![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sexinreview.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/yogibikram.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHis name is Bikram Choudhury, and he popularized something called\nhot yoga. This is basically doing yoga in a hot room. He made himself\nrich with it. In fact, he became the richest and most famous Yogi on\nthe planet. He is worth millions and has a fleet of luxury cars. \nAlong the way, he used his popularity and power to prey on women and\nrape them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, what is the deal with the yoga being hot? The reason may make\nyou laugh out loud. It is hot because it is hot and humid in India,\nbirth place of yoga. Doing it the traditional way somehow makes it\nbetter. Except that is not the traditional way. In India, they tend\nto do yoga early in the morning before it gets hot. Because they are\nnot idiots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early on in the documentary he tells a class “Do you trust\nme? Do you have a choice? No. It is an Indian marriage. No choice.”\nThat should have been an early warning. He was, and is, essentially a\ncult leader. He has that typical dynamic. As one woman says in the\nfilm, “He will look you in the eye and you just feel he is\nspeaking to your soul.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is described as having great almost mystical gifts. This is\ntypical of cult leaders. You see him in the documentary doing some\nHindu fakir stunts that can be done by anyone with no training but\nare used to make people believe you have exceptional abilities. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While he taught internationally, Americans loved him, and he made\nBeverly Hills his home base. Mastering his skills was very physically\ndifficult, and once you did that, you sort of had to buy into it to\ndefend all that effort. Practitioners felt the need to defend him and\nan aversion to criticizing his often questionable behavior. He has a\ndynamic personality, a lean muscular body (although somewhat less so\nnow), an endless ego, a lot of showmanship, and an ability to easily\nlie. All of these things are helpful when you want to develop a\ncult-like following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He took it a step further by developing what was a clever scheme.\nHe opened up Bikram Yoga Studios. Hundreds of them. They all needed\nteachers, and there was money to be made as a teacher. Maybe not\nenough to live on, though. Most of the money went to Bikram. The\nclever twist was that in order to become a teacher you had to pay\nBikram $11,000 to take a nine week training course at a hotel. After\nthat investment, it was still up to Bikram to determine if you would\nbe allowed to teach. He could take that away at any time, for\nexample, if you criticized him or complained about his rapiness. No\nrefunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to his background and history, he tells many different versions. Perhaps none of them are true. He claims to have won non-existent Yoga competitions in India. His story about saving Nixon’s leg through yoga while he was President is almost certainly not true. He seems to make up stories as he goes. In my research lots of articles repeat his many lies as if they were true. This documentary gets it right, though, and pierces through his dishonesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It does not go far into the yoga aspect, though, so here is a little background. Yoga can be beneficial in the same way that any similar exercises can be. Stretching is good for you. Holding poses can build muscle. However, the mystical elements added on to it can not be proved, and miraculous healing claims have never been verified. There are some benefits to yoga, for example relieving back pain, but that may be just the strengthening of muscles that other forms of exercise can accomplish as well. The science on yoga is surprisingly slim, with almost no studies comparing it to other forms of exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are health risks from yoga, although usually not life threatening. Hot yoga takes place in a room that is 105 degrees with 40 percent humidity. That increases the risk of dehydration and becoming overheated, and increases the risk of muscle injury and cartilage and tissue damage. There is no scientific evidence that hot yoga is more beneficial than regular yoga. The hot yoga classes seem to me more akin to a form of torture. Bikram seems to realize this as well, as he frequently refers to how he is killing you. Vomiting and fainting in his classes are not uncommon. He also sits on a literal throne during these classes with a personal air conditioner blowing on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I could find nothing that showed that there was anything special about Bikram hot yoga that makes it better than regular yoga, and, in fact, I suspect it may have more potential for harm. Especially when the guy teaching it enjoys sexually assaulting women. It consists of 26 poses in a specific order and two breathing exercises over 90 minutes. It is the exact same thing every time. What would happen if you switched around the positions or changed a few? Nothing different I suspect. It is claimed that he essentially stole the entire concept from his teacher and then claimed credit for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are mountains of claims of the health benefits of hot yoga,\nbut that is all they are. Claims. Do a little Internet research and\nyou will find many pages proclaiming how it will benefit your sex\nlife. For example, according to Holistic Medicine expert Jan Stafl,\nM.D, \u201cheat helps to get the Kundalini energy flowing. I have a\nnumber of patients who do yoga and have found that it has sexual\nbenefits.