MIT Qigong & Health Yoga Life
An Evening Of Holistic Health
"Two Arts-Two Instructors"
Qigong: Jim Roselando
Yoga: Siga Bielkus
***
When: 9/30/13 (Monday)
Time: 7:00-8:30
Cost: FREE
Showing posts with label Yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yoga. Show all posts
Monday, October 14, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
An Evening of Holistic Health at MIT: Monday 9/30
MIT Qigong & Health Yoga Life
An Evening Of Holistic Health
"Two Arts-Two Instructors"
Qigong: Jim Roselando
Yoga: Siga Bielkus
***
When: 9/30/13 (Monday)
Time: 7:00-8:30pm
Cost: FREE
Where: MIT Kresge Auditorium
Little Theater
Monday, September 23, 2013
MIT Qigong & Health Yoga Life Special Event
MIT Qigong Club Special Event!
***MIT Qigong & Health Yoga LifeAn Evening Of Holistic Health"Two Arts-Two Instructors"Qigong: Jim RoselandoYoga: Vyda Bielkus***When: 9/30/13 (Monday){ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY}Time: 7:00-8:30Cost: FREEWhere: MIT Kresge Auditorium{77 Mass Ave}"Little Theatre"Come train with two of the Boston areas most noted instructors for an evening of holistic health @ MIT. This seminar will focus on the art of health cultivation from two different systems. Chinese Qigong & India's Yoga. Both are excellent methods of promoting physical and mental well-being. Each instructor will coach the participants thru a forty minute training session leaving time at the end to meet and speak with Vyda & Jim!For More info:Harvard Business School Event:Full Moon Qigong Event Video:
Thursday, August 8, 2013
FREE Special Event! MIT Qigong & Health Yoga Life "An Evening of Holistic Health"
MIT Qigong & Health Yoga Life
An Evening Of Holistic Health
"Two Arts-Two Instructors"
Qigong: Jim Roselando
Yoga: Vyda Bielkus
***
When: 9/30/13
Time: 7:00-8:30
Cost: FREE
Where: MIT Dome "Garden"
***
Come train with two of the Boston areas most noted instructors for an evening of holistic health @ MIT. This seminar will focus on the art of health cultivation from two different systems. Chinese Qigong & India's Yoga. Both are excellent methods of promoting physical and mental well-being and we are excited to announce this event.
Train your mind, body & breathing under the Full Moon on this special night. Our last Full Moon event had "FIFTY" people attend which was the largest Qigong event ever held in Boston. We are looking to set a new attendance record for this event and spread the tools of health cultivation/awareness to the larger segment of the Boston area!
Below is a photo from our last Full Moon session:
Full Moon Qigong Event Video:
For more info:
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Yoga and Qigong: Two Streams From a Single Source
By Sat Hon,
Founder, New York Dan Tao Center, author of "Taoist Qigong for Health and Vitality." Huffington Post | August 2012
In the hunt for the common ancestor of yoga and qigong, one discovers that unlike its progenies, it existed in a form that has long vanished in the sands of time and remains buried beneath layers of foreign invasions. I know the disciplines of yoga and qigong quite well, yet nonetheless the search for their common ancestor drives me deep into ancient texts, old forgotten sutras and temple dancing figures, all of which are relics derived from this single source. Over days, months and years I continue to pursue this form -- these sacred movements and postures -- no longer found within any living tradition.
What is the origin of yoga, or more specifically of hatha yoga, the physical/mental cultivation of the spiritual path of yoga? The root of yoga is the Sanskrit word yuj, which suggests a discipline of binding -- to "yoke" one's habitual conditioning in order to liberate the practitioner from the bondage of greed, fear, obsession and indolence. The core of Indian spirituality is propelled by four dynamic concepts: karma (causality), maya (illusory existence), nirvana (liberation), and yoga (cultivation). It is at this juncture that we face a real danger of getting lost on our way down this dark, ancient, subterranean passageway of Indian culture and religion. For this exploration, it suffices to know that yoga is one of the four pillars of Indian spirituality, the concrete cultivation and practice that can lead one toward nirvana, liberation and spiritual enlightenment.
At this point, we must cross over a continent into yet another antiquity, China circa 500 AD during the Tang dynasty. A traveler would have been impressed and overwhelm by China's civilization with its great cultural refinements, the flowering of all aspects of scientific, social and economic development. One can surmise that the Buddhist mendicant monk, Bodhidharma, must have felt a sense of utter bewilderment, as he came from the relatively rural society of ancient India. Bodhidharma had a vision that he would be the one to bring Buddhism into China, the Middle Kingdom. Bodhidharma was like most well-educated upper-class Indians and he was also a prince of a small neighborhood kingdom; thus, we can deduce that he was probably educated in the four basic pillars of yoga. According to unofficial anecdotes, by virtue of his yogic accomplishment he was able to cross the Yellow River by treading on a single reed stalk. Furthermore, according to the same legend, when this Indian monk arrived at the Shaolin monastery, he was shocked by the state of decline and the weakened physical state of the monastic brotherhood as most of them fell asleep during his sermon on the transcendental heart-to-heart instantaneous enlightenment of the Ch'an Buddhist teaching. Thus, Bodhidharma decided to teach yoga to the monks in order to strengthen and develop the vitality necessary for their spiritual cultivation. Within the next century, his yoga was then absorbed and integrated into the Chinese indigenous form of physical/mental practice, qigong. Illustrated here is an example of qigong as compared to yogic asana:
Yogic asana Spinal Twist, contrasted with the qigong posture Tiger Gazing Back: Notice that in both these postures there is a common spinal twist. Hence, both have a strengthening effect upon the core muscle group of the spinal column and would improve one's core strength.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Qigong in the News: find the right kind of meditation
The right kind of meditation for you; Mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization are different ways to relax
New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.
Did you give meditation a chance and decide it's not your cup of tea? New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.
Adam Burke, director of San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies, suggests trying another method to see which one is best suited to you.
"If someone is exposed to a particular technique through the media or a health care provider, they might assume because it's popular, it's the best for everyone," he said. "But that's like saying because a pink dress or a blue sport coat is popular this year, it's going to look good on everybody. In truth, different people like different things."
Burke and colleagues recently conducted a study of college students new to meditation and their preferences among four meditation techniques -- mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization.
The participants learned all four different techniques, with 31 percent rating mantra as their preferred choice and another 31 percent choosing mindfulness. However, 22 percent said zen was their favorite, and 15 percent voted for qigong. Participants who opted for mantra and mindfulness said they thought the techniques were easier to practice, more calming, and less complex.
