The Mystical Prana: Sustainer of Life, Determinant of Death
Pradeep B. Deshpande, PhD and James P. Kowall, MD, PhD
Prof. Medvedev asked, what value could the study of thukdam bring to humanity, and His Holiness replied, never mind about reaching enlightenment, all seven billion people alive today need peace of mind. We need to understand the workings of the mind and the system of emotions.
Physicians are sometimes perplexed when they find that some patients are living a lot longer than others, even though they were all suffering from similar life-threating conditions. This article explores the hypothesis of whether the mystical prana and the autonomous breathing rate are hidden determinants that can explain the differences.
Prana, or life-force, is an ancient concept. In most Indian languages, when someone dies they say the prana has left him/her.
In modern times, prana has been found to be an intrinsic part of creation.
To explain, the universe has been expanding ever since it first came into existence billions of years ago with what is commonly referred to as the big bang event. At the moment of creation, the universe was an incredibly small (about 10–33 cm in diameter called Plank length), unbelievably hot, and immensely dense energy phase. The present-day universe evolved out of this energy phase over billions of years.
This energy is repulsive, in contrast to gravity, which is attractive. This energy also supports life, and, in this form, is called prana or pranic energy.
On one side of the energy phase there is this ever expanding universe, but, on the other side, there is absolutely nothing, a void.
Nothing physical can pass through the size of Plank length and be present on the other side, but, consciousness can, for it in not physical.
Thus, consciousness and energy are required for creation.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said, “The universe may end one day but consciousness will remain for it is eternal.”
The Puranic stories of Paratpara Shiva (undifferentiated consciousness) and Adya Shakti (Parvati, primordial energy) inform us that seers have known how creation happened since ancient times. Shiva is also known as Ardha Nareshwar (half male–half female), emphasizing the need for both consciousness and energy in creation.
Consciousness and energy are not only implicated in creation, they are also implicated in life.
The ancient Saamkhya philosophy informs us that we are made of a system of five principal elements that is our source: (1) Prithvi (Earth), (2) Jal (Water), (3) Agni (Fire), (4) Vayu (Air/Oxygen) and (5) Akash (Space — Consciousness and Pranic Energy). Shiva is Consciousness and Parvati — Adyashakti is primordial energy. Max Plank Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany has just named the earliest building blocks in the Milky Way as Shiva and Shakti.
There is a chapter on Samkhya Yoga in the Bhagvad Geeta.
There are temples dedicated to each of the five principal elements in India, four in Tamil Nadu, and one in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh.
The renowned Indian scientist, Sir J. C. Bose, had proved that even metals feel stress, and plants feel pain. There is a certain level of consciousness and Prana in all of creation.
For his pioneering work, Bose was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, UK, and was knighted in 1917.
Many consider him the father of radio science.
Given all the matter (liquid, solids and gases) available on Earth and present in the human body, together with Agni-heat/fire, Jal-water and Vayu-air/Oxygen, no one has been able to create human life. The missing elements are consciousness and prana.
Consciousness and prana come into us when we come into the world from our mother’s womb and take our first breath and leave us when we exhale for the last time and die. The duration between the first inhalation and the last exhalation is lifespan. We are all given a certain number of breathing cycles during our life.
Breathing is an autonomous function, and the respiration rate is inversely proportional to the lifespan. The slower the respiration, the longer the lifespan and vice versa. There are plenty of examples in the animal world that are supportive of this assertion.
If we can find a way to slow down our respiration rate, autonomously, our lifespan should increase.
There is a widespread but, mistaken, belief that the sole purpose of breathing is to supply life-supporting oxygen to the body, but this premise is not wholly correct.
Prana also comes into us as we breathe.
In yogic practices, control of prana has been given much prominence. The breathing exercises that are intended to regulate prana are aptly called Pranayama, not Swasayama (control of breath). These breathing exercises regulate prana and enhance the supply of oxygen to the body.
Pranayama is usually preceded by physical exercises and followed by meditation.
Powerful Evidence of Prana
The Tibetan word “Thukdam” refers to a Buddhist meditative practice, in which an accomplished meditator is absorbed in the process of inner dissolution of the five principal elements and consciousness back into primordial light after clinical death (Wikipedia).
His Holiness the Dalai Lama explains, “When an ordinary person dies, there is a dissolution of the five principal elements at the moment of clinical death. The body of the person in the state of thukdam can remain warm and free of decomposition for many days implying that some of the principal elements have remained in the body even after clinical death. My senior tutor, Ling Rinpoché, remained in thukdam for 13 days. Recently, a monk at Kirti Monastery remained in this state for 37 days.”
