WEBVTT - The Science of Downward Dog 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:14.000 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to ball your Mind. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:16.759 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. What 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.520 are we talking about today, Julie, Well, before we start 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.840 talking about some yoga, have something to say. What's that all? 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.280 I never can go that. I like how your own 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.320 has kind of like it has kind of a twang 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.680 at the beginning of like kind of sounds like a 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.760 Jonas Janis Joplin kind of an home Yeah, my mom, Ye, 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.320 I'm right, mom, Okay, yeah, yeah, that's we We are 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:52.479 going to be talking about yoga and and uh, not 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.240 just the explosion of yoga in the West, but um 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:58.240 about some of the things that have come to light 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.880 recently about the ben if it's yoga and I guess 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.040 sound of what you could say are risks, Yeah, yeah, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.160 and it's uh, we should we should point out here 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.160 and all of this that neither of us are experts 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.720 in yoga by any stretch of imagination. However, yoga is 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.560 a part of both of our lives. How long how 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.640 long have you been taking yoga and practicing? Um about 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.600 fifteen years now? Wow? Ye see, so you've you've really 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.240 been at it. I've My wife and I started taking 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.760 it two or three years ago, so we're still fairly 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.080 new to it. But it's really it's really become an 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.760 important part of our lives and an important part of 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.160 my life. I feel like it I've benefited from it 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.480 in that I'm in I feel like I'm in better 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.440 shape physically from it. I feel like it aids my relaxation. Um, 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.960 I can't count the number of times where I've gone 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.240 into yoga, maybe in a bit of a bit of 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.440 maybe not a full on huff, but you know, I'll 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.040 be a little stressed out at the end of the day. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:57.680 I've been trying to you know, at the end of 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.920 a Tuesday, I've been trying to get stuff wrapped up, 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.320 us specifically wrapped up often for this podcast, you know, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.480 getting getting research under wraps. And then then I go 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.720 to yoga and I'm all kind of a bundle of 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.200 nerves and all these thoughts going, you know, this way 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:12.600 and that, and then I come out of it and 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.560 I'm just in a different state of mind. I'm much 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.240 more relaxed and and uh and focused state of mind. Yeah, 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.840 I mean, that's the thing. About yoga. It is transformative, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.000 and I think that that's why it has taken off 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.240 so fully, particularly since the nineteen nineties, because people have 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.400 discovered that even if they're a casual user of yoga 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.680 so to speak, um, you know, and they do a 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.400 power yoga or a big room hot yoga, they're going 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.760 to find some sort of the effects there and say, wow, 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.960 for for a space there, maybe even just for five minutes, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:49.160 my body completely relaxed, and more importantly, my mind, uh 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.720 you know, followed in line and I had a bit 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:56.400 of a peaceful moment. And that is the secret behind yoga, right, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.519 this this sort of tranquility that it promotes in our minds, 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.160 in our bodies. I keep coming back to our Centaur 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:08.120 episode where well, I mean they could, it would be interesting. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.120 I'm not sure what kind of poses they would get into, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.200 because you don't think of horses is really being a 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.440 big contortionist, that kind of stiff legged um. And you know, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.280 you horse enthusiasts can correct me if I'm wrong on that, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.440 But you don't really see him doing a lot of 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.720 poses out there. So yeah, I feel like a center 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.920 would be limited. But but in our center, but podcast 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:32.520 we pointed out the the the idea that modern humans 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.160 we often think of ourselves, we think of the mind 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.880 body connection as a rider on a horse. We are 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.440 the rider, or whether our brain is the is the 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.200 rider and the horses our body and our horse is stubborn, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.400 um lazy, their problems with it, and our mind is 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.720 in its own thing, and then the mind the rider 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.240 inevitably gets angry with the horse, and there's this conflict 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.480 between the two and uh. In various philosopher's New Age 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.040 fingers have have made the argument that we are essentially 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.720 a center, that we're really this mind and body, this 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.119 this single entity combined of the two, and the more 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.760 we're in touch with that, the easier time will have. 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:19.760 And yoga, in my experience, really feels like um. It 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.279 underlines that that vision of the mind body connection. You know, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.279 because you because like I said, you go into the yoga, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.680 you're you're just all mind a lot of the times, 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.400 or maybe you're you're all mind with like one other 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.680 thing like oh, your knees bothering your your your your 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.240 teeth are bothering you. You're you know, whatever happens to 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.560 be the one part of your body that's giving you 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.520 the most, that's getting the most attention at the time 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.520 you enter that in that room with that mind body connection, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.039 and when you leave the ideas that you're more in 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.360 touch with the body. Right, that's the idea of yoga. 