Fascist Yoga - Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness

'Namaste, fascists! An original and entertaining analysis of the dubious origins of the Western middle class's favourite postural exercise' - The Times

The practice of yoga promises peace, self-realisation and release, thanks to the power of its 'mystic' Indian origins. But what if this is just hype? In Fascist Yoga, Stewart Home sweeps away the half-truths to tell a new origin story of the world's first modern yogi - a Californian escapologist who added some Hindu fairy dust to gym and circus exercises.

Ever since, the world of yoga has been full of grifters, occultists and white supremacists, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise. From cult leaders to brainwashed followers, TV celebrities and fake gurus, the story of yoga has involved some of the strangest currents of humanity.

Today, the COVID pandemic has activated elements within the modern yoga movement to espouse far-right conspiracies, and QAnon's fascist political programmes mirror some of yoga's key early proponents.

In this new exposé, Stewart Home shows that nothing is sacred.

Introduction

PART I. HAPPY BABY: A GRUBBY GURU TAKES US ALL TO THE CLEANERS 

1. Did Pierre Bernard Invent Yoga in California at the Start of the Twentieth Century? 

2. The Great Oom & White Power

PART II. WARRIOR ONE, TWO AND THREE: FACISM + YOGA = FASCIST YOGA (THE 1920s TO THE 1940s) 

3. Guido Keller And The Rijeka Yoga Group 

4. Military Theorist Major J. F. C. Fuller, Whose Concept of Blitzkrieg Became Standard Practice in Nazi Warfare 

5. Bengal Lancer and Hitler Aficionado Francis Yeats-Brown

6. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer and His Influence on the Architect of the Nazi Holocaust Heinrich Himmler 

7. Mircea Eliade, Julius Evola, Savitri Devi - National Socialism as a Religion and the Yoga af Power

PART III. DOWNWARD DOG: OCCULT MADNESS AND YOGIC TELEVANGELISM (MODERN POSTURAL PRACTICE IN THE POST-WAR ERA) 

8. Paul Dukes, Francis Yeats-Brown (Again) and Theos Bernard, Spreading the Great Om's Gospel in the Post-War Years 

9. Indra Devi and Her Editors At Prentice Hall 

10. Harvey Day, a Hack Who Found Success with Books on Yoga 

11. Desmond Dunne AKA Occultist James Lee-Richardson and His Mail Order Yoga Course

12. Richard Hittleman and Yogic Televangelism

13. Pull The Wool Over Your Own Eyes With Frank Rudolph Young, The 'Einstein' Of Occult Yoga

Conclusion

Bibliography