The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards

by William J Broad

  184 “Just tell me”: Quoted in ibid., p. 114.

  185 Christian ascetics also evoked: For a scholarly discussion, see Chuck M. MacKnee, “Peak Sexual and Spiritual Experience: Exploring the Mystical Relationship,” Theology and Sexuality, vol. 3 (1996), pp. 97–115.

  185 kept assistants on hand: Swami Chetanananda, Ramakrishna as We Saw Him (St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990), pp. 154–55.

  186 the snake has a long history: Eliade, Yoga, p. 165.

  186 “like a snake”: Swami Nikhilánanda, trans., ed., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942), p. 830.

  186 kundalini as a “great fire”: Eliade, Yoga., pp. 246–47, 330–34.

  186 means “to heat or burn”: Leza Lowitz and Reema Datta, Sacred Sanskrit Words (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2004), p. 111.

  186 the mystic fire as divine in origin: Eliade, Yoga, pp. 49–50, 104, 200–73.

  186 vague in describing the physical basis: Scholars have found a few ancient claims about the transmutation of sexual energy amid a wealth of euphemisms and fiery metaphors. See Ibid., Yoga, pp. 246, 331.

  186 definitions include mystic energy: See Fernando Pagés Ruiz, “Too Hot to Handle? Stuart Sovatsky and Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa Discuss How to Kindle Kundalini Without Getting Burned,” Yoga Journal, March–April 2002, pp. 161–64.

  186 rejects such portrayals: Yogani, Advanced, pp. 69–70.

  186 “a flowering of orgasm”: Ibid., p. 415.

  187 a case of kundalini arousal: C. G. Jung, The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, vol. 16, The Practice of Psychotherapy, R. F. C. Hull, trans. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 330–37; see also Sonu Shamdasani, ed., The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C. G. Jung (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 104–106.

  187 warned people away: Ibid., pp. xxix–xxx.

  187 One of his sternest admonitions: For the dating of the warning to 1938, see W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., The Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. vii.

  187 “deliberately induced psychotic state”: C. G. Jung, “Psychological Commentary,” in Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book, p. xlvi.

  187 the San Francisco psychiatrist: For a biographical sketch, see Lee Sannella, On Genius: An Evolutionary Force Inherent in Every Being (West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2006), pp. 174–82; for his tie to Esalen, see Jeffrey John Kripal, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 499.

  188 told of thirteen people: Lee Sannella, The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence? (Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1992). This is a later edition and the source for page citations.

  188 devoted one sentence: Ibid., p. 7.

  188 his portrayal of the Reverend: Ibid., pp. 36–37. While Sannella’s portraits were anonymous, biographical details often gave away the identity. For the reverend’s own account, see John Scudder, “A Psychic Healer Experiences Kundalini,” in John White, ed., Kundalini: Evolution and Enlightenment (Saint Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1990), pp. 189–97.

  189 nearly one thousand cases: Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, “Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary Crises,” in Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, eds., Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New York: Putnam, 1989), p. 15.

  189 more than five hundred calls: Jeneane Prevatt and Russ Park, “The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN),” in Grof and Grof, eds., Spiritual Emergency, p. 227.

  189 some tell of terrors: See, for instance, the Swedish website “Kundalini Short Circuits—Risks & Information,” www.kundalini.se/eng.

  189 tell of heart attacks: See, for instance, Mystress Angelique Serpent, “Doctors,” www.kundalini-teacher.com/symptoms/doctors.php, and “Kundalini Awakened Through Grace: Writings by and about Rick Puravs,” www.non duality.com/puravs.htm.

  189 told of his own arousal: Bob Boyd’s website has disappeared but his autobiographical essay, “The Safety of the Heart,” can be found at www.elcollie.com/st/support.html.

  189 paints an alluring picture: Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (New York: Penguin, 2006), pp. 141–46, 158–59, 197–200.

  189 More University: For a profile, see K. L. Billingsley, “University of Sex,” Heterodoxy, vol. 2, no. 7 (March 1994), p. 1.

  189 no library and no campus: Anonymous, “California Trying to Close Worthless-Diploma Schools,” New York Times, August 31, 1994, Section B, p. 8.

  190 kept going for eleven hours: Leah Schwartz and Bob Schwartz, The One-Hour Orgasm (New York: St. Martin’s, 2006), p. 3.

  190 “I was breathing fire”: Interview, Patricia Taylor, February 25, 2010.

  190 she authored Expanded Orgasm: Patricia Taylor, Expanded Orgasm: Soar to Ecstasy at Your Lover’s Every Touch (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2002).

  190 more than one hundred papers: curriculum vitae, Barry R. Komisaruk, March 2010.

  190 an understated book: Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, and Beverly Whipple, The Science of Orgasm (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).

  191 began a new round of experimentation: Email to author, Barry Komisaruk, April 12, 2010.

  191 Komisaruk was attracted: Interview, Barry Komisaruk, Rutgers University, April 8, 2010.

  192 “It’s the least sexy thing”: Interview, Nan Wise, Rutgers University, April 3, 2010.

