Joel/Diana

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad:
    The Dynamic Duo of American Yoga

Joel Kramer, whom some call The First American Yoga Master, or the Father of American Yoga, was my first and primary teacher of yoga. I did study a bit with several others, but Joel, by far, was the main influence. As far as who I am as a human being, his teachings were far more relevant to me than ANYTHING I learned from anyone else. … with the exceptions of my Dad, who set the foundations, especially in paying attention to physical reality; and to a certain degree, Kevin Culllinane in the political/economic realm. All others were, in comparison, at the level of tips and tricks. (Yes, people like Alfred Korzybski and Ludwig von Mises were vital additions to my understanding, but Dad, Joel and Kevin were by far the most important.)

And what Joel taught was all so different than what anyone else was teaching at the time, as I later learned. Of course, what Joel teaches is still unique and controversial to this day. It's pretty politically incorrect, too, which may be one reason his teachings did not catch on as widely as they could, and should, have.

Much of other people's teaching was interesting, and they did give me a lot of perspective on what others were doing and teaching, but they were no where near as relevant or useful to me personally, nor professionally, when I started developing my own system of yoga and bodywork.

And, in my opinion, nowhere near as Right On with the Truth about many things. (I do have certain disagreements with Joel and Daina in the political realm, but that does not necessarily affect the other areas of life.)

I often hear people talk about how yoga is "supposed" to be done, and they speak of the way they think it was originally taught in India: More slow, more relaxed, more in touch with inner processes, more introspective, and so on. But my admittedly indirect studies of Yoga from India is that it was seldom like that. Most of the time, traditional yoga from the East was far more acrobatic and externally vigorous, almost like slowed down calisthenics, in its approach than is usually recognized. (I write more about this on the pages on Playing The Edge.) But we can see this very aggressive, posture-driven approach in many of today's most popular systems in the United States.

In the end, I am confident that, much of what is now taught in so-called Yoga in America was and is originally from Joel and his innovations. But he is not much of a marketer, nor good at blowing is own horn. So his contributions are little recognized compared to their wide effect. His work deserves to be far more known and understood than it is. Anyway …

What follows is part of my story meeting and learning from Joel and his invaluable partner, Diana Alstad.

* * * * * * * * * *

 

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation . . .
Or, Sometimes A Brochure Can Change Your Life

It was 1976, and I was 22 years old.

It took me two days: An hour car ride, two jetliners, a cab ride, a long bus ride, a ride on a ferry boat, and a 15 or so minute ride in an old VW bus driven by a seemingly crazy guy who seemed not to care who could be coming the other way around the many bends down this more-or-less one lane dirt road. … And there were a lot of trees everywhere, so going off the side of the road was not much of an option. Of course, Cortez Island, way north of Vancouver, British Columbia, had very few cars on it, so I guess it was not as high a risk as it felt. … But I did not yet know that.

But it did seem he was almost sliding around the bends in the road, not something that an old VW bus inspires confidence in. Yet we arrived safely at our destination: the old and now defunct Cold Mountain Institute. CMI was a holistic teaching center serving organic foods grown in its own gardens, had a lot of people running around doing things like yoga, tai chi and meditation, and there was just about nothing else to do on the island except, well, yoga, tai chi and meditation … and eating organic food. … And kayaking or canoeing, if you had one.

CMI has since been replaced by Hollyhock Farms. It looks nice on their website, but I've not been there since the changeover.

Little did I know this visit to Cold Mountain Institute on a distant Canadian island was about to be a life changing, turning-point event for me.

Life Before Joel @ CMI

Up till this particular month in June of 1976, I had been a full time, Structural Steel Ironworker since age 17, and a foreman since 18. Ironworkers were known for being among the most macho of all the heavy-construction trades, but I was probably the least macho of all ironworkers. One of my co-workers even called me Sunflower, because I ate a lot of sunflower seeds for snacks on the job. Sunflower is NOT, by the way, a proper nickname if you want to be a macho kind of guy. But I had turned about 90 per cent vegetarian since I started doing yoga, so it fit.

He even called me Preacher somrtimes, because I would talk about Christianity, Buddhism and such things now and then. Also not fitting for most Ironworkers.