Partly accounting for the differences in tastes, the researchers note, is age, with older participants opting for zen, while younger participants preferred mindfulness. The results of the study appear in the July 7 issue of the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing.
Another type of mindfulness meditation known as integrative body-mind training (which focuses on breathing and posture awareness) has recently been a hot topic in the media with a new study that found that the technique can have a positive physical effect on the brain, boosting connectivity and efficiency. The study appears in the June issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Meditation shopping? While it may seem strange, it is perhaps the best approach to finding a technique that works for you, at least according to a new study from San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies.
Published on July 7 in the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, the findings reveal that by finding a form of meditation that works for you, you are less likely to quit. The result of sticking with it? Research-backed benefits of reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and help with addiction problems.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Meditation: Stretching of the Mind
Excerpt from Qi Magazine | Issue 69 | December 2003
By Michael Tse
Today many people are interested in Yoga because it is good for the body and mind, but Chinese also have stretching and meditation for the mind and body. Both India and China have a long history of health and culture, so we both understand how to develop the body and mind
Meditation is very important in health. Today we cannot shut our thinking off. To be peaceful, to be calm and not bother other people, then close the eyes, close the mouth and sitting still is the way. However, many people cannot do this. Our lives are so busy now. Ask yourself when you have time to do completely nothing at home. So we must force ourselves to do meditation in the beginning as we are not used to being still. In the beginning, sitting meditation is very good and most people will be comfortable for this. It is much easier than starting with full lotus.
Meditation is mind training. We know that when we close our eyes, we will still keep thinking a lot, but we have to force ourselves to stay there with the eyes closed. It is just like running. It is hard but we have to finish the journey. In the beginning, you might find you will move the body a lot: changing position, scratching at an itch, sometimes even wanting to go to the bathroom, but that is alright for beginners. We all go through this. Later, you will get used to it and it will be easy to go from five minutes to half an hour, from uncomfortable to be comfortable, from many thoughts to no thoughts. This is the training of meditation. Because your mind is empty, this is why you become open to receive any messages. The longer you keep this emptiness, the higher level you will reach. You will find your memory is clearer and your judgment more accurate. You will be able to listen and speak better and your vision will also be clear. In the end, you will become more wise and some people can even develop some psychic potential. I find that people who do not do meditation or find it difficult to meditate will get older quicker. Therefore, meditation is very important for longevity. Daily stretching of the mind will lead us all to live longer and more healthy lives.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Blooming of the Thousand-Petaled Lotus
From the Chronicles of Tao
By Deng Ming-Dao
One of the highest meditations that Saihung learned, the ling qiu meditation, opened the psychic centers. The body centers, situated in a straight line from the base of the body to the top of the head, had specific healing and spiritual powers. Meditation aimed at bringing the life force straight up through each of the centers of the crown. Paralleling the Indian Kundalini meditation, the Taoists opened each of the centers until, at the very top, they reached what the Hindus called Samadhi, the Buddhists called Nirvana, and the Taoists called Stillness. Saihung began to practice the attainment of that Immortal Spirit.
Each center, according to its anatomical placement, controlled and healed the adjacent body structures and organs and yielded particular psychic powers. The Grand Master continually warned Saihung that the abilities that would come to him would be gifts from gods and were not to be abused. Many ascetics, having come this far, had fallen because they had grown obsessed with the importance of their centers. Instead of reaching the spiritual, they remained fascinated with the use of their lower centers and became trapped in the abuse of their powers.
Before he meditated to awaken each center, Saihung studied the center's colors and response to invocation, and looked at at diagram of its shape. Each center was imagined as a lotus bed that could be opened by the specific sound of the invocation. Within the flower was a certain pattern of colors. While he concentrated on that pattern in meditation, Saihung produced the invocation. The blooming center lit up, and its powers began to emanate. Saihung felt whirling sensations and heat whenever the center was activated. When the meditation was complete, the center closed and became dormant again.
The first center was actually outside the body and was the source of energy. Saihung brought the life force into his body at the base of his spine. Both this center and the next one at the navel controlled life and reproduction. Meditating on them brought lightness, increased physical energy; and sexual desire. The Grand Master warned him that feelings of physical and sexual power would become so strong that he might be reluctant to go on. He said that many adepts remained at those two centers, cultivating massive strength and sexuality for all sorts of deviant purposes. When Saihung opened the centers, he found it was true. Deep sexual cravings and the realization that he could develop the power of an almost unbeatable martial artist tempted him and strained his discipline.
As soon as he opened the solar-plexus center, his ordeal ceased. He had passed into the spiritual centers. The solar plexus was a source of vitality for him and gave him increased power to heal.
The heart was compassion, skill, appreciation of beauty, and artistry. Opening it developed artistic ability and supported the arts. The Grand Master emphasized that creativity arose from this center and that people like Mist Through a Grove, an unusually talented muscian, natrually had theirs open.
The throat center, not surpinsingly, aided singing, but was also responsible for clairvoyance. Used in combination with the third eye, it interpreted the perceptions of other realties seen by that center. Often Saihung did not understand his spiritual experiences until the throat center poured forth verbal understanding.
The upper dan tian, or third eye, perceived other dimensions. The Grand Master stressed again that most people, and Saihung, had agreed to see the world only in a certain way and had called that "existence." In actuality, it was not real. Reality was the shifting of different illusions, because many dimensions coexisted. Using the third eye, Saihung could pierce through the illusory world for the meaning behind it.
Ascending the body centers symbolized the whole of Saihung's training. He had developed his body powers; learned martial arts; secured his health, longevity, and vitality; become versed in art, literature, science, and divination; and had perceived extrasensory realities and spiritual wisdom.
Now, he entered his final center. He was on the threshold of a level that was at once a culmination of many arduous years and the foundation for higher stages: the Crown Center. The Thousand-Petaled Lotus bloomed. His senses dropped away. There was no external reality, no internal reality. He felt nothing, thought nothing. He merged completely with Voidness.
