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It is interesting to note that yoga as such was never meant to be a healing modality. Yoga’s goal for a human being is to reach enlightenment, or union of one’s individual consciousness with Universal Consciousness. Yoga sets out tools to work with one’s nervous system and brain to expand its capability for higher states. Perhaps, however, such a union cannot be obtained without reaching mastery over the body, over life energy within (prana), over emotions, and over one’s mind or thought processes. And perhaps the process of getting there compels us to correct disturbances on all these levels of our existence. And so, by consistently practicing yogic techniques daily, we can create transformation on all levels—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. According to Turner’s research, that composite transformation, on all levels—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—is what needs to be included in the process if radical healing is to take place.

Unfortunately, it seems that when yoga was introduced to the West at the end of the 19th century, it was only partially adopted—more as physical exercise than the philosophical and practical science of personal transformation. Perhaps in translating yoga from the deeply spiritual culture of India into the highly individualistic culture of the West, slowly, generations were not able to prevent the dilution of the tradition. The spiritual component of practice became very weak and the emphasis of yoga became more aligned with getting fit and the body image-conscious middle-class Westerners. It’s enough to see yoga depicted in printed media to understand this. (To break this pattern, we have included pictures of asanas performed by a 69-year-old female in what follows!)