This Is Hell! The Fascist Attempt To Take Over Yoga / Stewart Home
Oct 20, 2025
Stewart Home, an artist, writer, and activist, dives into the surprising connections between modern postural yoga and far-right movements in his book, Fascist Yoga. He explores yoga's historical ties to figures like Pierre Bernard and Aleister Crowley, discussing how anti-vaccine skepticism permeated yoga communities. Home critiques the individualistic culture of yoga and its capitalist exploitation, while questioning whether this spiritual practice can confront its problematic past. He also probes into why sex scandals are prevalent in yoga settings, revealing disturbing hierarchies.
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Yoga's Modern Origins And Political Threads
- Modern postural yoga in the West has significant ties to early 20th-century figures who mixed Western physical culture with occult and racial ideas.
- Stuart Home argues that this history helps explain contemporary political and cult-like tendencies within some yoga circles.
Pierre Bernard's Showman Origins
- Stuart Home recounts Pierre Bernard's murky biography and showman origins in early American tantra and postural yoga.
- Bernard performed circus-like stunts and published a fake-seeming tantric journal to promote his teachings.
Racial Mythmaking Shaped Yoga's Spread
- Early promoters framed yoga as Aryan and linked it to racialist myths, blending orientalist claims with Nazi-friendly ideas.
- These narratives were amplified by media-savvy disciples who spread yoga via books and mass media.
