PRANA. One breath, many worlds

Overview

Bernie Clark’s book, “Prana: One Breath, Many Worlds,” is described as a “truly luminous and deeply original work, blending memoir, myth, and philosophical inquiry.” It aims to breathe life into”one of the most enduring mysteries of human existence: what it means to be alive and aware in the subtle currents that sustain us.” The book explores the multifaceted meanings of breath, life force, and spirit across diverse cultures and centuries, moving beyond a simple summary to delve into historical uses and modern interpretations of ‘prana’. It combines extensive research with Clark’s personal experiences, featuring imagined dialogues between ancient yogis, Greek philosophers, Taoist sages, and modern theosophists.

Main Themes and Most Important Ideas/Facts:

The Evolving Concept of Prana:

• Initial Definition: Prana is not merely oxygen but a “life energy” or the “spirit” that animates the body. Bernie Clark’s first yoga teacher, Shakti Mhi, explained it as “the energy that gives life”, leading to the practice of pranayama, or controlling life force through breath.
• Distinction from Soul: Clark makes a crucial distinction between soul (our essence, the “driver of an electric car”) and spirit (the vitality that energises life, the “electricity”). This aligns with traditions like the yogic distinction between atman (soul) and prana (energy), Hebrew ruach (spirit/breath) and nephesh (soul/identity), and Greek pneuma (breath/animating force) and psyche (soul/conscious self).
• Historical Evolution: The meaning of prana has transformed over time:
  • Primal Cultures: Life was fundamentally equated with breath and fire. A fictional shamanic boy, Awnka, illustrates how primal humans “could see the wind” and understood “wind and breath are the same, and that people are breath, too.”
  • Agricultural Societies: The concept expanded to include sacred fluids like water, milk, wine, blood and semen, with the idea that “Life is in the blood” becoming prominent. A fictional priestess, Nanse, in ancient Lagash highlights the centrality of blood offerings.
  • Ancient Greece: Philosophers like Plato and Aristotle distinguished pneuma (animating breath/spirit) from psyche (conscious soul), seeking natural causes for life.
  • Ayurvedic Medicine: Identifies five vital airs or vayus, with prana vayu being the most important, residing in the chest and head, responsible for breath and senses.
  • Chinese Medicine: Introduces Chi, a broader concept than prana, representing the “ground of being and becoming” for everything animate and inanimate. It flows through jing luo (channels), analogous to yogic nadis.

Bernie Clark’s Personal Journey:

• Clark’s personal narrative is deeply interwoven with his exploration of prana. His journey began at Shakti Mhi’s Prana Yoga and Zen Centre in 1997, initially for meditation.
• Pivotal Experiences: Recurring episodes of extreme dizziness, light-headedness, and fatigue, such as in 2005 during a yin yoga teacher training in California (diagnosed as “chi insufficiency” and “adrenal insufficiency”), after golfing in India in 1987 (attributed to “extreme excess of pitta”), and after a hot yoga class in Costa Rica in 2001.
• Catalyst for Research: These “body shouting” experiences prompted his deep dive into understanding “why was my prana so weak? What exactly is prana, anyway?”
• Healing Insights: His healing journey emphasised “slowness, stillness, surrender, and time” and learning to “stop fixing, stop striving, stop grasping—and instead, start listening” to his body.

Pranayama: Techniques, Evolution, and Safety:

• Core Practice: Pranayama is defined as “the pause in the movement of inhalation and exhalation,” with the ultimate aim of kevala kumbhaka, an effortless, spontaneous pausing of the breath leading to samadhi.
• Shakti’s Teachings & Warnings: Shakti stressed safety, warning that “Pranayama practice will make you more of what you already are. If you’re neurotic, it may make you psychotic. If
  you’re calm, it may make you blissful”. She provided clear contraindications (e.g., pregnancy, drugs, high blood pressure). The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is quoted: “Just as lions, elephants, and tigers are controlled slowly, so too must the breath be tamed gradually. Otherwise, it can kill the practitioner”.
• Key Techniques: Three-part yogic breath: Filling lower, middle, and upper lungs sequentially.
• Nadishodana (Alternate Nostril Breathing): “Cleaning of the nadis” with specific ratios for inhalation, retention, and exhalation.
• Energising Techniques: Kapalabhati (“shining skull”) and bhastrika (bellows breath), which involve sharp exhalations and are forms of deliberate hyperventilation. Kumbhakas are crucial to allow CO2 to rebuild.
• T.K.V. Desikachar’s Approach: Emphasised pranayama as prana (vitality) plus ayama (expansion), focusing on attention and awareness of the breath rather than rigid control. He believed observation naturally refines breath and highlighted the importance of a slow, quiet exhalation.
• Scientific Validation (Professor Luciano Bernardi): Bernardi explained the physiological impact of breathing on blood chemistry, revealing carbon dioxide’s critical role, often more important than oxygen. Rapid breathing (hyperventilation) can lead to hypocapnia and alkalosis, causing dizziness, brain fog, and other issues, directly explaining Clark’s experiences. Slowing breath rate to six breaths per minute can significantly improve physiological markers like heart rate variability and baroreflex, increasing oxygen and CO2 levels.

Prana in the Modern World: Energy Medicine:

• Western Introduction: Theosophical Society (late 19th/early 20th centuries) introduced terms like prana, kundalini, and chakra to the West, reinterpreting them (e.g., Charles Leadbeater described prana as “universal life force” absorbed from sunlight via the spleen chakra).
• Synthesis of East and West: Teachers like Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama (who influenced Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers) sought to link chakras to organs and meridians.
• Bioelectricity and Fascia: Dr. Motoyama suggests chi flows through connective tissue (fascia), proposing a physical, measurable basis for ancient energy channels.
• Scientific Measurements: Researchers like John Zimmerman have measured bioelectrical currents and biomagnetic fields from healers’ hands, suggesting they “may act as living PEMF generators”. Cells communicate through a complex, multidimensional language including electrical fields, ions, chemicals, and light (biophotons). Bernie suggests prana or chi could be this “energy of communication”.
• Nuanced Scientific Perspective: Clark maintains that while measurable effects exist, “no scientific consensus has emerged”, and rigorous, double-blinded controlled trials are sparse. However, he states, “a powerful personal experience can eclipse abstract debates about statistical significance. For the individual, the transformation is real”.
• Ethical Considerations: Clark stresses that “any treatment—no matter how natural or subtle—can become harmful in excess,” underscoring the importance of contraindications and listening to the body. He concludes that prana is “not a superstition but a scientific reality that is not yet fully mapped”.

Conclusion: Trusting the Subtle Currents

• Prana’s meaning has evolved with humanity’s understanding of life itself.
• Until science can definitively define “What is life?”, prana remains multifaceted, manifesting as “life energy” in chemical, mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and optical forms, representing the “vast, multidimensional language” cells use to communicate.
• Clark’s personal journey highlights the importance of  “slowness, stillness, surrender, and time” and trusting life’s subtle currents.
• “Prana may no longer need to be explained through myth, but it still moves us in ways that science is only beginning to grasp”.