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Chicago’s Crochet
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YOGA MASTER
YIRSER RA HOTEP

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Stony Island Media

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YO G A Yirser Ra Hotep
An Interview with Kemetic Yoga Master

Yirser Ra Hotep (Elvrid Lawrence) has taught Yoga

for over 30 years. He is recognized nationally and
internationally as one of the foremost masters and
innovators of Kemetic Yoga in the world. Yirser Ra
Hotep has taught Yoga and lectured throughout
the United States and in various countries around
the world, while being recognized nationally for
his work with children with disabilities through
the Easter Seals Headstart program in Chicago.

Can you talk about how you got in Yoga?

Yirser: Growing up in the public housing projects of Chicago, I
had some bad health habits. From childhood to early adulthood I
had headaches daily. I also felt depressed, angry and frustrated
by the condition that Black people were in. The day after my
21st birthday I decided to make fundamental changes to my
lifestyle in order to improve health. I stopped eating smoking,
eating meat and drinking. I became a fruitarian only eating fresh
fruits, nuts and herbs. I was influenced by Dick Gregory so I
would run 5 miles daily and do 500 push ups and 1000 sit ups.
After a year of this regimen I felt tremendous. While a student
at UIC in the 1970s I was invited to a Yoga class. Even though
I was ignorant of Yoga and had lots of reservations, I went to
the class and found it to be of tremendous benefit to me. Even
though I was very stiff in the beginning, my flexibility began
to increase with my consistent practice. I also learned how
to use controlled breathing to relax and meditation to control
my thoughts and emotions. I felt so good from doing Yoga
that I practiced for 8 to 12 hours a day for my first two years.
I felt that I was investing in my future by creating conditions
whereby my health and youthfulness would be preserved for
the rest of my life. The whole idea of maintaining my youth
and being healthy into old age was the main draw of Yoga for
me. In addition, the ability control my mind and body and gain
inner knowledge through meditation made me want to do it.
What prompted you to utilize your knowledge and
skills for Yoga and Meditation as treatment programs
for at-risk youth, substance abusers... and so forth?
Yirser: I practice a system called YogaSkills and Kemetic Yoga.
These systems have many aspects that are therapeutic and
6 Stony Island Magazine Spring 2008
healing for the body, mind and spirit. In the same way that it
helped me to get away from doing bad things to my body, I felt
that it could help others. Yoga is an important component of the
holistic health movement. As social worker and therapist I’m
interested in only using treatment modalities that will actually
work. Yoga and Meditation are so powerful in healing because
they involve movements and breathing that stimulates the body’s
natural ability to heal itself. They help you to break negative habits
by causing you to lose your desire for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes
and bad food. Yoga and Mediation from the YogaSkills and
Kemetic Yoga perspective also allows young people and others
to change the way that they deal with problems and issues they
are confronted with. When they practice Yoga and meditation
they do not experience life in the same way anymore. They
begin to navigate around negative conditions and incorporate the
concept of “flow” which is the skill of taking life as it comes,
being patient and not punishing yourself for your shortcomings.
These are natural outgrowths of practicing Yoga and Meditation,
so these are ideal skills for young people and those struggling
with substance abuse, obesity and other problems to have.
How important is it for African-Americans to include
yoga and meditation into their daily activities?
Yirser: What we have to understand is that Yoga is not a religion
and it is not incompatible with religious beliefs. It is actually a
science of self-development that has always been a part of our
culture. A significant portion of Yoga involves the practices of
movements, postures and meditation. But, just as important
are the instructions on how to conduct one’s life. The first two
aspects of Yoga deal with things that you should and should not
do. In ancient Egypt these moral precepts were known as the
42 Laws of Maat. The 10 commandments are a fraction of these
Yoga based concepts. In many ways a person like Martin Luther
King was a practicioner of Yoga. He used the Yogic concept of
non-violence to change the entire planet not just the destiny of
Black people in America. Understanding how to use the mind
and what King called “Soul Power” to alter our physical reality is
the ultimate skill that we need to learn and that was passed to
us by our ancestors. Yoga also has tremendous benefits for relief
from stress and psychic trauma. What other people could benefit
more from this type of relief than African Americans? We suffer
from hypertension, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and obesity at
higher rates than any other group of people on planet Earth! Our
10 and 11 year old children are developing type II diabetes. At no
other time in the history of the world have children suffered from
this level of obesity and diabetes. All of these are degenerative
diseases that are caused by poor living habits. Poor diet, smoking,
