Yoga is the spiritual practice of self-realization. Yoga in the West is most closely associated with movement or postures, whereas in the East, it is considered to be a comprehensive practice of spiritual development, only 
one part of which has to do with physical movement.

The word ‘Yoga’ comes from an ancient language called Sanskit; the ‘Latin’ 
of Southeast Asia. The word ‘yuk’ referred to the yoke that untied a horse to 
the harness. Similarly, Yoga referred to any path which is capable of uniting
us with the Infinite inside ourselves.

Yoga originated in India over five thousand years ago. In the Yoga Sutras, 
the well-known and respected sage Pantajali, defines yoga as the control of 
the behavior of the mind. Yoga practices include every aspect of subjective development. 

These are the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our lives. 
Yoga methods are: ethical disciplines, physical postures, control of the breath, 
and the practice of meditation. 

Patanjali defined classical yoga as an eight-stage process of spiritual development. These are known as the eight limbs of yoga. The first two stages are ethical disciplines called Yamas and Nyamas. Following these disciplines are the Asanas or postures (with which most Westerns associate yoga) and the breathing exercises known as Pranayama. The last four limbs are the meditative stages: control of the senses (Prathyara), concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dhyana) and enlightenment (Samadhi).

Dialogue Yoga is a process of self-development that takes places through a guided conversation and meditation with the intention of attaining self-realization. As such this process is closely aligned with the Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, which defines yoga as “a system of Hindu philosophy that seeks union with the Supreme Spirit”.

Because Dialogue Yoga dissects the self and the 10,000 ‘voices’ that comprise it (including the voice of Morality, Responsibility, Accountability, and Ethics), in this way it includes Patanjali's first two stages of ethical disciplines. Dialogue Yoga also includes the last four stages of meditative practices (with the inclusion in the process of such non-dual voices as Big Mind, Big Heart, Compassion, Stillness, and the Way); in total six of eight of the limbs that Patanjali defined as classical yoga.

The beauty of Dialogue Yoga is that you do not need to have any prior experience with meditation, postures or other self-disciplines. The heart-felt joy of one's True Self is just as easily experienced with this process by the religious, non-religious, those with little or no spiritual practice, and by those who through years of conditioning may have replaced the possibility of spiritual development with busy lives of scientific materialism. 

In this way, Dialogue Yoga is very closely aligned with the definition of yoga as offered by Gavin Flood, the Academic Director of the Oxford Center for Hindu Studies, as a series of disciplines of abstinence and meditation, which can lead the genuine aspirant to a spiritual experience and profound insight into the nature of existence.

Active participants of a Dialogue Yoga classes are offered the possibility of such an insight, which can range from a glimpse of their True Nature to a profound and life-changing realization. A typical Dialogue Yoga classe is held over a full-day and is made up of fun and easful guided conversations. The facilitator does not teach the participants anything; he/she just creates the space so they can reveal to themselves what they already know. In this way, Dialogue Yoga is truly an evolution of consciousness, as most likely was the case with the emergence of the yogas in the day of Patanjali.

The founders of the Big Mind Process are doing research on this at University 
of Utah. They are finding that a 1-day Big Mind workshop with people off the street—in other words, no Zen or meditation or spiritual training—show the same brain changes as a monk with 20 or 30 years of practice (similar results to the study the Dalai Lama did with meditating monks). And a month later, they still have the same brain changes.

For the full story see The National Public Radio link here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5008565