Yoga & Psychotherapy (The Evolution of Consciousness)

Book Specification

Book Description

About the Book

For thousands of years, Yoga has offered what Western therapists are seeking: a way to achieve the total health of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Yoga and psychotherapy provides a unique comparison of modern therapy and traditional methods. Drawing upon a rich diversity of experience, the authors give us detailed examples of how the ancient findings of yoga can be used to supplement or replace some of the less complete Western theories and techniques. Yoga and Psychotherapy is accessible to the layperson, yet detailed enough to be of value to the professional.

About the Author

Swami Rama, one of the greatest masters from the Himalayas, is the founder of the Himalayan Institute. Born in India, he studied in both India and Europe and received his spiritual training in the Himalayan cave monasteries and in Tibet. His best-known work, living with the Himalayan Masters, reveals the many facets of this singular adept and demonstrates his embodiment of the living tradition of the East.

Rudolph Ballentine, MD, is a leader in the field of alternative and complementary medicine. A graduate of Duke University Medical School, he lectures extensively in the United States and other countries. Dr. Ballentine is the author of several books, including Radical Healing, Diet and Nutrition: A Holistic Approach, which has sold over 100,000 copies and Transition to Vegetarianism: An Evolutionary step.

Swami Ajaya, PhD, received his education at Wesleyan University and at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin, and has served as a consulting psychologist. In addition to his Western training, Swami Ajaya has studied with various yogis in India. He is the author of Yoga Psychology: A practical guide to Meditation and Psychotherapy East and West: A Unifying paradigm.

Preface

Two and a half years ago we were driving in a blue jeep station wagon, winding up and down the mountain roads along the edge of the Himalayas. We had just come from a week’s retreat at a small, little-known, but “sacred” spot, hidden in the pine trees of the mountain forest. It was accessible only by foot along a five-mile mountain road. We had parked the jeep and climbed with backpacks to this idyll of serenity, living in an earthen house, spending our days in quiet contemplation.

Now we had descended to the waiting jeep and were winding our way back to civilization. The carburetor on our wagon was having trouble breathing in the high mountain air. After choking intermittently for a few miles, it gave out completely. As we sat in a ditch by the road waiting for the car to be repaired, we began to talk about our common work as therapist.

Rudy had just met Swami Rama and me a few weeks earlier. A year before he had given up a professorship at a leading medical school to travel to India and learn the ancient science of yoga. He came without knowing anyone and spent his first few months in his adopted homeland learning Hindi and hatha yoga and becoming emaciated. Soon after we met he began traveling with us. I had just been initiated into the Order of Swamis a few weeks earlier.

Until now we had been so absorbed in our new adventure that we hadn’t thought much about the worlds we had temporarily left behind. We were now, however, beginning our descent to Rishikesh. In a week we would drive to New Delhi, take a plane to New York, and a short time later find ourselves home again. Our thoughts began to return to the work we had left. It seemed natural enough for us, during this lull in our journey, to begin comparing the Western approached to Psychotherapy to what we were learning of yoga.