Prāṇa, Prāṇāyama e consciência: reflexões sobre estados alterados de consciência no yoga de Swami Vivekananda

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Francine Barbara Maia de
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da PUC_SP
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.pucsp.br/jspui/handle/handle/29575
• topic: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::SOCIOLOGIA::OUTRAS SOCIOLOGIAS ESPECIFICAS; Yoga; Prāṇa; Prāṇāyama; Mente; Estados alterados de consciência; Yoga; Prāṇa; Prāṇāyama; Mind; Altered states of consciousness

The purpose of this monograph is to investigate the relationship between prāṇa, prāṇāyama and consciousness. More particularly, it examines whether (and how) prāṇayma promotes altered states of consciousness (ASCs). To this end, we chose a set of texts produced by a prominent yogi from Modern Yoga, Swami Vivekananda. In the contemporary literature on yoga, the approach is often clinical, focusing on the measurement of the health benefits and physiological impact of yoga practice. On the other hand, the relationship between mind and yoga, especially prāṇāyama, is still an unexplored area of investigation. The hypothesis of this study is that prāṇāyama is a technology developed to foster alterations in consciousness. Our main theoretical and epistemological reference consisted in the work of Charles Tart with his concepts of ordinary states of consciousness and altered states of consciousness, as well as his guidelines on the construction of a scientific approach to the investigation of ASCs. We also relied on the cross-cultural model of ASCs developed by Locke and Kelly. In addition, we relied on the work of Ramakrishna Rao and Anand Paranjpe to examine the fundamental concepts in the Yoga-Sāṁkhya system. The notion of prāṇa and its association with prāṇāyama in yoga has changed over time and the work of Swami Vivekananda is no different in this regard. Marked by a hybridism and the influence of multiple references, Vivekananda’s ideas comprised a synthesis between Western esotericism, Eastern religions, and evolutionary theory. In his efforts to harmonize science and religion, he turned prāṇa into a vital energy and prāṇāyama became the science of breathing. We sought to investigate the ethnoepistemology of Swami Vivekananda’s yoga and the possible parallels with the Sāṁkhya-Yoga system. Regarding our question concerning whether yoga is a technology for modifying the state of consciousness through the control of breathing, we discussed some important nuances. There is a complexity in the way consciousness is conceived in Yoga, as presented by Vivekananda, which partly supports the theoretical framework and partly goes beyond it. It was not possible to identify a total agreement between Vivekananda’s ideas and the Western notion of ASCs; nevertheless, the study points to a rich intercultural dialogue