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I analysed the Netflix documentary "Bikram, yogi, guru, predator" (2019), about a chain of businesses using the name Bikram yoga, started by a hustler called Bikram Choudry, starting on 2024-10-22 + partly (about the last 30 minutes) while cycling from Zhytomyr to Kiev, the latter part I rewatched to extend my commentary on 2024-11-19.
2024-10-22: I had never heard of this guy before a few days ago. He taught yoga with a specific number of poses that he claimed were his but were in fact copied from his teacher. The women's wishes were used against them. He sexually harrassed at least several of them, raped at least 1, but they and others who knew about these actions of him, didn't say anything in public about it because they wanted a career in teaching yoga via his method or to open a yoga studio with of course references and public that would come to a yoga studio to which his name was attached. Wishes can be used to reel you in for a scam, or to keep you in a place where you don't want to be because you have the expectation to get something that you want...
What I immediately thought: It is not normal to teach yoga in the tight pants that he wore. I would wear shorts + underwear. He shows you from the start what he is like...
Note that those who didn't say anything about what happened not just didn't talk about it for their own good, but they made possible further abuse of others...
Bikram Choudry is a hustler, a small time scammer who made it big by having been in the right place at the right time, showing and teaching his teacher's yoga system and using that gimmick to build an empire, just like Claude Vorhillion/Rael who used the interest in the UFO phenomenon to start a space-alien religion. They are both stupid anti-social people but they had success because of people wanting to believe, wanting to improve their lives, and who, because of that were ignoring all the warning signs.
52:50 : Summary: [ bald guy: Jakob Schanzer ] guy debates what to do: disliking a person who brought it out (Bikram's abuse) vs himself not wanting a yoga studio with Bikram's name on it.
WHS: How is that even a choice? He (Bikram) is a shithead, you already knew that and yet you continued in that sad little world because for you your own future possibilities of becoming a yoga teacher were more important than not letting it happen to anyone else! That guy is a wimp, see in particular 1:17:06.
57:40 : [ lawyer ] "how could smart people, especially women, endure weeks and weeks with this guy"
WHS: Because they want something... (become a yoga teacher, have a yoga studio, get praise, it can be anything), Cults and scammers target people via desires...
1:03:53 : Summary: It is absolutely crazy, Choudry was trying to wing it on the witness stand in the court case against him, making up a story about the cars and an engineering school.
WHS: You see here the performer, the small time scammer, in action: making claims that are nonsense but each time trying to talk his way out of it when he is questioned further about it.
1:05:30 : Summary: Bikram Choudry gives a thumbs up at witness stand after giving his testimony (telling what was obviously a made up story), disconnected from the reality that his testimony was disastrous.
WHS: This is actually 'normal' for anti social persons: They don't see when something is not going fine, they have a distorted view of reality because of no self-criticism, no introspection. In companies they run companies into the ground thinking they did a great job...
1:06:59 : [ Bikram Choudry ] "Listen, in India when you teach 10 thousand people , you said 'I taught 10 million people' ".
WHS: With that statement he tells you that he does that himself and thus that he is a fantasist...
1:06:11 : Summary: Woman, Chandrima Pal, journalist, asks Indian journalist Shamik Bag who worked for Elle magazine (Indian edition) who interviewed Choudry, about him. He says that Bikram Choudry is a fantasist, a story teller. He immediately saw through him... This is what she said in the documentary:
1:06:09 : [ journalist Chandrima Pal ] One of the last interviews that he gave was for Elle Magazine.
1:06:14 : And I spoke to the journalist. I asked him, "So, what did you think of him?"
1:06:20 : He said, "I don't know. He seemed to be like this typical character from North Calcutta that you read about in storybooks."
1:06:30 : There would be this guy sitting in a North Calcutta... chai shop and talking about, "Oh, you know, in the year 1939, I went on an expedition to the Amazon forest. Guess what happened?"
1:06:44 : We grew up with characters like this.
1:06:46 : To actually find someone in flesh and blood who was capable of spinning these yarns was quite something.
1:07:15 : Summary: Choudry didn't win 5 yoga championships in India, because there were no yoga championships at that time...
1:08:06 : Summary: The 26 postures were not created by Bikram Choudry...
1:08:25 : Summary: Everything Bikram taught were actually lessons from Bikram's teacher Bishnu Ghosh
1:15:05 : [ blue haired woman: Larissa Anderson ] "I wanted to sit in court and look him straight in the eye." 1:15:11 : "And I wanted him to see me and what he did to me."
WHS: That would be a waste of time, he doesn't care, because he is anti-social. My former friend from Kharkov did the same with the group who wanted to do ecological living but kicked her out. She kept going to e.g. yoga classes and I asked her why she kept in touch with any of them: She said that 1) they were not bad people (I disagree, at least some of them did some pretty bad things), 2) she said that she wanted to show them that she was not affected. I said that that is a total waste of time, because THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.
1:17:06 : [ bald guy: Jakob Schanzer ] I had moved to New Orleans in 2015, and I was teaching at a studio in New Orleans. And one day, I had taught a class, and I had fully come to terms with the fact that I can't teach it any more. I know for a fact he abused a lot more than six women, because I've talked to many other women who he's abused.
1:17:29 : It...
1:17:30 : Sorry, it was really hard because...
1:17:34 : Sorry.
1:17:35 : He was always so good to me. [ WHS: Sure, because you were a useful idiot and not competition (being a homosexual) ]
1:17:38 : And I wouldn't be the person...
1:17:42 : I wouldn't be the person who I am today without him,
1:17:46 : and for them to go by the...
1:17:49 : for them to go publicly and say this was, like...
1:17:53 : It was like they were trying to, like...
1:17:57 : publicly annihilate my father.
WHS: Unbelievable... What a wimp!
1:19:33 : [ emotion poor and insane woman: Patrice Simon ] "It's just sad and devastating but the main thing to me and why I agreed to speak with you was because this yoga is magical"
1:19:51 : "I'll never stop doing it. I'll never stop promoting it."
1:19:56 : "I'm happy he's still doing his teacher trainings."
1:20:02 : "For some reason, I get the feeling he's gonna make a comeback."
WHS: This woman Patrice Simon is totally insane!
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Last modified: 2024-11-19