Agnotology is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, especially regarding the perpetration of misleading interpretations or poorly done science. Culture, in my opinion, is regarding the personal data that an individual experiences as they observe and witness their family and peers over time. Some people seam to be more inclined to follow the belief pattern of their family, where as others have a tendency towards the belief patterns of their friends, while others seperate themselves from any external belief and only believen themselves. There are probably other ways to describe these and more.
Yoga in the west, or at least in the limited experience I have had in training with hundreds of teachers, both current and upcoming teachers, has its own culturally induced ignorances and practitioners whom have molded yoga into their own standard.
Overall it seams that the very base of yoga is either known as a method to stretch, or as an 'evil' on the planet. The 'evil' seams to be the agnotology perpetrated by either catholics or protestants in the areas that I am from. The people who seam to see yoga as a stretch tend to be raised secular. I have encountered numerous whom neither see it as a method to stretch or a religion/belief structure, but a rounded method of ethical behaviour, movement, breathing exercises, sensory training (learn to observe and take in stimulus in a calm and relaxed manner, concentration and meditation techniques.
I personally am more inclined to see yoga as a state that is achieved through practicing. This state is most simply described by the words, awake & aware.
The biggest perpetration of cultural ignorance in yoga is the historical knowledge of the practice. A few good men and woman have devoted a lot of time to discovering the truth to the historical facts of what the actual yoga practice was. Yoga has certainly evolved though and in the modern west it has become a thing all together its own, nearly seperate from its historics. The majority of western practitioners are learning a yoga that has very little to do with the original methods, but rather the evolved idea of moving through sequences of postures to invigorate the body. Most will encounter a ton of bullshit spouted by people in general, and they will encounter a ton of good wisdom.
Its wonderful that there is a ton of supporting science and methods that do validate older practices and modern observations. Its obvious that our body systems have been relatively the same over the last thousands of years. The way that we have integrated knowledge has changed dramatically. We once spoke in a narrative that was mystical and we saught as a species to uncover the secrets of the universe. This produced science and a methodology of aquiring data so that we could truly understand the workings of the universe.
Become versed in how to recognize wrong knowlege, so that we do not become swayed one way or the other, stand by your convictions, but don't love them so much that you cannot change as you absorb knowledge that makes better sense then the previous knowlege you held.
Look up the balloney detection kit if your really interested in discernment.
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