Little did I know what I was letting myself in for.
The exercise is practiced, for 10 minutes each day, as part of the Art of Living program (look it up). However, there is an extended session, lasting 30 minutes, which is particularly powerful. How does it work?
After a few loosening stretches, you sit on a chair, in a darkened, quiet room and start to breathe in and out in a controlled, rhythmic fashion. A few slow breaths to start. Then medium pace, then fast.
Slow, Medium, Fast.
Slow, Medium, Fast.
Repeat for 30 minutes.
It is quite a workout. For the first 25 minutes I noticed little difference in how I was feeling, beyond the exertion. Then, during the last few minutes, as my lungs were working hard, I could feel the tips of my fingers and toes beginning to tingle and my body flooding with ‘Prana’. Prana is the ‘life force’ or ‘vital’ aspect of air the Chinese call ‘Chi’ or ‘Qi’. It is taken in with the breath and circulates to all cells. The tingling moved up my limbs, until my whole body felt energised and electrified. It is a difficult sensation to describe.
The 30-minute session completed, I lay down on my back in the Yoga ‘Corpse Pose’, as instructed, keeping absolutely still, eyes closed. A light blanket was put over me. All was quiet. After a few minutes, someone in the group started giggling, then all of us ended up cackling like hyenas. Laughter is infectious!
The first three times I completed this exercise nothing really happened for me. On the fourth occasion, I decided to go for broke and put maximum effort into the breathing. The additional effort paid off. By the time I lay down, I felt super-charged with ‘prana’, body tingling and vibrating like a tuning-fork. After 10 minutes of laying completely still, wondering when something was going to happen, my mind went off on some journey. A few minutes later I heard a low moan emanating from within the room which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This was altogether different to laughing hyenas. The moan increased in intensity, until it turned into a terrified scream. A part of my mind (I felt disembodied) was shocked to realize, the person screaming was me!
What had created such terror? I had become aware of a dark shape, hovering just above my upper chest, moving slowly toward my feet. The fear grew in intensity as the shape moved down my legs and exited via my toes. A final terrified scream as it exited then, suddenly, it was gone. The room was quiet as I looked at the others in shock and embarrassment. I knew I must have seriously alarmed them. I asked the leaders of the group, "What just happened?"
“We do not try to interpret”, came the unsatisfactory reply.
Whatever had been weighing so heavily on me for years was gone. I felt lighter on my feet and in my spirits. Dissatisfied with the answer (thinkers like me need to know) I determined to find out what it was. An answer came from a Sufi priest I met two years later on one of my jaunts abroad (Sufism is the mystical aspect of Islam).
“It was a Jinni”, he declared.
Have you seen Aladdin and his Magic Lamp? Aladdin rubs the lamp and out pops a Genie. According to Arabic mythology, a Genie or ‘Jinni’ is a supernatural creature which can be good, bad or neutral. Akin to 'demons’ in the Bible. Not a pleasant thought thinking my slender carcass had been occupied by some malevolent being.
I wondered when and how such an entity could have entered me and then recalled an incident, four years previously. It was at a time I was ‘in the pit’. That dark place, filled with despair, suicide and hopelessness I had fallen into, when my nervous system had completely ‘burnt-out’, from too many years of sustained stress. I had woken up from a fitful sleep and sensed a shape at the foot of the bed. Just as happened during the ‘Sudarshan Kriya’ exercise, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I remember watching, in alarm, as this dark, indistinct shape entered my body via my feet, moved up my legs and trunk then stopped at my chest. I shrugged the incident off and went back to sleep, telling myself it was just a nightmare. But was it? During nightmares people wake up before the plane crashes, they are about to be murdered, or they fall when flying. Not this time.
I was awake when the ‘possession’ took place.
What had this ‘Jinnie’ been up to for four years? Perhaps ensuring I stayed ‘in the pit’. I did wonder, when I later when undergoing a Christian conversion, whether the voice I heard in my mind, at the time, SCREAMING at me not to go through with it, had been me or something else?
I rarely tell the story of this DIY exorcism, for obvious reasons. Western minds are scornful and dismissive. Asians, on the other hand, who seem to love ghouls and ghosts, have no difficulty believing at all.
After this experience, my opinion of evangelical retreats, revivals and workshops, changed. Previously, I would observe people falling down, writhing on the floor, giggling or shrieking. At the time I thought I was in some kind of a madhouse and they were all completely barmy. I still think some of them are. However, I am far less sceptical today about the existence of malevolent, paranormal beings. It would be nice to have a genie grant me 3 wishes but this is real life, not Hollywood.
Does my experience have any bearing on healing? Of course. If you have been following my blog, you know how fear and stress create tension and tension causes many physical and psychological disorders. Why take fluoride-based anti-depressants and REALLY turn yourself into a Zombie when other options are available?
Remarkable, unique, intense, rhythmic. Sudarshan Kriya was an amazing, ‘supernatural’, eye-opening experience. So much so, it is now an important addition to my healing toolbox.
Be well
Paul Keenan
CureJoy contributing author
Author of 'Fire Your Doctor Choose Life'
"Health is not a mere absence of disease. It is a dynamic expression of life – in terms of how joyful, loving and enthusiastic you are.”
Health is Wealth and Prevention is better than cure. So everyday morning do Sudarshan Kriya, Pranayam, Physical Exercises, meditation.
Sudharshana Kriya is a very powerful technique of Breathing that eliminates
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Inhale Good Health, Everyday
