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First part of two part conversation with Ross Dixon, on the yoga thing, Sinister Yogis, getting down to earth, dynamic yoga, sticking with sensations, a constant inquiry, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the continuum of physical, emotional, mental distress, a disappearing line between subject & object, the Feldenkrais method, the Yoga Industry, drinking the Huxley Kool-Aid, recognizing cultural engineering, separating from the collective, the opposite of withdrawal, leaving the concept space behind, the Manchester music scene, a cultural blob, musical iterations, Dave McGowan paradigm, trauma-generated culture, an embedded trauma code, an all-pervasive ideology, personas in the concept space, losing countercultural heroes, temporary relief of leaders, the drug of culture, the need for escapism, nostalgia for media, Marvel comics and peddling astonishment, a substitute for wonder, AA Milne’s dissociative fantasies, Jasun’s cat, the deal with pets, 1980s TV changing images of manhood, unconscious motivations, Bowie-fueled shaman dreams, a surrogate for contentment, kick-ass saviors.
Songs: “The Kommema and his Religion,” by SunWalker; “Razorblade Cyanoacrylate,” by Sebastian Duclos; “A Bomb,” by The Dead Mantra.
achieving total yoga penetration (heh, sorry) is the continuation of the ESALEN psyop on the West.. BUT
helping disabled babies learn to crawl.. good stuff
teaching yoga to kids is basically part of Common Core here in the States
Monsanto food / yoga / ZOG-Approved History and Science / After School Satan
all in a days $chooling
Hey Mike,
There’s a bid for corporate regulation of Yoga here in the UK. Basically aims to reduce it to a fitness class in gyms for flexibility and nothing more.
The infant rehab method mentioned was Feldenkrais.
Given historical and current cases of Yoga used to impose ideologies and create cults, I find the better known forms of Yoga and Meditation highly suspicious. Through all the ceremonies and trendiness there’s some useful practical stuff. (The only people I know over 70 who move well and have great health are Yogis for example). Not to mention my own health which has steadily improved overall since starting regular practice.
I am not denying Yoga’s suspicious side and misuse.
totally agree – I heard you guys touch on the “suspicious” aspects
can’t let THEM hijack and ruin everything now, can we ?
🙂
looking forward to part 2
I enjoyed the podcast. I feel like there are some parallels here for me, being a young musician. I think I’ve mostly given up on “the dream”, though I still make music for whatever reason.
In connection to artists and their authenticity, I’m reminded of an episode of Black Mirror called:
“15 million merits”
It involves the establishment taking the authentic and co-opting it for it’s own purposes. May be worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
Thanks, looking forward to the next one.
Hi Mathias,
I saw Black Mirror. About co-opting; I also meant to mention it with Jasun- but I also saw it happening to Surfing; at one time (around the turn of the century) I would have been round about 20; you could go to certain places in England, park for free, sleep in a car/van surf, and literally be left alone, bbq on the beach etc. I think the same happened across the world- I have heard stories from old surfers I met that back in the 60s you could live on Hawaii in a tent, slaughtering your own chickens, finding fruit etc. but what begins as a ‘cultural respite’ (people taking a break on their own terms) becomes integrated into industry. The places I used to escape to are now little surf resorts with quiksilver shops, parking meters, and thousands of happy customers.
Surfing isn’t the only thing I know this has happened to, Folk music, Rock music, Alternative Research, Yoga. The list goes on and it’s tricky to navigate because I know people who really loved surfing, who moved to surf towns to develop their surfing, but became retail managers, who surf a couple of times a week; not that there’s anything wrong with that necessarily.
I’ve been to a few festivals- Yoga ones to ‘demonstrate’ and music ones in my days as a roadie; and there’s just nothing to them but cold business, dressed up as ‘something’. Lots of high tranced out kids funding people who are mostly going through the motions it seems like to me. Not that there isn’t any interesting stuff happening, but it’s usually low key. (this of course could be me getting old). 🙂
Thanks for the Rant segway.
I think I’m less bothered about ‘being part of something’, and more bothered about practical, useful education as I get older. I find that ‘being part of something’ usually means sitting around waiting for groups of people to agree on what to do :-/.
I could really relate around the 48 minute mark when Ross mentioned the effect that ’80s music has on him, resonating with a part of him that felt more alive as a kid (and also Jasun describing the profound, viscerally thrilling effect of seeing the covers of old Marvel comic books).
To this day, I have those sorts of feelings evoked in me by cultural artifacts from the ’80s, even (especially) cheesy ’80s pop music and silly ’80s movies. ’80s culture had a sort of naive, hopeful, upbeat optimism (compared to the ’90s, anyway), with movies about hot-shot whiz-kids using new technologies to have thrilling, larger-than-life experiences—-and as a child, the videos on MTV (Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”, The Cars’ “You Might Think”, Ah-Ha’s “Take on Me”, etc.) were more colorful, wondrous, and imaginative than any cartoon I remember from back then…..It painted a vision of the future and teen/adult world as an artistic, vibrant, colorful place where the new technologies (portable music, video games & computers, radio-controlled toys, camcorders, the alternate realities depicted in music videos, etc.) promised to enhance & enrich all aspects of life, and excitement, adventure, and romance were just around the corner…
So by the time the ’90s rolled around, with gangster rap and the sullen, jaded attitude of the grunge music scene, and me being an awkward, lonely teen, that ’80s optimism had faded in a very depressing, disappointing way. The ’80s had colored my expectations of what it would be like to be one of those freewheeling, hot-shot whiz-kids depicted on TV & movies, having fun, being Mr. Cool & falling in love, but by the time I was a teenager, it was the let-down of the ’90s that suddenly took the place of so much of that naive magic, and none of those colorful dreams of youth seemed to be materializing…
So even to this day, ’80s music/movies/shows/commercials/etc. evoke in me a sense of magic & hope, not just of nostalgia for that time in itself, but for the visions of the magical future that those times seemed to promise. It’s a strange sort of nostalgia, like missing the past and its alternate future time-line simultaneously. Things like ’80s music are one of the only things that can rekindle that sense of carefree hope & excitement in me–even as I roll my eyes and laugh at the naive cheesiness of it, I still find it evoking some of that lost magic in me.