His Holiness received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
On May 5, 2023, His Holiness held a virtual conference with Russian neuroscientists who had been studying the phenomenon of thukdam at Buddhist monasteries in India for several years.
The Russian scientists examined 104 monks in meditation, and they observed a monk in thukdam for 37 days at the Gyutö Monastery in India. A forensic physician examined the physical body of the monks at various stages after death. The scientists noted that the body of the monk in thukdam was in a quite different state from the body of someone undergoing the ordinary process of death.
In August 2020, IANS had reported that a Tibetan Buddhist scholar in Taiwan was found to be in the state of thukdam after being declared clinically dead on July 14. Also, see this video clip showing a Thai monk leaving his body consciously in about six minutes.
These monks realized that at the end of life, they ought to return to the source from which they had come (Samkhya Yoga).
The meditative practices they employ also dramatically enhance their level of emotional excellence along the way.
Measurement of Prana
Prana can be seen, but not heard, tasted, smelled, or touched. Appendix I explains how the pranic energy can be seen. For measurement purposes, Prana has to be stimulated and amplified.
In one approach to measurement, that is based on the principle of Gas Discharge Visualization, a harmless electrical current is applied to the fingers of both hands placed on the glass electrode of the device, called Bio-Well, one at a time. The finger’s response to this electrical stimulus is a burst of photons which are captured by the computer and analyzed. The intensity of the discharge and its area provide an estimate of the pranic energy of the subject undergoing the measurement. Figure 1 depicts the experimental setup and this short video clip shows how the measurement is made.
The measurement is non-invasive, painless and takes only a few minutes. Figure 2 depicts illustrative images of the glow of a finger of a meditator and that of a highly stressed individual. Bio-Well was invented by a Russian scientist, Prof. Konstantin Korotkov, over twenty years ago.
How to Enhance Prana
As stated previously, we are all given a certain number of breathing cycles that determines our lifespan. Slower breathing reduces the number of respiration cycles and is supportive of a longer lifespan. An increase in prana slows breathing. There are reports of seers living very long pursuant to their yogic practices.
Some might wonder why then yoga masters Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) and Yogananda Paramahansa (1893–1952) did not live long. The answer may be that they realized that their life’s work was finished.
For healthy individuals, the pranic energy remains within an upper and a lower bound for much of their lives reducing to a low value at death as depicted in Figure 3. Prof. Korotkov has presented the energy data for several subjects suffering from serious ailments, showing that their pranic energy was much lower than that of healthy subjects. He has also studied the pranic energy of persons after natural death, finding that the subjects’ energy continued to diminish for several days following death. Figure 4 depicts a plot of pranic energy of an individual at death, who had died with natural health.
(Source: Konstantin Korotkov, Light After Life, amazon, 1998)
Meditation can enhance pranic energy while reducing the breathing rate. Figure 5 depicts the before-and-after pranic energy of the first author as measured by Bio-Well for over 180 pranayama-meditations sessions. See also this short video clip of a lecture of the first author at the University of Louisville in September 2013 wherein 90% of over 100 attendees, which included several physicians, reported that their respiration rate, and the equally important heart rate, had reduced following a 21-minute meditation session.
At the fundamental level, there are three factors for why the lifespan of individuals is different: (1) genetic traits inherited from ancestors, (2) how the subjects have lived their lives to the present age, and (3) environmental factors.
Some individuals may naturally have enhanced Prana and lower breathing rates due to these factors, and they are likely to live longer. The vast majority of others should benefit from physical exercises, pranayama, and meditation.
Testing the Hypothesis
The foregoing discussion explained the importance of pranic energy and the influence of pranic energy and breathing rate on lifespan. Only enlightened seers possibly know how close they are to exhausting their respiration cycles, but the rest of us do not. For the rest of us, it is best to engage in the practices of pranayama-meditation regularly so that prana and respiration move in the right direction.
Pranayama-meditation practices have nothing to do with race, religion, gender or national origin.
This discussion also leads to a number of possibilities listed in Table I that are worth investigating.
Table I. Various Combinations of Pranic Energy and Breathing Cycles and their Influence on Lifespan
1 If the breathing cycles have been exhausted and the pranic energy is low, then, it is natural death.
2 If the breathing cycles have been exhausted and the pranic energy is high, then, we call it spiritual death.
3 If the breathing cycles are remaining and the pranic energy is low, then, there will be diseases including coma-like conditions.