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.360 So that's a union between the mind and the body. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.240 Um so. And and that's what we will see played 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.760 out actually in sign typic studies when we we speak 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.760 a little bit more about that later, um, But we 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:09.000 should probably talk about how yoga came to become so 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.880 popular here in the West and um why it arrived 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:17.040 at our our doorsteps. Um. Particularly I'm thinking about a 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.719 woman named Indra Devi and her her real name or 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.480 her say her real name, but her name is was 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:28.599 Eugenie Peterson, and she was a popular Indian star. She 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.919 studied under Jagannath g Gune, really important guy in the 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.680 history of yoga and actually trying to um put some 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.760 scientific method behind this and and and scientific rigors to 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.560 examine yoga and its benefits. And he actually established an 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.760 ashram in India devoted to the scientific study, and he 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.359 was an advisor to Gandhi. But anyway, Indra Devi studied 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.239 with him, and she actually moved to Hollywood and taught 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.800 yoga to other actors, including Glorious Wantson, Greta Garbo and 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.200 Mary Land in Rome. She was really the first yoga 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:07.400 teacher to the stars, but people don't normally associate yoga 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:11.320 with her. It's more with our friends the Beatles. Yes. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.240 In fact, we have an article on the Sunhouse stuff works. 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.560 Did the Beatles induce yoga to Western civilization? Which is 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.640 a kind of a yes and no article, But they 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:26.400 does go into George Harrison who studied satar under Rabbi 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.800 Shankar in India, and he sort of became involved in 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.479 um different aspects of yoga and meditation, particularly with a 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.880 yogi named the Maharishi. Yes. And and he's definitely the 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.120 name that that tends to stick in people's minds when 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:46.200 they think of of of importing yoga into Western culture. Yeah. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.960 And so you know, actually you can see how that 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.600 influenced their their musical careers, not just even their personal careers, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.960 but you can hear the music from that time, um, 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.240 and not just the satar, but these these different melodies 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.560 that are Eastern melodies, um that sort of pervaded music 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.640 at the time. But anyway, so they sort of brought 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.640 that UM, these ideas of meditation and trans transcendental meditation 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.400 in particular to the US, and the maharishi is someone 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.080 who a lot of people began to follow, especially UM 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:19.720 through TM transcendental meditation. UM. So today we have twenty 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:24.560 million people in the US alone who are practicing yoga. Yeah, 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.240 and they're practicing a variety of different types of yoga. 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.280 We're talking about this the other day. Yoga in a sense, 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.680 modern yoga in the in the States and Western culture. 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.600 It has this kind of viral aspect to it where 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.440 it seems to spread from carrier to carrier and UH 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.040 and it kind of adapts itself to each new host. 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.640 So that so that after a while you have these 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.120 different versions of this endless variety of yoga that's UH 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.480 is branching out and evolving from patient zero. UM, who 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.600 I guess would have been color responsive. Um. So, so 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.080 just to name a few you, UM, there's a whole 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.320 list of these right at the front of The Science 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.840 of Yoga by William J. Broad, which we are basing 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.560 a lot of this podcast on. By the way, this 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.640 is a really great book. We cannot um cover in 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:15.080 its entirety because we would talk for ten hours. But um, 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:17.679 but we are going to touch on some of the highlights. Yeah, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.040 so we'll touch on it some more and and certainly 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:21.800 pick up that book if you're interested in this. But 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.280 at the very beginning, he does a great job of 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.920 just laying out like some brief overview material, and he 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.320 mentions a number of the styles of yoga. The first 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.520 one he mentions any sara, which is which is actually 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.719 the one that I tend to practice. It's a great one, 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:36.560 by the way. Yeah, yeah, I find it. You know, 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:40.640 it's nice, it's kind of it's flowy as an upbeat philosophical, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.440 philosophical side to it, you know, and uh, I've benefited 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.560 from it. Which which variety do you tend to I 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.400 started out with my anger, which is really uh, I 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.280 guess you would call it precision yoga. It's very specific. