Lesson Three:
Tips For The Balance

From our recent enjoyable experience at the Expo, we find that many have begun a conscientious practice of daily Power Breathing as taken right out of these pages; many others should now be encouraged to join the practice having been initiated directly into its healthy, rejuvenating and Awakening benefits. We find (in speaking with people, fielding questions or simply hearing general comments) that, once having overcome the plain inertia discussed in our very first lesson as the principal impediment to even trying the easy methodology, the inherent effectiveness and immediacy of the practice encourages quickly turning up the front-burners of enthusiasm. Thus those who've experienced even the preliminary, first-time uplift of the practice sense a self-renewal stirring suddenly inside that's so innately exciting they wish to know immediately how to extract all the gold out of their newly discovered Mine. It's to this question that we address our (abbreviated) column this month.

Though you're sure to feel that, if just a little of this breathing regimen does so much and moves your systems so far then a lot must portend some rapid and inconceivable Transformation, it's wise to allow the practice to open all the centers and energetic lines in a natural, balanced way. Your systems know, and can certainly tell you, how much you're capable of absorbing and efficiently processing at one time; but it is possible, in an overriding rush of enthusiasm, to push the practice down a long-distance stretch right away thus forcing into far zones before the cues of your system have a chance to register. This inordinate enthusiasm, perhaps fueled by the gratifying upsurge of additional energy but coupled to a long-starving psyche just now realizing the extent of its deprivation and wishing to "make up for lost time", may serve temporarily to overtax the present capacities of your system.

The common result may be, no. 1: Unnecessary extremes of hyperventilation. As was explained at our lecture-demonstration at the Expo, "hyperventilation" is only an initial effect or potential of applying the Power Breathing regimen; the lightheadedness you may experience at first progressively diminishes with practice. It results in any case from the increase of energy—produced by the Charger Breath—driving the consciousness-systems to the ceiling of their current (conditioned) capacity for sustaining the minimum degree of focal resolution necessary to maintain effective alignment with the "waking" zone of common perceptual coherence. Those systems are temporarily pushed past the ordinary threshold separating the narrow-band waking zone of consciousness from the more diffuse medium of psychic energy-processing in which the concentrated spark of self-reflective awareness has yet to be struck. That "region" of energization in which the ordinary low-level harmony supportive of—normal—self-reflective awareness tends to dissipate, accompanied by the seeming "swoon" of that awareness, represents the pons asinorum in the present intersection of your optimal "conscious lights, with the zone of your greater Being (presently understood as subconscious, and only "known" by reflection from fragments reclaimed out of the dreamstate).

Progressive, balanced and unhurried practice of the Whole Charger Breath (in conjunction with supplemental techniques you'll be receiving in the following months, or those specialized meditative practices available on tape through Southern Crown) will serve unerringly to push back that threshold of hyperventilation. In this way increasingly integral, intensified values of self-reflective consciousness are installed in the place of that threshold so as to constitute a continuous salient into the frontiers of formerly "subconscious,, regions—or dimensions of the greater Being—making them available to consciousness and progressively incorporating their functional values as accessible agencies of the "ordinary" waking state. In this way the phenomenon of "hyperventilation" has progressively less to do with the effects experienced as a consequence of consciously applying the Charger Breathing regimen.

The second common result of (understandably) "overdoing it" at first in the initial burst of enthusiasm, is that of straining facial or neck muscles. If you've overdone it to the degree that portions of your face, head, neck or back of the head seem to go numb, simply relax, sit still and breathe normally; it's a temporary effect and swiftly recedes. Similarly, if you've failed to be punctilious in these precautions and seem to have strained some muscle or tissue (typically, facial muscles or buccal tissue) again, relax and resume normal breathing.

You may have to desist from practicing the Charger Breath with any real vigor or energetic force for a few days until the strain relaxes. These types of over-exertion are minor and transitory disturbances. They do not happen at all when the practitioner conscientiously monitors the response of his systems to those increments of the practice he's assumed according to instruction. You may find that "progress" in the overall strengthening of tissue and muscle groups and the receding of the hyperventilation-threshold enabling more extensive application of the practice, seems "uneven"; it may increase smoothly at a clip and then suddenly seem to hit a "hill"; you may find yourself remaining at a particular number of repetitions and rounds (say, a 7-breath set for 7 rounds) for a much longer time than was the case with previous sets and rounds, as if having come to an impasse. You should enjoy this provisional "upper limit" for as long as it seems fixed, and refrain from impatience. There is no contest to "mount to ever-expanding heights of hyper-intensive breathing". Cooperate with the inherent wisdom of your systems—just don't let lethargy, the fickleness of psychological mood or conceptual restraint dictate to you in the pretext that they speak for your actual energyprocesses and mind-body systems.

The third common result of overpracticing the Power Breath, is the onset of a minor temporary "headache". This is a result of energy-concentration produced in amplification of the carrying "current", but processed through ordinary avenues belonging to relatively imbalanced circuits of the system that haven't benefited as yet from the greater harmony which measured application of the technique over time inevitably yields. Interestingly, the balanced and intelligently graduated practice of the Whole Charger Breath serves ultimately to relieve even long-time difficulties involving headaches, including migraines. This isn't so difficult to understand, once we note that medical research ascribes the general symptomatology of "migraines" to a pathological condition of local oxygen-deprivation.

Always remember, then, to apply yourself steadily, conscientiously and wisely to the daily practice of Power Breathing. Your enjoyment will increase, your enthusiasm will increase, and ultimately a balanced and harmonious outlook will arise through which you may successfully apply yourself, extracting maximum benefits from the Charger-Breathing techniques in the most economic span of time compatible with smooth natural progress. Therefore enjoy your practice.