Feathered Pipe’s Beginnings
We are immensely thankful to the early visionaries who arrived on the scene at a critical juncture in America’s yoga history and helped to shape the path of the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
The Early Days
Beginning as the Holistic Life Foundation in 1975 with a vision for a better future, we have consistently offered learning experiences to inspire people to discover their path. Since that time, over 10,000 people have studied with some of the greatest teachers of our time at Feathered Pipe workshops. If you are a yoga student in the US, chances are you have been affected directly or indirectly by the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
Early Visionaries
The Feathered Pipe Ranch
In 1975, in association with the California Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA) we established the Yoga Journal on Janis Paulsen Silver's $500 credit card limit. Several of our founding members were at the same time founders of the CYTA. William Staniger Golden, our founding president, was also the founding Chairman of CYTA, through which we launched the Institute for Yoga Teacher Education (IYTE), and then the Yoga Journal. India Supera was the Holistic Life Foundation’s vice president until William moved on in 1982. She subsequently became its president and changed its name to the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
Janis Paulsen Silver was the foundation’s secretary-treasurer, and CYTA’s secretary-treasurer. William and Janis served as Co-Directors of IYTE. William was Founding Editor of the Yoga Journal, and Janis was Assistant Editor. Judith Lasater was YJ Associate Editor, Ike Lasater was Business Manager, and Christopher Wentworth was YJ Photographer. IYTE later became the Iyengar Institute which, happily, continues to operate today as The Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. Special thanks go to Rama Jyoti, then the president of CYTA, who had a clear vision of how to best carry yoga into America’s future.
Educational Program Expansion
Lodge Main Room
About the same time, we started Holistic Life University (HLU) in San Francisco. We offered training programs for educator/counselors in the fields of: Holistic Health, Childbirth, Life/Death Transitions, and Certified Massage Practice. The school provided external degree credit through several accredited colleges, which gradually adopted its courses and teachers, enabling its founders to celebrate the introduction of these consciousness-oriented programs into several accredited schools’ curricula.
Feathered Pipe Today
Lake Tipi
Since 1975 we have offered seminars at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in yoga, holistic health, psychology, astrology, shamanism, the arts, and bodywork. So far, we have published two editions of the Feathered Pipe Cookbook. We also sponsor tours throughout the world to foster personal growth, study ancient tribal traditions and experience the transformative energies of places of pilgrimage.
We are grateful to have shared time and experience with many 'Pipe Carriers' throughout out history and honor the prescience and wisdom of those who forged our beginnings.
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