Exploring Odic
Prana
Fill six glasses with water. Place them on a table
before you. Take one of these glasses of water and hold it in one
hand while with the other hand you shake the fingertips into the
glass, but without touching the water. Feel the odic prana falling
from the hand and fingers into the water, being absorbed into the
water and held there. Thus we have mixed two forms of odic power,
that of the physical-health odic prana and the odic manifestation of
water. This creates magnetism when these two forces come together in
the external odic water. Mark the glass of water that you have
magnetized so that only you will later be able to identify it, then
place it with the other five glasses. Switch the glasses around so
that it is not apparent which glass was magnetized. If you are doing
this exercise by yourself, you may close your eyes when you switch
the glasses around so that you do not identify the glass that has
been magnetized. Now, the test. Close your eyes and drink from each
glass. You close your eyes so that your taste will be most keen, and
you will not be distracted by anything you see, having your entire
mind on your taste buds. As you taste each glass of water, you will
notice a distinct difference in the taste of the water in the glass
you magnetized with odic prana.
You will achieve a great control over your pranic
sheath by learning to breathe diaphragmatically. The following
experiments, coupled with diaphragmatic breathing, will help you
awaken your own knowledge of the controls over odic prana and your
own odic pranic sheath. Take a deep breath through the nostrils, at
the same time holding a mental picture of taking odic prana into the
body from within the air. You may visualize it in the form of a
vapor, like the odic prana you perhaps saw around your hand.
Visualize the odic prana going all the way down to your solar
plexus, while the air is only held in your lungs. The odic prana
stays in your solar plexus while you exhale air from the lungs. From
the solar plexus area, the odic prana will automatically flow
through the muscle tissue to the blood and begin to store up in
various nerve centers in reserve for future use. In mastering this
exercise, you will build up the vital body energies and calm the
nerves. It is not necessary to do this often, only when you feel the
need of storing up odic prana.
Odic prana is often used unknowingly for healing
various physical distresses, emotional upsets and mental strains. A
child runs to his mother; the odic prana coming from the mother,
freely flowing toward the child, comforts any distress the child may
be going through. The child runs off vigorously, taking a good
supply of odic prana from his mother through absorption.
You can supply odic prana to any part of your body
that may be ailing, and gain some relief. For emotional distress,
store odic prana in the solar plexus, and to relieve mental strain
store it in the upper back and chest area.
As you inhale odic prana, draw a mental picture of
the process. When you make a mental picture, you are also employing
odic force to form the picture, for all mental pictures are made out
of odic force. After the mental picture of the physical area in your
body that is in distress is well formed, visualize the odic prana
being sent to that particular organ or part of the body. Inhale,
then hold your breath a few seconds as you visualize the odic prana
flowing from the solar plexus to that area of your physical body.
When you manage to flow enough odic prana into the distressed area
of your physical body and the health body becomes more vibrant, you
will notice the distress ease. Do this for short periods of time.
Remember, inhale, hold a few seconds while sending the energy to the
distressed area, then exhale the air, holding the odic prana in the
part of the body that needs extra energy most. "Where awareness
goes energy flows." All breathing should be through the
nostrils, not the mouth, deep and slow, natural and rhythmic.
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Trace the
Source of Prana
Prana is not air, of course, yet it is contained in
the air in a certain manifestation. Much prana is found in the air
among the trees or near the ocean. All of nature and the forces of
nature are various manifestations of odic prana that have taken
visual shape. Plants feed on the odic prana in the air. You can
absorb prana simply by walking through a grove of trees. The air is
filled with it. Take a walk today, out into the odic force field of
nature and absorb the prana in the air through your breath and
through the pores of your skin. You will feel the prana entering
into your pranic sheath, or vital health body and remaining there
while you exhale.
Sit quietly and use the internal method of
concentration when you think on this. Each time your mind wanders,
pull it firmly back to the subject of concentration. Remember, in
concentration, that the process of making the mind return to the
object or subject of concentration forces a flow of odic as well as
actinic prana through the most subtle nerve currents, causing them
to grow strong so that soon your concentration will be effortless as
your subconscious responds to your conscious-mind concentration
efforts, causing a new process called meditation to occur in the
wonderful world of the mind.
Concentrate on the pranic health body flowing
through and just within your physical body. Mentally go over the
exercises we have done this week in proving the flow and existence
of odic prana to the subconscious habit mind so that, by
establishing a new habit pattern, the subconscious will aid instead
of barricade your natural unfoldment on the path to enlightenment.
