1/31/2015

Chapter 2 – The Mysteries of the Larynx


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. Revelation 1:16

2.1 Throat friction

This practice consists of breathing with a friction at the lower part of the back of the throat, while keeping the mouth slightly open. The friction is generated during both inhalation and exhalation. It creates a ‘wind’ type of sound. There is neither humming nor buzzing, nor any form of chanted sound. The sound is roughly the same while inhaling and exhaling. If you can, try to make it a low-pitched sound; it will be easier to sustain over long periods of time. But before giving more indications and tips on the throat friction, let me make a few points extremely clear. Don't try to start a quest for the perfect throat friction. Just do a ‘kind of’ friction sound and let it adjust itself with time. If you try to do it too perfectly you will probably end up doing it all wrong. (The same applies more or less to all the techniques of this book.) By being too finicky your mind is likely to get in the way. So just breathe with some vague friction in the throat and everything will be fine! Just read the indications given below, and then you can come back to this section in a few weeks to find out more precisely where your friction is taking place and adjust the details.

Throat friction, tips and traps

• If you wish to have an immediate demonstration, you can visit the Clairvision School's Internet site (section: Clairvision Knowledge Bank), where you will find sound files of throat friction. But again, keep in mind that any vague friction sound will be enough to carry you through the exercises of Awakening the Third Eye.
• It does not matter whether you are breathing through the nose or the mouth, or both at the same time, but the mouth should remain slightly open. In this position the lower jaw is loose and relaxed, which generates a certain condition of energy and can be enough in itself to induce a slightly altered state of consciousness.

The friction comes from area L (for larynx)

• The throat friction is more comfortable and more efficient when it comes from the back of the throat, not from the mouth and palate [area M on the figure – M for middle of the mouth] nor from the area close to the teeth [area F – F for front of the mouth].

If you were to produce your friction from the middle [M] or the front [F] of the mouth, the sound would be higher-pitched and somewhat shriller or even whistly. Experiment and compare each one.

• The correct friction comes from the larynx and the lower pharynx, meaning the lower part of the back of the throat [area L on the figure]. Then the (correct) sound is lower pitched, deeper and more internalised than if it came from the front of the mouth.

• Another possible mistake would be to generate your friction from the upper pharynx (nasopharynx), meaning at the back but at the top of the throat, behind the inner nasal cavity [area N on the figure]. In that case, which is incorrect, the friction would resonate more in the nasal sinuses than in the throat.

• Often when performing the throat friction you can feel a tiny but distinct vibration in the larynx by gently touching your Adam's apple with your fingers. (The Adam's apple is the external protuberance of the larynx, in the upper part of the middle of the throat. It is more marked in men than in women.) In the beginning this vibration under the finger is often felt more clearly during inhalation than exhalation, even though the same sound is produced during both.

• How deep should the breath be? Its depth and rhythm should be as normal. Slightly deeper breathing may be implemented in the beginning, in order to generate a clearer friction. But you do not need to hyperventilate: this technique does not aim at creating the type of breathing used in rebirthing. Our purpose is to activate the energy of the larynx through friction. The emphasis is not on breathing but on awakening the larynx of energy.

• The purpose of the throat friction is to reinforce your connection with the ‘energy’, a term that may sound vague in the beginning but will become more and more meaningful as you keep working on your third eye. As you become more accustomed to this friction practice, you will only have to tune into the flow of energy around you and the right intensity of the breath will follow automatically. Depth and rhythm will vary, for it is the nature of energy to vary, and it is our purpose to learn to flow with the energy.

• The energetic action of this friction breathing will be greatly enhanced if your neck is straight and vertical, in line with the rest of the spine. The more perfectly upright your neck is, the more power is released in the larynx. This can be experienced as a sudden intensification of the vibration that sometimes takes place when slightly moving the neck, thereby coming closer to the perfect uprightness.

