About Pam
Pam has been teaching breath centered yoga for over 35 years. She is an expert breath coach and a yoga educator, practicing and teaching ancient classical Himalayan pranic modalities to suit the needs of each individual.
Pam is the owner of Heights School of Yoga, where she offers private sessions, breath coaching, group classes, and mentorship, in addition to carefully curating a group of lineage-based teachers who share the space. Her focus remains on the study and application of the breath and the interconnectedness of the full human potential through art, subtle sensory perceptions and cultivating the essence of prana. Pam’s focus taps into the subtle energy body through synchronized movement to the breath, specific pranayama techniques, bandhas and meditation to harness the mind for healing and longevity.
Pam continues to study Sanskrit, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Upanishads, Samkhya, Vedanta philosophies, and many other ancient texts pertaining to all aspects of yoga. She is one of a few certified E-RYT-500 Senior teachers of the classical form of Krishnamacharya’s Vinyasa Krama yoga — a method of Astanga Yoga — which she has learned from her teacher of over 25 years, Srivatsa Ramaswami. These teachings include the detailed use and healing properties of the breath as it is applied to, asana sequencing, chanting, and meditation.
Pam also has 7 years of advanced teacher's training in anatomy and body alignment from Tias Little, founder of Prajna Yoga based in Santa Fe, NM.
For 11yrs Pam taught exclusively yoga vinyasakrama asana for His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda Giri’s kriya initiation camps, celebration retreats and on-going conscious living workshops to the Hansavedas community. Swami Vidyadhishananda initiated Pam into kriya yoga, imparting advanced pranayama techniques, herbal cleansing, surya practices, and esoteric meditations. She also studied ancient philosophies in depth. https://hansavedas.org/hansavedas/
In 2015, a dream came true when she was actually able to go to the home of the roots of her training and study pranayama, chanting and yoga asana at the Sannidhi Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai, India.
Starting 2017, Pam traveled to Kerala India where she completed Ayurvedic treatments at the 200yr old Vaidyaratnam hospital in Thrissur, Kerala India, then on to Varanasi, Allahabad and Haridwar, India for 3 weeks with 4 Giri Order monks. There, she received daily darshan and explored all aspects of pranayama, and agni homas as related to her advanced Surya kriya practices.
Starting off 2020 Pam taught Pranayama, Sarvangasana kramas, and preformed Breath the Pulse of the Universe offering at Prana Lounge in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Recently Pam contributed her thoughts at the Traditional Yoga Symposium, sponsored by the Philosophy Dialogue Series at the University of Texas, San Marcos TX, adding her understandings of the history and traditional roles of Yoga today and the future of these teachings in the US.
Pam also takes great care in mentoring one on one ardent students who have commitment and dedication, who use self restraint and have the willingness to study for a year or more exclusively with Pam. It is an honor to pass down the directives of such a lineage to the seekers of the ancient Nath traditions. More on Pam
Heights School of Yoga
Pam founded the Heights School of Yoga as a studio in 2008. She dedicates her teachings to techniques of cleansing the body, clearing the mind and sharpening the intuition; and to teaching techniques that open the practitioner to their inner pranic waves of light and healing energy. The Heights School of Yoga is dedicated to the ancient tradition of connecting teachers to students and students to teachers.
BREATH, the pulse of the universe
BREATH, the Pulse of the Universe, the creation of Pam Johnson and Lynn Birdwell, is a three-part experiential homage to the breath, beginning with a mesmerizing short film, followed by a mandala breath troupe performance and closing with a short, beautiful guided breath meditation. This multi-media presentation’s sole purpose is to bring BREATH awareness to all.
fMRI trials
Pam participated in fMRI trials used to measure varied and advanced pranayama techniques on her brain. Collected data shows: a profound change of brain perfusion and oxygenation, decreased flow to the frontal lobes of the brain, increased flow to the sensory cortex, in particular the visual cortex, and increased functional activation to areas in the insula (body awareness).
“I have known Pam Johnson for more than 25 years now. She is one of my earliest yoga students in the USA. As a senior student and originally as part-time teaching help at John Coon’s Yoga Center in Houston she studied with me during several visits- running for several weeks- to the Yoga Center, Pam Johnson studied with me, in considerable depth, the vinysaskrama method of yoga practice, which I had learnt from my Guru Sri T Krishnamacharya. She has been very diligent and an exceptional student studying the Sutras and other ancient texts with me as well. Some of her exquisite pictures doing very important asana vinyasa sequences appear in my book, “Yoga for the Three Stages of Life”. She has also helped me with skillful demonstration of many asana sequences in conferences and workshops and hosted me in her studio for several years. She has for a number of years now been teaching Vinyasakrama in her studio and also nationally.
