Copyright © 2010 by William R. Mistele. All rights reserved.
On Attaining Physical
Immortality, Part II
Magical Breathing: A Brief
Synopsis (27 pages)
Bardon’s breathing exercises are ninety-nine per cent based on
imagination and concentration. They
include physical, etheric, astral, mental, and akashic “breathing.” In
exploring the exercises, the individual student can observe and define for
himself each of these forms of breathing or energy accumulation directly
through his own practice.
There are no doctrines here, no secrets, no
esoteric orders, no lineages, gurus, initiations, and no expensive seminars
with special methods reserved only for the “ordained” teachers—that is, there
are no franchises or no monopolies. You do the exercises and, with some
ingenuity and a great deal of perseverance, you get the results. You do not have to believe anything or commit
to anyone’s ethnic or culturally based objectives.
The practice begins and ends with your
health, your vitality, your healing abilities, and the power with which you
live your life. You will want to carefully
observe what works best for you as an individual and proceed at a pace that is
natural and that optimizes learning without sacrificing your well-being and
equilibrium. Here is a brief synopsis:
Normal Breathing
The body is like a factory
using biochemistry to take oxygen from the air and attaching it to red blood
cells. These red blood cells take the
oxygen to body cells where it metabolizes with sugars and carbon to produce
energy. This energy production occurs at
low temperatures due to the part enzymes play in the process.
Since we are dealing with vitality,
that is, health, it is indispensable to be in good shape. Without this, your results will be limited
and erratic.
Oriental methods often fail to remind
Westerners to do cardiovascular exercise.
Do some weight training and stretching. Eat and
sleep well. Avoid excessive stress.
Hopefully, work with some form of energy art
such as chi kung, yoga, or tai chi chuan. This should be something that is deeply
relaxing and that produces extra vitality without relying on the mind or on any
form of heightened concentration. You
will need a basis of comparison in order to better evaluate the vitality
produced through breathing.
Once you start visualizing colors or
consciously circulating vitality around your body, you are already increasing
the intensity of vibration in your mental body and downgrading the organic and
natural capacities built into the physical body. Learn how to do both—natural and magical
energy production and healing.
Etheric Body Breathing
Etheric Body (definition): The etheric body is similar in shape to the
physical body. The metabolic and biochemical activities of the physical
body produced a subtle field of energy that relates directly to health and
vitality. Systems such as acupuncture or practices such as pranayama focus primarily on the etheric body. They
seek to balance and increase the quantity and quality of the life force or
vitality in the physical body. In these examples, they do this by adding
imagination to breath or interacting with points in the body where the etheric
and physical are closely aligned.
In this essay, the etheric body is the extra
or excess vitality that is produced through the biochemical and metabolic
activities of the physical body.
Vitality is actually fluid and malleable—it can be accumulated, moved
around in the body, transformed, and transferred outside of the body in ways
that are currently beyond the knowledge of science and medicine.
The first step in Bardon
breathing exercises is to imagine that you are breathing vitality in along with
the air you are inhaling. (See the
entire set of Bardon breathing practices at the end of Part I). This is
like commanding that a factory work with great efficiency, for example, instead
of at ten per cent efficiency it is now working at twenty per cent efficiency.
All those fascinating practices in yoga, chi
kung, etc. are basically upgrading the efficiency of
the factory production line. Work is
accomplished with less effort, with less waste, and resources are managed more
effectively. But they do NOT increase
the amount of vitality or life force in the air being inhaled. The management in ethnic and cultural pranayama classes is pretty good at times, but it is not
world class.
A Bardon student who meets Bardon’s expectations for practicing for ten years draws in
about three times more vitality in one breath than the greatest masters of
various traditions on earth. These
masters can do great things with that vitality once it is in their bodies, but
here right from the beginning we see an astonishing difference in the human
versus the magical training programs.
The Bardon system immediately presents you with the goal of gaining
access to unlimited energy; human systems have no such concept.
With magical breathing, you are attaching an
electro-magnetic field to the oxygen molecules.
This requires a high caliber concentration to accomplish. The quickest way to develop concentration
that directly changes the vibration of the air you inhale is by extensive
practice of concentrating on each of the five senses.
The result is that the field of energy
generated through concentration impregnates something physical—the oxygen. This
“breathing in of vitality” does, however, upgrade efficiency of the air
molecules and metabolic processes many times over.
The normal excess or surplus vitality
produced by the biochemical metabolism we can call etheric energy. It can be moved around at will both inside
and outside of the body; it is easy to transform and totally receptive to
suggestions and imagination.
You can work hard on an assembly line, be
well-motivated, and enthusiastic about your job. But if you place Starbucks coffee cafés
throughout the factory, add personal trainers, throw in the Dallas Cowboy
Cheerleaders rooting for you as you work, and give assembly line workers stock
ownership, you are no longer an employee of a car company. You feel and perform
as if you are a football star. Magical
breathing gets your metabolism to perform far beyond its normal level of energy
productivity.
[Though later on I will
expand on this topic, in passing I would suggest that an individual with his
sun sign in Aries has breath that is programmed to draw in Aries vitality. The Aries draws in with each breath a hot, explosive,
ready to act, and totally extroverted kind of energy. It is fire energy. A Virgo sun sign draws in a cautious,
analytic, and wanting to get things right kind of energy. It is earth energy.
In other words, there is a subconscious bias
each individual has as he or she “shapes” the vitality entering the body to
“fit” a certain personality style.
Though there are strong mental and astral elements in astrological
signs, the main thrust is etheric vitality.
In breathing, the Aries is drawing in an etheric hot form of vitality
whereas the Virgo is drawing in an etheric heavier form of vitality. Eventually, a student of magic will want to
bring his microcosm in harmony with the larger macrocosm. This is done in part
by universalizing the etheric body—integrating into one’s vitality the
vibrations of the larger universe or, in this example, the vitality specific to
each astrological sign.]
Again, the quickest way to
enhance magical breathing is to practice concentrating on each of the five senses. This practice trains the mind to attune
itself to and to enter the realm of etheric vitality. Bardon has students working on five minute to
a half hour concentration on one sense.
