Tumo, for highly advanced practitioners of yoga, meditation.
Perl Molson
paths that it require.
You MUST follow all the steps towards the achievement of these
techniques
in order to even thing of attempting to practice tumo.
It might take several years, even more then 10 years.
To master these techniques will might take you even longer, depending
on the patterns you'll be using and your previous experience and of
course devotion.
If you really want to get rid of herpes virus out of the ganglia and
your body permanently, this
is the way to go.
I wish you an EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS and SUCCESSFUL approach towards your
cure!
Perl Molson.
http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/392/
Using Tumo
By: Dr. L. Daka 2002-07-09
Precis: The writer of this article reveals how he learned an ancient,
mystical technique to survive in the cold.
Using Tumo
By Dr. L. Daka
I grew up in Minnesota. For those of you unfamiliar with the state
(other than knowing that the current governor used to be a
professional wrestler), let me tell you about it.
Fully half the population of Minnesota resides in the "Twin Cities,"
Minneapolis and St. Paul. For all practical purposes, however, they
are really one city divided by the Mississippi river. Even so, each
city has its own character. St. Paul, the seat of government, was
originally named "Pig's Eye" after a river pirate. A huge Catholic
cathedral was built on a hill (a major part of the funding coming from
the most notorious Madam of the time), and the city adopted the name
of the cathedral. St. Paul is on the east side of the Mississippi and
is often called the "biggest little city in the U.S."
The name, "Minneapolis," is quite unusual, being a combination of
Native American (Minne-) and Greek (-polis). It is larger than St.
Paul, is on the west side of the Mississippi, and is sometimes known
as the "smallest big city in the U.S."
I grew up in a suburb called Lakeville, and it was wonderful. I was
close to the Twin Cities but just far away enough for an almost rural
life. My favorite times of the year were Spring, when the snows had
melted and the plants were starting to grow and bud, and Fall, when
the leaves turned color and the brisk winds were a pleasant relief
from the Summer heat and humidity.
But other than those two seasons of the year, the weather was harsh.
Summer was very hot and humid. We would go to the malls and movie
theaters just to get into some air conditioning. Sometimes the heat
was so oppressive that sleeping at night was difficult. The winter was
incredibly cold. We used to be thankful for snow because that would
mean it was warmer. It actually got too cold to snow, and people used
to say that we had nine months of winter and three months of bad
skiing.
One of the truly wonderful things about Minnesota is the people. They
tend to be friendly and polite, and they help each other. If a car has
difficulty on a snowy road, many people will stop their cars and offer
help. Everyone knows that the next time it could be them.
After I graduated from the University of Minnesota (with their sports
teams, the "Golden Gophers") and completed my residency, I got a job
offer in Florida. I lasted all of a year. Although there are wonderful
people there, I felt trapped — there were too many people. And the
weather was almost the reverse of Minnesota: hot and humid for most of
the year. I wanted to run away. I found I actually missed the cold of
my home. I guess I had become accustomed to it.
So when a job opened in a small, cold place, I took it. It is a little
town I'll call "Tallman" in Alaska. Tallman is very rural and small.
In the winter, snowmobiles are the most common form of transportation
for getting around town. That's when I started worrying.
In Minnesota, the roads I frequented were almost always cleared of
snow in the winter and if you got in trouble, there were other people
driving by. In Tallman, there were neither cleared winter roads nor
frequent drivers. If your snowmobile broke down and you were stranded
outside the town proper, you could be in a lot of trouble. I decided I
needed to do something about it.
SEARCHING THE INTERNET
Even though our town is small and out of the way (in the winter,
flying in is the only way to get here), we don't lack for necessities
of modern life, including access to the internet. I did searches
through various areas and found special heaters, small, lightweight
blankets that were supposed to keep you warm, and other gadgets. I
felt uncomfortable with all of them.
In my web searching, I found a reference to something called tumo. The
websites I visited didn't say much more than that it was a Tibetan
technique to keep warm. It claimed that tumo could keep you warm "in
spite of snow, freezing winds and ice." It worked by a meditation
technique that would send a "mystic heat" through veins, arteries and
nerve channels. This process, they claimed, would keep you warm even
during freezing conditions. But they didn't say how to do it.
For the past several years, I have been a doctor, and my interests
have been firmly in the scientific world. The internet is filled with
some rather bizarre medical claims, and I take most of them with more
than a grain of salt. Some of my patients come in with these supposed
cures for everything from hair loss to benign prostate disease. I
always ask for the scientific proof. Sometimes what you read on the
internet is accurate. Sometimes it is exaggerated. And sometimes it is
just wrong.
So the idea of tumo sounded absurd to me. But whether it worked or not
would be easy to prove. All I had to do was try it. But before I could
do so, I had to learn it, and I was finding dead ends everywhere.
Finally, I saw a review of a recently-published book that claimed to
give the entire process for learning tumo. I clicked on the "to buy
this book" icon and purchased the book over the internet. Soon I had a
copy of Occult Tibet by J. H. Brennan.
LEARNING TUMO
Chapter six exclusively teaches the technique of tumo. Brennan says
that in Tibet the training would take "three years, three months, and
three days," (p. 61), and this disappointed me. But he quickly follows
by saying that this "clearly has symbolic association." I was relieved
to discover that it might take a much shorter time. Besides, the
author adds that "the various steps of the exercise have benefits in
their own right." I was ready to start.
