Air is truly the breath of life. It is the vital fluid that animates
our being; that stimulates into activity every one of the billion of
cells that go to make up =the body=.
It is a fact, conceded by every scientific man today, that the oxygen
in the air we breathe is absolutely the greatest purifying force in all
Nature.
Yet there is but one way to get oxygen into your lungs and into your
system--and this is to breathe it in.
As long ago as two thousand years before the Christian Era, the Chinese
and the Hindoos made elaborate studies in the art of breathing.
Indeed, they developed a complex science having to do with control of
the breath. Certain forms of breathing were employed for the cure of
various diseases. Thus, for example, it was believed that controlled
inhalations and exhalations would allay fevers; or, in a contrary
condition of the body, induce a salutary rise in temperature.
In India the Buddhist priests were at pains to practice breath-control
so as always to command deep, quiet action of the lungs. In this
measured breathing the number of breaths was greatly reduced. The usual
eighteen to twenty-two breaths per minute were reduced to six or eight.
Experience justified the theories of the priests concerning the value
of a controlled breathing. Its merits have stood the tests of ages, and
today, in the Orient proper, breathing is still deemed the fountain of
health.
Aside from the distinctly physical advantages derived from
breath-control, there results also a poise of mind that is most
desirable in its benefits to the whole nature of the man.
Later in history both the Greeks and the Romans practiced controlled
breathing for hygienic purposes and for the attainment of bodily
perfection. They even went further than the Orientals of an earlier
epoch, for they deliberately set out to enlarge the chest cavity. They
realized that the principal part of the body is the trunk, and that in
this the chief constituent is the chest. The success they attained in
the development of superb physiques is demonstrated by the examples
that survived to us of their classic art. They were able to attain
a bodily perfection unequaled in the history of the world. In their
methods, controlled breathing was the chief agent.
In Europe, during the Middle Ages, this science of breath suffered from
increasing neglect, and finally died out.
As an appalling commentary on the neglect of proper breathing by the
mass of mankind, we may consider the fact, now generally admitted by
the medical profession, that fully one half of the world’s death-rate
is due to consumption.
The fact could hardly be otherwise. Any experienced physician is well
aware that only a small part of the lungs is ordinarily used by the
average person. A large portion of the breathing apparatus is in most
cases never employed at all. Naturally, inevitably, such areas in the
lungs weaken and become degenerate. They offer a breeding place for
the germs of various infections.