Swami Rama Studies and Demonstrations

Hello! This my first time posting anything here, but this seems like a good place for this.

I've been looking at an account of some studies that were done in 1970, where Swami Rama visited a lab in Kansas to allow them to take some measurements while he demonstrated some of his self regulation abilities. Some of these were really interesting, so I am going to describe some of the highlights here.

Here is one of the interesting ones:

Swami Rama told the researchers he would raise the temperature of the Hypothenar (pinky) side of his right hand several degrees above the Thenar (thumb) side of the same hand. Thermistors were attached to the hand, close to the wrist, at these two points. One was just over the hypothenar muscles, and the other was just over the thenar muscles. The researchers remained in the room with him during the experiment, and they observed that he did not move his hands during the demonstration. After about 13 minutes, they observed that the hypothenar side was at 95 degrees and looked pink, while the thenar side was 84 degrees and looked grey.

Swami Rama explained to the researchers that this differential control of the temperature in one hand was one of the most difficult things he had learned to do. The neural controls over the radial and ulnar arteries in the wrist are only a few millimeters apart in the central nervous system.

The experiment continued from this point, and at 20 minutes, his heart rate (in beats per minute) was 90. About 6 minutes later he said to the researchers "test my heart immediately!" At that point, his heart rate was down to 60.

Another heart rate experiment was done later, where at the time he started, his heart rate was 74. One of the directors, using the intercom in the room, asked the researchers to have him slow his heart again. He replied "I heard that. I will do it." His heart rate immediately began to drop, and after 50 seconds it had slowed to 52.

The following day, the Swami returned to demonstrate his ability to stop his heart. As they were walking into the room, he requested that after his heart stops, the researchers should remind him that that is all. When asked about this, he explained "Since I am not prepared in the ordinary way for this experiment, I do not want to do it too long. I want to be reminded to stop so that I will not forget what I want to do. I do not want to damage my subtle heart." This seemed to the researchers to imply that once he was in the state where his heart was stopped, he might be unaware of what his own conscious intentions were.

As they prepared for the demonstration, he said that he was going to be quiet for a moment to prepare for the experiment. Then he said was going to give a shock for a moment, and please don't be alarmed. It seems he meant that he was going to shock the people who were observing the paper record of the EKG. He sat silently for about two minutes, and then over the intercom, one of the researchers said "that's all."

The results on the EKG showed that his heart had not stopped in a sense of a flat line on the EKG, but rather had entered a state of extreme atrial flutter. In this state, the heart is fluttering lightly at a very fast rate, and is not able to pump any blood into the systemic circulation. The heart has not "stopped moving," but has stopped pumping blood. This state only took him about 90 seconds to enter, and he sustained it for 16.2 seconds before the researcher told him that was all.

To demonstrate brainwave state control, an EEG machine was set up. When he concentrated on "a wide object within, such as a blue sky with small white clouds occasionally drifting by," Swami Rama produced an Alpha rhythm. A focus on "nothingness" produced the same result.

He demonstrated Theta waves by "silencing the conscious mind and bringing forward the subconscious mind." He described this state as unpleasant and noisy. He explained that "all of the things other people wanted me to do, all of the things I wanted to do, all of the things I should have done but didn't do, came up and began screaming at me at the same time. Usually I keep that turned off, but it useful to look in there once in a while to see what is there."

At a later date, the Swami again visited this center. He had just returned from giving some lectures in Chicago. He showed the researchers a polaroid photo where his chest was obscured by a disc of pale pink light. He explained that he had mentioned during his lecture in Chicago that it was possible to turn on the subtle energy in a chakra so intensely that it would become visible to the naked eye. A physician in the audience had demanded that he demonstrate this so he could take a picture. Several pictures were taken and he was allowed to keep one.

Traveling Through the Body

This is similar to the Yoga Nidra practice described in some yoga systems. Swami Rama would teach students a series of locations in the body to be focuses for body awareness. He would start at the forehead counting one, and have students visualize a feeling of being in the forehead. Next was the throat, then down the outside of one arm including the tip of each finger, back up the inside of the arm, then repeating the other arm, and continuing in a similar manner all over the body. Once the student had memorized the pattern, he would practice this each day. For a period of five months, the subjects would practice this at least ten times (or more if desired) each month. The researchers found that during the course of the experiment, at each session they found a large increase in theta wave production from the occipital cortex while doing this practice.