What is Prana?

nospam@example.com (Jeremy Jones) — Tue, 5 Jul 2011 12:34:00 +0100

Prior to the triumph of scientific materialism in the nineteenth century, when people lived rather closer to nature, both physically and culturally, the idea of a life force was a universally held assumption. How else did the plants grow? How did all living things flourish and multiply? The sheer extravagance of life was obvious, even to the casual observer. Our planet is today somewhat damaged, yet still gloriously fertile and alive. The invention of the microscope and the discovery of microorganisms reinforced this view. Life appears everywhere, including the most unlikely places. Dirty pond water teems with life. It’s on the roof of my house in the form of moss and lichen. In prescientific cultures it’s still a “given”. When this belief comes as part of a non-western “package”, like yoga, cultural relativism enforces a scientific indulgence. Isn’t a bit disrespectful to attack or ridicule someone’s cultural standpoint? When it tries to creep into the scientific realm through the backdoor, the scientific establishment reacts with irrational fury, like an angry householder confronting a burglar. I hope to show that, far from being just a mystical or philosophical concept, prana is a tangible force that we can feel inside ourselves and in the right conditions, observe. We cannot yet measure it objectively, though we can measure its fluctuations outside the organism, whether human or otherwise. It has also been demonstrated in the laboratory and lecture room by means of a soft blue glow in a vacuum tube, well away from any possible electrical connections.

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What is Prana?