The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

by William J Broad

  4 “The beginner”: I. K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga (Wheaton, IL: Quest, 1972), p. vii.

  5 “can drop to one-half”: Stanley W. Jacob and Clarice Ashworth Francone, Structure and Function in Man, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1970), p. 390.

  6 cargo-cult science: Richard P. Feynman, “Cargo Cult Science: Some Remarks on Science, Pseudoscience, and Learning How Not to Fool Yourself,” in Richard P. Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman (Cambridge, MA: Helix Books, 2000), pp. 205–16.

  6 It showed that scientists: PubMed, www.pubmed.gov. I used “yoga” as a search term, doing so in 2006. As of 2011, the number of citations had grown to more than 1,600.

  7 able to download: N. C. Paul, A Treatise on the Yoga Philosophy (Benares, India: Recorder Press, 1851), books.google.com/books?id=CZmNNpTy7VUC.

  8 two massive books: Mel Robin, A Physiological Handbook for Teachers of Yogasana (Tucson: Fenestra Books, 2002); Mel Robin, A Handbook for Yogasana Teachers: The Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Anatomy into the Practice (Tucson: Wheatmark, 2009).

  9 cripples more than one hundred million: Anonymous, “Depression,” World Health Organization, www.who.int/mental_health/management/depres sion/definition/en.

  10 prompting them to gain weight: M. S. Chaya, A. V. Kurpad, H. R. Nagendra, et al., “The effect of long term combined yoga practice on the basal metabolic rate of healthy adults,” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 6, no. 28, published online August 31, 2006, www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/6/28.

  10 do fight pounds successfully: Nicholas Bakalar, “Yoga May Help Minimize Weight Gain in Middle Age,” New York Times, August 2, 2005, Section F, p. 7.

  10 As Carl Jung put it: C. G. Jung, “Psychological Commentary,” in W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., The Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. xlvi.

  I: Health

  13 an ugly little man: Khushwant Singh, Ranjit Singh: Maharajah of the Punjab, 1780–1839 (Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1985), pp. 23–27; Surinder Singh Johar, The Secular Maharaja: A Biography of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Delhi: Manas, 1985), pp. 20–21.

  13 wandering yogi had approached: William G. Osborne, The Court and Camp of Runjeet Sing, reprint of the 1840 edition (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 123–38; James Braid, Observations on Trance: or, Human Hibernation (London: John Churchill, 1850), pp. iii–iv, 9–17; John Martin Honigberger, Thirty-Five Years in the East (London: H. Baillière, 1852), pp. 126–31; H. P. Blavatsky, “The Sadhoo’s Burial Alive at Lahore: Important New Testimony,” The Theosophist, vol. 2, no. 5 (February 1881), pp. 94–95.

  13 “a Hindoo idol”: quoted in Braid, Observations, p. 12.

  14 “for good compensation”: Richard Garbe, “On the Voluntary Trance of Indian Fakirs,” The Monist, vol. 10, no. 4 (July 1900), p. 487; see also Osborne, The Court, pp. 170–71, and Braid, Observations, p. 20.

  14 he was presented with: Braid, Observations, p. 14.

  14 They read palms: George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis, reprint of the 1938 edition (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989), pp. 1–25, 55; John Campbell Oman, The Mystics, Ascetics, and Saints of India (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1903), pp. 168–86.

  14To obtain new members: Ibid., pp. 26–27; Singleton, Yoga Body, p. 117.

  14-15 prey on trade caravans: White, Sinister Yogis, p. 201.

  15 “miscellaneous and disreputable vagrants”: Quoted in Briggs, Gorakhnath, p. 4.

  15 “homologous to the bliss”: White, Kiss, p. xxi. For more on the topic, see Samuel, The Origins, pp. 156, 283, 328.

  15 path to the ecstatic union: Eliade, Yoga, pp. 49–50, 104, 200–273.

  15 under the pretext of spirituality: Recent scholarship tends to associate the orgies with only a few sects and sees most Tantric lineages as practicing symbolic paths to blissful union. See, for instance, White, Tantra in Practice, pp. 4–5, 15–18. A counterpoint argument is that Tantra harbors a long tradition of public sanitization meant to hide its inner teachings. See Hugh B. Urban, Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), pp. 134–64. What seems undeniable is that many Tantric texts give explicit directions on how to perform acts of group and individual sex.

