Sun Salute King, Thrive Global, August 13, 2019

Posted in Articles, Blog, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

A darling of the international body-building set, Iyer’s teaching of Sun Salute and articles on other topics showed up in the era’s “muscle cult” magazines–and his own chiseled form was acclaimed the most lovely in India.

In his day, Iyer’s worldly fame seemed likely to endure, and the more orthodox Krishnamacharya seemed headed to history’s ash-heap, but K’s deep study, practice, and teaching has proved lastingly influential, and we now know of Iyer only from a few books and blogposts–like this one.

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America’s First Yoga: The Fad of 1898, August 2019, Thrive Global

Posted in Articles, Blog, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

Sometimes it takes the kiss of a Judas to spread divinity.

Lousy Leon Landsberg did this for asana–and for us.

If he hadn’t surrendered to his lesser desires to write this overly-critical Herald piece, we might never know the historical moment when asana first hit America’s shores.

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Who Delivered Yoga to Your Door? Namaskars Magazine, June 2019

Posted in Articles, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

Lineages of Modern Yoga Part I By Eric Shaw If yoga history is just a set of teaching lineages, that family line begins with Swami Vivekananda’s teaching outside India in 1893.    From the seeds planted in his first speech in Chicago, on September 11th of that year, we can apply a generational model to […]

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Women in the Yoga Industry:  The First Flash, THRIVEGLOBAL.COM, MAY 2018

Posted in Articles, Inspiration by Eric Shaw

I work in the “yoga industry”—and—unlike most industries, except nursing, housecleaning or elementary-school teaching (among some others)—this field’s been female-dominated for decades. Of course, yoga originated in India thousands of years ago, and men managed the whole shebang there. It wasn’t until 1893 that yoga came west and fell almost wholly into women’s hands. ————————————————– […]

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The Unknown History of Mindful Science and an Exercise from the Old Days, MINDFUL SCIENCE, JUNE 2017

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

You might be surprised by this story.  It will tell you how mindfulness first came into culture.    It will also teach a century-old thought-training technique. Because our mental structure hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years–or the last 10,000!–this technique still promises to rock your world.   ——————————- Mindfulness practices have been used to […]

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How to Spend a Day at the Very Large Array, THE GALLUP JOURNEY Magazine, APRIL 2017

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  Hey! Like the surreal? Open spaces? Great big things with mind-numbing complexity? If you’re saying, “Hot dog!” you’ll dig a trip to New Mexico’s Very Large Array—a huuuge collection of 94-foot tall radio telescopes sitting on superwide flatlands 163 miles southeast of Gallup. The “VLA” is not like alot of other attractions you see […]

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Upside-down & Backwards: Viva Shoulderstand!, BAHIRANGA.COM, APRIL 2017

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Shoulderstand is a mysterious pose. Scholars make an educated guess that it’s old, old, old! It’s been with us since at least pre-modern times. ————————— By one of its Sanskrit names, Salamba Sarvangasana, we date it back just a century—1924. That year, Swami Kuvalayananda, used the term in a printed work from the Lonavla Ashram […]

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Peacock Pose: An Esoteric Assessment, BAHIRANGA.COM MARCH 2017

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

There are alot of modern poses that are shockingly complex and hard to do. We are the heirs of thousands of years of posemaking, yet  yogis still passionately pursue the “newer new,” formulating asanas that are every more complex and hard-to-do. Trusty old Mayurasana stubbornly persists in the “complex and hard-to-do” category—even though it’s been around for […]

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The Yoga Way: Parallels with the Navajos–THE GALLUP JOURNEY Magazine, JANUARY 2017

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Hot, rocky Gallup, New Mexico was my home from 1994 to 98. I taught special education at Juan de Onate Elementary School up on a hill above the town.  Later, I taught gifted kids out on the city limits–at Gallup High. The editor of this magazine, Jason Arsenault, became a best friend then, and when I left Gallup, I traveled […]

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Marilyn Monroe Did Yoga. And Here’s Every Pic of Her Doing So! BAHIRANGA.COM, DECEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Marilyn Monroe! Rarely was a woman more tragic, more beautiful, or more compelling to world culture.  Few know that her great fame was–in part–powered by yoga. Born Norma Jean Mortenson (1926 – 1962), Monroe got her flashy name from the inspiration of 20th Century Fox executive, Ben Lyon. He thought the name “sexy” and the “double-M” lucky. Though […]

