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YOGA NORMALIZES THE SUBTLE CIRCUITS OF THE HUMAN BODY
Recent and revealing studies in the field of neuroscience have proved that the brain functions according to the "dual" system of the nadis, as the yogi described it thousands of years ago.

In a radical attempt to treat some severe forms of epilepsy, Roger Sperry and his assistants have performed brain surgeries on the median line that connects the two brain hemispheres, where the so-called corpus callosum is found.

To their great surprise, not only did the epileptic crises stop, but they also made some great discoveries that radically modify the neuropsychological understanding of the way the brain functions, and thus they brought about a revolution in the medical and scientific view of man.

It is a fact of common knowledge that the right part of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left part of the brain controls the right side of the body.

Although in an incipient stage, Sperry's studies have proved that each part of the brain controls and coordinates a different behavioral pattern, opposed yet complementary to each other. This is a highly important discovery and also confirms the yogic views.

Although the yogis make use of a different conceptual apparatus and different experimental methods, the scientist reached the same conclusions as the yogis.

According to these, a person is characterized by two main ways of manifesting him/herself. The energies that pass through Ida and Pingala coordinate the brain circuits, which have been associated with the knowledge or consciousness, and respectively with the energy of action (or physical force).

The subtle influences of these two types of energy are to be found on all three main levels of the nervous system.

1. The sensorial motor nervous system: the whole electrical activity of the body is directed towards one or the other of the two possible directions to the brain: afferent (associated to Ida nadi), and efferent (associated to Pingala nadi).

These subtle nadis and the corresponding nerves on a physical level control the human perception of the world and respectively the capacity to act in the outer world.

2. The autonomous nervous system is divided in the sympathetic nervous system, oriented towards the exterior, operating in conditions of stress, that consume and uses our energy and is consequently a manifestation of yang energy, and the parasympathetic nervous system, oriented towards the inner activities, operating in conditions of rest, preserving and accumulating the energy and is consequently a manifestation of yin energy.

These two systems control and regulate all automatic processes of the body: heartbeat, blood pressure, breath, digestion, kidney and liver activity, etc.

3. The central nervous system involves the brain and the spine and controls the two previously mentioned systems. The brain activities are complex, is like a giant computer, that stores and integrates information, making decisions in a perfectly synchronized way.

However, its synergic functioning means more than the simple functioning of its parts. The brain circuits have more potential energy than a human being might use during an entire lifetime.

The yogic techniques have the role of purifying these energetic circuits associated to some precise functions.

In accordance with the yogic tradition, science has discovered that the pathways of the central nervous system and of the brain control the subtle circuits of the nadis and charkas.

If through the practice of pranayama we succeed in purifying and reconnecting these subtle circuits, our entire being will be deeply transformed. The efficiency of the yogic techniques is based on the fact that this subtle system of nadis exists.

The body-mind complex "functions" due to three types of energy: the receptive, yin energy, corresponding to Ida nadi, the yang, active type of energy, corresponding to Pingala nadi, and the "neutral" energy that flows through Sushumna nadi.

This latter observation may cast more light on the importance of the balance between the two types of energy.