For breathing practice, quickly concentrating on the five senses even
for ten seconds each resets an individual’s brain waves to better connect to
etheric energy.
For those who are having
difficulty with etheric breathing or who wish to explore it in greater depth,
you can practice imagining you are an animal or even transfer your
consciousness into an actual animal. You concentrate on perceiving and moving
about with the animal’s modes of perception, routines, and its instinctual
energies. And then practice breathing
vitality in and out of your body in the form of the animal. Notice the difference in the kinds of
vitality produced.
Martial artists have great movement sets
based on animals in fighting mode. You
want to go much further than martial artists and pursue the shamanistic
approach in which you are after the etheric life force in the animal and not
just the animal in as it behaves in a martial context.
For example, the tiger and lion are fiery
power, aggression, and dominance. The
eagle and owl are clear vision by day and by night. The snake has the mesmeric concentration
relating to the earth. The deer has the
acute hearing and the capacity to blend into the surroundings with the
flexibility of air. And though the whale
migrates, it feels united through sound and vibration with the entire ocean.
In effect, the animals embody specialized
drives and modes of perception. How do
you stop your mind from thinking? Imagine you are an owl or hawk. They can sit on a branch and just watch for
hours without being distracted or having a thought passing through their minds.
The etheric vitality in their bodies vibrates within the context of their
anatomical, perceptual, and instinctual systems. However, this practice can be so much fun you
may have to watch that you keep the exercise focused on your magical
objectives.
Another Exercise for Studying
Etheric Vitality
Grasp one of your wrists with
your other hand. Notice the physical
sensations of touch, weight, size, shape, pressure, heat, etc. This is again awareness of the physical body.
Now, take one or more deep breaths in which
you imagine the air and vitality in your breath is moving directly into the
hand holding the wrist and the wrist being held. Air enters your body through your nose or
mouth, passes through the lungs and blood stream, and then into the hand and
wrist. You imagine in effect that you
are breathing air and vitality in and out of the wrist and the hand.
Depending on your imagination and
concentration, this may feel the same as the previous exercises of simply
grasping the wrist or it may add additional sensations. In this case, you may sense increased warmth,
blood circulation, sensory stimulation, and so forth.
Now, hold out your two hands in front of you
and focus on them. Imagine you are breathing the vitality in the air in and out
of your two hands. Next, as you inhale,
imagine drawing in vitality and holding or keeping this vitality in your
hands. As you exhale, simply let your
mind be empty. In other words, you are
accumulating the life force or vitality in your hands so it grows stronger with
each breath. Take for example five
breaths.
At this point, you may notice sensations that
are specific to the etheric body and vitality.
These sensations may include a sense of pressure building up in the
hand, a radiant force almost like intense light, tingly sensations, and
increased warmth.
Now hold one hand several inches away from
the other hand so the palms are facing each other. Imagine that one hand is emitting vitality
through the palm to the other hand.
Imagine that the second hand is receiving, absorbing, or sucking in the
vitality from the first hand. This flow
or movement of vitality between the hands is an introduction to the way etheric
vitality is different from the biochemical vitality that maintains the physical
body. Again, etheric vitality can be
moved about, accumulated, transformed, and even transferred in and out of the
body.
A Few Etheric
Steppingstones and Attainments
Uniting Shakti
and Shiva in the Body
In the area of yoga, one of
the great attainments is uniting the primal energy in the body based in the
root charka with the transcendental awareness in the crown charka. Kundalini, the
“serpent power,” is awakened in the body, guided upward passing through each of
the major charkas, and then unites with her Lord Shiva in the crown charka
based in the brain.
In some traditions, when this occurs the
individual yogi enters a state of trance similar to hibernation. The senses are completely withdrawn from the
external world. The vitality within the
body becomes very purified and refined unleashing tremendous psychic abilities
even though these powers are not the goal of the practice.
Individuals such as the late Swami Rama could at will enter such a state of trance,
consciously evoking delta brain waves and deep dreamless sleep at will, while
being able to demonstrate complete consciousness of his external environment.
Such inner union produces a transcendental
state of detachment similar to that represented by the god Shiva. Other results are a mastery of the physiology
and life force within the body, a sense of oneness with all things, great inner
illumination, and profound bliss.
Among the disadvantages is that this attainment
carries with it no awareness of the external world, history, or ethical
commitments-- nada, nothing, zip--zero responsibility for the world. Buddhists might call this the attainment of
an Arhat—one who has overcome that kind of suffering
that is derived from attachment. This
inner union is, however, part of the A, B, C’s of human physiology. We all have this capacity hidden within
us.
Taoist Longevity
There are Taoist practices
similar to the inner union of Shiva and Shakti. The Chinese, being more
extroverted in temperament, wanted to prolong life without having to forego
being active in society. Taoist
meditations do not involve the extreme internal focus of the yogis. There is, for example, movement, martial
arts, and many other practices such a calligraphy, music, painting, poetry, and
so forth built into their training curriculum.
The Taoists also were very keen on the idea
of attaining astral immortality—the ability after death to sustain the strength
and quality of the elements in the astral body so it does not deteriorate. As they pursued the “golden flower” and the
“union of Kan and Li,” the Taoists tended to take greater interest in and also
sought to harmonize themselves with the energies of nature. It is that emphasis on the energies within
nature that led them in the direction of astral immortality. If you are in harmony with nature, then your
astral body simply does not deteriorate.
The downside to the Taoist practices is that
they do not seek to unite with the energies of nature so as to know them inside
and out one hundred per cent in a way that leads to absolute command over those
energies. This failure of command and
will power means that they do not condense the elements within themselves to
the extent necessary to attain physical immortality.
However, in cases where the yogi or the
Taoist master did embody sufficient will power they could in fact master the
vitality within themselves and prolong their lives at will. The greatest barrier to doing this when they
were able to is the lack of connection to the akasha of the earthzone,
namely, they had no purposes to fulfill that required further mastery of the
life force in themselves.
