Longevity means remaining in the body for a long, happy and healthy life. To accomplish this, we maintain a happy mental state by keeping our minds active and our thoughts positive. We remain balanced emotionally by feeling our feelings yet not allowing emotions control our lives.

We Are Energy Beings

It is common knowledge that we are completely and ultimately sustained by energy, whether indirectly through food, air, sunshine and other elements, or directly through the life force, or Universal Energy. Yoga teaches us that this energy comes into the body through the medulla oblongata at the base of the brain, is “downloaded” into the chakras along the spine, and then is distributed to the muscles, nerves, senses, and organs. The advanced yoga practitioner can control and manipulate this energy using techniques called, appropriately enough, “life force control.” But why would we want to do this and what does it have to do with longevity?

Resting Our Weary Bodies

The yogis discovered centuries ago that what we in the West call involuntary muscles are not really involuntary, although they seem to be because most of the time they are under the control of the subconscious mind. But we can consciously control them with the proper techniques. Using these tools, we can manipulate the energy that controls the so-called involuntary actions of the heart, lungs, and other vital organs. This ultimately means that these hardworking, life-sustaining parts of our bodies can be rested and rejuvenated.

Basic Techniques

Yogis say that the sole link between the body and Universal Energy is the breath. Using this clue, the ancient ones developed certain methods¬ that allow the breath to slow down. Therefore the body does not require the action of the lungs as much. In turn, neither does the body require the action of the heart as much and it also slows down. What happens then? Rather than go through the “intermediaries” of the heart and lungs to supply energy, Universal Energy takes over, more directly sustaining the vital organs, the nerves, the senses, and finally the entire body. In other words, rather than the lungs taking in and absorbing oxygen, and the heart receiving the oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumping it through the system, the life force comes into the body directly through the medulla oblongata and sustains it.

[Sidebar: The restless monkey, whose life span is relatively short, breathes approximately 48 times a minute. Man breathes between ten and twelve times a minute. The relaxed, long-living giant tortoise, who lives approximately 400 years, breathes about four times a minute. We can infer from these examples that the less we breathe, the more we depend directly on life energy, and the longer we live.]

Consciously Directing Energy

The adept yoga practitioner takes this one step further. As he or she consciously withdraws the life force, the practitioner also consciously directs it back to the spine (and brain) from where the life force was originally distributed to the body parts. A very pleasant, blissful sensation is then felt in the spine. (This is why people can meditate for long periods, sometimes for hours or days – see below.)

But what is happening to the organs, muscles, nerves and senses?  Because the yoga practitioner has consciously withdrawn the life force, by default they become energized and sustained by Universal Energy, which constitutes the building blocks of our world. So by using life force control, we plug in directly to this source energy and employ it to give our vital organs and nerves much needed rest and rejuvenation. Thus we have an opportunity to live a longer, more healthful life.

Meditation Combined with Life Force Control

When we use these techniques during periods of meditation, we enter into a state of “suspended animation” or conscious sleep. This is in contrast to normal unconscious sleep, which is controlled by the subconscious mind and is often disturbed by dreams and wandering, restless thoughts. Even a short period of meditation allows us to rest the heart, lungs, senses, nerves, and muscles of the body. Longer periods of meditation provide even more rest for our bodies and their many parts.

The modern yogi Paramahansa Yogananda writes about an adept named Sadhu Haridas. In an experiment arranged by Emperor Ranjit Singh of India and documented by French and other European doctors, Sadhu Haridas was buried underneath the ground without food, water, or air for several months. Guards kept watch over the spot. At the end of the experiment, Sadhu Haridas was disinterred; the doctors examined him and pronounced him dead. But after a few moments, Sadhu Haridas revived himself and continued to live a normal life long afterwards.

This experiment was meant to show not only that life energy supports the body; but adepts can control this energy. Sadhu Haridas withdrew the consciousness from his organs, muscles and nerves back into his spine and brain, and he went into a state of suspended animation, where his body was directly sustained by light.

In his autobiography, Yogananda also wrote about Therese Neumann of Bavaria, who only ate a small bread wafer every day for her entire adult life, and Giri Bala, an East Indian woman who ate nothing at all since her early childhood. These and other extraordinary examples indicate that the body is supported by something other than the energy in food, air, and water. And those that can control the energy in their bodies can improve their chances of living a long life.

My yoga teacher, J. Oliver Black, a direct disciple of Yogananda, practiced life force control techniques for nearly 60 years. He outlived his brothers and sisters, his wife, and both his children. When I saw him for the last time, two weeks before his passing at 96 years, he looked like a teenager, and was alert and in control of all he faculties.

Techniques are available to help us maintain a long, happy, and healthful life. It is up to us to research and practice these methods.

Richard A. Bowen is a Milwaukee author, publisher and yoga practitioner. Contact him at RichardABowen1@yahoo.com or visit his website at www.RichardABowen.com