There are three stages to learning tumo, each having several parts.
The first stage consists of preliminary exercises. The first exercise
shocked me and almost turned me off to the entire practice! So don't
turn away after reading the technique, be sure to read the explanation
afterward.
"[V]isualize yourself as the naked, virginal, sixteen-year-old
Vajra-Yogini, a Tantric divinity who personifies spiritual energy.
This goddess has luminous ruby-red skin and a visible third eye in the
middle of her forehead. In her right hand she holds a gleaming curved
knife high above her heard to cut off completely all intrusive thought
processes. In her left hand she holds a blood-filled human skull
against her breast. On the head of the goddess is a tiara made from
five dried human skulls, while around her neck is a necklace of fifty
human heads dripping blood. She wears armbands, wristbands, and
anklets, but her only other item of adornment is a Mirror of Karma
breastplate held in place by double strings of beads made from human
bones that circle her waist and pass over her shoulders. There is a
long staff in the crook of her left arm and a flame-like aura around
her whole form. The goddess is dancing with her right leg bent and the
foot lifted up while her left foot tramples a prostate human." (p. 62)
Yuck!
When I read this repulsive description, I figured this was too bizarre
for me. But I read on to discover that "even the worst of the horrors
has symbolic significance. The necklace of human heads, for example,
should be seen as representing separation from the wheel of birth,
death, and rebirth that locks humanity into the world of illusion."
(p. 62) Understanding that this was all symbolic made me feel a bit
better, so I decided to continue.
The book explains that this is just the outer form of the goddess and
internally you should imagine yourself empty, "like a silken tent or
shaped balloon." (p. 62) Visualizations had always been easy for me.
When I was studying medicine, I used visualizations of myself easily
and successfully passing tests to relieve pressure and stress when
taking exams. This was a bit different because I was supposed to have
two images in my mind at the same time, the external image of the
goddess figure and the internal emptiness. It took me a few days to
master this.
Next, per the instructions in the book, I increased the size of the
goddess image, larger and larger, until it was as big as a house, a
hill, and so on until it encompassed the entire universe. I stayed
with that visualization for a time. It was, as they say, a real
"mind-rush." Then I did just the opposite, shrinking the visualization
down until it was the size of a tiny seed and then to microscopic
levels.
The next exercise is to visualize the Vagra-Yogini the same size as
me, and then concentrate on visualizing an energy channel down the
middle of my body. "It should be seen as straight, hollow, about the
size of an arrow-shaft, and a bright, almost luminous red." (p. 63).
Again, per the instructions in the book, once I had this down I
expanded the channel until it was the size of a "walking staff, then a
pillar, a house, a hill, and finally large enough to contain the whole
of the universe." (p. 63) At this stage the channel, of course,
pervades the entire body, not just the center of it.
Then I was to visualize the channel getting smaller until it was about
one-hundredth the thickness of a hair. All of this was fairly easy for
me to do, and within a week, I was pretty good at it.
The third exercise begins with sitting in the famous cross-legged
lotus pose found in Hatha yoga. I had studied yoga for a while, and
quite frankly, I could never do the lotus pose. Luckily, the teacher I
had gave me a solution: "Do the best you can. Alter the pose to fit
your needs." I found that if I sat on the edge of a cushion I could
modify the pose a bit, be comfortable, and get the desired effects of
the pose. Brennan mentions some alternatives, too.
Sitting in this position (with the right leg on top), you put your
hands in your lap, palms up, with the forefinger, thumb and pinky
extended. The spine should be straight, chin down, tongue against the
roof of the mouth, and the eyes fixed on the tip of the nose.
Take three deep breaths and exhale completely. Then inhale as much as
possible and hold the breath as long as possible without straining.
"As you breathe out, imagine that five-color rays emerge from every
pore of your body to fill the entire world. The colors, which equate
to the elements, are blue, green, red, white, and yellow — symbolizing
respectively ether [spirit], air, water, and earth. On the in-breath,
imagine these rays returning through the pores to fill your body with
multicolored light. Repeat the exercise seven times." (p. 64–65) I
found this part of the exercise to be very stimulating; leaving me
feeling balanced and energized.
The exercise continues with sound, visualizing the concept of the five
colors being part of the syllable hum (I guess that is the Tibetan
equivalent of the Hindu Om). On the exhalation I would visualize the
world being filled with the colored hum. On inhaling I would feel the
sound and colors enter and fill my body. This, too, was repeated seven
times.
The next part of the exercise was to imagine that each time I exhaled,
the colored hum sound changed to mustard seed-sized versions of
fierce, angry, and menacing deities. Such deities are common in Tibet.
On the exhale they were to fill the world, while on the inhale they
were to fill me. This was repeated seven times. Believe me, the
feeling of all these little creatures, even though they were only
visualized, was quite...interesting, to say the least.
The next part of this step is, according to Brennan, a "critical stage
in the exercise. You are required to imagine that every pore of your
body is inhabited by one of these tiny deities with his face turned
outward. The result of this visualization, when performed correctly,
is that you see yourself as having grown a second protective skin
composed of fierce and angry deities, which functions rather like a
suit of mail armor." (p. 66)
For two weeks, I practiced this. Although I could sense the deities, I
didn't have a feeling of them being armor. Then, at the end of two
weeks, I had a dream in which I was having a battle against giant
monsters. Although I battled valiantly, I realized I would lose.