To put it simply, when you are sufficiently
developed in working with energy and in being psychic, the astral plane seems
just as real, as inviting, and as much “home” as the physical world. For these masters, there is really no purpose
served by hanging around here in the physical world because they had no world
historic destiny to fulfill.
The Philosopher’s Stone
Meanwhile, in the Western
world, even though alchemy was seen as a spiritual pursuit, the emphasis was on
producing a physical substance that would both change lead to gold and greatly enhance
health and length of life. Through
alchemical experiments, chemistry was born.
Among the practitioners was Sir Isaac Newton who practiced alchemy in
part because analytical chemistry had not yet been invented.
Whatever the successes or failures of
alchemical research, the intent was clearly to integrate into one substance the
refined essence of everything that exists within nature. The goal, then, was not just to perfect the
energies within the individual’s body or to bring the individual into harmony
with nature while refining the various internal energies of the organs in the
individual’s body. Rather, the goal was
to bring to perfection life force as it exists within nature, as it encompasses
in scope the entire planet, and includes all natural, human, and to some extent
divine kingdoms within it. It was a
world historical, global project that was envisioned.
In hermetic tradition and certainly within
yogic traditions, it is possible for a highly developed master to materialize
and to dematerialize himself. In this
context, that is, in being able to control and transform matter and energy with
one’s mind, it is possible to produce the philosopher’s stone within one’s own
aura.
In this case, the advantage is that the
individual embodies within himself a kind of life force that can greatly
enhance and immediately refine the vibrations of anything within nature or that
exists on earth. It can restore original
balance and harmony as well as transforming something into a higher vibration—upgrading
its qualities and powers. The physical
philosopher’s stone, when developed within an individual’s etheric body,
becomes an internal magical power subject to the individual’s will.
The disadvantage of attaining this
incredible achievement is that it is primarily a physical attainment. If our science of biology was as advanced as
our science of astronomy, all of us right now would already have attained
this. We would know how to live for
thousands of years.
And even though embodying the refined
essence of the elements in nature establishes astral immortality, the actual
ecstasies and divine visions within the four elements are not included in this
attainment. The yogi sitting in his cave has a better sense, for example, of
the oneness of life than does the master of internal alchemy.
To put it simply, the master of internal
alchemy can breathe into himself the refined essence of the elements in nature
so as to rejuvenate his physical body.
This also animates and sustains his astral body. But it definitely does not make his mind
enlightened. It does not carry with it
any sense of compassion. And it does not
by itself include any the purposes of akasha as it oversees evolution on this
planet. It simply offers the ability to
indefinitely extend one’s life span.
Immortality in a Divine
Context
Implicit within Franz Bardon’s writings is a vision of an individual who is
united from within to God, or, however you wish to express it—to divinity, to
the Divine Majesty, to Divine Providence, to the One Light, etc.
In this scenario, like the higher spirits of
the solar sphere, the individual embodies an akashic emptiness and
all-penetrating purity that enables the highest light and a boundless level of
vitality to flow through him. Physical
immortality is a side effect of the practice.
It is the massive amount of vitality and
light that the individual has access to that allows him to rise to the level of
assuming responsibility for overseeing and guiding human and planetary evolution. Physical being and vitality on this level are
inherently interwoven into a cosmic consciousness. You can not produce this level of vitality
without feeling that you are joined to and a part of the unfolding purposes of
the larger universe.
Furthermore, this vitality is not an
individual possession. There is no “Oh
gee, now I don’t have to die” to it. It
is an ability that comes with other abilities that are part of being a servant
of the light.
The yogi, Taoist, and even those who work
with the philosopher’s stone may be involved in working with a lineage or great
tradition. But in the Bardon scenario,
the individual is assisted by a series of divine beings in unfolding his
potential. His motivation is not that of
an individual Arhat or a very accomplished
master. Rather, in the end, he is an
agent of Divine Providence and wears the mantel of its authority, power, and
responsibility.
Consequently, the individual’s approach to
his own body, to life force, and to soul, mind, and spirit take a totally
different approach. He does not see
himself as separate from others. The goal is not to build within oneself
something for oneself but to develop oneself in order
to serve.
[As an apprentice to the Judges
of Saturn, I sometimes act as a general accounting office. I present the strengths and weaknesses of
various traditions in order to indicate opportunities that have been taken and
opportunities that are lost. Put
bluntly, I monitor the conscience of others.
If I look carefully at the three greatest
Swami/yogis now on earth and the three greatest Taoist masters, these
individuals are typical of the race of Homo sapiens—they take three times more
energy from the planet and use it for their own selfish needs than they give
back to the planet.
The planet is like a mother. She is happy to give to her children. But at some point even a mother expects her
children to attain maturity by rising to the level with which she gives.
These masters have utilized the incredibly
beautiful energies of nature, the life force and magnetic fields of energy that
encompass this planet. We are not just
on another planet. We are on a planet
that is almost unique in this galaxy.
But their attitude has been “Oh, I have attained these various
realizations; I have mastered the teachings of my lineage or tradition; I have
attained great inner peace and light.”
But as far as contributing anything back to
humanity, the biosphere, or the spiritual aura of the planet, they are like
jaded teenagers whose parents have fed and housed them, given them a home and a
good upbringing. But now these teenagers
feel they are entitled to receive a free college education without any plans to
return something of equal value either to their parents or to anyone else. They just want to further their own careers
and make no serious effort to respond to the needs of the world on which they
exist.
The vitality you breathe in when you inhale
is some of the most beautiful, harmonious, and rich life force in the
galaxy. It is saturated with spiritual
vibrations. At some point in your
training, do not be like these masters of human traditions with their
self-serving, self-righteous complacency.
Plan at some point in giving back something of equal
value that benefits the planet rather than merely accomplishing things for the
benefit of your family, your lineage, or your tradition.
There is an inspiration that guides an
individual to reach for a global and cosmic level of attainment. This occurs when an individual feels joined
from within to the powers unfolding the greater universe. From the beginning, learn to think of
yourself from the point of view of the entire species, the entire planet, and
the purposes of the larger universe.]
