St. Christopher For Yoga Phenomenon
They come with yoga mats, sticks of incense and pictures of the OM symbol to a stark desert location. Their cameras are at the ready to capture an image of YogaDawg if he should appear in the sky. Under a sunny, cloudless sky, they do yoga asanas and chant in a circle around a huge sand mandala. Even though they hope to see a vision of YogaDawg, they eagerly await Nagual Seer, a 45-year-old ‘yogi’ from Redwood City, California who comes on the 26th of each month to this site--now christened “YogaDawg of the Rock” --and declares whether YogaDawg is in their midst.
Two of the faithful waiting for YogaDawg to appear
On weekends the faithful can number 10,000 or more. On Thursday, the crowd is 1,000 strong. Vendors work the crowd selling malas, incense, CD of yoga stars, the Miracle OM self-opening umbrella branded with pictures of YogaDawg and the most coveted of their wears, time shares in the exclusive YogaDawg Acres, an super high-end ashram catering to the YogaDawg believers.
Some of the YogaDawg believers pracrticing the advanced yoga pose YogaDawgasana
"See, its YogaDawg," says Jennie-ji, 36, cradling her digital camera to show a shot she took just before Seer's arrival. She points to a vaguely dog-shaped smudge of white light. Maybe you could construe it to be the shape of a seated YogaDawg in his traditional pose with cupped hand. While others claim to see YogaDawg from time to time, only Nagual Seer claims to see him with regularity and incredible clarity.
Followers of YogaDawg trying to catch a glimpse of the 'guru'
"YogaDawg always appears around noon, as if he is coming to lunch", Seer explains. "He looks like a big cloud coming from the sky very slowly and then he appears in front of me. I see him very clearly.”
The first photos of the fabled YogaDawg were taken about year ago when Seer, who describes himself as a lone tourist “eco-traveler”, was doing a ‘vision quest’ in the Nevada desert. While ‘meditating’ on the vast wonder of the American desert, he was interrupted by a harmonic melody which he said sounded strangely like a Charlie Parker riff. As he opens his eye he explained, ”I noticed a strange cloud form in from of me. As there were no clouds in the sky, it caught my attention. What flipped me out was that it looked like a dog’s head. Now how weird is that? Anyway, I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.”
YogaDawg of the Rock
According to Mr. Seer, he came to his ‘vision quest’ one day as he was driving through the desert to do some gambling in Las Vegas. Running low on gas, he stopped at the “Last Gas Before Entering This God Forsaken Desert” service station. As he filled the tank, Nagual Seer, the owner started a conversion explaining that he was a Yanqui shaman. "The dude pointed to a spot in the desert and said that I should go there and sit. Well thinking this guy was nuts or drunk, I kind of brushed him off." Mr. Seer continued, “Well, it was then that this Indian dude gave me two enormous doobies, and pointed to the desert again and said, “you go there and sit.”
“So there I am doing the doobies in the desert when things got really whacked out. All of a sudden there were all these dogs raining from the sky. I knew I must have been trippin'; man, but it looked so freaking real”, he continued. He claimed he had enough presence of mind to snap some photos of the phenomenon.
Photo taken by Nagual Seer showing YogaDawgs materializing in the desert
Another photo by Nagual Seer showing the gathering of the YogaDawgs
A History of YogaDawgs
Though some express skepticism regarding the “YogaDawg phenomenon” citing it as simply mass delusion or hypnosis, scholars of YogaDawg have another explaination. “Visons of YogaDawgs, though rare, are documented thorough out history. Though few have made the connection, this vision does translate in works of art from time to time.”, explained Kelly Spitz, PhD, a leading YogaDawg historian at Yale University. “These appearences seem to coincide in times of great earthly stress.” With the world economy teetering on the brink of a new great depression; home prices collapsing; rising energy demands with the correspondeing greenhouse gas explosion causing global warming and most distressing of all, Sarah Palin arriving on the American bid for Vice President, it is no wonder why this visitiation is happening at this time," ’Ms. Spitz commented.
A leading expert on the art of the YogaDawg, William Reganald Daggoneit, III, a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC walked us through some of the rare but very real depiction of YogaDawgs through history.
Pic 1 Ancient YogaDawgs, coyotes and petroglyphs
Pic 2 The original spinx restored
Pic 3 The Parthenon freize in the British Museum
Pic 4 Gargoyles on Notre Dame
Pic 5 YogaDawg by Vincent Van Gogh
