|
|
Untitled Document
Part I: Concept of Perception According to Ancient Texts and Modern Sciences.
Part II: Comparison of Bilateral Elbow Joint Position Sense in Yoga and Non Yoga Practitioners.
Dr Shreevidya G Nagesh
ABSTRACT
Part I: Concept of Perception According to Ancient Texts and Modern Sciences.
The word ‘perception’, known by sanskåt terms as, ‘pratyakña’ and ‘aparokña’, where pratyakña denotes a pramäëa that leads to direct and valid knowledge, which exists, from Vedic age. Even though attempts have been made to determine the Vedic era through astronomy and style of language, they have failed due to lack of conclusive evidence. As perception is one of the methods of knowledge from sensory experience, which man shares with the lowest living beings, up to the transcendental perception of ultimate reality claimed by great mystics and seers of the world, it is seen in many of our ancient texts like Vedas, Upaniñads Bhagavad-géta Pataïjali and many schools of yoga.
The concept of perception was derived in early 19th century in modern science when Auguste Comte, French philosopher argued stating that the study of behavior should become a branch of biological sciences and the laws governing the mind should be derived from objective observation. British Empiricists John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume who said that all knowledge comes through sensory experience influenced this thought. Thus the origin of ‘psychophysics’ and ‘sensory physiology’ where psychophysics focus about the relationship between the physical characteristics of a stimulus and the attributes of the sensory experience and sensory physiology examines the neural consequences of a stimulus. This made us to understand that our mind is not blank and our perception differ qualitatively from the physical properties of stimuli. Because, the nervous system extracts certain information from stimulus and then interprets this information in the context of its earlier experience. Thus, our perceptions are not direct records of the world around us but are constructed internally, at least in part, according to innate rules and constraints imposed by the capabilities of the nervous system. This inherent constraint was defined as pre – knowledge by the philosopher Immanuel Kant and he also argued that knowledge is not only based on sensory experience but also on the pre – knowledge that organizes sensory experiences. Thus knowledge of perception helps us to understand the physical world in which we live.
CONCLUSION
Knowledge is pure consciousness beyond the relativity of the knower and the known. It is prior to every form of existence. Western epistemology has paid scanty attention towards it. And it is difficult to expound or to explain the splitting of the non-dual consciousness, to cognizer, cognition and object cognized. Here perception plays a major role as it is the knowledge obtained which is immediate, unlike the other knowledge that results from inference, etc. which is mediate. In sense – perception, there is an intervention of a sense – organ between subject and object and it is limited to the world of phenomena. In internal perception, mental states are not conscious in themselves. They are illuminated by the radiance of the knowing self, which are ever the subject and never an object. On focusing of more intimate knowledge, i.e., self, one realizes that there is non-difference of the so-called individual soul from the supreme self. As Swämi Vivekänanda said, “it is through the self that you know anything… in and through the self all knowledge comes”. So, perception, being one of the methods of knowledge, should be utilized to reach the highest goal i.e., self realization (the truth of truths).
Part II: Comparison of Bilateral Elbow Joint Position Sense in Yoga and Non Yoga Practitioners.
Yoga has been shown to improve balance and perceptual motor skills, but no study was done on joint position sense, an important factor for body equilibrium. The present study compares the effect of yoga group, who had minimum of one-year experience and non-yoga group on the bilateral elbow joint position sense in normal adults. The joint position sense errors of both elbow joints was measured in three angles, that is, 20 degree, 50 degree, and 120 degree using a kinesthesiometer. 29 right-handed subjects were chosen out of 30 subjects in both preselected groups. Subjects of both groups were blind folded to avoid non-kinesthetic and visual clues and were assessed for similar angles of both yoga and non-yoga groups. The yoga group showed a significant decrease of 55 %, 44.7 % and 50.9 % in the absolute error of elbow joint position sense on the right hand for 20 degree, Right hand for 50 degree and left hand for 50 degree (p< 0.05, Mann Whitney – U test) compared to non- yoga practitioners.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
29 healthy male volunteers in both yoga and non-yoga groups, whose ages ranged between 20 to 50 years, and yoga group subjects having minimum one-year yoga experience were considered. Joint position sense measurements were taken in all 58 subjects using kinesthesiometer for 20, 50, and 120 degrees for right and left elbow joints. Subjects were blindfolded and it was one time assessment.
The absolute joint position sense error was calculated and the non-parametrical tests were done. There was a significant difference between yoga and non-yoga group for right 20 degree, right 50 degree and left 50 degree, which suggests that there is an improvement in joint position sense for right hand and at 50-degree position in yoga practitioners compared to non-yoga practitioners.
Keywords:Perception,ancient texts, modern sciences,bilateral elbow,non yoga practitioners.
|
