Search Results (17)

This narrative review synthesizes research demonstrating the multi-domain import of nasal breathing across developmental, physiological, immunological, and neuropsychological domains, with the aim of communicating its potential clinical relevance and motivating future empirical investigation. We broadly address developmental and evolutionary foundations and the pathways through which nasal breathing influences health, functioning, and subjective experience. Across these areas, evidence implicates nasal breathing in immune defense, autonomic and emotion regulation, limbic entrainment, and aspects of consciousness. Notably, many contemplative traditions—including yogic pranayama, Sufi, and Buddhist practices—have long emphasized nasal breathing for its physical and spiritual benefits, and contemporary evidence increasingly buttresses components of these traditional beliefs, with growing convergence between contemporary scientific findings and longstanding traditional observation. More broadly, the epistemic basis of the evidence supporting nasal breathing’s effects reviewed here ranges considerably, from well-controlled experimental and mechanistic work to preliminary and small-sample studies whose clinical translation remains tenuous, and specific therapeutic inferences should be made cautiously. Nonetheless, nasal breathing represents an underappreciated, low-cost, and accessible adjunctive approach with genuine clinical potential. Realizing that potential will require controlled trials attending to parameter specificity—e.g., respiratory phase, laterality, and rate—and designs that isolate nasal breathing from other aspects of contemplative practices across well-defined populations and outcomes. Full article

This article examines the theoretical and practical frameworks surrounding liminal states of consciousness—specifically lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs)—within Indian religious and philosophical traditions. Through a comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems, the article argues that these states are not merely anomalous psychological events but deliberately cultivated “architectures of liminality” designed to investigate the nature of self, consciousness, and reality. Methodologically, this article offers a comparative analysis of models and categories of liminal consciousness across Indian traditions, critically engaging relevant neurophenomenological frameworks and incorporating a small set of representative first-person exemplars. The results reveal a spectrum of interpretations: from the mind-only projection model of Buddhist dream yoga to the subtle-material interaction model of Jain karmic ontology, and from the embodied cognition framework of modern neuroscience to the disembodied consciousness theories of classical Indian systems. The study concludes that a comprehensive understanding of liminal consciousness must integrate first-person phenomenological reports with the soteriological, ritual, and metaphysical contexts that structure their interpretation, thereby challenging reductionist approaches in contemporary consciousness studies. Full article

Meditation practitioners, historically and today, sometimes report experiencing energy-like sensations in their body. While recent empirical studies have explored such experiences in the context of Buddhist and Yogic practice, no comparable research has yet examined energy-like sensations in Jewish, Christian, or Islamic traditions. We interviewed 30 practitioners and 30 teachers from Abrahamic contemplative traditions and found that energy-like somatic experiences were common within our sample. Twelve practitioners (40%) spontaneously reported having experienced at least one, and thirteen teachers (43%) described them occurring either personally or to their students and colleagues. These experiences occurred along a continuum of intensities and valences, with interpretations ranging from anticipated signs of progress to striking unexpected events. Participants drew on a variety of metaphors and frameworks to make sense of these experiences. They often blended ideas from multiple traditions and mixed concepts from spiritual and psychological explanatory models. When comparing these descriptions from our sample to those reported by Western Buddhists in earlier research, we observe notable commonalities as well as differences in the patterns of energy-like experiences across these traditions. Our findings suggest that energy-like somatic experiences emerge through a complex interaction of cultural and bodily processes, where interpretive frameworks interact with attentional and biological processes to determine the specific phenomenology and outcomes of these energetic sensations. Full article