But I had been doing yoga for almost 3 years now — about 20 minutes twice a day, sometimes more, most days. Yoga had gotten me more flexible in a few weeks than I had gotten when I was doing martial arts stretching way back when I was 14 years old, and later when I was 18. And starting to do Buddhist meditations when I was 14 led to a very different way of looking at things, as you can imagine.

I had also been going to lectures by a guru type guy, Goswami Kriyananda, who really looked the Hindu part, though he was American.

And I had five teaching sessions (meditation and breathing) with Sri Nerode, the Real Deal; a full blooded Hindu Brahmin who had moved from India and been teaching yoga in the Chicago area for 45 years. … He was around 80 years old when I met him. He had a few years earlier recovered from a broken back, as well as other earlier injuries — the doctors told him it was all over but the funeral, but he claimed that pranayama healed him, and he was still going. He outlived a lot of younger friends and family, in spite of his significant injuries.

When I asked Sri Nerode about this brochure I had received, the one from Joel and Diana, he said he had never heard of Joel. For some reason I thought this a little strange. Joel had been Yogi-in-Residence at Esalen Institute in the late 1960's. From what little I knew — and I did not know much about such things at that time — I thought there would have been a lot more inter-action between the various members of the yoga community. And I thought Esalen was sort of the Center of the Spiritual Universe in America. So I thought Joel should be better known. … I was not yet aware of how disjointed the whole range of spiritual and personal growth practices actually was.

Sri Nerode, after I asked him about Joel, then asked me to demonstrate a few yoga postures for him. He apparently approved, then proceeded to offer me a job teaching yoga at some of his locations, even though he had never taught me hatha (physical postures) yoga. Except for Joel's two hour introduction, and a couple of pocket books about yoga, I was pretty much self-taught. I was tempted to take him up on his offer … but I thought it strange he would offer me a teaching job with so little experience or teaching from him.

And there was something about that brochure. … Thank God I had signed up for that mailing list three years earlier …

Mom Sends Me To A Yoga Demonstration

I had first seen Joel Kramer speak and demonstrate yoga asana at a free seminar at the Oasis Center in downtown Chicago in 1973, when I was 19. That's what got me into yoga in the first place.

I had come home from work one night, and my mom, who of course knew I was interested in such things, told me about a seminar on yoga the next night that she had seen listed in the newspaper. I thought I had nothing better to do, so why not? … Thanks Mom!

So after work, I drove Downtown in my construction truck — the one with a very big welding machine and a bunch of equipment hanging off the flat bed in back — and I walk into this room with a bunch of people that looked very different from what I was used to, even for Downtown Chicago, where I had only been a few times. The way they dressed, sat on the floor, what they were talking about, all that stuff. Kind of like Hippies, of whom I had seen, in person, approximately none, except on TV.

And there was this guy who looked like an Indian Guru — he had a Nehru style jacket, very long hair, and spoke with a funny kind of foreign sounding accent. As I did not yet know his name — Joel Kramer — and he carried himself with very relaxed confidence, I figured he was some sort of spiritual master from India. It turned out he was, and still is, a Jewish guy from America and that his "accent" was a slight hold-over from when he had stuttered years prior. And I had never heard a Hindu person speak, either, so I had no real idea.

Well, the seminar started and he started to talk with his (not-an-) accent and I got very interested in what he was saying. And he said a LOT in a very short time. Although he did so with relatively few words.

In a couple of hours, he talked about things that basically summed up most of my experiences over the previous ten or so years of my life, wrapped it up in a box (so to speak), handed it to me, and called it yoga.

Hatha and Jnana Yoga, to be exact. Physical and Mental Yoga, in English. … And when he demonstrated his asana — physical posture — routine, it was pretty wild.

When he started to strip down, I was a bit surprised. He did stop when he got down to his Speedo style swimsuit, but for a guy from the Chicago suburbs who had never been directly exposed to the counter-culture or Hippies, at all, it was a little startling. … But ironworkers don't flinch, you know, at least not on the outside.

(This did prepare me a bit for when, three years later and first arriving at CMI, I inadvertently walked into a big room where a whole bunch of people were doing yoga with … no clothes on! … naked … WOW! … Would never see THAT back in Dolton, Illinois. … And just to be polite, I got out of there real fast!)

