The Science of Yoga

hormones. Intuitively, that seemed wrong. From personal experience, it seemed obvious that yoga stirred a number of hormones, some most likely sexual in nature.
    But the scientific evidence seemed to point elsewhere. I did the easy thing and put the topic aside.
    What eventually turned me around was the testimony of advanced yogis. I was amazed to find a new generation speaking with great candor about their autoerotic highs and how yoga by nature sought to recast the body for the purpose of sexual pleasure. In interviews, some spoke frankly of their bliss and endeavors to make the rapture permanent. An attractive yogini jokingly called her blinding ecstasies the best sex she never had. Some addressed the issue with what seemed like great reverence, saying yoga could turn the sexual experience into the holiest of sacraments.
    I proceeded to discoverthat modern yoga throbs with open sexuality ranging from the blatantly erotic and the bizarrely kinky to the deeply spiritual. The veil hung ever so carefully by the early gurus and the Hindu nationalists has fallen away.
    Routinely, yoga now promises to transport any serious practitioner into realms of sexual bliss that go far beyond the hot, moaning, knee-knocking variety of the bedroom. The trend is highly commercial in nature and has produced many thousands of books, websites, how-to articles, and video discs. Better Sex Through Yoga —a set of three DVDs (beginner, intermediate, and advanced)—promises to reward the student with “intense, long-lasting, full-body orgasms.” How long? The woman teacher gives no particulars. But scantily clad and smiling coyly, she promises to take “you harder, deeper, and further than you’ve been in your workout—and your sex life.”
    After exploring this world for a while, the big picture suddenly came into view. I saw how limited science had obscured key evidence, why yoga reverberated with so many scandals, and how the discipline itself began as a sex cult. The pieces of the puzzle, as they say, fell into place.
    One revelation centered on sexual misconduct among some of the world’s most celebrated gurus. I learned of philanderers who acted with impunity and female victims who tended to rationalize the sex as some kind of spiritual test or ritual initiation. Most had a difficult time finding fault with men they saw as virtual gods.
    Happily, my research also showed that the women began to resist and even take legal action. In 1991, protestors waving placards (“Stop the Abuse,” “End the Cover Up”) marched outside a Virginia hotel where Swami Satchidananda (1914–2002)—a superstar of yoga with long hair and a full beard who gave the invocation at Woodstock—was addressing a symposium. “How can you call yourself a spiritual instructor,” a former devotee shouted from the audience, “when you have molested me and other women?”
    Another case involved Swami Rama (1925–1996), the man who impressed scientists by seizing control of his palm temperature. In 1994, one of his victims filed a lawsuit charging that he had initiated the abuse at his Pennsylvania ashram when she was nineteen. He evaded deposition. Ultimately, he traveled to India, leaving behind his ashram in the Pocono foothills and its four hundred rolling acres. The case moved ahead despite his absence. In 1997, shortlyafter his death, a Pennsylvania jury awarded the young woman nearly $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
    Even Kripalu came under fire. Former devotees at the Berkshires ashram won more than $2.5 million after its longtime guru—a man who gave impassioned talks on the spiritual value of chastity—confessed to multiple affairs.
    I came to see these episodes as windows into the unruly forces at work in some of yoga’s most developed bodies. The fallen seemed to confirm Iyengar’s point about the crossroads of destiny. For science, the cases suggested that vigorous practice could stir the hormones and passions to such an extent that even pious men of high ambition could lose their way. The misadventures also offered a bittersweet tribute to yoga revitalization. It turned out that a surprising number of the philandering gurus were in their sixties and seventies.
    My take on the subject kept getting reinforced as new episodes broke into public view—at times with a colorful new spin. Bikram Choudhury, the hot entrepreneur, a man known for libidinal energy and a love of hyperbole, was asked about rumors of having sex with