- Pranic Therapy - An Introduction
- By: G Kumar
Astrologer and Epistemologist
Pranic Therapy is an alternative
system of Medicine using therapy with the Universal Stream of
Consciousness, the Cosmic Prana.
Pranic Therapy can be effectuated
by proper knowledge of the psycho-physical organism, physical
and mental discipline and opening all our channels to the Cosmic
Prana. This is normally effected in seven steps.
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The Seven Stages of Pranic
Therapy
1. Knowledge of the Psychosomatic
Machine
2. Regulation of Sleep, food
& Exercise
3. Relaxation
4. Attunement to Biorythms (Circadian
Rhythms, Solar & Lunar Rhythms)
5. Removing mental blocks (Difficult
due to Repression)
6. Overcoming Prajnaparadha (Fault
of Awareness due to misuse of our cognitive & conative functions)
7. Opening the system to the
Cosmic Prana (Opening all channels to the Divine Shakti) |
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Introduction
With the advent of rapid industrialization,
urbanization and the breakdown of family life after the Second
World War, social life in the West became tense & stressful.
The spread of materialistic ideas and ideals and the erosion
of faith in Morality and the Law Divine and the social disturbance
caused by the Vietnam War brought a sense of futility and meaninglessness
in the Western psyche. The limitations of the Western system
of chemotherapy and adverse side-effects of antibiotics, sedatives
and certain other drugs and the disillusionment with the promises
of science and technology made millions turn to Oriental philosophies,
divine practices and systems of therapy.
The response from the Orient
was benevolent. Favoured by the social revolution that swept
through several countries in the West in the 1960s, these countries,
especially the US, came to be flooded with Gurus and Yogis. Yoga,
TM, Reiki, - all attained world-wide popularity.
Three Modern Movements
As a byproduct three modern movements
came into being.
They are Neo-humanisn, interreligious dialogue and Holistic
Health. The term 'Neo-humanism' refers to a basic change
in modern man's attitude towards himself and his fellowmen
which is characterised by
a) the recognition of the essential
goodness of man
b) focus on existential problems
c) striving for higher transcendental experience.
The contribution of Ramakrishna
Movement to inter-faith dialogue was immense. Other movements
like Maharshi International University and Self Realisation Fellowship
contributed to this change in the human mindset.
Holistic Health
Holistic Health refers to a modern
movement which regards health as a dynamic state of the total
human being. Although the symptoms of a disease may be found
in certain tissues or organs, health is not a mere removal of
such symptoms by the treatment of the affected tissues or organs,
but a state of multidimensional experience, according to this
perspective. The mind, body and environment are in a state of
dynamic interaction and the maintenance of this interaction in
an optimum state of efficiency is what health means. In other
words " To be healthy is to have the ability to live with
full use of our faculties and be vigorous, alert and happy to
be alive, even in old age, despite an occasional bout of illness."
This "operational health" has been defined as wellness.
It is a sense of all-round well-being as contrasted with illness.
The greatest aspects of holistic
health is its recognition of the role played by mind in health.
" Mind is omnipotent " said Freud and he had shown
that the Unconscious played a key role in causing certain diseases
which came to be described as psychosomatic diseases. He looked
upon the Unconscious chiefly as the repository of negative emotions.
His early disciple Carl Jung expanded the concept of the Unconscious
to make it include good emotions and even spiritual urges. Adler,
another disciple of Freud showed that the ego could alter unconscious
behaviour.
The connecting link between the
body and mind was not clear. The work of the Canadian endocrinologist
Hans Selye brought the much needed connecting link. In his classic
work " The Stress of Life " Selye showed that mental
stress was the root cause of several types of common illness
such as hypertension, hyperacidity etc. The 'stressor' (the original
source of stress ) excites the hypothalamus in the brain. This
vital organ which controls the autonomic nervous system activates
the pituitary to secrete the stress hormone (known as ACTH )
which stimulates the secretion of several hormones and steroids
(including the well known, adrenaline or epinephrine). More sugar
is released into the blood and BP increased as a result of these
changes. According to Selye, stress is unavoidable in life. (The
emotional centre in the brain, when upset, stimulates the oxintic
cells to secrete more hydrochloric acid in the stomach which
leads to hyperacidity.) When it goes beyond a certain tolerance
level (which varies from person to person) the system breaks
down resulting in illness.
To the scientific picture of
body-mind interrelationship given above, certain new concepts
were added. One was the idea that if negative emotions could
cause illness, positive emotions can cause "wellness".
The attention of medical experts and the imagination of the public
was captured by this innovative idea when Normal Cousins, editor
of Saturday Review, published a convincing account of his recovery
from a debilitating and incurable disease of the connective tissue.
The patient's understanding of the disease and his active participation
in the recovery process was highlighted by his case.
The most difficult and controversial
aspect of holistic health is another idea that by creating proper
awareness within himself man could exercise a certain degree
of voluntary control over the healing processes taking place
in his body. After the aftermath of Pavlov's demonstration of
conditioned reflexes, another Russian scientist K M Bykov and
his colleagues in showed in 1924 that several involuntary processes
such as regulation of body heat, heart rhythm, production of
urine, BP etc which were mediated by the autonomic nervous system
could be brought under voluntary control. The above finding was
corroborated later during experiments conducted on animals under
'operant' (voluntary) conditioning. Hundreds of people found
that they could bring under control their heart rhythm, brain
waves etc with the help of the biofeedback technique. Indian
Yogis in the West also demonstrated that they could alter metabolic
rate, heartbeat, body temperature etc simply by their will power,
without the use of any biofeedback instruments.
Holistic health practioners invaded
the scene at this juncture. They showed that not only certain
organs but the working of the whole system such as the digestive
system, the respiratory system, circulatory system etc (known
as the Systems concept) could be regulated simply by changing
one's life-style and affinities. It was claimed that even diseases
such as cancer could be cured or held in check be creating strong
faith and the right type of consciousness. Despite the exaggeration
and the propaganda which accompanied these claims, the basic
idea that man can consciously regulate involuntary and unseen
physiological processes came to be accepted as a fact by the
medical community.
Various meditation techniques
like Transcendental Meditation, Zen, Yoga were becoming popular
in the West in those days. Apart from the spiritual benefits,
(In Transcendental Meditation, the existence of a fourth major
state of Consciousness called Transcendental Consciousness was
proved by Dr Keith Wallace in his Phd Thesis) practical Yoga
teachers showed that Meditation also produced other beneficial
effects such as reduction of tension, lowering of BP, relaxation
of muscles, increase of concentration and work efficiency and
even increase of immunological resistance to diseases. As a result,
some form of Meditation has become an essential part of most
holistic health programmes. (Dr Harold Bloomfied says that TM
can be used as an adjunct to psychiatric practice.)
The success of Acupuncture, herbology
etc which came to be recognised as "Alternative Medicine",
lent much support to the holistic health position. Two great
discoveries strengthened this position. One was the discovery
of 'biological clocks' in nature and the existence of biorhythms
in the human body. The other discovery was that the brain produced
certain neuromodulators called endorphins which have the property
of reducing pain. The production of these natural painkillers
is influenced by our thoughts and endorphins are produced when
our EEG brain waves are in an alpha state (8.5 cycles per sec). |
