Embodied Being: Yoga and the New Scientific Revolution

As we speak a revolution is brewing. The last bastions of the Western scientific approach to health are being broken down. Descartes' error has been fully realised and science at its most cutting edge is proving what the yogis and others have known for millenia. The mind affects the body and the body affects the mind - this can be for positive benefits to health and happiness (or negative).

In fact, neuroscientists, psychoneurobiologists and psychoneuroimmunobiologists alike have found that our body-mind system (particularly our beliefs) can actually switch genes on and off. This new field of 'epigenetics' - external factors that 'activate' our genes - is rapidly gaining momentum as the hottest new revolution in health and happiness.

Don't get me wrong: like any new breakthrough in thinking - paradigm shift - there will be people with a vested interest in holding it back. New thinking, new 'technologies' take about 15-20 years to hit 'mainstream' (take NLP for example!!). But the realisation of what epigenetics can offer human health and happiness is coming; and yoga is there already. When you do yoga you are your own 'epigenetic laboratory'!

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

And as the Buddha said:“What we think, we become.”

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP), a mental technology for re-patterning mind, has taught us that the 'components of existence' all interact to create consciousness - our thoughts and beliefs influence our attitudes and emotions which impact our behaviour and actions. But this also works in reverse: our behaviour affects our mind. This is why the postures of yoga can powerfully affect the quality of our mind (our thoughts and even our beliefs). Likewise the belief and behaviour system of yoga in the eight limbs of yoga (yamas, niyamas etc) can affect the body. For example, bramycharya - the yogic concept of moderation - can mean that we stop continually striving for more material or intellectual 'wealth' and have a better quality of life and therefore experience less stress in our bodies.

Now, however, there is scientific proof that our mind can directly affect our cellular structure and turn genes on or off. Our genes are not our destiny. We can control our biological fate! This means that through learning the yogic techniques that make our minds more peaceful (meditation, yoga nidra), we can avoid early death and illness through the likes of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Yoga asanas serve to work in the opposite direction. The asanas work deep into the fascia, the deep connective tissue of our bodies which connect the very nucleii of our cells to the outer skin on our bodies. The nadis that the yogis talk of, the 72,000 channels through which our prana flows (chi and meridians in tai chi and TCM) have been proven to be part of this fascial network. Tiny microscopic tubules, called Bongham ducts, have been found throughout the body: in blood vessels, major organs etc. And these tubules are thought to be the 'high speed broadband' of the body - perhaps this helps Damasio to explain the concept of body consciousness (and perhaps the body is the unconscious mind).

So yoga, by working on the mind, and also by its deep work on the body and the energy meridians (especially in teachers who combine yoga with meridian or acupressure work), can affect the genetic code and language of our bodies to ensure that we live longer, healthier and happier lives. The scientists are finally beginning to catch up with the yogis: though it is likely to take another 20+ years to find all the 'proof'. So I strongly advise you to keep working in your own laboratory - that of your body - with the instrument of yoga and reap the benefits now!

Further Reading