"Somebody help me!" I cried out. I immediately heard a tittering
sound. Looking around I saw tens of thousands of tiny, angry, Tibetan
gods. "Oh great," I thought, "a lot of good they're going to be."
Instead of fighting the monsters, they started jumping on top of each
other until they formed a wall between the monsters and me. "Hey, this
looks like it might work," I said. Then the wall of deities moved
toward me, and with a leap, surrounded me like a second skin. At first
I thought I wouldn't be able to breathe, but I quickly realized that
their protective cover didn't harm me in any way. Better, it prevented
me from being harmed by the monsters, although my sword could cut
through the beasts.
When I awoke, my first thought was that I had, indeed, been successful
in getting the deities to be an armor-like second skin. But then I
wondered, "What were the monsters?" I thought about it for a day
before I realized that I was feeling very happy, content, and
peaceful. In my dream I had defeated my own fears, phobias,
insecurities, and other negative qualities. It didn't mean I had won
the "war" with them, but I had won a battle. That knowledge made me
feel great! Even if this tumo didn't work, I'd already learned a
powerful technique for personal development.
There are two other exercises in this stage, but I'm not sure that
they are necessary for this overview, so I'll leave it for you to
study them and decide for yourself.
STAGE TWO: THE REAL WORK
In this section Brennan goes into actual techniques for learning how
to generate what he calls psychic heat. It begins with breath control
known as Nine Bellows Blowings:
"Close off your left nostril with your forefinger so that you are
breathing only through the right nostril.
"Turn your head slowly from right to left while inhaling and exhaling
three times through the right nostril.
"Now close off your right nostril and inhale/exhale three times while
moving your head slowly from left to right.
"Finally, with your head steady and looking straight ahead,
inhale/exhale three times through both nostrils." (p. 69)
This cycle is repeated three times. The first set has you breathe
very, very gently. The second is stronger. With the third you inhale
and exhale very completely, using the abdominal muscles to help push
out all of the air. For me, this was easy to do. It only took a short
time to get the feeling that I was doing it right.
The next step is called Four Combined Breathing. Bend your neck over
and silently and deeply (let your chest bulge out) breathe in through
both nostrils as if the breath was coming from about a foot-and-a-half
in front of you. When this inhalation is hard to maintain, take
several short breaths to equalize the pressure in both lungs.
When you are totally filled with air, begin to exhale gently, then
with greater force, then gently again, all on a single breath. This is
called "shooting the breath forth like an arrow." (p. 70) Indeed, that
name described what the sensation felt like.
The above two techniques are known as Calm Breathing. The next
technique is called Violent Breathing. It has five exercises that are
described briefly. They all involve realizing that with every
breath,energy is coming into your body. More importantly, the "final
technique of the sequence seeks to mingle the internalized life force
with the great reservoir of cosmic energy all around you. This is
referred to as the Art of Relaxing the Breathing, a name which
suggests the process involves an out-breath." (p. 72) I took this to
mean that I should visualize energy coming in with each breath,
combining with my inner energy in my lungs and expanded body (from the
first stage), and sent out on the exhalation. Practice of an hour a
day for a week made this very powerful, and I felt filled with power,
but not "antsy." My power gave me peace of mind.
The next part of this stage involves visualizations. Again, you
visualize the Vajra-Yogini, but "instead of imagining yourself as this
deity, you should create an image of the goddess standing at normal
human size before you. This image becomes your contact point with the
universal energy and part of a visualized 'generator' that will
produce the psychic heat." (p. 72–73) When I read that this was where
things will start, I got really excited. I had this visualization down
pat within two days.
The next visualization, as before, deals with the energy channel. But
rather than just the one main channel, there are now three. The center
one is hollow, red, transparent, and bright. Two more go on either
side of this central tube, gently curving to the center, crossing each
other at the central point and continuing in this way back and fourth.
This is just like the image of the caduceus, the wand that was the
symbol of medicine, my profession.
At each crossing point through the center channel, there is a chakra
or power center. There are four major chakras (this is different from
the popular pictures I've seen, but most of those deal with the Hindu
chakras, so I made up my mind to try this out.)
The next part is difficult to explain in a brief article like this;
you'll have to get a copy of Occult Tibet for yourself. The basic idea
is that you take two letters of the Tibetan alphabet (for those
familiar with it, they are the letter ham and half of the vowel A) and
visualize them in certain ways while working with the breath. It's not
difficult, just complex to describe. As you do this work, the letters
change to flickering, spinning fires. At the tip of the Ham is a drop
of pearlescent "moon fluid" which overflows the crown chakra above the
head and then flows over the chakras at the throat, heart, and navel,
and finally the entire body.
"The overall sequence of 108 breath cycles constitutes a single tumo
course. To become proficient, you will need to repeat six courses over
each twenty-four-hour period in the early stage of your training." (p.
75–76) I practiced this until I could sense that I had an increased
amount of the universal life force charging me. The book advises to
cut the number of courses to four after that increase occurs.
STAGE THREE: TRIGGERING TUMO
Brennan reveals that there are three ways to trigger the heat of tumo.