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Praising the Beast: Reflections on Trump’s new D.C. Location, ELEPHANT JOURNAL – NOVEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  “We asked the captain what course of action he proposed to take toward a beast so large, so terrifying, and unpredictable. He hesitated to answer and then said judiciously:, “I think I shall praise it.’”   ~ Robert Hass, Praise   I think we should mark the Wednesday after the presidential election as New President’s […]

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Yoga’s Promise of Power Through Balance: Tree Pose, BAHIRANGA.COM, NOVEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Tree Pose; from a 7th century carving at Mahabalipuram, on India’s east coast, south of Chennai Yoga history knows many acts of balance to build inner heat and mental focus–and the most prominent one is Tree Pose–called Vrikshasana in Sanskrit. Tree Pose is like the simpler practice of holding one or both arms in the […]

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Who You Gonna Run to? Saraswati: Her Magic of Wealth and Power, YOGA INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

For awhile now, “The Goddess” has been all the rage. One of the goddesses we love to rage about is Saraswati. This has alot to do with her job description:  she is the ruler of wisdom, the arts, and music. Like her fellow gods and goddesses, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. (Always a nice accelerator to deity charisma!) […]

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Building the Bird Body: The Road into Rooster Pose, BAHIRANGA.COM SEPTEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

No doubt about it:  Rooster Pose is old. It’s first seen in one of our most dramatic early images of a yoga, near the year 1500. We see it at the pilgrimage site of Sri Sailam, about 300 miles northeast of Bangalore, India. There, carved on the north wall of the temple called Mallikarjuna, a […]

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Who’s the Goofy Elephant-headed God? ELEPHANT JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

People all over the planet know fat ‘n friendly Lord Ganesh is the God of Wealth and “Remover of Obstacles.” But few folks know the many tales we tell about him (most coming from the holy books called Puranas—from 1500 years ago). These Puranic stories are a great sea of meaning. Dive into them with me […]

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One Easy Chakra Healing Exercise, ELEPHANT JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Throughout history, people who practice yoga have delved ever-deeper into the science of the chakras.  But to us everyday yogis, those 7 energy centers–plotted along seven sites from our pelvis to crown—seem mysterious– even if we have pored over the yoga philosophy books! But there are ways to approach this aspect of subtle body anatomy that are […]

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Bhakti Backdrop: How the Ecstatic Tradition Came to Us, YOGA INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE AUGUST 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  Within the living context of modern yoga we have kirtan, with such luminaries as Deva Premal, Krishna Das, and scads of others. These folks are reviving a pre-modern revival—the Bhakti saint movement of eleventh century India. At that time, the idea of devotional worship, or bhakti, that had been percolating since the early Common Era (around the […]

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Last of the Great World Teachers, T. K. V. Desikachar is Dead at 78, YOGA INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata (TKV) Desikachar, who was trained as an engineer but became a world-renowned proponent of Yoga Therapy, died August 8th at 2:45am in Chennai, India. If there was a Mt. Rushmore of yoga, Desikachar’s face would be carved there. His moderate age at death (78) seems to deny yoga’s promise, but his three great […]

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The Web of Angles: Yoga’s Warrior Pose, BAHIRANGA.COM AUGUST 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

by Eric Shaw for bahiranga.com (figure 1) Its Source Indian artists made careful choices about how to position Indian gods and goddesses in painting and sculpture. They meditated to discover what deities looked like, finding familiar bodily positions in their visions. These arrangements became well-known “power poses,” called pratimas in the tradition. Many of these poses […]

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The Southwest, The Asian East, and a Horde of Memories, THE GALLUP JOURNEY MAGAZINE, JULY 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

After I turned 30, I drove across the Southwest with my outrageous buddy, Brian, in 1993. B’s social skills were retrograde—just as mine were. The little Mazda stationwagon that shepherded our crumbling friendship along, stuttered forward indestructibly while we quibbled over radio stations, eating arrangements or whatever else caught our fancy. We had an emotional […]

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How do we explain Kundalini’s Effect on the Outside World?
ELEPHANT JOURNAL JULY 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Human evolution is driven by kundalini and life’s natural urge to expand and awaken. For each of us, we arrive in the world with a certain degree of activation of inborn skill and capacity for perception that is reflective of our innate realization. It is the desire of life-force to evolve through us more fully […]

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Krishnamacharya’s Yoga Rahasya, SUTRA JOURNAL JULY 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

    Many students of the yoga tradition know that Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888 – 1989) is credited with being the father of modern yoga, but most remain foggy about the details of his life and even foggier about the books he wrote. It is understandable why his writings are widely unknown. His books have […]

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The History and Philosophy of Sun Salute: Our Surya Namaskar,
ELEPHANT JOURNAL JUNE 2016