Bardon emphasizes that the
accumulation of vitality is radiant like the sun, hot, and extremely
expansive. At the same time, he points
out that this vitality is totally receptive to ideas, images, and commands you
place within it. In other words, though
radiant, it is feminine in its essence.
See also my site video on breathing. I describe it in this manner:
Feminine and infinite, receptive and utterly new in
every moment, the energy of Divine Providence extends throughout the
universe. Intimate and dynamically
creative, this energy exists within our breath.
Through force
of imagination and concentration, this mysterious gift we all possess reveals
herself. Physical immortality is a side effect. The horrors and suffering of
history are exchanged for joy in the presence of her radiant beauty.
Astral Body Breathing
Astral Body (definition): The astral body is in the shape of the physical body
but made of a more subtle substance. The astral body pertains to the
realm of the soul, to feelings and emotions. It is responsive and
impressionable. It gives a sense of being connected to and appreciative
of others. It is this sensitivity to the present moment, our immediate
environment, and our sensory perceptions that enables us to feel fully
alive.
Though receptive to impressions, it is also
dynamic and radiant. Every feeling you
can feel in life or in a dream is focused through and amplified by the astral
body. As in a dream, the astral body is
highly responsive to the sensual and perceptual images presented in concrete
situations. If you imagine you are in a
grove, a castle, a stone circle, a cathedral, or a railway station, your astral
body immediately responds with a different set of vibrations.
Astral Plane (definition): The astral plane surrounds and penetrates the
physical world. Sometimes referred to as the “other side,” the “world
beyond,” or “the next world,” the astral plane pertains to the realm of the
soul. As feeling and soul are to the body, the astral plane is to the
material world. Undines, the spirits of water, as well as many other
conscious entities exist on the astral plane. Sometimes we enter this
realm in our dreams. Some individuals who are naturally sensitive or
clairvoyant can perceive the astral plane directly.
An Exercise for Studying the
Astral Body
Grasp one wrist again with your other
hand. Without in any way changing the
hold, add this feeling to the hand grasping the other wrist--“I love you with
all my heart and soul” or “I am one with you.”
Notice at this point the new sensations and feelings that are present in
the touch.
For example, with the love added you may
sense increased warmth, a feeling of encompassing, a penetrating and an “inner”
connection to the wrist. These
sensations or forms of awareness are astral in nature. We can think of the astral body as a body of
energy that fits inside of or is identical in shape and form to the physical
body. But it is more subtle like a fine
glove fit inside of another glove.
Sometimes in dreaming it is impossible to
tell if one is awake or asleep. The
dreaming body produces the exact same sensations and perceptions as the
physical body.
What is astral
breathing? Normally, an individual’s attention
is focused on the physical (“real”) world.
Astral breathing in this case is at a bare minimum. He is not aware that there is another source
of energy available to be drawn upon.
In this situation, the individual’s astral
body is nourished and animated through physical, emotional, and sensory
stimulation with the world around him.
Subject an individual to sensory deprivation and he begins to
hallucinate. Separate him
from contact with other people and the world and the feeling of being alive is
drastically curtained.
Astral breathing, as Bardon describes it,
feels exactly like you are breathing in your physical body but there is no
actual oxygen molecules entering the body and no physical metabolism or
biochemical process involved. For example, imagine that you are standing
outside of and next to your physical body.
Now produce through imagination every single sensation that accompanies
actual breathing in your physical body.
If you feel radiant vitality as you take a deep breath in your physical
body, include that sensation as well as you “imagine” breathing in.
You are now breathing in your “astral” body
at this point. This is how Bardon
presents astral breathing. Actual energy
from the astral plane is being drawn into your astral body. It is just not related to biochemical
vitality.
Obviously, the beings who occupy the astral
plane do not eat, drink, and breathe to acquire energy. Rather, it is the quality of the
electro-magnetic field within their aura that enables them to absorb the
energies and the elements of the astral plane to sustain their existence.
Put simply, practicing drawing in and
releasing the five elements and the electro-magnetic fluids is what develops
your ability to absorb energies that sustain and enhance the health and
strength of your astral body.
Indirectly, astral breathing greatly amplifies the productivity of
biochemical processes in the physical body.
But again, since there are no material substances as dense as oxygen
employed, there is no etheric output of vitality from the process.
Astral breathing makes breathing attractive
and enchanting like turning the factory into a home so that by going to work
you feel you are actually relaxing and pursuing your favorite activity. The astral provides a magical spell that
turns reality into a dream and breathing into ecstasy.
There are individuals, for example, hard core
mermaid women, who can draw the element of water and also magnetism directly
from nature and absorb it into themselves. They are not using “breathing” of air based on
a biochemical process to do this.
Mermaid type women, for example, like to be
around large bodies of water because their auras are automatically drawing
energy directly from that source. In
this case, “breathing” is a loose metaphor for the energy exchange
occurring. Though in a human body, these
women are still continuously connected to water. And, like water, it is natural for them to
continuously flow energy in and through everyone they encounter. Thus, for them, giving and receiving in equal
measure is a part of being alive. To
take more than one gives is beyond their comprehension.
Though normally absorbing water energy would
only enhance the astral body and therefore indirectly the physical/etheric
bodies, there are exceptions. Once the
individuals’ astral body or control of one or more elements is sufficiently
developed, the astral magnetism can become sufficiently condensed to interact
with the physical organs and metabolism in the same way as etheric
vitality.
To lift your arm requires vitality or energy
in your body. A great martial artist can
lift his arm with much greater power using less vitality than a normal person. An individual with sufficiently strong astral
energy can use astral magnetism to lift the arm in the same way without relying
upon biochemical energy. But again, it
takes a prolonged training with the four elements to reach this level for
drawing energy directly from nature and the astral plane.
Bardon’s exercise
of imagining being outside of the physical body and breathing is specifically
designed for learning to separate the astral body from the physical. If you imagine standing next to your body and
breathing, you can then reenter your body and imagine that this subtle astral
body is floating inside of your physical body.