Your subconscious needs certain proofs of these inner laws to
solicit full cooperation.
Mentally trace odic prana to its source and cause.
Does it come to an end? If so, where? Where does actinic prana
begin? You will soon find that odic prana does come to an end, for
it merges in the subconscious area of the mind into the
subsuperconscious. You will find that odic prana depends on the
existence of actinic prana for its existence. As you concentrate on
the interrelated flow of odic prana and ascertain the area of the
inner mind where actinic prana begins, you should conceptually see
how you have been controlling odic prana during this entire week
through the use of your subsuperconscious state of mind.
We are maturing through the knowledge within of our
Being which you have been studying these last few months. Remember,
in the wonderful world of the mind, understanding, gaining mental
perspectives, finding proof, no matter how small, within
ourselves--these form important controls over the mind. The art of
concentration, though the basic and most fundamental control of all,
is not the only control over the mind on the classical yoga path to
enlightenment. Harmony is control of even deeper aspects of the
mind, as are understanding and actinic love. As we expand our
consciousness on the yoga path to enlightenment, we hear more, see
more, feel more, know more within ourselves. This is intense. We
must not fear intensity, for intensity is actinic. Your actinic
Being is intensity itself, actively alive and always shining out.
Man can be thought of as seven aspects of form, but the Self is
beyond the mind or beyond form, for mind is form. Mind is
consciousness; consciousness is form. The Self is formless.
Therefore, you can contemplatively say, "I am That, I am."
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Your Astral
Counterpart
You will recall from last week the first aspect of
man, the physical body, and the second aspect, the vital health
body. The third aspect is the astral body.
The astral body is almost an exact duplicate of the
physical body. However, changes that appear upon the physical body,
such as aging, first occur within the structure of the astral body.
The astral body is of the subconscious mind, at the level of the
memory and reason chakras. It can be easily disturbed and is
sometimes called the emotional body. It is made of odic prana and
kept intact by the general life flow of actinic prana bursting
constantly forth from its atomic structure. Being the exact
counterpart of the physical body, the astral body appears like the
physical body in size, shape, in every sense except weight. It
differs in weight because it is composed of astral odic matter. This
matter vibrates at a higher rate of vibration than what we might
call physical matter.
Try to identify for yourself the fact that the
physical body and astral body are of different vibrations and fit
one inside the other, connected by the energy factor, which is the
odic pranic energy of the vital health body.
The astral world vibrates just inside the physical
world that we see through our physical eyes and feel with our
physical hands. Therefore, it is an exact duplication of everything
that exists materially to our physical senses. This is logical to
us, knowing and having identified the states of mind, for each state
of mind is a form of vibration working together with all the others.
The "one mind" is in different forms of vibration, all
working together, one aspect within the other.
As we can walk and talk using our conscious mind and
our physical body as a vehicle during our waking hours, so can we
walk and talk using the duplicate of the physical body, our astral
body of the subconscious mind, during the hours we are asleep. When
we are in the astral body in the subconscious world, other people
are also in that world, and forms of communication take place as in
the physical world.
There is a cord of odic and actinic force which
connects the two bodies. It is called the silver cord. Should
someone travel too far from his physical body astrally or have an
intense astral experience, an extra supply of energy would be drawn
from the vital health body and the physical body, and he would be
tired on awakening.
The inner study of you can be complicated, for you
are a most complex being of many dimensions. As we embark on this
week's study of the inner you, it may be helpful to have a list
which you can refer to now and then to put together the pieces in
the right order. The age-old teachings which are captured in this
book boldly claim "man" to be more than is usually
understood--that being a mortal body with an intellect, small or
large. Man, as the mystics understand him, is the immortal soul
surrounded by seven aspects. Here follows a summary of the
"seven aspects of man" established around the actinic
causal body of the soul--anandamaya kosha, "sheath of
bliss":
1) the physical body--annamaya kosha,
"food-made sheath;"
2) the vital health body--pranic sheath, pranamaya
kosha;
3) the astral body--instinctive aspect of manomaya
kosha;
4) the human aura and instinctive mind--prabhamandala
and manas chitta;
5) the intellect--odic causal sheath, buddhi chitta;
6) the subtle nerve system--nadis and chakras;
7) the intuitive mind--actinodic causal sheath,
vijnanamaya kosha, "sheath of cognition."
