In Search of the Miraculous

the palms of the hands close together, between his feet. Then he has to lift one leg and

during this time count: om, om, om, om, om, om, om, om, om, up to the tenth om and then nine times om, eight times om, seven times om, and so on, down to one and then

again twice om, three times om, and so on, and at the same time "sense" his right eye.

Then separate the thumb and "sense" his left ear and so on and so on.

It was necessary first to remember the order of the movements and "sensing," then not to go wrong in the counting, to remember the count of movements and sensing.

This was very difficult but it did not end the affair. When a man had mastered this

exercise and could do it, say, for about ten or fifteen minutes, he was given, in

addition, a special form of breathing, namely, he must inhale while pronouncing om

several times and exhale pronouncing om several times; moreover the count had to be

made aloud. Beyond this there were still greater and greater complications of the

exercise up to almost impossible things. And G. told us he had seen people who for

days did exercises of this kind.

The short fast of which I spoke was also accompanied by special exercises. In the

first place G. explained at the beginning of the fast that the difficulty in fasting

consisted in not leaving unused the substances which are prepared in the organism for

the digestion of food.

"These substances consist of very strong solutions," he said. "And if they are left without attention they will poison the organism. They must be used up. But how can

they be used up if the organism gets no food? Only by an increase of work, an

increase of perspiration. People make a tremendous mistake when they try to 'save

their strength,' make fewer movements, and so on, when fasting. On the contrary it is

necessary to expend as much energy as possible. Then fasting can be beneficial."

And when we began our fast we were not left in peace for a single second. G. made

us run in the heat, doing a round of two miles, or stand with extended arms, or mark

time at the double, or carry out a whole series of curious gymnastic exercises which he

showed us.

And he, all the time, constantly said that these exercises we were doing were not

real ones, but merely preliminary and preparatory exercises.

One experiment in connection with what G. said about breathing and fatigue

explained many things to me and chiefly it explained why it is so difficult to attain

anything in the ordinary conditions of life.

I had gone to a room where nobody could see me, and began to mark time at the

double trying at the same time to breathe according to a particular count, that is, to

inhale during a definite number of steps and exhale during a definite number. After a

certain time when I had begun to tire I noticed, that is, to speak more correctly, I felt quite clearly, that my breathing was artificial and unreliable. I felt that in a very short time I would be unable to breathe in that way while continuing to mark time at the

double and that ordinary normal breathing, very accelerated of course, without any

count would gain the upper hand.

It became more and more difficult for me to breathe and to mark time, and to

observe the count of breaths and steps. I was pouring with sweat, my head began to

turn round, and I thought I should fall. I began to despair of obtaining results of any

kind and I had almost stopped when suddenly something seemed to crack or move

inside me and my breathing went on evenly and properly at the rate I wanted it to go,

but without any effort on my part, while affording me all the amount of air I needed.

It was an extraordinarily pleasant sensation. I shut my eyes and continued to mark

time, breathing easily and freely and feeling exactly as though strength was increasing

in me and that I was getting lighter and stronger. I thought that if I could continue to

run in this way for a certain time I should get still more interesting results because

waves of a sort of joyful trembling had already begun to go through my body which,

as I knew from previous experiments, preceded what I called the opening of the inner

consciousness.

But at this moment someone came into the room and I stopped.

Afterwards my heart beat strongly for a long time, but not unpleasantly. I had

marked time and breathed for about half an hour. I do not recommend this exercise to

people with weak hearts.

At all events this experiment showed me with accuracy that a given exercise could

be transferred to the moving center, that is, that it was possible to make the moving

center work in a new way. But at the same time I was convinced that the condition for

this transition was extreme fatigue. A man begins any exercise with his mind; only

when the last stage of fatigue is reached can the control pass to the moving center.

This explained what G. had said about "super-efforts" and made many of his later requirements intelligible.

But afterwards, however much I tried I did not succeed in repeating the experiment,