Prana Project

Let us begin by exploring what the yogis describe as fundamental energy. If we break down the meaning of the word and stay in context to pranayama, a very simple interpretation can be, that prana means ‘breath’ and ayama means ‘movement, control or extension’. In a truer definition of prana, it is the description of the essence of universal energy itself. So, pranayama can be defined as: the control of an individual’s fundamental/cosmic energy via the vehicle of breathing.

Everything that this universe can possibly manifest requires some form of energy to exist. For us as humans, the breath is simply our primary form of energy that we need more than any other kind. The body can go weeks without food, days without water but only minutes without breath. Let’s be clear, the breath is not prana itself but merely the vehicle of prana. When we control the vehicle, we control the prana/fundamental energy and can direct it wisely.

In the same way we control the quality of our glycaemic energy through the quality of food and drink (other vehicles of energy) we consume, we can use pranayama practices to control the quality of the energy in air through respiration. In the same way that food and drink have an impact on our organ function and influence our overall health, the breath is no different. Yogis see the breath as being of the utmost importance since we are constantly breathing and assimilating the energy of the air, far more than any other kind of energy.

Prana makes any motion or vibration possible – the splitting of an atom, an acorn turning into a tree, the slow erosion of a mountain or the birth and death of a thought. Thousands of years ago, yogis discovered the inherent quality of motion in creation and they called it prana. It is the distilled essence of energy itself, present in all things animate or inanimate.

In the eyes of yoga, once a practitioner has control over the body’s prana, they can manipulate the subtle and gross energy flow in various parts of the body for purification and transformations of energy. The control of vital energy impacts the health of the entire body including mental states, organ function, metabolism, the nervous system and the endocrine systems. It can also help with digestion and absorption of nutrient and excretion of toxins.

On a larger scale, yogis see prana as being a kind of godhead. The idea being that the entire universe fundamentally exists as a result of consciousness and energy (prana) coming together, the latter dependant on the former.There is a significant difference between pranayama and the normal biological breathing process (unconscious, normal, autonomic breathing). In the usual unconscious process of breathing, there is an autonomously continuing air exchange between our lungs and the environment to meet the required metabolic physiological demands of the body to survive. The body uses the bare minimum amount of air to meet its current requirements. It is the primal demand of the body’s needs for oxygen and a few other less important particles in the air. Prana is the subtlest form of biological energy and in pranayama, we learn to unlock the potential of this energy within the body. 

We can see that many of the benefits of pranayama are backed by Western scientific evidence which we will explore extensively in this course.