deep-sleep and samAdhi

[Guest guest]

Thanks for remembering this old issue.

Appreciate your post and the contents thereof. I have read about "Art

of Living" and "Sudarshana Kriya" but have not had time to go deep

into details.

Madathil Nair

__________________________

advaitin, "avsundarrajan" <avsundarrajan> wrote:

>

> Pranayama has scientific basis, says US expert

>

> NEW DELHI: Yogic breathing techniques may be doing much more than

> relieving stress. A senior psychiatrist at Columbia University, New

> York, Dr Richard P Brown, says certain techniques may

> actually help people connect better with each other and regulate

> their dietary intake and thereby help lose weight.

>

> In New Delhi to participate in a two-day international symposium

> on Sudarshan Kriya, Pranayam and consciousness organised by the

> Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the All India Institute of

> Medical Sciences in association with the Times Foundation, which

> concluded on Sunday, Brown has been experimenting with meditation

> techniques to cure his patients of depression.

>

> Here is how, he explains, yogic breathing techniques such as

Pranayam

> and Sudarshan Kriya can activate certain positive bodily processes:

> Rapid breathing activates a nerve, Vagus, that connects with the

> diaphragm and some of the organs, including the heart and

> the brain. As a result of this stimulation, messages are sent along

> three different pathways that tell the body to shut off areas of

> worry while awakening areas that control feelings of happiness in

the

> brain. So, one pathway is created that leads up to the frontal

cortex

> of the brain and starts shutting down areas controlling excess

> worries and depressions.

>

> Another pathway shuts off anxiety producing parts of the brain stem

> and a third wakes up the limbic system, which controls positive

> emotions, explains Brown. At the same time hormones are released

that

> encourage connectedness in mammals. One such hormone, called the

> Cuddle hormone, released during sexual activity and also after

> child birth, is said to be released after the Sudarshan Kriya. The

> hormone encourages bonding. He said that quite early on in his

> practice of psychiatry he began getting dissatisfied with the

> effects of drugs. I began looking for natural treatments. People

> responded to it very well. He then tried meditative techniques, but

> some of them were found to be strenous. The best results so far

have

> been with Sudarshan Kriya, he said. Other techniques are either so

> difficult to do that people just stop practising them or take 30

> years or more to show results, adds Brown, with a long standing

> interest in complementary medicine.

>

> The impact with the Art of Living course on Pranayam and Sudarshan

> Kriya, was so significant that I started sending people with

horrible

> depressions and they became better, he added. People sent me thank

> you notes even months later.Doctors need to understand that there

is

> a scientific basis to it and it is not just a suggestion. It helps

> control eating disorders as well. People often soothe themselves by

> eating. But after this course, as the tension drains off, people

can

> actually begin to lose weight. The hormone that promotes

> connectedness also has a relationship with a peptide hormone.

> Controlling the release of this hormone can in turn influence

> hunger and the bodys ability to take only the required amount of

> food. People question me on whether I am following a cult and my

> answer has been If its a cult, its a cult of love. And it

> only encourages people to help others.

>

> For more information on Art of Living, contact, C-9

> Greenpark Extension, Phone:6562606 or Dr Vinod

> Kochupillai, Head, Institute Rotary Cancer

> Hospital, AIIMS. Phone:6516821

>

> -- Sundar Rajan