Monday, January 9, 2012
New York Times: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body
This article, published in the New York Times on January 8, 2012, was adapted from "The Science of Yoga: The Risks and Rewards," by William J. Broad, to be published next month by Simon & Schuster. Broad is a senior science writer at The Times. Editor: Sheila Glaser
On a cold Saturday in early 2009, Glenn Black, a yoga teacher of nearly four decades, whose devoted clientele includes a number of celebrities and prominent gurus, was giving a master class at Sankalpah Yoga in Manhattan. Black is, in many ways, a classic yogi: he studied in Pune, India, at the institute founded by the legendary B. K. S. Iyengar, and spent years in solitude and meditation. He now lives in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and often teaches at the nearby Omega Institute, a New Age emporium spread over nearly 200 acres of woods and gardens. He is known for his rigor and his down-to-earth style. But this was not why I sought him out: Black, I'd been told, was the person to speak with if you wanted to know not about the virtues of yoga but rather about the damage it could do. Many of his regular clients came to him for bodywork or rehabilitation following yoga injuries. This was the situation I found myself in. In my 30s, I had somehow managed to rupture a disk in my lower back and found I could prevent bouts of pain with a selection of yoga postures and abdominal exercises. Then, in 2007, while doing the extended-side-angle pose, a posture hailed as a cure for many diseases, my back gave way. With it went my belief, naïve in retrospect, that yoga was a source only of healing and never harm.
At Sankalpah Yoga, the room was packed; roughly half the students were said to be teachers themselves. Black walked around the room, joking and talking. "Is this yoga?" he asked as we sweated through a pose that seemed to demand superhuman endurance. "It is if you're paying attention." His approach was almost free-form: he made us hold poses for a long time but taught no inversions and few classical postures. Throughout the class, he urged us to pay attention to the thresholds of pain. "I make it as hard as possible," he told the group. "It's up to you to make it easy on yourself." He drove his point home with a cautionary tale. In India, he recalled, a yogi came to study at Iyengar's school and threw himself into a spinal twist. Black said he watched in disbelief as three of the man's ribs gave way - pop, pop, pop.
After class, I asked Black about his approach to teaching yoga - the emphasis on holding only a few simple poses, the absence of common inversions like headstands and shoulder stands. He gave me the kind of answer you'd expect from any yoga teacher: that awareness is more important than rushing through a series of postures just to say you'd done them. But then he said something more radical. Black has come to believe that "the vast majority of people" should give up yoga altogether. It's simply too likely to cause harm.
Not just students but celebrated teachers too, Black said, injure themselves in droves because most have underlying physical weaknesses or problems that make serious injury all but inevitable. Instead of doing yoga, "they need to be doing a specific range of motions for articulation, for organ condition," he said, to strengthen weak parts of the body. "Yoga is for people in good physical condition. Or it can be used therapeutically. It's controversial to say, but it really shouldn't be used for a general class."
Black seemingly reconciles the dangers of yoga with his own teaching of it by working hard at knowing when a student "shouldn't do something - the shoulder stand, the headstand or putting any weight on the cervical vertebrae." Though he studied with Shmuel Tatz, a legendary Manhattan-based physical therapist who devised a method of massage and alignment for actors and dancers, he acknowledges that he has no formal training for determining which poses are good for a student and which may be problematic. What he does have, he says, is "a ton of experience."
"To come to New York and do a class with people who have many problems and say, 'O.K., we're going to do this sequence of poses today' - it just doesn't work." According to Black, a number of factors have converged to heighten the risk of practicing yoga. The biggest is the demographic shift in those who study it. Indian practitioners of yoga typically squatted and sat cross-legged in daily life, and yoga poses, or asanas, were an outgrowth of these postures. Now urbanites who sit in chairs all day walk into a studio a couple of times a week and strain to twist themselves into ever-more-difficult postures despite their lack of flexibility and other physical problems. Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries. But yoga's exploding popularity - the number of Americans doing yoga has risen from about 4 million in 2001 to what some estimate to be as many as 20 million in 2011 - means that there is now an abundance of studios where many teachers lack the deeper training necessary to recognize when students are headed toward injury. "Today many schools of yoga are just about pushing people," Black said. "You can't believe what's going on - teachers jumping on people, pushing and pulling and saying, 'You should be able to do this by now.' It has to do with their egos."
When yoga teachers come to him for bodywork after suffering major traumas, Black tells them, "Don't do yoga." "They look at me like I'm crazy," he goes on to say. "And I know if they continue, they won't be able to take it." I asked him about the worst injuries he'd seen. He spoke of well-known yoga teachers doing such basic poses as downward-facing dog, in which the body forms an inverted V, so strenuously that they tore Achilles tendons. "It's ego," he said. "The whole point of yoga is to get rid of ego." He said he had seen some "pretty gruesome hips." "One of the biggest teachers in America had zero movement in her hip joints," Black told me. "The sockets had become so degenerated that she had to have hip replacements." I asked if she still taught. "Oh, yeah," Black replied. "There are other yoga teachers that have such bad backs they have to lie down to teach. I'd be so embarrassed."
Among devotees, from gurus to acolytes forever carrying their rolled-up mats, yoga is described as a nearly miraculous agent of renewal and healing. They celebrate its abilities to calm, cure, energize and strengthen. And much of this appears to be true: yoga can lower your blood pressure, make chemicals that act as antidepressants, even improve your sex life. But the yoga community long remained silent about its potential to inflict blinding pain. Jagannath G. Gune, who helped revive yoga for the modern era, made no allusion to injuries in his journal Yoga Mimansa or his 1931 book "Asanas." Indra Devi avoided the issue in her 1953 best seller "Forever Young, Forever Healthy," as did B. K. S. Iyengar in his seminal "Light on Yoga," published in 1965. Reassurances about yoga's safety also make regular appearances in the how-to books of such yogis as Swami Sivananda, K. Pattabhi Jois and Bikram Choudhury. "Real yoga is as safe as mother's milk," declared Swami Gitananda, a guru who made 10 world tours and founded ashrams on several continents.
But a growing body of medical evidence supports Black's contention that, for many people, a number of commonly taught yoga poses are inherently risky. The first reports of yoga injuries appeared decades ago, published in some of the world's most respected journals - among them, Neurology, The British Medical Journal and The Journal of the American Medical Association. The problems ranged from relatively mild injuries to permanent disabilities. In one case, a male college student, after more than a year of doing yoga, decided to intensify his practice. He would sit upright on his heels in a kneeling position known as vajrasana for hours a day, chanting for world peace. Soon he was experiencing difficulty walking, running and climbing stairs.
Doctors traced the problem to an unresponsive nerve, a peripheral branch of the sciatic, which runs from the lower spine through the buttocks and down the legs. Sitting in vajrasana deprived the branch that runs below the knee of oxygen, deadening the nerve. Once the student gave up the pose, he improved rapidly. Clinicians recorded a number of similar cases and the condition even got its own name: "yoga foot drop."