The mental and emotional health of an athlete is crucial for their performance and well-being. Sports-related stress can significantly impair their mental health. Further, there were minimal tools available to measure Sports resilience, specifically during COVID-19 restrictions or earlier. This study reports the preliminary validation of the Sports Mind Inventory (SMI) in athletes from different geographical areas (n = 66), with the majority of participants from Mauritius, and tests the SMI in elite athletes practicing the Yoga of Immortals (YOI). YOI is a unique combination of specific yogic postures, breathing exercises, sound therapy & meditation, which has demonstrated benefit in improving measures of mental health. The exploratory factor analysis of the 24-item SMI resulted in a six-factor inventory. The confirmatory factor analysis of these six-factor SMI showed goodness-of-fit index (0.935), and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) of 0.949, showing good fit and reliability. The correlation between overall scale and individual factors showed diverse degree of positive correlations. This validated SMI was then tested to investigate whether YOI can enhance athletes’ resilience to sports-related stress. Participants were a diverse set of athletes based in Mauritius who routinely engage in a wide range of athletic activities. Participants were randomly assigned to receive four weeks of YOI or no intervention. Both groups completed the SMI questionnaire at baseline and again after four weeks. The YOI intervention significantly increased (p = 0.002) the total mean SMI scores, and underlying factors, i.e., Factor 1: Positive and Competitive sports mindset (p = 0.014), Factor 2: Social relatedness and adaptability (p = 0.008), Factor 3: Resilient mindset and self-confidence (p = 0.036), Factor 4: Sports Resilience and Emotional Responses (p = 0.001). This indicated improved sports resilience and psychological health. No improvement was observed in the control group. The correlation analysis in YOI group at week-4 showed positive correlation between overall scales and underlying construct. In conclusion, SMI showed acceptable fitness to measure sport resilience. This YOI intervention helped in improving sports-related stress and improved athletes’ resilience. Full article

This contribution is aimed at analyzing a series of life-prolonging and rejuvenating treatments (bcud len), recipes of ambrosia for immortality (bdud rtsi sman), and yogic and meditative techniques incorporated in the Man ngag bye ba ring bsrel (Ten Million of Quintessential Instructions, The Relics; henceforth Ring bsrel), a medical corpus mainly authored by Zur mkhar ba mNyam nyid rdo rje (1439–1475). The many treads of mNyam nyid rdo rje’s literary production reflect his rNying ma and bKa’ brgyud spiritual legacies: the author systematically elaborated materials drawn from the rNying ma gter ma tradition and complex medico–alchemical practices ascribed to the third Karmapa Rang byung rdo rje (1284–1339) and O rgyan pa rin chen dpal (1230–1309). The key ingredients of the recipes include saxifrage [bdud rtsi ’od ldan; Micranthes melanocentra; Saxifraga melanocentra], purple sage [lug mur; Phlomoides bracteosa], potent substances such as black aconite [bstan dug; Aconitum spicatum;], nightshade [thang phrom; Anisodus spp.; Mandragora caulescens], mercury–sulfide ashes (zla bcud; bcud rgyal), aphrodisiacs containing salamander meat [da byid, gangs sbal; Batrachuporus pinchonii], caterpillar fungus [dByar rtswa dgun ’bu; Cordyceps sinensis], and other substances endowed with hot potencies that can enhance gtum mo practices such as the dwarf rhododendron [da lis; Rhododendron spp.] and compounds containing long peer [pi pi ling; Piper longum], black pepper, [pho bar is; Piper nigrum], ginger, and so forth. The consecrated medicines and the rituals can bestow protection from any sort of diseases, diseases-carrier forces (gdon), and poisoning and lead to spiritual achievements. The analysis of these scriptural materials brings into focus the historical interrelation of diverse traditions that are represented by the heterogeneity of ideas and practices handed down through the Zur medical lineage. Full article

This article investigates the Sanskrit hymn, ´Srī Gurugītā, from a scholarly, scriptural, historical, and ethnographic standpoint. Mystical yogic concepts such as chaitanya-shabda (Consciousness–sound) and shravana samadhi (absorption through reading or listening to holy texts) are introduced in the context of Gurugītā recitation. The history of diverse lineages that practice Gurugītā recitation and several historical dimensions of svadhyaya (long-text chanting) and namasankirtana (short chants) are briefly introduced, and the works of Jeremy Morse and Antonio Rigopoulos are closely considered. This article deals with the significant elements of yogic awakening referenced within the Gurugītā text and the goal of liberation cited therein. Many scholars have researched Hinduism, Tantra, Bhakti yoga, and devotion. This article investigates musical devotion in the context of yogic communities dedicated to Gurugītā recitation with the aim of experiencing the inner Self. The democratization and dissemination of this practice have global dimensions. Full article

