Matthew Remski

Matthew S. Remski (born 1971) is a yoga practitioner and author who has written on the connection between yoga and conspiracy theories. His work has been informed by his past experience as a cult member.[1][2][3][4] Remski was instrumental in exposing inappropriate physical contact in Yoga classes through an article that he wrote for The Walrus in 2018.[5][6]

Early life

Matthew Remski was born in Michigan in 1971 and schooled as a Roman Catholic at Michael's Choir School, Toronto. From 1990 he worked as a church organist and choir conductor. From 1991 to 1994 he studied English literature at the University of Toronto, but did not graduate.[7]

Buddhism and yoga

In 1996 Remski began "an extensive study" of Michael Roach's approach to Gelukpa Tibetan Buddhism. He received a Tantric initiation from Roach's lama, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, in 1998, visited India and Sera Mey monastery in Tibet, and studied Tibetan. From 2000, he lived in Endeavour Academy, Wisconsin Dells, in the kundalini-style cult of Charles Anderson. In 2003 he trained in Kripalu-style yoga with Darren John Main in Costa Rica, and in 2004 began to teach yoga, in his view prematurely, in Wisconsin. In 2005 he obtained a 250-hour certificate in yoga therapy at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda. In 2007 he began to teach yoga and ayurveda in Toronto. In 2008 Remski studied Jyotish Shastra, an East Indian form of astrology, at the Vidya Institute.[7] He began to blog on issues to do with yoga, especially sexual abuse by yoga gurus and his "What are We Actually Doing in Asana" project,[8] and is viewed as a leading thinker on these topics by other yoga practitioners.[2][9] In 2014 he obtained a 500-hour yoga educator certificate from the Nosara Yoga Institute.[7]

Reception

The chair of the British Wheel of Yoga, Gillian Osborne, writes of Remski's 2019 book about sexual abuse by yoga gurus, Practice and All is Coming, that "the stories are shocking but entirely believable".[10] In her view, the book embodies "considered, informed opinion and original thought".[10]

Tara Henley, reviewing Practice and All is Coming for The Globe and Mail, writes that Remski's "riveting" book "takes a deep dive into the 'toxic group dynamics' at play, mainly in the context of Ashtanga yoga, referencing numerous interviews Remski conducted with women who allege its late founder Pattabhi Jois sexually assaulted them".[11] Remski examines the "'classic cultic triad' of deception, dependence and dread of leaving", isolating the follower and preventing them from thinking clearly about what is happening.[11]

Works

Poetry
  • 1990 Et cum lazaro (Toronto: Poetency Press)
  • 2010 Syrinx and Systole (Toronto: Quattro Books)
  • 2014 Rosary (or, les fleurs du mala) (Matthew Remski)

Novels

Non-fiction
  • 1993 Fool for Divinity (Montréal: Guernica)
  • 1997 Organon vocis organalis : book II of aerial sonography (Toronto: Coach House Books)
  • 2010 Yoga 2.0 : mala 1 : shamanic echoes (Toronto: Graha Yuddha Press)
  • 2012 Threads of Yoga (BookBaby)
  • 2014 (with Michael Stone) Family Wakes Us Up: Letters Between Expectant Fathers (pub. by the authors)
  • 2019 Practice and All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, and Healing in Yoga and Beyond (Embodied Wisdom Publishing)[12]
  • 2023 (with Derek Beres and Julian Walker) Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat (PublicAffairs)[13]

Selected articles

Remski has written many articles on yoga and related topics, including:

References
  1. Cheetham, Joshua (14 February 2021). "Does yoga have a conspiracy theory problem?". BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  2. Kraft, Kathleen. "Getting to Know: Matthew Remski". Yoga International. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  3. Guerin, Cecile (28 January 2012). "The yoga world is riddled with anti-vaxxers and QAnon believers". Wired. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  4. "Canadians Involved in New Age Spirituality and Natural Health Are Being Sucked into the Dark World of QAnon". Press Progress. 28 January 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  5. Rosman, Katherine (8 November 2019). "Yoga Is Finally Facing Consent and Unwanted Touch". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  6. Remski, Matthew (25 April 2018). "Yoga's Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories". The Walrus. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  7. Remski, Matthew. "About". Matthew Remski. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  8. Remski, Matthew (6 January 2014). "What Are We Actually Doing in Asana? (introducing the WAWADIA project)". Matthew Remski. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  9. Walker, Julian (10 October 2016). "Bio for Matthew Remski". Freedom Becomes You. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  10. Osborne, Gillian (2020). "Power and abuse" (PDF). British Wheel of Yoga. pp. 25–27. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  11. Henley, Tara (15 March 2020). "Cult literature makes for a darkly compelling – and surprisingly relevant – read". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  12. "Practice and All Is Coming". Embodied Wisdom Publishing. 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  13. "CONSPIRITUALITY: HOW NEW AGE CONSPIRACY THEORIES BECAME A HEALTH THREAT". Kirkus Reviews. 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2023-06-04.
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