Number 9 Alexa Terrazas
In 2019, Mexican student Alexa Terrazas took a devastating fall and broke over 100 bones
in her body, after trying an extreme yoga pose. 23-year-old Terrazas was on a 6th floor balcony
and performed a pose which involved her hanging upside down while supporting her weight on the
glass rail. Neighbors in San Pedro reported that they’d seen her hanging from the edge of
the balcony before. A photo of her in the dangerous pose subsequently became viral
online. Moments after it was taken, Terrazas fell 80 feet to the driveway below and suffered
catastrophic injuries. She shattered both legs while suffering additional fractures to her hips,
head and arms. Terrazas survived but was in surgery for 11 hours, as doctors
struggled to reconstruct her legs. Number 8 Rebecca Leigh
In 2018, yoga influencer Rebecca Leigh suffered a stroke from a torn artery in her neck,
after attempting a demanding pose. While filming a tutorial for her social media following,
39-year-old Leigh went on her porch, in Gambrills, Maryland, and did a hollowback handstand. The pose
involved dropping the hips back and arching the spine and neck, while in a handstand.
A few hours later, Leigh’s vision became blurry and her limbs felt extremely weak. She initially
attributed it to a herniated disk in her neck but, after a couple of days, decided to go to the ER.
An MRI revealed that Leigh had suffered a stroke. The woman had torn a carotid artery, one of four
main oxygen-supplying arteries, which led to the formation of a blood clot in her brain. For weeks,
she endured constant, excruciating headaches that made light unbearable. She was assisted
by her husband while eating, washing or taking her pills. Fortunately, she eventually recovered
and even started doing yoga again. Number 7 Man Breaks Thigh Bone
In 2015, a yoga enthusiast shattered a bone in his leg while attempting a difficult yoga pose. The
practitioner’s identity hasn’t been released but sources have reported that he was a 39-year-old
man from Ireland. He attempted a pose called Marichyasana B, during his morning yoga class,
while unattended by an instructor. The pose involved assuming a seated position,
with the knee bent and drawn up to the chest, and then bending the torso towards the floor.
As he did so, he heard a loud crack and felt intense pain in his thigh. The pressure to
which he’d subjected his leg resulted in a thigh bone fracture. Scientifically known as the femur,
it’s the longest and heaviest bone in the human body, acting as one of the main supports of
vertical posture. The yoga practitioner collapsed as soon as he tried to put weight on his leg.
When he arrived at the hospital, doctors discovered that the man’s limb was shorter
and that it had rotated in an awkward position. Documented in BMJ Case Reports,
it’s believed to be the first injury of its kind to have resulted from yoga. Normally,
such a thigh bone fracture would be seen in car crash victims. A rod was screwed into the man’s
femur and, less than year later, he returned to yoga but pledged to try less demanding poses.
Number 6 Vera Maceiras Rijo
In February of 2019, a Portuguese woman fell to her death in Bangkok and the authorities
believed the accident had occurred while she was practicing yoga. According to Thai investigators,
27-year-old backpacker Vera Maceiras Rijo would often begin her mornings by climbing
out the window to practice yoga on a narrow ledge. The main theory regarding Rijo’s death proposed
that she was on the roof doing yoga, at about 5 am, when she lost her balance and plummeted
5 stories below. Her body, clad in pajamas, was discovered entangled in a razor-wire fence,
next to an abandoned building. A local police lieutenant told a media outlet that Rijo hadn’t
hit the ground and that her death was a result of her bleeding out on the fence.
He also suggested that the woman’s life might’ve been saved had she been found sooner. While an
accident remained the main hypothesis, suicide was also considered. However,
a few days before her body was discovered, Rijo had celebrated her birthday and there were no
reports to indicate suicidal tendencies. Number 5 Aaron Pappas
On July the 23rd of 2017, a California yoga teacher drowned
while practicing controlled breathing techniques. A few days prior to his passing,
43-year-old Aaron Pappas was in a swimming pool and training controlled hyperventilation, a way
of forcefully filling his body with oxygen. The pioneer of the breathing technique is Dutch man
Wim Hof. While his method has been credited with a number of health benefits,
it does run the risk of passing out, something that Hof himself has warned about. Pappas was
found unconscious at the bottom of the shallow pool and rushed to the hospital. After a few days
in which his condition continued to deteriorate, Pappas was taken off life support. There were no
witnesses, but an investigation concluded that his death had been the result of accidental drowning.
Pappas wasn’t the only fatality linked to the Wim Hof Method. In 2015 and 2016, four people
drowned and those close to them suspected that the breathing exercises were mainly to blame.
