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April 15, 2001: Time magazine ran an extensive story on the “Science of Yoga.” High profile celebrities such as Christy Turlington, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Sting are among the most persuasive advocates of the current wave of yoga practiced in the US. According to the article, yoga has evolved in American consciousness in several stages: first as a spiritual cleansing and rebirth, second as a kind of preventive medicine and currently as a fitness wave, a way to gain strength, flexibility and endurance. According to the article, more than 15 million Americans include some form of yoga in their fitness regimen, twice as many as did five years ago, and 75% of all U.S. health clubs offer yoga classes. “The Indian tradition develops metaphors and ways of describing the body (life forces, energy centers) as it it is experienced, from the inside out. The Western tradition looks at the body from the outside in, peeling it back one layer at a time, believing only what it can see, measure and prove in randomized, double-blind tests. The East treats the person, the West treats the disease,” the magazine says. The article, mainly positive about the effects of yoga and the research into using it as a therapy to treat or prevent disease, also brings up the critics who cite the lack of conclusive evidence about yoga’s health benefits. The magazine states, “The traditional funders of studies, the pharmaceutical giants, see no financial payoff in validating yoga: no patentable therapies and no pills.”

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