Meditation and Pain Management Conference

 Background Briefing

Rishikesh has the undisputed reputation of being the yoga capital of the world and this little city of the divine land has been bringing since time memorial, events that have compelled the world to pause and think. To continue with this tradition, Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, an international spiritual community in the Pashulok area is going to host The International Conference on Meditation and Pain Management from 24th to 28th February,  2009.  Some sessions of this conference are also planned at the HIHT University at Jolly Grant and at the Seema Dental College and Hospital, Rishikesh.

The conference will afford an opportunity to participants and delegates to develop new understandings and tools in managing their own pain as well as those of their patients and others.  The broad-spectrum schedule will include Swami Veda Bharati leading guided meditations and speaking from his own experiences with meditation and with pain management. The participants hailing from a number of countries are making presentations based on their own original researches. Doctors and scientists from the HIHT University are also making significantly important contribution in the area of pain management.

Lectures on a wide range of approaches to nature of pain and its management, and philosophical, psychological and scientific studies of pain are planned. Remediation techniques of chronic stress and pain following modern medical, Ayurvedic, yogic and combined therapy approaches are expected to be discussed at great length. The activities during the conference will also include yoga practices, such as meditation, relaxation, breathing, biofeedback, and hatha-asanas, which are useful in controlling pain and reducing stress. This conference embraces the management of pain as a balance of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

The contribution of yogic techniques especially meditation, and traditional and alternate medical systems are progressively being realized as the tools for pain management even by modern medicine. This is more so in the underdeveloped and developing societies, and in the cases of chronic ailments. Meditation as a tool in pain management, therefore, will be explored both experientially and scientifically in the conference.

Conference sponsors are Association of Himalayan Meditation Societies International, Rishikesh, India; Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, Dehradun, India; Seema Dental College & Hospital, Rishikesh, India; and World Academy of Spiritual Sciences, Delhi, India.