Soul's Code

A breakout book puts the favorite workout of celebs and the spiritual on the defensive

A disciple of B.K.S. Iyengar says that yoga teachers injure themselves as much as football players: “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”  (New York Times)

Recovering yogi Glenn Black: the vast majority of people should give up yoga (Daily Mail)

Five years in the making: The Science of Yoga: Risks and Rewards (Simon & Schuster)

Blowback from the yoga industry: Teachers rally to keep their students (The Daily Beast)

Will the values of our next President be made of the Mormon stuff?

What Mormon and Muslim fundamentalists share in common: Romney vs. Obama (Huffington Post)

Officially outlawed in the 19th Century when Utah joined the United States of America, polygamy makes for great ratings in award-winning 21st C  television. (LA Times)

On Broadway: Mormonism makes a blockbuster musical. (NY Observer)

Web 2.0: some of the hottest lifestyle bloggers are Mormons (Good Magazine)

Massachusetts and JFK redux:  Romney and religion. (Huffington Post)

Political activists on both the left and right project dark times ahead. We present a contrarian upside, spiritually-speaking:

 1.  You can start the year by seeing the Dalai Lama, live (Dateline: Bodh Gaya, India)

2.  The world will have more saints in 2012 (Dateline: Vatican City)

3. The Mayans, the New Agers and the movie were wrong: Why the world did not end on Dec. 21, 2012

4.  The world economy ain’t so bad, after all (Global Insight, the world’s largest economic forecaster)

Christmas politics and high-tech wealth creation

Professor Gingrich needs a history lesson about the Holy Land: “We are Palestinians” (New York Times)

300-member American journalist association: Ranks death of Bin Laden top religion story of 2011

2012 end-times and climate change? A green Christmas in  . . . Ottawa, Canada (Ottawa Citizen)

1-percenter Christmas collateral damage: Foreclosure kills California homeowner’s Peanuts holiday tradition (MSNBC)

If the Old Testament were a reality show: “The Real Housewives of the Book of Samuel”

From sites like BlissTree to StarYoga, the Soul’s Code category is on fire

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: “Why men say ‘I love you’ for the wrong reasons” (BlissTree.com)

What do Russell Brand, Clint Eastwood and Jerry Seinfeld have in common? A short-list no more: Celebrities who meditate

Silicon Valley goes spiritual: Glam.com launches “Mind Body & Spirit” channel

Rice University, UTSA and University of Minnesota study: Sexual Signaling: Do You Think My Porsche is Sexy? (PsychCentral.com)

Why seniors dream in black & white

Why is Alec Baldwin, 53, dating a 27-year-old yoga teacher? It’s a second life (New York Post)

Are Baby Boomers to blame for the debt crisis? Don’t ask them (CNN)

What happened to Obama? ” . . . corrupted by a system that tests the souls even of people of tremendous integrity” (New York Times op-ed)

Old people miss even older people: “In economic turmoil, U.S. needs a leader like Churchill.” (David Gergen)

Inspire change, and celebrate the Nobel Prize winner’s 93rd, by doing 67  minutes of good deeds today

BY PAUL KAIHLA — July 18 is South Africa’s annual Good Samaritan’s day. This year, Nelson Mandela turned 93. And the tradition here is to donate 67 minutes to helping others in honor of the former freedom fighter’s devotion to human rights and reconciliation.

The number 67 is not a random pick; It represents the number of years that Mandela devoted himself to public service and political struggle — 27 of them incarcerated in South African prisons (1962 to 1990) such as Capetown’s equivalent of Alcatraz, Robben Island, as well as five years as South Africa’s first non-white president (1994 to 1999).

Answer: We are as addicted as ever

Starbucks profits: Up 44% in last quarter (CBS)

Flower-power Boomers still drink too much booze: Over 60 (Geffen foundation)

1 in 5 educated geeks still, like, smoke: A creative-class confession (Guardian)

Post-Michael Jackson, we-are-the-world is still hooked on big pharma: $1 trillion (Forbes)

From the anti-false witness clause in the 10 Commandments to Bill Clinton, lying is as old as our genetic code

Psychologist Abraham Maslow on survival: The Hierarchy of Needs

Born Liars: “How to spot a liar?” (Toronto Globe and Mail)

Online dis-inhibition: Group-think and de-individuation

Not surviving, or winning: Movie star Matt Damon pulls out of June 20 fundraiser for Congressman Weiner (New York Daily News)

Socially (unconscious) media: “When does online fantasy become infidelity?” (Salon.com)

Euro Group prez says it’s his job to lie: “I’m not going to go to confession because of a false denial. God understands more about the financial markets than many who write about them.” – Dr. Jean-Claude Juncker in Der Spiegel

There’s no “girl power” in mobs. Men have a history of seeing war, revolution and disasters as foreplay for rape.

War creeps: Who put the “rape” in “rape and pillage?”

Where not to strut: In a mob, safety should trump defiance for the Lara Logans of the world.

Raging stats: Husbands are as bad as soldiers in the Congo.