Once you have practiced and can perform all of the exercises already
given, the simplest means of triggering the heat is through deep,
diaphragmatic breathing. The third method he gives involves
visualizing yourself with all of the above images and with suns
blazing in the palms and soles. Bring the palms together and then the
soles so the suns meet, then rub the palms and feet against one
another. "[F]ire will flare up to strike the sun below the navel, then
the [Ham] symbol, and go on to permeate your whole body." There's a
bit more to it revealed in the book, but this is the basic idea.
However, it was the second method that most interested me: "While
seated in a simple cross-legged position, grasp the underneath of your
thighs with your hands. Use your stomach and abdominal muscles to
circle the belly area three times to the right and three times to the
left while keeping the torso still. (You can prepare for this by first
moving the muscles left and right, then gradually building up to a
circular movement.) Churn the stomach vigorously by rippling the
muscles from top to bottom, then shake your body like a dog that has
just come out of the water. While you are doing so, raise yourself a
little on your crossed legs, then drop back again onto your cushion,
in effect bouncing a little off the floor. Repeat this whole exercise
three times, ending with a more vigorous bounce." (p. 76)
According to Brennan, if you perform twenty-one vigorous bounces while
doing the visualization for a week, "you will be able to endure almost
any degree of cold" (p. 77) while wearing only a thin cotton robe.
This was what I wanted! I practiced daily for a couple of weeks. Then
I settled down to practicing only twice a week.
PUTTING IT TO THE TEST
Spring had arrived, and the snows were melting. I was giving myself
several months of practice before relying on tumo for my safety. I
could swear that I was generating heat, but was it my imagination or
was it real? Then there was a surprise cold spell and a late snow. I
decided to test what I had learned.
I drove out to the side of a large hill not far from Tallman. By the
afternoon, the sun was behind one side of the hill, and the dark side
was not only covered with eight inches of snow, but was in the shade.
The cold had gotten worse, so it wasn't going to snow any more that
afternoon or night. Using a snow shovel, I quickly made a
six-foot-high pile of snow. Then I packed it down firmly and piled on
more snow. I repeated this until I had a six-foot-tall mound of
hard-packed snow. It was a little after 4:00 when I climbed to the top
of the pile and stripped off my parka and outer clothes, leaving only
my underwear. I sat down, cross-legged, making a crunching sound as
the snow compressed under me. Within seconds, my teeth were chattering
and my skin started to feel numb. I closed my eyes to focus on what I
was going to do and started using the second method to trigger the
tumo heat. My stomach churned side to side and top to bottom. I
bounced once. I did the visualization.
I repeated this, making the bounce more vigorous and gave more effort
to the visualization, trying to make it even stronger than before. On
the third round, everything seemed to flow. I got an eerie feeling
that time was changing. I think the visualization lasted a long time.
After the fourth round, I noticed that my teeth were not chattering
and my body did not feel numb at all. I was feeling rather
comfortable. Was this really working?
By the seventh bounce and visualization, I was feeling peaceful and
warm. Actually, I was feeling very warm. I realized that there was
nothing in the book that said how long this effect would last. I just
sat there with my eyes closed, relaxing, feeling comfortable.
And then I noticed something odd. It was a sensation I had experienced
innumerable times before, but it was odd right now. There was a
slightly itching sensation at the tip of my nose. It was a drop of
sweat! I was perspiring. This really works. I wiped the sweat from my
nose, but my realization had broken the state I was in. I opened my
eyes.
It was dark in front of me. Every where I looked it was dark. I was
terrified. What had happened? I looked up and saw stars. The heat from
my body had been so warm and so long lasting that it had formed a hole
four-feet deep in the snow! As I clambered out of the hole, I realized
how desperately cold it was and struggled back into my icy clothes.
There was a propane heater on my snowmobile and I started it up. In a
few minutes I was warm without the need for tumo. Now that I had this
technique and knew that it worked, I wouldn't have to rely on having a
supply of propane for an unknown amount of time. I could be safe and
warm and not worry. But for how long?
I thought about the stars and realized that it was night. I checked
the watch I had left on the snowmobile. It read 10:37. I had been
safe, warm, and comfortable for over six hours! This was absolutely
astounding and amazing.
BACK TO REALITY
Having lived in areas that get very cold for most of my life, I can
tell you that one way to survive the cold is to build a small snow
building like a cave or igloo. Sheltered from the wind and warmed by
your body heat, it may be your only way to survive without dying from
hypothermia. So it could be that the pit-like hole in the snow was
what kept me warm and safe that afternoon and evening. At least,
that's what the skeptical side of me would say.
But who or what made the hole? I didn't dig it. In fact, I made sure
that the snow was firm and hard packed so I couldn't just sink down.
Even if you accept the idea that the pit I sank into kept me warm, the
only conclusion I can make is that through tumo, as taught in Occult
Tibet, I was able to create enough heat to create that pit in the
snow.
I look forward to the mild summer weather ahead, but I intend to keep
up my practice. Winter will come again and I feel very safe. Perhaps
I'll melt some new holes in the snow in a few months.
Editor's note: "L. Daka" is the nom de plume of a man wishing to stay
anonymous in a small community. "Tallman" is the name being used here
for a town that is about 100 miles from Anchorage, 250 miles from
Fairbanks, and about 150 miles from the entrance of Denali National
Park.
