"I was trying to describe to myself the experience of the workshop so that I could share it with others.
I woke up this morning with the thought that you come away from the workshop feeling like you just returned from an incredible resort and you realize that the resort is YOU. I think I "got it"."
"
...words cannot express the beauty, vitality, the wonder that you bring to us.
I feel the petals falling open into full blossom."
"Thank you for inviting the 'shriveled little stubs' on my shoulder bones to become wings!"
"My heart and soul soar when I have time to be with you and incorporate sensuality."
"Who knew the perineum could dance the Rumba?
How exciting!"
"You feed the hungry flame in all of us."
"Thanks so much for the opportunity to receive the message and experience the abundant love prevailing throughout the entire four days."
"So much healing."
"Class with Angela and Victor is getting to take the journey that I have always craved with the ultimate guides. They let me linger and explore hidden places, they walk with me to incredible vistas. Best of all, they give me back to myself by their quality of attention. With them I am given a taste of true freedom. There is no turning back towards a yoga practice which does not serve this in me. They do this so beautifully with love, simplicity, and clarity. More devoted and deeply integrated teaching I need not seek."
"Angela, Thank you for your inspiration, example and for being such a wonderful ripple in our world."
"To everything there is a season. You bring out the seasons of us all."
"I've been to many yoga classes. This feels like my first real one! Myself thanks you."
"Once in a while exceptional teachers come our way who inspire and open new doors for us. Angela & Victor [now in their 70’s] have been at the cutting edge of yoga for 50 years. Drawing on their wealth of experience and working between the form and the formless they invite us to deepen and explore from the authentic heart of our own practice.
A session with Angela and Victor is not so much Yoga as a Journey of Discovery.
Don’t expect commands or instructions, to be corrected or adjusted, to hear Sanskrit names or even to do familiar Yoga postures. There will be no warriors here!
Rather expect invitations to explore your own potential, to deeply explore your body from the inside out.
Their style might be called True Yoga or Natural Yoga. It may even be the Original Yoga. Through connecting to the energy body, that life force essence that animates the physical for the journey from birth to the greatest adventure, you create space and movement getting in touch with the sacred through self-discovery.
Their workshop is accessible to all, no matter what style or level of yoga practiced."
"Thanks for sharing all this 'good stuff' that gradually makes all the previous meaningless teachings of yoga fade away and be replaced by what makes so much more sense for me and makes me feel wonderful!"
"Your contribution to me is so great, it will take a lifetime to fully integrate, assimilate it all. My body thanks you. My heart loves and laughs with you."
I wonder if Victor realizes the fan base he has? If he doesn't, would you please share it with him? I'm sure you heard the same thing i did...over and over...literally everyone i talked with marveled at him and his manner of teaching...the words i heard several times were 'genuine, gentle, authentic, safe, generous and approachable". It was such a beautiful experience for me, not only the teaching but the remarkable group that gathered, that i just want to hold it close and savor it. It's the first time i've ever been with "them", and experienced such an atmosphere of support and love in the room. The lack of cliques and strong ego needs, (welllll with perhaps an exception), was so special. I'm full to the brim and will spend time wheeling around inside myself.
My many years of traditional hatha yoga training in Boston in the 80’s developed a repertoire of external postures or asanas.
After 7 years, I experienced an internal catharsis that reversed the way I practice yoga. I was in a meditation class with Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten in Molivos, Greece. They taught a revolutionary style of yoga: undoing muscular effort. They spoke of the inner body, the back body and the flow of energy through relaxed breathing. As I surrendered to their rich images and visualizations, a sudden surge of energy exploded in my spine. I felt new waves of energy releasing in all directions. Their reference to softening and opening the perineum became clear to me. (The perineum is the spot between the sexual organs and the anus).
Next morning, I found myself in the dreaded most advanced forward bends that I could never do before. I had unblocked my front body, and awakened my back body (my feminine side). The impact dissolved all the hardness I had built up for physical strength. I became more sensitive to larger energies, more sensitive to pain around me. Since then, my practice has become empty. I fill the spaces inside with breath. I listen, observe, open and receive the ever-changing currents of energy that I harness back and pump into the asanas. We have forgotten that yoga is a free and creative stimulation that comes from within us, from nature. My teachers kept reminding us: unless we get to the root of our being, unless we connect to the energies inside and around us, what use is a firm, muscled up-body with no inner life?