Energy and Breath

Hugh Ripman: Something he said prompted me to ask a question about energy.

"Man needs different qualities of energy", he said. "Every function requires its own quality. You know how different fuels have different flash-points. It is like that. If there is a surplus of one quality, more than is needed for the: corresponding function, then this surplus can be transformed into a higher grade of energy, which can serve a higher function".

He was silent for a while. "Men take in energy through the breath," he continued, "but it is not the same for all men. What grades of energy people can absorb from the air depends on the way they breathe. It also depends on what is inside them".

I asked about breathing exercise.

"It is dangerous", he said, "to try the various breathing exercises, which you find described in the books, unless you do it under the guidance of man, who knows about these things. But there is one thing that you can do - and indeed this practice very greatly benefits the health of the body It is very simple. Pause about as long as it takes to draw breath (from 3 to 6 seconds) at the end of each inhalation and exhalation. A man who trains himself to breathe in this way, should normally live to be at least 100 years old".