  192 One group she drew on: For a portrait, see Patricia Leigh Brown and Carol Pogash, “The Pleasure Principle,” New York Times, March 15, 2009, Style section, p. 8.

  VII: Muse

  195 Paul Pond wanted to know: This sketch of Pond and the founding of the Institute for Consciousness Research are based on interviews conducted in Canada with Paul Pond, Teri Degler, and Michael Bradford, all founding ICR members, August 1 and 2, 2009.

  195 published in Physical Review: Paul Pond, “Hard-Meson Calculation of Kπ Scattering,” Physical Review D, vol. 3, no. 9 (1971), pp. 2195–209.

  195 “a virtuoso of a high order”: Gopi Krishna, The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), p. 98.

  196 examined such figures as Brahms: Institute for Consciousness Research, “Research and Articles,” www.icrcanada.org/research.html.

  196 underwent his own transformation: Teri Degler, Fiery Muse: Creativity and the Spiritual Quest (Toronto: Random House, 1996), pp. 98–100.

  196 Restless ego: Paul Pond, “The Road Home,” Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, vol. 16 (January 1993), p. 41.

  196 “Before the problem”: Sigmund Freud, “Dostoevsky and Parricide,” in James Strachey and Anna Freud, eds., The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 21, The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents and Other Works (London: Hogarth Press, 1953), p. 177.

  197 turned to the discipline relatively early: C. G. Jung, Aniela Jaffé, ed., Richard and Clara Winston, trans., Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. 170–77.

  197 hailed as the genesis: Sara Corbett, “The Holy Grail of the Unconscious,” New York Times Magazine, September 20, 2009, Section MM, p. 34.

  197 “I was frequently”: Jung and Jaffé, Memories, p. 177.

  198 became a confirmed health enthusiast: William Ander Smith, The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990), p. 105.

  198 would meditate to clear his mind: William A. Smith, “Leopold Stokowski: A Re-Evaluation,” American Music, vol. 1, no. 3 (Autumn 1983), pp. 23–37.

  198 taught her yoga: Frederick Sands and Sven Broman, The Divine Garbo (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1979), pp. 188–91; Antoni Gronowicz, Garbo: Her Story (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 353.

  198 recounted how Garbo taught him: Gayelord Hauser, Gayelord Hauser’s Treasury of Secrets (New York: Fawcett World Library, 1967), p
. 198.

  198 performed hundreds of times: Hunphrey Burton, Yehudi Menuhin: A Life (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001), pp. 223–53.

  198 a courageous act of reconciliation: Ibid., pp. 282–86.

  199 he met Iyengar: Ibid., pp. 331–32; Iyengar, Iyengar, pp. 59–64.

  199 wrote a foreword of considerable grace: Yehudi Menuhin, “Foreword,” in Iyengar, Light on Yoga, pp. 11–12.

  199 told an interviewer that it can: Ganga White, “Every Breath You Take: Sting on Yoga,” Yoga Journal, November–December 1995, pp. 64–69. For more on the musician’s views about yoga, see Sting, “Foreword: The Yogi and the Shower Singer,” in Ganga White, Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2007), pp. xiii–xvi.

  199 A cottage industry has sprung up: Debra Bokur, “Spiritual Retreats: The Inside Story,” Yoga Journal, December 2003, pp. 46–48.

  200 “Yoga won’t make writing easy”: Quoted in Anonymous, “The Next Wave of Yoga Research: Creativity?” October 19, 2007, www.prleap.com/pr/98937.

  200 Novick’s book: Linda Novick, The Painting Path: Embodying Spiritual Discovery through Yoga, Brush and Color (Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths, 2007).

  200 “The students,” she recalled: Mia Olson, Musician’s Yoga (Boston: Berklee Press, 2009), p. 125.

  200 not unusual for a beginning student: Robin, A Physiological Handbook, p. 150.

  200 bursts of long-suppressed emotion: It turns out that many practices that seek to promote serenity—meditation, yoga, massage, to name a few—can spark emotional flare-ups. See Amy Eden Jollymore, “Emotional Ambush,” Natural Health, November–December 1999, pp. 87–89.

  201 examined the roots of creative reverie: Green and Green, Beyond Biofeedback, pp. 118–52, 255–56.

  202 “a quick way to calm”: Jeff Davis, The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing (Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing, 2008), p. 41.

  202 details the favorite drinks: Mark Bailey, Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2006).

  202 does the trick indirectly: Bear et al., Neuroscience, pp. 156–57, 670–71.

  203 the investigations of Roger Sperry: Stanley Finger, Minds Behind the Brain: A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 281–300. For a profile of one of Sperry’s students and his role in the discoveries, see Benedict Carey, “Michael S. Gazzaniga: Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony,” New York Times, November 1, 2011, Section D, p. 1.

  203 basic difference between the two halves: Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey (New York: Viking, 2006), pp. 27–36, 137–45.

