“Psychotic Decompensations”
The agents have indeed collected disturbing reports. For example, “psychotic decompensations during internships, the exploitation of volunteers, or the encouragement to make donations”.
According to Georges Fenech, former president of Miviludes (1) and author in 2020 of the best-selling book “Beware of gurus”, the victims are mainly “women, around their forties, prey to the fear of aging, to difficulties conjugal relationships, or just looking for a balance”. Yoga can then become “addictive”: “They practice several times a week, adhere to a specific diet, refuse invitations outside, run courses or retreats. And gradually switch to a completely different way of life. “There can even be a real break, professional or personal.
“Let’s not mix everything”
As for the studios, Patrick Tomatis, president of the National Union of Yoga Teachers (SNPY), procrastinates. “The report devotes a page and a half to yoga. On 133, it’s not so terrible,” he retorts. “It’s mostly about past scandals. That said, drifts are not acceptable,” he concludes.
Élodie Garamond, Parisian teacher, and founder of the Yoga du Tigre studios also qualifies the accusation: “we often tend to include under the generic label of yoga a gloubi-boulga covering well-being, coaching, sophrology and all types of meditation. . Yoga has a good back. »
However, she admits that “seen from the outside, the practice may seem strange because it is surrounded by codes, and rites, which open the door to suspicion”. Examples: “mantras, purifying breaths, or the white turban used in kundalini. To top it off, “yogis willingly embrace an ascetic lifestyle,” such as dawn practice, cold showers, and a vegetarian diet. “But that doesn’t prevent you from having your head on your shoulders, a normal urban, social and family life! »
Kundalini yoga is practiced in a white outfit, a turban on the head. “But that can be explained by an energy logic,” explains Élodie Garamond.
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Lack of executives
There is consensus on one point: the profession lacks managers. According to Miviludes, “yoga techniques are not regulated, and training not sanctioned by a recognized diploma, this can induce amateurism. In other words, by Georges Fenech: “This allows certain booby traps to use these methods of personal development to exercise mental control for financial or sexual purposes. »
However, Patrick Tomatis, a teacher since 1968, considers that the profession has become much more structured in recent years. “France Competences has imposed criteria and now the profession is listed in the specific directory. Problem: in the majority of cases, teaching yoga remains a complementary or even voluntary activity. Worse, the environment is fragmented: “there are about fifteen structures and 11 federations and groups. »
Faced with this “concern for professionalization and protection of students”, Élodie Garamond and a team of teachers from different regions created, last spring, the Union of Yoga Professionals, founded “a label and a code of ethics”. . More important still for the president of the UPY: “we must help future teachers to understand the psychological dynamics that lead some students to project themselves into a relationship of disciple to guru”. In response, the Union wants to propose “precise benchmarks, to align education, training and ethical rules”.
Meditation, harmful?
The alert also targets meditation. No wonder, according to Georges Fenech. In his book, he reports studies according to which “meditation even has harmful effects. The researchers observed in a group of practitioners: 63% suffered from a negative effect and 7% were subject to depression, anxiety and panic attacks. “In reality, continues the author, when meditation aims to modify the vision of the world, it can be a source of rupture with one’s own values, one’s professional and family environment. »
“Yes there can be sectarian excesses, from the moment we are told that we must meditate according to a precise protocol”, supports Fabrice Midal, philosopher and founder of a school of meditation under associative status. “It then falls under ideology and indoctrination”.
When in doubt, should we stop practicing downward facing dogs? ” No. It is not a question of falling into the inquisition”, nuance Georges Fenech. And to add: “there is no general criticism to be made against these practices, be it meditation, which entered the National Assembly, or yoga, which has hundreds of millions of followers and a world day validated within the UN itself by 277 countries…” He rather calls for “regulation”. “The wellness sector represents a colossal market. But in France, in this area, there is a great freedom in which all these merchants of illusion are engulfed. It is a public scandal. »