• The mouth is only slightly open, but still it is important to make sure that it remains open, and more precisely that the lower jaw is relaxed so that the upper and lower teeth do not meet. When you have become familiar with the vibration between the eyebrows (introduced in the next chapter), come back to this point: try to practise the throat friction with your mouth tightly closed, and then with the mouth slightly open, alternating the two positions to feel the difference in your energy. You will notice that as soon as the lower jaw is relaxed and slightly dropped, a completely different condition of your energy is generated in which the connection with the vibration is enhanced and a general opening is favoured.

Note also that this slightly open position of the mouth is not taken to force you to breathe through the mouth instead of the nose. Breathe through the nose, the mouth or both at the same time, as feels most natural to you.

• Beginners sometimes feel that this technique makes their throat dry or slightly irritated. If so, produce the friction lower down in the throat. Beginners often make the friction higher up in the throat, closer to the palate, which is irritating to the throat. In any case, by practising for a few minutes several times a day this inconvenience will soon be overcome. (High quality honey can also be used as a soother and awakener.) With practice this friction can be maintained effortlessly for hours.

After a few days of practice the throat friction adjusts itself naturally and all irritating sensations disappear.

• It should be emphasized that the focus of this technique is on the larynx, not on the breath. In no way can it be regarded as a practice of hyperventilation, since the intensity of the breath is just your normal one. It is not even a breathing exercise as such, since it is only the mechanical action of the air on the larynx that is used, without especially trying to connect with the process of respiration. The friction is used to create a stimulation of the vibration in the larynx, but at a later stage of the practice it becomes possible to awaken the same vibration in the larynx without making use of the breath.

• Why is the protuberance of the larynx called Adam's apple, and why is it more marked in men than in women? It is said that when Adam tried to swallow the piece of apple of the tree of knowledge, it remained stuck in his throat!

2.2 Purposes and effects of the throat friction

The throat friction is a sound of energy. It quietens the mind and when mastered, instantaneously induces a ‘tuned-in’ state of consciousness.

One of its main actions is to amplify any psychic phenomena. The way we will use the throat friction in the following chapter will be to connect it with the area between the eyebrows to strengthen your awareness of the third eye. In later practices the throat friction will be connected with different structures of the body of energy to help reinforce them.

What does ‘connecting’ mean? It is a feeling that is easier to experience than to describe. Suppose you are trying to connect the throat friction with the area between the eyebrows, for instance. In the beginning there is a simultaneous awareness of them. Then a resonance automatically takes place between the two. The area between the eyebrows seems to vibrate together with the throat friction. Then a ‘mixing’ takes place. The throat friction combines with the feeling between the eyebrows. There is a communication of energy between the larynx and the third eye. That is what is meant by ‘connecting’.

There follows a simple but essential experience: the perception of the third eye quickly becomes more distinct and tangible. This result is clear and instantaneous. The effect of the throat friction is to ‘give shape’, make things more substantial. Therefore, whenever you connect the throat friction with a chakra or any other organ of energy the organ becomes more perceptible. The larynx makes things manifest, it reveals them.

A similar effect will be observed when working on auras. You first have to build up the inner space and engage the process of seeing. Then some exercises will show how your perception of nonphysical halos and auras is instantaneously boosted when combining throat friction and vision (see Chapters 5 and 7). The lights and colours will appear significantly ‘denser’ and more tangible. The throat friction can also be used to establish a linkage between different structures of energy. Not only can you connect the friction to the third eye or any other organ of energy, but you can also enhance the connection between different organs of energy, and link them through the friction. For instance in the chapters on channel release you will work at establishing a linkage between the energy of the hands and that of the third eye. And in the chapters on protection you will learn to connect the third eye with belly energies.

As you advance along this path you will discover several other miraculous functions associated with the larynx. For instance, the larynx of energy is a wonderful purifier: it can digest all kinds of toxic energies. It also plays a major role in the metabolism of the nectar of immortality. I recommend that you do not treat the throat friction as routine, but regard it as a sacred quest for the mysteries of the larynx.

