For the first time, Hindus brought yoga as a commodity "for sale" to America and Europe at the end of the 19th century. And they found out that neither Eastern-pranic mysticism, nor, moreover, the prospect of total self-control tempt the pragmatic Western man in the street on a sufficiently massive scale, allowing them to establish a business with more or less decent turnover ... But health is a completely different matter. So the focus has shifted. And from what yoga is in fact and in fact, the main emphasis was shifted to the amazing ability of this practice to heal the human body on the principle of "functional optimization". What does it mean? Just that, unlike selective and at least not always harmoniously acting drugs, the practice of yoga exercises helps to restore impaired body functions according to the scheme “where something is too much - we reduce, where something is not enough - we increase it, where everything is normal - so leave." Convenient, isn't it? And the Western man in the street "was seduced." Thanks to the efforts of enterprising sellers, for a whole century yoga seemed to the inhabitants of "civilized" countries a sort of "oriental physical therapy." And not without reason...

Let's try to figure out what happens if you suddenly take it out of the blue and "jump into detachment"? And stop the usual fuss of the mind ...

If this suddenly happens ... well, suppose, you never know what happens in life? .. it means that right away, just like that, out of the blue, the usual mode of the brain has changed dramatically ...

Some characters, by the way, do just that - ignoring any introductory stages, they directly take the bull by the horns and ... Methods of a purely psychotechnical stop of the bustle of the mind are described many times in different sources. In addition to Patanjali's Yoga Darshana, there are several later written sources describing the principles and methods of practicing raja yoga - "royal yoga". Or, if you try to find a version of the translation of this term, somewhat more adequate to the realities of the modern psychosocial situation - the practice of "higher technology of self-control." A witty enough option to somehow designate the “highest” of all “high technologies”: “royal” ...

In almost any primary source on Raja Yoga, there is certainly a warning: although this path is the shortest and most direct, it is extremely dangerous and accessible only to a few of the chosen few. Why is that? What is the danger of direct, direct, conscious intervention in the control of the modes of operation of the brain without special preparation of the organism?

To answer this question, let's first try to imagine what must happen in order for the "vanity of the mind" to stop. Any “fussy” process in the mind is a “flickering” of the bioelectric potentials of the cells of the cerebral cortex. And, of course, the accompanying bustle of nervous and other processes in organs and systems, designed to ensure the normal functioning of the central bioprocessor (i.e., the brain) with everything necessary. After all, it is no secret that the central nervous system is the main consumer, whose needs are absolutely priority in relation to the needs of any other organs and systems. In response, it is "obliged" to provide organs and systems with uninterrupted correct control - both at the level of conscious impulses and at the unconscious level. It is clear that the functional control of physiological mechanisms at the level of unconscious reactions in the overall picture of the control scheme of the body's work occupies the lion's share. This part of the yoga practice, if it affects, then only slightly - only at the level of optimizing the behavior of large functional conglomerates, say, the circulatory-respiratory system, the gastrointestinal tract, the endocrine system, the complex of thermoregulation functions, etc. The control of the particular functions of the involved small complexes and system elements turns out to be “embedded” in the overall picture, but remains automatic, although it is subject to indirect correction in accordance with the task. But all this becomes possible only after many years of training. At first, we can only talk about streamlining and increasing the efficiency of the brain in the field of conscious thought and emotional processes. But, to be honest, even if it works out, there is a big success ... Just huge! After all, the vast majority of human beings live 99% in automatic mode, even where, in principle, one could control oneself consciously ... However, we deviated somewhat from the topic ...

