A friend who came to dinner in May of l976 introduced Gary to yoga.  Gary was 20 years old and lived in southern California at the time.  They practiced some breathing exercises and did the plow pose.  The impact of this first exposure to yoga was powerful.  He was amazed at the sensation of energy moving up and down his spine. 
     He dabbled with yoga for a couple of years on his own, simply based on what his friend had shown him and with the help of some books.    By l978 his interest in meditation led him to study Transcendental Meditation, aka "TM" which was very popular at the time.  In l980 he attended his first yoga class in Ontario, Oregon with Deborah Harry, a teacher oriented to the Iyengar tradition.  He describes his study with Debbie as being very "opening".  The idea of practicing yoga still seemed a little weird to him and the people who practiced it even weirder.  Nevertheless, he was drawn to it and continued to study with her for 3 years and developed his own personal practice at home. 
     In l983 he moved to Portland to attend Chiropractic college.  Although his yoga practice lagged, he continued to weave it into his other fitness workouts.  Even though he used it inconsistently, he still found his knowledge of yoga and meditation very helpful through school.  Gary's interest in meditation revived in l985 when he went to see Ram Dass in Portland.  During a group meditation he sensed a connectedness to spirit he had never experienced before.  He felt something change in his heart and an "opening" in his head that he feels was a kind of seventh chakra shift.  Until then his approach to hatha yoga had been strictly biomechanical and he had resisted the spiritual aspect of yoga. 
     After graduation from Chiropractic college in 1986 yoga became Gary's central fitness activity.  Iyengar's, Light on Yoga, was used daily as he entered into a period of individual study. 
     The next transformative experience of Gary's life was a trip to India in l989.  A one week visit to Poona "opened me up, turned me inside out, squeezed everything - I was never the same afterward."  He rode a residual high from that trip that lasted for months after his return home.  He felt like he came back with a new way to live, like he was part of an awakened consciousness.  And besides all that, yoga just seemed like a good thing to do!
     So, In Fall of l989 he decided to start teaching yoga in what we now call "The Yoga Loft", above his office.  14 people attended his first class.  There was hardly enough room for them all.  He was nervous yet excited about each new class.  He was a self-taught teacher so he felt like he was really going out on a limb to take this challenge on, but he did it anyway. 
    Over the years he has studied with several teachers in the Portland area, starting with Jane Santarsiere and including Holiday Johnson and Diane Wilson.   He has attended many workshops given by visiting yoga teachers and masters, Kali Ray, Victor Van Kooten and Angela Farmer, and Bob Smith, to name a few.  He has studied meditation with guidance from Robert Beatty. 
     Students have benefited from Gary's fun approach to yoga at many sites in the Portland area - Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District, Metro YMCA, St. Vincent's Hospital, Nike World Headquarters, and the Multnomah Athletic Club.  Currently he only teaches at The Yoga Loft in Scappoose from October to May.
     Gary believes that Hatha Yoga and Chiropractic share much philosophically and he often prescribes specific asanas along with manipulations and nutritional therapy.  "There is a vital Life Force that creates life as well as restores and maintains health.  My role as a Chiropractic physician and yoga instructor is to facilitate the discovery and development of that Life Force in my patients and students."