More troubling reports followed. In 1972 a prominent Oxford neurophysiologist, W. Ritchie Russell, published an article in The British Medical Journal arguing that, while rare, some yoga postures threatened to cause strokes even in relatively young, healthy people. Russell found that brain injuries arose not only from direct trauma to the head but also from quick movements or excessive extensions of the neck, such as occur in whiplash - or certain yoga poses. Normally, the neck can stretch backward 75 degrees, forward 40 degrees and sideways 45 degrees, and it can rotate on its axis about 50 degrees. Yoga practitioners typically move the vertebrae much farther. An intermediate student can easily turn his or her neck 90 degrees - nearly twice the normal rotation.
Hyperflexion of the neck was encouraged by experienced practitioners. Iyengar emphasized that in cobra pose, the head should arch "as far back as possible" and insisted that in the shoulder stand, in which the chin is tucked deep in the chest, the trunk and head forming a right angle, "the body should be in one straight line, perpendicular to the floor." He called the pose, said to stimulate the thyroid, "one of the greatest boons conferred on humanity by our ancient sages."
Extreme motions of the head and neck, Russell warned, could wound the vertebral arteries, producing clots, swelling and constriction, and eventually wreak havoc in the brain. The basilar artery, which arises from the union of the two vertebral arteries and forms a wide conduit at the base of the brain, was of particular concern. It feeds such structures as the pons (which plays a role in respiration), the cerebellum (which coordinates the muscles), the occipital lobe of the outer brain (which turns eye impulses into images) and the thalamus (which relays sensory messages to the outer brain). Reductions in blood flow to the basilar artery are known to produce a variety of strokes. These rarely affect language and conscious thinking (often said to be located in the frontal cortex) but can severely damage the body's core machinery and sometimes be fatal. The majority of patients suffering such a stroke do recover most functions. But in some cases headaches, imbalance, dizziness and difficulty in making fine movements persist for years.
Russell also worried that when strokes hit yoga practitioners, doctors might fail to trace their cause. The cerebral damage, he wrote, "may be delayed, perhaps to appear during the night following, and this delay of some hours distracts attention from the earlier precipitating factor."
In 1973, a year after Russell's paper was published, Willibald Nagler, a renowned authority on spinal rehabilitation at Cornell University Medical College, published a paper on a strange case. A healthy woman of 28 suffered a stroke while doing a yoga position known as the wheel or upward bow, in which the practitioner lies on her back, then lifts her body into a semicircular arc, balancing on hands and feet. An intermediate stage often involves raising the trunk and resting the crown of the head on the floor. While balanced on her head, her neck bent far backward, the woman "suddenly felt a severe throbbing headache." She had difficulty getting up, and when helped into a standing position, was unable to walk without assistance. The woman was rushed to the hospital. She had no sensation on the right side of her body; her left arm and leg responded poorly to her commands. Her eyes kept glancing involuntarily to the left. And the left side of her face showed a contracted pupil, a drooping upper eyelid and a rising lower lid - a cluster of symptoms known as Horner's syndrome. Nagler reported that the woman also had a tendency to fall to the left.
Her doctors found that the woman's left vertebral artery, which runs between the first two cervical vertebrae, had narrowed considerably and that the arteries feeding her cerebellum had undergone severe displacement. Given the lack of advanced imaging technologies at the time, an exploratory operation was conducted to get a clearer sense of her injuries. The surgeons who opened her skull found that the left hemisphere of her cerebellum suffered a major failure of blood supply that resulted in much dead tissue and that the site was seeped in secondary hemorrhages.
The patient began an intensive program of rehabilitation. Two years later, she was able to walk, Nagler reported, "with [a] broad-based gait." But her left arm continued to wander and her left eye continued to show Horner's syndrome. Nagler concluded that such injuries appeared to be rare but served as a warning about the hazards of "forceful hyperextension of the neck." He urged caution in recommending such postures, particularly to individuals of middle age.
The experience of Nagler's patient was not an isolated incident. A few years later, a 25-year-old man was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, complaining of blurred vision, difficulty swallowing and controlling the left side of his body. Steven H. Hanus, a medical student at the time, became interested in the case and worked with the chairman of the neurology department to determine the cause (he later published the results with several colleagues). The patient had been in excellent health, practicing yoga every morning for a year and a half. His routine included spinal twists in which he rotated his head far to the left and far to the right. Then he would do a shoulder stand with his neck "maximally flexed against the bare floor," just as Iyengar had instructed, remaining in the inversion for about five minutes. A series of bruises ran down the man's lower neck, which, the team wrote in The Archives of Neurology, "resulted from repeated contact with the hard floor surface on which he did yoga exercises." These were a sign of neck trauma. Diagnostic tests revealed blockages of the left vertebral artery between the c2 and c3 vertebrae; the blood vessel there had suffered "total or nearly complete occlusion" - in other words, no blood could get through to the brain.
Two months after his attack, and after much physical therapy, the man was able to walk with a cane. But, the team reported, he "continued to have pronounced difficulty performing fine movements with his left hand." Hanus and his colleagues concluded that the young man's condition represented a new kind of danger. Healthy individuals could seriously damage their vertebral arteries, they warned, "by neck movements that exceed physiological tolerance." Yoga, they stressed, "should be considered as a possible precipitating event." In its report, the Northwestern team cited not only Nagler's account of his female patient but also Russell's early warning. Concern about yoga's safety began to ripple through the medical establishment.
These cases may seem exceedingly rare, but surveys by the Consumer Product Safety Commission showed that the number of emergency-room admissions related to yoga, after years of slow increases, was rising quickly. They went from 13 in 2000 to 20 in 2001. Then they more than doubled to 46 in 2002. These surveys rely on sampling rather than exhaustive reporting - they reveal trends rather than totals - but the spike was nonetheless statistically significant. Only a fraction of the injured visit hospital emergency rooms. Many of those suffering from less serious yoga injuries go to family doctors, chiropractors and various kinds of therapists.
Around this time, stories of yoga-induced injuries began to appear in the media. The Times reported that health professionals found that the penetrating heat of Bikram yoga, for example, could raise the risk of overstretching, muscle damage and torn cartilage. One specialist noted that ligaments - the tough bands of fiber that connect bones or cartilage at a joint - failed to regain their shape once stretched out, raising the risk of strains, sprains and dislocations.
