Kundalini

In this paper we emphasize that 1/ f noise has two different origins, one compatible with Laplace determinism and one determined by unpredictable crucial events. The dynamics of heartbeats, manifest as heart rate variability (HRV) time series, are determined by the joint action of these different memory sources with meditation turning the Laplace memory into a strongly coherent process while exerting an action on the crucial events favoring the transition from the condition of ideal 1/ f noise to the Gaussian basin of attraction...

The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of Kundalini Yoga in reducing symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) compared to a common treatment-as-usual condition using cognitive techniques. A secondary objective was to explore potential treatment mechanisms. Females aged 24 to 75 years with GAD ( n = 49) received either an 8-week Kundalini Yoga intervention ( n = 34) or an 8-week treatment-as-usual condition ( n = 15). The yoga condition resulted in lower levels of anxiety relative to the treatment-as-usual condition...

OBJECTIVE: The Your Own Greatness Affirmed (YOGA) for Youth program delivers yoga to urban inner-city schools with the goal of providing practical benefits that support underserved children at high risk of behavioral and emotional problems. A 10-week YOGA for Youth program delivered 1 to 2 times per week was implemented in 3 schools in urban neighborhoods to examine the effect of the program on student stress, affect, and resilience. METHODS: Thirty children were administered the Perceived Stress Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Resilience Scale before and after the yoga program...

CONTEXT: Stress is defined as an alteration of an organism's balance in response to a demand perceived from the environment. Diverse methods exist to evaluate physiological response. A noninvasive method is salivary measurement of cortisol and alpha-amylase. A growing body of evidence suggests that the regular practice of Yoga would be an effective treatment for stress. AIMS: To determine the Kundalini Yoga (KY) effect, immediate and after 3 months of regular practice, on the perception of psychological stress and the salivary levels of cortisol and alpha-amylase activity...

BACKGROUND: Among the working population, non-specific low-back pain and neck pain are one of the most common reasons for sickness absenteeism. The aim was to evaluate the effects of an early intervention of yoga - compared with strength training or evidence-based advice - on sickness absenteeism, sickness presenteeism, back and neck pain and disability among a working population. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 159 participants with predominantly (90%) chronic back and neck pain...

BACKGROUND: Global population aging will result in increasing rates of cognitive decline and dementia. Thus, effective, low-cost, and low side-effect interventions for the treatment and prevention of cognitive decline are urgently needed. Our study is the first to investigate the effects of Kundalini yoga (KY) training on mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: Older participants (≥55 years of age) with MCI were randomized to either a 12-week KY intervention or memory enhancement training (MET; gold-standard, active control)...

Behavioral interventions are becoming increasingly popular approaches to ameliorate age-related cognitive decline, but their underlying neurobiological mechanisms and clinical efficiency have not been fully elucidated. The present study explored brain plasticity associated with two behavioral interventions, memory enhancement training (MET) and a mind-body practice (yogic meditation), in healthy seniors with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using structural magnetic resonance imaging (s-MRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS)...

The cardiac dynamics during meditation is explored quantitatively with two chaos-based non-linear techniques viz. multi-fractal detrended fluctuation analysis and visibility network analysis techniques. The data used are the instantaneous heart rate (in beats/minute) of subjects performing Kundalini Yoga and Chi meditation from PhysioNet. The results show consistent differences between the quantitative parameters obtained by both the analysis techniques. This indicates an interesting phenomenon of change in the complexity of the cardiac dynamics during meditation supported with quantitative parameters...

The present study was designed to evaluate yoga's impact on blood pressure (BP) and quality of life (QOL) and on stress, depression and anxiety in patients with hypertension in a primary care setting. We conducted a multi-centre randomized controlled trial with follow-up after 12-week intervention completion. Adult primary care patients diagnosed with hypertension were randomly allocated to yoga or usual care. The intervention group performed a short home-based Kundalini yoga programme 15 min twice-daily during the 12-week intervention period...

A research participant came to our lab with self-proclaimed, ecstatic, Kundalini meditative experiences. Using neurophenomenology and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we were able to identify brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex [primarily in left Brodmann׳s areas (BAs) 46 and 10, but also extending into BAs 11, 47, and 45] associated with this experience. The Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory provided evidence that this was a perceived altered state of consciousness. Additionally, the Physio-Kundalini Syndrome Index strongly suggested that what he was experiencing was indeed Kundalini...