  15 eloping to the mountains: Garbe, “On the Voluntary Trance,” p. 499.

  15 nadir with the Aghori: Eliade, Yoga, pp. 296–301.

  16 condemned as a threat to society: Urban, Tantra, pp. 70–72.

  16 “Press the perineum”: Brian Dana Akers, trans., The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Woodstock, NY: YogaVidya.com, 2002), p. 16.

  16 “a female partner”: Ibid., p. 72.

  16 “embraced by a passionate woman”: Ibid., p. 61.

  16 seldom refer to the origins: While popular yoga usually avoids any reference to the Tantric roots of Hatha, scholars openly acknowledge the relationship. See, for instance, Eliade, Yoga, pp. 227–36, and James Mallinson, trans., Gheranda Samhita (Woodstock, NY: YogaVidya.com, 2004), p. xiv.

  17 Hatha means violence: Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit–English Dictionary (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1999), p. 1287.

  17 a number of scholars: See, for instance, White, Kiss, p. 217; Singleton, Yoga Body, p. 27; and Joseph S. Alter, Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), p. 24.

  17 The New Age approach: A founder of modern yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, helped establish this interpretation in popular culture. See his book, Light on Yoga (NY: Schocken, 1979), p. 439. Today, it is often the sole definition cited by yoga authorities. See, for instance, Martin Kirk and Brooke Boon, Hatha Yoga Illustrated (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2006), p. 2. Interestingly, Iyengar in his introduction to Light on Yoga speaks parenthetically of Hatha meaning “force or determined effort” but in his glossary goes further to define it as “against one’s will.” See pp. 22, 520.

  17 emphasis on the miraculous: Eliade, Yoga, pp. 227–36, 274–84, 311–18. For a detailed account of yogis as sorcerers and miracle workers, see White, Sinister Yogis.

  17 scholar at Wesleyan University: William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

  17 “There was a clear tactical advantage”: Quoted in James Dao, “No Food for Thought: The Way of the Warrior,” New York Times, May 17, 2009, Section WK, p. 3. For more on the warrior yogis, see Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 39–40.

  18 “as if dead”: Akers, The Hatha, p. 111.

  18 “presumptuous to deny”: Quoted in Braid, Observations, p. 17.

  18 the birth of a new science: For a sketch, see Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 49–53.

  18 a passing reference: Elizabeth De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism (London: Continuum, 2005), pp. 136–37; Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 52–53.

  18 until I went to Calcutta: My visit extended from Sunday, June 24, to Wednesday, June 27, 2007.

  19 the last volume: Anonymous, Report of the Late General Committee of Public Instruction for 1840–41 and for 1841–42 (Calcutta: National Library, Government of India, 1842), p. 105.

  20 heard lectures on such racy topics: Anonymous, “List of Members,” Selection of Discourses Read at the Meetings of the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge (Calcutta: Bishop’s College Press, 1843), vol. 3, p. iv.

  20 his elite status: Even so, Paul hailed from the very bottom of the social hierarchy. As a military doctor, he was a “Sub-Assistant Surgeon,” a classification the colonial medical service held in low esteem. See Christian Hochmuth, “Patterns of Medical Culture in Colonial Bengal, 1835–1880,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 80, no. 1 (Spring 2006), pp. 39–72.

  20 seemed eager to show: Paul, A Treatise, pp. iv, 52, 61; see also Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1892), pp. 310, 315.

  20 s
uch things as the Aghori: Paul, A Treatise, p. 7.

  20 “abstaining from eating”: Ibid., p. iii.

  20 “has puzzled a great many”: Ibid., p. 43.

  21 It was carbon dioxide: Following the science of his day, Paul consistently referred to carbon dioxide as carbonic acid. Here, I use the more familiar term. Paul’s description was accurate because, in the environment, carbon dioxide quickly binds with water to form carbonic acid, which tends to be quite weak. Our moist breath is slightly acidic. In the atmosphere, rain and carbon dioxide mix to form what we call acid rain. Closer to home, carbonic acid is the secret ingredient that makes carbonated drinks such as soda and seltzer taste refreshingly tart.

