Feathered Pipe Roots: A Mystical Intersection of People, Place & Spirit

During the Nixon years I decided that living in America might bring about bad karma, and I could not cope with the ramifications of an event like Vietnam. So I decided to travel and find a spiritual teacher, to retreat to a cave someplace like in the Himalayas, and pray until the world changed (possibly a long wait). Finding a teacher or guru was no easy task. I had already been sick and near death for almost a year in Pakistan and had walked another year and a half around India looking for a guru. I was ready to give up and return to the USA, get a job at the phone company and settle into oblivion. But fate decided differently. READ MORE

Almost three-quarters of a century ago, a young and adventurous Liam O’Gallagher, who played a pivotal role inspiring Feathered Pipe’s evolution over the past 40 plus years, took a chance and hitchhiked from his home in the Bay Area out into the Mojave Desert to pay an unexpected visit to the writer, Aldous Huxley. He knocked on the door and was welcomed in by Mr. Huxley’s wife. That conversation between Liam and Aldous Huxley catalyzed Liam’s life-long exploration in creative expression and conscious evolution through art, culture and societal transformation. READ MORE

During the first summer I spent at the ranch in 1972, when Jermain Duncan was still alive and before we found out how sick she was, we took a trip to California. Our plan was to go to Arizona to look for another property so we could have our think tank year-round. First, though, we went to San Francisco to visit friends. It was blissful to be surrounded by all of the interesting people that Bob Rheem and Liam O’Gallahger, both visionaries within the counter-culture movement of the late 50s and 60s, introduced us to. READ MORE

We were living in San Francisco and had planned to get a place in Arizona to do a summer workshop. We decided one day to go and listen to Dr. Chaudhuri of the Institute for Asian Studies speak at a nearby church in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. We were sitting on the front porch steps of the church after the lectures, when William Staniger, later Golden, recognized me from our time in India together. On the steps of that church William came over and said, “Hi. Aren’t you India Supera? We met at Sai Baba’s.” And that was the beginning of all the work we did. READ MORE

Heidi was meant to be house sitting for Ike and Judith Lasater when they came up to teach our first yoga workshop in 1975, but had gone off to physical therapy school back east leaving Tom Ryan, her then boyfriend, to house sit. When Ike and Judith arrived home in California, they called and said they had just met the most amazing man, Tom Ryan. Ike felt that he would make a perfect caretaker for the Ranch. Even though they didn’t know him they did not seem to care as Tom repaired everything in their house. READ MORE

Laughing Water, who was still known at the time as Paul Superak, was originally brought to the Ranch by Judith and Ike Lasater, as LW and she had been roommates in college. He came as the cook for the first real workshop in 1975, which featured Judith Lasater, Gisele Fitch, and Felicity Hall who is now known as Felicity Green. He was the only cook, while everyone in the group helped out with everything else. It was just expected that if you wanted to eat or have a clean yoga space that you had to make it happen. READ MORE

We started the summer with just the group of us, Laughing Water, Tom Ryan, Heidi Goldman, William Staniger (later Golden), Janice Paulsen and myself who had big ideas, little money and no work. Of course we didn’t know we couldn’t do it so we started promotion. The 1975 summer was basically us teaching whatever we knew. We had photography workshops with our neighbor Tom McBride. As well, we had "Basic Yoga and other Nice Things, Like a Flower Opening" with Laughing Water, and Heidi Goldman and myself taught what little we knew. READ MORE

Our first big workshop was 44 people with Zipporah Dobyns, the astrologer. I went to the old airport to pick people up, and I was late. The Helena airport was so small they used to just put the baggage out on the tarmac and the parking lot was a cow pasture across the road, except for the 8 cars that could park in front of the airport. READ MORE

"Gone to Feathered Pipe Ranch. Back in a week." was the message on the answering machine of George Purvis, an Iyengar yoga teacher based in Dallas, Texas. That was the first time I had heard of the Ranch.  Two months later, I found myself sitting in a welcoming circle with 17 other yoga practitioners, all with more experience than me, hearing about tipis and bears, and meeting our teacher, Dona Holleman, one Guruji BKS Iyenger's first western students.  READ MORE