SCIENCE OF BREATH. 17 



some things being only a lesser degree of manifestation, 

 we may understand their teachings that prana is every- 

 where, in everything. Prana must not be confounded 

 with the Ego that bit of Divine Spirit in every soul, 

 around which clusters matter and energy. Prana is merely 

 a form of energy used by the Ego in its material mani- 

 festation. When the Ego leaves the body, the prana, being 

 no longer under its control, responds only to the orders of 

 the individual atoms, or groups of atoms, forming the body, 

 and as the body disintegrates and is resolved to its original 

 elements, each atom takes with it sufficient prana to enable 

 it to form new combinations, the unused prana returning 

 to the great universal storehouse from which it came. 

 With the Ego in control, cohesion exists and the atoms are 

 held together by the Will of the Ego. 



Prana is the name by which we designate a universal 

 principle, which principle is the essence of all motion, force 

 or energy, whether manifested in gravitation, electricity, 

 the revolution of the planets, and all forms of life, from 

 the highest to the lowest. It may be called the soul of 

 Force and Energy in all their forms, and that principle 

 which, operating in a certain way, causes that form of 

 activity which accompanies Life. 



This great principle is in all forms of matter, and yet 

 it Is not matter. It is in the air, but it is not the air nor 

 one of its chemical constituents. Animal and plant life 

 breathe it in with the air, and yet if the air contained it not 

 they would die even though they might be filled with air. 

 It Is taken up by the system along with the oxygen, and 

 yet is not the oxygen^) The Hebrew writer of the book of 

 Genesis knew the difference between the atmospheric air 

 ind the mysterious and potent principle contained within 

 it. He speaks of neshemet ruach chayim, which, trans- 

 lated, means "the breath of the spirit of life." In the 

 Hebrew neshemet means the ordinary breath of atmos- 

 pheric air, and chayim means life or lives, while the word 

 ruach means the "spirit of life," which occultists claim is 

 the same principle which we speak of as Prana. 



Prana is in the atmospheric air, but it is also else- 

 jrnere, and it penetrates where the air cannot reach. The 



