Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness

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The weird and disturbing history of the cult of yoga "Namaste, fascists! An original and entertaining analysis of the dubious origins of the Western middle class's favourite postur al exercise." The Times The practice of yoga promises peace, self-realisation and release, thanks to the power of its 'mystic' Indian origins. But what if this is just hype? In Fascist Yoga, Stewart Home sweeps away the half-truths to tell a new origin story of the world's first modern yogi – a Californian escapologist who added some Hindu fairy dust to gym and circus exercises. Ever since, the world of yoga has been full of grifters, occultists and white supremacists, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise. From cult leaders to brainwashed followers, TV celebrities and fake gurus, the story of yoga has involved some of the strangest currents of humanity. Today, the COVID pandemic has activated elements within the modern yoga movement to espouse far-right conspiracies, and QAnon's fascist political programmes mirror some of yoga's key early proponents. In this new exposé, Stewart Home shows that nothing is sacred. About the Author Stewart Home is a legend of counterculture. He is an artist, filmmaker, pamphleteer, art historian and activist, and the author of countless pulp fictions, including most recently Art School Orgy and She’s My Witch. He regularly performs to audiences across the world and recently started making headstand paintings with the canvas placed above him and brushes held in his toes. He was born and lives in London. Table of Contents IntroductionPART I. HAPPY BABY: A GRUBBY GURU TAKES US ALL TO THE CLEANERS 1. Did Pierre Bernard Invent Yoga in California at the Start of the Twentieth Century? 2. The Great Oom & White PowerPART II. WARRIOR ONE, TWO AND THREE: FACISM + YOGA = FASCIST YOGA (THE 1920s TO THE 1940s) 3. Guido Keller And The Rijeka Yoga Group 4. Military Theorist Major J. F. C. Fuller, Whose Concept of Blitzkrieg Became Standard Practice in Nazi Warfare 5. Bengal Lancer and Hitler Aficionado Francis Yeats-Brown6. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer and His Influence on the Architect of the Nazi Holocaust Heinrich Himmler 7. Mircea Eliade, Julius Evola, Savitri Devi - National Socialism as a Religion and the Yoga af PowerPART III. DOWNWARD DOG: OCCULT MADNESS AND YOGIC TELEVANGELISM (MODERN POSTURAL PRACTICE IN THE POST-WAR ERA) 8. Paul Dukes, Francis Yeats-Brown (Again) and Theos Bernard, Spreading the Great Om’s Gospel in the Post-War Years 9. Indra Devi and Her Editors At Prentice Hall 10. Harvey Day, a Hack Who Found Success with Books on Yoga 11. Desmond Dunne AKA Occultist James Lee-Richardson and His Mail Order Yoga Course12. Richard Hittleman and Yogic Televangelism13. Pull The Wool Over Your Own Eyes With Frank Rudolph Young, The ‘Einstein’ Of Occult YogaConclusionBibliography What People Are Saying “Fascist Yoga is a serious treatise on a zeitgeisty topic. To the man who may be Britain’s most avant-garde writer and artist, yoga is a swindle that dupes the well-meaning middle classes. It’s also a breeding ground for fascists. It isn’t even particularly good for you.” Telegraph “Namaste, fascists! An original and entertaining analysis of the dubious origins of the Western middle class’s favourite postural exercise.” The Times “Home wanted to do a headstand. However, after some cursory research, he realised something troubling: so did the Waffen-SS.” Observer “Western yoga existed in uncomfortably close proximity to various strands of extreme right-wing thought .. [Home’s] writing about yoga is intended less as an academic study than as an attempt to educate practitioners about the influence of fascism on their culture.” New York Review of Books “Fascinating.” Prospect “Home’s illuminating survey of Western yoga and its fascistic influences brings into relief the hidden side of the popular health and wellness movement … a riveting work for readers interested in yoga and right-wing movement.” Library Journal 'Immensely well researched and entertaining … Will never look at yoga the same again.” Francesca Gavin, Epoch Review “Anything Stewart Home writes, thinks, fancies, or loathes intrigues me. Reading Home is a special experience, dizzying. Home turns things upside down and shakes them up, and sometimes he recites his work standing on his head. Engaging with him, you might land on your head, also.” Lynne Tillman, author of Weird Fucks and Mothercare “With this scabrous broadside, Stewart Home exposes Hatha yoga's political shadow. His painstaking research reveals a hidden, decidedly inauthentic history as murky as it is intriguing. Teasing a thread from a pair of dhoti pants, soon the whole garment threatens to fall apart before our eyes.” Matthew Ingram, author of The Garden and Retreat “The author's desire to stand on his head led to this book, but there is nothing upside down about his exposure of the plastic gurus and spiritual sex pests to be found in these pages. Intense, funny, always original – there is nobody quite like the brilliant Stewart Home.” John King, author of The Football Factory and Human Punk “With an energy and style that only he could muster, Stewart Home eviscerates the two dominant manias of our era — individual self-optimisation and collective neo-fascism — and, reading their entrails, finds they share a common ancestor.” Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder and The Making of Incarnation Show more