TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ENGAGEMENT WITH ASHTANGA VINYASA YOGA
Australian National University
Dr Benjamin R Smith

Dr Smith is a social/cultural anthropologist, and a practitioner of the Ashtanga Vinyasa method taught by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India. His current research includes the development of a conversation between anthropological theories of the body and selfhood and the embodied practice of asana, with a particular focus on practitioners' self-experience. Further research interests include: (i) the cultural history of the spread of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga to the West; (ii) the cross cultural efficacy of the practice of yoga; (iii) yoga (as practice, and through the related body of religious-philosophical thought, e.g., Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and commentaries etc.) as a means for investigating the nature of human subjectivity; (iv) the relationship between 'modern postural yoga' and late modern 'consumer' culture.

Click here to contact the author via Yoga in Australia.

The assessment of yoga outcomes in women with breast cancer; a pilot study.
University of Sydney
Mariette Maclurcan (Masters student)

With increasing numbers of women diagnosed with and surviving breast cancer and evidence of greater levels of physical and emotional morbidity associated with the illness, there has been an increasing emphasis on quality of life and well-being issues for people with cancer. Studies have indicated the positive effects of meditation, relaxation and yoga on lowering levels of psychological and physical distress in cancer populations.

This pilot study aims to 1) determine the acceptability, comprehensibility, face validity and sensitivity of a number of instruments in detecting outcomes of yoga interventions 2) to explore the experiences of women with breast cancer 3) determine the effects of a Satyananda yoga program on the physical and psychological well-being of women with breast cancer regimes. More

A multi-component yoga intervention as adjunct to treatment of Vietnam War Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A randomized controlled trial.
University of Queensland
Dr Janis Carter, M.B. B.S., D.P.M., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P.

Dr Carter is a psychiatrist and a PhD candidate in the final stages of completing her first randomized controlled trial studying "Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) as adjunct to ordinary medical treatment in Vietnam War Veterans with PTSD - a randomized controlled trial." Publications from the SKY trial will start being prepared in January 2006. SKY Yoga is a multi-component program, and multi-component interventions are found to be more effective in this population than simple interventions. Yoga has many tools, and the use of many of these tools improves the outcome, it would appear.

Dr Carter has performed a number of open labelled studies which are published on her website www.therapywithyoga.com. She has appeared on the Catalyst program and the transcript of that interview is still on the ABC website, where Iyengar Yoga was subjected to open labelled study. You can find out more about Sudarshan Kriya Yoga here. You can contact Janis by email at janiscarter@onaustralia.com.au or by phone on +61 (0)7 3397 6425. More

Pranayama Research. Where science and yoga meet...
Monash University Melbourne
Philip Stevens, BSc (Psych, Physiol), BSc (hons) (Physiol), MWSCY, FWSCY

• Experimental trials exploring simple breathing practises while measurements are taken and recorded on a laptop using standard, non-invasive, bio-medical recording equipment to reveal brain wave, heart rate, muscle movements and nasal airflow patterns associated with particular breathing techniques.
  
  
• Pranayama Unveiled - Interviews with Masters
  
  Click here for participation details, photos and more. More

An examination of the effectiveness of Yoga for moderating the psychological and physiological impact of menopause
RMIT University Melbourne
Janet Lowndes, BA, Grad Dip (Psychology), Dip Health Yoga

Menopause, or the 'change of life' for women often co-occurs alongside other transitional stressors. Women use various coping strategies to moderate the psychological and physiological symptoms associated with this period of change (eg. medication, counselling, exercise, natural remedies) and subjective evidence suggests that increasingly large numbers of women of menopausal age are attending Yoga classes.

Despite Yoga's reported holistic therapeutic benefits, it is unclear if and how Yoga assists women to transition through the change of menopause, and if it may also provide a strategy to moderate the impact of multiple stressors occurring for women at midlife.

This study seeks to explore the benefits of regular Yoga practice in enhancing psychological and physiological coping strategies to mediate the impact of life change during menopause, exploring the impact of a 6 month Yoga intervention for peri-menopausal women experiencing multiple life change events.

Click here to contact the author via Yoga in Australia.

The Impact of Yoga on the Behaviour and Attention of Children and Adolescents with Disruptive Behaviour
University of Sydney
Pauline Jensen (PhD student) and Ass Prof. Dianna Kenny (Supervisor).
School of Behaviour and Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Science, University of Sydney.

Disruptive Behaviour Disorders (DBD) including Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) are increasing in the school aged population and can continue into adulthood. These disorders adversely affect educational, social, vocational and family functioning. Current treatments are pharmacological, cognitive behaviour therapy, behaviour modification and family therapy. Research indicates a neurological basis for ADHD with genetic and environmental factors contributing to all DBD's. Yogic techniques have been found to influence brain waves, oxygen metabolism, neurotransmitter functioning- factors affected in ADHD and can reduce stress, anxiety and heart rate-which are all elevated in DBD. Yoga may be effective as an adjuvant treatment for DBD as it is non-invasive, inexpensive, skill based and self-directed.

