The European Union of Yoga and the Zinal Yoga Congress

Gérard Blitz, an outstanding biography of the twentieth century

If one wants to deal with the history of the European Union of Yoga and its now traditional meetings in Zinal, one cannot avoid first looking at the charismatic leader of the founding period, the Belgian Gérard Blitz (1912-1990).

Gérard Blitz in his later years

Gérard Blitz, the son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who had achieved some fame as an athlete, became a diamond cutter as a young adult. Also a talented athlete, he boycotted the Olympic Games held by Nazi Germany in 1936, in a sense as a prelude to his work for the resistance against National Socialism. After the German invasion of Belgium, he managed to bring his family to safety first in France and then in Switzerland, while he himself continued to fight the occupiers underground as a transmitter of messages from Belgium to England. His affinity with neutral Switzerland, which probably developed during this time, was to take on special significance for his life’s work.

Founder of the Club Méditerranée and inventor of the “club formula”

After the war, in 1949, Gérard Blitz, who had not taken a holiday for fifteen years, went to Corsica to relax and came up with the idea of the “club formula”, a radically new type of holiday. Club holidays were supposed to be a simpler, somewhat less refined and less coercive way of doing things compared to hotel holidays. The real creative achievement, however, was to give central importance to the “entertainment” of guests, entertainment which was intended to lead holidaymakers to new (shared) activities and new behaviour. At the same time,  guests communicating and interacting with each other was to be increased as much as possible. During the day, for example, it would be possible to learn new sports, and at mealtimes everyone would be seated at large tables so that there would be a lively exchange. In the evening, the programme could include sharing theatre games and the like.

In 1950, he realised his idea for the first time on the island of Mallorca using discarded army tents from the Second World War. His concept, which he called “Club Méditerranée”, was an overwhelming success and after he risked being overwhelmed by everything in 1954, he brought Gilbert Trigano on board as a partner. Within 30 years, “Club Méd” became the world’s largest tourism company. Over time, the tent villages had grown into cottage villages and finally into spacious holiday resorts, with more than 100 worldwide.

In France, where the company was based, club holidays were extremely popular and at times, up to twenty percent of the French population spent their best weeks of the year in this way. In the German-speaking countries, the concept was of course copied, with the “Robinson Club” being founded in Germany in 1970, but this type of holiday was never very popular and  only ever attracted guests in the low single-digit percentage range. On the other hand, many of the above-mentioned “Club Méd” ideas were later incorporated into mainstream holiday arrangements.

Among the spiritual avant-garde of the sixties

However, this enormous success in the business world – until the 1980s his career was considered one of the ten greatest business careers of the twentieth century – never completely absorbed Blitz. As early as the 1950s, he had come across the work of Romain Rolland, which nourished his spiritual aspirations. Later, he learned about yoga from Eva Ruchpaul. In the mid-sixties, he began to introduce yoga across the board at Club Méd. Already through this, he played an important role in the spread of yoga in the West, because, strictly speaking, it was through Club Méd that yoga was first introduced to such a broad audience instead of “conspiratorial little groups” as had been the case before.

Eva Ruchpaul

Eva Ruchpaul, born in 1928, suffered from polio when she was 18 months old and later from the consequences, which left her 80% disabled. Around 1950, she discovered yoga as a means of improving her health. Later she became a yoga teacher and author of yoga books that were widely read, especially in France. In 1970, she began offering three-year yoga teacher training courses in Paris, which, according to her institute, more than 1,000 people have completed to date.

However, Gérard Blitz was not only interested in Hatha Yoga but also had very broad spiritual interests. Séverine Despond Meylan considers him part of the spiritual avant-garde of the 1960s. He belonged to the inner circle of J. Krishnamurti and later also to that of the Zen master Taisen Deshimaru, who lived in France.

The J. Krishnamurti meetings in Gstaad (Berner Oberland), that attracted around 3000 guests every year.

