Yoga, Youth, and Reincarnation

by Jess Stearn

Jess Stearn was an experienced reporter and man of the world who viewed an invitation to a three-month study session of Hatha Yoga with extreme skepticism. But the experience transformed Stearn into a true believer. This explains how this change came about and commends yoga as a remedy for problems of tension, weight control, sexuality and various other complaints.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Self Help, New Age

Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Stearn was a Jewish-American journalist and author of more than thirty books, nine of which were bestsellers. As an author, Stearn specialized in sensationalist speculative non-fiction. His early work focused on outsiders and marginalized individuals such as prostitutes, drug addicts, and homosexuals. His later work focused on spirituality, the occult, and psychic phenomena. His most popular works were two biographies on the American psychic Edgar Cayce; Stearn was a conference speaker for the Association for Research and Enlightenment and a proponent of Cayce's theories.

Reviews

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silly title, stupid marketing, and found on the shelf of every patchouli-reeking hippie of a certain age east of the Pacific coast. Yet it still doesn't stop this book from being awesome, entertaining, and informative, even upon multiple readings.

[Karla Becker]

Like "Autobiography of a Yogi," I have also read this book at least five times. It was written in the 60's, reflecting the culture at the time, for example, drinking the diet drink my mother drank, "metracal." The author is a 50-some year old journalist who is out of shape, drinks whiskey and smokes cigarettes. He begins practicing yoga and after several months, is transformed.

[Nina Harp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The yoga postion reference guide in the back of the book is priceless, full of specific instruction that is helpful when you are unsure of your positioning and also tells what each position is good at alleviating. I find myself going back through this book every so often, but its a great look at one man's journey to the healthier side of life. Very inspirational.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never made it all the way to the end of the story proper of this book and yet I have found the appendix of yoga positions and descriptions invaluable and have built a yoga routine of 17 years from it. So I adored the appendix and couldn't make it through the story. How do I rate that?

[Elan Garfias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely think this book would have been much more relevant when it was originally published in the 60s, when most people were only vaguely familiar with yoga. The poses at the end are pretty cool but as a whole it's highly skimmable. The stories of the various housewives passing though the Concord ashram aren't particularly interesting, although I imagine they certainly would have had more relevance for readers new to Yoga. The personal transformation of the narrator is pretty fascinating, though, and goes to show just how much a little bit of stretching can help. Combined with meditation and pranayama-- especially in a modern Western world beset by obesity, improper breathing, and whole days spent sitting--yoga does indeed offer one of the best tools for the rehabilitation of overcivilized minds and bodies.

[Karen Christino · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a more recent edition of this book that doesn't come up on Goodreads. First published in 1965, I read it as a teenager, and it introduced me to the topic and eventually led to a lifetime of yoga practice. An absorbing and entertaining read, the book features author Jess Stearn's studies with guru Marcia Moore and covers astrology and other metaphysical topics. I recently re-read it, and find it captures the scope of the New Age movement of the time. However there's the repeated suggestion that yoga will cure all your ills and keep you young forever. While it has great benefits, this is hardly the case! Still a mind-expanding read.

[Rglaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reread. I read this book in the late Sixties and began my sporadic yoga practice based on Stearn's program. I still like his exercise routines, and I found the book rather enjoyable this time around though some of the sexism of the era was surprising (if gentle, at least by today's standards).

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out almost 40 years ago when I was just a little girl who was seeking my own self realization. It had a life changing effect on me. Thank you Jess Stern!

[Barb Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to refer to this book for pictures and names of yoga poses.

[NJ Jenkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

racist

[Gary Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yoga, (Former) Youth, and Reinvention

Call me Jess Stearn. No, not a reincarnation, but a middle-aged man exactly like Jess was when he penned this book back in the mid-1960s. I suffer the same sedentary lifestyle and afflictions he suffered before his pivotal encounter with Marcia, who was the catalyst for his transformation.

The spiritual and physical information in this book will prove a boon to anyone seeking reinvention. I also found this 1965 book entertaining and educational as it's a time capsule of the 1960s post JFK assassination and pre-hippie counterculture. The book's publication in the same year as the Beatles' transitionary LP Rubber Soul put it in the catbird seat to be welcomed and warmly embraced by the just-budding flower children and their fellow travelers.

But the book demonstrates that yoga is not just for disaffected teens and 20-somethings with flowers in their hair. The young, the old, the June Cleavers and the Archie Bunkers were alike attracted by and attempted (even if warily) and ultimately benefited from yoga. New England Catholics who took up yoga describe how it accentuated and never detracted from their faith. I appreciated all the anecdotes of Stearn's encounters with everyday people sharing their experiences in their own voices.

What surprised me was how the book upended my expectations going in that this would be a puff piece. Stearn is clear that yoga is not a panacea for what ails the individual or the world. He quotes an abashed Marcia acknowledging her chaotic home and life fall short of yogic ideals. And "Stepmother India," the chapter-long damning indictment of India not practicing what it preaches presented a sobering contrast to Ram Dass' hagiography Be Here Now, which filled my youthful imagination with utopian fantasies of India being a faraway enlightened Shangri-La.

