Energy Medicine. C. Norman Shealy
of pranayama come from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite books, particularly the translation by Dr. Daniel Condron. By controlling the motion of the lungs or breath, one can control the prana inside the entire body. Practicing pranayama, one also learns to control the mind because the mind is essentially fastened to prana. Pranayama can be practiced sitting or walking. Sitting in one position, one begins quieting the chitta or idle chatter of the mind. To some extent, the in-breath is considered to be energy from Brahman, the Essence of God, and the out-breath is the realization that only Brahman is real; everything in our experienced world is unreal or a dream. The idle chitta is part of our ego’s attachment to the physical world.
Correct posture is required for successful sitting practice of pranayama. Chest, neck, and head must be in a vertical line. The body should not lean forward or to either side. It is generally practiced by sitting with the legs at least crossed or in the full lotus position. To purify the Self, one gazes at the tip of the nose without looking around. And if one can control the breath and thereby the prana, the mind is also controlled and this can eventually lead one to liberation from the rounds of birth, death, and reincarnation. The practice of pranayama is said to enhance overall health, improve appetite, happiness, beauty, strength, courage, and enthusiasm, as well as overall optimal vigor and vitality of body and mind.
There are numerous exercises that one can practice once one has learned to sit, breathe, and focus properly. For instance, in the alternate nostril breathing exercise described above, close the right nostril with the right ring and little fingers, inhaling slowly through the left nostril, and exhale slowly through that same nostril twelve times. Then close the left nostril and do the same with the right. One is to make no sound during breathing. Gradually, one increases the number to twelve-breath rounds. Once one has been able to do at least three of these twelve-breath rounds bilaterally, one can begin to include other exercises, such as meditating on a single sound, AUM, also spelled OM.
Pranayama can also be practiced walking with the head straight, shoulders back, and chest expanded. You inhale slowly through both nostrils, counting AUM mentally three times, one count for each step. You retain the breath as you count twelve AUMs and then exhale slowly until you count six AUMs, pause and repeat. There are, of course, numerous variations on these themes. Ultimately, the goal is detachment from the illusion of the physical world!
Pranic Healing
Pranic healing begins with an individual mastering control of breath, prana (life energy or life force), as well as various physiological and physical aspects of life. Those who have consistently practiced pranayama can direct their prana across distances to aid in the healing of various diseases. An accomplished practitioner of pranayama is never depleted by distributing prana because the more you breathe prana in and out, the more will flow to you from the cosmic source. If one imagines that cosmic energy is flowing into you through your breath and flowing down your arms, it can be directed out your hands toward another individual. Pranic healing in this form also includes speaking to the cells of the body, such as, “I command you to flow to heal my friend.” You may also repeat AUM while you are passing prana to others. The more you practice with your control of breath, control of posture, control of mind, and concentration, the greater is your ability to practice pranic healing and to direct prana consciously to unhealthy parts of the bodies of others and to your own body as well. To perform distance healing, one must feel a rapport and direct relationship with the other person. Ideally, you might arrange with that individual to have distance healing done at a specific time.
Practitioners and most specialists in the field of pranayama recommend practicing it early in the morning, shortly after arising (preferably at 4 A.M.!).
To a greater or lesser extent, pranic healing is no different from other forms of spiritual healing, including Reiki and variations such as quantum healing, quantum touch, and therapeutic touch. Basically, it is learning to focus one’s mind and to direct one’s intent to assist in healing, through time and space and through direct or indirect “touching” of another person’s body.
Odic Force
In the early 1800s, Baron Karl von Reichenbach, the German chemist who invented paraffin and creosote, spent a number of years investigating what he called “OD” (Odic Force) in an attempt to measure the life force. Among other things, he reported that sensitive individuals who had visually acclimated to a totally dark room could see a faint glow coming from the pointed ends of large quartz crystals. Dr. Claude Swanson, in his book, Life Force, The Scientific Basis, states that he himself has seen this as well. (For a detailed look at the contents of Dr. Swanson’s fine book, see Appendix A.) According to von Reichenbach, these talented individuals could also see a faint light given off by many objects after adequate time of adaptation to the dark. Moreover, they were able to see a light issuing from the poles of a strong magnet. Unfortunately, neither Dr. Swanson nor Baron von Reichenbach were able to photograph this light. Von Reichenbach also reported that subtle energy occurs in different colors with reddish-orange being positive and bluish energy being negative. This energy is given off not only by quartz but all living objects.
Von Reichenbach actually demonstrated that a highly sensitive individual could make a pendulum swing by barely touching a fixed point on the string with no movement of the fingers. He also concluded that any metal on the body very strongly dampened the effect of heart energy. The left hand and left side of the body are positive, he suggested, and the right side negative. Thus, odic, pranic, or Life Force can have the effect of a mechanical force.
Dr. Swanson repeated one of von Reichenbach’s experiments in which he removed all metal from his body and placed five charcoal briquettes in his left hand. He held a business card atop the five fingers of his right hand. He found that the card rotated slowly up to 180 degrees. With Odic Force, like polarities are tracked, in contrast to magnetism in which opposite poles are tracked.
Von Reichenbach found that when the sharp tip of a large quartz crystal was placed over water, the water tasted “cool and refreshing,” whereas the blunt end of the crystal placed over water took on a “warm, prickly, mawkish” flavor. Associated with positive OD experiments, von Reichenbach placed a wire in sunlight and the other end of the wire in a totally darkened room. Obviously, according to physics, light cannot travel on a solid copper wire. Von Reichenbach reported that sunlight transmitted this way at approximately 1 meter/second (much slower than light and heat). Instead of it producing heat in the darkened room, it produced cool. Although there have been other studies attempting to measure the Life Force, pranic energy, etc., those of von Reichenbach appear to be among the best to date.
Ayurvedic Medicine
Not only are the concepts of prana and its healing aspects the oldest in the world, the ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicine, developed during the same time frame, is certainly is at least 4,000 to 5,000 years old. This medical system includes virtually everything that we today consider Energy Medicine, except for many of the electrical devices that have been introduced in the past half century. (These will be discussed in later chapters). Ayurveda means the science of life or longevity and is grounded in the metaphysics of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether, which it considers the elements of the universe. Chyle or plasma, blood, flesh, fat, bone marrow, semen, and female reproductive tissue are considered the seven primary constituent elements of the human body.
Ayurveda emphasizes balance and moderation in food, sleep, sexual intercourse, and medicine. It involves a concept of three elemental energy systems:
• Vata: air and space or wind
• Pitta: fire and water or bile
• Kapha: water and earth or phlegm
These three regulatory principles, or doshas, are also physiological concepts. This seems to me to be similar to George Watson’s concept of slow, fast, and suboxidixer. (George Watson, Nutrition and the Mind). Fast oxidizer people burn more energy (food) than slow oxidizers, who tend to gain weight easily! Suboxidizers are somewhat in between the fast and slow oxidizers. Kapha is a slow oxidizer. Pitta would be the