The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards (40 page)

4
“cut with all kinds”:
Bryant Urstadt, “Lust for Lulu: How the Yoga Brand LuLulemon Turned Fitness into a Spectator Sport,”
New York
, August 3, 2009, p. 30.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I: Health

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16
“a female partner”:
Ibid., p. 72.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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