The Early Years Part Four: Time to Talk About Death
by Shanti Shanti Khalsa, PhD, C-IAYT, Guru Ram Das Center for Medicine & Humanology Founder
In the early years of the Immune Fitness ® classes, some of the most recognized names in AIDS medicine in Los Angeles County sent their patients to us. Joel Weisman in the Valley, Michael Roth in Santa Monica, Michael Gottlieb in Los Angeles
Michael Gottlieb and Joel Weisman were the first to identify the disease that would come to be known as AIDS, giving it the name Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Michael and Joel notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and co-authored a nine-paragraph report, “Pneumocystis Pneumonia—Los Angeles,” in the CDC’s newsletter, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This was the first clinical description of AIDS, and for the purposes of tracking cases, the date of their report—June 5, 1981—marks the official start of the AIDS epidemic.
The first three years of teaching Kundalini Yoga therapeutically to people living with HIV were transformational. Dr Gottlieb, Dr Weisman, and Dr Roth saw a difference between their patients who came to our classes and those who did not. These patients had fewer opportunistic infections, lived healthier, lived longer, and they lived better.
Then in 1989, the first student in the Immune Fitness ® classes, Billy, left his body. You can imagine how distressing this was to me as a teacher, and to the other course participants. At age 37, I had yet to know anyone who had died. Billy was the first. As the epidemic progressed, he became the first of many.
We would show up to class and see a spot empty where David had sat, or Martin, or Mary.
Some weeks two or three people left their body. Joshua came to class one morning and left his body early that same evening.
It soon became apparent that a slight modification of the Long Time Sun song was needed. Once a person leaves their body, there is no longer a “within you”. To this day, I close a class with the words, “..and the pure light that is you, guide your way on.”
The sudden passing of students became a galvanizing force, bringing me, the Immune Fitness ® students, and my HIV colleagues together in lasting and meaningful ways.
I dove deep into the yogic understanding of loss and death and created real world yogic applications in service to the Los Angeles HIV community. The staggering prevalence of HIV provided ample opportunity for lived experience of ancient yogic approaches.
Yogis understand that illness and death are part of the journey of the soul. We process life through the experience of inner connection, personal practice, and sangat. The emphasis of Kundalini Yoga on soul as one’s True Identity—the Sat Naam that is each of us—uplifts, sustains, and guides us.
During these intense years of loss and death, practicing in community—the friends and family of those living with HIV were included in classes–became an essential source of support.
Therapeutic Kundalini Yoga Teaching Tip #8
We face loss by raising the spirit—raising the shakti—in sangat.
The methods we used to maintain elevated spirit, to develop the capacity to be in the presence of suffering and loss now comprise the course Origins & Identity: An Exploration of Your Authentic Self. Check our calendar page for course dates. Will you join us?