You might then be able to get a feel for breathing on in both the
physical and the astral at the same time.
Astral breathing occurs naturally without
effort as an individual practices drawing in and releasing the four elements
and also as he or she develops a rapport with nature. Feeling you are a part of a lake, river, or
ocean, a mountain, a forest, the sky, etc. grants the astral body the experience
of being immersed within and a part of the energies of nature.
[A spirit of the earthzone,
“Bileka,” like other spirits like to suggest that a
student think of breathing as immediately connecting himself to the entire
biosphere of the planet earth. Even as a mermaid woman might easily,
effortlessly extend her aura through all the waters of the earth, get an astral
“feeling” for being a part of nature as you breathe:
Bileka: “The winds ARE your breath. Sense the vitality
of the winds as the vitality within your lungs as you inhale air. The
rivers, the sea, and the rain--you can feel their life force and their
magnetism, the waves breaking, the depths, and the moisture falling--all of
this is within your blood, your kidneys, and the waters of your body flowing.
“The
sun is the fire in your heart. Its radiance is your inspiration.
Its heat is your passion. Shine with its light! The mountains and
the earth, the minerals and the rocks--these are your bones and your physical
body. Their vibration is your own. Sense your bones--their
solidity, their stability, and the strength they lend you as support. The
whole earth is your home.
“The
trees, the forests, the plants, the flowers opening, and the seasons of
life--these are the notes and cords of a song shouting from every pour in your
body and dancing with ecstasy in your fives senses. Can you sense it
now? The life force animating your body is one with the life force of the
planet. Full of beauty and divine passion, there is one magnetic field of
love and we are all within it.”
To be more specific in regard to exploring
astral breathing of the element, note for example that the water life force
accumulation, as opposed to the fiery or white light kind of accumulation, is
magnetic, cool, and soothing. Imagine sitting in a pool of water in front
of a falls and practice breathing air in and out of your body as you are
surrounded by a fine mist of vapor from the falls. In this case, you can
learn to sense more of the watery energy that is present in the air that you
breathe in. You are just altering your mental focus slightly to produce a
different result in terms of elemental accumulation in the air you are
breathing.
However, the accumulation of the water element in nature is different from the
accumulation of the water aspect of vital life force in the body. If you
practice focusing completely on drawing into your body in
each breath cold water, you get in your body the cold, wet sensation of
water. If you breathe in air utilizing the imagery for example of sitting
in front of a water fall, you are getting more of the watery energy that is a
part of your own life force.
This
energy is not wet and cold. It is soothing and cleansing, even nurturing
and sustaining. This emphasizes the health-producing, elemental energies
within breath and the organic vitality of the body. However, this procedure may only slightly
develop your mastery of the water element.
You have to decide in your own practice whether to move directly into
working with water in nature or to explore water as an aspect of organic,
etheric vitality in your body.
[To review, it is possible to
emphasize particular elements as you breathe in. In terms of etheric vitality, with a slight
emphasis on water the vitality will tend to be soothing, purifying, cleansing,
releasing tension and relaxing, cooling, etc.
If you astral breathe in water, the results are more in terms of astral feelings—feeling
serene and peaceful, tranquil, united to nature, etc.
The
mermaid type women are united to the element of water in their astral bodies
and on the astral plane. Consequently,
they have a non-human identity—they sense themselves as belonging to and united
to nature. Water energy is constantly
flowing through their astral bodies. The
result is that their innocence, love, and empathy are beyond the knowledge and understanding
of human beings.]
Similarly, accumulating the
element of air, and not the “weightless” air of the sky, results in a balancing
and harmonizing energy. The earth element, compared to emphasizing
“density” vital accumulation is peaceful, calming, and stabilizing. The
akasha element concentration produces a sense of inner stillness and profound
faith.
If
you gather and then blend these together, combining the opposite pairs carefully
and then adding the akasha, you get a feeling of strong health and rejuvenation
or the combination of all the qualities of each of the five elements.
Mental Body Breathing
Mental Body (definition): The mental body is in the form of the physical body
but more refined or subtle than the astral body. It relates to ideas,
thinking, and analyzing. Unlike the astral body with its sensitivity and
response to concrete images and situations, the mental body works with
abstractions. We size up situations and solve problems with our
minds. The mental body is rooted in concentration and attention.
Here we choose when and how we focus our
attention. Forming plans, setting priorities, and determining time frames
and means for fulfilling our purposes are mental plane activities. The
mental body does not carry the emotional force of the astral. Whereas the astral body produces enthusiasm,
the mental body produces dedication.
In the astral body, a connection to another
can be expressed through empathy in which you feel one with the other. Actual astral energy can circulate back and
forth. That beautiful or loving woman
who smiles at you or who cares for you—she not only makes you feel better; some
of her beauty and love passes into and through you as astral energy.
The mental body, by contrast, can contemplate
anything from a position of total detachment.
And yet it can focus in such as way that nothing else exists in its
awareness but the thing it is contemplating.
The connection is not so much of feeling as it is of awareness—you can
be aware of everything you know about another person all at once so as to
generate pure insight.
All the same, the mental body typically is
most active in thinking, analyzing, investigating, or planning. It asks, What needs
to be done and what is the time frame in which we do this? What are the
available resources we have for accomplishing our goals?
The way to experience the mental body is to
learn how to think. Ask good
questions. Learn to think or argue both
sides of any position before taking a stand.
The power of Aristotle was that he fairly and
accurately summarized all facts and perspectives before offering a new
conceptual system that encompassed everything.
People who argue for various causes rarely represent the facts
accurately. Their emotional attachments
prevent them from seeing the topic with any clarity.
In terms of magic, the mental body is
strengthened by increasing its mirror-like quality. This is so important that it is possible to
suggest that the basis of all magical traditions is the ability to observe
something without thoughts intervening.
An Exercise for Studying
the Mental Body Breathing
We have used the hands for
studying physical sensations. We have
breathed vitality into the hands. We
have placed feelings into the hands. A
mental plane exercise with the hands relating to vitality is to imagine that
bright white light or golden light enters the hands as you breathe vitality
into and out of them with your breath.