In 2009, a New York City team based at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons published an ambitious worldwide survey of yoga teachers, therapists and doctors. The answers to the survey's central question - What were the most serious yoga-related injuries (disabling and/or of long duration) they had seen? - revealed that the largest number of injuries (231) centered on the lower back. The other main sites were, in declining order of prevalence: the shoulder (219), the knee (174) and the neck (110). Then came stroke. The respondents noted four cases in which yoga's extreme bending and contortions resulted in some degree of brain damage. The numbers weren't alarming but the acknowledgment of risk - nearly four decades after Russell first issued his warning - pointed to a decided shift in the perception of the dangers yoga posed.
In recent years, reformers in the yoga community have begun to address the issue of yoga-induced damage. In a 2003 article in Yoga Journal, Carol Krucoff - a yoga instructor and therapist who works at the Integrative Medicine center at Duke University in North Carolina - revealed her own struggles. She told of being filmed one day for national television and after being urged to do more, lifting one foot, grabbing her big toe and stretching her leg into the extended-hand-to-big-toe pose. As her leg straightened, she felt a sickening pop in her hamstring. The next day, she could barely walk. Krucoff needed physical therapy and a year of recovery before she could fully extend her leg again. The editor of Yoga Journal, Kaitlin Quistgaard, described reinjuring a torn rotator cuff in a yoga class. "I've experienced how yoga can heal," she wrote. "But I've also experienced how yoga can hurt - and I've heard the same from plenty of other yogis."
One of the most vocal reformers is Roger Cole, an Iyengar teacher with degrees in psychology from Stanford and the University of California, San Francisco. Cole has written extensively for Yoga Journal and speaks on yoga safety to the American College of Sports Medicine. In one column, Cole discussed the practice of reducing neck bending in a shoulder stand by lifting the shoulders on a stack of folded blankets and letting the head fall below it. The modification eases the angle between the head and the torso, from 90 degrees to perhaps 110 degrees. Cole ticked off the dangers of doing an unmodified shoulder stand: muscle strains, overstretched ligaments and cervical-disk injuries.
But modifications are not always the solution. Timothy McCall, a physician who is the medical editor of Yoga Journal, called the headstand too dangerous for general yoga classes. His warning was based partly on his own experience. He found that doing the headstand led to thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition that arises from the compression of nerves passing from the neck into the arms, causing tingling in his right hand as well as sporadic numbness. McCall stopped doing the pose, and his symptoms went away. Later, he noted that the inversion could produce other injuries, including degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine and retinal tears (a result of the increased eye pressure caused by the pose). "Unfortunately," McCall concluded, "the negative effects of headstand can be insidious."
Almost a year after I first met Glenn Black at his master class in Manhattan, I received an e-mail from him telling me that he had undergone spinal surgery. "It was a success," he wrote. "Recovery is slow and painful. Call if you like."
The injury, Black said, had its origins in four decades of extreme backbends and twists. He had developed spinal stenosis - a serious condition in which the openings between vertebrae begin to narrow, compressing spinal nerves and causing excruciating pain. Black said that he felt the tenderness start 20 years ago when he was coming out of such poses as the plow and the shoulder stand. Two years ago, the pain became extreme. One surgeon said that without treatment, he would eventually be unable to walk. The surgery took five hours, fusing together several lumbar vertebrae. He would eventually be fine but was under surgeon's orders to reduce strain on his lower back. His range of motion would never be the same.
Black is one of the most careful yoga practitioners I know. When I first spoke to him, he said he had never injured himself doing yoga or, as far as he knew, been responsible for harming any of his students. I asked him if his recent injury could have been congenital or related to aging. No, he said. It was yoga. "You have to get a different perspective to see if what you're doing is going to eventually be bad for you."
Black recently took that message to a conference at the Omega Institute, his feelings on the subject deepened by his recent operation. But his warnings seemed to fall on deaf ears. "I was a little more emphatic than usual," he recalled. "My message was that 'Asana is not a panacea or a cure-all. In fact, if you do it with ego or obsession, you'll end up causing problems.' A lot of people don't like to hear that."
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Qigong in the News: International Business Times
Stress and anxiety may often cause pain in your stomach, according to reports.
Here are a few suggested meditation techniques, that may relieve any pain that lasts more than a day or so.
Here are a few suggested meditation techniques, that may relieve any pain that lasts more than a day or so.
- Guided meditation. Sometimes called guided imagery or visualization, with this method of meditation you form mental images of places or situations you find relaxing.
- Mantra meditation. In this type of meditation, you silently repeat a calming word, thought or phrase to prevent distracting thoughts.
- Mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation is based on being mindful, or having an increased awareness and acceptance of living in the present moment.
- Qi gong. This practice generally combines meditation, relaxation, physical movement and breathing exercises to restore and maintain balance. Qi gong (CHEE-gung) is part of traditional Chinese medicine.
- Tai chi. This is a form of gentle Chinese martial arts. In tai chi (TIE-chee), you perform a self-paced series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner while practicing deep breathing.
- Transcendental meditation. You use a mantra, such as a word, sound or phrase repeatedly silently, to narrow your conscious awareness and eliminate all thoughts from your mind.
- Yoga. You perform a series of postures and controlled breathing exercises to promote a more flexible body and a calm mind.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Similarities.... Yoga, Taiji & Qigong
Qi Magazine - Issue 31 (1997)
By Krishna Dervi Chaudheri
Today many people seeking an alternative, healthy way of life will choose to study yoga, taiji or Qigong. All of these offer exercise to the body, mind and spirit.
Yoga does not have a martial side as does taiji, and its adherents usually practice in a particular ashram, templore or school whereas taiji and Qigong are practiced on a much wider scale socially and publicly.
In a recent Qigong seminar the teacher's first words sere "You must train with a good attitude and heart." Having studied yoga for many years before taking up Qigong, I observed that the rest of the instruction regarding time, place and manner of practice read like a classical yoga course manual. The Bhagvad Ceia says, "Yoga is not for he who starves himself. It is not for he who sleeps too much, not for he who stays awake. By moderation in eating and in resting, by regulation in waking and by concordance in sleeping and walking, yoga destroys all pain and sorrow."
It can also be said of other martial arts and Qigong as well that discipline is needed in order to experience the full benefits of practice. In taiji, regular practice will make the forms more clear and improve health. In Qigong, regular practice will increase the flow of healthy energy (Qi) and help the joints become more loose and improve overall flexibility.
In all of these disciplines we are not only training the body but the mind. As our body becomes more healthy, our mind becomes more balanced. The more we practice, the more closely we are in harmony with the universe. High level masters who have learned to control their emotions and desires and who have achieved stillness within themselves can be said to be one with the universe.
