The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards (42 page)

30
practiced an eclectic style:
Norman E. Sjoman,
The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace
(New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1999), pp. 55–62. The palace referred to advertising yoga as “propaganda work,” see p. 50.

30
hired a teacher:
Ibid., pp. 50–52, 109–10; De Michelis,
A History
, pp. 195–96.

30
spent his early
life:
Fernando Pagés Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy,”
Yoga Journal
, May–June 2001, pp. 96–101, 161–68.

30
a style that drew:
Sjoman,
The Yoga Tradition
, p. 55.

30
a number of gifted students:
They include T. K. V. Desikachar, Indra Devi, B. K. S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and Srivatsa Ramaswami. See Srivatsa Ramaswami,
The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga
(New York: Marlowe & Company, 2005), pp. xiii–xvi; Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy.”

30
the maharajah asked Krishnamacharya:
B. K. S. Iyengar,
Iyengar: His Life and Work
(Porthill, ID: Timeless Books, 1987), p. 8.

30
Yoga Makaranda: T. N. Krishnamacariar,
Yoga Makaranda
(Mysore: Mysore Palace, 1935).

30
“pains in the abdomen”:
Quoted in Sjoman,
The Yoga Tradition
, p. 66.

31
sickly all his life:
B. K. S. Iyengar,
Astadala Yogamala
(New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 2006), vol. 1, pp. 15–16.

31
afterward helped facilitate:
Ibid., pp. 27–28; see also De Michelis,
A History
, pp. 197–98.

31
a knowledgeable liaison:
See Anne Cushman, “Iyengar Looks Back,”
Yoga Journal
, November–December 1997, pp. 85–91, 156–65.

32
misalignments that could restrict:
For a description, see Robin,
A Physiological Handbook
, p. 249.

32
turn the foot ninety degrees:
Iyengar,
Light on Yoga
, pp. 63–64.

33
saw Iyengar perform:
Iyengar,
Iyengar
, p. 25.

33
studied at his ashram:
Indra Devi,
Forever Young, Forever Healthy: Simplified Yoga for Modern Living
(New York: Prentice Hall, 1953), pp. 15–17.

33
“He said he had no classes”:
Ibid., p. 18.

34
experience with yogic supermen:
Paramahansa Yogananda,
Autobiography of a Yogi
(Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1994).

34
“Control over death”:
Paramahansa Yogananda,
Scientific Healing Affirmations: Theory and Practice of Concentration
(Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1998), p. 29.

34
“Yogis know how”:
Swami Yogananda,
Super Advanced Course Number 1, Lessons 1 to 12 (1930)
(Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2003), p. 8.

34
a close friendship with
Yogananda:
Swami Satyananda Giri,
A Collection of Biographies of 4 Kriya Yoga
Gurus
(New York: iUniverse, 2004), pp. 184, 187–202, 220–32, 266–67; Laurel Elizabeth Keyes,
Sundial
(Denver: Gentle Living Publications, 1981), pp. 99–105.

34
the second-in-command:
“I am powerless,” Yogananda wrote in 1925, “to tell how greatly he has helped me.” Swami Yogananda, “Swami Dhirananda,”
East West
, vol. 1, no. 1 (November–December 1925), p. 29. Dhirananda was Bagchi’s monastic name.

34
breaking his vow of celibacy:
Ron Russell, “The Devotee’s Son,”
New Times Los Angeles
, July 5, 2001.

35
a pioneer:
Anonymous, “B. K. Bagchi: Memoir,” September Meeting 1965,
Proceedings of the Board of Regents: July 26, 1963–June 23, 1965
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, n.d.), pp. 1016–17.

35
his death reported:
Anonymous, “Speaker Dies While Introducing Indian Ambassador at Dinner Here,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 8, 1952, p. 1.

35
had taken to demonstrating:
Ruiz, “Krishnamacharya’s Legacy”; Iyengar,
Iyengar
, pp. 15, 17.

35
the beat was still there:
Today, doctors call what Krishnamacharya did the Valsalva maneuver. When a person breathes deeply and holds their breath, the strain creates pressure in the chest that traps blood in the venous system and slows its flow into the heart or blocks it altogether, diminishing the heartbeat. See William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch, and Victor L. Katch,
Exercise Physiology: Nutrition, Energy, and Human Performance
, 6th ed. (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007), pp. 272–75.

35
published their findings:
M. A. Wenger, B. K. Bagchi, and B. K. Anand, “Experiments in India on ‘Voluntary’ Control of the Heart and Pulse,”
Circulation
, vol. 24 (December 1961), pp. 1319–25.

35
“It was often reported”:
Basu K. Bagchi, “Mysticism and Mist in India,”
Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry and Medicine
, vol. 16, no. 3 (1969), pp. 73–87.

36
more than five weeks:
Gharote and Gharote,
Kuvalayananda
, p. 77.