This article examines the efficacy of the postures, breath control techniques, and meditative states of yoga, specifically Haṭha Yoga, in promoting overall mental and physical health. It then examines whether this form of yoga could be effective in reducing morbidity or serious illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. We assess the potential efficacy of three claims made for Haṭha Yoga. They are the following: (1) breathing exercises associated with yoga may help maintain pulmonary health and protect the upper respiratory tract, the portal of entry for the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection; (2) improved immunity resulting from sustained yoga practice may help prevent COVID-19 contraction; (3) stress reduction of yoga may be effective in maintaining the mental well-being needed to combat the extra stress of living during a pandemic. Related to this claim, we examine testimony to the effect that yoga also gave people meaning and purpose in their lives during the isolating lockdown period. While exploring these beneficent advantages, we further address a serious health-related counterclaim that the community practice of yoga has the potential to create conditions that facilitate disease transmission due to heavy breathing in small, enclosed spaces. This balanced analysis introduces an interesting tension relevant to public health policy, namely that well-intended attempts to minimize indoor interaction for the sake of reducing the spread of infection may impact the effectiveness of yogic therapies and impede the freedom to practice the spiritual discipline of yoga. They may also not reduce the spread of infection enough to warrant their damaging effects on yoga practice. We suggest ways for resolving this tension and conclude with some concrete recommendations for facilitating yoga practice in future pandemics. These include (1) that public health policymakers consider programs that provide access to yoga by ensuring hospital prayer rooms appropriate in size and that, where feasible, yoga studios conduct their lessons outside in open areas; (2) that resources be devoted to providing therapeutic access to virtual yoga as a federal program, despite potential resistance to this idea of government involvement due to concerns that yoga has its origins in heterodox religious practice. Full article

The present study compared the effects on the cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic functions of the practice of an intensive yoga exercise routine called Dynamic Suryanamaskar (DSN) and a cycle ergometer test (CET) of increasing intensity. The study involved 18 middle-aged volunteers who had previously practiced DSN. The study was conducted in two series (i.e., as CET and DSN with similar intensity) until complete exhaustion. At rest (R), at the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT), and at the maximum workload (ML), the variables characterizing cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic functions were determined. In addition, the subjective intensity of both efforts was determined using the Borg test. No functional differences were observed in the cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic systems at similar CET and DSN intensities. Respondents experienced less subjective workload during DSN than during CET (p < 0.001). Since DSN intensifies the activity of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic systems to a similar degree to CET both at VAT and ML, but causes less subjective fatigue, this yogic practice can be used as a laboratory exercise test and as an effective training medium. Full article

Despite the growing research base examining the benefits and physiological mechanisms of slow-paced breathing (SPB), mindfulness (M), and their combination (as yogic breathing, SPB + M), no studies have directly compared these in a ”dismantling” framework. To address this gap, we conducted a fully remote three-armed feasibility study with wearable devices and video-based laboratory visits. Eighteen healthy participants (age 18–30 years, 12 female) were randomized to one of three 8-week interventions: slow-paced breathing (SPB, N = 5), mindfulness (M, N = 6), or yogic breathing (SPB + M, N = 7). The participants began a 24-h heart rate recording with a chest-worn device prior to the first virtual laboratory visit, consisting of a 60-min intervention-specific training with guided practice and experimental stress induction using a Stroop test. The participants were then instructed to repeat their assigned intervention practice daily with a guided audio, while concurrently recording their heart rate data and completing a detailed practice log. The feasibility was determined using the rates of overall study completion (100%), daily practice adherence (73%), and the rate of fully analyzable data from virtual laboratory visits (92%). These results demonstrate feasibility for conducting larger trial studies with a similar fully remote framework, enhancing the ecological validity and sample size that could be possible with such research designs. Full article