Posted in Articles, Blog by Eric Shaw

The Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) is a basic movement sequence in Vinyasa yoga. It became central to our modern practice in the early 20th century; however, it is rooted further back in time than our contemporary yoga of the body. New research by Chris Tompkins discovered the series of movements in the Tantra tradition (450–1200 […]

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Hatha Yoga Ain’t no Raja Yoga, ELEPHANT JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  This article clarifies the difference between Hatha Yoga  and Raja Yoga. Today, my yoga student, Heather Haxo Phillips, wrote me:  “What is the difference between Hatha and Raja Yoga?” “. . . and which one of the two do we find in the “Bible” of yoga—the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali?” I wrote back . . . Dear Heather, You […]

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The Happiness of Industrial Yoga, ELEPHANT JOURNAL JANUARY 2016

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  We’ve all seen the ads: happy, beautiful young women in gorgeous clothes, smiling while doing killer poses. We’re selling yoga. We’re selling beauty. We’re selling happiness. We’re all selling. And selling—by definition—sells happy. Only happy. The sages of the past tell us so. So, we may imagine that modern industrial yoga doesn’t support the sale […]

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Weaving Yoga’s History and Philosophy into Contemporary Practice, YOGA CHICAGO JULY 2015

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

By Adam Grossi   Eric Shaw’s passion for the history of yoga infuses his work as a teacher and practitioner. Based in Denmark, Western Australia, Eric teaches an energetic and multidimensional practice called Prasana yoga. His Yoga Education Through Imagery lectures focus on key areas of yoga philosophy, history, and science presented in visually stimulating […]

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Yoga’s Good, True & Beautiful, ELEPHANT JOURNAL MAY 2015

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Yoga gets us out of bed in the morning because it teaches us the “Transcendentals”—the Good, The True and the Beautiful—through the body. In this formula, the poses align the body with the Beautiful, True and Good, through physical sensation—and this bodily resonance guides us toward actions that reflect these virtues. Yoga connects us to […]

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Vishnu: Secret Badass Warrior, MANTRA: YOGA + HEALTH MAGAZINE JANUARY 2015

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  Read it on Mantra’s Site, Here. Vishnu: Secret Badass Warrior, Mantra: Yoga + Health Magazine, Jan. 2015 I always thought the God, Shiva, was the cool one:  Hanging out in Burning Man grunge, playa dust all over his bod, a snake bejeweling his neck, and unshaken by the Goddess, Shakti’s, seductress dance. That said, I’m trying to […]

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Sutras, Translated, A Review of Bhavani Maki’s “The Yogi’s Roadmap,” YOGA JOURNAL MAY 2014

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Here’s a theory guaranteed to raise hackles:  modern yoga has failed to bring practitioners the peace it’s meant to provide.  . This idea serves as the premise of The Yogi’s Roadmap, Ashtanga Yoga teacher Bhavani Silvia Maki’s first book.  . Maki contends […]

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Food is the First Yoga, The Wisdom of Krishnamacharya, COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE APRIL 2014

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

READ IT AT THE COMMON GROUND SITE Food is the First Yoga The father of modern yoga, Sri Krishnamacharya—the guru of B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois—famously said, “The first yoga is food.” [i] From age 15 to 18, B. K. S. Iyengar lived and ate with Krishnamacharya.[2] When Krishnamacharya cooked, it was […]

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The Maw of the Moment & The Yoga of Family, MANTRA YOGA + HEALTH MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2014

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  The Maw of the Moment & The Yoga of Family | By Eric Shaw Read it at Mantra Yoga + Health We constantly hear: “Life is lived in the moment.” Time is infinite there. We hear, too, that yoga brings us to the moment. Holding poses and feeling their discomfort trains our attention not to jump the rails—not […]

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Don’t Fool Yourself: This is Real Yoga, MANTRA YOGA + HEALTH MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 2013

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

                  Read it at Mantra Yoga + Health Magazine Full Text:    Don’t Fool Yourself. This is Real Yoga. Know who you are. Know who you’re not   By Eric Shaw, MA.RS, MA.SE, MA.AS, E-RYT 500 . . I have spent 28 years in alternative religious communities […]

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A Tantrik Message: Sound Creates the Body, ELEPHANT JOURNAL JULY 2013

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

. A Tantrik Message: Sound Creates the Body . .   Read it at Elephant:  http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/07/a-tantrik-message-sound-creates-the-body/ In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ~ John 1:1 Kirtan is the rage, and sound healing is a hip health modality. Many of us chant Sanskrit daily in […]

