Pranic Therapy Part I - An Introduction                                                                

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

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 )                                                            

 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
& the Law Divine & the social disturbance caused by the Vietnam
War brought a sense of futility & meaninglessness in the Western
psyche.The limitations of the Western system of chemotherapy
& adverse side-effects of antibiotics, sedatives and certain other
drugs and the disillusionment with the promises of science &
technology made millions turn to Oriental philosophies, divine
practices & 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 & 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 & environment are
in a state of dynamic interaction & 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 & 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 aspect of holistic health is its recognition of the
role played by mind in health. " Mind is omnipotent " said
Freud & 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 & BP is 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 & 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 & incurable disease of the connective tissue.
The patient's understanding of the disease & 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 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.

More information about Transcendental Philosophy & Yoga can be
had from http://www.astrologiavedica.com/html/yogamain.htm

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 & affinities. It was claimed that even
diseases such as cancer could be cured or held in check be creating
strong faith & 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 physiolo-
gical 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 & work efficiency

& 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 neuro-
modulators 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).

Quantum Healing 

Dr. Deepak Chopra explores the frontiers of mind/body medicine and synthesizes current Western medical thinking with India's ancient healing tradition. In the coming years, Holistic Medicine

systems like Ayurveda will blossom. Psycho Physical Medicine treats the Whole and not the parts. Ex President Clinton paid tributes to Dr Deepak saying that ' the contributions of Indians to US is

great, particularly the effort of Dr Deepak Chopra, who is a pioneer of Alternative Medicine in the West". Study this magnum opus from the great Chopra !