  21 much about the basics: Starting early in the nineteenth century, scientists tracked carbon dioxide out of unwarranted dread. Buildings were made to maximize ventilation and dilute stale air. People slept with their windows open, even in winter. See Jeff Stein, “How Things Work: An Interview with Michelle Addington,” Architecture Boston, March–April 2005, pp. 44–49. The needless fear arose from misinterpretations of the experiments of Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry. In the eighteenth century, he had put small animals under glass jars until they died. The misapprehension arose that the animals had died from their own pernicious exhalations rather than lack of oxygen. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the forces of social progress united to fight the carbonic peril. The advertised dangers ranged from headaches to death. Interestingly, Paul turned this paranoia on its head, striking a blow for comprehension in an age of muddle. He showed that yogis experienced carbonic acid as a kind of elixir rather than a deadly poison.

  21 take fewer breaths: Paul, A Treatise, pp. 8–11. He identified the practice by its correct name, Kumbhaka, which in Sanskrit means “like a pot” and connotes filling or holding. For a description, see B. K. S. Iyengar, Light on Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2006), pp. 105–11.

  21 “one of the easiest methods”: Paul, A Treatise, p. 13.

  21 live in a gupha: Yogic lore venerated such caves as holy ground. In Paul’s day, sacred gupha dotted the Himalayas and other mountainous parts of India. Inevitably, as yoga grew in popularity, tourists began to seek out the caves. Today, package tours that focus on yoga and meditation often make stops at sacred gupha, after which exhausted sightseers make their way back to luxury hotels and restaurants.

  21 “a confined atmosphere”: Ibid., p. 3.

  22 drove his point home: Ibid., pp. iv, 15–26, 36, 44.

  22 let the Punjab yogi survive: Ibid., pp. 43–44.

  22 “promotes a build-up”: David A. Wharton, Life at the Limits: Organisms in Extreme Environments (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 77.

  22 began a revolution: His 1851 book languished for years. Then, in 1880, The Theosophist, the monthly journal of the Theosophical Society, published in Bombay, began serializing Paul’s book. Soon Indian presses were churning out new versions: a second edition in 1882 at Benares and in 1883 at Calcutta, a third edition in 1888 at Bombay, and a fourth edition in 1899 at Bombay. The printings spread Paul’s naturalism across India and beyond.

  23 “as miraculous evidence”: Lee Siegel, Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. 3.

  23 more than 6 percent: B. D. Tripathi, Sadhus of India: The Sociological View (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1978), pp. 120–24, 217. For other accounts of burial tricks, see Siegel, Net, pp. 168–71. For doubts about the Punjab yogi, see Singleton, Yoga Body, p. 48.

  23 two holy men from India: Richard Schmidt, Fakire und Fakirtum im Alten und Modernen Indien (Berlin: Verlag von Hermann Barsdorf, 1908), pp. 102–108; Garbe, “On the Voluntary Trance,” pp. 481–82.

  23 famous for his precise studies: Lucile E. Hoyme, “Physical Anthropology and Its Instruments: An Historical Study,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter 1953), pp. 408–30; Karl Pearson, “Craniological Notes: Professor Aurel von Török’s Attack on the Arithmetical Mean,” Bibmetrika, vol. 2, no. 3 (June 1903), pp. 339– 45.

  23 in a preliminary report: Aurel von Török, “Ueber die Yogis oder sog. Fakire in der Milleniums-Aasstellang zu Budapest,” Correspondenz-Blatt der deutschen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie and Urgeschichte, vol. 27, no. 6 (June 1896), pp. 49–50.

  24 sought to revive and modernize Hinduism: Christophe Jaffrelot, ed., Hindu Nationalism: A Reader (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), pp. 3–19. In the West, the image of Indian independence tends to focus on Gandhi and his campaign of nonviolence. But many Hindu nationalists called for violent struggle, and the political unrest resulted in a number of riots and killings. See Chetan Bhatt, Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001), pp. 78–79.

  24 symbols of all that had gone wrong: Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 4, 48, 117–18.

  24 “an embarrassing heritage”: Samuel, The Origins, p. 336.