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.079 You hold the post for a long time. The idea 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.160 is that you want to get the postures right before you, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.319 you know, really sort of launch yourself into yoga. And 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.679 um half of course, which is sort of a catch 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:07.040 all for for a general yoga. UM, that's actually very 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.440 old yoga based on tantra yoga, which we'll talk about 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.680 yea and in a separate podcast. Yeah, but yeah, so 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.480 that those are a few, and then there's a tanga, 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:21.320 there's a bickram or hot Yoga, Hot Yoga TM by 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:27.880 the way trademarked it. Um there's Kundalini, Vanyasa, all sorts here, 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.200 power yoga. UM. I actually saw not too long ago 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.560 a class that was I think it's like death metal yoga. 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.040 What I'm like kidding, it's get the Young Blood Gallery. 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.640 Really they do it to to death metal. They do 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.080 it to death metal, is my understanding. UM. So, as 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.120 you say, like there's each iteration brings with it a 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.880 bit of flavor from from that person. Which yoga for real? Men, 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.319 that's the one we're talking about. The Diamond Dallas Page, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.839 the former wrestler has been advocating. And you know, you 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.160 can get into these various styles and you can make 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.400 some criticism or even legitimate criticism of some of these 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.920 styles based on on science or tradition or you know, 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.600 or what have you. Certainly some of them are are 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:18.320 more in touch with the roots of yoga than others. Um. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.400 But it's it's it's adapting itself to new styles that 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.920 like the people who would be interested in Diamond Dallas pages, 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.760 yoga class or yoga DVDs or whatever he's selling, are 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.240 rather different from the people that would necessarily be up 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.040 for any sorry yoga and uh and so in a 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.920 broad sense, I'm totally in favor that, you know, well, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.240 I think the cool thing about all these different branches 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.240 of it, are these different styles, is that you do 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.679 get a fuller understanding of what yoga is. Even if 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.520 you are doing something like power yoga or death yoga, UM, 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:53.040 jazz yoga, jes jess Han's yoga UM, you know you're 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.800 gonna take something away from anger yoga and a different 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.760 thing from any sara and And it doesn't mean that 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.440 one is more correct over the other. It's just it's 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.840 very different. Maybe not the death metals so much, but 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.439 that is what makes it such an interesting practice, but 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:14.000 also so incredibly difficult to study scientifically, right because it's 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.439 not like you're standardizing it and you're saying everybody do 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.800 these poses only sure bick Rum, right, because I think 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:26.679 that is actually he's got those uh poses trademarked. But 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.120 but you do have all these different things going on, 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.960 so it's it's hard to wholesales say Okay, we're gonna 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.680 study yoga because it's just this one thing and it's 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.280 not the other reason why it's hard to studies because 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.920 big farmer really isn't all that interested. Yeah. William J. 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.240 Brod does a great job of stressing this in the 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.440 book that all Right. So who funds research, specifically who 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.240 funds medical research? A lot of time it is big 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.600 pharmaceutical companies who are interested in finding that next big drug, which, 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:56.760 on one hand, they want to find the next big 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.240 drug that's gonna be very beneficial for human health, but 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:00.800 they also want to find the next big drug that's 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:02.320 gonna make them a lot of money. I mean, it's 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.240 that's just the nature of the beast. Uh, say what 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.240 you will about it, but that's how it works. So 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.160 when you're looking at yoga, um, with very few exceptions, 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.520 you're not looking at something that can be turned into 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.280 a product or a pill. I mean, unless a major 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.760 pharmaceutical company wanted to open a studio. You know, it's 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.560 it's not the kind of thing that's gonna gonna have 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:27.480 an immediate pharmaceutical tie in or benefit. So no, you're right, 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.040 because it's not like you can take this pill that's 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.960 gonna lower your cortisol levels, your stress hormone levels, increased 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.760 testosterone levels in some cases, um, you know, reduce your 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.160 metabolic rate. I mean that you're right, there's all these 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.679 different things going on in yoga that you just couldn't 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.640 take a pill for. So hence the disinterest on the subject. 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:50.960 So you see, you see plenty of studies. They've been 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.559 countless studies. I mean, I'm not countless, but there have 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.840 been thousands of studies just in over the past decade 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.320 or so people looking into yoga signs of yoga. But 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.439 it's often more of a side product. It's not necessarily 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.920 like a it's not like a huge extensive of study. