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Comment by umeshunni | Hacker News Reader

Yoga, as its practiced in the West, is mostly a fitness program. Yoga teachers in the West, however, mix pseudo-scientific or New Age BS into their practice ("unite the chakras", "harness your inner goddess", "elevate your spirit") to make themselves be seen as being more than fitness instructors.

I think the point to author is trying to make is that companies often add BS to their mission statements to 'elevate' themselves from a regular company into a lifestyle.

references: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yoga-babble https://omyogadiva.com/2016/03/25/yoga-babble-muddies-up-the...

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> Yoga teachers in the West, however, mix pseudo-scientific or New Age BS into their practice

Having been to my fair share of yoga classes, I've found it's less the teachers doing this than the Instagram-happy students.

> Yoga teachers in the West, however, mix pseudo-scientific or New Age BS into their practice ("unite the chakras", "harness your inner goddess", "elevate your spirit") to make themselves be seen as being more than fitness instructors.

You're right about the author's point, but this is a gross generalization and is unfairly dismissive of a lot of different practices that people find personally beneficial.

People can find any belief system, no matter how unfounded in reality, personally beneficial, look at Scientology.

Doesn't mean it's based on anything coherent or real.

When the word "real" is used as it is here, I sense that it often has nothing to do with reality, and more to do with some kind of arbitrary consensus-reality-concept, which may or may not have anything to do with reality. This is useful insofar as it allows me personally to occasionally "fiddle with the knobs" on my own perspective, which is easier to do when I don't actually believe in it.

the whole article is unfairly dismissive of a lot of different practices that people find personally beneficial. I'm sure there's at least a few staff and customers of Peloton who feel better about themselves because the company mission statement says they're "selling happiness", or people at spotify who like to think they're "unlocking human creativity".

Talking about uniting the chakras or elevating your spirit is feel-goodery on exactly the same level.

When people use the term "technobabble" it doesn't mean they are shitting on the entire field of technology, either.

This is true for many, but not all, nor is it limited to the West.

I hear this a lot from people who've never been to a yoga class. It's more of a stereotype than reality. All the yoga classes I took have never mentioned anything resembling yogababble.

Right, only someone who has never really tried (that is, stuck with) a yoga practice for awhile would claim that yoga, even the westernized version, is "incoherent." The whole point of yoga is to have an integrative and harmonizing effect.

Rather unfortunate that the corporate world seems to be seeing its own absurdity in the mirror, but then choosing an unrelated scapegoat to point fingers at.

> The whole point of yoga is to have an integrative and harmonizing effect.

This is yogababble.

Only if you have no idea or experience of what it means.

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