HISTORY OF YOGA AND MEDITATION IN DENMARK: 1900-1980

The growing popularity and appeal of yoga and meditation or mindfulness

practices in our global world - Denmark, included - may seem like a contemporary
trend and a timely response to the challenges of modern life and health. In fact,
the presence of yoga and meditation in Scandinavia and in Denmark is far older
than one may think and its history of cross-cultural influences across Europe,
India, and the United States, are rich in experience and innovation. As early as
1907 and in following decades, there were Danish artists, writers, philosophers -
and even entrepreneurs - like Johannes Hohlenberg (1881-1960), Dr.
Lauritzen(1878-?), Carl Christian Vett (1871-1956), Louis Brinkfort ( 1881-
1958),´Yogi Raman`(1907-1965), Edith Enna (1902-1965), among others, who not
only wrote significant works on yoga and meditation methods but also actively
taught in Copenhagen yoga centers.
Their writings - now found mostly in personal collections and archives in India and
Denmark - reveal a rare history of the modern “global-yoga” phenomenon in the
making. ”Yoga”, we learn from these archives and books, is far from a
homogeneous tradition of eastern wisdom located in the Indian subcontinent but
a multi-cultural discipline incorporating a genuine variety of body/mind practices,
healing traditions, spiritual and psychological, influences from around the world.
We also discover the ways in which these early practitioners and teachers
approached and explored yoga and meditation systems to their depths while
experiencing them in the critical light of Scandinavian - and broadly, European -
cultural contexts.

In this course, we will review the history of yoga and meditation methods in
Denmark – keeping a global context in mind - from the early 1900s to about 1980.
This period is significant for the emergence and development of esoteric
movements, spiritual societies, interest in parapsychology, astrology, and natural-
health trends, across Scandinavian countries – especially, Denmark. In
Copenhagen, the first decade of the 20th century saw the founding of ‘Selskabet
for Psykisk Forskning’ (1905), the ‘Teofisk Samfund’(1907), and followed by the
‘Anthroposophical Society’ in 1917. The early interest in yoga and meditation
practices was an integral part of such alternative circles but soon took a
distinctive life of its own through the direction of some quite remarkable
personalities, writers, and teachers who helped shape a growing movement here.

We will look at five yoga teachers and writers in this course whose successive
careers contributed to the historical development of yoga and meditation in not
only in Denmark but in countries across the world. These are: Johannes
Hohlenberg (1881-1960), Louis Brinkfort ( 1888-1958), Gunnar Lauritzen/’Yogi
Raman’ (1907-1965), Guni Martin (1936-2011), and Swami Janakananda (1939-).
Each of these brought a unique set of perspectives and influences to their work
and formulated methodologies that extended and expanded the existing
frameworks of yoga and meditation practices in an increasingly global
environment. Their writings carried across continents and contain critical insights
that could be especially valuable to yoga practitioners in our times.

Themes for Discussion:

Through selected readings of texts by these yoga teachers, we will try to explore
some themes and topics that are relevant today: the role of ‘asana’, or physical
posture and movement, in relation to body/mind/energy dynamics; the
correlations between body-based yoga practices, breath-work, and mindfulness,
or meditation; questions regarding the interface of ‘spirituality’ with yoga; healing
aspects of yoga and meditation through accessibility to deeper states of
relaxation; complementarities - if any - between existing modern medical sciences
and traditional systems of healing such as yoga and meditation. Finally, we will
explore the ways in which these texts - and the Danish cultural contexts they
express – relate to classical yoga-literature from India and present genuine
developments and innovations in the field of modern global yoga and meditation
practices.

Methodologies and Critical Approaches:

Our approach to the subject in question will be largely historical and
phenomenological – that is to say, we are interested in reviewing and discerning
the presence of a real history of yoga and meditation practices here in Denmark
extending back to the early 20th century and developing through cultural
exchanges and dialogues with other countries – especially India and the United
States. We are interested in exploring the unique reflective and critical lens of
Danish teachers and practitioners who adapted and interpreted yoga and
meditation practices in the light of Scandinavian contexts. Rather than fixating on
the idea of an “authentic” or “classical” yoga tradition located in ancient India and
imported to Denmark or Europe, we will examine a more diverse and culturally
mixed phenomenon where each new perspective could be vital.

Review of Five Danish Yoga Teachers:

The five Danish yoga teachers and writers selected for study in this course may
seem unknown to contemporary yoga practitioners but they have been in fact
vital in the formulation of yoga and meditation methodologies here in Denmark
and also worldwide.

Johannes Hohlenberg (1881-1960), for example, is well-known in Denmark as a

political-economist, philosopher, and biographer of Søren Kierkegaard. However,
his ,close collaboration with the Indian yoga philosopher, Sri Aurobindo (1872-
1950) in the early 20th century is relatively unknown. He not only wrote
extensively on yoga but also taught and lectured widely across Scandinavia on the
subject. His book, Yoga i dens Betydning for Europa (1916) was considered a
contemporary classic on the subject and translated into several languages. It
remains a vital text to our understanding of yoga systems in the light of modern
cultural contexts in the western world, developments in quantum physics and
biology, existentialist inquiries, and phenomenological approaches to philosophy.

