Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living
Changing the World Through Yoga Research
The yoga traditions today are confronted with an exciting prospect: the investigation of thousands of years of yoga practice with contemporary scientific techniques.
Do these ancient practices really work? How do they work? Why do they work? What are the real effects of yoga on contemporary practitioners? What are the “mechanisms of effect”—the active ingredients of yoga practice? Nuanced, scientific answers to these questions are now within our grasp.
We believe that yoga can be a powerful force for good in our society—through the promotion of mental and physical health as well as the development of extraordinary states of consciousness. But experience has shown us that the genius of yoga will not be deeply leveraged into societal institutions—particularly the health-care system and the education system—until it is truly evidence-based.
The Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living (IEL) was created to play a central role in the rigorous scientific examination of yoga techniques and practices. We have assembled a core group of three top research scientists—all Harvard Medical School faculty—and an associate group of six other highly placed scientists, as well as a dozen dedicated research associates. As a team, we have identified several areas of mental and physical health that we hypothesize may be significantly improved by yoga practice, and we have created highly targeted yoga curricula to address these areas. We have then paired each of these yoga programs with a sophisticated research protocol.
Current IEL Projects
Read about Yoga in the Schools A short-term study (currently ongoing) and a long-term study (now in the planning stages) exploring the effects of yoga on the mental health and performance of adolescents in a secondary-school setting—providing yoga within the school curriculum. This study is done in conjunction with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Over the past decade, educators have seen a rise in stress levels and mental-health concerns in their students. Moreover, adult mental-health disease is often rooted in adolescence. While some programs have been developed to address these concerns, few have focused on researching yogic practices as a preventive measure. Since 2008, the IEL has been collaborating with a local high school to study the effects of yoga taught during physical education class. Initial results suggest that after only one semester, yoga prevents increases in stress, anxiety and other negative mood states compared with students taking regular physical education class. The yoga students also showed improvements in stress-coping skills such as resilience, relative to controls. For example, yoga improved resiliency in 11th and 12th graders during the fall of 2008 (Khalsa SBS, Schultz L, Cohen D, Steiner N, Cope S, manuscript submitted).
In a second group of 11th and 12th graders, yoga prevented increases in negative emotional states (negative affect) during the spring of 2009 (Noggle JJ and Khalsa SBK, manuscript in preparation).
IEL is actively submitting grants to extend this work into Boston Public Schools to study urban youth. Long-term plans are underway to develop and run a randomized, controlled longitudinal study. This study will evaluate students practicing yoga and a control physical education group during all four years of high school, with follow-up through adulthood to track mental health and other behavioral measures.
Read about Military Populations A groundbreaking study of the effects of yoga on American military personnel—both active duty and veterans—who have been diagnosed with PTSD. This three-year study is funded by the Department of Defense.
Nearly 16 percent of returning troops develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In response, the Department of Defense (DOD) is seeking effective methods of treating PTSD in war veterans and active duty military personnel. In 2008, IEL researcher Sat Bir Khalsa received a grant from the DOD to study the effects of Kripalu
Yoga practice on military personnel with PTSD. IEL has collaborated with trauma and yoga experts to develop a comprehensive yoga program specifically designed to relieve symptoms of trauma. At least 25 military personnel will complete the 10-week Kripalu Yoga intervention, beginning December 2009. Our primary goals are to reduce PTSD severity and symptoms and decrease nervous system arousal. To read more detail about the study, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov.
Read about Professional Music Performance The IEL’s ongoing and groundbreaking study of the effects of yoga practice on performance anxiety and optimal performing states in young musicians, done in collaboration with the Boston Conservatory and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Professional musicians are now discovering that systematic training in yoga enhances the performance of complex tasks through the cultivation of highly refined states of attention, concentration, and focus—essential conditions for optimal performing states in music. New research confirms that yoga also attenuates performance anxiety and ameliorates its deleterious effects on both cognitive and physical functioning. The IEL has published two papers reporting data from programs held at the Tanglewood Music Center that demonstrate such benefits (Khalsa SB, Cope S 2006; Khalsa SBS, Shorter SM, Cope S,
Wyshak G, Sklar E, 2009). Additional manuscripts are in preparation on yoga programs recently conducted at the Boston Conservatory and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Due to the positive results of these programs, IEL is continuing to teach yoga classes to musicians at the Boston Conservatory. Grant applications have been submitted to expand upon these studies.
Read about Improvement of Brain Function A study of the effects of long-term yoga practice on the structure and function of the brain, using cutting-edge MRI technology. Carried out in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, this study compares adept yogis with adept meditators.
Recent brain-imagining studies have helped to enhance our understanding of how contemplative practices change behavior, mood, and states of consciousness. IEL researcher Dr. Sara Lazar has recently completed scanning the brains of longtime Kripalu practitioners with state-of-the-art MRI imaging technology. Lazar is beginning analysis of this data to determine if yoga practice can change the actual structure of the brain. This study will also evaluate positive changes on attention, fluid intelligence, and enhanced emotional and cognitive functioning. In addition, this coming year Dr. Lazar will begin brain scanning participants in the IEL Standardized Curriculum to further research on yoga’s ability to achieve optimal states.
Read about Yoga and Weight Loss A three-year pilot study of the effects of regular yoga practice on weight loss and associated parameters of physical and psychological well-being, done in collaboration with the Osher Institute of Harvard Medical School.
More than 60 percent of Americans are overweight and nearly $46 billion are spent on diet products each year. A number of pilot and preliminary studies suggest that yoga may be effective as a weight-loss intervention and to attenuate weight gain. The IEL is developing a 10-week outpatient weight loss program that will synthesize various elements of Kripalu Yoga (including the IEL Standardized Curriculum and Kripalu’s Integrative Weight Loss Program) and/or Ayurveda. This pilot study will measure the subjective health and psychological benefits of yoga on overweight subjects. Pending funding, objective measures such as cortisol, cholesterol, BMI, inflammation, and other measures of physical health will also be collected. This study will explore how yogic practices like asana, pranayama, and mindfulness may help individuals lose weight and improve physical and psychological well-being.
Read about the IEL Standardized Yoga Curriculum The development of a standardized yoga curriculum, giving researchers a replicable and reliable intervention which will facilitate comparisons between and across populations.
By its very nature yoga is an extremely personal and individualized practice. However in order to gain credibility for yoga as a viable intervention in the major sectors in our society—health care, education, the workplace—yoga’s efficacy needs to be scientifically proven with replicable and verifiable research. To enable this process, the IEL is creating a standardized yoga curriculum. Not only will this structured process be the foundation for potent yoga research, it will also be the vehicle to help bring yoga to the world.
Stephen Cope is the Director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living. He is a Western-trained psychotherapist who writes and teaches about the relationship between Western psychological paradigms and the Eastern contemplative traditions. Stephen holds degrees from Amherst College and Boston College. He did graduate and postgraduate training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the Boston area, where he practiced for many years before joining the staff at Kripalu Center. In its twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Yoga Journal named him one of the most important innovators in the developing field of American yoga. Stephen is a classically trained pianist and has danced professionally with a ballet and modern-dance company.
Stephen works with a talented and committed staff, bringing together a rich and impressive variety of skills.