Pam is also a museum level fine artist, specializing in large-scale black and white drawings and biomorphic sculptures. For Pam these disciplines nurtured the creation of Breath the Pulse of the Universe. As an artist she has been able to combine yoga asana sequencing, breath and artistic movements into a unique and spectacular presentation Breath the Pulse of the Universe.
I wish her well.”
“Pam, why did it take so long for me to reach out? As I said, I think about you often, and am so grateful to have had you as my teacher!!
The last couple of years have wreaked havoc on my nervous system, despite the strong tool kit I have. Felt less grounded than usual, but am feeling more myself, and more relaxed, every day. Connecting with the breath!!!
Pam, you have been doing this work for a long time. Lost momentum? You amaze me with your momentum, even if it doesn’t feel so to you after the “great shock” of Covid and its impact on small businesses like yours.
I long for the breathing time in your studio under your tutelage!
Sandy Lease
Hi Pam,
I have been thinking about you a lot lately and I hope you and Adrienne are both doing well.
I truly appreciate the gift you gave me with the vinyasa krama yoga practice. Through all my health up and downs I have maintained my practice (though some days it was just pranayama) and though I always knew it was helping me manage the discomfort I learned that it has apparently been training my body to compensate for the no longer functioning vestibular nerve that controls balance. (The doctors are amazed that I can walk without bumping into things - not to mention ride a bike and stand in tree pose.)
Anyway, all of this is to say that you and what you have taught me has and continues to have an enormous impact on my life.
We have moved to France, so if you find yourself in France or looking for a quiet mountain retreat in the French Alps, please let me know. I would love to see you.
Yours in gratitude
Melanie
Though I now have a nice practice for myself, something I’ve been searching for.. grateful for your teachings, which I remember frequently. I am a yoga beginner at 63, I am finding that my classes with Pam (in which we incorporate yoga breath work with the flow and grace of yoga movements) are unexpectedly spilling over into my daily activities. I am almost reflexively thinking about my breathing and body position as I balance going down steps and pivot into a low car. When I found myself in a long line at the store, I took a deep breath, aligned my posture and did slow focused breathing instead of having my usual impatience. Even in my housework, as I struggled with my heavy vacuum, I was doing what came “natural” to me–exhaling on the pushing motion, and it was hard work. Then I remembered Pam teaching that in Yoga, generally, I should work on the inhale (push the vacuum) and do the exhale on the more relaxing part of the motion (pull the vacuum back toward me). Vacuuming became so much easier for me, just like some of the movements Pam was teaching me that were so much less difficult when I also did my breath work correctly.
I feel that in the short time I have been learning Yoga with Pam that I am improving my balance, muscle tone, posture, strength, and flexibility. Those things are fairly easy to see and measure. (My husband even noticed!)
But I am changing in ways much more difficult to measure as well: my mood, my sense of well being, my sense of self… I can’t say where exactly all of these improvements have come from but I know Pam would say, ‘It’s in the breath.’”
“Pam Johnson is a Master Teacher, a teacher of teachers. She stands tall amongst the rare few of humble modern yoga experts carrying authentic teachings and upholding the integrity of yoga.
Free from any contradicting and confusing practices of commercial and branded yoga, Pam brings a refreshing acumen of yogic training. Schooled for over twenty years by one of Krishnamacharya’s longest standing disciple’s outside his family, Srivatsa Ramaswami and realized Himalayan Yoga adepts and vedic scholars, I feel safe that what I receive from Pam is nothing I’ll need to “unlearn” later.
Being a yoga teacher, and a student under a Himalayan Master myself, I am cautious and discrimminating about who I study with. Pam is a gem, a humble transmitter of the Himalayan Vinyasa Krama system and an artist at articulating the energetics, physical intelligence and depth of this system in an accessible way. I’ve had so many “ah-ha” moments studying with Pam. She just knows how to bring it all together without watering it down. Besides new discoveries in my own practice, I’ve learned so much from her to share with my students. Plus she knows all the nuances of the system and maintains it’s purity without convoluting anything. I have yet to find anyone like her!”
“In all my years of searching for senior Yoga teachers that can transmit the tradition, they have been extremely hard to find. Those rare souls that have the depth of knowledge, utter dedication to study, immersive practice and the gift of teaching are gems. Please check out Pam Johnson and make a trip to Houston this March, you will be transformed!”
“Over the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to study through ZOOM with Pam Johnson a long time student of Srivatsa Ramaswami.
We have started every class with mantra and kriyas, cleansing techniques, then to yogasana going through each krama (sequence) starting with the Talasana sequence which is a gem in itself then to asymmetric seated postures, and symmetrical seated postures, followed with balancing, and supine pose leading to shoulder stand, and ending with pranayama meditation and chanting.
Pam is a very knowledgeable teacher in all facets of yoga from the physical to the subtle.
There is a lot I could write about learning from her and her dedicated to preserving this great pranic tradition. I encourage all who are interested in these ancient teachings to study with her”
Namaste and Peace to all!”