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Hatha Yoga Makes You God, ELEPHANT JOURNAL JUNE 2013

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

  Published in Elephant Journal, 18 June, 2013.  Read it There. Hatha Yoga Makes You God Via Eric Shaw on Jun 18, 2013 Bodily yoga (Hatha Yoga) was meant to operate subtly; it understands the body as a fungible technological apparatus. Hatha Yoga is designed to unfold latent possibilities in the technological platform we call […]

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Review Of India: A Sacred Geography, YOGA JOURNAL OCTOBER 2012

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Sensitive New Age Guys Never Ruled, ELEPHANT JOURNAL JUNE 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Please “like” our facebook pages: Main Page Yoga / Love / Food / Wellness / Spirituality / Family / Culture / Green / Society / Work Enjoy the top 10 blogs of the week free in our e-newsletter. Via Eric Shaw on May 30, 2012 | Edit Sensitive New Age Guys Never Ruled: YOGA, PHILOSOPHY, […]

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Yoga Gives You A Freakin Hot Body (Yaaawwwwnnnn . . .), ELEPHANT JOURNAL MAY 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Read it at Elephant Journal What do you do with your body in asana? And—whatever it is—is that what you should be doing? Today, we do yoga to calm the nerves and make us look hot. That’s all good, but . . . anything else? The old school notion (and a here-now realization) is that […]

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Un Abdomen Lindo Significa Una Menta Linda Como Trbaja Pranayama, BLOG APRIL 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Martaes Flores of Belize was kind enough to translate my Elephant Journal article on Pranayama into Spanish . . . Un abdomen lindo significa una mente linda: Como trabaja Pranayama Que pasaria si los musculos abodominales controlan tu vida? Muchas personas quieren evitar una barriga prominente y desean abdominales de acero porque asi lucen fantasticos, […]

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W. Broad’s Controversial “Science Of Yoga”: A Review, ELEPHANT JOURNAL MARCH 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Join our Facebook communities: Main Page Yoga / Green / Wellness / Spirituality / Society / Food / Culture / Love / Family / Work / Adventure Get just our top 10 blogs of the week via our lovely e-newsletter. Via elephantjournal.com on Mar 18, 2012 Book Review: The Science of Yoga. ~ Eric Shaw […]

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A Beautiful Belly Means A Beautiful Mind: How Pranayama Works, ELEPHANT JOURNAL MARCH 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

A Beautiful Belly Means a Beautiful Mind: How Pranayama Works What if the muscles in your abdomen controlled your life? Many people want to avoid pot bellies and want steel abs because it looks great, but yoga suggests other reasons for a washboard stomach.  In the Gheranda Samhita, a medieval text of yoga, it calls our practice Ghata […]

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Article: What Do Sexy Temple Statues Have To Do With Yoga? COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2012

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

This article appears in February, 2012’s Common Ground magazine.  Please hit “control” and “+” at the same time to read. (You might have to do this seven times!). Or, go to:   http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/commonground/#/36/ What Do Sexy Temple Statues Have to Do with Yoga? By Eric Shaw   When the Brits began taking economic advantage of […]

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Reviews of Sadie Nardini Videos and The White Lama by Douglas Veenhof, YOGA JOURNAL AUGUST 2011

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

These Reviews were published in Yoga Journal, August, 2011.  Zoom or go to the websites of the Veenhof review here and the Nardini review here.  

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The Yogawoman Movie: A History Of Women In Yoga, BLOG FEBRUARY 2011

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

See the article on the YogaWoman Webpage Here.

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The Timeless Tradition of Naked Yoga, COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE, JANUARY 2010

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Click on the image above to read the full-size article.

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Yoga Journal Review of Stretch by Neal Pollack, YOGA JOURNAL OCTOBER 2010

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35 Moments: A Timeline of Yoga History, YOGA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2010

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Click on the image above to read the full-size article. A high-resolution copy of this timeline may be purchased here: http://shop.prasanayoga.com/shop/35-moments-an-illustrated-timeline-of-yoga-history-for-yoga-journal/   

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Lazy Man’s Levitation: Why We Say Yes to Yoga On a Rope, COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 2010

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Magana Baptiste and the Performance of Yoga, COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 2009

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

Click on the image above to read full size.

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Beautiful Belly, Beautiful Mind, COMMON GROUND MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 2009

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Have some Pop Yoga with that Cafe Au Lait?, YOGAHUB JUNE 2006

Posted in Articles by Eric Shaw

This article was published in 2006. Click here to read it on YogaHub.

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