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