Yoga may be effective in the reduction of PTSD symptomology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a Kundalini Yoga (KY) treatment on PTSD symptoms and overall wellbeing. To supplement the current field of inquiry, a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) was conducted comparing an 8-session KY intervention with a waitlist control group. 80 individuals with current PTSD symptoms participated. Both groups demonstrated changes in PTSD symptomology but yoga participants showed greater changes in measures of sleep, positive affect, perceived stress, anxiety, stress, and resilience...

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common disorder associated with significant distress and interference. Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be the most effective form of psychotherapy, few patients receive or have access to this intervention. Yoga therapy offers another promising, yet under-researched, intervention that is gaining increasing popularity in the general public, as an anxiety reduction intervention. The purpose of this innovative clinical trial protocol is to investigate the efficacy of a Kundalini Yoga intervention, relative to CBT and a control condition...

OBJECTIVE: To understand how individuals with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) perceive a trauma-sensitive Kundalini yoga (KY) program. METHODS: Digitally recorded telephone interviews 30-60 minutes in duration were conducted with 40 individuals with PTSD participating in an 8-week KY treatment program. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis techniques. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis identifies three major themes: self-observed changes, new awareness, and the yoga program itself...

Contemplative practices can have profound effects on mindfulness and on physical and sensory and mystical experiences. Individuals who self-reported meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, or a combination of practices and their patterns of practice were compared for mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences. The results suggest that the amount of practice but not the pattern and social conditions of practice influences mindfulness and possibly mystical experiences. Meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, or a combination of practices all were found to be associated with enhancements of mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences, but meditation had particularly strong associations and may be the basis of the associations of yoga and prayer with these outcomes...

This article presents the history of one until now unknown case of C.G. Jung: Maggy Reichstein. Born in Indonesia in 1894 in a very aristocratic family, she brought her sister to Zurich to be treated by Jung in 1919, and later she herself was in analysis with him. Jung used her case as example in his lecture in 1937 on the realities of practical psychotherapy, relating it to the process of transference and countertransference. Jung deepened his studies in Eastern psychology after a series of dreams she had, which culminated in the Yoga Kundalini Seminars...

UNLABELLED: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, but there is still room for improvement. The aim of the present study was to examine the potential benefit of enriching CBT with kundalini yoga (Y-CBT). Participants consisted of treatment resistant clients at a community mental health clinic. A total of 32 participants enrolled in the study and 22 completed the programme. After the Y-CBT intervention, pre-post comparisons showed statistically significant improvements in state and trait anxiety, depression, panic, sleep and quality of life...

The human heartbeat is one of the important examples of complex physiologic fluctuations. For the first time in this study higher order spectra of heart rate signals during meditation have explored. Specifically, the aim of this study was to analysis and compares the contribution of quadratic phase coupling of human heart rate variability during two forms of meditation: (1) Chinese Chi (or Qigong) meditation and (2) Kundalini Yoga meditation. For this purpose, Bispectrum was estimated by using biased, parametric and the direct (FFT) method...

Near-death experiences (NDEs), transcendental experiences on the threshold of death with profound implications for both patient care and religious belief, have been hypothesized to be related to the awakening of a biological process known in Eastern traditions as kundalini. In a test of this proposed association between kundalini and NDEs, a sample of near-death experiencers acknowledged significantly more symptoms of a physio-kundalini syndrome than did control subjects.

SYR 2013 Accepted Poster abstracts: 1. Benefits of Yoga as a Wellness Practice in a Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care Setting: If You Build It, Will They Come? 2. Yoga-based Psychotherapy Group With Urban Youth Exposed to Trauma. 3. Embodied Health: The Effects of a Mind�Body Course for Medical Students. 4. Interoceptive Awareness and Vegetable Intake After a Yoga and Stress Management Intervention. 5. Yoga Reduces Performance Anxiety in Adolescent Musicians. 6. Designing and Implementing a Therapeutic Yoga Program for Older Women With Knee Osteoarthritis...

In cases of mental depression, the plasma serotonin, melatonin and glutamate levels are increased along with the lowering of urinary - 5 - hydroxyindole acetic acid, plasma monoamine oxidase and cortisol levels following three and six months Practice of Kundalini Yoga. The pulse rate and blood pressure in these patients are also lowered after Kundalini Yoga practice. Thus, the practice of Kundalini Yoga helps to maintain a perfect homeostasis by bringing an equilibrium between the sympathetic and parasympathetic activities and it can be used as a non - medical measure in treating patients with mental depression...