Light is usually more subtle than either
etheric or astral vitality. If you look
at your hands and see them shining bright like the sun in the sky, then the
energy you sense in them is similar in vibration to sunlight. But bright light can also condense so it
becomes astral energy or etheric energy.
In this case, on an astral level the bright light carries with it a
sense of great inspiration.
You look at the sun and you may love the
sunset or sunrise but to get strong feelings from that sight you need to weave
into the light some sort of mythological or emotional imagery. Psychic healers sometimes add to the light
their own definition of authority over the life force—they embody in some way a
sense of purpose, command, and power to restore harmony and health. This is an emotional force or inspiration
that is typical of the astral plane.
Bardon also adds pour
breathing to mouth and nose breathing.
You imagine that every pour in your body is drawing in and releasing
“vitality” as you inhale and exhale. Pour breathing is completely different
from organic breathing. Like astral
breathing, it has no material substance such as oxygen that it is attaching itself
to. It carries no emotional or astral
component. The entire idea of “pour
breathing” is abstract.
[Note: For myself, if I draw
in intensely cold water energy through breathing, this feels exactly the same
whether I do it inside of my own physical body or within an imaginary body
outside of my physical body. This is
because the breathing process in this case in no way depends on physical air or
the physical lungs.
Astral and mental body breathing, then,
produce exactly the same results whether you practice them inside or outside of
your body. The exception to this is if
you practice magical breathing inside of another person after having
transferred your consciousness into that person.
Depending on your skill, you then can then
use this person’s own etheric body to produce etheric vitality in order to
assist in healing that individual. You
could of course transfer your own etheric vitality to this person but the
disadvantage there is that the vitality you transfer is saturated with your astral
vibrations. For the astral body, it
appears as if your own astral body is then identical with the other
individual’s astral body.
The other person benefits from the added
vitality which is more effective than astral elemental healing or mental plane
light healing. But in return your body
feels the symptoms of the other individual even though you are not sick. These symptoms will of course wear away
quickly but may place a great deal of stress upon your physical metabolism. For
this reason, Bardon suggests gathering and condensing white light outside of
one’s body and using that energy to heal others. He puts off working with the magnetic and
electric fluids for healing until a later chapter. Some mermaid type women have been using
magnetic energy to heal others for as long as they can remember.]
Pour breathing is a mental
plane activity. You are drawing in
energy into the body in association with the act of breathing but this energy
is a mental vibration. Like other mental
plane activities, it is like having a very well trained and highly motivated
management team running a factory. They
do not actually do the “real” work. But
they design the product cars and oversee the production insuring that resources
are available in the right place at the right time and so forth.
To put
it another way, imagine the CEO of your car company running for president of
the United States and serving two successful terms. Now he is back as CEO of your car company. But every day he likes to walk through the
factory and mingle with the workers offering encouragement and attending to
their concerns. The Dallas Cowboy
cheerleaders may increase your enthusiasm but they definitely do not bring with
them any inner light or illumination.
Mental plane breathing produces a light as
brilliant as the sun. And like that
radiant light it integrates and expands the power of whatever it is near. And if that former president and CEO was also
a Pentecostal preacher with some hypnotic and charismatic abilities, and if he
said to someone who was cripple, “Rise and walk,” the individual just might do
so because every cell in his body would believe that miracles are
possible. That mental plane pour
breathing vibration with its light has immense faith and conviction built into
it.
Pour breathing is enhanced by breathing and
condensing bright white as well as other colors of light in a manner similar to
Bardon’s third book on the cosmic language. It is true that there is also a dazzling and
brilliant white light that appears on the astral plane that Bardon refers
to. But this astral light is expressed
through the perfection of the astral four elements which are always present
when it appears.
Mental breathing is vastly enhanced by
transferring you mind into a body part and imagining breathing in and out from
that location. For example, imagine
walking into a room and this room is in fact your left foot. You look around and there are you toes in one direction and your heel in the other. By simply
excluding all other distractions, your mind or consciousness orients itself to
“being in” the particular body part you imagine yourself in.
You can then accumulate and disperse
vitality from this part according to the exercises. You can also proceed to a practice Bardon
gives later on which is condensing the vitality in the body into a tiny
dot. The body as a whole or say the foot
in particular becomes a vast empty space.
You become this space with you mind in that body part. And then all the vitality you are drawing
into your entire body is absorbed into a dot at the center of this area which
you also later disperse.
Akashic Body Breathing
Akasha (definition): Akasha refers to the fifth element in nature along
side earth, air, fire, and water. It also refers to a plane or level of consciousness
as in physical, etheric, astral, mental, and spiritual or akashic plane.
In both examples, it is formless and timeless—it is a state of awareness
penetrating through space and time without restriction.
Though
scientific questions may arise concerning the notion of an “ether,”
akasha as it is referred to in essay is primarily a physical sensation.
You can approximate this sensation by imagining that your body is emitting a
dark violet light that penetrates through space and time. And then
imagine you are this vast space. With sufficient training, the idea is
that anything anywhere in time or space that you concentrate on can be
perceived as being immediately in front of you.
Akashic Body (definition): The akashic body or “spiritual body” does not need
thoughts to think, emotions to feel, or concrete sensations to perceive.
It acts through intuition. In its awareness, it can penetrate through
space and time.
As
intuition, it can simultaneously be completely detached, completely one with,
and also perceive all relationships of whatever it is focusing on. Spirit
or akasha incorporates into itself all experiences on the physical, astral, and
mental planes without being subject to the limitations governing their
perceptions and activities.
Spiritual
or divine ideals are often associated with the akashic plane or akashic
body. In terms of the water element, we might encounter universal
experiences or ideals such as cosmic or all-embracing love. On this
level, we learn to feel one with all beings and also develop an inner peace in
which we feel one with the universe.
