________________
increase the level of prana in the body. The opposite effect is experienced on inhalation of positive ions. Inside a closed room in a modern city there may be less than 50 negative ions per square foot and in the mountains there are about 5,000. It is now an established scientific fact that depletion of negative ions leads to discomfort, enervation, lassitude and some degree of mental and physical inefficiency. Negative ions are therapeutic partly because they kill germs. In human beings, they act on the capacity to absorb oxygen, accelerating the blood's delivery of oxygen to cells and tissues. Negative ions are not prana, but when one inhales them the level of prana in the body increases. In this context it is interesting that negative ions work only so long as they are being inhaled. It has also been observed that the ability to assimilate negative ions goes up during yogic practices such as pranayama.
Working with prana
Prana is not received solely from external sources; it is also self-generated and its quality can be refined and directed. One can work with one's own prana to enhance vitality, will and strength, cure diseases, boost capability and efficiency, and evolve to a higher consciousness. In fact, one must work with prana shakti, force of prana, in order to perfect any experience in life. This is the aim of pranayama and prana vidya, which are tangible methods to enhance and guide prana.
The breath is the external manifestation of prana. The yogis state that prana is sustained and the duration of life is prolonged by deliberately decreasing the distance of the exhaled air. Based on this fact, they devised a technique to measure the prana expended during different actions. They stated that the pranic outflow can be gauged by observing the length of the exhalation during different actions. The longer the air current, the more prana is utilized. The average length of exhaled air is twelve digits (nine inches). While singing the length becomes sixteen digits (one foot), while eating twenty digits (fifteen inches), while sleeping thirty digits (twenty-two inches), while copulating thirty-six
16
