Before commencing, be sure you have previously read the WHALE STORY…you’ll need the suggested visualizations for beach, sea and whales.
1) Lie on your back, knees up, feet flat on the floor. For a few moments, be aware of the palms of your hands and the Whale energy entering them.
If you’re doing this on a bed (or while still in bed,) place a pillow or bolster underneath your knees with your feet out straight. In this position, you may begin to feel the energy coming through your feet as well as your hands.
2) Breathe in and out strongly and deeply – but into the chest cavity only. Keep everything else as relaxed as possible. Let the breath “breathe” you!
Do this for 6-8 breaths, then take one or two normal rest-breaths.
3) For the next 6-8 breaths it’s going to be quite different! This time when you breathe in, ignore your chest completely and instead – send all the air into your belly (breathe out normally).
Just to be sure you’ve got it right, put both hands on your lower belly and feel it pop out nicely each time you breathe into it. When you’ve completed the repetitions, take another couple of rest-breaths.
4) The following might threaten your conditioned breath pattern! In these 6-8 breaths you’ll be doing what I call, “a reversed pattern.”
Breathe in and only fill the chest cavity with air – as you did in 2). The big difference comes next: when you exhale, instantly push the belly OUT as far as possible. (Feel your brain resist the switch!)
Repeat the usual rest-breaths after 6-8 repetitions.
Can you see what’s happening? – you are attempting to create an internal ‘wave-motion’ – let’s develop this further. The preliminary exercises have been a lung conditioning process…the following is the final and most important.
5) Next take in a humongous breath (try and fill every crevice of the upper, middle and lower lungs). HOLD THAT BREATH – and while holding it - forcibly push the air in a rapid ‘wave’ – from the upper chest to the lower abdomen. You’ll do this repeatedly; (Remember you MUST keep holding your breath throughout).
The wave-breath sequence:
Move the air from upper chest to lower belly, upper chest to lower belly, over and over again – for as long as you can hold your breath. Each time you complete a ‘wave,’ mentally keep tally of the number. And remember to keep relaxed.
At about the rate of almost two ‘waves’ per second (or slower if you wish), the normal lung capability gives-out at between 30 to 40 ‘waves’ before you have to take another breath. All this happens on the supply of oxygen you took in with that huge initial breath.
NOW, after one or two rest-breaths, try the last procedure again – but this time, with Whale energy – a very important difference!
a) Just before you take that huge inspiration, place yourself mentally on the beach or out in the whale-filled ocean.
b) With that very first breath, feel the Whale energy entering your hands (and possibly also your feet).
c) As you hold the breath and execute the chest/belly waves – keep timing them and noting the incoming energy, while also focusing only on being in the ocean setting.
Providing you keep that focus and the energy awareness – your timed up/down ‘waves’ will reach to counts of 50, 60, even 70 or more. You will not have to work up to this, it happens instantly depending on the focus – and you can switch focus midstream (from doubting whether your lungs can ‘do it’ – to being effortlessly with the whales and feeling the inflow of energy), in an instant!
It’s as though you have entered an entirely different breath-dimension. Your ability and capacity will vary from session to session. It always depends on the degree to which you can visualize your particular beach setting, which does not have to remain static. You can experience yourself moving from beach, to ocean, to being amongst the whales, to becoming a whale (as described in the WHALE STORY) – once you’re in your milieu, the hands immediately draw in the energy – and your need for air vanishes!.
Along with this para-physical change, you’ll experience a distinct yet indescribable mind shift.
Having now activated your lungs through the Whale energy, your attention will be grabbed now and then (usually when you least expect it), by a characteristic signal: a sudden and very deep intake of the breath – or even two such breaths. This is Tahora’s signature “call” and you always have the choice to accept or ignore the invitation.
Should you decide to accept: sit and be still for a moment, focus on your hands and place yourself at your ocean setting. Begin to gently breathe in the energy for as long as you feel the vibration in your hands – the intensity varies from gentle and subtle – to quite strong. (This is apart from the actual Whale Breathing Exercise sessions).
Eventually the need for formal conditioning lessens as the Whale breathing becomes part of your spiritual and healing practice.