The famous Alpine meetings with Krishnamurti in Saanen, in the organisation of which he played an important role, being on the committee from 1967 onwards and at which many celebrities were always present, probably inspired him to organise  yoga congresses in Zinal. In the Krishnamurti Foundation, founded in 1968, Gérard Blitz was one of seven board members, responsible for financial consultancy. In another respect, Krishnamurti’s world of ideas was an important source for Gérard Blitz, namely in relation to his pedagogical concerns. Krishnamurti had founded schools in India, the USA, Canada and England in which his vision of a non-directive pedagogy was to be realised. These concerns were to be partially transferred to the world of yoga by Gérard Blitz, since it was a particular concern of his and the later EUY to draft criteria for yoga teacher training.

After Gérard Blitz resigned from the Krishnamurti Foundation board in 1973, he turned increasingly to Zen and was initiated as a Zen monk by his master. It was also his master who encouraged him to bring yoga and (Zen) meditation closer together and indeed, although originally coming from top-class sport, throughout his life Gérard Blitz promoted a very meditative yoga which ultimately leads to stillness.

The Zen master Taisen Deshimaru was another of Gérard Blitz’s teachers and initiated him as a Zen monk.

It was probably in 1965 that Gérard Blitz met the yoga teacher T. Krishnamacharya and later his son Desikachar at the ‘Rishi Valley Krishnamurti School’. At this point, Krishnamacharya was already in the phase in which he taught a very gentle body practice, which suited Blitz’s meditative nature very well.

T. Krishnamacharya

The village of Zinal lies, surrounded by majestic mountains, at the very end of the Val d’Anniviers.

Zinal – a place for yoga in Europe

Although Gérard Blitz slowly began to withdraw from business life in the mid-sixties in order to create more space for his spiritual concerns, he remained the creative driving force behind Club Méd for a long time. In particular, it was him who selected the sites for new holiday resorts. The club already had its first alpine resorts and then Gérard came to Zinal – he later described this in a retrospective lecture – and was immediately inspired by the idea of holding European yoga meetings here. The village of Zinal did not yet exist in the modern sense. It was an abandoned hamlet with only six inhabitants and no infrastructure. Deeply moved by the beauty of the landscape, he went down into the valley to discuss with the authorities how Zinal could be developed.

A spacious holiday complex was then opened in 1970. In 1971 and 1972, Gérard Blitz organised a kind of precursor congress focused on the topic of meditation and then in 1973 the first yoga congress for the EUY.[1]

The foundation of the EUY and its fields of activity

Gérard Blitz did not hold any office on the first board of the EUY, which was founded in 1972. However, he was presumably influential behind the scenes, as two close friends of his, André van Lysebeth (Belgium) and Claude Peltier (France), formed the core of the EUY committee. Germany and Switzerland were also already represented.[2]

In 1974, at the second Zinal Congress, Blitz was elected President and held the office until shortly before his death.

The Belgian yoga pioneer André van Lysebeth (1919-2004) was actively involved in the founding of the EUY and the organisation of the first congresses in Zinal.

In addition to the organisation of the Zinal congresses, various fields of activity have been considered for the EUY over time, such as

• maintaining a yoga liaison (contact) office in India.
• commissioning translations of source texts.
• publishing books and magazines.
• organising further education courses, e.g. a distance learning course in Sanskrit, for which the French professor Jean Varenne was engaged.
• organising group tours or generally combining yoga with tourism.

All in all, little of this was realised. Instead, there was one important objective from the outset, which still exists to this day, namely becoming involved in the field of yoga teacher training. The basic idea was that a ‘European yoga’[3] would also need to be adapted to the traditional Indian forms in terms of training. Possible curricula, compulsory reading, certificates of achievement etc. for yoga schools in Europe were therefore discussed.

The renowned French Indologist Jean Varenne (1927 – 1997) was present at several Zinal meetings and also gave a Sanskrit course for the EUY.

What arose and was occasionally revised over time was the so-called ‘European Minimum Programme’, meaning a minimum requirement for yoga teacher training programmes. It was designated a ‘Minimum Programme’ because it was recognised as important that each school could set its own focus and cultivate its own style. If a school worked according to this programme, it could be recognised by the European Union of Yoga as long as it also belonged to one of its member associations. Over the decades, this (high) standard has become a permanent benchmark in European yoga. In Germany alone, there are around forty schools that teach according to this standard.

