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The History:

 Integration of Eastern Ideas in Western Soils

The integration of Eastern beliefs into the West's understanding of the mind and Self is by no means new. There has been almost a constant conversation between the two since their first contact - each offering the other a glimpse into new ways and possibilities of being, thinking and acting.

The following timeline is a first draft, offered as a way to show the viewer the pattern of exchange between Eastern and Western thought.

In the 1880s Yoga was introduced to America as "classical" knowledge.

  • Transcendentalists were influenced by Eastern thought.
    • Emerson (1803-1882), Thoreau (1817-1862), and Witman (1819-1892) all read the earliest translations of Vedic literature. These early translations from India colored their perspectives and literature.
    • The Theosophical Society (Madame Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Col. Henry Olcott, Annie Besant) was founded in 1875. This organization was based on Vedic philosophy. The Indian Krishnamurti (born 1895) became their leader when he was a young boy. He went on to reject all organized religion and spirituality, but produced over 100 books and videos, which continue to influence American ideas of Yoga,spirituality and self.
    • Swami Vivekananda of the Sri Ramakrishna order presented to the Parliament of World Religion in Chicago, 1893. His stirring lecture led to a resurgence of interest in the East as providing the philosophical ideal.

    The Early and mid 1900s continued the tradition of examining the science of Yoga. The academic elite saw Yogic theory as deserving of attention and respect by the leading intellectuals of the time. Eastern thought begins to infiltrate into the relatively new science of Psychology.

    • Jung presented his famous lectures on Kundalini Yoga in 1932. These lectures were translated into a book, The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga that continues to be influential in how psychology understands the theory and practice of Yoga. Jung removed any ideas of spirituality from the science of Kundalini and examined it as a metaphor for the developmental stages of human beings.
    • 1946 Autobiography of a Yogi was published by Paramahansa Yogaandanda, spurring new interest in Yoga and Vedanta. His book continues to be influential in the West.

    The 1960s would herald in a radical change in how Yoga was perceived by the mainstream media and public. Yoga was no longer just the property of elite intellectuals, such as Emerson. Indian philosophers were inspiring Allan Ginsberg and the new "hippie movement." When Harvard psychologist's and professor's Timothy Leary and Ram Dass were dismissed from Harvard because of their involvement with LSD, their references to Yoga began to solidify a negative image of Yoga as related to drugs and the outcasts of society. This association began to popularize the myth that Yoga is "far out," "weird" and "fringy" rather than as a practical model of maintaining mental health, peace and equanimity.

    • Swami Satchidananda was invited by artist Peter Max to open the rock concert Woodstock. Inspired by the sincerity of the youth who he saw turning from drugs to Yoga, he saw the invitation as an opportunity to educate on Yoga's power.
      For many, however, Swami Satchidananda's talk served to solidify the impression that Yoga was related to alternative youth culture, and was drug oriented. (There is some very good and entertaining footage of Yoga in the 1960's in the film "Woodstock." These clips provide excellent historical notation on the use and practice of Yoga in the late 60's and early 70's as a way to get kids off of drugs).
    • In 1971, the ex-Harvard professor Ram Dass published Be Here Now after spending time in India with his guru Neem Karoli Baba. This book, with its psychedelic graphics, opened many young minds to the possibilities of Eastern thought. His association with drugs continued to foster the notion that the study and practice of Yoga was for those who couldn't adapt to society.
    • Allen Ginsberg, noted poet (and drug fiend), chanted "Om" on the Tonight Show. Yoga had begun to be used as a form of entertainment that served the dual role of exposing more people to the science of Yoga and fostering an image of exoticism

    The 1970s brought more of a psychological approach to the Eastern Science of Yoga. This perspective was codified in the written text - with a special focus on the body/mind interpretation of the chakras (first made public in America by Jung in the 1930s ).

    • 1976. Lee Sannella, a physician published: Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence? Renamed: the Kundalini Experience in 1992.
    • 1977 The Kundalini Clinic was founded in Oakland to address what was called "spiritual emergencies." This clinic emerged out of an effort to re-label spiritual experiences and temporary psychotic episodes that arise during spiritual practice as something other than mental illness.
    • 1976 Swami Rama, founder of the Himalayan Institute, wrote Yoga and Psychotherapy, with a psychologist and physician ( Ajaya, Ballentine an Rama). Excerpts of this text are still being used in psychology classes on spirituality.

    The 1980s brought more clinics, books and practitioners who were avidly attempting to combine psychology and Yoga.

    • 1980s Spiritual Emergency Institute was established. This institute has a similar focus as the Kundalini Clinic.
      Grof's Spiritual Emergency was written in 1989. This book is a collection of articles by psychologists and other professionals whose experiential base allows them not to pathologize anomalous experiences. For many readers, however, the inclusion of articles on "space aliens" and "spontaneous combustion" devalues what are considered to be the more serious articles

    In the 1990s alternative thought began to challenge the establishment of psychology itself. Simultaneously authors were organizing cohesive works on the integration of psychology and Yoga that offered practitioners in both field alternative ways to look at the range of human experience.

    • In 1992: David Lukoff, Francis Lu and Robert Turner wrote a proposal for the committee of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV) used by mental health professionals. They felt a more culturally sensitive view of spiritual and anomalous experiences was in order. The committee agreed and added a new V code to mention, not pathologize spiritual experiences. This allowed an official sanction of spiritual issues in the field of psychology.
    • 1994. John Nelson wrote Healing the Split: Integrating Spirit into Our Understanding of the Mentally Ill (Suny Series in the Philosophy of Psychology) which investigates both the problems inherent in psychiatry and how Yoga (esp. the system of chakras) can give a better perspective on the experiences of mental health clients.
    • Kenneth Wilbur began publishing his texts on the expanded view of human consciousness: Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. He heavily draws on the works of Yoga master, Sri Aurobindu.
    • The Yoga community begins to publish works that look at the joining of Eastern and Western psychology from an Indian perspective. The most noted texts:
      • A.S. Dalal (1991). Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindu Ashram Press.
        For more book information: lotuspress.com
      • A.S. Dalal (2001). A Greater Psychology: An Introduction to Sri Aurobindu's Psychological Thought. NewYork: Putnam Press.
        For More Book Information: amazon.com
      • Sri Aurobindu: miraura.org

    By Laura Douglass, Sevika

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