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Yoga and Disease: An Alternative Approach to Healing

Therese M. Pope | April 29, 2008

For John Marino, yoga was his destiny.

“I had a Shirley Maclaine moment of ecstatic serendipity,” comments John Marino, a yoga teacher based out of San Francisco, CA.

Marino who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the 1970s was told by doctors that he’d eventually end up in a wheelchair.

“I was working as a health administrator at the time, quit my job and moved to Hawaii. I was lying on the beach and I imagined what it would feel like to be dead and then the message came to me—yoga!” Marino reflects.

He became very ill when he was in a Hawaii and moved back to Seattle, WA. He stumbled upon the The Fundamentals of Yoga in a bookstore in Seattle. As he read it, he had an out of body experience and knew yoga was for him.

Marino studied Hatha yoga with Marie Voboda in the early 1970s, when very few people were studying yoga.

Pain Free from Rheumatoid Arthritis

“I literally got on the floor and crawled around like a baby and it was the first time I was pain free from rheumatoid arthritis.”

Marino moved to San Francisco and studied at the Iyengar Institute in San Francisco. He also studied massage and became a massage therapist as his main source of income.

Iyengar was difficult on his body because Iyengar teachers insisted on going into certain postures that were painful for him.

During his battle with rheumatoid arthritis, Marino was also diagnosed with lupus and Hepatitis-C. In 1981, he was diagnosed with AIDS. Just recently, he was able to clear his Hepatitis-C condition from his body. He attributes looking beyond Western medicine as to why he was able to heal.

Marino battled with Western-based doctors over the years who just wanted to treat his diseases.

Treating People, Not Conditions

“Doctors treat conditions but do not treat people. I do not teach yoga postures. I teach people how to enter yoga. I don’t look at people as textbook conditions. I look at my students as people. Western doctors are completely removing the patient,” comments Marino.

He found an anthroposophical approach to medicine that helped him. Anthroposophy is a spiritual philosophy based on Rudolf Steiner (whose philosophy was also behind the Waldorf Schools, biodynamic farming and eurhythmy). Anthroposophy combines both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine and treats the individual constitution rather than just the disease.

After going through five physicians who weren’t listening or helping him, Marino finally found a caring physician. He found a doctor who was finally listening to him and treating him like a person and not just treating AIDS, the disease.

For Marino, the healing concept of yoga goes beyond the theoretical.

“I view my diseases as blessings that led me to my practice of yoga. I realized this is my life and I can’t just walk away.”

The greatest gift for Marino is the meditative aspects of yoga.

“Yes, my physical body has changed as a result of yoga but meditation has been the most important for me.”

Teaching Others to Heal

Because of his own history of healing, he has been gifted with the ability to assess his students’ needs in class. His students range from seniors and those who have physical challenges and suffer from chronic pain.

He often hears his students refer to him as a healer.

“I respond to them that I’m a healer only in so far that I have healed myself. We are all healers in so far as we have chosen to heal our own SELF. A teacher can only guide you only as far as he has been able to find his own way.”

Marino offers a unique approach to yoga and mentions that some students don’t always necessarily like his approach (especially traditional yogis). He teaches at the Yoga Society of San Francisco (http://www.yssf.com/) He pulls from T’ai Chi and different movements like dance. He wants his students to break old patterns, to feel comfortable to talk to each other during class, and to have fun.

“When students walk through my door and they tell me about an injury or a physical challenge, I tell them ‘congratulations, now let’s begin to heal,” comments Marino.

Marino wants students to think about yoga to give in to traditional yoga stereotypes and doesn’t want his students to think they have to be contortionists.

Union with Self
“Yoga is not an asana. Yoga is union with self. The goal of yoga is beyond the physical,” says Marino.

For people who are hesitant to try a yoga class, he advises that yoga isn’t going to harm you.

“Yoga creates hope and understanding. There will be benefits from yoga. The knowledge might not come right away though. Yoga isn’t about instant gratification. It might come 70 years later. Don’t be discouraged. It’s about learning to move towards resolution.”

Marino sums up his own experiences in his life’s journey of healing.

“Don’t let the diagnosis be the thing that kills you.”

Source:
John Marino interview, Yoga Society of San Francisco website (see URL above)