Now, back to watching Joel's asana demonstration, I was probably the strongest guy in the room, but here he was doing stuff with his body that I could not even imagine doing. He was the most flexible human being I had ever seen, even compared to the martial arts masters form the Orient I had worked with. And it was obvious that, while I probably had more brute strength than he, he had a deeper, more internal kind of strength than I. … And there was a certain, and obvious, focus of mind on what he was doing that was way beyond the ordinary. This got me even more intrigued.

Unfortunately, I had not known there was a workshop the next day, and I was supposed to work. So I did not at that time get the advantage of his perspectives on the actual doing of yoga and meditation, nor his many tips and tricks on how to do asana.

That was unfortunate. … But I went home that night and promptly got sicker than I had been in a long time, and could not even go to work. … It would be interesting to know if that was from the fish dinner I ate just before the demonstration, or if something inside of me knew everything was going to be changing, soon, and Big Time, in my life. … Fortunately, though, even though I missed the workshop, I DID get on his mailing list.

 

Getting Started With Yoga Postures

After recovering, I borrowed a couple of books on yoga from my best friend Jim's mom — 28 Days to Yoga by Richard Hittleman and Yoga, Youth & Reincarnation by Jess Stern — and started doing physical yoga on my own. I also got Joel's book, The Passionate Mind which is more about meditation and life in general.

I started doing yoga 20 minutes a day, then twice a day, and started eating mostly vegetarian — my mom was probably shocked when I started eating a lot of salads. And things went on from there.

This is when I started going to see people like Goswami Kriyananda every Sunday, and Sri Nerode a few times.

Then three years later, the brochure showed up. I wish I still had it.

So now I had to choose between starting teaching with Sri Nerode and going to Joel's one-month workshop. … I chose Joel. …  And I had to do a LOT of maneuvering to do to make that trip and stay away from work that long. I had originally planned to go for only two weeks, but a few days into the thing I KNEW I had to stay for the whole month-long program. So I called up my dad and asked him to arrange things so I could stay, which he did. … Thanks Dad!

And what can I say?

Without Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad, where would I be today?

I am sure I would have done something interesting with my life, but probably little, if any, of what you see on these web pages. In fact, without the input from Joel — and also Daniel Blake, the former Rolfer® — yoga would eventually turn out to be too painful for me to do AT ALL. Until I figured out how to put their stuff together and make an integrated system of Yoga/Bodywork Therapeutics … well, all that is a topic covered on another page, the history of how I developed this my work, DSL EdgeWork.

I have a lot more to say about what happened at Cold Mountain Institute that year at Joel's program, but that will have to wait until later. Right now, though, …

What's Unique About Joel?

My take on things is that because Joel was primarily self-taught, and with his skill as a phenomenologist*, his mind was relatively uncluttered by OPI's (Other Peoples Ideas) about how yoga and the bodymind were supposed to work.

*Phenomenology: an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience. — To make the term or idea more accessible to more people, DSL EdgeWork uses the term Experiential: involved or based on experience and observation. This, of course, requires a degree of consciousness and a certain kind of detachment for it to work. The more you are conscious of reality, the more of and deeper into reality you will see. And you have to be very careful about that detachemnt things, as it is a double-edge sword that can be taken too far. … More on that on other pages of the website.

 Joel was able to take a fresh perspective and explore What Is, rather than trying to recreate what other people said was supposed to be. He respected tradition to a point, but not, as he says, as a vise to squeeze the present into. He believed in evolving past the traditions where appropriate and necessary to remain relevant to human beings, and being human.

He did study some of the teachings of Jiddhu Krishnamurti. (If I was mystically inclined, I'd point out the fact of the same initials for Joel and Jiddhu, but I won't.)

Krishnamurti was very non-traditional in his approach to most things human and spiritual, and was all about looking at things as they are, not as we are told they are supposed to be. Krishnamurti had many differences with the Gurus of India about many things, like detachment and meditation. He is famous for saying that Truth Is A Pathless Land, and that no guru, no Dispeller of Darkness as it is sometimes defined, could do it for you, nor even really show you the way. Certainly they can not truly take on your karma as some of them allege.

Problem is that Krishnamurti spoke at a level that was difficult for most people to relate to. He was probably so removed in so many ways from ordinary life, as most of us know it, that it's doubtful he could really himself relate to the people who were listening to him.