Christian congregations find themselves caught in a polarized cultural environment which can lead to simplified theological and spiritual constructs. Moreover, congregants are facing spiritual challenges that come from entrenched differences. The Pantañjali yogic system offers an opportunity for Reformed Christian communities to develop yoga practices that integrate breath, movement, and appropriate Biblical texts. Three practice plans are offered. The honorable appropriation of yoga by a Christian community promises not only an integrative method but also a spacious experience for the practitioner who may, in turn, participate further and influence their community of faith towards such relevant spaciousness. Full article

Yoga is an ancient Indian philosophy and way of life that is being used as a method of improving health and wellbeing. Evidence shows that yoga has several health benefits, such as managing many noncommunicable diseases, such as hypertension, and improving mental health. The popularity of yoga is growing in the UK, but it is mostly unregulated with little information available about yoga providers and their sessions and attendees. This study aimed to explore who is providing yoga; what sessions are available, where, and at what cost; and who attends these sessions in the UK and whether yoga providers were aware of health conditions in their sessions. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken among yoga providers in the UK. They were approached through four major UK yoga associations. In total, 407 yoga providers participated. Most providers were aged 45–64 years (69%), female (93%), and white (93%). The median number of group sessions and one-to-one sessions delivered per week was four and two, respectively. The most common styles were Hatha (28%), Iyengar (26%), and Vinyasa (15%). Sessions had a varying emphasis on different yogic practices, but 59% of providers allocated most time to yogic poses (asana), 18% to breathing practices (pranayama), and 12% to meditation (dhyana) and relaxation practices. Most (73%) reported that their attendees disclosed their health conditions to them, most commonly mental health issues (41%), hypertension (25%), and heart diseases (9%). This study showed that yoga sessions are widely available in the UK, often provided and practiced by women, and concentrate on yogic poses. Sessions concentrate on the asana and tend not to include many of the more holistic aspects of yoga that are practiced in South Asian countries. Yoga providers are often aware of health conditions but may benefit from training to deliver sessions suitable for specific health conditions. Full article

Yoga techniques are increasingly popular all over the world. This discipline provides benefits both in relation to particular psychological disorders, such as anxiety disorders or those related to stress, but also in relation to certain clinical frameworks that involve significant life changes of people. Some studies have shown that this practice brings relevant benefits regarding cognitive functions such as memory and attention. The aim of this study was to verify, in women over 40 years of age, whether the practice of yoga can positively affect self-esteem, anxiety control, and body image. It was also intended to verify whether the potential beneficial effects of yoga are influenced by the personality’s profile of the individual who practices it. Results demonstrated comparable data on a high level of well-being and psychophysical balance for all samples involved. These results, therefore, confirm that the constantly practiced yogic technique affects the lifestyle of the subject by promoting the learning of effective methods for physical health and well-being. Full article

Yoga is a holistic discipline originating in ancient India. Yoga has links with Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism based on a shared philosophical framework of unity with all beings and belief in ahimsa, meaning non-harming. There is debate in the international yoga community about the spiritual, ethical and health-related links between yoga and plant-based diets. This mixed methodology research investigates the beliefs about the moral status of farmed animals and attitudes towards plant-based diets of UK yoga teachers. A sequential mixed-methods design employing a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews is used. This paper focuses on the questionnaire-based phase of the research. Key results are: (i) UK yoga teachers have very progressive beliefs about the moral status of farmed animals; (ii) 29.6% of UK yoga teachers follow a plant-based diet (n = 446), which is 25-fold the proportion in the wider UK population; (iii) 73.9% desire to follow a plant-based diet; (iv) 68.6% regard plant-based diets as best aligned to their yogic practice; and (v) UK yoga teachers with more progressive beliefs about farmed animals and with more self-reported knowledge of agriculture abstain from consuming animal products to a greater extent. The far higher proportions of UK yoga teachers following vegetarian and plant-based diets, relative to the wider population, are likely based on applying yogic teachings such as the principle of ahimsa through abstaining from the consumption of animal products. Full article