2.3 The mysteries of the larynx

One finds in the Sanskrit literature some surprising stories about the voice. The rishis, or seer-sages of ancient India, were said to have many extraordinary abilities called siddhis. One of them was the vac-siddhi (vac = voice), by which whatever the rishi said would come true. Sometimes just by uttering a word, a rishi could materialise a whole army and change the course of history. It followed that the spoken word was regarded as sacred and unalterable, which was not without its problems at times. For instance in the Mahābhārata, the longest poem in the recorded history of humankind, the five Pāṇḍava brothers attend a tournament where one of them gains the most beautiful princess as a wife. Returning home, the brothers announce to their mother, the virtuous Kunti, “We have brought back a treasure.” Then rather unfortunately the mother exclaims, “Good, let it be shared between the five of you,” after which the princess has to become the wife of the five men, taking turns with each, and supposedly without being partial to any of them.

The creative power of the voice is clearly expressed in Sanskrit, where vac, voice, is often regarded as a synonym for śakti, which is the creative energy, the power of manifestation. In various trends of ancient Greek philosophy one finds a similar concept in the logos. The primary meaning of logos is ‘word’, but it also means creative principle. Later, in the gospel of John (originally written in Greek), it is also the term logos which is used to characterise the creative principle by which the creation was manifested: “In the beginning was the logos (Word), and the logos was with God, and the logos was God.” (John 2:1) Note that the first book of the Old Testament also presents a picture in which, at various stages of the genesis of the world, God uses the power of the Word to create: “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” (Genesis 1:6) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature...” (Genesis 1:24), and so on.

In my epic novel, Atlantean Secrets, you will find startling descriptions of the mysterious power of the voice cultivated by Atlantean initiates, through which they could influence nature, perform healings, and accomplish a whole range of miraculous feats. Rudolf Steiner in his teachings has also left many indications related to the power of the voice. An aspect he has particularly developed is the polarity between voice and generative organs, for which he describes many consequences as far as the evolution of humankind is concerned.

Apart from Steiner's indications, certain simple facts show that there is a connection between the voice (and therefore the larynx) and sexual energy. For instance, it is when the sexual organs develop, at puberty, that the male voice changes pitch, due to the action of the male hormone testosterone. In women, alterations of the voice can also be observed following menopause. In astrology, the voice organ is related to the sign of Taurus and the sexual organs to Scorpio. The polarity between the sexual organs and the larynx is indicated by the opposition between the two signs.

Taurus is ruled by Venus, Scorpio by Mars. Venus and Mars form a couple, with dialectically opposed functions.

Taurus-Scorpio axis on the zodiac

Another connection between voice and organs of generation can be found in ancient Hebrew, where one of the words for voice is yediah, coming from the root yadah, meaning to know. And it is certainly no coincidence that the biblical way of referring to sexual intercourse is yadah, to know. For instance: “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain...” (Genesis 4:1) In acupuncture the point qi chong (Stomach 30), located on the side of the pubic bone, has among its symptoms: sore throat after sexual intercourse. One can find several other connections in traditional Chinese medicine between sexual energy and throat. For instance, among the organs it is the kidney that is said to be the storehouse of sexual energy. And in the throat one finds the tonsils, which also have the shape of a kidney. When there is a release of ‘fire’ by the kidney, it may result in an inflammation of the pharynx (pharyngitis) or of the tonsils (tonsillitis). But let us return to Steiner and look at his views on the future of the voice organ. Steiner considered that in the trend of human evolution, the importance of certain body parts is slowly waning while some other organs will play a more and more essential role in the future. The sexual organs belong to the first category, while the larynx definitely belongs to the second.

Steiner has often mentioned that around the middle of Lemuria (the epoch that preceded Atlantis), a critical event took place in the occult history of humankind. Until then the libido of human beings was still directed entirely towards procreation, so that each human being was able to generate offspring of its own. In other words we were all hermaphrodites. One single being could give birth to another being without having to be fecundated by anyone. Note that the concept of primordial human beings as hermaphrodites is found not only in Steiner but also in several myths of various traditions.

