Laurence I. Caughlan

this was my first hatha yoga class. very relaxing and tension releasing. caughlan is one of those enlightened yogiwannabes. he's cool, but i didn't talk to him much. you DO have to buy his book and take notes in it. i didn't mind since the book had a lot of inspiring messages and pictures. caughlan's weakness was the fact that he didn't give enough individual attention, giving us this "let the yoga teacher inside of you guide you" bs. that doesn't make sense for a beginning class. it would be better if it was more structured and if caughlan taught for an entire class session, we always left early. overall it was aiight.

This class is a blessing to those of us that have never taken a yoga class before. It is designed to relax you and Caughlan is a very fitting teacher. He has a relaxed teaching style and teaches the positions clearly. Contrary to what the other reviewer stated, he does not make you buy his book but does recomend it. The journals can be turned in on any paper you chose. I found this class to be purely pleasurable and easy enough for any one to participate in.

Since the mandatory offical school evaluations were not passed out in this class, I'll evaluate him here. I was disappointed with this class. His teaching method is ok, he has done it for so long that he definitly has a little routine going and it is somewhat comforting that he is so in control. The basic workout is fine, I have never taken yoga before but I found it to satifactory. Friends that have taken other classes say he's not that great. I was annoyed when we strayed from the workout. Two weeks of the sememester were "self-guided" yoga classes, where we just did what we knew in the dark without instruction and he would help us if we had trouble. I hated these classes and they made me totally tense. He showed us a film he made. I thought it was not so much dated as totally narcisistic. His small, expensive, and not very detailed book was also narcisitic. He made us write a journal for every class period and turn in photocopies. BUT these journals HAD to be writen in his book, so we had to buy his book, even though it was expensive, egotistical and not very useful. I will not take yoga from him again.