ELECTROPHYSIOLOGYBRAIN AND YOGA
Prof. A.V. SRINIVASAN
INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY
CHENNAI - 3
Saguna Brahman(without Attributes)
Existence
SAT
Aham
Consciousness
CHIT
Anandam
I am that I am
Individual
We learn by thinking and the quality of the learning outcome is determined by the quality of our thoughts
R.B. Schmeck
1. CHIT
2. AHAMKARAM
3. INTELLECT
4. MANAS
PARAMATHMA
EXTERNAL ACTION INTERNAL ACTION ANTHA KARANAM
SENSES BRAIN
In all of us, even in good men, there is a wild - beast nature which peers out in sleep
Limited Individual Attributes(Jeevathma)
• Paramathma + Chit Memory of the individual
• Paramathma + Ahankaram Individual ego
• Paramathma + Intellect Discerning faculty
• Paramathma + Manas Thinking and Feeling
faculty of the individual
A true commitment is a heart felt promise to yourself from which you will not back
down - D. Mcnally
YOGA• Unification of formless attributes with the
individual attributes (i.e.,) Jeevathma and Paramathma
• Hathayoga
• Dhyanayoga - Arvind Ghosh
• Bhakthiyoga - Ramakrishna
Paramahamsar
• Gnanayoga - Ramana Maharishi
• Karmayoga - Mahatma Gandhi“Character gets you out of bed commitment moves
you to action faith, hope and Discipline follow through to completion”
External Environment
Paramathma
Jeevathma (Anthakarana)
Senses / Body
Yoga unification of the two
Brain
The True Art of Memory is The Art of Attention - S.Johnson
HIPPOCRATES
(Holistic)
Mind
Body
Environment
Rene Descartes Mind and Body are Separate
Brain Research 1970
Brain and Hormonal, Immune and CNS
“By Nature All Men/ Women are alike butby Education widely different”
- Chinese
Brain Functions
1. Cognition (Thinking + Perception)
2. Conation (Movement)
3. Affect (Motor Expression of an
emotion)
“Character gets you out of bed commitment moves you to action
faith, hope and Discipline follow through to completion”
Brain – Mind Interaction
1. DUALISM
2. MONISM
Give us the GRACE to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed the COURAGE to change the things that should be changed and the WISDOM to know the
difference
DUALISM
Brain and Mind are separate that
we study the brain but that
consciousness is a feature of Mind
No shred of Evidence
A true commitment is a heart felt promise to yourself from which you will not back
down - D. Mcnally
MONISM
• Monism is the view that
mind is the product of brain.
• Lack of understanding about
how this is possible
“ He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass”-
Annoy
“We have no understanding of the physiology of awareness and most leave it at that.”
“However that awareness is a construction of the brain –
No assurance - it reflects truly the reality”
Memory, the daughter of attention ,
is the teeming mother of knowledge
- Martin Tupper
Hypermetabolic State• Increased oxygen consumption
• Increased BP
• Increased HR
• Landis study – Electrical stimulation – sudden rise of metabolism 20% in anticipatory period followed by rapid fall.
It is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking,
that I am troubled withal
- Shakespeare
Hypometabolism (Sleep and Hibernation)
• Difficult to reproduce
• Seem to accompany TSR
(Trained state of rest)
Success in life is a matter not so much of talent and opportunity
as of concentration and perseverance
- C.W. Wendte
Hypometabolic State(Wallace Study)
• Decreased O2 consumption• Decreased CO2 elimination• Decreased volume of respiration• Slight increase in acidity of the arterial blood• Marked decreased blood lactate• Slowing of heart rate• Considerable increase in skin resistance • EEG shows intensification of slow alpha with
occasional theta.• These changes are seen in Yoga, Zen, TM
Serious, sincere, systematic study surely secures supreme success
Electrophysiological Studies in Yoga
• EEG
• Electrical Resistance
• SPECT and PET Studies
Mind is the great level of all things;
human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered
- Daniel Webster
EEG• Wenger – First systematic
electrophysiological study in a trained state of rest (TSR)
• Bagchi & Wenger study
• Yogic deep rest – Represented deep relaxation of the ANS without drowsiness or sleep
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probable reason why so few engage in it.
- Henry Ford
• Anand (India) (4 Yogis)
Prominent alpha, amplitude increasing as the practice continued
• Dass / Gastant
High amplitude fast waves
• Independent variable
Habit is either the best of servants or worst of masters
- Nathaniel Emmons
Yoga and EEGMallory – Positively – Alpha Abundance
- Negatively – Neurotics
Tumo Effects – Controlling Heat
- Drying wet blanket
Symeon – Drops of blood
East Christian saints – Tears
Success is a prize to be won. Action is the road to it.
Chance is what may lurk in the shadows at the road side.
