Stephen Cope

Stephen Cope is a psychotherapist, Kripalu Yoga teacher, and author of several books on yoga and meditation. He is the founder of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living.

Early life

Stephen Cope was brought up in Wooster, Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s; he learnt to play the piano from an early age. His father was an academic historian and dean of Wooster College. His working life began as a professional dancer with Minnesota Dance Theatre. Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. In 1993 he organised a conference at Kripalu on psychotherapy and spirituality. A panel of experts including Marion Woodman and Daniel Goleman spoke on exposing the shadow side of the personality, leading Desai to admit that he too had such a "shadow"; the following year, Desai's sexual contact with female resident disciples became public, and Desai was forced to leave Kripalu. This led Cope to reflect that the Western world's version of yoga—asanas, pranayama, meditation—had lost the surrounding context of an ethical lifestyle (classical yoga's yamas and niyamas) that were needed to support those practices.

In 2008, Cope was identified by Nora Isaacs, writing in Yoga Journal, as one of the people who had "each, independently, discovered the benefits of merging mindfulness with asana", leading to "something we might call 'mindful yoga'."

Reception

Yog Sundari were "touched and impressed" by The Wisdom of Yoga, calling it a useful guide and an alternative to the "often impenetrable" translations and commentaries on the Yoga Sutras.

Works

Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, Bantam, 2000. Will Yoga & Meditation Really Change My Life?, Storey, 2003. The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living, Bantam, 2007. The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling, Bantam Dell, 2015. Deep Human Connection: Why We Need It More than Anything Else [originally titled Soul Friends: The Transforming Power of Deep Human Connection], Hay House, 2019.