Throughout our practice, be it yoga, taiji or Qigong, we must learn to relax and keep our mind calm. Eva Wong in her book, Cultivating Stillness, says: "Sitting quietly and not moving is stillness. Craving is movement. If you are filled with desire and your senses are attached to objects, the heart is not still... If you are free from cravings, in stillness you will see the mystery within."
In one of the main classical yoga texts, The Yoga Sudra of Patanjali, it says: "Undoubtedly the mind is heedless and hard to control but it can be trained by constant practice and by freedom from desire. If man cannot control his mind he will find it difficult to attain this divine communion, but the self controlled man can attain it if he tries hard and directs his energy by the right means." Of course this is referring to the study of yoga. However, in other disciplines one begins to achieve balance of the mind through exercise and relaxation. The heart of many disciplines are the same, to train not only the body but the spirit. Through calming the fire of the body, the spirit in turn is calmed.
The great Yogi of the century, B.K.S. Iyengar, says: "Asanas (different postures of yoga practice) have been evolved over the centuries so as to exercise energy, muscle, nerve and gland in the body. They secure a fine physique which is strong and elastic without muscles bound and they keep the body free from disease. They reduce fatigue and soothe the nerves but their real importance lies in the way they train and discipline the mind."
The same is true for taiji and Qigong. One trains the body, increasing suppleness and loosening the joints which also allows the Qi to flow freely from the body, ridding the body of illness and anxiety.
We can slow develop greater appreciation of all these disciplines by deepening our knowledge. In the same way that knowledge of the acupuncture points of the body greatly enhance Qigong practice, optimum physical benefits and mind relaxation are gained from combining posture and concentration on the physic centre of yoga. Yoga uses mind concentration to stimulate and channel the flow of energy through the Chakras.
In movement we seek to balance our minds and bodies and through this balance we can then move to stillness... Be it through yoga, taiji or Qigong.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Qigong and Physiology: The Science of Healing
The Science of Healing
Article by Roger Jahnke, OMD
Much of what is described in traditional medical systems as the "balance" of forces, such as yin and yang in the Chinese system, can be associated with the dualistic components of the nervous system. In the central nervous system yin is rest and yang is action. Balance is the state between rest and action called dynamic equilibrium. This is the state that training in Tai ji and Qigong seeks to refine. In the autonomic nervous system yin may be associated with the parasympathetic and yang may be associated with the sympathetic. The balance of yin and yang is associated with homeostasis.
Because the western world view has generally had a difficult time understanding and accepting the concepts of Qi (chi), prana or vital force from the Asian systems, there has been a strong trend toward explaining the effects of yoga, qigong, acupuncture, etc through the mechanisms of the nervous system.(25,54,55) While these practices do have a definite effect upon neurological function, with consequent effects on body systems, the neurological mechanism may actually be an intermediary for a more refined and less quantifiable system of subtle energies. However, a great deal of research has been done that reveals the neurological mechanisms that may be activated in Qigong and Yoga and it is appropriate to explore them here.
There are a number of mechanisms associated with the brain, nervous system and other related systems that Qigong and Yoga/Pranayama practice enhance including:
There are a number of mechanisms associated with the brain, nervous system and other related systems that Qigong and Yoga/Pranayama practice enhance including:
- Initiation of the "relaxation response" (RR), para-sympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system or resting aspect of the basic rest activity cycle (BRAC).
- Shift of the neurotransmitter profile.
- Dilation of blood capallaries initiating increased microcirculation in the periphery, brain and organs.
- Supports the brain/neurological aspects of immune function.
- Balance right/left brain hemisphere dominance.
- Induction of alpha, and sometimes theta wave forms in EEG.
- Affecting neuroreflex mechanisms through the stimulation of acupuncture response points.
- Generating an affect on the function of the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, third ventricle complex within the brain.
1. Initiation of the relaxation response
When the predominance of autonomic nervous system activity is sympathetic the human system is working, expending energy and breaking down tissue. This is associated with the action phase of metabolism, and referred to as catabolic. This is associated, in its extreme, with the "fight or flight response" with increased heart rate, breath rate and blood pressure. It is also called the stress state and has been associated with adrenal exhaustion and collapse (56).
This state, when overactive and not balanced to homeostasis by ample parasympathetic activity, contributes to the production of positively charged hydrogen ions. As mentioned in an earlier section on free radicals these hydrogen ions bind with oxygen. This can cause a net oxygen deficit and a general acidic pH in the internal environment. Biological stress is conducive to the proliferation of a number of diseases or syndromes including hypertension, pain, depression, immune deficiency and inflammation.(57)
The opposite aspect of autonomic activity, parasympathetic, is a phase of rest and tissue regeneration. It is associated with the conservative phase of metabolism, anabolic. In its extreme this state is associated with the "relaxation response" (RR)(57), characterized by decreased heart and breath rate and a lowering of blood pressure. This is also associated with the resting phase of the basic resting activity cycle (BRAC).(58) Conscious deactivation of the sympathetic function with the activation of certain parasympathetic features of autonomic activity can neutralize the negative effects of "fight or flight" overactivity. The primary steps to initiate this state are deep, slow breathing coupled with the intention to relax.(57) These are the identical initiating steps for the practice of Qigong and Yoga. The literature alludes liberally to traditional Asian health maintenance practices as the historic source of techniques for generating the relaxation response(RR) and the typical biofeedback response(3).
With the addition of gentle movement and stretching, extra oxygen is demanded from the blood, which may help to reduce the presence of hydrogen ions and initiate a swing toward a more anabolic level of activity. This may help to produce a less acidic internal environment and a net greater availability of free oxygen with increased energy productivity and tissue regeneration.
Controlled, deep, slow breathing accompanied with the intention to relax initiates the RR and the resting phase of the BRAC, which are para-sympathetic/anabolic/alkaline responses, generally recognized as healing and regenerative. Increased oxygen to hydrogen ion ratio is also recognized as conducive to healing and regeneration.
