The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards (49 page)

182
puts the make on a nearby guy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rKR4tRevfU&feature=related.

182
campaign quizzed readers:
Associated Press, “Berra Sues Network Over Ad,”
New York Times
, February 2, 2005, Section B, p. 6.

182
“Not tonight, hon”:
Michael Crawford, “Not Tonight, Hon,”
New Yorker
, February 23, 2009, p. 50.

182
colleagues published two papers:
Vikas Dhikav, Girish Karmarkar, Richa Gupta, et al., “Yoga in Female Sexual Functions,”
Journal of Sexual Medicine
, vol. 7, no. 2, part 2 (February 2010), pp. 964–70; Vikas Dhikav, Girish Karmarkar, Myank Verma, et al., “Yoga in Male Sexual Functioning: A Noncompararive Pilot Study,”
Journal of Sexual Medicine
, vol. 7, no. 10 (October 2010), pp. 3460–66.

183
a few seconds and twenty-two seconds:
Barry R. Komisaruk, Beverly Whipple, Sara Nasserzadeh, et al.,
The Orgasm Answer Guide
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), pp. 9–10.

183
orgasms that lasted a minute or more:
Masters and Johnson,
Human Sexual Response
, pp. 131–32.

183
The most important shift featured:
Bear et al.,
Neuroscience
, pp. 542–43; Otto Appenzeller and Emilio Oribe,
The Autonomic Nervous System
, 5th ed. (New York: Elsevier, 1997), pp. 339–52.

184
a remarkable class of women:
Beverly Whipple, Gina Ogden, and Barry R. Komisaruk, “Physiological Correlates of Imagery-Induced Orgasm in Women,”
Archives of Sexual Behavior
, vol. 21, no. 2 (April 1992), pp. 121–33.

184
yoga played a central role:
The Rutgers scientists made no mention of the yoga connection in their paper. But one of them, Gina Ogden, discussed the link in a book she subsequently wrote,
Women Who Love Sex: Ordinary Women Describe Their Paths to Pleasure, Intimacy, and Ecstasy
(Boston: Trumpeter, 2007), pp. 111–37.

184
“Just tell me”:
Quoted in ibid., p. 114.

185
Christian ascetics also evoked:
For a scholarly discussion, see Chuck M. MacKnee, “Peak Sexual and Spiritual Experience: Exploring the Mystical Relationship,”
Theology and Sexuality
, vol. 3 (1996), pp. 97–115.

185
kept assistants on hand:
Swami Chetanananda,
Ramakrishna as We Saw Him
(St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1990), pp. 154–55.

186
the snake has a long history:
Eliade,
Yoga
, p. 165.

186
“like a snake”:
Swami Nikhilánanda, trans., ed.,
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
(New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942), p. 830.

186
kundalini as a “great fire”:
Eliade,
Yoga.
, pp. 246–47, 330–34.

186
means “to heat or burn”:
Leza Lowitz and Reema Datta,
Sacred Sanskrit Words
(Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2004), p. 111.

186
the mystic fire as divine in origin:
Eliade,
Yoga
, pp. 49–50, 104, 200–73.

186
vague in describing the physical basis:
Scholars have found a few ancient claims about the transmutation of sexual energy amid a wealth of euphemisms and fiery metaphors. See Ibid.,
Yoga
, pp. 246, 331.

186
definitions include mystic energy:
See Fernando Pagés Ruiz, “Too Hot to Handle? Stuart Sovatsky and Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa Discuss How to Kindle Kundalini Without Getting Burned,”
Yoga Journal
, March–April 2002, pp. 161–64.

186
rejects such portrayals:
Yogani,
Advanced
, pp. 69–70.

186
“a flowering of orgasm”:
Ibid., p. 415.

187
a case of kundalini arousal:
C. G. Jung,
The Collected Works of C. G. Jung
, vol. 16,
The Practice of Psychotherapy
, R. F. C. Hull, trans. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 330–37; see also Sonu Shamdasani, ed.,
The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C. G. Jung
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 104–106.

187
warned people away:
Ibid., pp. xxix–xxx.

187
One of his sternest admonitions:
For the dating of the warning to 1938, see W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed.,
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. vii.

187
“deliberately induced psychotic state”:
C. G. Jung, “Psychological Commentary,” in Evans-Wentz,
The Tibetan Book
, p. xlvi.

187
the San Francisco psychiatrist:
For a biographical sketch, see Lee Sannella,
On Genius: An Evolutionary Force Inherent in Every Being
(West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2006), pp. 174–82; for his tie to Esalen, see Jeffrey John Kripal,
Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 499.

