Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad are co-authors of a book on hidden authoritarianism, The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power (North Atlantic Books, 1993), that decodes social and spiritual? control and predicted the current escalating global morality wars.? They have taught and written together since 1974 on many issues. They gave seminars on yoga and the evolution of consciousness worldwide until 1982. Through Diana?s vision, they developed the Yoga of Relationship and taught interpersonal seminars until 1986 at places such as Esalen and Omega Institutes. In 2005-06 they began giving talks and seminars again on evolution and spirituality, worldviews, values, relationships, yoga, social issues and the state of the world. Their book-in-progress is Spirituality for Atheists & Inquirers: An Evolutionary Foundation for Values.
Joel Kramer is an internationally recognized yoga innovator whose unique principles and combination of mental and physical yoga became a foundational basis of modern American yoga. His seminal articles on yoga aim at freeing it from its authoritarian roots. He is the author of The Passionate Mind (North Atlantic Books, 1982). His post-graduate work in philosophy and psychology was at the University of Florida, New York University and Columbia (1959-63). His training included the philosophy of science, metaphysics, ethics, comparative religion, Eastern thought, and also theories of knowledge, learning, and consciousness. In 1965 he began a deep exploration of mental and physical yoga, including Krishnamurti?s methodology for looking within. He was on the resident faculty at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California from 1968-70. His seminars on yoga, consciousness and spirituality deal with the basic concerns of living and include the nature and evolution of awareness.
Diana Alstad is an author and lecturer. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Diana received a Ph.D. from Yale in 1971 and was on the Duke faculty in the humanities until 1973. She co-founded New Haven Women?s Liberation in 1968, initiated and taught the first Women?s Studies courses at Yale and Duke, and was on the board of the Veteran Feminists of America from 1998-2004. She was an escort-interpreter and lecturer in French and Italian, and also speaks Spanish. Her training includes various psychological frameworks, such as Focusing, Reichian breathwork, and Somatic Experiencing (trauma healing). Her article Exploring Relationships: Interpersonal Yoga? (Yoga Journal, 1979) created a foundation for the Yoga of Relationship by extending Joel Kramer?s feedback-based approach to yoga to the social and relational arena. For their teaching schedule, writings, and further information visit their website below.
Website: www.joelkramer-dianaalstad.com