Number 4 Kyno Hunt
In 2008, a heating engineer, from England, was arrested for assaulting women while
posing as a yoga teacher. 32-year-old Kyno Hunt would gain access to his victims’ homes
when he was called to repair their boilers. He’d strike up a conversation with them,
falsely claiming to be a yoga instructor. Two of his victims were encouraged to assume a
position that required them to get down on all fours, at which point Hunt began touching them
inappropriately. The north London man was arrested, in early October of 2008,
and found guilty on three counts of sexual assault. He was given a 4-year jail sentence and
permanently registered as an offender. Number 3 Bikram Choudhury
Indian-American yoga teacher Bikram Choudhury is best known for devising a form of hot yoga that
involves 26 postures maintained in an environment with temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bikram Yoga became very successful in the Western world, popularized by several celebrity students.
By January of 2014, a number of women filed lawsuits against Choudhury, citing abuse and
inappropriate behavior. One victim described a cult-like atmosphere in which those close to
Choudhury would recruit women for him. Another suit claimed that he brought in volunteers from
overseas who were so afraid of his wrath that they risked US immigration laws just to serve him. He
was also accused of discrimination and harassment, frequently exhibiting an offensive conduct against
women, homosexuals and minorities. In a 2016 interview, Bikram had a crass response for those
accusing him of abuse, claiming "Why would I have to harass women? People spend one million dollars
for a drop of my sperm". He fled the US in disgrace, without paying several million dollars
in punitive damages to his former lawyer, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, who’d confirmed the
accusations brought against him. She was given control of his studios but didn’t see any of the
court-ordered money owed to her. In spite of a warrant for Choudhury’s arrest issued in the US,
he continued to teach unregulated yoga classes all over the world. Unfortunately, his is not
an isolated case, as there have been multiple reports of yoga teachers abusing their students.
The central social mechanisms in such cases relate to the existent power dynamic. Teachers
are often perceived as intensely charismatic and even as vessels of cosmic energetic forces.
As such, some will take advantage of their authority and students’ desire
to connect with them. They may actively manipulate disciples into thinking that physical relations
with them are part of the path to illumination. Today's topic was requested by the Plushy family,
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comments section below Number 2 Phyllis Main
In 2019, Glasgow woman Phyllis Main died while training to become a hot yoga instructor in
Acapulco, Mexico. The camp was run by Bikram Choudhury. There have been claims
that the 62-year-old’s death happened under “mysterious circumstances”. Before the trip,
she’d been given a clean bill of health by her doctor in Scotland. Main complained of not
feeling well on October the 2nd but subsequent reports claimed that it wasn’t until the 14th
that she was taken to a hospital. A few days later, the woman’s son, who was vacationing
in the US at the time, arrived in Acapulco. Main’s condition worsened abruptly and she was
taken to an intensive care unit. She ultimately succumbed to heart failure brought on by sepsis.
It’s unclear if the yoga exercises, which were performed in intense heat, had contributed to
her demise. Nevertheless, it was alleged that she’d basically been abandoned by her yoga
group at the hospital. Neither she nor her son received any support from Choudhury’s followers.
A spokesperson for the yogi claimed that it had been the first incident of the sort linked to him,
in over 50 years of teaching classes. Number 1 Scott Paul Beierle
On November the 2nd of 2018, 40-year-old Scott Paul Beierle entered a hot yoga studio, in
Tallahassee, Florida, posing as a customer. He was carrying a black bag from which, without warning,
he pulled out a handgun and opened fire on those inside. The attack unfolded over the course of
several minutes, in which Beierle shot six people. Two women, 21-year-old Maura Binkley and Dr.
Nancy Van Vessem, aged 61, died as a result of their injuries. As the shooter’s weapon jammed,
yoga student Joshua Quick attacked him with a broom, giving others time to escape. He was
pistol-whipped by Beierle but managed to escape and run into a bar nearby, alerting others.
Before the police arrived at the scene, Beierle turned the 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun
on himself. An investigation revealed the potential motives behind the man’s killing spree.
Beierle was a military veteran who’d been charged with battery twice in the past, for groping women.
He’d also worked as a substitute teacher but was let go, in at least one instance,
for inappropriately touching a female student. Beierle was part of the involuntary celibate
community and harbored intense feeling of resentment towards women. Some of his social
media rants also targeted African-Americans and illegal immigration. According to the
FBI and Tallahassee PD, he’d planned the attack on the yoga studio months in advance.
Law enforcement confirmed Beierle’s hatred of the opposite sex while stating that he was in a
“disturbed” mental state at the time of the shooting.
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