Rama Polderman

Rama Polderman (Born March 27th 1924 Magelang, Indonesia - died April 18th 2004 The Hague, The Netherlands), was a doctor, yoga teacher and magician. He was one of the first to bring yoga to The Netherlands from Asia. Polderman started the "Stichting Yoga Nederland" (Dutch Yoga Foundation) in 1957, nowadays better known as "Stichting Yoga en Vedanta". Polderman was the son of a Dutch engineer in the city of Magelang in the province of Mid-Java in Indonesia; his mother died during the delivery. Polderman is named after the king and Hindu god Rama. Polderman's father was practised theosophy. Polderman also claimed to have been a clairvoyant since his childhood. In 1942 he started his studies in medicine on Batavia, but after the Japanese invasion that same year, he and his father were thrown in an internment camp. There he was able to further study medicine through the lessons of other interned professors in medicine and through the practices in the camp hospital. Another prisoner taught him magic and he got in touch with the Vedanta philosophy. After the liberation of Indonesia he left for The Netherlands and during this trip he stayed in Sri Lanka for three months, where a guru told him to spread the Vedanta philosophy and yoga. In The Netherlands he finalized his education in medicine and he started his practice in Bilthoven, The Netherlands in 1952. He also started working for a homoeopathic hospital in Utrecht. With his second wife, the actress and director Kitty Knappert, he started the "Centrum voor Gezondheid en Bezinning" (Center for Health and Reflection) in Baarn, The Netherlands, focusing on oriental medicine and techniques like astrology and tarot. Polderman wrote several books about Hatha yoga, 'do it yourself' books, with an extensive description of the exercises (asanas) and he also produced albums about the subject. As a magician, Polderman won a prize during the Barcelona IX World Championships of FISM in 1964.