White Tantric Yoga

So I ended up not doing the three whole days because one of the 18 yr olds I came with got really sick right during tantric. She started sweating and vomiting and they took her to first aid. First aid told her she was "purging and burning karma from past lives" and that is why this was happening. That's one version I guess. I think she was young and mentally unprepared, it was hot, hard and exhausting. A lot of people were nervous. Some, including me, even cried a lot. People in first aid did all sorts of things from Sat Nam Rasayan (a Sikh new age healing technique where they recite mantras over you and send you energy) to herbal medicine to who knows what. So I found out in the evening and came to get her. One look at her pale face, shaky, sweaty body and I realized she was probably in shock, not "purging". So she (as the only other active Mormon here with me) asked for the elders and a blessing. We found the missionaries who gave us the local bishops number. We then went down the 8 mile dirt road to Espanola and found the ward house. The bishop and his council were there. In the blessing he told her this was a mental sickness and that if she had the faith the Lord would heal here, but that it depended on her faith. That sounded about right.

She didn't want to go back that night. In fact at that point she wanted to go home. The relief society president offered to let us stay in her house for the night (very sweet of her). So we did. We then went to Santa Fe the next day instead. It was very weird being in this camping, communal hippie experience for a week and then going to Santa Fe and shopping. Total culture shock.

She seemed to feel better after that and decided to stay after all. So I missed day two. And then because I missed day two and was so drained from babysitting a teenage girl the day before decided not to do day 3. People kept asking me why I wasn't doing it (there's a lot of pressure to do it and I am not sure it's such a good idea for everyone). I just had to keep answering that I didn't want to. Instead I washed dishes in the kitchen and then heard all sorts of stories from some very old Sikhs about the old days of Ram Das Puri and of Yogi Bahjan.

Here are the pictures of my first day of White Tantric (keep in mind they dress all in white, remove their shoes, cover their heads, face the opposite sex and then chant and chant and sing and sing and hold positions until you think you can't do it anymore - very mentally challenging even though they all seem to love the experience):

 This is Ra, a yogi from Rochester, NY. He is a Sikh and also a Unitarian Minister. He was my yoga partner for the day.

The people next to me were from the Virgin Islands (where they say there is absolutely no law, not even drinking and driving). There are over 30 countries represented here.