1. ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
BRAIN AND YOGA
Prof. A.V. SRINIVASAN
INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGY
CHENNAI - 3

3. Saguna Brahman
(without Attributes)
Existence Aham
SAT Consciousness Anandam
CHIT
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

4. PARAMATHMA
EXTERNAL ACTION INTERNAL ACTION
ANTHA KARANAM
SENSES BRAIN 1. CHIT
2. AHAMKARAM
3. INTELLECT
4. MANAS
In all of us, even in good men, there is a
wild - beast nature which peers out in sleep

5. 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

6. 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”

7. External Environment
Senses / Body
Brain
Jeevathma
(Anthakarana)
Yoga unification
of the two
Paramathma
The True Art of Memory is The Art of Attention
- S.Johnson

8. HIPPOCRATES Mind
(Holistic) Body
Environment
Rene Descartes Mind and Body are Separate
Brain Research 1970
Brain and Hormonal, Immune and CNS
“ByNature All Men/W en are alike but
om
byEducation widelydifferent”
- Chinese

9. 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”

10. Brain – Mind Interaction
1. DUALISM
2. MONISM
Give us the GR ACE to acce pt with se re nity the thing s that canno t be
chang e d the COURAGE to chang e the thing s that sho uld be chang e d
and the WISDOM to kno w the diffe re nce

11. 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

12. 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 destroy the bridge over
s
which he him m pass” - Annoy
self ust

13. “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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. • 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

22. Yoga and EEG
Mallory – 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. Circular Representation
Long trains
of alpha
Alpha
Start pattern
Meditation
Beta Coherent gamma – Theta
perceptual mechanism
Gamma activity –
Gamma
cognitive processing Delta
Super
Epsilon consciousness
state

28. 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

29. 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

30. Clinical Applications of Yoga
• Anxiety
• Epilepsy
• Exercise
• Headache
• Mental retardation
• Mood
• Pain
Experience can be defined as
yesterday’s answer to today’s problems

31. 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

32. 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 wisdomto listen - Hodly ’s

33. 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 - 1999
It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well
nor sufficient judgment to keep silent
La Broyers character

34. 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 pathogenic
Factor for disease production”

35. 1989 – Can Lifestyle Changes Reverse
Atherosclerosis?
1984- 94 – The Body and Contemplative
Experinece
1997 – Theories of Consciousness and Methods for
its Investigations in Indo-Tibetan Budhism
1999 – Physical and Psychological Effects of
Meditation: A Review of Contemporary
Research with a Comprehensive
Bibliography
1999 – In Progress – The Phenomenology of
Meditation
“Knowledge can be communicated but not Wisdom”
- Hermann Hesse

36. 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

37. 5 categories of PSI faculties
1. Minute chemical receptors and sensors
2. Minute chemico-electro receptors and
sensors
3. Neural-network exchanges of information
in the bio-internal body substrates
4. Bio-electromagnetic information receptors
and sensors
5. Bio-information transfer networks at the
atomic, molecular and neurological levels
Whatever the Mind can conceive and Believe,
the mind can Achieve
Napoleon Hill

38. The 17 senses have come out of cutting
edge of the following disciplines
• Electro-chemical physiology • Sensory coding research
• Neurobiology • Bio-magnetic navigation research
• Neuropsychology • Bio-electric field detection
• Bio-radiation studies studies
• Hormone and hormonal • Electrophysiological studies
transmission research • Pheromone and pheromone
• Chemical signal research transfer research
• Bio-electric research • Multi-stability in perception
• Brainware research research
• Subliminal perception research
• Bio-sensitivity research
• Neuro-magnetic response
• Bio-electric information
transfer research research
• Bio-infrared and bio-ultraviolet
perception research

39. 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

40. 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

43. READ not to contradict or confute
Nor to Believe and Take for Granted
but TO WEIGH AND CONSIDER
THANK YOU
My sincere gratitude to
Mr.G. Kakuthan for his meticulous
computer work