36
measured six feet long:
M. V. Bhole, P. V. Karambelkar, and S. L. Vinekar, “Underground Burial or Bhugarbha Samadhi (Part II),”
Yoga Mimansa
, vol. 10, no. 2 (October 1967), pp. 1–16.

36
an itinerant showman:
Arthur Koestler,
The Lotus and the Robot
(London: Hutchinson, 1960), pp. 116–19. Koestler here recounts an early phase of the experiment before the pit walls were tightly sealed, though the showman participated in all stages of the study.

36
Twice in 1962:
Bhole et al., “Underground Burial.” In the table, the subject, Ramandana Yogi, is referred to by the initials RN.

37
locked volunteers into the samadhi pit:
Yoga turned out to confer no advantage. The experiments showed that a person in the pit tended to breathe less oxygen. But the cause, the scientists found, was simply the body’s natural response to rising levels of carbon dioxide as exhaled air accumulated. The high levels lowered the body’s overall metabolism and thus the need for oxygen. Their observations jibed with what Paul had described a century earlier. The cooling of the body’s fires, they wrote, “is neither voluntary in nature” nor “controlled by Yogic methods.” A fervent skeptic could have hardly said it more firmly. See Bhole et al., “Underground Burial.”

37
“We’re still ready”:
Interview, Makrand Gore, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Ashram, Lonavla, India, June 28, 2007.

37
“I can drink acid”:
Iyengar,
Light on Yoga
, p. 13.

37
“relieves pain”:
Ibid., p. 100.

38
“makes healthy pure blood”:
Ibid., p. 190.

38
the possibility of placebo effects:
For how they combine with poor experimental design to produce false conclusions, see R. Barker Bausell,
Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

38
At the book’s end:
Iyengar,
Light on Yoga
, pp. 487–506.

39
“sexual retentive power”:
Ibid., p. 438.

40
investigators at the University of Pennsylvania:
Debbie L. Cohen, LeAnne T. Bloedon, Rand L. Rothman, et al., “Iyengar Yoga versus Enhanced Usual Care on Blood Pressure in Patients with Prehypertension to Stage I Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” eCAM, Oxford University Press, September 4, 2009, pp. 1–8.

40
dozens conducted everywhere:
Kim E. Innes, Cheryl Bourguignon, and Ann Gill Taylor, “Risk Indices Associated with the Insulin Resistance Syndrome, Cardiovascular Disease, and Possible Protection with Yoga: A Systematic Review,”
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
, vol. 18, no. 6 (November–December 2005), pp. 491–519.

40
“safe and cost-effective”:
Ibid., p. 492.

41
Consider a 2011 study:
Kathleen K. Zettergren, Jennifer M. Lubeski, and Jcenter1yn M. Viverito, “Effects of a Yoga Program on Postural Control, Mobility, and Gait Speed in Community-Living Older Adults: A Pilot Study,”
Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy
, vol. 34, no. 2 (April–June 2011), pp. 88–94.

41
counteract the deterioration of the disks:
Robin,
A Handbook
, pp. 279–80.

41
With normal aging:
Michel Benoist, “Natural History of the Aging Spine,”
European Spine Journal
, vol. 12, supplement 2 (2003), pp. S86–S89.

41
a study of thirty-six people:
Chin-Ming Jeng, Tzu-Chieh Cheng, Ching-Huei Kung, et al., “Yoga and Disc Degenerative Disease in Cervical and Lumbar Spine: An MR Imaging-based Case Control Study,”
European Spine Journal
, vol. 20, no. 3 (March 2011), pp. 408–13.

42
reported that the vagus:
Kevin J. Tracey, “The Inflammatory Reflex,”
Nature
, vol. 420, no. 6917 (December 19–26, 2002), pp. 853–59.

42
two hundred thousand lives:
Roni Caryn Rabin, “Awareness: Killer of 200,000 Americans, Hardly Noticed,”
New York Times
, October 4, 2010, Section D, p. 6.

42
discussed the topic:
Stacey L. Oke and Kevin J. Tracey, “The Inflammatory Reflex and the Role of Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies,” in William C. Bushell, Erin L. Olivo, and Neil D. Theise, eds.,
Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives
(New York: Blackwell for the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009), pp. 172–80.

42
ease trauma from rheumatoid arthritis:
Shirley Telles, Kalkuni V. Naveen, Vaishali Gaur, et al., “Effect of One Week of Yoga on Function and Severity in Rheumatoid Arthritis,”
BMC Research Notes
, vol. 4 (2011), p. 118.

43
reported that yogis could live:
Eliade,
Yoga
, p. 275.

43
no study that I know of:
The closest thing I could find is a paper on the effects of Transcendental Meditation. See Robert H. Schneider, Charles N. Alexander, Frank Staggers, et al., “Long-Term Effects of Stress Reduction on Mortality in Persons > 55 Years of Age with Systemic Hypertension,”
American Journal of Cardiology
, vol. 95, no. 9 (May 1, 2005), pp. 1060–64.