One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Of Course L.A. Is The Only Place In The U.S. Where You Can Get A Master's In Yoga
Yoga practice on a Sunday morning at Echo Park Lake (Photo by redmetalticket via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
To hell with comparative lit — we’re getting degrees in Downward Dog.
Loyola Marymount is the only school in the United States where you can get a master’s degree in all things yoga, according to an L.A. Times story. Although some other schools around the globe offer yoga as a master’s program, such as SOAS University in London, the Westside Catholic school is the only place to offer it here in the States.
The four-year-old program is a lot heftier than your average yoga training program. Students study Sanskrit grammar, anatomy and history during the two-year program, reading texts such as the “Yoga Sutras,” the “Upanishads” and the “Bhagavad Gita” in the original Sanskrit.
The program comprises five full- and part-time professors leading about 30 students, who range in age from their 20s to their 60s. A few even drop out each year when they realize the amount of reading and writing involved.
It makes sense that this would happen here, seeing as how we’re so yoga-crazy that we even partake in goat yoga. But L.A. also is the place that housed some of the first yogis who came to the United States, and currently more than 40 million people in the U.S. say they do yoga, according to the Times. Beats a degree in journalism, eh?
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
