Becoming the Breath: Experience in the Practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga

Presenter Information

Alexander Bianchi, Oberlin College

Location

Science Center, A155

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-25-2014 4:00 PM

End Date

4-25-2014 5:15 PM

Abstract

The past decade has seen the emergence of modern yoga studies. While much of this scholarship dedicates itself to understanding yoga’s historical development over time, fewer scholars have sought to understand the transformative experiences of practitioners themselves. In this practice—based ethnographic study of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, I examine the experience of heightened sensitivities to—and alternate understandings of—body, mind, the corporeal presence of others, and the surrounding environment. Using these patterns of experience, I argue that the practice of Ashtanga yoga yields new ways of knowing the self and its environment not normally cultivated in daily life.

Notes

Session III, Panel 13 - Enigmatic Agents: Studies in the Decoding of Language and Action
Moderator: Cindy Frantz, Associate Professor of Psychology

Major

Religion

Advisor(s)

Laurie McMillin, Religion; Rhetoric

Project Mentor(s)

Laurie McMillin, Religion; Rhetoric

April 2014

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Apr 25th, 4:00 PM Apr 25th, 5:15 PM

Becoming the Breath: Experience in the Practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga

Science Center, A155

The past decade has seen the emergence of modern yoga studies. While much of this scholarship dedicates itself to understanding yoga’s historical development over time, fewer scholars have sought to understand the transformative experiences of practitioners themselves. In this practice—based ethnographic study of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, I examine the experience of heightened sensitivities to—and alternate understandings of—body, mind, the corporeal presence of others, and the surrounding environment. Using these patterns of experience, I argue that the practice of Ashtanga yoga yields new ways of knowing the self and its environment not normally cultivated in daily life.