Yoga Therapy and Safety Blog

“Science: The investigation of natural phenomena through observation, theoretical explanation, and experimentation, or the knowledge produced by such investigation.”  -American Heritage In September of 2014 my wife and I toured the Asian Hall at the British Museum in London. The presence of nearly every statue exhibiting at least one mudra confirmed my suspicion: We in the West have overlooked a powerful technology of yoga. It was no accident that the hall was filled with silent demonstrations of what I predict will become part of the next wave in smart, safe yoga. Mudras are purposeful body positions, most often involving the hands, but not exclusively. The positions are said to offer the practitioner insight, powerful healing, and other mind-stuff stabilizing capacities. The current modern postural yoga has largely skipped over these techniques in favor of the more culturally familiar “exercises” of asana with their exterior, visible emphasis. The subtlety and interior perspective of mudra has been relegated to that of an occasional meditation prop at best in most brands of yoga. Two recent books have been published that I hope will further the exploration and adoption of the science of mudra. The books are Mudras for Healing and Transformation by Lilian and Joseph LePage, and Mudras: The Sacred Secret by Indu Arora. The knowledge that will be produced by such investigation invites further scrutiny from the yoga and health care communities through the lens of the scientific method in search for theoretical explanations of how mudras “work.” This post is intended…