Just as we have school, entertainment, discussions
and meetings with friends in the conscious mind on the physical
plane, so do we go to school, enjoy entertainment, discuss problems
and meet and talk with friends on the astral plane. And as the
subconscious mind receives impressions from the conscious mind
during our waking hours, so does the conscious mind receive
impressions from the subconscious mind as we go through experience
during our sleeping hours.
In the same way, people have seen with the eyes of
their astral body, while simultaneously conscious through their
physical eyes, people on the astral plane. Similarly, people who are
traveling on the astral plane can see people on the physical plane,
as they look out through the odic astral force field into the gross
conscious-mind world. Travel is much faster on the astral plane, as
it is done through desire, and the astral body is a much more
refined rate of vibration than is the physical body, which functions
close to the time sequence as we know it.
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Life on the
Astral Plane
Each night when you read your lesson in this book,
realize that therein is your key to entry into the astral school of
Himalayan Academy. Going to sleep thinking about the lesson you have
been reading, try to wake up slowly in the morning and, with effort,
recall what you have been doing during the night on the astral
plane.
The astral world is a plane in space, just as the
physical world, as we know it in the conscious mind, is a space
plane. It is the particular rate of vibration which each of these
worlds generates that determines the space plane it occupies.
Looking out through the conscious mind, we perceive outer space.
Looking into the subconscious mind, we perceive inner space. As the
habit patterns of the subconscious mind control many of our
conscious-mind happenings on the physical plane, so does the
superconscious mind control many of the occurrences of the astral
plane through the subconscious astral body. This has to do with the
awakening of the subsuperconscious mind. The subsuperconscious mind
becomes stronger and stronger, providing we exercise our intuition
on the conscious-mind level.
Just as you choose your friends on the physical
conscious plane, so do you attract kindred beings to you in the
astral world. By keeping our homes clean and peaceful, by keeping
our bodies and clothing fresh and clean, the odic force becomes
quite pure and enables us to be more actinically alive. This
condition also keeps lower astral people away from us, so long as we
do not ourselves enter into an instinctive, astrally odic,
vibration. The spiritual, actinic vibration keeps all lower astral
influences away, just as doors, locks, windows and walls discourage
unwanted entrance into buildings.
It is not advisable to admit lower astral entities
if you are sensitive to this possibility, for doing so creates a
double influx of odic force, whereas the striving of a yoga student
is to become actinically superconscious and not to intensify the
odic subconscious. Astral entities live in their own world on the
astral plane. Possibly you enter this plane at night, too, but
during the day we must attend to our conscious-mind activities and
take care of our immediate programs, keeping the two worlds apart as
distinctly as our sleeping state is separated from the state of
being awake.
When the physical body dies, this automatically
severs the actinodic silver cord that connects the astral and
physical bodies. Then the process of reincarnation and rebirth
eventually begins. The physical body remains on the physical plane
as a conglomeration of magnetic forces and begins to dissolve into
the forces of surrounding nature. The actinic life of the physical
body and the vital health body travels up the silver cord as it
dissolves and lends a tremendous charge to the astral body. This
movement registers on the subconscious astral body all
conscious-mind memory patterns of the life just lived, and the
person becomes fully conscious on the astral plane.
This tremendous charge of odic and actinic force
registering upon the astral body at the time of transition, or
death, is what stimulates and gives the initial impulse to the
process of reincarnation. This process is largely controlled by the
activity of subconscious habit forces.
Before the reincarnation cycle fully takes hold,
however, the person just departed often quickly recreates the same
states of consciousness, the same interests he was accustomed to on
the physical plane, and he may go on as usual, meeting his family
who visit him during their sleeping hours in their astral bodies.
Although the astral body is still bound by the habit patterns of its
physical life, it continues to wear away from the moment of
transition, and odic force is continuously fed back to the physical
plane in an effort to make contact again with family, friends or
loved ones through the medium of memory and desire. Another physical
body is created, and a reentry into the conscious world is made. The
old astral body is dropped off, and the newly generated actinic
forces give life to a new physical body and a new health body, along
with a new astral body. The new astral body is the sum total of all
preceding subconscious experience, and it may be quite mature during
the time the physical body is only a child. The odic astral form
that was left behind is called an astral shell and eventually
corresponds to the corpse of the dead physical body.
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