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The period of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day is a time to contemplate “ultimates” such as death and the periods beyond death. Many of our faith traditions have ideas of “ever lasting life” and certainly popular culture is fond of dramatizing the “undead” in all of their various (usually horrifying) forms. From a yoga perspective the idea of immortality is something which is simply a fact. That does not mean, however, that it is without problems or unworthy of our contemplation. Moreover, there are various yogic practices which have been described in the tradition as extending physical life (at least for the advanced practitioners). This discussion will try to address some of these ideas and make them practical.

Paul Emerson is a biomedical engineer with a Ph.D. He is the authority on the physiology of breathing for The Meditation Center and has been teaching yoga for over 30 years. Paul has worked as a research scientist, has been a manager of clinical research with a major biomedical company and a university instructor. In addition, he holds eight patents in the areas of dialysis and sleep therapy. He is a scholar of ancient yoga texts. Paul was certified by the Rockford School of Yoga and began teaching in 1975.