Louis Brinkfort(1888-1958) was a Danish yogi, hypnotist, illusionist, healer, writer

and teacher who founded one of the first yoga schools in Copenhagen in 1940.
His books were popular in the growing esoteric circles and ‘sundhed’ or natural-
health, movements around Denmark, and are unique for the ways in which they
combine “hatha yoga” or physical “asana” practices with “auto-suggestion” and
psychological “self-reflective” therapeutic techniques. With his wife, Edith Enna
(1897-1965), Louis Brinkfort formulated a distinctive series of yoga and
meditation exercises -“stillness in motion”- that could be practiced in open and
natural environments for optimal results. These exercises - now virtually
forgotten - are effective not only in themselves but also valuable as part of a
cross-cultural process of “imagining” body/mind holistic paradigms in our modern
world.

Gunnar Lauritzen/ ‘Yogi Raman’ (1907-1965) is perhaps the most remarkable of

all in this group of yoga teachers in Denmark. He began his career in Alborg and
traveled extensively in India in the 1930’s before starting a yoga institute in
Copenhagen where he trained teachers in yoga as well as in deeper Indian and
Tibetan meditation systems. Yogi Raman developed a comprehensive approach to
yoga and meditation beginning with full body dynamic rhythms synchronized with
calibrated breathing cycles and expanding into more complex “asanas”, or
postures, “mantra” meditations, and deeper mindfulness practices. He had
studied Indian classical yoga texts for years and formulated his courses according
to texts like the ‘Hatha Yoga Pradipika’, ‘Yoga Sutras’, and ‘Gherandha Samhita’.
His hermeneutics of these texts is unique for its practical and applied approach
that brings them back to life while keeping their mystical and esoteric aspects in
perspective. Yogi Raman developed a system of yoga and deep-breathing
exercises, called the Åndedrætsrytmisk Teknik which utilized energetic
movements for therapeutic purposes. His writings reveal some of the earliest
known investigations in the world about the relationship of yoga and meditation
with modern medical science and psychology as well as awareness of the
anatomy-physiology, bio-chemistry, and neuro-science of yoga, “pranayama” and
meditation practices.

Guni Martin (1936-2011) was a key figure in the yoga and meditation movement
in Denmark in the 1960’s and a co-founder of ‘Dansk Yoga’ in decades that
followed. She was a student of both Louis Brinkfort and Yogi Raman but
formulated her own independent approach and style. Her focus came increasingly
on the role of yoga and meditation practices in the lives of modern women and
issues of health, empowerment, and wellness, related to them. At a time when
there were few options available to women’s health other than a modern medical
industry, her yoga and meditation classes offered alternative approaches that
consciously integrated feminine subjectivity and self-healing. She wrote books
and taught extensively for four decades in Copenhagen while keeping a critical
distance from a growing “fitness-based” yoga-industry. Her later teachings on
yoga and meditation were increasingly directed towards a “soma-psyche”balance
and explored the relevance of yoga practices to modern psychology.

Swami Janakananda (1939-) is the last of the five leading yoga teachers selected
for historical review in this course. He is best known as the founder of
“Scandinavian Yoga School” - popular for its yoga courses around the world - and
author of critical literature in the field of yoga and meditation studies. He came to
yoga in the late 60’s which was an important social and cultural period for its
explorations of alternative spiritualities, natural-health movements, and self-
development techniques. In the wake of his travels to India and yoga-education
with Swami Satyananda, Swami Janakananda returned to Denmark and founded a
yoga school in 1972 where he taught special methods or techniques known as
“Kriya Yoga”. These are energy-based exercises that use a variety of body/mind
tools, including sound, movement, awareness, and breath-work for accessing
healing and deeper states of consciousness. His yoga teachings are a unique
synthesis of cross-cultural influences that maintain a core of Indian tantric
traditions adapted to Scandinavian contexts: they are irreducibly practice-based
but also interpretive and acknowledging of advances in modern western medical
sciences and psychology.

Bibliography and Text-Materials

History of Yoga and meditation Practices in Denmark: 1900-1980. Anusuya

Kumar. 2011, Københavns Universitet- Tors, København. (Masters` Thesis)
Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Mark Singleton. 2010,
Oxford University Press.

Johannes Hohlenberg:

Yoga I dens Betydning for Europa, 1916, København/Kristiania (2. udg.1920).

Øjeblikket: Tidskrift for Økonomisk og Aandelig Frihed, 1947-1958.

Original archives about Hohlenberg`s discussions with Sri Aurobindo in India.

Louis Brinkfort:

Hatha-Yoga dens udøvelse of virkning på menneskets legeme og ånd, 1949,

København (Axel Andersens Forlag).
Yoga, hvorledes man træner sig op til Sundhed og Livskraft, Mod, Selvkontrol,
1946, København (Axel Andersens Forlag).

Yogi Raman:
Original Archives
Yoga Sutras: Den ældgamle hindu doktrin om sindets koncentration:
De Klassiske Yoga-Kildeskrifter: Hatha-Yoga Grundlaget fra Yoga-
Bhashya, Tattva-Vaicaradi, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Geranda samhita, Siva
Samhita.
Videregående Yogalærer Kursus: Hatha Yoga og Raja Yoga.

Guni Martin:
Selv-healing, aktiver dit indre apotek, 1996, Frederiksværk (Ørnen).
Raja Yoga, den tidløse psykologi, 2009. Frederiksværk (Guni Martin).
Hatha Yoga, vejledning, 2002, Frederiksværk (Ørnen).

Swami Janakananda:
Hatha Yoga, 1971, København (Satyananda Paramhamsa Forlag).
Yoga, Tantra og Meditation in min Hverdag, 1975, Lynge (Bogan).