Occult Tibet by J.H. Brennan is © Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. All quotes
are used by permission.
Have you worked with the practices of tumo and had any success? Or
have you followed any of the other previously secret practices
revealed in Occult Tibet? If so, please email your story to us at
TLJle...@llewellyn.com or click on the "We want to hear from you"
link below so we can consider sharing it with other readers.
http://www.llewellynjournal.com/article/392/
http://www.jadecampus.com/News/guardian9march99.htm
On top of the world Tibet's 1,200-year-old medicine is providing help
with many modern-day ailments.
Caroline White reports
(Guardian; 03/09/99)
According to Dr Tamdin Sither Bradley, the UK's first practising
Tibetan physician, the philosophy guiding Tibetan medical practice
requires doctors to have a `good heart' and compassion. Without the
right approach, she says, it doesn't matter how good the medicine is.
For Marissa, who is taking Tibetan herbal medicine alongside
conventional medicine for ovarian cancer as part of an ongoing
research project, it was the depth of the diagnosis that impressed
her. `The doctor mentioned symptoms that I had, but which my other
doctor was simply not interested in. It was wonderful to have someone
take my feelings and everything that was going on in my body
seriously.' Both believe Tibetan medicine, the newest entrant on the
alternative medicine scene, has much to offer in terms of approach and
treatment. As with other complementary disciplines, most of Dr
Bradley's patients have chronic ailments, such as irritable bowel
syndrome, ME and arthritis, which conventional medicine often finds
hard to treat, or disorders for which there is no obvious organic
cause. Tibetan medicine is particularly effective in these cases,
explains Dr Bradley because of its `unique spiritual-philosophical
principles and mind-body dynamic'. `So much disease is created by our
mind when it is filled with negative thoughts and anger,' she says.
Developed in the eighth century, Tibetan medicine is a synthesis of
Ayurvedic, Chinese and Greco-Persian medicine which means it
integrates acupuncture, herbalism, massage, yoga and meditation with
indigenous knowledge of healing plants and minerals, and the Buddhist
understanding of the mind-body relationship. Practitioners hold that
health is maintained by the balance of three complementary energy
systems in the body, responsible for activity (`wind'), vitality
(`bile'), and stability (`phlegm'). Imbalances in the energy systems
are created by ignorance (which gives rise to the three poisons of
attachment, aggression, hatred, close-mindedness or self-absorption),
improper diet and interaction with the environment. `The unspoken
ethos in Western medicine is to move the person back to the state they
were in before, with the least amount of effort for patient and
physician. The ultimate purpose of Tibetan medicine is to help people
awaken to the truth of who they really are,' says Dr Jerry Geffen,
director of the Geffen Cancer and Research Institute, Florida. Tibetan
doctors diagnose by closely questioning their patients, observing
(especially the tongue) taking pulses (of which there are six on each
hand) and analysing urine by taste, smell, colour, bubbles, steam and
sediment. Treatment aims to readjust the balance of the energies and
is approached on four, levels beginning with dietary changes, herbs
and massage, acupuncture and moxibustion and finally the most
intensive yoga and meditation. In her treatment for ovarian cancer,
Marissa has been prescribed herbal pills, the intermediate level of
Tibetan treatment. There are hundreds of different combinations of
herbs, resins, saps and minerals, and any one medication can contain
up to a 100 different elements. In Tibet itself, patients with serious
illness such as cancer would be prescribed `jewel pills.' These
involve months of careful preparation and contain metals such as gold,
lead and mercury. It is illegal to prescribe them in the UK and the US
because of their metal content, but there is anecdotal evidence to
suggest that they are effective. `Anaesthetics and chemotherapy are
also poisons,' contends Ken Holmes, director of studies at the Kagyu
Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Eskdalemuir, Scotland, `but we still use
them. So, it's no different. We could be missing out on enormous
potential by not studying these pills.' One preparation that is
available commercially is Padma 28, a product which contains 22
different ingredients, including sandalwood, cardamom, and licorice.
It has been the subject of several clinical trials across a surprising
range of conditions. Preliminary results from a trial of 90 patients
at the Middlesex Hospital, London, for example show that it can
alleviate the immobility and pain of peripheral vascular disease, a
condition caused by hardening of the arteries in the legs. Patients
taking the preparation have been able to almost double their walking
distance. Other trials have suggest it may be able to treat hepatitis
B and C; and laboratory studies, showing its anti-clotting and
antioxidant properties, have excited interest in its potential for the
treatment of heart disease. Another branch of `roof of the world'
treatment under study is Tibetan, or tumo yoga meditation. Researchers
led by Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School, found that in outside conditions of a few degrees
above freezing, meditating Tibetan monks were able to completely dry
wet sheets wrapped round their bodies while meditating. Researchers at
the University of California at San Francisco have also discovered
that raising peripheral skin temperature during deep meditation
accelerates wound healing, as much or more powerfully than
antibiotics. `Meditation is a tremendously powerful form of defence
against a wide range of pathogenic organisms, but it can also
represent an aggressive form of treatment,' comments Dr Bill Bushell
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. University of California
researcher Dr Charles Raison believes tumo meditation may also offer
clues to depression and new possibilities of non-pharmacological
self-help. The same neurological and hormonal circuitry that is
activated during tumo meditation which produces feelings of intense
bliss is dysfunctional in people who are depressed, he says.
