hulu.com/watch/192682/enlighten-up
I really suggest this show.
Not because I’m pro-yoga; in fact, I’ve never done yoga in my life.
But it’s such a great observation of the human condition relating to spirituality in so many forms.
Watching Nick go through everything as a struggling skeptic backed by an eager passive evangelist (Kate) is simply compelling in the provocations of not really what “yoga” is, but instead: what spiritual awakening is, where it’s found, why it’s found where it is, what spiritual paths accomplish, and why they work (regardless of the path) or don’t.
These topics aren’t addressed directly by the documentary, but the main subjects involved (the yogi’s, Nick, and Kate…specifically Nick and Kate) show through action and reaction just what the reflected answers are to such questions.
The first part takes a while to get going, but the last third is when it really get’s going…this is also when Nick begins to fall apart and more raw and uncensored reactions begin to emerge.
Though Kate, the director, wanted this to be a story about Yoga and how it can help people; Nick’s strong persistence to drill relentless critical questions quickly takes over the driving force of the project (much to Kate’s frustration) and switches into a story about a human’s relationship to spirituality more than anything specific to Yoga.
The dichotomy of the pusher and the resister, the believer and the skeptic, the searching and the simply uncertain, Kate and Nick…it is very interesting.