2. Neurotransmitter profile
Much of the new science of psychoneuroimmunology is founded upon findings in the area of neuro-hormones, neuropeptides or neuro-transmitters. It has already been mentioned that neurotransmitter receptor sites have been found on lymphocytes. A particular profile of neurotransmitters is present in a person who is experiencing pain, anxiety or depression. (59) In contrast joy, comfort or celebration produce unique neurotransmitter profiles as well. (60)
In hypertension, pain and inflamation, which which have been associated with the hyperactivity of the sympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system, a number of specific neurotransmitters are present in the blood. In patients suffering from pain increased norepinephrine, reduced cholinesterase and depressed beta endorphine were found to be typical.(59)
When methods are employed that regulate the sympathetic function through the hypothalamus a neurotransmitter profile characterized by decreased norepinephrine, elevated cholinesterase and elevated beta endorphine emerge.(59) The neurotransmitter profile present in the parasympathetic and usually more anabolic (alkaline) environment is recognized as able to reduce pain and depression(59), reduce cravings for addictive substances(61) and promote healing. Chinese research has quantified neurotransmitter activity specific to Qigong exercise. It was found that the Qigong effect is associated with specific shifts in the monoamine neurotransmitter content of the blood.(62) 5HT and 5HE generally tend to be decreased by Qigong practice. Noradrenaline and dopamine tend to increase. The aspects of Qigong and Yoga that quiet the mind and relax the body induce a neurotransmitter profile that is conducive to healing.
3. Increased microcirculation
A classic body response in Qigong and Yoga is the elevation of skin temperature. In the fight or flight state, hyper-sympathetic, the arterioles in the skin, muscles and certain organs constrict. During the systematic deactivation of sympathetic function, typical in Qigong and Yoga/Pranayama, vasodilation occurs with the accompanying warmth of the surface of the skin. This is one of the primary goals in biofeedback training and was found as a typical response when the skin temperature of meditators was evaluated in research.(3) A number of studies from China explore the microcirculatory mechanism very thoroughly and conclude that this mechanism is a major reason for the continued successful application of such an ancient health maintenance method. (63,64,65,66,67,68)
In traditional chinese medicine it is said "the blood is the sister of the Qi". (28,29) Because Qi and blood are in a direct relationship the inhibition of the circulation of one tends to inhibit the circulation of the other. In addition, the theory suggests that when the blood is optimally circulating in a part of the body that the Qi or vitality is circulating there as well. If the Qi is a bio-electrical, electromagnetic or subtle energy aspect of the human being, the presence of increased blood circulation and its accompanying heat may also signify the presence of increased electromagnetic or other subtle energy potential. This may be a key to explain how Qigong practitioners and mental healers are able to support the healing process in a person from a distance through "Qi emission" or "external conductance of the Qi".
4. Brain/neurological aspects of immune function
In the classic tradition of Western science it has been thought that the immune system was an autonomus self regulating system, operating on its own. A tremendous amount of reseaearch has demonstrated that this view was incorrect. Mental emotional states have been found to effect resistance to disease and infection.(60) Immune organs including the thymus gland, spleen, lymph nodes and bone marrow have been found to be invested with nerve endings.(60) Lymphocytes and macrophages have been shown to have receptors for neurochemicals, including catacholamines, prostagandins, serotonin and endorphin.(60) There is a definate relationship between brain and nervous system function and immune capability.
In the practice of Qigong and Yoga, as has been discussed, the hypothalamus regulates the autonomic nervous system function toward a lessening of the sympathetic activity, which is associated with the stress response.(3,57) A number of studies have demonstrated that the hypothalamus has an influence over immune function.(60) Meditation, progressive relaxation, deep breathing and slow relaxed movement all tend to move the practitioner out of the sympathetic state and induce the relaxation response. Research on the effect of relaxation and visualization sheds some light on the effect that the Qigong and Yoga states may have on immune function. Groups of elders who recieved relaxation training had significant increases in the activity of "natural killer cells" while control groups did not. Chinese research has corroberated the positive effect of Qigong practice on the status of the immune system. (65,69,70,71,72)
5. Brain Hemisphere Dominance
Thousands of years ago the oriental practitioners of self-care disciplines intuitively developed an awareness of an alternating cycle of the predominance of body activity from the right side of the body to the left side. One particular Qi Gong practice, Tai ji, is founded on a constant, flowing of the limbs in circular motions, alternating from right to left. The side of the body that bears the weight is planted, stable, and associated with the Yin. The side that is free to move and kick is active and associated with the Yang. Constant alternation of right and left side activity are thought to balance the forces of yin and yang in the body. Focusing on the right and left sides alternatively activates, and reputedly balances, the right and left motor centers in the brain.
The channels or circuits that conduct the human resonating energy field, according to yogic medicine, are called nadis. Ida nadi and Pingala nadi associate with right and left brain activities.(72,73) In addition this association effects right and left nasal passage activity as well as the physiology of the right and left body. These channels alternate in their predominant activity over a 2-3 hour cycle causing the dominant nostril to be clear and the non-dominant nostril to swell and become congested.(73) This phenomena was not noted in the Western world until 1889 when the German physician R. Kayser recorded his observation of the "nasal cycle". (74) Much of the research on this phenomenon up through the 1980's was motivated by the quest to develop pharmaceuticals for nasal congestion. (72)
It has been demonstrated that the nasal cycle is coupled with the alternating lateralization of cerebral hemispheric activity. (73) It was found with research subjects, that when a shift occurred in either nasal dominance or brain hemisphere dominance there was an associated shift, within moments, in the other as well. The right nasal cavity, associated with pingala nadi tends to be more open and the left more congested when the left hemisphere of the brain is more active. This is associated with the active phase of the BRAC and increased general sympathetic tone.(72) In contrast the right brain hemisphere is more active when the left nostril is open and dominant and the individual is in the resting phase of the BRAC or the para-sympathetic mode.
A number of different physiological states have been found to be associated with the dominance of one or the other nostril.
- deep sleep is initiated more quickly with left nostril dominance.
- appetite and digestive ability are enhanced during right nostril dominance.
- sexual intercourse is most satisfying when the man is dominant in the right nostril and the woman in the left.
- left nostril, right brain dominance is more conducive to recieving new ideas, while right nostril, left brain dominance is an advantage during discourse.
- it is possible to alter the pattern of "thought waves" by consciously alternating nasal dominance by exercising the congested nostril by forced nostril breathing.(75)
A specific Qi Gong and Yoga breath technique which has been practiced for centuries is the right and left singular nostril breathing. Dr. Shannahoff-Khalsa of the Salk Institute has done extensive research with this technique, originally prompted by his work with the Kundalini Yoga tradition. The studdies done by he and his associates has shown that forcing the breath through the constricted nostril can increase the EEG amplitude of the contralateral hemisphere of the brain.(76) It has been demonstrated that certain psychopathologies are brain hemisphere specific.(77,78) It may be possible, therefore, that the use of single nostril breathing may be applicable as therapy in cases where lateralized dysfunction has been found.
