Maria Jenina A.

Mercado
PE 2 HY 2T 2018-2019

Clearing Misconceptions in Yoga I – Health

1. Briefly narrate/contrast the difference of yoga and yogis of the past from
modern day yoga and its practitioners. (5 points)

Let me differentiate yoga from yogi. Yoga is the discipline while the yogi is a practioner
who does the discipline (yoga).

Yoga and yogis of the past differed in several aspects from modern day yoga and its
practitioners. Let’s focus on yoga first. Yoga before was done in private rather than in
classes. Now, its mode of instruction was public rather than private. As William J. Broad
stated on his first chapter of The Science of Yoga, it had gone from the calling of supermen
to the pursuit of common men and of women. Yoga also had gone from an ancient
obsession with transcendence of the body (achieving a blissful state of consciousness
homologous to the happiness experienced in sexual orgasm) to a modern crusade for a new
kind of physicality. Yoga during the ancient times showed burial feats in exchange for
compensation. It put emphasis on the miraculous.

Yogis, on the other hand, were those who engaged in ritual sex or showmen who contorted
their bodies to win alms during the ancient times. They were like circus performers or
gypsies who were believed to be able to read palms, interpret dreams, and sold charms.
They were portrayed as people who can fly, levitate, stop their hearts, suspend their
breathing, vanish, walk through walls, project themselves in other bodies, touch the moon,
survive live burial, make themselves invisible, walk on water, and bring the dead back to
life. Now their agenda focused on improving the overall health of a person may it be
physically or mentally. During the ancient times, yogis reveled in skulls and ashes but now
they use exercise mats and gym clothes. Only a few women did yoga before but now, there
a lot of women yogis. Before they were believed to have the ability to live for centuries but
today yogis or the yoga teachers do the practice in helping to prolong life but doesn’t dictate
that one could live for centuries.

2. List down five fallacies/myths about yoga or yogis discussed in chapter 1.

Cite the page number for each example given.

5 FALLACIES/MYTHS ABOUT YOGA/YOGIS:

 The act of doing a burial feat was miraculous (p. 48)

 Yogis are miraculous. They could fly, levitate, stop their hearts, suspend their
breathing, vanish, walk through walls, project themselves in other bodies, touch
the moon, survive live burial, make themselves invisible, walk on water, and
bring the dead back to life – that they were immortal (p. 36)
  Yogis could stop their heart (p. 47)
 Yoga is black magic (p. 48)
 Yogis could live for centuries (p. 51)

3. List down five scientifically proven benefits of practicing yoga discussed

in chapter 1. Cite the page number for each example given.

5 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN BENEFITS OF PRACTICING YOGA:

 Physiological slowing from yoga can reduce stress, the heart rate, blood pressure,
helping to boost immunity, and prevent diseases (p. 50)
 Yoga has been found to raise levels of antioxidants in the bloodstream and to
lower oxidative stress (p. 50)
 Yoga can counteract the forces of aging (p. 50)
 Yoga can counteract the deterioration of the disks that lie between the vertebrae
and all the bending and stretching will make the backbone youthful (p. 50)
 Yoga stimulates the vagus which wields remarkable control over the body’s
immune system (p. 51)