Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet
A Message from the Director
Welcome to the Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet. This unique Center, established in 2020 by the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at BIDMC uses a scientific approach to integrate medical and contemplative sciences to improve patient care. This work will help us identify methods to improve brain health and enhance the physical and mental health of our patients, especially during the perioperative period. Many people who face surgery or serious medical illnesses are concerned about supporting their own recovery and healing, with particular concern about preventing the neurocognitive disorders that can accompany serious health events. This Center will create clinical and contemplative practices aimed at promoting recovery and improving brain health during this time period and beyond.
Harnessing the power of the mind to improve health and healing is an exciting emerging area that has produced seminal and encouraging results. Researchers at Harvard, Yale and MIT were the first to demonstrate that meditation can increase thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input. Another intriguing finding relates to how daily meditation practices can cause permanent changes in the observed amplitude of brain electrical oscillations. Our recent collaborative work with other institutions showed that patients who practice mindfulness showed an increase in endocannabinoids and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, along with improved well-being. These are exciting, emerging scientific findings that need to be built upon. One primary goal of the Center is to determine the efficacy of mindfulness methods as well as the mechanisms underlying the enhanced mood and focus that accompany these practices.
Mindfulness is being used in many areas: education, post-traumatic stress and addiction recovery, anxiety reduction, and others. People who perform daily mindfulness practices can attest to the benefits of increased awareness in their professional and personal lives. They experience sharper focus, enhanced cognition, more fulfilling relationships, less negativity, and increased enjoyment of everyday life. Here at the Center, we want to use our scientific training to investigate these changes and use our findings to develop education programs to share with the broader community.
We are very enthusiastic about the impact this Center will have, and look forward to sharing this exciting and important work.
Bala Subramaniam, MD, MPH
Director, Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet: Enhancing Consciousness, Cognition, and Compassion
Professor of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School
Ellison "Jeep" Pierce Chair of Anesthesia, BIDMC
Research
The Sadhguru Center uses scientific approaches to integrate medical and contemplative sciences to improve brain health and general well-being. Our team conducts research that employs both clinical and mindfulness-based interventions such as multimodal intraoperative general anesthesia, and opioid-sparing effective pain control in the postoperative period to improve post-operative outcomes, particularly related to cognitive decline and delirium that often occur in aged patients.
The Center's work will provide insight into how consciousness, cognition and compassion are aided by meditative practices. With the aid of enhanced functional MRI (fMRI) tools developed over the last decade, there has been a substantial increase in research conducted on how meditative practices change the brain size and neural network connectivity. There are ongoing clinical studies conducted in the Center that explore how meditative practices affect consciousness and cognition, as well as emotional well-being. Work is also underway to create a database of people who have integrated meditation into their daily routine with the goal of evaluating long-term benefits of regular meditation on emotional well-being. Combined, these approaches will help elucidate how meditative practices influence the potential physiological changes.
FAQ
The Sadhguru Center for Conscious Planet is a multidisciplinary research center based at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard teaching hospital The Center aims to expand our understanding of human consciousness, cognition and compassion through rigorous multimodal research; facilitating ground-breaking dialogues amongst experts across disciplines; and educating medical professionals, patients, and the public on evidence-based practices to improve quality of life.
The Sadhguru Center was founded to help bridge the gap between science and spirituality through multidisciplinary research, community outreach, and educational programs.
"Sadhguru" is a descriptive term for a being who has become realized through the wisdom inner experience vs. through scriptural scholarship. There are many Sadhgurus in the world. Our Center is inspired by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and his work to raise human consciousness through self-transformative yoga and meditation practices and taking conscious action in the world.
Sadhguru JV is a yogi, mystic, internationally renowned speaker, and author of New York Times Bestsellers. He has been an influential voice in major global forums including the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, addressing issues as diverse as socioeconomic development, leadership and spirituality. He has also been invited to speak at leading educational institutions, including Harvard University, Oxford University, London Business School, Stanford University, Yale University, Wharton University and MIT.
Our offerings are designed in three categories:
- Provider-focused programs include individual and group customized sessions. Yoga for Health Care Professionals is an online group program for healthcare professionals to learn wellness tools. Customized Team and Department programs are workshops tailored to meet group wellness goals. Personal Wellness Programs are 1:1 customized sessions to support individuals with their well-being goals.
- Patient-focused programs are designed to support specific clinical populations including long COVID, mental health in Parkinson's disease, cancer recovery, pregnant women, cognitive neurology, and dizziness. We also offer personalized 1:1 programs for patients.
- Public events such as our monthly Speaker Series present virtual lectures and discussions highlighting the research and explorations of our multidisciplinary community of scientists, global experts, and thought leaders.
Please join the Center's online community for updates on our current events and programs. Email us (link to sadhgurucenter@bidmc.harvard.edu) to receive more information about our programs and events.
The Center offers simple yet powerful yoga and meditation practices designed by Sadhguru. These practices are offered in-person, and online by our wellness expert, Tulsi Chase, a certified Hatha Yoga teacher with 3000+ hours of training. These evidence-based practices are safe and effective and can be modified for any physical limitations.
The Center is funded through generous gifts from private individuals and grants through Wishing Wellness Foundation.
Sadhguru and Isha Foundation play no role in the funding of the Center.
Your donations, no matter the amount, are greatly appreciated and will be used to directly support our research and program efforts.
You can also support the Center by joining our online community and participating in our upcoming speaker series. Email us to receive more information about programs, speaker series events, or share your research collaboration interests.
The Sadhguru Center is located at 1 Brookline Place, in Boston, Massachusetts. Please email us to set up an in-person appointment.