Zinal at the time of Gérard Blitz

From 1973 to 1989, the congresses in Zinal bore the signature of Gérard Blitz in every respect. He was the creative driving force, organising chairman, host at Club Méd and, finally, financier, who always stepped in with his private funds when there was a hole in the budget. He put his extensive network of contacts in the spiritual milieus of India, Japan, Tibet etc. at the service of the congress. Another feature was the combination of the congress with the Club Méd formula. The entire resort with around 600 beds was available to yoga guests. The in-house theatre hall was used for lectures, workshops were held in adjoining rooms and, of course, there were communal meals, with the entire buffet occasionally being taken to the large park on nice days.

Yoga get-together by the little river ‘Navizence’ near Zinal

Yoga practitioners in the village centre

Organisers and invitees in 1974 (from left to right): François Lorin, André van Lysebeth, Claude Peltier, Babacar Khane, Dr Lonsdorfer, Nil Hahoutoff

Year after year, the congress was fully booked. Occasionally there were up to 1,000 registrations, meaning that hundreds of interested people had to be turned away. Those who attended often described the congress as absolutely unique or colossal or used other superlatives. In fact, there was nothing comparable anywhere else in the world at the time. Here too, Gérard Blitz was a visionary pioneer ahead of his time. What ultimately also contributed to the experience was the breathtaking mountain scenery, which had already impressed him back when he was looking for a new location for a resort.

Personal impressions

In the memorable year 1989, when the last congress organised by Gérard Blitz took place, as well as in many other years, I was personally present and was able to experience the special ambiance. This is how it came about: during a stay in India, where I had got to know Sri Satchitananda Yogi, the Silent Yogi, I was told that he would occasionally be invited to Switzerland, namely by Gérard Blitz to the congress in Zinal. At that time I  knew neither Gérard Blitz nor Zinal, nor was I a member of any association. However, it was an attractive idea for me to see the Swami again in Switzerland and to deepen my practice with him.

However, it wasn’t actually that easy to get a place. I contacted an office in Geneva, where I was told that there were only 35 places for Switzerland and that these were primarily allocated to members. It should perhaps also be said that around two thirds of the audience were French, not least because Gérard Blitz, who also taught in Zinal, was very popular there and, as the founder of Club Méd, was regarded as a national figure, even though he was actually Belgian.

Eventually I was granted a place after all and so one day in August I travelled up the winding road from Sierre into the Val d’Anniviers and finally to its furthest village, Zinal. The club was already waiting at the entrance with the first quirky stimuli from its ‘Gentils Organisateurs’, in keeping with the club formula of always mildly surprising guests with the unusual in order to promote general liveliness and provide material for conversations with each other.

On the very first evening, Gérard Blitz appeared before the plenary and you could tell that he probably didn’t have long to live, as he had already gone completely bald due to chemotherapy. Mentally still completely clear, however, he spoke that evening and on other occasions about the history of the congress and introduced the speakers. You could sense that he was a personality from whom something very friendly emanated. Someone with an open heart, whom the Swami of Madras occasionally called a mahatma, and others who knew him said that he would deal with everyone, even in fleeting contacts, as if there was a long and deep friendship between them.

An event in the park of the Club Méditerranée in 1988. Sitting on the far left is Gérard Blitz, next to him is Heidi Staben, companion of his final years, and next is Raoul Lenz, who was to become his successor. At the bottom right, the swami from Madras and, standing at the microphone, his companion Sathyavati.

The congress was rich and there were big names in attendance. For example, I attended workshops with the late Indra Devi, who was widely known for her books and her clientele in the Hollywood area[4]. Swami Satchidananda, a disciple of Sivananda who had created a so-called ‘Yoga Village’ in Virginia, was also present and gave lectures. There was also a renowned Tibetan lama and the aforementioned swami from Madras. Even among the speakers without a worldwide reputation, no one I met there was disappointing. In short, it really was an extraordinarily rich, high-level  programme.

