The summit brings together academic researchers with yoga practitioners to engage in critical dialogue across a series of curated panels and practical sessions. Our aim is to create a day of learning, reflection and thought-provoking discussion on pressing issues in Yoga Studies.
It is scheduled to take place on Saturday, 31st October 2026 (9am–5:30pm) at SOAS University of London.
The programme seeks to examine the subtle bodies of Yoga and their relevance to contemporary practice. Modern Yoga is often framed as secularised and stripped of metaphysics; by centring subtle bodies, this theme complicates that narrative and seeks to demonstrate how esoteric and cosmological elements persist, adapt, or re-emerge in contemporary contexts. In foregrounding subtle bodies, it emphasises lived, embodied experience, which is difficult to measure or verify, and thereby challenges strictly empirical methodologies.
Together, we will explore how embodied experience can be understood through the framework of the subtle body, and how such experiences, being subjective and not directly accessible to measurement, can be approached in study and discussion.
The summit asks: What is the subtle or “energy” body? How has it been understood across Yoga’s history? How does it work, and can it be measured?
Through panel discussions, guided experiential sessions, and a keynote lecture, participants will examine the history and philosophy of the subtle or energy body, the roles of prāṇa, cakras, and kuṇḍalinī, and the relationship between embodied experience and contemporary research.
The SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies and the British Wheel of Yoga are delighted to co-host this unique collaborative event for the third year running. We look forward to welcoming you for a day that informs, inspires and uplifts.
Host: Professor Ulrich Pagel, Chair of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies
Moderator: Dr Suzanne Newcombe, Senior Lecturer at Open University
Keynote Speaker: Shaman Hatley is Professor of Asian Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research is primarily in the areas of Śaiva tantric traditions in India’s early-medieval period, the history of premodern yoga, and Hindu goddess cults. Prof. Hatley will be presenting: "The Wheel, the Lotus and the Serpent: Towards a History of the Body of Tantric Yoga."
Speakers:
Practice Teachers:
BWY teachers may accrue 6 CPD points for this event, which will be added automatically to your profile after the event if you attend in person. If you attend online and would like to have the points added to your profile, please contact: events@bwy.org.uk.
| 09:00 | Registration in Reception (SOAS Gallery Lecture Theatre) |
| 09:30 | Welcome and Opening Remarks
Prof. Ulrich Pagel (SOAS CYS, Chair) and Dr Suzanne Newcombe (Moderator) |
| 09:50 | PANEL 1
Speaker 1: Dr Ruth Westoby Bodily Entanglements with Transcendence |
| 10:20 | Speaker 2: Dr Marleen Thaler
When the Serpent Starts to Tremble: Challenges in the Awakening of Kundalini |
| 10:50 | Q&A with the speakers |
| 11:20 | Comfort break |
| 11:30 | YOGA PRACTICE: Practice with Swami Saradananda
Experiential session on chakra meditation. |
| 12:10 | Lunch Break (1hr 10mins)
Book stalls. Networking. Refreshments provided, BYO lunch. |
| 13:20 | PANEL 2
Speaker 3: Dr Magdalena Kraler Prāṇāyāma in Relation to Other Aṅgas of Yoga |
| 13:50 | Speaker 4: Dr Marissa Clarke
Breathing, Moving, and Chanting in Transnational Yoga Practices |
| 14:20 | Q&A with the speakers |
| 15:00 | YOGA PRACTICE: Practice with BWY tutor Sarah O’Connor
Experiential session exploring the energy body through Tsa Lung practice |
| KEYNOTE | |
| 15:40 | Keynote Speaker: Professor Shaman Hatley
The Wheel, the Lotus and the Serpent: Towards a History of the Body of Tantric Yoga |
| 16:10 | Q&A with the Keynote Speaker |
|
16:50
17:30 |
CLOSING
Questions and discussion with all speakers and practice leaders. Professor Ulrich Pagel, Chair of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies. Closing collective practice with Swami Saradananda. Close. |