  24 And it got one: Urban, Tantra, pp. 134–64. Scholars have identified factors beyond science that aided yoga’s modernization. For self-help methods of personal renewal, see De Michelis, A History, pp. 116–19. For physical culture, see Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 81–162. For Hindu nationalism, see Joseph S. Alter, “Yoga and Physical Education: Swami Kuvalayananda’s Nationalist Project,” Asian Medicine, vol. 3, no. 1 (2007), pp. 20–36.

  25 first major experimental investigation: Alter, Yoga, pp. 27, 30–31, 73–108.

  25 “sending out youths”: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “The Kaivalyadhama: A Review of Its Activities from October 1924 to March 1930,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 4, no. 1 (July 1930), p. 75.

  25 “He never wanted”: Interview, O. P. Tiwari, secretary, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Ashram, Lonavla, India, June 27, 2007.

  25 threw himself into the nationalist struggle: Here I follow the review of Gune’s early life as recounted by Mandhar L. Gharote and Manmath M. Gharote, Swami Kuvalayananda: A Pioneer of Scientific Yoga and Indian Physical Education (Lonavla, India: The Lonavla Yoga Institute, 1999), pp. 11–22. Early in his career, Gune took the name Swami Kuvalayananda as a literary pseudonym. Since it was not a formal monastic title, I refer to him throughout this book as Gune.

  26 a wealthy industrialist: Pratap Sheth was a rich Hindu nationalist and a whirlwind of philanthropy. In 1914, he founded the Khandesh Education Society, a private group that supported schools for Indian youth. In 1916, he founded the Indian Institute of Philosophy, which advocated yogic study. He also funded Balkrishna Shivram Moonje, one of the most militant early figures of Indian independence. To a remarkable degree, Sheth’s agenda of putting social activism over asceticism prefigured the goals that came to characterize Gune’s life as well as the reformulated yoga, making him a major if unknown figure in its rise. Pratap Sheth, sometimes written as Pratapseth, was also known as Agarwal Motilal. For a biographical sketch, see Anonymous, “Motilal Manekchand Agarwal,” in Waman P. Kabadi, ed., Indian Who’s Who 1937–38 (Bombay: Yeshanand & Co., 1937), p. 479. For wider portraits, see Gharote and Gharote, Kuvalayananda, pp. 14–15, 24, 156, 158; G. R. Malkani, A Life Sketch of Srimant Pratapseth: The Founder of the Indian Institute of Philosophy (Amalner, India: Indian Institute of Philosophy, 1952). For his funding of Moonje, see Narayan Gopal Dixit, ed., Dharmaveer Dr. B. S. Moonje Commemoration Volume: Birth Centenary Celebration, 1872–1972 (Nagpur, India: Centenary Celebration Committee, 1972), p. 74.

  26 benefactor again came to the rescue: Gharote and Gharote, Kuvalayananda, p. 24.

  26 unique for the day: A modern bibliography on the science of yoga lists Gune as the lead author on forty-eight papers—far more than any other investigator back then. See Trisha Lamb, Psychophysiological Effects of Yoga, International Association of Yoga Therapists, Prescott, Arizona, 2006), pp. 77–80.

  26 “We cannot make”: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Editorial Notes,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 3, nos. 3 and 4 (July–Octob
er 1928), second impression, 1931, p. 168.

  26 maintained a virtual taboo: The word “Tantra” appears nowhere in the pages of Yoga Mimansa during the decades in which Gune ran the journal, according to a computer search of its texts that I performed in February 2010. Nor does the word appear in Gune’s 1931 book, Swami Kuvalayananda, Popular Yoga Asanas (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1974).

  27 found that the poses: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Blood Pressure Experiments,” “A Few More Figures of Blood Pressure,” and “Yogic Poses and Blood Pressure,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 2, no. 2 (April 1926), second impression 1932, pp. 92–128.

  28 a pioneering set of measurements: Anonymous (but clearly J. G. Gune), “Determination of CO2 and O2,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 4, no. 2 (November 1930), pp. 123–57; “O2 Absorption and CO2 Elimination in Pranayama,” Yoga Mimansa, vol. 4, no. 4 (October 1933), pp. 267–89.