Sri Satchitananda Yogi (1910 – 2006), the Silent Yogi of Madras, was often invited to Zinal. Here he is teaching a morning practice.

Indra Devi (1899 – 2002) and Swami Satchidananda from Virginia (1914 – 2002) were guests at the 1989 congress.

One day we were assembled, and Gérard Blitz stood in front of those present and declared that the time had come for him to step down. He introduced Raoul Lenz from French-speaking Switzerland as his successor. Raoul Lenz was a lawyer by profession and had been a member of the Zinal Board of Directors since 1977.  The appointed man stood up and gave a short speech about his intentions, which I no longer remember in detail. In any case, he seemed relaxed and confident about his task, so everyone assumed that the continued existence of the EUY and the Zinal congress would be well secured after the departure of the founder.

Zinal, a small village with some well-preserved houses from earlier centuries.

The difficulty of succession and the great crisis of 1990

In fact, Gérard Blitz died shortly afterwards and the new team was left to its own devices. Before going into the events that followed, here are some general comments on the difficulties of such a transition. Similar problems were encountered at the Kaivalyadhama Institute, the Sivananda Ashram, the Eranos conferences, the Theosophical Society and other institutions after the death of a pioneer. This applies even more so to businesses, so that the saying ‘chaos follows the pioneer’ has become commonplace in organisational theory.

The reason is actually that the pioneer, due to his or her special position and probably also due to special abilities, leads an organisation by relying completely on intuition. If this happens over a long period of time, the second-level members slowly lose the ability to think for themselves and, more importantly, conflicts, especially at that second level, are not given any space and are to a certain extent contained.

It was similar with Gérard Blitz and the EUY. His word was law, not because he was a particularly authoritarian person, but because he was head and shoulders above the others.

As mentioned above, it was his creativity, his network of contacts, his social skills and his money that drove everything forward and held everything together. Added to this was his career, which stood out in the twentieth century, and inspired respect and admiration everywhere. All this should be said here to avoid giving the impression that the EUY crisis could be blamed on his successors personally. To a certain extent, the crisis was already foreseen, so it would have erupted more or less violently in any case.

Yoga by Europeans for Europeans

Managing the committees was certainly a very difficult endeavour for Raoul Lenz. A wide range of opinions was expressed, various particular interests were vigorously pursued, unpaid bills were settled, etc. With regard to the congress, a major change of direction was to be initiated and from then on no more Indian or Tibetan masters were to be invited. It was felt that the time had come for European yoga to be represented purely by Europeans. For this reason, Gérard Blitz’s unique network of contacts was not only no longer maintained, but deliberately regarded as outdated and was left behind.

The lowest common denominator was that the speakers at Zinal could in future be appointed by the member associations. A programme was thus created that was primarily made up of people who had achieved merit in the individual associations or held an important position there.

What was forgotten was that such a programme would hardly be sufficiently appealing to attract large numbers of yoga enthusiasts to the congress without big names with an international reputation. And so it came to pass: from one year to the next, the number of participants plummeted to around a hundred. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, the fact that a number of people who felt they had missed out in the competitions more or less openly boycotted the congress probably also played a role.

I remember making friends with a group of Finns in 1989. Although travelling was still very expensive back then, they said they would come to Zinal ten times a year. The following year, however, only the Finnish president made the journey. There were other countries where the situation was similar and from which only two or three visitors were present. Finally, the French, who used to flood Zinal in their hundreds, were hardly visible any more. The most stable attendance was from Switzerland and the hard core from Germany.

A financial Waterloo

All of this naturally led to a disastrous financial situation, especially as the EUY had entered into the same contracts with Club Méditerranée as in previous years, i.e. had rented the entire holiday resort including staff for a week. Even on site, it was clear that the situation with Club Méd was very tense and some time later it became known that the EUY had accumulated a mountain of debt of a quarter of a million French francs, i.e. around 100,000 Swiss francs.

