I was raised in the home of educated, lower middle-class ministers. My parents invested themselves in the social life of religion. They modeled the good spirit and joy of Christianity for me. Neither of my parents were mystical, but they were moral and thoughtful, and important contributors to the civic and religious dimensions of society.

Ostensibly, I was an agnostic kid. I resisted church-going and practiced art heartily.

My family was focused on health and athletics. My father ran and played volleyball, golf and tennis. My mother was a lifetime runner, avid bike rider and gym attendee. We took camping and hiking outings as a family, and my older brother and I partnered in frisbee, basketball, epic bike rides, and the occasional run. I grew up with a love of sport. I earned distinctions in high school competition—mainly in swimming—and became a triathlete in my 30s, looking into my body’s mental and physical limits.

Academics were important to my family, too. Both my parents had advanced degrees and my father’s clan had ivy-league backgrounds. At home, somebody’s head was always stuck in a book, magazine or newspaper. I got the germ embryonicly: my mother wrote her master’s thesis while I gestated (on religious education! The plot thickens . . .).

As a kid, I was a “brain” who became a successful athlete.

In college, I completed art degrees and followed them with a Masters in Religious Studies. From there I took a job in Special Education. It was a quasi-ministerial calling. While teaching, I completed a 2nd Masters (in Special Education). In 1984 I had my first mystical experiences (by taking mushrooms in Mexico!). I also experienced my first opening to God and what I call The Spirit of Life a bit later. In 1985, I read Chogyam Trungpa’s Myth of Freedom that provoked meditation that I’m blessed to have maintained with little interruption til the present day. I did Zen retreats, and enlarged my understanding of the body and mind through some 10-day meditations with the Dhamma people of S. N. Goenka. I am very grateful to Goenka and my teachers in Zen.

In 2000, a little voice in my head told me to do yoga. I got the manual, Yoga for Athletes, by Koglar (1999) and began daily practice (routines come easily to me). My body gave out from endurance sports thereabouts, and I was left with yoga. Yoga was a way to keep pushing physical limits—externally and internally—without noteworthy wear and tear on muscles and bones. This was terribly compelling to me. Yoga also had endless intellectual and cultural depth. Siddha Yoga had been a part of my religious exploring in the 90s and Hinduism opened to me as an infinite sea of art, spiritual practice and un-quantifiable mysteries. Yoga began to be the only thing I wanted to do.

I worked with strong teachers. Matt Huish at Alberta Yoga Shala and his guru Zhander Ramete became primary guides. For years, I got up at 4:30 and worked with Matt 5 days a week while workshopping yearly with Zhander. At the same time, I learned from most of the world’s marquee teachers through workshops all around America. I got formal Kripalu training in 2002 and trained in India in 2004 with Yogi Promod in Rishikesh.

These studies came together two years later in the form of Prasana Yoga which pursues a newly-defined alignment of movement. I love teaching this material and it is unique to the yoga world. Many thanks to Zhander, Matt, Arkady Shirin, Karl Erb, Tony Briggs, Timo Jiminez, Yogaworks Teacher Training and Jim Ryan and all the other great sources that gave me tremendous things along the way.

My yoga teaching had begun in 2001. At the time, I quit Special Education and became an Art History and English professor in Portland and Vancouver (Washington) colleges. But by late 2004, I had quit all professoring and began earning my way by yoga alone.

This vocation allows me to play out my family’s ministerial legacy while steeping me in the Hindu tradition, in meditation, and in the rich possibilities of the modern spirit, and body . . .

Ph D work attracted me in 2004, too. The California Institute of Integral Studies of San Francisco entertained my idea to do a yoga doctorate. After completing classwork and one-and-a-half comprehensive exams, my dissertation got interrupted by John Friend’s offer to write a book-length history of yoga for popular audiences. This is mainly what I wanted to do right from the beginning of my Ph D. John’s offer appeared as a knock-me-back-on-my-heels dream-come-true. (Tons of love and gratitude to my scholarly guides, Anusara Press, and John Friend here . . .)

Here’s the coda: my yoga understanding and work continue to grow profoundly (and may this go on. All praise, Siva! Goraknath! Lakshmi! All praise . . .). Writing opportunities have come through Common Ground and Yoga Journal and I look forward to writing for other periodicals. My teaching has become national and international. The lecturing I do has expanded its possibilities through PowerPoint and a big library of yoga images that teach people in a delightful and effective way.

This all makes me profoundly happy.

I look forward hearing your story, if we meet.

Blessings on your evolution and all you do.

Eric