Okay, I admit I also relished the gossipy soap-opera side of the book. I mean, it was pretty clear to me Jess was crushing hard on Marcia and thought this goofball boulder-rolling brat Louis was unworthy of her hand in marriage. I winced at some of the sarcastic swipes Jess took at Louis and shook my head grinning at the adulation he lavished upon his guru and object of desire.

The story of Jess' months among Marcia, Louis and Concord's contortionists was enjoyable all the way. But the narrative's wheels wobble when the book shifts from those eminently engaging yoga chapters to astrology (a 'la Louis), which while interesting lacked the engagement and personal touch of all that preceded it (almost like a Louis-centric chapter was part of the agreement that Stearn only dutifully fulfilled). Jess' appealing authorial voice was virtually abandoned and much missed in the tedious quotation-dumps of the reincarnation chapters. And I confess I was just reading to finish the darn book by the Spooks chapter, which lacked Stearns' spark and proved a wearisome rehash of witchcraft's troubled history featuring an unlikeable practitioner-protagonist.

The Appendix detailing basic yoga postures and Marcia's yoga pose photos will prove invaluable as I attempt to develop my own yoga practice. Stearn successfully inspired and motivated me to try something new and rewarding, convincing me that (a) yoga isn't just for women and (b) one is never too old to start. No, I don't envision headstands or even a shoulder stand in my future... but then again neither did Jess!

A Heartbreaking Postscript...

Upon finishing the book I made the buzzkill blunder of looking up Marcia and Louis online to see whatever became of them. Sad (but unsurprised) to learn their marriage did not last. But nothing prepared me for the story of Marcia Moore's tragic death in 1979. There's a Wikipedia page dedicated to her and to her passing that cast a melancholy pall over my experience enjoying the book.

On a happier note, Jess Stearn lived to age 87, passing from this life in March 2002. He requested no funeral as he had embraced reincarnation and was already off on his next adventure!

[Cori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minus chapters on reincarnation, spooks, and India, this memoir taking place in the late 1960s is a fun and inspiring romp relating author’s experience learning several branches of yoga from a western teacher over the course of an intense 3 months of daily practice, study and investigation.

[Lavandar Blue]

One of the early books I read that set me on the path to eastern philosophies. It started a life interest in vegetarian diet, yoga and meditation .

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concur with some other posts...real value in this book is the appendix...

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this at a free take-a-book stand at a random pitstop in the smallest town you can imagine near Point Reyes. Seems appropriate. Put off reading it for a year and a half, until I started doing yoga a few months ago. There were some inspiring bits (particularly the part about the benefits of starting yoga in middle age instead of your early 20s), but a lot of it was offensive, dated, and off-putting. Racist, homophobic, Eurocentric, woo woo nonsense (even beyond what you imagine in a book about yoga), constant critiques of women's bodies, and praise for a woman’s figure when she clearly has an eating disorder. The outrageous claims about how yoga will fix all that ails you in a few weeks or months is unrealistic and discouraging when your progress is significantly slower. What happened to Marcia Moore makes the beneficial claims very ironic.

It was engaging even if I didn't believe half of it and was offended by a lot of it. The yoga diagrams are a great resource.

[tamarack · Rating 2 out of 5]

this has been an interesting and curious book which has provided me really pleasant post-sauna reading. very much belonging to the seventies, i think i most enjoyed it for it's other-time qualities. however, i hit the chapter about diet and the passages on how the author's "yoga guru" excludes a promising yogi because she feels the yogi's figure (too chubby) is a "bad advertisement" for yoga. ...okay. this dubious chapter was followed by the chapter on sex, and i just started to feel like my time was being seriously wasted.
so i moved on to trashy cyberpunk scifi instead ;)

[Daniel Duval · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical 1960's new age book. In that sense I found it interesting from a historical perspective. It does a good job of conveying the physical, mental and spiritual yoga philosophy. There is extensive directions on actual practice that is laid out in the appendices and regiments to follow from beginner to advanced.

[Jinjer Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was seminal for me because it took the pure philosophy of yoga that I learned in college and gave it some grounding. This book has stayed with me and I still use information from it in teaching my own classes 30 years later.

[C Krengel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for the first time in 1968, the re-read it several times. Picked it up 45 years later and still found it riveting. Looked up Marcia Moore online to see if she was still around & practicing yoga. Was shocked to discover her death a decade later is unsolved...

[Amee · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY good book! Even though it was written in 1965, it was very pertinent to today. Anyone who is doing yoga and meditation can relate to this book and his beginning journey.

[Lindsey Lemmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life and I still read portions of it on occasion.

[Cyanemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Interesting and informative. I have bought it several times.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book

[Hashim-asaad Shabazz]

Favorite Book

[Sarah Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book! Was recommended by my 96yo great aunt last year, who was also a yoga teacher until the age of 90. Although some things have changed with time, there are still a lot of good lessons and anecdotes to apply to your life and your practice.