188
told of thirteen people:
Lee Sannella,
The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence?
(Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1992). This is a later edition and the source for page citations.

188
devoted one sentence:
Ibid., p. 7.

188
his portrayal of the Reverend:
Ibid., pp. 36–37. While Sannella’s portraits were anonymous, biographical details often gave away the identity. For the reverend’s own account, see John Scudder, “A Psychic Healer Experiences Kundalini,” in John White, ed.,
Kundalini: Evolution and Enlightenment
(Saint Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1990), pp. 189–97.

189
nearly one thousand cases:
Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, “Spiritual Emergency: Understanding Evolutionary Crises,” in Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, eds.,
Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis
(New York: Putnam, 1989), p. 15.

189
more than five hundred calls:
Jeneane Prevatt and Russ Park, “The Spiritual Emergence Network (SEN),” in Grof and Grof, eds.,
Spiritual Emergency
, p. 227.

189
some tell of terrors:
See, for instance, the Swedish website “Kundalini Short Circuits—Risks & Information,”
www.kundalini.se/eng
.

189
tell of heart attacks:
See, for instance, Mystress Angelique Serpent, “Doctors,”
www.kundalini-teacher.com/symptoms/doctors.php
, and “Kundalini Awakened Through Grace: Writings by and about Rick Puravs,”
www.non duality.com/puravs.htm
.

189
told of his own arousal:
Bob Boyd’s website has disappeared but his autobiographical essay, “The Safety of the Heart,” can be found at
www.elcollie.com/st/support.html
.

189
paints an alluring picture:
Elizabeth Gilbert,
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
(New York: Penguin, 2006), pp. 141–46, 158–59, 197–200.

189
More University:
For a profile, see K. L. Billingsley, “University of Sex,”
Heterodoxy
, vol. 2, no. 7 (March 1994), p. 1.

189
no library and no campus:
Anonymous, “California Trying to Close Worthless-Diploma Schools,”
New York Times
, August 31, 1994, Section B, p. 8.

190
kept going for eleven hours:
Leah Schwartz and Bob Schwartz,
The One-Hour Orgasm
(New York: St. Martin’s, 2006), p. 3.

190
“I was breathing fire”:
Interview, Patricia Taylor, February 25, 2010.

190
she
authored
Expanded Orgasm
:
Patricia Taylor,
Expanded Orgasm: Soar to Ecstasy at Your Lover’s Every Touch
(Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2002).

190
more than one hundred papers: curriculum vitae
, Barry R. Komisaruk, March 2010.

190
an understated book:
Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, and Beverly Whipple,
The Science of Orgasm
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).

191
began a new round of experimentation:
Email to author, Barry Komisaruk, April 12, 2010.

191
Komisaruk was attracted:
Interview, Barry Komisaruk, Rutgers University, April 8, 2010.

192
“It’s the least sexy thing”:
Interview, Nan Wise, Rutgers University, April 3, 2010.

192
One group she drew on:
For a portrait, see Patricia Leigh Brown and Carol Pogash, “The Pleasure Principle,”
New York Times
, March 15, 2009, Style section, p. 8.

VII: Muse

195
Paul Pond wanted to know:
This sketch of Pond and the founding of the Institute for Consciousness Research are based on interviews conducted in Canada with Paul Pond, Teri Degler, and Michael Bradford, all founding ICR members, August 1 and 2, 2009.

195
published in
Physical Review
:
Paul Pond, “Hard-Meson Calculation of K
π
Scattering,”
Physical Review D
, vol. 3, no. 9 (1971), pp. 2195–209.

195
“a virtuoso of a high order”:
Gopi Krishna,
The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius
(New York: Harper & Row, 1972), p. 98.

196
examined such figures as Brahms:
Institute for Consciousness Research, “Research and Articles,”
www.icrcanada.org/research.html
.

196
underwent his own transformation:
Teri Degler,
Fiery Muse: Creativity and the Spiritual Quest
(Toronto: Random House, 1996), pp. 98–100.

196
Restless ego:
Paul Pond, “The Road Home,”
Journal of Religion and Psychical Research
, vol. 16 (January 1993), p. 41.

196
“Before the problem”:
Sigmund Freud, “Dostoevsky and Parricide,” in James Strachey and Anna Freud, eds.,
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
, vol. 21,
The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents and Other Works
(London: Hogarth Press, 1953), p. 177.

197
turned to the discipline relatively early:
C. G. Jung, Aniela Jaffé, ed., Richard and Clara Winston, trans.,
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
(New York: Vintage, 1989), pp. 170–77.