Yoga, Meditation & Breathwork in Los Angeles

Documented Traditions

• Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) — Paramahansa Yogananda's Kriya Yoga Lineage

  Genuineness

  This is a real, continuously operating monastic/meditation institution founded in Los Angeles specifically, not a marketing overlay — SRF still runs services, retreats, and a resident monastic order at these sites.

  Current Status

  The Lake Shrine was nearly destroyed in the January 2025 Palisades wildfire; the legacy structures survived thanks to firefighters and an on-site family, but the site has been undergoing phased reopening (meditation gardens reopened August 2025, with the Retreat, monks' quarters, and Temple targeted for completion in early-to-mid 2026). Reservations are required and slots are limited.

  Description

  Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in the U.S. in 1920 with a mission to teach yoga to people in the West and founded the Self-Realization Fellowship, establishing its international headquarters on Mount Washington in 1925, a Hollywood Temple in 1942, and the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades in 1950. The Lake Shrine sits on a spring-fed lake with a Dutch windmill converted into a chapel, a Gandhi memorial holding a portion of Gandhi's ashes, and a Court of Religions honoring five world faiths. Its resident minister describes the practice as rooted in raja yoga and meditation rather than posture-centric hatha yoga, and the site drew high-profile devotees over the decades, including George Harrison, whose funeral was held there.

• Kundalini Yoga / 3HO — Yogi Bhajan's Los Angeles Founding

  Caution

  This lineage carries serious, independently investigated misconduct allegations against its founder: Yogi Bhajan was accused of sexual abuse by dozens of former followers, and a third-party investigation (the Olive Branch Report, commissioned by 3HO itself) found the allegations most likely true. Anyone exploring Kundalini Yoga studios descended from this lineage in LA should know this history.

  Genuineness

  Confirmed as a Los Angeles-specific founding event (not just a regional Sikh/Indian tradition transplanted generically) via 3HO's own organizational history and independent historical/academic accounts.

  Description

  Yogi Bhajan (Harbhajan Singh) arrived in Los Angeles in late 1968/early 1969, gave his first U.S. public lecture at a Los Angeles high school gym in January 1969, and began teaching at the East West Cultural Center before moving classes into a student's antique-shop showroom in West Hollywood, which became the first Guru Ram Das Ashram. He incorporated the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) Foundation in California in July 1969, and taught this style of Kundalini Yoga publicly for the first time, breaking a tradition of secrecy around the practice. Los Angeles is where this specific American Kundalini Yoga movement — which later spread to hundreds of centers in dozens of countries — began.

• Bikram Yoga / Hot Yoga

  Caution

  Bikram Choudhury was the subject of multiple civil suits alleging sexual assault and discrimination, lost control of his business in a $7 million judgment, and many studios have since dropped the "Bikram" name in favor of "Hot Yoga" following a 2019 Netflix documentary about the allegations.

  Genuineness

  Well-documented as an LA-specific origin story across multiple independent sources (Wikipedia, academic religious-studies write-ups, contemporaneous reporting), distinct from any generic claim about yoga in California.

  Description

  Bikram Choudhury opened his first dedicated studio, the Yoga College of India, in Beverly Hills in 1974 (with earlier informal teaching in the LA area from 1973), developing the fixed 26-posture heated sequence there before it spread to hundreds of studios worldwide. Los Angeles is the specific origin point of the globally franchised "hot yoga" format.