PAYNE, Larry

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: California State University—Long Beach, B.A., 1969; Pacific Western University, M.A., 1985, Ph.D., 1987; additional study in physical therapy at California State University; studied yoga in India, France, and Denmark.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Office—Samata Yoga Center, 4150 Tivoli Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066. E-mail—samatayoga@earthlink.net.

CAREER:

Advertising executive prior to 1979; Samata Yoga Center, Los Angeles, CA, founder/director, 1981—. Cofounder and director, Yoga Therapy Clinic, International Sports Medicine Institute, 1984-86; cofounder and chairman, International Association of Yoga Therapists, 1989—; president, Healthy Back/Healthy Mind Institute, Marina Del Rey, CA, 1990—; cofounder and instructor, yoga program at University of California—Los Angeles School of Medicine, 1998—. Leader of seminars on yoga; lecturer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Has received outstanding achievement awards in the United States and Europe for yoga instruction; Golden Lotus Award (South America), for yoga instruction.

WRITINGS:

(With Georg Feuerstein) Yoga for Dummies, IDG Publishing, 1999.

(With Richard Ustantine) Yoga Rx: A Step by Step Program to Promote Health, Wellness, and Healing for Common Ailments, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Creator of video, Healthy Back Exercises for High Stress Professionals, Samata International Multi-Media (Los Angeles, CA), 1986.

SIDELIGHTS:

Larry Payne began practicing yoga in the late 1970s to relieve his own back pain and stress. He found the discipline so healing that he devoted years to studying it in the United States, Europe, and India, and then founded a yoga center of his own in Los Angeles, California. Through his Samata Yoga Center and Healthy Back/Healthy Mind Institute, Payne has served the needs of athletes, film stars, and corporate executives who have sought help with chronic pain and stress reduction. Payne has also furthered the connection between yoga and healing by cofounding a yoga program at the University of California—Los Angeles School of Medicine.

Payne's first book, Yoga for Dummies, is part of the popular "For Dummies" series. Cowritten with Georg Feuerstein, the book is a primer of basic yoga techniques and suggestions for wellness and healing. Yoga Rx: A Step by Step Program to Promote Health, Wellness, and Healing for Common Ailments, coauthored with Dr. Richard Ustantine, explores the use of yoga to control a wide variety of conditions, from joint pain to insomnia, arthritis, and even the common cold. Booklist contributor Jane Tuma recommended Yoga Rx for its "simple healing yoga therapy routines."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2002, Jane Tuma, review of Yoga Rx: A Step-by-Step Program to Promote Health, Wellness, and Healing, p. 293.

ONLINE

Samata Yoga Center,http://www.samata.com/ (May 6, 2003), information on Payne, his books, and his lectures.*