\u201d Kundalini is a mystical belief, not anything scientific.\nIt is akin to claiming that \u201cJesus yoga\u201d cures many ills. He\nclaimed that one specific pose is natural Viagra. That is, of course,\nridiculous. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first woman to stand up to him was Pandhora Williams. It is\nwell documented that he says horrible things in his classes that tend\nto be misogynistic, anti-semitic, homophobic, and straight up racist.\nIn the ones attended by Pandhora, he explained how he saw women,\nclaiming that they \u201care here for one reason: to spread their legs\nand make babies.\u201d When a woman got up in the middle of class, he\nsingled her out saying \u201cWhere are you going, to change your\ntampon?\u201d He frequently referred to women in classes as fat bitches\nand stupid bitches. Considering how painful his classes were and the\namount of abuse one had to take, it makes you wonder if there was a\ntouch of masochism in his followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The misogyny was not what finally did it for Pandhora. At the end\nof class, he stated that all gay people should be put on an island\nand \u201cleft to die of AIDS.\u201d Afterwards Williams asked, \u201cBikram,\nwhy are you preaching hate? Yoga is supposed to be about love.\u201d\nAccording to her, he replied \u201cWe don\u2019t sell love here, bitch,\u201d\nturned to an assistant and said, \u201cGet that black bitch out of here.\nShe\u2019s a cancer.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that he refused to refund\nher $11,000. He also threatened anyone who talked with her. She sued\nfor racial discrimination. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case wound up on the desk of Minakshi \u201cMicki\u201d Jafa-Bodden.\nShe was an attorney and Bikram follower who handled their legal\nissues. When she saw this case, she began poking around to see if\nthere might be others to worry about. What she discovered is that\nthey were facing potentially very big problems, far more serious than\njust racial discrimination. Then she was called to testify in\nPandhora’s lawsuit. When Bikram learned what was going on, Micki was\nfired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She sued for discrimination, \u201csevere, ongoing, pervasive and\noffensive conduct,\u201d retaliation for investigating a former\ntrainee\u2019s allegations, and failure to pay her the agreed upon\nsalary. The jury found him guilty on each charge, and awarded her\nnearly 7.5 million. He fled the U.S. To avoid paying her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hearing him in the documentary, he sounds manipulative, abusive,\nand a bit mentally unstable. It is clear that he is a pathological\nliar. There is some great video in the documentary of him testifying\nthat he is broke, and trying to explain why he still has a massive\nluxury car collection. His explanation is hilarious, absolutely\nimprobable, and obviously made up on the spot. He sounds exactly like\na cult leader, and he also uses the classics of food and sleep\ndeprivation. He made it into a family where he was the father figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He claims “I work 24 hours a day, no food, no sleep,”\nand claims that he only sleeps 30 hours a week. Next he says “You\nwill never meet anyone on this earth more pure than me. I tell the\ntruth.” I do not believe that any of those claims are true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His classes are filled with barely clad women and he is very hands on. It is a hyper-sexualized environment. It should come as no surprise that he pushed his advantage sexually. At the nine week classes at hotels he would call women up to his room late at night and tell them to massage him. He would quickly guide that to genital massage. He seemed as obsessed with massage as Jeffrey Epstein. Women were even forced to massage him during classes as he sat in his throne. His seduction was anything but subtle, and not especially consensual. Those who refused him had to worry about him ending their career as a Bikram Yoga teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sexinreview.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bikram_teaching.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nBikram is no longer the semi-attractive man of his younger days, but in the documentary he says what you would expect from a narcissistic rapist when asked about his tendency to rape women: \u201cI don’t do that. I don’t have to. If I want sex with the women, I don’t need to attack them or rape them or abuse them or assault them. There’ll be a line of millions of women in the world, as a volunteer.\u201d The balding and badly aging Bikram also claimed that 5,000 women a day would line up to have sex with him: \u201cWhy do I have to harass women? People spend $1m for one drop of my sperm. Are you that dumb to believe those trash?\u201d See, he’s not raping them, he is just giving them what every woman wants. In truth, rape is less about sex than it is about power and misogyny, and Bikram has that in spades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His Indian wife was fully on board with his having sex with other\nwomen, and there is no way she could not have known that it was not\nconsensual. She did like the pretty things their high living\nlifestyle provided her, though. