Responsive Aesthetics for Yogic Meditation: An Innovative Design Theory for Holistic Health that supports Autonomy and Effective Training

In an effort to contribute a novel theory to the design of emergent wellbeing technology, this paper presents a creative process involving mixed methods taken by the author in producing a design work, referred to as the prototype. The theory formulated by the author concerns the innovation of holistic health practices, specifically a set of prescriptions that posit an effective simulation of yogic meditation experience through computer technology. The resulting theory is then exercised throughout the development of the thesis prototype—resulting in a design work that employs a relatively new interface that immerses the user in a digital simulation where embodied engagement and responsive aesthetics make up the core of the functionality, in what is intended to be a multimodal holistic wellbeing experience. Additionally, the prototype and its ongoing iterative development are documented

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2017

Proceedings of the 11th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 20, 2017 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia. 211 pp

The kinetic quest of Ashtanga yoga through the lens of Pilgrimage: making sense of post-modern questing

The Kinetic quest of Ashtanga yoga through the lens of pilgrimage : making sense of postmodern questing

Tracing an American Yoga: Identity and Cross-Cultural Transaction

This dissertation looks at the creative identity of an American yoga, both rooted in its Indic origins and radically transformed in its U.S. manifestations. It traces the broad historical transactions of yoga in terms of East and West, Secular and Religious, authenticity and idealized conception, as well as provides a critical historical genealogy of Anusara and Sridaiva yoga. Furthermore, the project relates yoga to the identity, power, and knowledge dynamics of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern histories and interpretations of yoga and Tantra, multiple theoretical discourses, and the embodied practices of individuals within Indian and American contexts. I argue that there is a unique and polysemous yogic identity in America, and that this identity has developed from a messy process of transaction between Indian and Western modes of being and knowing. Furthermore, the current Americanized culture of yoga brings along with it narratives of specific value. American yoga displays a particularly consumptive quality of yogic lifestyle that reflects a cultural atmosphere of reinvention and a merging of profit and personal purpose. American yoga’s identity today is entrepreneurial, branded, business oriented, and marketed for consumption. This dissertation shows how the American yogic identity is in flux, continuously fracturing and multiplying into various and novel understandings that relate to yoga’s past and to the market value for today’s American consumer. It examines the moving nature of yoga in the American landscape as what Jared Farmer calls a “center of creativity” and as a display of excess and choice. The discussion of yoga is further located in John Friend’s styles of yoga and/or lifestyle practices, Anusara and Sridaiva, as they both redefine and further remove yoga from established Indian markers of identity. My locations as American yogi, as comparativist, as ethnographer, and as a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Marketing also situate this analysis

Health, well-being, and the ascetic ideal: Modern yoga in the Jain Terapanth

This dissertation evaluates preksha dhyana, a form of modern yoga introduced by the Jain Shvetambara Terapanth in 1975. Modern yoga emerged as a consequence of a complex encounter of Indian yogic gurus, American and British metaphysical thinkers, and modern ideas about science and health. I provide a brief history of the Terapanth from its eighteenth-century founder, Bikshu, to its current monastic guru, Mahaprajna, who constructed preksha dhyana. I evaluate the historical trajectory that led from the Terapanth's beginnings as a sect that maintained a world-rejecting ascetic ideal to its late twentieth-century introduction of preksha dhyana, which is popularly disseminated as a practice aimed at health and well-being. The practice and ideology of preksha dhyana is, however, context specific. In the Terapanthi monastic context, it functions as a metaphysical, mystical, and ascetic practice. In this way, it intersects with classical schools of yoga, which aim at ascetic purification and release from the world. In its popular dissemination by the samanis, female members of an intermediary Terapanthi monastic order, it functions as a physiotherapeutic practice. The samanis teach yoga to students in India, the United States, and Britain whose interests are primarily in yoga's physical and psychological benefits. In this way, it is a case study of modern yoga, which aims at the enhancement of the body and life in the world. I demonstrate how the samanis are mediators of their guru, Mahaprajna, and thus resolve ancient and contemporary tensions between ascetic and worldly values. I also demonstrate how Mahaprajna and the samanis construct preksha dhyana as a form of modern yoga by appropriating scientific discourse and attributing physiological function to the yogic subtle body. I argue that preksha dhyana can be located at an intersection with late capitalist cultural processes as well as New Age spirituality insofar as its proponents participate in the transnational yoga market. Finally, I conclude with some thoughts on the successes and failures of the Terapanth in its attempt to globally disseminate preksha dhyana