In akashic breathing, you can
accumulate, move about, and transform energy without relying upon the mental,
astral, or etheric bodies. “Akashic
breathing” is an awareness that we are surrounded by an infinite sea of energy
and that we are free to draw upon that energy without limitation. In akashic breathing, concentration is
sufficiently developed that you can create vitality from out of nothing. There is no limit set on this activity.
We are all aware of being surrounded by air
that we freely draw upon as we breathe. We can become aware of how energy
builds up in our body and aura as we practice magical breathing.
We can become aware of how the air around
our body is loaded with energy that can be drawn upon through magical
breathing. The earth’s atmosphere is a
sea of free energy available for anyone to draw upon.
We also become aware of divine beings who are
united to Divine Providence and who act as its agents with limitless power.
Akasha is fully conscious of how the seed becomes the tree and it sees the
process of growth and it sees and experiences the beginning and the end in the
same moment. In other words, as your
practice breathing you are aware of where you are in your development in this
moment but also that the divinity within you is also present and radiant. The net effect is that your etheric, astral,
and mental body breathing is enhanced by a connection you have to Divine Providence
or to divine beings who act as your teachers and “personal trainers.”
The akashic or spiritual
body in an individual transcends, that is, penetrates through space and
time. How do we penetrate though space
and time when we all know time is linear? I interview people regularly who say
unequivocally that “time does not exist” in their experience. For them, you are where you focus your
consciousness, past, present, or future or all at once.
Let us review our simple exercise for
working with akasha. Again, think of it
as a study of physical and perceptual sensations. Imagine that dark ultraviolet light is being
emitted or radiating from all the pours of your body. This light penetrates through space and time
and fills a vast space that it completely empty of thoughts, feelings, or any
perception or sensations other than the penetrating light.
Now imagine that you are this vast, empty
space of pure consciousness penetrating through space and time. There is no central point and no body or location
that is you. Or, to put this in imagery,
you are a three or four dimensional mirror before anything is reflected in
it. Like an ordinary mirror in total
darkness, it is ready to reflect anything but at this moment nothing appears
within it.
This is akasha. It is a state of absolute readiness open to
anything and free of all obstructions and beyond all fear. It is an empty space, a purity, in which the
highest light can appear without distortion.
And it is a concentration so great that any vibration or substance on
the physical, etheric, astral, or mental planes gradually or immediately
responds or aligns itself to its intentions.
On the mental plane, an individual in a
courtroom, may be asked, “Do swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you God?” And the individual answers, “I
do.” The court wants a mental plane
commitment that the individual will tell the truth. The individual may not he
happy about telling the truth but he is presenting himself to the court and to
the community as having committed to telling the truth. Whether he believes in God or not is not
technically relevant. The court can only
hold the individual legally, but not spiritually, liable for his testimony.
The same thing applies in statements like “Do
you swear to uphold the laws and defend the constitution?” It is a mental plane commitment that is made
regardless of astral feelings or religious faith.
However, consider a blessing such as “May
peace be with you now and forever more.” You can not seriously offer that blessing
without an element of akashic vibration being present as you speak.
The prophet Isaiah said “And wars shall be no
more.” He did not put in place a
physical organization to promote this.
Unlike Nostradamus, he did not describe
specific circumstances under which it would occur or the shape it would
take. Isaiah did not specify a time
frame or delineate a plan of action for materializing this ideal.
What he did do is speak with the voice of akasha
that penetrates through space and time.
Some qualities of akasha are absolute certainty, conviction, purity and
clarity of vision as well as all-encompassing love. When people are more receptive to the
purposes of akasha, then they will commit the mental, astral, and physical
plane resources that are necessary for ending wars. And then the results will endure as with any
great purpose “for all ages of the world.”
Here is a quick review of the planes that leads
us to using akasha for breathing. Say the
words aloud, “My vitality is as dynamic and radiant as the sun.” Say the sentence again like an
method actor answering perhaps a question like, “How is your health?” Answer: “My
health (or vitality) is as dynamic and radiant as the sun.” That way of speaking adds the astral element
of feeling.
We can
add the mental level by answering the question, “How would you like your
vitality to be?” You form a conception in your mind, a picture, a thought, an
outline of what where you would like go and what you would like to achieve and
you answer, “I would like my vitality to be as dynamic and radiant as the sun.”
We can make this into an affirmation by imagining we already possess this
vitality adding in a picture, a feeling, and the idea.
The akashic way of speaking is slightly
different. It actually places in akasha
a “cause” that inevitably manifests on the three lower planes. If the prophet Isaiah speaks with the voice
of akasha and says, “And wars shall be no more,” then he is placing in akasha a
cause that happens to be more powerful than all the factors that produce wars. It just takes time and space for that akashic
cause to manifest.
Similarly, if you speak with the voice of
akasha, “My vitality is as dynamic and radiant as the sun” you are doing far
more than a mental affirmation, acting as method actor, or just speaking the
words aloud. You are speaking an eternal
truth.
In
effect, akasha is present in your breathing through the level of concentration you
use as you practice. It is present as
certainty, conviction, and clarity and purity of vision; and it is present as
an awareness that gradually extends itself through space and time overcoming
all obstacles. Akashic speaking is an awareness
existing within the present moment that joins the past and the future, the seed
and the tree that shall be, and the process of unfolding—it encompasses all three
at once.
Another Exercise for
Studying Akasha
Returning
to our example of the wrist. Imagine holding the wrist again and
expressing through touch the feeling “I love you and I am one with you.” To add akasha to the astral feeling we only
need to increase our concentration so that it penetrates through space and
time.
There is an undine queen named Istiphul.
Though she has no akashic body, for some strange reason she possesses this
akashic gift—she is able to be one with anyone under any and all circumstances
so that there is no element of separation present in the joining.
Let’s try to do what she can do. Imagine all the oceans of the earth and all
the waters of the earth in streams, rivers, and lakes. Now image that you are
one with all the waters of the earth.
This is activating the penetrating power of akasha through the vibration
of the element of water. This is exactly
the vibration she has in her etheric body.