So let's take the following picture. A human being lives for himself - as everyone else lives - he fusses, emotionally, sometimes tries to think, however, he (she) does not particularly succeed, since the gray matter of his (her) brain is occupied mainly by hosts of fidgety rushing images, fragments of associative series, emotional outbursts, instinctive urges... After all, basically all human motivations are due to three primary instincts... Well, and bioelectromagnetic processes that correspond to all this - current there - current here, the potential is higher here - lower there ... In general terms, everything is somehow conditionally compensated and even some stability of the overall picture of chaos is observed. It is clear that almost all the energy used to ensure the "vanity of the mind" is wasted (if we evaluate the feasibility of costs in terms of the resulting creativity of the thinking process) ... But what can you do - this is how we all live ... Already Homo, but not yet quite sapiens… And therefore, when you still have to include the mind in any creative process, nuances arise. Mostly with adverse effects. Indeed, in order to comprehend something, and even more so, to create a positive abstract idea and come up with a way of its concrete embodiment in matter, it is necessary to form in the mind a sufficiently powerful directed process, the “useful signal” in which would be “steadily noticeable” against the background reigning in the mind "emotional-cogitative noise". Energy goes into this business ... Especially for people who tend to constantly “chew” in their minds heaps of useless emotional, figurative, associative and other consciously-unconsciously-subconsciously-superconscious rubbish. And such, for the most part, are all people, in particular - subjects of a creative warehouse - both "techies" and "lyricists". Therefore, being included in the active phase of the creative process, an ordinary normal person, especially a creative person, creates a powerful overload in the body in all respects. And it does not matter what exactly is the object of creativity, and in what field of activity this berry grows. After all, the energy that the brain spends on overcoming the “noise” and reorienting the thinking process is enormous. And, quite obviously, it does not come from nowhere. Indeed, where can the brain get the energy needed to “raise a useful signal” to the level of a desperate scream? But only in this case, the system will "notice it" and react to it as an organized potentially creative process... Well, of course! It must - simply must - be provided by the organs and systems of the body ... After all, the brain gave a request! So - hurt yourself, but do it ... In addition, in this case, there is a restructuring of the mode of operation of the brain. Let it be temporary, let it not be too deep and partial, but, nevertheless ... The mode of operation of the main consumer of energy in the body is changing. If we consider the bioelectromagnetic component of the situation, what do we have? That's right - the transition process! What is a transitional process in a system? This is a critical situation when all elements of the system experience multiple overloads in all respects due to a sharp surge in all voltages, all currents and all intensities of all components of all energy fields. This is physics, we will not go into details, for those who are interested - a high school physics course, and if anyone wants to understand in general terms more deeply - an institute course on the theoretical foundations of electrical engineering. The result is important for us - and we constantly encounter the result in life: cancer ate the kidneys, the heart could not withstand the loads, the ulcer ate through the stomach, in short, it burned (burned out) at work and rotted (rotted) alive ... There are countless options, but the result is the same and the same: we either decompose alive, or over the years we cunningly learn how to effectively earn funds to confidently maintain the status of pharmaceutical companies. Or - both that and another ... Two in one, so to speak ...

So it turns out that mental work turns out to be really extremely difficult, and creativity is an occupation that is terribly unhealthy and significantly shortens life, if only ... If only what?

Unless Homo (he or she doesn’t matter) suddenly, for some not entirely clear reason, decides to change the course of his instinctively automatic semi-animal being in favor of transforming it into the being of a person who is already more or less reasonable, that is, who owns himself. Sapiens, as it were ... And what property distinguishes true sapiens? That's right - currently the rarest ability, at least in the first approximation, to control the behavior of your most important organ. Moreover, what is especially funny - an organ that is most willingly and gratefully manageable. It's funny - because the actual percentage of those Homo able to at least approximately "keep themselves in check", who actually became or at least gradually become sapiens, in the total billions trampling the earth's surface of the planetary firmament with their two, is depressingly insignificant ... But in order to manage the work of the mind, much is not needed. It is enough just to give him the opportunity to understand the true sources of motives and impulses that determine the course of the process of life, and to allow him to learn how to manage himself.

Moreover, the techniques are known... As we have already found out, they are called “raja yoga” and are described in sufficient detail in the already mentioned work of Patanjali “Yoga Darshana”. So detailed that this work may well serve as an almost ideal guide to the practice of raja yoga ...