drinking, drugs and high sugar, high fat foods are the culprits.
I currently teach thousands of children throughout Chicago. I
believe that when these children practice Yoga that are breaking a
cycle that would normally lead them to a life time of stress related
illnesses and poor health habits. These children, some of whom
are as young as 6 months old, are learning to manage stress,
concentrate, eat well and behave
properly. It is essential that African
Americans and all other people
learn the science of Yoga and
If you want to approach
Meditation and start to incorporate your true potential as a
these practices into their daily
lifestyle. One study that was man or a woman or sim-
done demonstrated that middle
aged Black people who suffered
ply a higher being, then
from high blood pressure were you will practice Yoga.
able to normalize their pressure
and decrease heart disease by
simply practicing meditation twice daily for 15 minutes.”
In your opinion, what can be done to bring more awareness
to the benefits associated with Yoga and Meditation?
Yirser: What I’ve done is to create the Society of Kemetic Yoga.
Our mission to increase public awareness of the true usage
and benefits of Yoga from a scientific and cultural perspective.
We are offering Yoga in the schools, pre-school settings and
in the community centers. It is essential that Yoga be offered
in the schools in our community more. It is outrageous that
predominantly white schools all over the country offer Yoga
as a regular part of the learning experience, while African
American school administrators are under the delusion that
Yoga is somehow bad for children. The school board, city, state
and federal governments need to make more funding available
for Yoga based self-development programs. When I do work
in the schools, I have children coming up to me all the time
begging to do Yoga. I’ve had children tell me that they needed
to learn to do Yoga because they were stressed out, angry
and frustrated and afraid that they would hurt somebody. We
need more outreach to educate people about what Yoga truly
is and the benefits. My organization, the Society of Kemetic
Yoga sponsors an event called Soul Yoga Fest. It will be held
in Silver Spring Maryland on Memorial Day weekend in 2008.
It will feature Yoga instruction, Tai Chi, Chi Qong, Meditation,
Nutrition, Massage Therapy and many other lectures and
holistic healing modalities. We hope to have this in Chicago
soon and to travel to various locations around the world
educating people about Yoga. Under my company, YogaSkills
we produce instructional DVDs, CDs and teacher training
courses. We are also producing instructional books for adults
and children soon. In addition, will offer retreats in
Jamaica, Egypt, Cambodia and Thailand. We do stress
management training for various companies and social
service agencies. These are just a few of the ways that
we are working to create more awareness of Yoga.
How important is diet, along with Yoga and
Mediation, towards overall life improvement?
Yirser: I usually say that diet is 50% of Yoga. Yoga emphasizes
a healthy plant based diet. The great thing about Yoga is that
once you begin to practice, you almost automatically begin to
lose your desire for unhealthy food and increase your desire
for healthy natural foods. So, you don’t have to force yourself
to eat healthy, it becomes a behavior that evolves naturally.
Many of the poses in Yoga seems like they require alot
of flexibility, yet I have seen individuals over the age of
60 do some amazing poses that a teenager would have
difficulty attempting...can you give some insight on this?
Yirser: Yoga helps you to develop
flexibility, strength, coordination,
balance, etc. Because Yoga is a based
upon a precise science of how the
body works, it reverses your aging
process. This is achieved through the
cultivation of life-force and efficient
oxygen utilization. Aging is simply the
result of the more cells dying than new
ones being formed to take their place.
Yoga acts on a cellular level to keep
the cells healthy and to keep cell replacement efficient. Yoga
increases blood circulation to the cells. Blood carries oxygen to
the cells and in yoga we practicing deep breathing constantly so
the blood is well oxygenated. Blood also carries nutrients into
the cells and lymph removes the waste. Slow Yoga movements
force the blood into the capillaries to make it available to the
cells more efficiently than any other system of physical exercise.
Therefore a person 60, 70, 80 or even 90 years old will have
physical abilities lacking in teenagers and other younger people.
What is the most satisfying aspect of being a
world-renown Yoga & Meditation instructor?
Yirser: Being able to have enough credibility to get people to
hear my message. I’m not trying to be famous. My goal is to
help to transform the world. That is why I’m here at this time.
One thing that is very important for people to understand
is the true nature of life and reality. The mind is the most
powerful force in the universe. If it wasn’t for positive people
projecting positive energy and love into the world, we would
have all been dead from nuclear war of natural cataclysm a
long time ago! I’m a small part of big mass conscious mind.
Why should I (or anyone who may read this
article) start taking Yoga classes?
Yirser: If you want to approach your true potential as a man or
a woman or simply a higher being, then you will practice Yoga.
Spring 2008 Stony Island Magazine 7