Joel, on the other hand, though he can come across as being on a different plane in some ways, has a much better chance of relating to and understanding how most of us think and live. He is quite the intellectual, and has done extensive academic studies, and has lived an austere life, and quite reclusive it seems. I myself found it hard to feel very close to him. But I was used to ironworkers and motocross riders. Later, I was surrounded by mostly touchy-feely New Age types. Neither group prepares you for dealing with Joel.

Anyone who can, on his own, without a teacher or coach, do 4 or so hours of yoga a day for YEARS is going to develop a much deeper focus and a very different way of relating than the rest of us.

There was a time when I was concerned that if I pursued Jnana Yoga too much, I might get too much like him in his general demeanor. I was afraid I would get too austere and removed from people and certain parts of life. There indeed might be a danger in this for some people. But with Joel, there is far more to admire, respect and learn from to let that get in the way.

The point is that Joel has a razor sharp mind based on a very solid contact with physical reality. He can penetrate down into the essence of things internal and interpersonal phenomena better than anyone I have ever known. (That does NOT, in my mind, necessarily include politcs and economics, but that is a matter of opinion and is another story for another website.) Because of all this, he sees deeper, I believe, into things than most of us do or even can. He also spent a lot of time in environments that were very conducive to such personal introspection and human interaction.

As a result, Joel's insights and innovations are unparalleled in the menatl and phyical yoga world. They serve as a great foundation for those wanting to go deeper than is ordinarily available. Yet it is the very opposite of teacher-driven practices where we are supposed to emulate the practices of the Masters. Joel came to many conclusions that were very different, and often diametrically opposed, to what is taught in most approaches to yoga. The down side, of course, is that much of his teaching went, and to a degree still goes, against the grain of many yoga practitioners and gurus. This may very well be why he is not more well known. . . . But, due to a (possibly and hopefully) lessening of the authoritarian** impulse in more people, the time appears to be ripe for a resurgence of his teachings. He is, along with his life partner, Diana Alstad, now returning to teaching yoga after a 24 year absence.

**Authoritarian: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority … [often] at the expense of personal freedom.

Here is a summary — from MY perspective — of Joel's teaching in yoga back then.

• Playing the Edge of Mind and Body
• Creating "Lines of Energy" (with Stretching the Nerves) for Internal Alignment
  
• Using The Breath for Dissolving Tension
• Integrating Mental Yoga into Physical Yoga
• Long, Extended Time in Postures — (Yin Yoga Before Its Time)
  
• Extemporaneous Yoga — Asanas as Tools of Free Exploration, NOT as Objectives
  
• The Nature of Relationship between Human Beings and Entities

 

Eric Schifman, a highly accomplished Iyengar Yoga teacher, said this about his first experiences with Joel Kramer:

But when Joel taught me how to create a line of energy, suddenly all the intricacies that Iyengar had been talking about began happening by themselves. I would run energy down my arm, for example, and this skin would move this way, and that skin would move that way, and my little finger would move and my arm would rotate, just like Iyengar was saying. But instead of “me” doing it or being told what to do, it was coming from inside as a result of the energy flow. Suddenly I knew where Iyengar was coming up with all his information. He was being guided from within. I could now run energy through a line, feel what was happening, and then describe it to someone else as “Move here” or “Stretch that.” These were not the main event, but the effects, the incidentals, the froth on the wave. The main event was the energy flow and going after the feeling of perfect flow. The main thing was getting in touch with the within. Once you get that, it’s yoursBut when Joel taught me how to create a line of energy, suddenly all the intricacies that Iyengar had been talking about began happening by themselves. I would run energy down my arm, for example, and this skin would move this way, and that skin would move that way, and my little finger would move and my arm would rotate, just like Iyengar was saying. But instead of “me” doing it or being told what to do, it was coming from inside as a result of the energy flow. Suddenly I knew where Iyengar was coming up with all his information. He was being guided from within. I could now run energy through a line, feel what was happening, and then describe it to someone else as “Move here” or “Stretch that.” These were not the main event, but the effects, the incidentals, the froth on the wave. The main event was the energy flow and going after the feeling of perfect flow. The main thing was getting in touch with the within. Once you get that, it’s yours.

From Yoga: The Spirit & Practice of Moving into Stillness, by Erich Schiffmann

These elements are described inmore detail on the What Is DSL Let-Go Yoga? Page.

You can learn more about Joel and Diana, and see their teaching schedule, at their website.