What is breath? In modern times we have be able to measure the composition of the atmosphere which we breathe. We know from analysis that the air contains oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and a combination of gases, namely helium, krypton, xenon, argon, and neon. Is there something beyond these chemical elements that we live with in the atmosphere that surrounds us? Is there a life energy force which we trace in with breath and feed our body?
From earliest times, man has realized that breath is more than the essential characteristic of life. The ancient teaching of Hindu and Tibetan Masters claimed that there was an intelligent energy which they named "prana". According to them, this pranic energy is essential to the maintenance of the body, the activity of the mind and the integration of the soul into mater. It is a power, a force, which resides in all matter.
Baron Karl von Reichenbach dealt with this question and put his observations in a book, which he published in 1852: Letters on Od and Magnetism: The Odic Theory. One of his experimental procedures was to place individuals, who were naturally sensitive to very weak vibrations, into a dark room. The Baron gave each of them a quartz crystal to hold in their hand, and to look at it. He kept records on what they observed. They reported that luminous clouds swirled through and emanated from the tips of these crystals. He investigated many individuals observing the same crystal. He would have them place their finger on the end of a crystal and they reported that one side felt cool while the other felt warm.
Reichenbach also did experiments with water. He placed one glass of water in reflected light and another in filtered sunlight. When they had been there for six to eight minutes, he had a "sensitive" sip the water. In reflected light the water tasted cool and slightly acidic. The water from filtered light tasted mawkish and bitter. He went on to put a sample of water on the front tip of a crystal and another sample of water on the rear of a crystal. The sensitive who tasted the two waters experienced a distinct difference between them. He then placed a glass of water in moonlight and another glass of water in sunlight. The taste of the water in the moonlight was insipid. The water in the sunlight had a vital, distinctly different taste. When the sensitive observed these samples of water in complete darkness, he described differences or color in their radiation or emanations.
Reichenbach then repeated these experimented with a magnet, by putting a glass of water at each pole of the magnet. He had the sensitive taste the water from each pole. The north pole water was fresh and cool. The south pole water was lukewarm and disgusting.
In the laboratory, we have found that the exposure of water to light, especially in the near ultra-violet range, will structure water. It will alter its pH and modify the taste of the water from the control, as shown by Reichenbach in his work.
We have found that when you hold a double terminated crystal about three inches above the water, focus your mind and pulse a thought with breath into the water, it becomes structured. The water develops a flavor and odor distinct from water that has not been treated. In our laboratory we have validated Reichenbach's observations, that "a force has moved from a crystal to the water". This causes the water to structure and change its pH and surface tension, as well as its taste.
Dr. Charles W. Littlefield in his book, The Beginning and the Way of Life, showed that water, when it evaporates, creates a magnetic-like field. This field is very sensitive to the mind of an individual. An interaction can take place between the radiating field of water and the mind of an individual to structure the salts contained in the water. The structure can then be seen by optical photomicrogaphy. Dr. Littlefield described the vital force (Od or Prana) as a subtle magnetism generated by the evaporation of water. These fields are stored in crystals, human tissue, or the cellular systems of our body. The field comes into being through the evaporation of water, which releases this vital energy. It then moves into space and forms vital linkages in the interaction between matter and the mind. It links matter and the forces we call Spirit. It is through water and its movement that we have the power, the force, to bring matter into a form which allows the soul to dwell and work in harmony with the patterns that it creates.
Wilhelm Reich, in his discoveries of Orgone energy, found that energy is not only in the atmosphere but also emanates from living things. This energy could be accumulated in a box whose walls were constructed of inorganic and organic materials, such as wood, paper, glass wool, plastic, etc. The person sitting in a box of this type becomes energized and feels better. I believe they are fed by their own vital energies emanating from the water evaporating from their own skin which produces a charge. This charge is taken through the breath into the body of the individual.
A crystal looked at in a loving way causes a charge to move from the individual to the crystal. This charge can now be used to feed the body of that person. So, with intention you can create around yourself a field which you can then transfer to the crystal. With an outgoing breath you store the field into the crystal.
Prana or orgone energy is a vital fluid that we need each day. Just like physical food, the body requires these energies to maintain cellular activity. The energy is necessary for physical, mental, and spiritual vitality. The quality of our ability to live in peace and harmony with ourselves comes from the ability to breathe deeply. We must breathe lovingly to live in peace and harmony.
According to Reichenbach, Od is a cosmic force that radiates from star to star and has the whole universe for its field, just like light and heat. Could this not be what the ancients called Prana? This could be Wilhelm Reich's Orgone energy, Christ's Love. I believe this force is the essential missing link in Einstein's theory of relativity. Matter and energy are inter-convertible, but matter is held in form by a force or power, and as Bergson has said "matter is congealed energy".
When you observe, under the microscope, a crystal that has been melted and watch it change from the molten state back to the solid crystalline form, a blue flash of light precedes the transition from the molten state to the solid state. Could we be observing the prana of that crystalline state?