- O. Henry
Silence Hypothesis• Robbinson 1971 – studies Sufi, Zen, Vipasana
• Awareness oriented practices such as Alexander, Felden Kuris
• Worked with Stephen Laberge a physiological psychologist from Stanford, compating short periods of inner silence and speech
• Chin activity and brain waves are different in two conditions
People of mediocre ability often achieve success because they don’t know enough to quit
- Bernard Baruch
EEG and Meditative consciousness• Knowing rather than thinking (Green & Green)
– in meditative consciousness
Step 1) Long Trains of alpha appearance
2) Alpha pattern tend to decrease
3) Long train of theta waves
4) Epsilon state – Slower than delta (0.5)
5) Hyper gamma state – Freq. from 30 –100
Same states of consciousness associated with two polar ends
Discipline Weighs ounces Regret weighs Tons
Circular Representation
Epsilon state
Start Meditation
Long trains of alpha
Delta
Theta
Alpha pattern
Beta
GammaSuper
consciousness
Gamma activity –
cognitive processing
Coherent gamma –
perceptual mechanism
Evolution• Monkey consciousness – Monk’s –
Elbert Hubbard
• Tibet – Monk’s – Surgery in Pineal Gland
We possess by nature the factors out of which personality can be made, and to organize them into effective personal life is every
man’s primary responsibility
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
Electrical Resistance• Wenger, Bagchi, Kasamatsu and Hierai
Deep rest – increase in electrical skin resistance 50% - 100%unexplained subject variance
• TM (Transidental Meditation) – Similar to Zen and Yoga are noted in TM
Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings
and not by the intellect
Clinical Applications of Yoga• Anxiety
• Epilepsy
• Exercise
• Headache
• Mental retardation
• Mood
• Pain Experience can be defined as
yesterday’s answer to today’s problems
Effectiveness of Yoga techniques in the management of various disorders
1. Anxiety – Significant improvement in anxiety neurotic patients as compared with diazepam therapy. Relaxation technique reduces anxiety in children and adolescence. – G. Sahasi - 1989
2. ENMG – shows significant decrease in muscle activity – R. Narayan – 1990 (Kundalini)
3. Epilepsy – Significant improvement in homogenous population of JME patients and more than 50% reduction in seizure duration and decreased average no.of attacks – Yardi - 2000
4. Headache – Reduction in pain perception and medication intake personal stress in migraine and tension headache – Vasudevean A - 1994
5. Pain – In chronic pain, mind fullness meditation shows decrease in total pain rating index and mood disturbances and psychiatric symptoms accompanying these changes – Kabat Zinn - 1982
6. M.R. – Increase in IQ and social adaptation in MR individuals – Uma - 1989
7. Mood – Increase vigour and decrease tension and fearfulness – Harvey - 1983
It is the province of the knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of the wisdom to listen - Hodly’s
8. Physiology – Higher work rate and decreased oxygen consumption per unit work.
• Increased cardiovascular endurance and anaerobic power
• Positive mood changes
• Decreased vulnerability to stress
• Improves body density, spinal and hamstring flexibility
• Maintain body weight and body function
- Baldwein - 1999It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well
nor sufficient judgment to keep silent
La Broyers character
Selected Research in Yoga & Meditation
1981 – The Physiological Consequences of
Tibetan Meditation
1984 – Inner Science and World Peace
1984 – How Might Positive Emotions Affect
Physical Health Conference
1988 – Spiritual Approaches to Addiction
Conference
1988 – Cultivating Inner Silence
“Social Isolation is in itself a pathogenicFactor for disease production”
1989 – Can Lifestyle Changes Reverse Atherosclerosis?1984- 94 – The Body and Contemplative Experinece1997 – Theories of Consciousness and Methods for its Investigations in Indo-Tibetan Budhism1999 – Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Review of Contemporary Research with a Comprehensive Bibliography1999 – In Progress – The Phenomenology of Meditation
“Knowledge can be communicated but not Wisdom”- Hermann Hesse
Yoga and Senses• PSI (particular situation) (United Nations Parlance) • 17 senses – not five• The PSI could not be acceptable until an quantifiable
material, physical basis or any part of it; hence 5 senses theory prevailed over 17 senses
• The bio-physical receptors were added to the famous 5 senses
• In 40 years, new disciplines are added mixing science, technology, microscopy, subtle chemical exchanging and electromagnetic and bio-electromagentic expertise
Through Action You Create your Own Education- D.B. ELLIS
5 categories of PSI faculties 1. Minute chemical receptors and sensors2. Minute chemico-electro receptors and
sensors3. Neural-network exchanges of information
in the bio-internal body substrates4. Bio-electromagnetic information receptors
and sensors5. Bio-information transfer networks at the
atomic, molecular and neurological levels
Whatever the Mind can conceive and Believe, the mind can Achieve
Napoleon Hill
The 17 senses have come out of cutting edge of the following disciplines
• Electro-chemical physiology• Neurobiology• Neuropsychology• Bio-radiation studies• Hormone and hormonal
transmission research• Chemical signal research• Bio-electric research• Brainware research• Bio-sensitivity research• Bio-electric information transfer
research
• Sensory coding research• Bio-magnetic navigation research • Bio-electric field detection studies• Electrophysiological studies• Pheromone and pheromone transfer
research• Multi-stability in perception research• Subliminal perception research• Neuro-magnetic response research• Bio-infrared and bio-ultraviolet
perception research
Society of enlightenment and information discovered the bio-organic bases for the following additional senses
1. Psychic Vibe Sensing
2. Formats of ESP
3. Cognitive ESP or intuition
4. Micro PSI facilities of ancient sidhis , “demonstrated by C.W. Leadbeater “
Many Ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang UP
O.W. Holmos
WHAT HAS BEEN THE PROVIDENCE OF PHILOSOPHY FROM THE TIME OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE HAS NOW BECOME IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM LEGITIMATE DISCOURSE FOR NEUROSCIENCES
- MARK HALLET
“Men of Genius Admired: Men of Wealth envied
Women of power feared But only Women of character are trusted”
A- Friedman
My sincere gratitude to Mr.G. Kakuthan for his meticulous
computer work
My sincere gratitude to Mr.G. Kakuthan for his meticulous
computer work
READ not to contradict or confute
Nor to Believe and Take for Granted
but TO WEIGH AND CONSIDER
THANK YOU