„Jóga je tady k užitku.“ Ústav fyziologických regulací ČSAV (1976–1993) a Ctibor Dostálek
“Yoga Is of Use Here.” Institute of Physiological Regulation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1976–1993) and Ctibor Dostálek

Summary/Abstract: The study describes the development and structure of the Institute of PhysiologicalRegulation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (ÚFR ČSAV) with an emphasison research on the effects of yoga. It also focuses on Ctibor Dostálek, the long-time directorof the ÚFR ČSAV, and his team’s achievements in the field of yoga, as well as hisinternational contacts, especially with India. The final part of the study then presents theso-called Brno Days of Healthy Physical Education – several meetings of yoga expertsheld in Czechoslovakia from the mid-1980s. The study shows how research on yoga incommunist Czechoslovakia was able to develop at an official level under the auspices of theCzechoslovak Academy of Sciences. However, for ideological reasons, yoga had to be presentedas a physical exercise without a spiritual dimension. Ctibor Dostálek thus exploitedthe limits of what was allowed, and managed, within the official scientific structures of thenormalised Czechoslovakia of the 1970s and 1980s, to conduct and popularise research onyoga techniques that were applied in the practice of yoga as a form of prevention of lifestylediseases. In this way, he and his colleagues were able to show that “yoga is of use here”.

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