Perl Molson
From the archives of some theosophical and spiritual e-mail lists.
English From
Universal Seekers
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002
From: Mauri
Subject: tumo
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The following excerpts about tumo, Tibetan lamas, etc., is from an old
Fate magazine.
Discovering The Yogis Secret
by Mayne R. Coe
Dr Mayne R. Coe was born in Washington, DC. in 1914, earned his B.S.
in Organic Chemistry and
his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the university of Maryland. He has
worked for the United States Bureau of Fisheries and for two divisions
of the Department Of Agriculture, the Nutrition Division (Bureau of
Animal Industry) and the Wool Division. Following extensive medical
research Georgefown University Hospital and Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, he now is working on the causes of cancer and aging. His
investigation of psi phenomena is a hobby.
Travelers to the high Himalays of India and Tibet have brought back
inceredible tales of yogis who, in sub breezing temperatures, can
raise their body heat to melt the snow.
As Dingle watched these heavy blankets were reimmersed in the cold
water of the lake, through a hole chopped in the ice. And the
blankets which should have been frozen stiff within minutes,
accordmg to Dingle, were quickly dried by the heat of the lamas'
bodies. He was informed that one lama had been doing this for two days
without recess and he saw that this man had melted the snow to a
distance of 10 feet around him. Yet their bodies were at the normal
temperature of 98.60 Fahrenheit. Madame Alexandra DavidNeel, in her
book Magic and Masters in Tibet, tells of witnessing similar feats and
mentions her own attempt. She tells of how the neophyte must
practice
breathing exercises, self-hypnosis, how he visualizes fire originating
in the region of his solar plexus and gradually extending to all parts
of his body. But she also states that the method of generating "tumo,"
as this mysterious heat is called, is a closely kept secret and
cannot be learned unless one is personally trained by an adept.
F. Yeats-Brown mentions these practices in La~er at LaTge. Vincent
Gaddis, in his book Mysterious FiTes and Light:, refers to the
abnormal heat produced by some saints and yogis.
Well, the thing plagued me. If it was true, I figured there had to be
an explanation and surely by now science had enough facts on hand to
explain it. I made my first approach to the problem shortly after I
had moved from Florida to an apartment in Georgetown in the District
of Columbia. It was summertime and I had bought a cake of ice in order
to cool something or other. Deciding to see what
it felt like to contact something really cold, I donned my s'wim
triinks and proceeded to sit on the ice. It was unbearable. I got off
that cake of ice in a hurry, feeling the problem probably was
insoluble.
That winter, however, I tried again. In February, 1966, I put on my
swim trunks, opened the
windows in the basement and cooled the room to the outside temperature
which was somewhere
between -12~ and 2()o Fahrenheit. I had concluded "tumo" must be a
dormant flatural body
function which operates only with all the clothes off and that we
have weakened our ability
to withstand cold by wearing clothes. We wear heavv clothes in cold
weather because heat is
conducted away from our bodies faster than we can produce it. Cf
course, it was not a question
of temperature alone; the wind velocity also would de
Sitting cross-legged on a folded oolen blanket I got colder and
colder. It helps keep in body
heat hold the legs and arms close, aking them part of a larger ass and
exposing less skin surto the cold. The blanket or al skin you sit on
also keeps considerable part of the~ body ~ace warm. I tried to
visualize as suggested by Alexandra David-Neel but all I could feel
think of was that I was the
~st I had ever been. It was -. I tried deep breathing. I ed rubbing my
hands over my~. I tried jumping up and My nose and ears hurt. fingers
and toes felt as if they ~ere freezing stiff. My body was
ered with goose pimples. I 'vered and shook. How I stuck out for an
hour I'll never know. Afterwards the last I just felt sort numb all
over. I kept telling MyseIf I wasn't really freezing 9 that perhaps if
I kept it up enough, visualizing fire, the tumo" would rise, But the
bone--cold drove out all other
The painful, freezing cold and the urge to avoid it led to a wild,
primitive feeling. It was like sitting on the edge of death.
But I was determined. Apparently I was in excellent health and should
be able to survive the ordeal. Cold, icy-cold, I kept thinking. The
pit of my stomach stayed warm and I folded my hands below it and
hunched over, letting my breath warm my chest and stomach what feeble
bit it could. With heat you reach a point where, with an increas~, you
can feel no hotter; so with cold, as it lowers, you reach a point
where you can feel no colder. My mind was concentrated on only one
thing, the cold, and I was reminded that someone once said, "Nothing
so concentrates the mind as a hanging." After an hour of this I
hurried into a warm room. Shortly I experienced a feeling of great
elation followed by tremendous wellbeing. I didn't sleep much that
night; I wasn't tired. For two days afterward I experienced great
mental acuity, increased vitality and my sharpness of sight (I wear
glasses when I read) became almost normal for two days! There must
have been great gland stimulation.
I still didn't have the secret; yet no cold, sore throat, flu or
pneumonia resulted. I felt great. Perhaps if I continue, I thought, I
can gradually build up resistance as a natural mechanism.
