In Search of the Miraculous

accidents which may or may not occur, but of general principles, of what happens

every day to everyone. Ordinary man, even if he comes

to the conclusion that work on himself is indispensable—is the slave of his body. He

is not only the slave of the recognized and visible activity of the body but the slave of the unrecognized and the invisible activities of the body, and it is precisely these

which hold him in their power. Therefore when a man decides to struggle for freedom

he has first of all to struggle with his own body.

"I will now point out to you only one aspect of the functioning of the body which it is indispensable to regulate in any event. So long as this functioning goes on in a

wrong way no other kind of work, either moral or spiritual, can go on in a right way.

"You will remember that when we spoke of the work of the 'three-story factory,' I

pointed out to you that most of the energy produced by the factory is wasted uselessly,

among other things energy is wasted on unnecessary muscular tension. This

unnecessary muscular tension eats up an enormous amount of energy. And with work

on oneself attention must first be turned to this.

"In speaking of the work of the factory in general it is indispensable to establish

that it is necessary to stop useless waste before there can be any sense in increasing

the production. If production is increased while this useless waste remains unchecked

and nothing is done to stop it, the new energy produced will merely increase this

useless waste and may even give rise to phenomena of an unhealthy kind. Therefore

one of the first things a man must learn previous to any physical work on himself is to

observe and feel muscular tension and to be able to relax the muscles when it is

necessary, that is to say, chiefly to relax unnecessary tension of the muscles."

In this connection G. showed us a number of different exercises for obtaining

control over muscular tension and he showed us certain postures adopted in schools

when praying or contemplating which a man can only adopt if he learns to relax

unnecessary tension of the muscles. Among them was the so-called posture of Buddha

with feet resting on the knees, and another still more difficult posture, which he could

adopt to perfection, and which we were able to imitate only very approximately.

To adopt this posture G. kneeled down and then sat on his heels (without boots)

with feet closely pressed together. It was very difficult even to sit on one's heels in

this way for more than a minute or two. He then raised his arms and, holding them on

a level with his shoulders, he slowly bent himself backwards and lay on the ground

while his legs, bent at the knees, remained pressed beneath him. Having lain in this

position for a certain time he just as slowly raised himself up with arms outstretched,

then he again lay down, and so on.

He gave us many exercises for gradually relaxing the muscles always beginning

with the muscles of the face, as well as exercises for "feeling"

the hands, the feet, the fingers, and so on at will. The idea of the necessity of relaxing the muscles was not actually a new one, but G.'s explanation that relaxing the muscles

of the body should begin with the muscles of the face was quite new to me; I had

never come across this in books on "Yoga" or in literature on physiology.

Very interesting was the exercise with a "circular sensation," as G. called it. A man lies on his back on the floor. Trying to relax all his muscles, he then concentrates his

attention on trying to sense his nose. When he begins to sense his nose the man then

transfers his attention and tries to sense his ear; when this is achieved he transfers his attention to the right foot. From the right foot to the left; then to the left hand;

then to the left ear and back again to the nose, and so on.

All this interested me particularly because certain experiments I had carried out had

led me long ago to conclude that physical states, which are connected with new

psychological experiences, begin with feeling the pulse throughout the whole body,

which is what we do not feel in ordinary conditions; in this connection the pulse is

felt at once in all parts of the body as one stroke. In my own personal experiments

"feeling" the pulsation throughout the whole body was brought about, for instance, by certain breathing exercises connected with several days of fasting. I came to no

definite results whatever in my own experiments but there remains with me the deep

conviction that control over the body begins with acquiring control over the pulse.

Acquiring for a short time the possibility of regulating, quickening, and slowing the

pulse, I was able to slow down or quicken the heart beat and this in its turn gave me

very interesting psychological results. I understood in a general way that control over

the heart could not come from the heart muscles but that it depended upon controlling