Influencing the Autonomic Nervous System

This picture transcends cultures, language and social norms. It shocked the digital world for a very long time. As you can see in the photo, people have all kinds of reactions to this photo. I see it as a parlor trick that demonstrates an important point. It shows that influencing the autonomic nervous system is possible! Yogis and others have been doing it for thousands of years.

This photo has been on the web for 2 decades or more (?) Being a yoga teacher for over three decades, I am always curious about what these Indian yogis are up to, especially when it comes to lowering respiration, heart rate, digestion, pupillary response, urination, sexual response and all the other functions that happen unconsciously. I feel a certain amount of gratitude and indebtedness to this particular yogi for burning this image in my mind a long ago.

Now, at the end of the ”enough is enough” phase of aasana, at 61 years old, I am fully immersed in the stage of Praanaayaama, quite naturally and quite simply. The breath is teaching me at light speed all these things in yoga in the last 18 months that I didn’t even know existed. I sit in a state of wonder and amazement and gratitude. I feel young again.

This shocking picture has been on the web for 20 years or more.