This study examines the effects of yoga on students aged 7-16 years with DBD. We hope to recruit at least 80 participants. Each participant will serve as his/her own control. Testing will occur before and after the control period and before and after the yoga training. The study is being conducted in NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) school's for students with disruptive behaviour and emotional disturbance. The yoga program consists of (asanas) postures, breathing techniques (pranayama- without breath holding), relaxation (pratyahara) and sound resonance (simple mantra) taken mainly from the Satyananda tradition. Sessions run for 30-40-minutes three days a week over a fifteen-week period. Measures employed include behaviour rating profiles by parents and teachers, a test of attention ,self report questionnaires of self esteem and anxiety, a computerised logger of movement, classroom observations and video recordings of yoga classes pre and post control phase and intervention phase and a weekly checklist for students. We will also measure EEGs and heart and breath rates in a subsample of the study group.

Estimated time of completion of the trials is December 2005. Estimated time of completion of PhD is September 2006.

Click here to contact the author via Yoga in Australia.

Flow: Optimal Subjective Experience in Yoga
University of Queensland
Dr Susan Jackson, BEd(Hons)(Syd), MSc(Illinois), PhD(North Carolina)

Flow state has been studied in a great many life settings and across diverse activities. Csikszentmihalyi (1990), founder of flow theory, stated that the similarities between yoga and flow are strong, describing how both try to achieve "a joyous, self-forgetful involvement through concentration, which in turn is made possible by a discipline of the body" (p.105). According to Csikszentmihalyi, yoga may be one of the oldest and most systematic methods of producing the flow experience.

To date, there has been a lack of systematic research to examine the flow experience in yoga. By taking part in the Flow-Subjective Experience component of the Yoga Survey, you will be helping to develop a knowledge base of how the dimensions of flow are experienced in yoga.

Dr Susan Jackson, author of the flow scale, is extending over 10 years of flow research in physical activity to a specific focus on the connection between yoga and flow. Click here for further information. More

Corporeal Divinity and Gender Identity:
Engaging with Luce Irigaray's sensible transcendental and the practice of yoga
School of History Philosophy Religion and Classics
University of Queensland
Jean Byrne, BA (ECU) Hons (UQ), Grad Dip Ed (Murdoch), Senior YTAA Member

Feminist philosophers have long argued that western philosophy and discourse has denied the subjectivity of women. The philosopher excludes women and associates her with the opposite of the ‘Truth’ he seeks – nature and matter. Consequently the subject of western metaphysics is inherently male and philosophy is marked by sexual indifference.

Faced with an inability to gain an answer in western culture to the problem of sexual difference, French feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, finds the possibility of articulating and 'regrounding singular identity' (Irigaray, 2000:3) through the practice of yoga. In her book Between East and West: from singularity to community, Luce Irigaray uses the practice of yoga as a strategy to overcome the dualistic split of matter and divinity in western metaphysics. She claims that the cultivation of breathing that is characteristic of yoga can create the necessary conditions for sexual difference, thereby enabling women’s representation.

My research seeks to explore the role of yoga in Irigaray’s work and the enabling of the sensible transcendental (the meeting of matter and divinity) through yogic techniques. This entails exploring the fruitfulness of Irigaray’s suggestion that body can become spirit through breathing and examining the conditions necessary for sexual difference in relation to the philosophy of Tantra. This raises the question of whether Irigaray’s strategic use of yoga practices, is indeed contradictory to the traditional goal of yoga, the union of opposites. Finally I explore how the union (non dual) of opposites speaks to the question of gender identity (the dual).

Click here to contact the author via Yoga in Australia.

Community, Commitment and Happiness - Understanding Lifestyle Choice in Modern Economies
Deakin University
Dr Ken Reed, Assoc. Professor, Carmel Goulding, PhD student

This project seeks to examine the type, scale and motives which characterise lifestyle preferences in advanced, modern economies. The research is based on the premise that lifestyle choice in advanced economies has widened and this is primarily due to the relationship between improved social and economic conditions and attitudinal and value change.

Drawing on theories of attitudinal change and lifestyle preference, and the empirical evidence of lifestyle typologies in modern, affluent societies, we propose a rational choice account of lifestyle preference. However, we build upon traditional rational choice and take into account the subjective nature of choice proposing that lifestyle choice is essentially bounded by the values, norms and level of commitment embodied in people's social networks.

Essentially, the project aims to understand how people make lifestyle choices, particularly radical lifestyle change. It also seeks to understand why people construct lifestyles which lead to less than optimal well being. Both survey and case study research will be used to 1) examine the social and economic influences on the decision to undertake radical lifestyle change: and 2) assess the extent to which the lifestyle choice is mediated by the values, norms and beliefs embedded in people's personal communities. This research will be conducted in Australia and the UK.

The research will add to our understanding of the motivations behind people's work life decisions. Understanding how and why people make unconventional choices in allocating time – such as radical life change – offers the potential to provide new insights into time allocation decisions in general. More specifically, the research offers the opportunity to focus attention on the influence of norms and values on lifestyle choice.

Click here for more information or to volunteer to be part of the study. More

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