Feathered Pipe Ranch

"Beginning as the Holistic Life Foundation in 1975 with a vision for a better future, the Feathered Pipe Foundation has consistently offered learning experiences to inspire people to discover their path. Since that time, over 10,000 people have studied with some of the greatest teachers of our time at Feathered Pipe workshops. If you are a yoga student in the US, chances are you have benefited directly or indirectly from the Feathered Pipe Foundation’s work. Visionary and founder India Supera says it best when she talks about the “miracles, crazy wisdom, and greatness that comes from not realizing you are trying to do the impossible.”

"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.

"The conversation between Liam and Aldous Huxley catalyzed Liam’s life-long exploration in creative expression and conscious evolution through art, culture and societal transformation. With his quiet, welcoming, and curious demeanor, Liam and his life partner, Robert Rheem, would befriend, inspire and support many of the foremost luminaries of the 50s, 60s and 70s counter-culture movements, from Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol and Allan Watts, to Marcel Duchamp.

"Meanwhile, a free-spirited, young woman named India Supera in the mid-sixties hitchhiked across the country to New York, took a flight to Europe and after many strange and unexpected adventures ended up in India. Her wandering eventually brought her to Satya Sai Baba’s ashram where she would spend many years and befriend another devotee named Jermain (Jerry) Duncan who would buy the Feathered Pipe Ranch from Robert Rheem’s father, the well-known industrialist of Rheem’s Heating & Cooling.

"Jerry had dreams of starting a conscious living center to foster the next generation of leaders but was soon diagnosed with terminal cancer. India, who had come back from India to have medical treatment, stayed on at Jerry’s request to care for her through the final days. On her death, Jerry bequeathed the Ranch to India. At the time, India intended to sell the land and give the money away, but encouraged by Sai Baba upon her return to India returned to Montana with a mission...

"In 1975, the Holistic Life Foundation (HLF), which would later transform into the Feathered Pipe Foundation, held its first yoga workshop at the Ranch lasting three weeks. The teacher was the dearly loved Judith Hanson Lasater, and everyone involved simply pitched in with whatever skill they had. This core group, including India Supera, Judith Hanson Lasater, Rose Garfinkle, Rama Jyoti, Jean Giradot, and William Staniger Golden, established the California Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA) as well as the Institute for Yoga Teacher Education (IYTE). IYTE, in turn, became the Iyengar Institute which, happily, continues to operate today as the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. The CYTA founded the Yoga Journal on then secretary-treasurer, Janis Paulsen Silver‘s $500 credit card limit."

We are honored to have the steadfast support from such luminous beings as:

• Baron Baptistepat
• Beryl Bender Birch
• Jean Shinoda Bolen
• Seane Corn
• Mary Dunn
• Angela Farmer
• Lilias Folan
• Gabriella Giublaro
• Marti Glenn
• Judith Hanson Lasater
• Dean Lerner
• Brooke Medicine Eagle
• R. Carlos Nakai
• Ramanand Patel
• George Purvis
• Erich Schiffmann
• John Schumacher
• Andrew Weil
• Patricia Walden
• Rodney Yee]