Yoga community mourns loss of teacher and author
Opioid overdose the suspected cause of Michael Stone’s death on July 16
The yoga and meditation community is reeling in the wake of the death of author and teacher Michael Stone, 42, of a suspected opioid overdose in Victoria on July 16. Many fans never realized that Stone had been suffering from mental-health problems.
The yoga and meditation community in Victoria and around the world is mourning a celebrated Pender Island author and teacher who died in Victoria after a suspected opioid overdose.
His family believes Michael Stone’s July 16 death was the result of an attempt to deal with his mental-health problems. He was 42.
Stone’s death sparked vigils by meditation and yoga teachers and students around the world, including Victoria.
“It came as a shock and then immense sadness,” said Kelly Yaskiw, manager at Hemma Yoga, where Stone had taught workshops for the past year and a half. “His teachings are profound, real and very accessible — which is why so many people connect to them.”
Stone wrote numerous articles and books about yoga, Buddhism and social action, and travelled widely to teach and mentor. He had seminars scheduled for the Island, U.S., France, Sweden and U.K. in the fall and has four books set for publication.
Yaskiw said about 40 people attended a meditation and ceremony at Hemma for Stone on July 18, including longtime followers and others who heard about his work through his death.
“One of his biggest teachings was to wake up to life, the joy and the pain, and to not be on autopilot. To be present. He took practice far beyond the meditation cushion,” said Yaskiw, who said that while Stone talked about depression, many did not know to what extent he struggled.
“This has opened up a lot of dialogue about mental health in the community and how it can be invisible. How someone like Michael can give and hold so much space for others when he was suffering.”
Stone’s wife, Carina Stone, said her husband’s work will continue to touch many people.
“I wish he could know how big the love for him is,” she said from Pender Island, where the couple has lived since 2014. They have two children and another on the way. Stone also has an older child.
Stone was born and raised in Toronto, where his parents and sister live. He also has a brother in Colorado.
“I’m so grateful to have had our life together. Our family will miss him so much,” she said.
Carina and close friends told the story in a statement posted online last week of Stone’s struggles with bipolar disorder and how he died.
“We wanted to be completely open with the community and this is the closest we have to what happened,” said Carina, adding it was important to speak openly about his mental health.
“As versed as Michael was with the silence around mentalhealth issues in our culture, he feared the stigma of his diagnosis. He was on the cusp of revealing publicly how shaped he was by bipolar disorder, and how he was doing. In the silencing, he hid desires he had for relief.”
Stone was introduced to Buddhism and meditation by his uncle, who had schizophrenia and lived in an institution. At 20, he spent a year alone in the wilderness studying meditation before moving on to more formal education and practice.
Stone used yoga and meditation, as well as diet and exercise, to keep his mental health balanced. Recent struggles led him to seek medical and psychiatric help, including having a crisis plan with local health-care providers. Manic episodes in the spring led to an increase in medication.
“Now and then he would mention a wish for a safe, non-addictive prescribed natural form of opium,” the statement said. “He discussed it with his psychiatrist and Carina. He thought it might calm his overactive mind. Unbeknownst to everybody, he was growing more desperate.”
On July 13, Stone went to Victoria for the day. Carina has tried to piece together what happened. She found a call on his phone to a local addiction pharmacy and deduced that he had sought a safe, controlled drug to self-medicate, but was likely turned away without a prescription.
She found out that he got a haircut, exercised, ran household errands and at some point acquired a street drug.
When Stone didn’t return home that evening, Carina reported him missing to the RCMP. He was found around midnight Thursday in Victoria, unresponsive and without brain function upon arrival at the hospital.
Initial toxicology tests suggest opioids, including fentanyl, were in his system, she said, adding it will be five months until the official coroner’s report is ready.
In the first six months of 2017, 640 people in B.C. died from illicit drug overdoses, including 96 deaths on Vancouver Island. Fentanyl was present in more than 70 per cent of the cases. Most of the victims were men in their 30s and 40s.
Stone’s family said he was kept on life support so his organs could be donated. Within hours of the operation, his lungs and kidneys had helped to save three lives.
Vigils for Stone were held across the Island, North America and in Europe, as news spread that he was in a coma and after he died two days later. Carina said she hopes anyone in distress about Stone’s death seeks help through crisis lines or through his many colleagues who have offered guidance on his website.
Stone’s life will be celebrated at a private event on Pender Island on Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m., along with memorials held by members of the yoga and meditation community.