Matthew Remski

Matthew S. Remski (born 1971) is a yoga practitioner and author who has written on the connection between yoga and conspiracy theories. His work has been informed by his past experience as a cult member. Remski was instrumental in exposing inappropriate physical contact in Yoga classes through an article that he wrote for The Walrus in 2018. He has followed this up with books on the same theme such as his 2019 Practice and All is Coming and his 2024 Surviving Modern Yoga.

Early life Matthew Remski was born in Michigan in 1971 and schooled as a Roman Catholic at Michael's Choir School, Toronto. From 1990 he worked as a church organist and choir conductor. From 1991 to 1994 he studied English literature at the University of Toronto, but did not graduate. and is viewed as a leading thinker on these topics by other yoga practitioners. In 2014 he obtained a 500-hour yoga educator certificate from the Nosara Yoga Institute.

Reception

The chair of the British Wheel of Yoga, Gillian Osborne, writes of Remski's 2019 book about sexual abuse by yoga gurus, Practice and All is Coming, that "the stories are shocking but entirely believable". In her view, the book embodies "considered, informed opinion and original thought". Remski examines the "'classic cultic triad' of deception, dependence and dread of leaving", isolating the follower and preventing them from thinking clearly about what is happening. 2024 Surviving Modern Yoga: Cult Dynamics, Charismatic Leaders, and What Survivors Can Teach Us. Penguin Random House (UK) and North Atlantic Books (US). Foreword by Theo Wildcroft.

Selected articles

Remski has written many articles on yoga and related topics, including:

"10 Things We Didn't Know About Yoga Until This New Must-Read Dropped" on Roots of Yoga by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton (Yoga Journal, 12 April 2017)