4 If the breathing cycles are remaining and the pranic energy is normal, then, normal life continues.
In Closing
A new understanding of prana and breathing cycles and how they are interlinked is presented. The proposed hypothesis is intended to assess if enhancing prana and reducing breathing rate leads to a longer lifespan. The ideas in this article are intended to be used in conjunction with standard medical treatments and practices. The material presented is believed to possess the potential to advance our understanding of lifespan and the end of life’s processes and should be beneficial to the medical profession.
Further Reading
1. Gefter, Amanda, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn, Bantam Books, New York, 2014.
2. Kowall, James P, What’s Wrong with Physics, https://medium.com/@jkowall031/whats-wrong-with-physics-b77f817217d8 , 2024.
3. Boyers, David, G. and Tiller, William, A., Corona Discharge Photography, J. Appl. Phys., 44, 7, 1973, p. 3102.
4. Chez, Ronald, A., Ed., Proceedings: Measuring the Human Energy Field — State of the Science, The gerontology research Center, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Health, Baltimore, MD April 17–18, 2002.
5. Korotkov K.G., Matravers P, Orlov D.V., Williams B.O. Application of Electrophoton Capture (EPC) Analysis Based on Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV) Technique in Medicine: A Systematic Review. The J of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. January 2010, 16, 1, pp.13–25.
6. Korotkov, K. G., Human Energy Field: Study with GDV Bioelectrography, amazon 2002.
7. Korotkov, K. G., Light After Life, 1998, amazon.
8. Deshpande, P. B. & Korotkov, K., Non-invasive Indicators of Stress and Bioenergy Disruption & Benefit of Meditation in Relieving Stress, Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, September 2014.
9. Pehek J. O., Kyler, H. J., and Foust, D. L., Image Modulation in Corona Discharge Photography, Science, Vol. 194, 263–270, October 1976.
10. Deshpande, Pradeep B., How My Life Changed After 60, Medium, 2024 (https://pradeepbdeshpande.medium.com/how-my-life-changed-after-60-3204db25bb0e).
11. Deshpande, Pradeep B., Advances in Integrative Health, Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research, Vol. 9, N0. 7, August 2018.
Appendix I. The Mystical Pranic Energy
Prana is everywhere. Captured in the photograph in Figure A.1 is an unexplained light on top of Pranavalam, the pyramid in which the first author’s Guru, H. H. Guru Mahan meditates. Pranavalam is a Tamil word, and it may be roughly translated as, the House of Prana, the Primordial Energy.
Guru Mahan taught the first author how to see the Pranic energy in 2011: On a sunny day, stare at the sky as far as you can without focusing on anything in particular in the direction opposite to where the Sun is, and you will see Prana in short order.
Several years ago, the first author did an experiment to validate this visualization of Prana. I asked Arvind Bhavasar, his software consultant, in India, to go out on the balcony of their apartment in Pune and repeat the above experiment. He did, and what he verbally described was substantially similar to what I saw. Then, I asked him to prepare a video clip showing what he saw. He did, and depicted in Figure A. 2 is his video clip.
Many of our friends have also been able to see this energy that is ubiquitous in the cosmos.
Acknowledgments
This article is written with the blessings of H. H. Guru Mahan., founder of Universal Peace Foundation in Thirumurthi Hills, Tamil Nadu, India. He has been going into three weeks of meditation annually with no food for world peace for the last thirty three years. The first author expresses his gratitude to M. Subramaniam and Raja Atmamayan for conveying Guru Mahan’s positive feedback on the article and blessings.
The author thanks Tony Belak, Mediation Consultant and former Ombudsman, University of Louisville, for his editorial assistance. The helpful suggestions of Sanjeev A. Aroskar are gratefully acknowledged.
About the Authors
1Pradeep B. Deshpande is Professor Emeritus in and former Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He is also president of Six Sigma and Advanced Controls based in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an author of eight books and over one hundred fifty articles in reputed journals that include Proc. Royal Society–UK, Chemical Eng. Progress, Ind. Eng. Chem. Proc. Des Dev, Chem. Eng. Science, among several others, and is a recipient of several international awards. He is a Fellow of ISA. pradeep@sixsigmaquality.com.
2James P. Kowall is an independent researcher based in suburban Eugene, Oregon. Jim obtained his MD from the University of Miami and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Brown University. Dr. Kowall is a triple board certified physician (Neurology, Internal Medicine, and Sleep Disorder Medicine). He retired from private medical practice about a decade ago to spend time researching the nature of ultimate reality. He succeeded in 2014. Jkowall137@gmail.com.
