The notion of biofeedback can still seem like an entirely revolutionary idea, even though it is a century old. Biofeedback uses electronic devices to mark responses on the human body in order to teach the person how to modulate their own systems. Controlling breathing, muscle tension, even the perception of pain, are all possible here.
The idea came from a German scientist, J.H. Schulz, in a system called autogenic training. This developed over the 20th century, and most practitioners of biofeedback will acknowledge their great debt to him. Many thought that for the first time, people could have some control over functions that many had assumed were completely automatic.
However, when biofeedback started to reach a peak in the 60s, so did global interest in the practice of Yoga . Here, systems start to meet, and it’s an easy connection to see where Yoga and biofeedback do intersect. This also means that the research in western science was only discovering what the Yogis of the ages already knew. The mechanics of each are entirely different, of course, but the processes they affect are indeed the same. This is one more example of how western and eastern traditions do speak to each other, and continue to influence each other over time. It also suggests realms of infinite possibility.