International Journal of Yoga (Jan 2017)

Effect of lotus posture on acupuncture meridian energies: A controlled trial

  • Kuntal Ghosh,
  • Alex Hankey,
  • T M Srinivasan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-6131.205511
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 2
pp. 88 – 94

Abstract

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Background: Many studies have assessed Yoga practices using instruments such as AcuGraph, which measures conductances at Jing-Well points of acupuncture meridians. Such studies find that participation in Yoga programs ranging from a weekend to many months systematically increases subtle energy. Here, we report comparison of Jing-Well point conductances before and after sitting in Lotus Posture with those before and after sitting in a chair. Methods: This was a controlled study conducted on 52 male Yoga practitioners (mean age in years 23.03 ± 3.23), all with> 1 year experience of Yoga practices. Participants were alternately assigned into two groups, sitting in Lotus Posture and sitting in a chair. Each was measured on 3 successive days, before and after sitting as instructed for 10 min on the 1st day, 20 min on the 2nd day, and 30 min on the 3rd day. Results: The two groups yielded completely different results: those sitting in Lotus Posture for 30 min showed increases in subtle energy levels (E_Ls) in all acupuncture meridians; those sitting in chair produced universal decreases. Results for 10 and 20 min showed how these changes in energy values took time to build up with increasing time. Conclusions: Sitting in Lotus Posture is held to strongly stimulate subtle E_Ls, so results agreed with the experimental hypothesis. Nevertheless, decreases in E_Ls of those sitting in a chair were surprising since the rest might be expected to have no effect.

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