalonde

Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual
Awakenings

by

Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde
MA, University of Victoria, 2007
BA, University of Victoria, 2002

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of Anthropology

©Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde, 2012
University of Victoria

All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or
other means, without the permission of the author.
Supervisory Committee

Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual
Awakenings

by

Angélique Maria Gabrielle Lalonde
MA, University of Victoria, 2007
BA, University of Victoria, 2002

Supervisory Committee

Dr. Margo L. Matwychuk, (Department of Anthropology)
Supervisor

Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, (Department of Anthropology)
Departmental Member

Dr. Martha McMahon (Department of Sociology)
Outside Member

Dr. Lianne McLarty (Department of History in Art)
Outside Member
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Abstract
Supervisory Committee
Dr. Margo L. Matwychuk, Department of Anthropology
Supervisor
Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, Department of Anthropology
Co-Supervisor or Departmental Member
Dr. Martha McMahon, Department of Sociology
Outside Member
Dr. Lianne McLarty, Department of History in Art
Additional Member

Yoga has been an organizing feature of community for thousands of years, shaping and being hsaped by
the bodies, minds, spiritual worlds and social relationships of its practitioners .Over the course of the last
century, it has become a global celebrity-endorsed exemplification of how to live a “good” life and been
transformed from the “exotic,” grotesque menageries of ascetic “sinister yogis” and itinerant sages, to
define the fit, graceful, radiant, blissful personages o fAmerican supermodels and pop-stars. Yoga has
moved from the ashrams of India to gyms, church basements and specialized studiso of Europe, North
America and Australia, and from these centers of economic and political power, to “exotic” peripheries
through the global and bodily movements of world-travelers seeking self-discovery, health, spiritual
transformation, and connection with the natural world in “less developed” locales. This dissertation
explores and documents the movement of yoga-motivated travelers to tourism locales with no historical
connection to yoga, asking questions about 1) how yoga travelers’ activities fit in larger contexts of ethical
tourism and cross-cultural consumption as yoga travels across borders, 2) the role yoga plays in
practitioners’ lives, shaping health, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle, 3) outcomes of sustained contemporary
yoga practice on the bodies of practitioners, including affective transformation through bodily manipulation,
the expansion of sensual awareness through breath, auditory techniques, meditation and mind-body
synthesis, 4) how these bodily transformations are interpreted and applied to contemporary life through
syncretic adaptations of yoga ethics from classical yoga texts with contemporary ethical discourses of
environmentalism and consumer choice, and 5) how yoga tourists and the owners of yoga tourism locales
view, interact with, and mobilize “foreign” locals and locales through sustainable development narratives
and ideas of global community and universal spirituality. I apply contemporary anthropological agendas to
yoga as a means to explore different ways of being alive, paying particular attention to how sensual
potentials are brought to conscious experience by relational engagement with nature and culture, thus
shaping our affective worlds. This dissertation charts intimate bodily and cross-cultural human relationships
played out through yoga. It considers the spiritual, economic, political and cultural impacts of globalized