Understandably, nobody wanted to take responsibility for these debts. The entire Board of Directors resigned and disappeared. Under this sword of Damocles, of course, nobody dared to take over. The risk of being taken personally by the scruff of the neck by the creditors seemed too great. So the EUY had finally reached the valley of tears and preparations were made for bankruptcy, with the aim of founding a new association that would be able to continue operating debt-free once the union had been wound up.

At the very last moment, the EUY was saved from this dishonourable scenario by the Trigano family, as the sole owners of Club Méd, who declared that they would waive all the money owed. This was out of reverence for Gérard Blitz, who had the yoga movement in general and the EUY in particular so close to his heart.

A new beginning with the tourist office

So the EUY had escaped by the skin of its teeth, but the big question was: what next? Booking the Club Méd again, that much was clear, was out of the question.[5] Various scenarios were discussed, such as moving the congress to another location or another country, or cancelling it altogether. Others said that  yoga meetings in Zinal with their history could become a brand, like the Cannes Film Festival or the Montreux Jazz Festival, and for this reason the location should definitely be retained.

In this unstable situation, where everything was once again at stake, a small group led by Jacqueline Lacour from Geneva took matters into their own hands. The congress was to remain in Zinal, but the formula was to be fundamentally changed. The municipality provided a multi-purpose hall (for the main events) and arrangements were made with the various hotels for the use of smaller rooms for the workshops and parallel events. Guests were then expected to book their own accommodation, whether in hotels, aparthotels, or chalets.

Attempts were also made to make the programme more attractive again and, of course, savings were made wherever possible from then on.[6] They no longer wanted to elect a new president and presumably nobody had the guts to stand for the office. So the fate of the programme was handed over to a four-member so-called ‘office’.[7] In this way, the congress was able to survive. Although it took practically a decade to get back to stable visitor numbers of over 200, at least  financial balance was maintained the whole time. The new concept also had its advantages in that visitors had a greater choice of accommodation and could choose the type they wanted. On the other hand, the special feeling of togetherness and the atmosphere of the early years was lost because the congress was now scattered all over the village.

Even though the 1990s were a difficult time for Zinal, interest in the EUY as an organisation was unbroken. The organisations from the founding period remained loyal and new ones joined. It was also possible to anchor the quality label of EUY recognition more and more firmly. The EUY also recognised that at a time when yoga awards are given out very lightly, it is important that an institution with a wide reach and many years of expertise maintains a high standard.

Participation of the Swiss Yoga Federation

After the project of the Swiss Yoga Association to join the EUY came to nothing in the mid-1990s, our Board of Directors decided in 2010 to move closer again and apply for membership.  At the same time, Rodolphe Milliat, who was a regular guest lecturer in Villeret, had taken on certain functions for a French association, including involvement in the organisation of the Zinal congress. He also drew on the resources of our association. This was even more the case when Roland Haag joined the organising committee in 2013, by which time SYV had become a corresponding member. This is how Ravi Ravindra came to be invited as guest of honour. At the same time, our association agreed to distribute congress flyers for the EUY among our members, which meant that we were also well represented in the audience.Now that the SYV has become a full member, this development will continue.

Concluding remarks

Having spoken at length about the crisis at the beginning of the 1990s, it is important to emphasise that the EUY succeeded in preventing its complete collapse and gradually returning to calmer waters, which is by no means a matter of course. As far as Zinal is concerned, the organisers can now rely on a stable number of  participants.

Nevertheless, this number does not seem enormous when you consider that there are currently many well-organised associations with tens of thousands of members[8]  and remember that forty years ago, when the yoga scene was at least ten times smaller, around a thousand yoga enthusiasts wanted to come to Zinal. In many ways, Zinal has now lost its uniqueness. A great deal of eventitis has taken hold on the yoga scene, in which not only associations of various colours but also a number of imaginative jack-of-all-trades are involved.  Zinal has not had any really big names on its programme since the departure of Gérard Blitz. Nevertheless, one would think that the potential could still be quite large. Not only does Zinal, as shown, have a unique history of superlatives, but it can also boast a sophisticated concept that cannot be found elsewhere and is ultimately able to offer guests the exclusive picturesque charm of a unique mountain world.