International Therapeutic Yoga Federation

Yoga in France is the practice of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

, whether for exercise or other reasons, in France. The relaxation technique of

yoga nidra Yoga nidra ( sa, योग निद्रा, ) or yogic sleep in modern usage is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation. A state called yoga nidra is mentioned in the Upanishads and the ...

was pioneered by Dennis Boyes, whose 1973 book preceded

Satyananda Saraswati Satyananda Saraswati (25 December 1923 – 5 December 2009), was a Sanyasi, yoga teacher and guru in both his native India and the West. He was a student of Sivananda Saraswati, the founder of the Divine Life Society, and founded the Bihar Sch ...

's popularisation of the technique.

History

Yoga as exercise

Yoga was brought to France in the early 1930s by Maryse Choisy, Cajzoran Ali and Constant Kerneiz. Choisy taught meditation and wrote books on the philosophy of yoga; Ali published the 1928 book ''Les divines postures'' ("The divine

oga Oga or OGA may refer to: Places * Oga, Akita, Tōhoku, Japan * Oga Peninsula, Japan * Oga, a ''frazione'' of Valdisotto, Italy People * Oga Atsushi, a Japanese sumo wrestler * My Oga at the top, Nigerian Pidgin English term for "boss" or "leader ...

postures"); and Kerneiz founded what was probably the first yoga school in France. A pupil of Kermeiz, Lucien Ferrer, opened the ''Académie occidentale de Yoga'' ("Western Yoga Academy") in 1950. From the 1960s, with growing interest in yoga as a philosophy, the number of French yoga books, journals, and courses increased rapidly. In Brussels, from 1968 until his death in 2004, the French-speaking

André Van Lysebeth André Van Lysebeth (10 October 1919 – 28 January 2004) was a Belgium, Belgian yoga instructor and author whose books about yoga have been translated into many languages. He is also known for a quintessential book on human sexuality he took thir ...

single-handedly published a monthly yoga magazine, ''Yoga''. He became widely-known in France and across Europe as a yoga teacher, running yoga holidays, publishing books including the 1968 ''J'Apprends le Yoga'' (published in English as ''Yoga Self-Taught''), and training many teachers. In 1971, Eva Ruchpaul founded the Institut Eva Ruchpaul in Paris; it has trained over 1000 yoga teachers. In the 1990s, yoga grew to have millions of practitioners in France, as it continues to do in the 21st century.

Yoga nidra

In 1973, Dennis Boyes published his book ''Le Yoga du sommeil éveillé; méthode de relaxation, yoga nidra'' ("The Yoga of Waking Sleep: method of relaxation, yoga nidra") in Paris. This is the first known description of

in a modern sense as a method of systematic relaxation in any language, preceding

's popularisation of the technique. In the book, Boyes makes use of relaxation techniques including the direction of attention to each part of the body:

Institutions

Yoga has remained largely unregulated in France, without either state control or official instruction in state schools. Four French institutions are members of the standard-setting body, the /

European Union of Yoga The European Union of Yoga (EUY) is an international non-profit organisation which co-ordinates a network of yoga teachers, training schools and yoga federations. It was founded in 1971, and has since 1973 held an annual congress at Zinal, Switzerla ...

, namely the ("EU Research on Yoga in Education"), ("International Federation of Teaching Hatha Yoga"), ("National Federation of Yoga Teachers"), and ("French Yoga Institute").

Notes

References

{{Yoga as exercise

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...