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But can yoga therapy create spiritual transformation?
A recently published ethnographic study40 asked, “Is yoga a possible vehicle for experiencing transcendence?” In Catalonia, Spain, in 2011, a yoga non-governmental organization (NGO) and the Department of Justice signed an agreement that opened the door for yoga classes and intensive courses for all Catalonian inmates. The research project was designed as a multiple case study at a number of prisons. A total of 54 inmates, male and female, engaged in intensive daily yoga practices for 2 to 3 hours over a 40-day period. Most of the participants who volunteered for the study already practiced yoga in weekly classes.
When the inmates were asked what they valued most about doing yoga, the majority referred to the possibility of transcending their constrained “here-and-now.” They described feelings of “connectedness,” “self-awareness,” and “flow.” Smith postulates that “encountering oneself” is the key component in such spiritual experience. This encounter with the “embodied self” brings about a moment in asana practice that practitioners identify as “spiritual.”41 Such acts of transcendence, singular to yoga, were seen as the most appreciated component of practicing yoga in prison.