  203 inconspicuous type of sensory activity: Faith Hickman Brynie, Brain Sense: The Science of the Senses and How We Process the World Around Us (New York: AMACOM, 2009), pp. 18–19.

  204 Jill Bolte Taylor: For a profile, see Leslie Kaufman, “A Superhighway to Bliss,” New York Times, May 25, 2008, Style section, p. 1.

  205 “I felt like a genie”: Taylor, My Stroke, p. 67.

  205 learning how to empower: Ibid., pp. 159–74.

  205 In 2001, he and his colleagues reported: Andrew B. Newberg, Abass Alavi, Michael J. Baime, et al., “The Measurement of Regional Cerebral Blood Flow During the Complex Cognitive Task of Meditation: A Preliminary SPECT Study,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, vol. 106, no. 2 (April 2001), pp. 113–22.

  205 a more detailed portrait in 2007: Andrew Newberg, Mark Waldman, Nancy Wintering, et al., “Cerebral blood flow effects in long-term meditators,” Journal of Nuclear Medicine, vol. 48, supplement 2 (2007), p. 111P.

  206 “We found greater overall activations”: Debbie L. Cohen, Nancy Wintering, Victoria Tolles, et al., “Cerebral Blood Flow Effects of Yoga Training: Preliminary Evaluation of 4 Cases,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, vol. 15, no. 1 (2009), pp. 9–14.

  206 suggests that the right hemisphere orchestrates: George J. Demakis, “Sex and the Brain,” in Richard D. McAnulty and M. Michele Burnette, eds., Sex and Sexuality, vol. 2, Sexual Function and Dysfunction (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), pp. 28–34.

  207 linked sexual excitement to the lighting: See, for instance, Jari Tiihonen, Jyrki Kuikka, Jukka Kupila, et al., “Increase in Cerebral Blood Flow of Right Prefrontal Cortex in Man During Orgasm,” Neuroscience Letters, vol. 170, no. 2 (April 11, 1994), pp. 241–43.

  207 a study of four hundred and twenty-five: Daniel Nettle and Helen Clegg, “Schizotypy, Creativity and Mating Success in Humans,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, vol. 273, no. 1586 (March 7, 2006), pp. 611–15.

  208 An astonishing case: Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (New York: Knopf, 2008), pp. 3–17.

  209 all smiles and applause: The PBS science show Nova devoted a segment to Sacks’s book and Cicoria. See “Musical Minds,” www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/musicminds/about.html.

  209 a CD of classical piano solos: Tony Cicoria, Notes from an Accidental Pianist and Composer, www.cdbaby.com/cd/drtonycicoria.

  209 an unending flow of poetry: Gopi Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), pp. 200–202, 206–13.

  209 “I had never learned German”: Ibid., p. 212.

  210 “It is, if one may say so”: Carl von Weizsäcker, “Introduction,” in Krishna, The Biological Basis, pp. 20–21.

  210 a diverse body of artwork: Adi Da up close, “Art and Photography,” www.adidaupclose.org/Art_and_Photography/index.html.

  210 His 2007 book: Adi Da Samraj (Franklin Jones), The Spectra Suites (New York: Welcome Books, 2007).

  210 a page devoted to her paintings: Jana Dixon, “Artwork,” biologyofkundal ini.com/article.php?story=Artwork.

  211 “We’re everyday people”: Interview, Dale Pond, August 1, 2009.

  212 profiled by Degler in a book: Degler, Fiery Muse, pp. 44–50, 186.

  213 Beneath the surface: Neil Bethell Sinclair, The Spirit Flies Free: The Kundalini Poems (Bayside, CA.: Life Force Books, 2008), p. 2.

  Epilogue

  215 arrived at a turning point: My approach here was year: robertmor inspired by Fishman and Saltonstall, “Authors’ Note,” Yoga for Arthritis, pp. 15–17.

  217 more than $2 trillion a year: Robert Pear, “Health Spending Exceeded Record $2 Trillion in 2006,” New York Times, January 8, 2008, Section A, p. 20.

  219 In his book: Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (New York: Morgan Road, 2005), pp. 3, 13.

  219 a new cycle of studies: For a list of yoga studies that the NIH funds, enter the search term “yoga” at its Reporter site: www.projectreporter.nih.gov/re porter.cfm.

  220 ridiculed yoga studies: Terence P. Jeffrey, “WASTE: Federal ‘Gurus’ Funding Yoga,” Human Events, July 20, 2005, www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=8165.

  220 amounted to about $7 million: Author search of the NIH Reporter site, www.projectreporter.nih.gov, October 31, 2011. I used the word yoga but—to focus on major efforts and eliminate ones in which the discipline played a minor role—limited the categories to projects in which the word appeared in project titles, project terms, and abstracts. In fiscal 2011, the result was 26 research projects that had a total funding of $6,563,721.

  222 devoted its last chapter: William J. Broad, The Orcenter1e: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi (New York: Penguin, 2006), pp. 227–50.

  Bibliography

  Sources cited multiple times appear below as well as in the Notes, whereas those cited once appear exclusively in the Notes.

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