An Analysis of the Pedagogical Methods of Hindu Gurus

The purpose of this study was to explore the pedagogical methods of Hindu gurus that could be applicable to elementary school teaching for the inner development of students. With severe cutbacks to classroom instruction and demands by economic, political, and educational leaders for education to produce a highly skilled work force for the future of the economy, teachers are forced to use precision teaching for measurable learning. The review of the literature in this study presented a historiography of Western pedagogical methods. It showed how Western teaching methods have been defined by the seventeenth-century Newtonian objectivistic-reductionistic-mechanistic paradigm and later enforced by Comte\u27s positivistic ideology for education. Teaching continues to use this paradigm for both academic achievement and to solve the different problems that students face today. The perpetuation of these old teaching dogmas and practices means that teachers are unable to address the human dimension and the subjective needs of their students. The study followed a qualitative inquiry design that used an analytic research methodology. It involved a library search for document sources on four Hindu gurus: three males, Ramakrishna (1836–1886), Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950), and Yogananda (1893—1952); and one female, Anandamayi (1896–1982). Interpretive analysis was utilized for the data collected. The data indicated that Hindu gurus used two distinct pedagogies: direct and indirect teaching methods. Based on many years of spiritual discipline and their direct and total experiences with God—the Ultimate Reality, Hindu gurus used a variety of techniques within these two methods to teach learners how to also experience God. The direct pedagogies were face-to-face instructional methods that used specific techniques such as analogies, illustrations, stories, puns, parables, games, songs, rites, rituals, and ceremonies. The indirect methods were subtle, silent methods that communicated spiritual advancement, such as the gurus\u27 look, gaze, touch, and presence. The gurus believed that by experiencing God, learners would develop Godly qualities and also act from a moral and ethical perspective. A fundamental aspect of teaching and education is to recognize the needs of the whole child. This cannot be done in the absence of the spiritual dimension. Any new leadership vision for teaching is one that must include a shift to a new epistemology of science and a new ontology of wholeness. A Self-Awareness Teaching (SAT) Model was developed to provide preliminary steps for teaching toward the recognition and development of the inner self of students and teachers.

Gurus and Media: Sound, image, machine, text and the digital

Gurus and Media is the first book dedicated to media and mediation in domains of public guruship and devotion. Illuminating the mediatisation of guruship and the guru-isation of media, it bridges the gap between scholarship on gurus and the disciplines of media and visual culture studies. It investigates guru iconographies in and across various time periods and also the distinctive ways in which diverse gurus engage with and inhabit different forms of media: statuary, games, print publications, photographs, portraiture, films, machines, social media, bodies, words, graffiti, dolls, sound, verse, tombs and more. The book’s interdisciplinary chapters advance, both conceptually and ethnographically, our understanding of the function of media in the dramatic production of guruship, and reflect on the corporate branding of gurus and on mediated guruship as a series of aesthetic traps for the captivation of devotees and others. They show how different media can further enliven the complex plurality of guruship, for instance in instantiating notions of ‘absent-present’ guruship and demonstrating the mutual mediation of gurus, caste and Hindutva. Throughout, the book foregrounds contested visions of the guru in the development of devotional publics and pluriform guruship across time and space. Thinking through the guru’s many media entanglements in a single place, the book contributes new insights to the study of South Asian religions and to the study of mediation more broadly

The Varieties of Contemplative Experiences and Practices

While the diverse contemplative techniques are employed across a plethora of traditions around the world, contemplative research over the years has not reflected this variety. Despite growing interest in research on meditation, studies in contemplative science have largely focused on a narrow selection of practices (e.g., mindfulness, compassion, etc.) and traditions (i.e. Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation etc.). By choosing this topic, we hope to broaden the scope of contemplative science

Pedagogical opportunities for mindful practice: engaging the visual arts classroom.

This thesis research contends that the focused and practiced acquisition of a mindful attitude to visual arts-making offers innovative possibilities of thought and engagement. The interaction with phenomena within the classroom is hermeneutically interpreted and influenced by selected elements of Deleuzian theory enabling insights into creative processes.<br /

A Multi-Criteria and Dynamic Sustainability Assessment of Crop Rotation Alternatives

With the food security challenge faced by nations globally, agriculture sustainability has been a significant consideration for concerned agencies. Sustainability assessments are significant tools in providing support to stakeholders in their crop production planning. Agricultural sustainability assessment, however, is complex and it involves numerous criteria that can be conflicting. Limitations on crop rotation sustainability assessment methods include: non-dynamic assessment; lack of regard to cover crops and to the individual crop production preferences of farmers; and focused only on single-year and single-crop rotation. We sought to address these limitations by developing a multi-criteria and dynamic sustainability assessment model that considers the economic and environmental impact of a multi-year and multi-crop rotation. In this study, we investigated the integration of a crop simulation model, multi-criteria decision analysis and an ontology-based cover crop model as an approach. The integration allows dynamic assessment of multi-crop and multi-year crop rotation by having the crop model simulate the potential crop production of alternatives based on the provided model parameters, weather, and agromanagement data. The crop rotation and cover crop effects and benefits are also accounted for by using the asserted and inferred knowledge of the cover crop ontology. Finally, a multi-criteria assessment of the crop rotation alternatives is possible by the integration of analytical hierarchy process, a multi-criteria decision analysis method