The yogis claim that once "tumo" is fully aroused cold
temperatures never will bother you again - as long as you don't wear
heavy garments. They are able to stay in caves at altitudes up to
18,000 feet in the mountains all winter long. The temperatures drop
to 400 below zero but they live without fires, naked or clothed in
thin cotton garments, once they have aroused "tumo.', I tried sitting
outside, semi-nude, in the snow on a mat at 300, then at 200 and then
at 150 that winter but I couldn't stand it comfortably for more than
10 minutes at one time. The following winter I had a similar lack of
success although I was learning the effects of cold on the body and
what I could stand. The third winter I had
moved to an apartment where I could sit on the roof at night without
anyone knowing it. I spent
more nights practicing. I increased the amount of animal protein and
unsaturated oils and fat in my diet; I put on weight. I sat on a
folded woolen blanket on the roof, completely nude, my legs crossed
and my hands held be-low my stomach. The hair on my head was ice cold
but my body remained warm to the touch. For some reason, I felt the
cold at my fingernails and toenails. I found that I could stay out
longer when the wind was not blowing hard and that the lower the
temperature the less the wind was apt to blow; that I could stand a
20-mile-an-hour wind at 300 F. for half an hour or I
could stand a five-mile-an-hour wind at 50 for a similar length of
time. I gradually increased my
ability to endure the cold to one hour at 100 F. when the wind wasn't
blowing. Incidentally,
all this practice was done late at night when temperatures reach
their lowest. Once when I was sitting on roof naked at 50 degrees a
cold wind, perhaps at 30 mph, suddenly sprang up and struc me. At once
something like a explosion hit the pit of my stomach and waves of
internal heat ~wed throughout my body. L a chain reaction in a then
clear reactor it filled every of my body. It was most pleas and I knew
if it continued I could stand any temperatures yogis could stand.
This Wa. tumo, no doubt about it, and had taken a sudden cold shock
produce it. It would have been impossible to experience it if had been
covered by clothing But then the gusts died down the excess heat, to
my pointment, died with it. I knew then that it must be ache thing,
that hormones must have been released, perhaps from my adrenals or
liver, since the flareup started in this region. They had acted as
catalysts, increasing to a great degree the oxidation of the fat and
sugar in my body, releasing far more heat than normal, I
theorized.
But try as I did the rest of that winter, I was unable to repeat this
flare-up of body heat. It remained a baffling mystery; yet it seemed
to me that the secret must be a simple one. I had made some progress,
of course. I no longer suffered as I had the first time I exposed
myself to subfreezing temperatures. I had become acclimated to the
extent that I actually felt colder with my clothes on, wallling two
blocks from my car home 9fl a cold night, than when I sat nude,
completely exposed to the climate. This seems strange, but it is true.
I came to believe that the yogi breathing exercises are not too
important at the Washington, D.C., altitude, whereas in the high
Himalayas where there is only half as much oxygen in the atmosphere,
they become necessary to promote heat from oxidation of fats and
sugars in the
body. For these experiments, it Seemed that you need only be strong
and in good health. Diet is
important. You must feel full of energy. It is hard to combat cold
when you're tired and hungry. At high altitudes the red blood cell
count may rise to 9,000,000 in order to capture enough oxygen for the
body. My red blood cell count checked out at 5,300,000 which is quite
high for low altitudes.
I studied books on polar expeditions, life in the far north, the
conquests of Everest, Annapuma, without finding a clue. I learned
from one member of the American expedition that conquered Mount
Everest in 1963 that many of their Sherpa porters owned no shoes and
walked through the snow in their bare feet, the soles of which were
covered with thick caluses. I earned of the dangers of wetting the
body at subfreezing temperatures, particularly in high winds, of how
parts of the body can become frostbitten or even frozen without
warning. I learned you can lose your nose and ears through frostbite;
that if your cheeks get wet and then freeze they can drop away, a mass
of dead flesh. All this frightened me but I cautiously continued my
exposures to the cold. I was always greatly exhilarated afterwards.
It was a great tonic. I confided to my father, a retired chemist
living in Florida, what I was doing and he encouraged me to continue
carefully with my experiments. I didn't dare confide in my friends;
they might have hustled me off to the nearest looney bin. I was
constantly fearful that someone might report a prowler on the roof and
the cops would find me naked, sitting up there. I began to doubt that
success was possible but I was stubborn; I wouldn't give up. A few
days before Christmas, 1968, 1 suddenly recalled some-thing I had read
years ago while working as an organic chemist for the United States
Department of Agriculture in the wool division. Wool is a great
insulator of heat and cold even when wet. I decided to wrap an
ice-cold wet woolen blanket around me that night, while sitting nude
on my folded woolen blanket on the roof. The idea was disturbing but
it might
hold a clue and if it was unbearable I could throw if off and dash
inside. I was torn between intense fear of the awful chill my body
would be subjected to and the possibility of making a new scientific
discovery. Setting the alarm for 4:00 A.M. I got up at that time,
soaked a rather thick army blanket in a bathtub of cold water and
carried it up to the roof. The thermometer there stood at 200 F. I
took off my wool coat and sat down naked on my folded dry blanket.
Then I drew the freezing
wet blanket around me. Only for a moment did the blanket feel cold.
The wind was coming in gusts of around 20 mp~ and pulled at the
blanket but I became warm as toast after a few moments inside. It was
unbelievable. I didn't really under-stand it and it was a great
surprise and relief to me. The
blanket gradually dried' by the heat of my body and the outer dry air
and wind. The blanket steamed and my breath made mist~ as I breathed.
