| As if to lend weight to my contention that your | | | | screaming into English from its Japanese roots, |
| computer can, in theory, teach you anything, along | | | | advises the user to First practice forming the pose |
| comes a pair of CD-ROMs called Wellness Yoga and | | | | while watching the screen and try memorizing the |
| Shiatsu Relaxation. | | | | whole procedure.'' This, unless you have a 24-inch |
| Lithe young women demonstrate these ancient | | | | monitor or keep your monitor on the floor, is likely to be |
| Eastern techniques while mellow-voiced narrators | | | | difficult. Clearly the actual learning of the poses could |
| speak over somnambulant music, the better to relax | | | | be more readily done with a videotape. |
| you and make you all well. As if to lend weight to my | | | | On the other hand, you can hunt around in the |
| contention that your computer can, in theory, teach | | | | CD-ROM, choose from the positions you want to |
| you anything, along comes a pair of CD-ROMs called | | | | learn, and collect them into personal groups. And |
| Wellness Yoga and Shiatsu Relaxation. | | | | maybe you've got a really big monitor, and a cordless, |
| Lithe young women demonstrate these ancient | | | | long-distance mouse. |
| Eastern techniques while mellow-voiced narrators | | | | This is a nice program, well-made and instructive. My |
| speak over somnambulant music, the better to relax | | | | only complaint is that it does not emphasize clearly |
| you and make you all well. | | | | enough that unless you are as slender as the model |
| Most of us are familiar at least with the concepts of | | | | executing the poses, you are not going to be able to |
| yoga, its slow stretching exercises and its often almost | | | | do many of them -- the Crow, the Heron and the Frog, |
| unattainable physical positions. Wellness Yoga is a | | | | for instance -- correctly. On the other hand, we can all |
| nicely designed program that packages 74 asanas, or | | | | do the Corpse. |
| positions, into several packages such as the Quick and | | | | Shiatsu Relaxation, which teaches a massage |
| Easy Course, the Beauty Course and the Health | | | | technique clearly related to acupuncture, is another |
| Course. | | | | kettle of fish. |
| The program consists largely of what it calls | | | | The theory is that rubbing, kneading or poking specific |
| procedure screens, in which each position is | | | | points on the body, called acupressure points, will make |
| demonstrated in one window while described textually | | | | other parts of the body feel better. I am not prepared |
| in another. A narrator reads that same text aloud. In | | | | to argue that premise, but the entire procedure seems |
| addition to the usual tape-recorder buttons to pause, | | | | shiatsu yourself is not clear, either; the program initially |
| stop and restart the action, there is a graph that | | | | suggests you find some of your own more accessible |
| displays the approximate duration of each segment of | | | | pressure points, but they are not all available to your |
| the routine. | | | | own hands and all the demonstrations show one |
| The practical difficulties of using this CD-ROM are | | | | person ministering to another. |
| fairly obvious. The manual, dragged kicking and | | | | |