Janis Paulsen’s impact and reach would have profound, lasting results; she was central to the creation of the Holistic Life Foundation*, the Holistic Life University, Yoga Journal, and the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
Among the small group of young, bold-thinking visionaries whose imaginations and creativity created the Feathered Pipe Foundation was a quiet, intelligent, and gifted young woman named Janis Paulsen. At the tender age of 26, she and William “Golden” Staniger met India Supera in San Francisco. Soon after, India invited them to join her and their small community of seekers and visionaries to the land that would later become the Feathered Pipe Ranch. Janis’ gift and great passion was to help turn others’ visions into reality. Her intersection with the passionate cadre of Western spiritual and healing pioneers that gathered at the Montana sanctuary proved to be transformative. Janis’ impact and reach would have profound, lasting results; she was central to the creation of the Holistic Life Foundation, the Holistic Life University, Yoga Journal, and the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
Born in 1946 in Palo Alto, California, Janis was drawn to the powers of inner healing and spirituality at a young age, initially, with an interest in Buddhism. She moved north to San Francisco following high school to pursue her spiritual work while simultaneously completing both her undergraduate and master’s degrees at San Francisco State University. The bright young woman, gifted in mathematics, was determined to parlay her skills to help people with their healing journeys, health, and well being. Janis was passionate about helping others and was a strong advocate for conscious birthing, conscious dying, and conscious living through healthy food, yoga, fitness, meditation, and mindfulness.
Janis met spiritual guide and healer William Staniger in San Francisco. William had a large following of yoga students, however, he and Janis formed a unique and deep bond. William admired her tenacious work ethic, business mind, and commitment to serve others.
Enter India Supera! William and Janis met India Supera in San Francisco in 1972. She invited them to join her and the fledgling, passionate community of seekers to live, practice yoga, meditate, and dream on the land that would later become the Feathered Pipe Ranch. India’s friend from Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram in India, Jermaine (“Jerry”) Duncan, had purchased the land in the early 1970s intending to create a creative thought and healing center. India inherited the Ranch after nursing Jerry for a year through the latter’s illness and death from cancer in 1973.
India, Janis, and William spent the summer of 1973 together dreaming and planning what the Ranch might become. India later said it was their combined energy that made the Ranch come to life. “I was the heart, Janis was the practical business person, and William the visionary,” she wrote. India would later reminisce about their time together, their “great pujas,” and her ultimate decision to, at Sai Baba’s urging, make a place to train leaders.
India would later look back with great fondness on the summers of 1973 and 1974 at all the creative energy she, Janis, and William cultivated together which planted the seeds for what would become one of the most unique healing and retreat centers in North America.
As the summer of 1974 came to a close, Wiliam and Janis returned to San Francisco and launched the California Yoga Teachers Association at a house on 10th Avenue. The two also created Yoga Journal, with William as the first editor and Janis as assistant editor. India recalled that the two laid out and published the journal from their bedrooms. They had only an IBM Selectric typewriter, Janis’s credit card limit of $500, and sheer will.
The first Yoga Journal volumes included recipes for healthy food, poems, yoga poses, and interviews with people working to raise the consciousness of humanity and promote self healing. India and Janis once reminisced that they sometimes stayed up late into the night as Janis would lay out the articles manually (no computers in those days!). One night when the Yoga Journal was due for print for the next day, Janis was suffering from a horrible case of poison oak and was in extreme pain. She was very healthy and did not drink alcohol, but on this one particular night, India convinced Janis to drink some plum wine as she worked, which at least made the evening a lot more fun! The Journal was indeed ready for print in the morning and, hopefully, no one noticed if the articles were slightly askew.
The Holistic Life Foundation originally launched under the umbrella of the New Dimensions Foundation, created by Michael Toms who went on to found New Dimensions Radio (Michael passed away in September 2023). The flagship board of directors members of New Dimensions Foundation were Janis, William, and India.
The Holistic Life University, also founded under the Holistic Life Foundation, initially focused on the life-death transition. It later expanded to include a birthing school that was involved in the development of birthing laws in California. The Holistic Life Foundation offered spiritual retreats abroad; their first trip was to Egypt.
Christopher Wentworth, who later moved into the 10th Avenue house in San Francisco where William’s yoga community lived and worked, shared:
“Many people would come and go from the 10th Avenue community, but Janis remained. She was shy but extremely hard working and dependable. She would often sleep by her desk as she worked tirelessly to manifest projects and foundations, envisioned by the team.”
Christopher served as the photographer for some of the earliest Yoga Journal volumes and as a videographer for one of the first ever films about conscious birthing in which five natural births were filmed: ‘Five Women, Five Births’. After years of being in community together, Janis and Christopher married in 1979, beginning a life-long personal and professional partnership while raising their two daughters.
To earn money for her growing family since she was not paying herself, Janis eventually shifted away from working full time or serving on the boards of all of these projects: Yoga Journal, the California Yoga Teachers Association, the Holistic Life University, and the Feathered Pipe Foundation.
India shared: “When we stopped doing those other branches of the Holistic Life Foundation, they didn’t just die, other people carried them on. Our program director, Richard Miller (not the yoga instructor), took a set of programs over to the JFK University and some of them are part of the curriculum today. CYTA (California Yoga Teachers Association) was the definitive word in yoga and the Iyengar Institute bought it and carried on as the first Iyengar school.”
As Janis transitioned away from the Holistic Life University, Yoga Journal, CTYA, and Feathered Pipe Foundation, she and Christopher Wentworth founded Health and Fitness Systems, selling gravity boots, and then health equipment for the remainder of their careers. While their company was based on health and wellness, Janis continued her spiritual journey and consciousness work in a multitude of other ways. She was involved in several personal growth circles in Marin County, including women’s groups, rebirthing, tarot reading, nondual philosophy practices, and meditation, including volunteering during the start of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She also became a doula and a certified marriage officiant so that she could participate in these sacred moments of people’s lives.
Throughout her life, Janis never stopped volunteering her skills to support organizations dedicated to health and consciousness-raising. She also never stopped visiting the Feathered Pipe Ranch, often with her daughters and family, to spend time with India and her Feathered Pipe community. Janis exercised, meditated, walked, and did yoga stretches every morning up until her last two months of life. She loved playing the piano and listening to music. She enjoyed spending time with family and friends, including India Supera, who visited her during the final weeks of her life when she was dying of cancer. Janis passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends at her home in Marin County in August 2008.
About Ciara Wentworth
Ciara Wentworth is a Montessori teacher and currently resides in Boulder, CO with her family. She carries on the legacy of her mother, Janis, through her work with children and education. She believes that a more peaceful, harmonious, conscious society can be created by helping children develop mindfulness and by supporting them emotionally, socially and intellectually.
Julia Wentworth, Janis’ younger daughter, also resides in Colorado with her family. She shares Janis’ gifts in the area of mathematics and works in the field of financial planning.
*The Holistic Life Foundation, which was the precursor to the Feathered Pipe Foundation, is a separate and unrelated organization from a Baltimore-based nonprofit by the same name that focuses on the wellness of children and adults in underserved communities.