It was fantastic. After 20 minutes of this I quit and went inside. I
was perfectly warm. realized that at altitudes of 15,OOC feet or so
the air is extremely dry, the atmospheric pressure is lower and the
blankets must dry more rapidly. Furthermore, since the air is
thinner less heat is conducted away into the atmosphere. During my
exposure~ to the cold I was
aware that my pores shut up tight, holding ~ some of the body heat,
but this wasn't the case
all of the time under the blanket; I was to' warm. I didn't understand
the warmth.
The blanket froze to the roof around me The water that drained away
on the roof's slightly downward slope made a frozen track. The water
that remained in the metal pan in which I had carried the blanket up
to the root I found frozen solid after 20 minutes. I tried this with
similar results for two more nights but dried only one wet blanket on
my body each night. I decided to dry the blanket three times. The
first time I wet it in the tub and the next two times I wet it with
buckets of water I had lugged to the
roof. I was naked but comfortable in the night air as I did so. I
dried i hree blankets each night for three nights with temperatures
near 2OO F. and winds between 10 ~~nd 20 mph but I learned nothing
about the cause of the heat.
Then it dawned on me that I actually was goading my body to more and
more heat production with
the chill wet blankets on my skin. My pores were alternately closing
and opening as I was chilled and then warmed by the flush of my skin
and the insulating properties of the wet wool which confined the heat
to my hody and the air inside the blanket surrounding me. I knew I had
the answer.
I had gone about the whole thing backwards. Instead of exposing the
body nude to the air for
extended periods of time to generate the mystical tumo you shock the
body into heat producion.
The ice-cold blankets shock the body to a warm glow and don't conduct
the heat away as outside
air or immersion in water would. It is quite easy to sit this way for
an extended time at a very low temperatures. I had succeeded in
stimulating my metabolism in this way. One night when the temperature
dropped to 180 1 applied the freezing wet blanket eight times to my
naked body. I rewet the blanket at 1~minute intervals over a period of
two hours. I noticed that my respiration
automatically became very deep, which meant my body was demanding
more oxygen to maintain my body heat at normal temperature. I became
warm as toast and remained delightfully warm, naked in the freezing
air each time I resoaked the blankets. The roof was covered with ice
from all the water but not within the area covered by the blanket.
Later I tried it in the snow and the snow melted under
me. My body felt as if it were at fever heat under the blanket but it
was most pleasant. I had generated the mystical heat at last and it
stayed with me when the blankets were removed after drying.
One peculiar thing I noticed during all this - the odor of nitrogen
oxides such as accompanies electric spark discharges was present when
I removed the dried blankets. I also saw a blue electric spark about
two inches long jump from my hand to the tin roof when I threw off my
wool coat after seating myself crosslegged. It shocked me
considerably. This seemed to show the drying woolen blankets
generated a charge of static electricity on my body surface. As far
as I can see it has nothing to do
with the heat generation within the body but it heightens the mystery
of the whole thing.
My temperature, taken orally, dropped about two degrees Fahrenheit
when I applied the wet
blanket but dropped less each time the wet blanket was applied and
rose to a normal 98.60
within a few minutes. The lowest atmospheric temperature at which I
tried this was 100 F. Of
course, the blankets didn't get as dry as they would have in the
extremely dry atmosphere of
16,-000 feet but they were well on the way. Except for the monotony
and the fact that I became
tired I could have continued this all. night long. I no longer felt
the cold! I was able to sit naked afterwards for an hour and continue
to feel warm! I decided that when the cold air hit my naked body I
received heat energy from the glycogen, a sugar, stored in my liver.
My pores closed immediately and glycogen poured into my system keeping
my body at normal temperature as it was oxidized.
Another night I sat with the same blanket, dry, wrapped around me.
It did in the beginning shield me from the cold, although not too
well, but there was no stimulation, no warm glow. I got colder and
colder. Since under the wet blanket I had felt warm and comfortable
with a delightful glow remaining each time the wet blanket was removed
I feel this tends to prove that it is the repeated cold shocks that
arouse the tumo. Of course, the wet blanket is also less porous and
keeps the heat in and the cold air out better.I am well aware that
hypnotized subjects, directed by a hypnotist, can lower or raise
their body temperatures. Krafft-Ebbmg and Eichelberg demonstrated
this years ago. Achieving it
through self-hypnosis is another matter. I couldn't do it and found
it unnecessary. Still, the yogis, with a lot of practice, may be able
to use hypnosis to keep warm although I am inclined to believe that
they go one step further and call on the last line of the body's
defense against the cold, a steady and more tha~ normal outpouring of
hormones.
This has been a great adventure for me, pitting scientific knowledge
against the accumulated
wisdom of the ancients. And I believe I have solved one of the great
mysteries of the Far East
and am none the worse for it. No harm comes to you if you use nature's
forces correctly.
Back to archives links
Perl Molson
into some related groups.
I've been aware of tumo for about a decade, now,
but, as I've read about others, noone, including myself would
of thing of tumo as useful nowadays.
It comes up as maybe one of the MOST useful spiritual exercise
in human history.. and I am damn serios about these!
I've bought some books, checked the library and read online.
It is, indeed, a fascinating topic.
It's fantastic! ;and it seems to be so real.