Theos-Talk Archives (July 1996 Message tl00069)

Hi Jim:

>Ernest Wood's CONCENTRATION was one of my "early favorites" of T literature;
>which book of his did you get the quotation from?

        The quote is from the book "Is this Theosophy...?" by Ernest Wood.
It is a very very rare book.
        
        The incident he describes happened when he was sixteen or seventeen
and had not yet known about Theosophy. 

        When I posted the message, I wanted Wood's experience known to
theos-l subscribers as well as to elicit if any one had known about similar
effects from their personal knowledge.

        Personally, the question of practice of Pranayama is a settled
issue. Being a very very cautious person, I have no inclination to take any
risks whatsoever. This is not based on blind belief. I had known couple
instances from very reputed (non TS) sources some of the serious problems
that resulted from some of the practices.
>
>  Doss asked for "examples of personal
>experience" with breathing exercises; in an earlier discussion with Jerry S.
>where we sidetracked into "the dangers of unwise action", I had in mind an
>acquaintance 20 or so years ago who burned out from a variety of causes, but
>I suspect that his extensive breathing exercises played a part.  At least,
>he thought at the time that they did.

        Seems to corroborate what I had mentioned earlier.

>Doss quoted E. Wood as saying,
>"I felt that I needed special powers, since ordinary ones seemed of little
>use in life unless conjoined by some chance with special opportunities."  

        As I had stated earlier, this experience was that of a young man in
late teens and this should be taken into consideration when considering the
above quote. 


        Thanks for the feedback.



        ...Ramadoss
______________________________________________________________________
******** Peace to all living beings*****************

         M K Ramadoss