This article is about sahaja-jñāna, or ‘innate intuition’, as a form of Brahmo and Vaiṣṇava epistemology—a foundational invention within the development of modern Hinduism. I examine its nineteenth-century intellectual history in Bengal in the works of the Vaiṣṇava theologian Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda (1838–1914) and trace it back to two of his contemporaries, Keshub Chandra Sen (1838–1884) and a senior leader of the Brahmo Samaj whom they both knew, Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905). This relatively understudied yet epistemologically significant term within modern Hinduism has its roots in the pre-colonial sahajiyā movements and bears a conceptual resemblance to the idea of pratibhā in ancient Indian aesthetics, philosophy, and grammar. The idea of sahaja is key among the sahajiyā Vaiṣṇavas, a so-called heterodox group that Western-educated, middle-class Bengali bhadraloks, including Bhaktivinoda, vehemently disassociated themselves from due to the social stigma attached to its sexo-yogic practices. Furthermore, I argue that Bhaktivinoda’s concept of sahaja-jñāna departs significantly from both sahajiyā and Brahmo versions of sahaja-jñāna and represents an innovation within the ambit of Vaiṣṇava Vedanta, which accepts verbal testimony (śabda or śāstra) as the only valid form of epistemology. In documenting the intellectual history of a significant idea, I contend that the bhadralok Bengali Vaiṣṇava leaders arrogate, desexualize, and Vedānticize a term as a form of experimentation during the construction of modern Hinduism. Full article

“Experience” is a category that seems to have developed new meaning in European thought after the Enlightenment when personal inwardness took on the weight of an absent God. The inner self (including, a little later, a sub- or unconscious mind) rose to prominence about 200–300 years ago, around the time of the “Counter-Enlightenment” and Romanticism, and enjoyed a rich and long life in philosophy (including Lebensphilosophie) and religious studies, but began a steep descent under fire around 1970. The critique of “essentialism” (the claim that experience is self-validating and impervious to historical and scientific explanation or challenge) was probably the main point of attack, but there were others. The Frankfurt School (Adorno, Benjamin, et al.) claimed that authentic experience was difficult or impossible in the modern capitalist era. The question of the reality of the individual self to which experience happens also threatened to undermine the concept. This paper argues that the religious experience characteristic of Sāṃkhya and Yoga, while in some ways paralleling Romanticism and Lebensphilosophies, differs from them in one essential way. Sāṃkhyan/Yogic experience is not something that happens to, or in, an individual person. It does not occur to or for oneself (in the usual sense) but rather puruṣārtha, “for the sake of [artha] an innermost consciousness/self”[puruṣa] which must be distinguished from the “solitude” of “individual men” (the recipient, for William James, of religious experience) which would be called ahaṃkāra, or “ego assertion” in the Indian perspectives. The distinction found in European Lebensphilosophie between two kinds of experience, Erlebnis (a present-focused lived moment) and Erfahrung (a constructed, time-binding thread of life, involving memory and often constituting a story) helps to understand what is happening in Sāṃkhya and Yoga. The concept closest to experience in Sāṃkhya/Yoga is named by the Sanskrit root dṛś-, “seeing,” which is a process actualized through long meditative practice and close philosophical reasoning. The Erfahrung “story” enacted in Sāṃkhya/Yoga practice is a sort of dance-drama in which psychomaterial Nature (prakṛti) reveals to her inner consciousness and possessor (puruṣa) that she “is not, has nothing of her own, and does not have the quality of being an ‘I’” (nāsmi na me nāham). This self exposure as “not I” apophatically reveals puruṣa, and lets him shine for them both, as pure consciousness. Prakṛti’s long quest for puruṣa, seeking him with the finest insight (jñāna), culminates in realization that she is not the seer in this process but the seen, and that her failure has been to assert aham (“I”) rather than realize nāham, “Not I.” Her meditation and insight have led to an experience which was always for an Other, though that was not recognized until the story’s end. Rather like McLuhan’s “the medium is the message,” the nature or structure of experience in Sāṃkhya and Yoga is also its content, what religious experience is about in these philosophies and practices. In Western terms, we have religious experience only when we recognize what (all) experience (already) is: the unfolding story of puruṣārtha. Experience deepens the more we see that it is not ours; the recognition of non-I, in fact, is what makes genuine experience possible at all. Full article