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.080 In most cases, it's not one of these things where 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.240 you have, you know, hundreds or dozens even of of 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.200 individuals that are being subjected to REDI study. In some cases, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:22.040 they're they're looking at one individual. There, there's not we're 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:27.280 not talking about deep, um inquisitive scientific studies. In many cases, 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:33.200 they're more sort of side studies to researchers, core funded interests. Yeah, 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.840 and William J. Rod does bring up the point that 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:37.839 a lot of the studies that he came across, and 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:39.880 I think he looked at what a hundred years worth 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.720 of studies were conducted in India, and so there are 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.120 a lot of them are a little known studies. Yeah, 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.240 they're not necessarily the kind of thing you can just 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.400 do a search for and then purchase the study for, 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.840 you know, or yeah, whatever outrageous price they're charging on 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.040 the UH in the journals. But yeah, you'll be outside 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:05.040 of of easily obtainable UM medical documents and what. I 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.120 think that just as a side note that William J. 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.280 Broad did a really good job of trying to bring 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.680 all these different studies to light, because he is talking 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.559 about a hundred years worth of studies, some of them 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.839 being conducted during a time when there was an m 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.160 R I or various different technologies available to us. And 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.440 then he actually went through some of that material and 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:26.240 myth busted some of the erroneous studies that came up 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.360 because of this idea of you know, there weren't there 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:31.720 wasn't double blind studies and some of them, um so 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.560 some of the conclusions that were drawing were wrong. Um 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.680 or just trying to go and sort things out and 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.800 look at other studies that try to corroborate these older 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.640 studies later on. That is a massive amount of work. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.440 So I did want to bring that up because, um, 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.720 you know, when this book came out, there was a 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.120 lot of um rancor from the yoga community because he 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.920 does talk about some things that may be difficult to 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.320 hear right now, um, in terms of the risk of 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.360 yoga that we'll talk about later. You saw people responding 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.600 to him on on some of these message boards and 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.960 these yoga publications where they were just like, like, why 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.640 does he hate yoga so much? Why he practicing it 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.880 for forty years? Yeah, he was just I mean, he's 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.880 a science writer who has practice yoga for years and years, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.520 like since the seventies. I believe it's it's just it 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.000 is and has been a part of his life for 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.920 a long time. And he had been wanting to bring 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:25.720 these two together too. I mean a lot of a 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.560 lot of the questions that he tackles in this book 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.520 are things that that he'd been wondering about, but he 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.480 didn't really have you know, he hadn't taken the time 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.840 to actually study them and do the research and find 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.120 out what science can tell us about yoga. Yeah, and 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:38.600 you can actually tell him this book, you've read it 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.920 from from cover to cover, you can tell that he 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.440 loves and respects it and does it as much as 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.360 possible and will continue to do it. Um that My 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.320 hope is that ten more books respawned from this book, 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.440 clarifying the science even further. A lot of the negative 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.360 stuff that can out really was wasn't as much the book. 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.800 I think that that New York Times article that that 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.040 broad also wrote that post the New York Times, and 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.080 it was the title of it, how yoga can wreck 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.720 your body exactly. That's it. And it's one of those 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:08.400 things you know that makes the rounds, it shows up 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.360 and feels Facebook feeds. In many cases people don't even 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.440 necessarily read that kind of thing, you know, it goes 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.400 that gets just shot around an email and the instant 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.560 messages sending is yoga is dangerous. This thing that you 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.280 told us was was easy that everybody could do, that 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.080 everyone could benefit from, and it was low impact and 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.560 it was all you know, hippie dippy and care free 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.760 could kill me. Uh And and that comes as a 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.840 revelation to a number of people, I mean just just 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.760 as a general idea that this thing is is not 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.280 um without its risk. Well, the yoga community didn't want 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.920 people to shy away from the practice of yoga or 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.960 just kind of altogether on based on this one aspect 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.120 of it. And that happened either, And I don't think 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.560 Rod does. That wasn't his intent. No, I don't think 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.200 it was either. And she actually didn't select that title. Um, 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.760 the editors it's more clickable, right, Um, so you know 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.840 he's but anyway, that's what they took issue with. So 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:06.800 let's you know, that's a good point to sort of 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.440 launch off, launch off of and talk about what are 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.639 these myths or what are these sort of wrong headed 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:18.320 thinking that have come out of yoga. Well for starters, Um, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:23.679 yoga has its roots in mysticism, and uh, anything with 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:25.919 its roots and mysticism is going to carry that up 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.840 through the plant, you know, up through the years. So 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.359 there remains a certain amount of mysticism at times and 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.240 in various um incarnations of yoga, even in Western society. 