But... Let's say we manage to achieve noticeable shifts in changing the nature of the processes occurring in our consciousness with the help of the techniques described in Patanjali's work. The mode of operation of the brain changes in the direction of greater awareness and orderliness. What is happening? That's right, everything is the same as in the variant of the development of events according to the scenario of the spontaneous creative process described above ... Except, perhaps, the need to raise the level of the useful signal to the level of a heart-rending scream. And so, in general - the same replacement of fuss with a directed and somehow more or less organized stream of virtual events, and the same bioelectromagnetic transition process. The absence of the need to increase the amplitude of the useful signal is more than offset by a much greater depth and volume of the process in the cerebral cortex than those inherent in "involuntary" creative thinking. So the load on the organs and systems of the body, designed to provide the brain with everything necessary, is by no means less than in the case of creativity. And maybe much more ... As a rule, the body is not able to cope with such a load. The brain requires nutrition, all organs and systems begin to work to meet this need - to the detriment of themselves - powerful streams of bioelectromagnetic energy rush along the nerves to the center of the body, a mighty wave of energy rises from the center of the body along the spinal cord in the direction of the head. This is called Kundalini Syndrome.

Andrey Sidersky

The requirements that such a truly super-extreme physiological situation imposes on organs and systems are prohibitively high. Only an absolutely healthy and well-trained body is able to survive. In practice, this happens very rarely. Speaking quite frankly, I don’t know the options when the process would go “without loss”. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the system collapses, starting from the “weak points”. The organs do not withstand the load, respectively, pathogenic microorganisms and adverse environmental factors that are always ready for action immediately take advantage of the opportunity and “bite” into the body, causing multiple physical and mental disorders. I repeat: I do not know of a single case of a problem-free passage of an unprepared person "through the Kundalini syndrome." But there are quite enough examples of serious problems up to a life-long mental hospital and death. As a rule, things never come to the stabilization of stable control according to the “chitta-vritti-nirodhah” type. Irreversible violation of the already flimsy physiological balance, a complex of infectious diseases and concomitant functional disorders, organic disorders of the musculoskeletal system and internal organs, psychosomatic imbalance and a completely negative result in terms of "cessation of the vanity of the mind" - psychoses, neuroses and manic-depressive syndromes instead of control, complete inner silence and an adequate conscious expansion of the range of perception... Such is the standard sad result of the practice of raja yoga without proper preparation of the organic body.

Exit? The way out was found a long time ago - at the same time when yogis faced the realities of the situation described above. Over many centuries of “field experiments” on themselves, they have managed to develop auxiliary techniques that allow them to “spur up” the immune system at the right time and increase the level of adaptive abilities of the body. Empirically, they discovered a fact, much later confirmed by clinical studies of Academician A. A. Bogomolets: the state of connective tissues is directly related to the functional level of the immune system and the level of adaptive abilities of the body. Body training, in which the main emphasis is on the development of tendons, articular bags, intra-articular ligaments, etc., as well as muscle stretching (or rather, “connective tissue bags” in which muscles are enclosed), significantly increases the functional level of the immune system and contributes to the development of the body's ability to adapt to stress factors, the intensity of which exceeds the normal resistance threshold of the body. Understandable, right? The training technique already familiar to us by the name of “asana” has an automatically activated protection mechanism against the destructive action of transients. The correct practice of asanas generates detachment and at the same time protects the body from the destructive action of the process of development of this very detachment ... If it is really correct. And corresponds to individual predisposition. But this is a separate issue...

As we already know, any asana is a position of the body in which, among other things, certain areas of the tendon-muscle complexes are subjected to intense long-term fixed stretching. It is clear that the worse a person’s stretching is, the easier and faster he achieves results in terms of the impact of asanas on the state of the body. The better the stretch, the more intricate forms you have to invent in order for the practice to have the expected effect on the immune system.

