Treatment

What do a recovering alcoholic, a Southern Baptist, and an inmate have in common?

“The Fire of Yoga”

In this one-hour exploration of yoga, you will enter the lives of three very remarkable people. They each come from very different backgrounds, but they have all overcome life’s challenges through yoga.

Miguel Gonzalez, Bronx, New York

“Mad light…”

Incarcerated from the ages of 15 to 19 years old, Miguel Gonzalez literally found freedom through yoga. While incarcerated Miguel began taking yoga and meditation classes. His practice of yoga and meditation helped Miguel become a better-behaved inmate, which contributed to his early release. Today, Miguel works for the Lineage Project; a non-profit organization based in the south Bronx dedicated to offering awareness practices, including yoga and meditation, to at-risk and incarcerated teens. While teaching yoga and meditation to these girls and boys, Miguel shares his street and prison experience with them. But most importantly, he demonstrates to them how the path of yoga led him to freedom.

Susan Mason, Jackson, Mississippi

“Be still…”

Susan Mason, is a devout Southern Baptist who lives in a community where yoga is seen as un-Christian. But desperate to recover from her cancer treatments, Susan began taking yoga classes. Immediately, she became aware that yoga breathing could reduce the pain in her body. Now, feeling more whole from yoga, Susan made an unexpected discovery. As she began to deepen her spiritual life, Susan found that the yoga breathing helped her to be still and feel God's spirit within herself. Still, Susan’s religious community is concerned that yoga is un-Christian. In the words of one of the faithful, “Any Christian who is practicing yoga is skating on thin ice…” Now Susan must show her religious community that yoga can only strengthen their faith.

Frank White, Los Angeles, California

“I’m home…”

Imagine you are trapped in a 68-year-old body that is riddled with severe arthritis, emphysema and heart disease. Twelve years ago this was Frank White's reality, but today he is an 82-year-old yoga master. Instead of giving up, Frank found yoga and turned his life around. Now he has the physique and energy of a man half his age. Frank's dramatic transformation is an example to the dozens of seniors he is teaching every week at a Los Angeles senior center. Additionally, years of alcoholism separated Frank from his sons, but through yoga Frank is alive, sober, and reunited with his family.

© Copyright 2002 Samudra Pictures, Inc.