Science of Breath
Scarcely
too much can be said of the advantages
attending the practice of the Complete
Breath. And yet the student who has
carefully read the foregoing pages should
scarcely need to have pointed out to him
such advantages.
The practice of the Complete Breath
will make any man or woman immune to
Consumption and other pulmonary troubles,
and will do away with all liability to
contract “colds,” as well as bronchial and
similar weaknesses. Consumption is due
principally to lowered vitality attributable
to an insufficient amount of air being
inhaled. The impairment of vitality
renders the system open to attacks from
disease germs. Imperfect breathing
allows a considerable part of the lungs to
remain inactive, and such portions offer an
inviting field for bacilli, which invading
the weakened tissue soon produce
havoc. Good healthy lung tissue will
resist the germs, and the only way to have
good healthy lung tissue is to use the lungs
properly.
Consumptives are nearly all
narrow-chested. What does this
mean? Simply that these people were
addicted to improper habits of breathing,
and consequently their chests failed to
develop and expand. The man who
practices the Complete Breath will have a
full broad chest, end the narrow-chested man
may develop his chest to normal proportions
if he will but adopt this mode of
breathing. Such people must develop
their chest cavities if they value their
lives. Colds may often be prevented by
practicing a little vigorous Complete
Breathing whenever you feel that you are
being unduly exposed. When chilled,
breathe vigorously a few minutes, and you
will feel a glow all over your body.
Most colds can be cured by Complete
Breathing and partial fasting for a day.
The quality of the blood depends
largely upon its proper oxygenation in the
lungs, and if it is under-oxygenated it
becomes poor in quality and laden with all
sorts of impurities, and the system suffers
from lack of nourishment, and often becomes
actually poisoned by the waste products
remaining uneliminated in the blood.
As the entire body, every organ and every
part, is dependent upon the blood for
nourishment, impure blood must have a
serious effect upon the entire system.
The remedy is plain—practice the Yogi
Complete Breath.
The stomach and other organs of
nutrition suffer much from improper
breathing. Not only are they ill
nourished by reason of the lack of oxygen,
but as the food must absorb oxygen from the
blood and become oxygenated before it can be
digested and assimilated, it is readily seen
how digestion and assimilation is impaired
by incorrect breathing. And when
assimilation is not normal, the system
receives less and less nourishment, the
appetite fails, bodily vigor decreases, and
energy diminishes, and the man withers and
declines. All from the lack of proper
breathing.
Even the nervous system suffers from
improper breathing, inasmuch as the brain,
the spinal cord, the nerve centers, and the
nerves themselves, when improperly nourished
by means of the blood, become poor and
inefficient instruments for generating,
storing and transmitting the nerve
currents. And improperly nourished
they will become if sufficient oxygen is not
absorbed through the lungs. There is
another aspect of the case whereby the nerve
currents themselves, or rather the force
from which the nerve currents spring,
becomes lessened from want of proper
breathing, but this belongs to another phase
of the subject which is treated of in other
chapters of this book, and our purpose here
is to direct your attention to the fact that
the mechanism of the nervous system is
rendered inefficient as an instrument for
conveying nerve force, as the indirect
result of a lack of proper breathing.
The effect of the reproductive organs
upon the general health is too well known to
be discussed at length here, but we may be
permitted to say that with the reproductive
organs in a weakened condition the entire
system feels the reflex action and suffers
sympathetically. The Complete Breath
produces a rhythm which is Nature’s own plan
for keeping this important part of the
system in normal condition, and, from the
first, it will be noticed that the
reproductive functions are strengthened and
vitalized, thus, by sympathetic reflex
action, giving tone to the whole
system. By this, we do not mean that
the lower sex impulses will be aroused; far
from it. The Yogis are advocates of
continence and chastity, and have learned to
control the animal passions. But
sexual control does not mean sexual
weakness, and the Yogi teachings are that
the man or woman whose reproductive organism
is normal and healthy, will have a stronger
will with which to control himself or
herself. The Yogi believes that much
of the perversion of this wonderful part of
the system comes from a lack of normal
health, and results from a morbid rather
than a normal condition of these
organs. A little careful consideration
of this question will prove that the Yogi
teachings are right. This is not the
place to discuss the subject fully, but the
Yogis know that sex-energy may be conserved
and used for the development of the body and
mind of the individual, instead of being
dissipated in unnatural excesses as is the
wont of so many uninformed people. By
special request we will give in this book
one of the favorite Yogi exercises for this
purpose. But whether or not the
student wishes to adopt the Yogi theories of
continence and clean-living, he or she will
find that the Complete Breath will do more
to restore health to this part of the system
than anything else ever tried.
Remember, now, we mean normal health, not
undue development. The sensualist will
find that normal means a lessening of desire
rather than an increase; the weakened man or
woman will find a toning up and a relief
from the weakness which has heretofore
depressed him or her. We do not wish
to be misunderstood or misquoted on this
subject. The Yogis’ ideal is a body
strong in all its parts, under the control
of a masterful and developed Will, animated
by high ideals.
In the practice of the Complete
Breath, during inhalation, the diaphragm
contracts and exerts a gentle pressure upon
the liver, stomach and other organs, which
in connection with the rhythm of the lungs
acts as a gentle massage of these organs and
stimulates their actions, and encourages
normal functioning. Each inhalation
aids in this internal exercise, and assists
in causing a normal circulation to the
organs of nutrition and elimination.
In High or Mid Breathing the organs lose the
benefit accruing from this internal massage.
The Western world is paying much
attention to Physical Culture just now,
which is a good thing. But in their
enthusiasm they must not forget that the
exercise of the external muscles is not
everything. The internal organs also
need exercise, and Nature’s plan for this
exercise is proper breathing. The
diaphragm is Nature’s principal instrument
for this internal exercise. Its motion
vibrates the important organs of nutrition
and elimination, and massages and kneads
them at each inhalation and exhalation,
forcing blood into them, and then squeezing
it out, and imparting a general tone to the
organs. Any organ or part of the body
which is not exercised gradually atrophies
and refuses to function properly, and lack
of the internal exercise afforded by the
diaphragmatic action leads to diseased
organs. The Complete Breath gives the
proper motion to the diaphragm, as well as
exercising the middle and upper chest.
It is indeed “complete” in its action.
From the standpoint of Western
physiology alone, without reference to the
Oriental philosophies and science, this Yogi
system of Complete Breathing is of vital
importance to every man, woman and child who
wishes to acquire health and keep it.
Its very simplicity keeps thousands from
seriously considering it, while they spend
fortunes in seeking health through
complicated and expensive “systems.”
Health knocks at their door and they answer
not. Verily the stone which the
builders reject is the real cornerstone of
the Temple of Health.
Nextthat
the Complete Breath is really a combination
of Low, Mid and High Breaths, succeeding
each other rapidly in the order given, in
such a manner as to form one uniform,
continuous, complete breath.
You will find it quite a help to you
if you will practice this breath before a
large mirror, placing the hands lightly over
the abdomen so that you may feel the
movements. At the end of the inhalation, it
is well to occasionally slightly elevate the
shoulders, thus raising the collarbone and
allowing the air to pass freely into the
small upper lobe of the right lung, which
place is sometimes the breeding place of
tuberculosis.
At the beginning of practice, you may
have more or less trouble in acquiring the
Complete Breath, but a little practice will
make perfect, and when you have once
acquired it you will never willingly return
to the old methods.
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