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yoga and yoga tourism. Close attention is paid to the experiential aspects of yoga and how yoga enlivens
and relates to larger social narratives of nature sanctity under contemporary stresses of neoliberalism,
including how yoga practitioners engage with the ethics of yoga and consumption to make lifestyle choices
that align with political and economic concerns for viable ecological, social and cultural futures.
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Table of Contents
Supervisory Committee……………………………………………………………………. ....... ii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………. ...... iii
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………. ....... v
List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………. .... vii
List of Figures and Images…………………………………………………………………….viii
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..ix
Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………....x
Introduction Floating in the River……………………………………………………………...1
Chapter 1 Anthropological Approaches to Yoga: History, New Religious Movements, Magical
Consciousness and Nature………………………………………………………………….........4
Modern Yoga Studies…………………………………………………………....…….....4
Ambivalence, Authenticity and Various Interpretations of the Past in Contemporary
Yoga…………………………………………………………………………………. .. 11
Choices for the Self in New [Age] Markets……………………………………………..14
Magical Consciousness, Self-transformation, and the Sacralization of the Body/World as
Nature…………………………………………………………………………. ............. 27
Chapter 2 Methodology: Autoethnography of the Body, Multi-siting Yoga Tourism, and Virtually
doing Yoga Online……………………………………………………………………………. ... 33
My Body as Field [and] Site of Experiential Knowledge…………………………..…. .... 38
Data…………………………………………………………………………………….50
Multi-sited Research: the Flowing Field of Yoga Tourism………………………..……...52
Virtually “doing” Yoga: Online Yoga Sites, Blogs, Practice Pages……………………. .... 60
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..…. .... 63
Chapter 3 Case Studies: What does Yoga Tourism Outside of India Look Like? ……….64
Where is Yoga Tourism Located?..……………………………………………….……..65
Ethnographies of Travel………………………………………………………….…….68
What is the Difference between a Yoga Holiday and a Yoga Retreat?…………….……..71
Yoga Tourism and the Comforts of “home” in unique Places…………………….…….73
Case Study 1: Eco Yoga Retreat, Costa Rica…………………………………………...81
A bit of background about the Eco Yoga Retreat………………………...……..81
Who are the owners and operators of the EYR and why are they there?....……...85
What is the EYR about?………………………………………………………...86
Different types of travelers that stay at the EYR………………………………..90
Case Study 2: Yasodhara Ashram, Kootenay Lake, Canada……………………. .……...94
A brief history of the Yasodhara Ashram………………………………...…….95
What was daily life like at the ashram?………………………………........……...98
Karma Yoga and the Young Adult Program…………………………........……..98
How does the ashram fit into the larger yoga tourism landscape?.................…….100
How is a yoga community structured? Organization of the Yasodhara
Ashram……………………………………………………………..…...............103
My experience at the YA…………………………………………………....…..107
Case Study 3 Spiritual Retreat Centre, Italy: Holistic Energy Spiral…………………….. ..109
Dairen’s Vibrant Health, and Beatrice’s Fall…………………………....…........…112
When a Yoga Holiday becomes a Tragedy………………………………….…..114
Case Study 4 Guesthouse yoga, Bulgaria: Spirit Yoga Villa…………………………….. .120
Organization of Spirit Yoga Villa……………………………………………….. 130
Case Study 5 Hotel Garden Yoga: Turkey and the Yoga Tourism Master Narrative……...134
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Being a Yoga Tourist in Side………………………………………………..…...141
Case Study 6 Maison dans la Campagne: France (Pastoral Yoga)………………………….149
Being at the Maison dans la Campagne……………………………………..…...157
Case Study 7 Professional Yoga: The Vancouver Yoga Conference and Show…….…. .. 159
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..165
Chapter 4 Embodying Yoga as Neoliberal Esprit or Chance for life?……………………………...166
Posture Study 1: Tortoise posture Kurmasana…………………………………………..…...168
Embodiment………………………………………………………………………..…...170
Point of Access into Questions of Force, Affect and Embodiment through
Self-cultivating practices in Neoliberal Milieus…………………………………………...175
Embodying Yoga as Chance for life …………………………………………………..…. .. 183
Neoliberalism à la Bourdieu………………………………………………………....…...184
Embodying Yoga through the Senses: Developing affective clarity through self-body
practices………………………………………………………………………...........…..188
Posture Study 2: Crane Posture/Bakasana…………………………………….............…..200
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..202
Chapter 5 Consuming Yogis: Better Bodies and Ethical Encounters………………….…...204
Better Bodies…………………………………………………………………………..205
What is meant by ethical consumption?……………………………………..…...205
Yoga and the Paradox of Ethical Consumption……………………………..…...208
Bodies: Yoga as Big Business and Lifestyle of Self-Betterment……………...…...210
Developing Yoga Online: yogajournal.com, Lifestyle Yoga and contestations
in the Yoga blogosphere……………………………………………………..….212
Yoga Teachers and the Transmission of Yogic Knowledge………………….…..222
Conclusion 1…………………………………………………………………………...225
Ethical Encounters…………………………………………………………….....…....227
Conclusion 2…………………………………………………………………………...232
Conclusion 3 Tying Things Together………………………………………………...234
Chapter 6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..….235
Reflecting on Relationality, and Becoming a Magical Yogic Cyborg through the
Domestication of the Body…………………………………………………………. .. 253
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...264
Glossary………………………………………………………………………………...…..........282
Appendix A………………………………………………………………………………...…. ... 285
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List of Tables
Table 3.1 Occurrence of frequently used words describing yoga retreats…………………..76
Table 3.2 Comparative Chart of Different “Types” of Yoga Retreats……………………...78
Table 3.3 Yoga retreat locations visited and players comprising the scene………………. ... 79
Table 3.4 Comparing Yoga Travel Experiences: Yoga, Accommodation, Food………….....80
Table 3.5 Daily Schedule at Ashram……………………………………………………. .. ..98

