“We are in the midst of a planetary ascent, assures us of a young woman on the phone. People have to be able to hold on to these shifts of energy. Kundalini awakening is perfect for that.” Behind this mixture of “globish” English and esoteric terms, we find Johanna*, 34, “kundalini facilitator”. More than just a fitness teacher, she is said to be able “to initiate others to develop their extrasensory abilities”, and intends to awaken “the spiritual and vital energy” coiled at the base of our spine. The practice is as folkloric as it is “instagrammable”: its followers are in general dressed in white, their heads turbaned, and engaged in breathing exercises that seem to push them to the limit of fainting.
According to the coach, the benefits of this supposedly ancestral technique are multiple. “It decreases stress, increases creativity, libido and activates your chakras,” she lists. Kundalini, more effective than therapy? “Psychologists only deal with the mind. Thanks to this method, a person who has experienced trauma takes care of his mind but also of his body,” she says. The young woman explains that she was able to “free the memories” of women who had experienced “touching”. “Kundalini frees from its trauma. It does not come back”, she continues. A miracle cure, which could even boost our “self-healing” faculties. The assertion can lend to smile… or worry.
A shift of the offer to the Internet
Although it may seem harmless, yoga, known for its sophisticated postures and its millennial roots, is not free from excesses. Far from it: the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes) received 160 reports in 2020 about yoga and meditation, figures which doubled compared to 2017. A trend which, according to our information, was confirmed in 2021, in line with the recent enthusiasm for this activity. According to a survey by the National Union of Yoga Teachers, 10 million French people have already practiced it. Some 7 million do it several times a week, a quarter of which would have started since the health crisis. “This success has opened the door to less serious training. While our practice was well structured, today, zero risk no longer exists”, regrets Elodie Garamond, president of the Union of Yoga Professionals.
This enthusiasm is explained in particular by its benefits – real, as with any physical activity. “We have plenty of evidence that it reduces anxiety and limits cardiovascular risks,” confirms Professor Edzard Ernst, specialist in the evaluation of alternative medicine. But this movement today seems to have as many chapels as teachers. Laughter yoga, eye yoga, yoga in the dark, candlelight yoga, aerial yoga, nude yoga, hot yoga, sunyoga, and even yoga for dogs… the newcomers are showing an overflowing imagination. A trend worries the historical actors of the sector: the displacement of a part of the offer towards Internet. Not only because it undermines the economy of traditional studios: “Online, you find the best and the worst. You can quickly come across pseudo-gurus who will give outlandish advice or lead to unhealthy relationships”, notes Ysé Tardan-Masquelier, former president of the National Federation of Yoga Teachers and coordinator of Yoga, the encyclopedia (Albin Michel).
“He claimed it was his kundalini rising”
The risk of injury, or control would then be accentuated. “Yoga has many facets, and individuals who start do not always know how to distinguish upstream the gymnastic yoga course from potentially riskier spiritual practices”, notes Pascale Duval, spokesperson for the National Union for the Defense of Families. and individuals who are victims of cults, who receives many yoga-related calls. Like that of this woman, worried about a childhood friend, a veterinarian passionate about alternative medicine and esotericism, fascinated by her yoga teacher, who promises her to reach the divine and the truth through sexual practices. Or of this wife, helpless in the face of her husband who left to perfect his skills in an ashram and returned with severe pneumonia: “He claimed that it was his kundalini that was rising. He meditated locked in his room and refused to be hospitalized. ”
While these abuses are a minority, the sector remains vulnerable. “When it arrived in the West, yoga was secularized, but it retains a psychocorporal dimension: its practice is supposed to have an impact on our mind, notes Damien Karbovnik, historian of religions. Religious mechanisms remain present, which makes it a fertile ground for drifts.” Many yoga enthusiasts also see it as much a “practice of the mind” as a “body practice”, and the promises of certain teachers are sometimes cause for concern. In Seine-et-Marne, the studio auriayoga thus offers a “hormonal yoga” which should make it possible to treat “hot flashes”, “insomnia” and “depressive tendencies”, but also to make any “ovarian cysts” disappear. “It is not because you practice yoga that you are going to fall into a sect, assures Caroline Nizard, doctor in social and political science from the University of Lausanne. But if the practice is aimed at someone in a situation of weakness, there is always a risk.”
The emergence of conspirituality
Malicious people have hastened to exploit the privileged link that exists between the yogi – the teacher – and his students. The contemporary history of yoga is full of deviant gurus. In 2017, Bikram Choudhury, the originator of the hugely popular “hot yoga”, faced legal action for rape and sexual harassment. The true founder of kundalini yoga, Yogi Bahjan, an ex-Indian customs officer who landed in California in the 1970s, is accused of having asked his disciples to work twelve hours a day and having forced them to follow very strict diets. . In France, a former professor was sentenced in 2021 for abuse of weakness to four years in prison and 600,000 euros in damages to a dozen victims on whom he had indulged in physical, psychological and sexual bullying.
During the pandemic, conspiratorial spheres have easily penetrated the world of yoga. In the United States, he was partly seduced by the QAnon conspiratorial movement. So much so that its followers have had their own nickname: the “pastel” QAnon, derived from the aesthetics of wellness accounts on Instagram. Deceased in 2021, the icon of the kundalini movement Guru Jagat had invited in his podcast Kerry Cassidy, theorist of QAnon. Alan Hostetter, one of the best-known rioters who entered the Capitol on January 6, was also a yogi. French-speaking circles also show acquaintances with the world of “conspirituality”. Personalities such as personal development speaker Jean-Jacques Crèvecoeur, well known in the anti-vaccine sphere since the pandemic, claim their practice of yoga. “Like conspiracy, or naturopathy, yoga provides a global explanation”, notes Tristan Mendès France, specialist in marginal communities.
These abuses are facilitated by a sector that is not attached to any ministry and is not subject to any control. Hence the approach of certain actors, initiated during confinement, to organize themselves through this new Union of Yoga Professionals. “We have created a reference system for teacher training schools and we are working with various ministries to achieve certification in particular”, summarizes Elodie Garamond. But it is not easy to get the ten yoga federations that coexist in France to talk to each other, and discussions with the administrations take time. “We have already started this process with the Directorate General for Employment and Vocational Training in particular. There is a fundamental movement, but we are not there yet”, underlines Ysé Tardan-Masquelier. In the meantime, it is up to customers to be cautious.