But just stretching is not enough. If all the time we only pull the tendon-muscle complexes, stretch the articular bags and intra-articular ligaments, we will get the opposite result. The musculoskeletal system will loosen up and instead of a healing effect, practice will give the opposite effect. Therefore, asanas are necessarily introduced into practice, the main effect of which is the intense static tension of certain muscle groups, designed to compensate for the effect of stretching. Everything is the same ... We just consider the practice of asanas from a slightly different angle than it was done in the article "YOGA - ... - RID"

And, of course, in order to prevent stagnation in organs and systems from developing as a result of long-term static fixations and the pattern of distribution of hydraulic pressure fields of liquid media and bioelectromagnetic fields in the body is not pathologically distorted, asanas are connected into bundles by dynamic transitions. The dynamics of transitional movements is organized in such a way as to produce in the body the effect of "shaking" and "distributing" the mechanical, biochemical and bioelectric results of performing asanas that preceded the transition. The sequence of asanas connected by dynamic transitions is called "vinyasa" (direct translation is "order, sequence"). When used properly, it works flawlessly. Fortunately, the yogis had enough time to perfect the technique of performing all the elements of their gymnastics and select the most effective and appropriate techniques.

Well ... Let's say we figured out the increase in the adequacy of the immune system. At the same time, they solved the problem of hypodynamia ... And what about such a scourge of modern human existence as cerebrovascular insufficiency caused by bipedalism? After all, the chronic inability of the cardiovascular system to provide a sufficiently plentiful supply of oxygen-enriched blood to the brain is, if not direct, then certainly indirect, by all means, the cause of many serious systemic disorders and diseases. Yogis have solved the problem very simply by introducing into practice many asanas, during which the body is turned upside down and fixed in this position. The addition of various movements and additional elements that modify the pattern of pressure distribution in the circulatory system turns exercises of this type into a powerful means of sustainable optimization of cerebral circulation. The vessels of the brain are strengthened, the brain receives an influx of fresh blood. The pituitary gland, on whose activity the correct operation of the entire system of biochemical regulation depends, also receives serious functional support. With the right and careful approach to practice, this allows the body to restore acquired dysfunctions of the endocrine system, compensate for some genetically determined problems, and even “acquire a reserve of biochemical strength” in case of serious internal or external stress factors.

Very good…

Andrey Sidersky

But here's another question: what about the ability of the blood itself to carry oxygen, how to optimize the energy saturation of the blood itself and energy exchange at the level of organ tissues? In 1998, V. F. Frolov proposed a technique for the so-called endogenous respiration. The essence of the method is that exhalation is performed through water - with a load. This slightly increases the pressure in the lungs during breathing. We will not go into details - you can read about them in the works of V. F. Frolov and his followers, but here's what's interesting: the breathing exercises of yoga gymnastics, known as part of hatha yoga called "pranayama", basically also have the principle of stretching the duration respiratory cycle with resulting changes in intrapulmonary pressure during respiration. And, what deserves special attention, the healing effect of pranayama, at least, is not inferior to the healing effect of endogenous breathing exercises using the technique of V. F. Frolov. Pranayama significantly increases the bioelectric potential of blood cells, which can significantly increase the efficiency of tissue respiration. In combination with the practice of asanas and vinyasas, this leads to a noticeable increase in the efficiency of the system at the level of body tissue cells. But this, as the Strugatsky brothers wrote, is a completely different story, since it is not just about improving the body, but about developing functional abilities that far exceed the usual average human.

I would draw the following conclusion from the foregoing: as a result of centuries of practical research, yogis have developed a gymnastic technology close to perfection that can rid the organic body of almost any ailments and compensate for its genetically determined and acquired “weak points” in the process of life, thereby preparing the body for practice of raja yoga. As it turns out, this gymnastics turned out to be more than relevant today, because it allows solving many seemingly insoluble problems caused by the specifics of modern conditions of the way of life of human beings. Hence the current so high popularity of yoga training methods in the industrialized countries of the West and East.

Author: Andrey Sidersky