It was discovered that there is a direct correlation between nasal dominance, brain dominance and the lateralized biochemical activity in the peripheral body parts. Recent studies of the nasal cycle comparing plasma catecholamine levels in the venous circulation of the right and left arms found that levels of norepinephrine alternated with the rhythm of sympathetic dominance of the nostrils.(79)
6. Induction of alpha/theta brain wave activity
The intention to relax and deepening of the breath are the classic initiating actions that trigger the relaxation response(RR). Research with practitioners of Yoga(3) and Qigong(4) has shown that during practice brain wave frequency tends toward the alpha range and in certain cases theta frequency brain activity is achieved. Alpha level brain function is a result of relaxation and is conducive to healing. The slowing of heart rate, reduction of blood pressure and elevation of skin temperature are common physiological features of the alpha state. Theta is a deeper trance like state that has been found in research with individuals with extraordinary capabilities to be associated with paranormal skills like sitting on beds of nails and immediate wound healing without bleeding.(3)
In Qigong and Yoga it is a goal to bring the lowest frequency of brain wave activity to the practice. In the quiescent Qigong, where there is no movement, deep states of consciousness with low frequency brain waves are more easily attained than in the dynamic (moving) Qigong. Similarly, in Yoga, there are methods involving movement and methods that primarily involve stillness. The pure meditation state lends more easily to the theta range of brain activity.
EEG studies from China have concentrated on the quiescent state, meditation with no movement (80,81,82). However, it is very likely that the dynamic or moving methods are most effective if the alpha or theta state can be simaltaneously achieved. In both Qigong and Yoga it is a primary focus to "allow the body and energy to sink and relax" and to "relax into the posture".
7. Neuroreflex Stimulation
Pressing points, holding reflex areas or thumping and stroking "energy pathways" are all aspects of health maintenance systems of ancient cultures. The ususal explanation for the mechanism of these effects involves what were originally called Head's zones named for Dr. Head who originally researched the relationship between sensory areas on the surface of the body to organ function.(83) In a similar and more current approach to a like idea, dermatomal zones are the segments on the surface of the body that are innervated by sensory neurons from specific segments of the spine which also have links to the autonomic ganglia. For example, the dorsal aspect of the foot is innervated from the 5th lumbar spinal nerves and the central area of both the dorsal and palmar aspect of the hand are innervated by the 7th cervical spinal nerves. The spinal nerves from the 2nd thoracic to the 1st lumbar innervate the dermatomes directly adjacent to their areas of the spine on the front, back and lateral aspects of the chest, abdomen and pelvis.(24)
A stimulus at the dermatome is carried to the the spinal segment where it has the oportunity to effect, through a reflex arc, neurons from the autonomic ganglia.(84) Surface stimulus may effect organ function through this neuroreflex mechanism. This mechanism has been cited as a rational for how acupuncture works. (54)
In Qigong especially, and to a certain extent in Yoga, there are numerous techniques for massaging, thumping and stroking the surface areas of the body. When twisting to loosen the spine and warm up to do Qi Gong the practitioner hits the hands against the lumbar space in the back and the lower ribs in the front. This is done to stimulate the function of the kidneys, liver and spleen. It is likely that one mechanism through which this may occur is the neuroreflex mechanism.
Certain methods of Qigong practice focus totally on techniques of self applied massage or stimulation of channels and reflexes. One method called Mei Yin Jian Shen Gong is comprised primarily of self massage gestures. In another method the hands stroke near the acupuncture channels: up the inside of the legs, out the inside of the arms, along the outside of the arms and on to the head and finally down the lateral side of the torso and legs to the lateral aspect of the feet. In the western model this would be referred to as reflex stimulation. However, in the oriental energy model this method is referred to as a form of "Qi" circulation.
8. Interface of Neuro-endocrine Structures of the Brain
In both Qi Gong and Pranayama a primary goal is to circulate the "energy" to the crown of the head. In Qigong this is referred to as the "point of one hundred gatherings" (Bai hui, GV or Du 20). In Yoga/Pranayama this point is the target of the kundalini energy and is known as the Crown Chakra or "thousand petaled lotus". This area has had recognition in the christian tradition through the halos of angels. In the Jewish tradition this same area is where the men wear the yalmuka.
Science has corroberated the significance of this region with its identification and investigation of several anatomical structures thought to be the primary hierarchy of neurological and endocrine function. These include the pituitary gland, pineal gland, hypothalamus and third ventricle of the cerebrospinal fluid system. In the ancient traditions it is suggested that these structures function as antenae-like conductors for the electrical, magnetic and subtle energy bio-fields. It may be premature to agree with this theory but it is very clear from the current literature that the hypothalamus and the pituitary are structures that participate in the subtle endocrine modulation of many physiological and emotional processes.(3,60)
Earlier we explored the research that links cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the lymph and immunity. The CSF has the richest mixture of neurochemicals in the whole body. It interacts directly with the hypothalamus whose lateral walls and floor comprise the third ventricle, an important resevior for CSF. Research has found over 60 neuropeptides or neurotransmitters. Candace Pert and her team at the National Institutes of Mental Health demonstrated that there are 40 times more neurotransmitter receptor cites in the hypothalamus than in any other location of the brain or nervous system. (85, 86)
Neurotransmitter activity has been found to be in a direct relationship with pain and depression (59) and to have a specific relationship to immune function (51,87). Focusing one's attention on a physiological outcome has been shown to have a potential effect on physiological function.(88) Therefore, it is a strong possibility that the intention to circulate the Qi or Prana to the "crown" has the potential to effect the levels of neurotransmitter and endocrine activity, not only in this section of the brain, but throughout the entire body. In work with voluntary control of biological function it has been found that deminishing or quelling sympathetic function is accomplished by regulating the activity of the hypothalamus.(3) When practitioners of Qigong circulate the Qi in the Ren and Du vessels, "circulate the light in the microcosmic orbit"(89), or when Yoga/Pranayama practitioners bring Prana up along the spinal in the Kundalini channel, the focus of the method is to achieve peace, or in more scientific terms, reduce sympathetic activity and slow brain wave frequency toward the theta range. The anatomical structure which is the target is the the anatomical hypothalamus, which is the sympathetic control center.
©1996 Roger Jahnke, O.M.D.
Link to biography: http://www.healthy.net/scr/bio.aspx?Id=123
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