So when Istiphul says, “I am one with you,”
she is able to place her soul within you so that there is no separation for she
is joined to the magnetic field of the entire planet. To some extent, the life of every living
being is already a part of her aura.
Think of the seas as a billion years old and that the seas are a
vibration of love and that you are that same vibration. When you then place in your touch, “I love
you and am one with you” you are using the full power of akasha.
For myself, I sense in this touch sensations
and feelings which are cool, soothing, healing, sheltering, nourishing,
fulfilling, inexhaustible in energy, and without an element of separating being
present. Though these sensations and
feelings describe experiences relating to the physical, astral, and mental
bodies, they can only be assembled and sustained through the power of akasha.
Summary
In brief, etheric or magical
breathing increases the effectiveness of biochemical vitality and enables
vitality to be accumulated, stored, transformed, and moved inside and outside
of the body. Astral breathing amplifies
physical and etheric vitality while being itself a way the soul or astral body
can draw energy directly from the elements in nature and the astral plane.
Mental body breathing produces a radiant
light like the sun. And like sunlight,
it integrates, refines, strengthens, and raises the vibration of the astral and
etheric bodies. The akashic breathing
surrounds you with akasha: a sense of limitless possibilities.
Bardon’s pranayama or magical breathing is altogether different from
other kinds of pranayama. Based ninety-nine per cent on concentration
and imagination, it enhances and amplifies the organic breathing process. At
the same time, through practice, a massive body of light and
electro-magnetic energies accumulate on the inner planes and interact
with breathing. In effect, the
biochemical vitality produced by the body is purified, sustained, and vastly
increased in power due to the energy on the inner planes that interpenetrates
the physical and etheric bodies. Any one
of these five planes by itself or in combination can be used to heal others.
Now then, someone might ask, Why are you explaining all of this in relation to the
vitality and breathing exercise? If you just practice the Bardon exercises as
they are laid out, you will get all of this anyway.
As the questioner suspects, I am not
presenting anything not already in Bardon.
But if you are aware of how breathing in vitality works, then you can
observe it as it is happening and learn from the process. Your sensitivity or perception of energy is
vastly increased. And it becomes much
easier to see how to overcome obstacles in your practice because you know where
you are, what you have accomplished, and what lies before you as your next
step.
As I mention in the first essay, I had to
factor in a very high level of practice with akasha and also do new, world
historic research on the water element before I was able to get my basic
breathing to work. Bardon’s
breathing practice works with a vitality that transforms into fiery bright
light. Some people like my self need the
factory to have a cooler temperature with a strong magnetic field present and
far less noise as in dead silence when we are producing vitality. By observing the components of magical
breathing, the individual can make better choices for himself rendering the
system more user-friendly and a fascinating and endless realm of
exploration.
Synopsis
There are endless variations
in how a student can put together his individual practice. This example is for instructional purposes
simply to emphasize the different bodies.
Begin with the simply imagining that as you
breathe in you inhale and exhale air that is charged with vitality. Add to this the sense of vitality also entering
and leaving through all the pours of your body at the same time. The inhalation fills your body full of
radiant vitality and as you exhale you return this charge to the outside. This is what I cam
calling etheric breathing or magical breathing in that it generates a surplus
charge of vitality or life force.
You then imagine the astral body as being in
the shape of the physical body but more refined or subtle. Imagine standing next to your sitting body and
produce through imagination all of the same sensations that accompany the
etheric breathing. When I do this I do
not notice that my physical body is gaining any surplus charge of
vitality. Rather, the imagined image I
have of myself is graining in strength or clarity.
Bring this imaged image of your body back
inside of your physical body so that the two are present at once, the imagined
or subtle body “floating” inside of the physical. The astral breathing, however, is not drawing
actual oxygen molecules. The idea is to
draw in the energies of the four elements.
A way to do this is to imagine you are
breathing in not just air but the vibration of the entire biosphere of the
planet—the air of the sky, the waters of the oceans, the fire of the sun and the
inner earth, and the solidity and life force of forests and vegetation. In effect, this is the life force of the
planet.
This is sometimes represented in alchemical imagery
as in the following illustrations which involve concrete, dreamlike imagery
that is typical of the astral plane:
Opus medico:
http://shell.lava.net/~pagios/opusmedico.jpg
Bardon illustration:
http://shell.lava.net/~pagios/cover.jpg
It is not for nothing that
some of the mermaid women refer to human beings as being “half dead.” The
mermaid women are fully active in astral breathing—they are united from within to
nature.
Human beings walk around feeling separate, isolated,
without inspiration, without sensing endless streams of energy continuously flowing
through them. Astral breathing, by contrast,
is pure inspiration and triggers the ecstasies of the four elements. (See my separate essay on the cosmic letter J
for the ecstasies of the four elements).
In the above illustration from Bardon’s book, the four elements are represented with the
male relating to fire and air and the female to earth and water. Above, the head of the magician is the tantric image of the male and female or the electric and
magnetic fluids in dynamic union. If you
could place your hand on the sphere that surrounds the male and female who are joined,
this vibration of the union of opposites, of masculine and feminine, of the
electric and magnetic fluids in dynamic interaction, you would then have a tactile
sensation of the energy involved in astral breathing.
The mental body breathing in and out of brilliant
sunlight develops effortlessly from practicing to condense vitality inside of
the body. But you can also practice it
by visualizing brilliant, dazzling light or golden light or whatever color light
you wish to work with as you draw the energy in through inhaling and sending it
out as you exhale.
The akashic breathing again is in the level
of concentration with which you imagine that the vitality you are now working
with is the same vitality you will one day attain. There is a sense of penetrating through space
and time as you practice and of profound conviction. At the same time, you do not want to overdo akashic
breathing or concentrate too hard in this way because placing causes in akasha involves
great tension. Even though we are doing
magical breathing, we want the entire practice to be as natural as
possible.
When you practice breathing exercises, you can “play” with this idea of breathing with the four bodies. Working with four planes is present all through Bardon’s work. The approach in this essay emphasizes this idea in order to expand the resources the student can utilize in his practice.