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:40.080 So it just it just depends on the h on 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.240 on who you're listening to. I mean, the claims that 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.040 have been they about yoga have have ranged from just 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.359 sort of uh, you know, simple simple claims about various 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.679 health benefits to being able to defeat evil and achieve 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:57.200 immortality and uh and survive buried alive underneath the earth, 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:59.760 you know. I mean so it it just runs a 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:01.760 game that on who you're listening to well, and the 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.800 live barrel is one that he that William jaw Jay 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.600 Broad spends a lot of time on because he says 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.920 like this is this example, um, that was around the 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:15.920 eighteen thirty seven I believe in which this one Yogi survived. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.560 I'm gonna put that in scare quotes. Um a live 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.280 burial for forty nights and forty days. Those numbers. There's 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.640 probably a reason why those numbers were selected, right because 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:31.280 they have a religious uh relevance. Forty days, forty nights. Um. 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.320 You know, he this this uh supposedly survived this live burial, 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.159 and this really stuck with people in their minds that 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.480 that yogis had these incredible powers and that they could, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:48.080 with their spiritual prowess, really become superhuman. And I'm talking 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.280 specifically about a poon Job Yogi who was a mystic 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.680 showman and who underwent this this live burial in eighteen 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.919 thirty seven before the maharaj and uh, you know, he 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.480 was rewarded pretty richly with a pearl necklace called bracelets 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.400 and pieces of silk, and supposedly, again the centuries were 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.440 looking after this making sure that he wasn't breaking out 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.960 and having a little midnight snack or whatnot. Um. But 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.120 this was not uncommon to have this sort of showman 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.440 aspect of yogis back in the day. Yeah, I mean 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.080 it was, and we'll discuss this some more in our 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.200 are are more tentric ly rooted episode, but U But yeah, 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.639 the the the yogis of old were we're kind of 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.280 they were showmen. They were kind of Carney, So it 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.080 was kind of a Carney industry, um, which is why 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.720 I find it particularly funny that Diamond Dallas page is 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.000 uh is benefiting from yoga we'll both physically and economically 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.399 because he's a showman. He's a showman. He comes from 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.840 pro wrestling, which is which is very much a Carney business, 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.159 and then yoga and its roots is based is basically 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.560 a Carney business with these guys going around making outrageous claims, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.680 sort of duping the marks into thinking that they're doing 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:59.840 outrageous uh feats of strength or will or spirit and 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:01.879 and then getting a little pay for it. Well, and 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.639 some of them really were spiritually committed, but you know, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.040 they did need to survive and so sometimes they would 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:16.000 undertake these pseudo magic. Some of them also were kidnappers. Right, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.320 we'll talk about that protection schemes. I mean, it's really 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.720 when we say it was a carney business, by which 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:28.240 I mean it was kind of um morally suspect. Yeah, 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.639 I mean we're not exaggerating. It was broad goes into this. Uh. 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.000 People hit their children. People hit their children, People were 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.439 wary of them. And you know that some of these 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.320 yogis were considered Some of them were totally on the level. 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.720 Some of them were very spiritual men. Some of them 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.159 were Charlotte's okay, and so you know, the live burial 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.479 probably wasn't happening or um, the yogi had someone on 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.560 the inside helping to get out of that situation. I 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.399 think that the for that particular Punjab yogi that was 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.880 something like a six by four. Oh no, I'm thinking 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.359 about this is when gone. This is the guy who 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.080 started the ashram in Indian nineteen twenties to begin scientifically 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:16.000 studying h yoga. He actually tried this out, tried out 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.960 this live burial because he thought I really wanted. He 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.040 really wanted to prove that that yogis have this superhuman 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.760 forty days forty nights ability to be buried alive. And 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.760 so he re enacted the burial with another really gifted 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.040 showman yogi, who by the way, wore trunks out of 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:38.200 tiger skin because that's just how you know, bad this 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:40.480 yogi was right. Now, some of them went around naked 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.119 as well with the beard. Yeah, beard so long that 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:47.160 it kind of created a working um. So anyway, Goods 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.080 research team sealed him into a six ft long four 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.879 ft wise six foot deep chamber which was sealed in 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.800 brick and entered only by an air tight door. This 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.320 Yogi lasted only eleven hours the first time, and then 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.480 eighteen hours a second time. Did this like eleven more 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.400