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List of Figures and Images
Figure 3.1 Hierarchical roles and relationships at Yasodhara Ashram ……………………..105
Image 3.1 Clotheslines, fire pit and fruit orchard, EYC Costa Rica…………………………81
Image 3.2 Main floor of EYR Guest House with detail of floor and lending library……….83
Image 3.3 View from Eco Yoga Retreat Yoga Deck………………………………………..83
Image 3.4 Author doing dishes in the EYR Kitchen………………………………………..88
Image 3.5 Smaller dorm room at EYR……………………………………………………..88
Image 3.6 Rough Sketch of Eco Yoga Retreat Layout……………………………....…….. ..90
Image 3.7 View of Yasodhara Ashram gardens in early October…………………………...94
Image 3.8 View of Yasodhara Ashram Orchard…………………………………………....99
Image 3.9 Lounging in the hammocks at Holistic Energy Spiral…………………………..109
Image 3.10 HES Farmhouse……………………………………………………………. .. 110
Image 3.11 HES Pool overlooking the countryside……………………………………. .... 110
Image 3.12 HES Geodesic dome in forest: yoga practice space…………………………...111
Image 3.13 Inside Geodesic dome………………………………………………………...111
Image 3.14 Spirit Yoga Villa……………………………………………………………. ... 120
Image 3.15 Beach on Black Sea near SYV………………………………………………. .. 124
Image 3.16 View of the pool and deck where we practiced yoga at SYV.………………. .... 127
Image 3.17 Unfinished Village House…………………………………………………. .... 127
Image 3.18 Photo of author at yoga photo shoot at Apollo Temple, Side Turkey………. ... 134
Image 3.19 Yoga Deck, Side Turkey…………………………………………………. ....... 134
Image 3.20 View of surrounding 3-star hotel complexes in Side Turkey……………. ......... 136
Image 3.21 View of pool and hotel from hotel room window, Side Turkey……………. .... 141
Image 3.22 Beach in Side…………………………………………………...…………. ..... 142
Image 3.23 Paragliders, beachgoers and motorboats at the Side beaches…...…………. ...... 142
Image 3.24 Jaeda in a modified wheel posture at the Apollo Temple in Side…...………….147
Image 3.25 Peter Biela demonstrating Tree Pose at Mt. Deborah,
Mbezi Beach, and Moscow…...……………………………………………………...148
Image 3.27 Maison Yoga Holiday in Southeast France…………………………………….149
Image 3.28 Agricultural parade in Midi-Pyrenees region of France………………………..153
Image 3.29 Yoga Show Logo and Banner……………………………………………..…...159
Image 3.30 “Yogalution” Banner...………………………………………………………...159
Image 4.1 Author in Variation 1 of Kurmasana.………………………………………. ...... .168
Image 4.2 Author in Variation 2 of Kurmasana…………………………………………. ... .168
Image 4.3 Author in Bakasana……………………………………………………………. 200

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to acknowledge my supervisor, Dr. Margo Matwychuk, who has
shaped my academic journey and provided consistent encouragement, thoughtful critique and many
delicious dinners throughout this process. I would also like to thank Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, whose
enthusiasm and anthropological curiosity has inspired and guided my own curiosity. Thank you to
my committee members, Dr. Martha McMahon and Dr. Lianne McLarty, for reading and engaging
with my work throughout the past five years. I am grateful for the intellectual inspiration provided
by Dr. Trudi Lynn Smith, who made so many parts of the journey with me, and demonstrated that it
was possible. I am also grateful to SSHRC for funding my research, and to the Department of
Anthropology at the University of Victoria for providing me an academic home and opportunities
to present my work and teach. I am grateful to my mother, Nicole Lalonde and to my father, Guy
Champagne, who have always encoura ged me to lea rn, and to my sisters Belle Aube, Marie-Soleil
and Catherine, for reminding me to not take myself too seriously. I am grateful to my dogs,
JohnBlack and Jobe, who always remind me to walk, and to the many Yoga Teachers and fellow yoga
students I have practiced with throughout the years, who consider ways of being differently in the
world through m ovement. I would like to thank the many friends that h ave been a pa rt of this
process, particularly my Craft Night companions and those who shared their homes with me while I
traveled this path, the yoga travelers who shared their time and thoughts with me, the places that we
passed through in our journeying, and the breath that unites us all. I would also like to acknowledge
the Citation, where many of these ideas fermented, and the farmers at ALM Farm in Sooke who kept
me grounded as I wrote this dissertation.

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Dedication

Pour maman et papa, et pour la vie.

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