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From watching the documentary, Bikram reminds me a lot of Harvey\nWeinstein- a man with no conscience and an inflated ego with no\nboundaries who promises that he will make women stars. The women felt\ntrapped, going along with him or risking losing their careers and the\nfamily they had built in what was essentially a yoga cult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the documentary he tells the interviewer that \u201cI am the most spiritual man, David, you ever met in your life. But today you are not all educated, smart, intelligent, wise, experienced enough to understand who I am.\u201d I believe I am all those things enough to understand who he is, a narcissistic con artist who is a pathological liar and rapist. He also has a habit of not paying his bills, including the hotels where he taught 500 people at a time (charging a staggering total of $5.5 million), and has piled up the law suits against him for sexual assault. In the documentary he is called a dangerous clown and an idiot, that he believes he is above the law, did everything to delay his lawsuit, couldn’t keep lawyers, and engaged in vicious personal attacks against his accusers. He tells insane obvious lies. He claims he is the smartest man in the world you will ever meet in your life. He seems disconnected from reality. If he had not fled the country to avoid paying when he lost the lawsuit, he could become President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest mystery is why he has never been prosecuted\ncriminally. It is unknown how many women he has assaulted. Six have\ngone on record. L.A. was not interested in going after someone that\nrich, powerful, and high profile. In the #metoo movement era, that is\nno longer acceptable. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documentary does a good job of letting you see who Bikram\nreally is. You won’t like what you see, and may be baffled that he\nstill has so many devoted followers and how former followers still\ncling to their belief in his yoga methods. The documentary hedges on\nwhether his form of yoga is anything special. Other than from those\nwilling to believe, there is no proof that it is. It looks exactly\nlike the typical case of people being sucked into a cult. They do not\nlet go of those beliefs easily, even after everything falls apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This new Netflix documentary features a sexual predator you have probably never heard of. His name is Bikram Choudhury, and he popularized something called hot yoga. This is basically doing Yoga in a hot room. He did not invent it, but he made himself rich with it. Along the way, he used his popularity and power to prey on women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early on in the documentary he tells a class “Do you trust me? Do you have a choice? No. It is an Indian marriage. No choice.” That should have been an early warning. He was, and is, essentially a cult leader. He has that typical dynamic. As one woman says in the film, “He will look you in the eye and you just feel he is speaking to your soul.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is described as having great almost mystical gifts. This is typical of cult leaders. While he taught internationally, Americans loved him. Mastering his skills was very physically difficult, and once you did that, you sort of had to buy into it to defend all that effort. They felt the need to defend him and an aversion to criticizing his sometimes questionable behavior. He has a dynamic personality, a lean muscular body, endless ego, a lot of showmanship, and an ability to easily lie. All of these things are helpful when you want to develop a following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to his background and history, he tells many different versions. Perhaps none of them are true. His story about saving Nixon’s leg through yoga while he was President is almost certainly not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yoga can be beneficial in the same way that any similar exercises. Stretching is good for you. Holding poses can build muscle. However, the mystical elements added on to it can not be proved, and miraculous healing claims have never been verified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hot yoga classes seem to me more akin to a form of torture. $10,000 for classes for teachers, who had to take the class in 500 people order Cursed and screamed and yelled at. Demanded loyalty. Abusive. Dystopian environment Up to 120 degrees while he has personal air conditioner blowing on him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hearing him in the documentary, he sounds manipulative, abusive, racist, misogynistic, homophobic and a bit mentally unstable. He sounds exactly like a cult leader, and he also uses the classics of food and sleep deprivation during his nine week classes. He made it into a family where he was the father figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He claims “I work 24 hours a day no food, no sleep,” and claims that he only sleeps 30 hours a week. Next he says “You will never meet anyone on this earth more pure than me. I tell the truth.” I do not believe that both those claims are true. Nor do I believe, as reported in the 2012 book Hell Bent<\/em> by The classes are filled with barely clad women and he is very hands on. It should come as no surprise that he pushed his advantage sexually. At the nine week classes at hotels he would call women up to his room late at night and tell them to massage him. He would quickly guide that to genital massage. His seduction is anything but subtle, and not especially consensual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benjamin Lorr, Choudhury’s claims to his class that he launched Michael Jackson\u2019s career, cured Janet Reno\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s disease, was once best friends with Elvis, and had experienced \u201c72 hours of marathon sex, where my partner has 49 orgasms. I count.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n