Exercise, and may the force be with you

January 21, 3:22 PMPhiladelphia Health ExaminerThomas Hartmann

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The ancient Rishis of India knew about life-energy 6000 years ago. They called it Prana, and developed yoga to enhance it for the purpose of spiritual realization. We Westerners, picking it up from India in the footsteps of the Beatles, use it mostly for relaxation.

The Chinese, whose civilization was linked with India’s through the Silk Road, may have developed the idea of Chi – or life-energy – from the idea of Prana, hence Tai Chi, the system of movement underlying the famous oriental martial arts.

Before these openings to the East, in the early part of the 20th century, Wilhelm Reich, a colleague of Freud’s, thought he had discovered something new in the energy of the universe and called it orgone, conducting experiments in Maine which eventually wreaked such ecological havoc that his reputation was smeared and his books were burned (yes, that’s right, books burned in the United States. This was around the time of McCarthy).

Call it Chi, call it Prana, call it orgone, it is the energy of life, common to many cultures. Even the Native Americans know how to generate it in their ceremonies. It is exercise, though, in some form or another, which is the driving force behind this energy. It appears as a blue light, as any shaman or orgonomist can tell you.

Upcoming: more about the relation between energy and exercise