Home to landmark institutions like the Ayurvedic Institute and the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics, Albuquerque is a mecca for alternative medicine. Scores of students from all over the world make a pilgrimmage to the Duke City, often becoming temporary or permanent residents during their studies.

Albuquerque's Ayurvedic Institute is one of the pre-eminent voices in Ayurveda, a form of traditional medicine in India. Through his many books, clinics, and impecable reputation Dr. Vasant Lad, the institute's founder, is well-respected throughout India and the world as one of the Ayurveda's foremost experts.

The New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics gives their students a firm foundation in a variety of therapuetic styles. Although the school draws heavily from many indigenous medicinal traditions, its teachings focus primarily on the western cannon of natural medicine which includes luminaries like Paracelsus, John Harvey Kellog (inventor of corn flakes), Dr. Henry Lindlahr (founder of American Naturopathy), Dr. Randolph Stone (founder of Polarity Therapy), and Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (father of Homeopathic medicine). Many of these great minds became largely disenfranchized by the politics surrounding the development of the American Medical Association. Their practices, however, continued outside the mainstream. Today alternative medicine is experiencing an explosive resurgence in popularity.

This week is a good week to learn more about natural healing.

• The New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics is offering a free class this Thursday morning (at the school or via webcast) an introduction to the Philosophy to Natural Therapeutics.
• And the Ayurveda Institute will be having a free lecture by Dr. Robert E Svoboda, the first westerner to receive a doctorate in Ayurveda in India. In addition to penning many popular books on Ayurvedic medicine, Dr. Sovoboda is known for his Aghori books detailing his many adventures with his mentor.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Natural Therapeutics: An Introduction to the Philosophy
Dr. Robert Stevens
Thursday, November 11, 2010
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM (MT)
[link]

Understanding the Omens in Life
Dr. Robert E. Svoboda
Friday, November 12, 2010
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (MT)
[link]

Today there is no longer an argument. Yoga is a cultural force and a booming industry. But is it American? Stefanie Syman, author of the compelling and exhaustive cultural history of yoga in America, The Subtle Body: The Story Of Yoga In America, says yes. She’ll be in New Mexico on Friday, July 30 (details below) to make the case and field questions. Until that times, here’s a few teasers from the depths of yoga-Americana—

• Ralph Waldo Emerson was a fan of yoga and wrote a poem called “Brahma” in the first issue of the Atlantic Monthly, but he didn't practice.

• Elvis did yoga (and sang about it) in a movie.

• In 1948, Life featured a photo essay of Marilyn Monroe doing yoga poses.

• President Woodrow Wilson's daughter Margaret became so captivated with yoga that she moved to India and spent the rest of her life on an ashram.

• And let’s not forget the 60’s electric fascination with yoga & sitar. Media darlings like the Beatles, Mia Farrow, Timothy Leary, and Ram Dass helped to popularize the discipline.

• Nowadays, the Obamas feature yoga on the White House lawn.

Syman will be joined by Mark Singelton from St. John's College in Santa Fe, whose book Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice traces how postures, traditionally a relatively obscure aspect of yoga, came to define it.

Spiros Antonopoulos (Ashtanga Yoga Albuquerque | Souljerky) will be your host and guide down these rivers of yogic adventure. Local yoga teacher and entrepreneur Meta Hirschl (Yoga Now), author of Vital Yoga: A Sourcebook for Students and Teachers is scheduled to give a brief introduction.

You can hear Stefanie Syman on NPR (To the Best of Our Knowledge, On Point), or on Expanding Mind (with Erik Davis). And you can read her latest post on the Wall Street Journal's blog (about Tantra, Sting, & Lady Gaga).

In Sir Richard Branson's new National Geographic reality tv show Virgin Galatic, as Sindicator points out, Spaceport America ("the world’s first and only civilian space exploration site") is located in southern New Mexico.

Only In New Mexico tips us off to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, headquartered in Albuqueruque, and are currently lobbying to stop Bible references from being inscribed on high-powered rifle sights used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers.

7000 BC reports that New Mexico's seminal & lively 'undergound' comics scene is alive and well with a meeting this Sunday at the Santa Fe Public Library and a UNM Continuing Education class next month: Creating Comics Panel by Panel.

Starbucks announced that it will close a Seattle call center later this year and move the operations to the Duke City. The Seattle call center employs 78 Starbucks employees and 52 contract workers.

Albuquerque's Taqueria Mexico gets some love in Friday's New York Times.

Jemez (“We don't have any revenue... except for a little convenience store") Pueblo plans to build the nation's first large-scale solar power plant on tribal lands, with the potential to bring in millions of dollars."

Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) in Albuquerque unveiled four new SunCatchers: solar-thermal hydrogen dishes that convert heat into electical energy and sport a least one, amazing reflected-clouds-in-deep-blue-sky product shot.

Here’s a few photographs of Megan Fox and Mickey Rourke over the past few days filming scenes for “Passion Play.”

While most film news and gossip sites geotag these shots in Albuquerque, our industry insiders report the bulk of the shooting is taking place at the old Santa Fe hospital.