SRI ASANA PROJECT

SRI is conducting the asana project under the direct guidance of Swami Samnyasananda (Philip Stevens) who holds science degrees in psychology and physiology, with an honours degree in physiology. He is currently completing PhD research exploring the neurophysiological effects of certain pranayamas and yoga breathing techniques.

This project aims to map and describe all the major yoga asanas taught in yoga. We begin within the Satyananda tradition, then compare the same asana across different traditions.

To begin with, each asana will be identified, pictured, described and any claims of benefits and/or contraindications recorded, while properly listing all source material. The same process will later be repeated for the practices of pranayama, mudra, bandha, shatkarmas, meditation techniques and so on. Existing will be matched up with each practice.

The next stage will be to analyse and compare the various techniques and their different uses.

The results will provide a comprehensive source of knowledge about the practices of yoga across different traditions, and they will also form a base for identifying areas of future research into the practices and techniques of yoga.

As this project is of such great magnitude, SRI is inviting people who wish to assist in a literature search to contact  research@yogalinks.net

You can help by assisting in a literature search.

Each person who registers will research one asana within the Bihar Yoga/Satyananda Yoga tradition, recording information such as its name, accurately describe the technique in your own words, list any claimed benefits, contraindications or cautions and list the book/s or any other reference that includes that asana in some way.

If you wish to continue, you can repeat this process for the same asana across other yoga teaching traditions or research a different asana.

Step 1 – to receive your asana

The first step is to register by email  research@yogalinks.net.

In your email please include the following:

·        Introduce yourself – tell a little about yourself, including your name, age, the country you live in, yoga background, what other study you have done and any research experience.

·        Which asana or group of asanas you are particularly interested in, so an asana can be allocated to you if available.

Step 2 – researching your asana

You will then be contacted and allocated an asana, provided with a worksheet and instructions. A list of relevant publications for use as references will be made available.

Step 3 – peer review

When your research is complete, it will be uploaded onto this site others invited to comment on it. After 3 months, you can consider the comments received and make any changes you think appropriate.

Step 4 - finalizing the research

Once you have sent back your completed research to SRI, you can ask for another asana to research.

Note about copyright, proper referencing and acknowledging sources

The detail of copyright law varies from country to country, however, in general, copyright law gives protection for copying of material for research or study purposes, provided the use is fair, all sources are acknowledged and the material is properly referenced. Any copyright issues that may arise will be addressed by SRI once the research is compiled.

PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE ALL YOUR SOURCES IN THIS RESEARCH.

The Harvard referencing system uses (author and date) citations in the main body of the text and then lists all references in full at the end of the document in alphabetical order by author. The use of the author/date shorthand makes it easy to locate citations in the reference list.

http://www.education.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm

http://www.tvu.ac.uk/lrs/guides/harvard.html

Downloads:
Annual Notice
Information Pack
Application Form