A Student's Guide to the History and Philosophy of Yoga

The book is aimed at university students taking courses in Comparative Religion and Philosophy and practitioners of yoga. Hence, it presents yoga in the context of its historical evolution in India and seeks to explain the nature of its associations with various metaphysical doctrines.

Peter Connolly holds BA, MA and PhD degrees in Comparative Religion and Philosophy from the University of Lancaster and a BSc in Psychology from the Open University. From the late 1960's until the mid 1980's he studied and practiced a variety of meditational techniques, ranging from the devotional style of the Divine Light Mission and the Radha Soami Satsang to Tibetan Lam Rim and the more austere approach of Thravada insight meditation as well as some shamanic methods. He has taught Indian religion and philosophy on BA and MA courses for over 30 years and has worked with various yoga organisations throughout that time. He is interested in how people go about constructing histories of yoga and the methods they use for making sense of yoga texts. He is also fascinated by all forms of altered states of consciousness and has trained in both Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnosis, both of which offer an interesting perspective on the psychology of yoga.