Then Steiner describes how, in the middle of cataclysmic alterations of planet Earth, human beings lost half their procreative energy. They stopped being hermaphrodites: the sexes were separated. Each human being retained only half of the procreative energy and from then on had to find someone of the other sex in order to have a child. What happened to the other half of the procreative energy, the one that was no longer available for procreation? According to Steiner, it was redirected towards a different function: catching the Ego, or Higher Self. Until then human beings had been living like blobs, completely disconnected from their Ego. And it was by the redirection of half of their sexual force that they established the beginning of a connection with the Ego. They became spiritual beings.

Such a vision suggests quite an interesting way of looking at the relation between sexual energy and spirituality, and at sexuality in general. For example it presents the sexual instinct as a quest for the ‘lost half’. And at the same time it suggests that the lost half is not ultimately to be found outside, in a union with another being, but in a full communion with one's own Spirit. It also suggests that the sexual energy and the energy that allows us to connect with the Spirit are of fundamentally the same nature, and that the latter is nothing other than a refined and redirected form of the former. This conception fits quite well with the Taoist systems of inner alchemy, in which one works at refining and transmuting the sexual energy in order to generate the embryo of immortality, the subtle body in which the fullness of the Higher Self can be experienced permanently.

But let us return to the voice. Steiner describes how, after human beings had half of their sexual energy redirected (around the middle of the Lemurian epoch), some new organs appeared in the human body. The larynx was one of them. This establishes a direct connection between the transformed and spiritualised sexual energy and the larynx: as long as the hermaphrodite's sexual energy was 100% directed towards procreation, the larynx could not appear. Once part of the sexual energy was refined in order to start ‘catching’ the Spirit, the larynx started to develop. Now, if we try to understand the present function of our larynx, we see that through the voice we express our thoughts and our emotions, which is a way of giving them a more defined form. As soon as you start practising the exercises given in the first chapters of this book, you will realize that the throat friction makes the third eye more tangible, as if shaping it. You will tune into your third eye, and as soon as you start implementing the throat friction, the third eye will immediately be perceived more clearly and more intensely.

Steiner predicts that in the future of humankind, the larynx's capacity to give form will become extreme, and the creative power of the word will manifest even in the physical plane: just by saying a word, the corresponding object will be materialised. Even though staggering if one measures its implications, this concept is after all no different from the vac-siddhi or creative power of the word which, according to the Sanskrit texts, the ancient Indian rishis had mastered. This suggests that human beings are gradually gaining the capacity to create, similar to that of the Elohim in the Old Testament. In other words it presents human beings as creative gods in the making – a theme that runs through the whole of the western esoteric tradition, starting in Genesis when, Adam having eaten of the tree of knowledge, the Elohim exclaim: “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” (Genesis 3:22) All these considerations on the larynx lead one to think that there may be some symbolic meaning behind the fable that Adam's apple was the piece of the Chapter 2 – The Mysteries of the Larynx 27 fruit of the tree of knowledge that remained stuck in his throat. Interestingly, Steiner foresaw a crucial step in the long-term evolution of the larynx: the sexual force having been completely transmuted, the procreative function will no longer be implemented from the sexual organs but from the larynx. Human beings will then have gained the capacity to speak their children out.

Another of Steiner's visions which is quite consistent with several other sources of the western esoteric tradition, is that with the final transmutation of the sexual energy into the creative power of the voice will come the end of death: physical immortality. The end of the sexual organs means the end of the separation of human beings into two sexes. In the gospel of Philip, one of the most exciting of the Gnostic gospels, it is unequivocally stated that if ‘the woman’ had not been separated from ‘the man’, she would not have to die with ‘the man’, and it is the separation of the sexes that caused the beginning of death. The same text further indicates that as long as Eve was in Adam, there was no death. It is when she was separated from Adam that death began. If ‘the man’ becomes whole again, it will be the end of death.

This can be put in parallel with the gospel of Thomas, in which Jesus tells his disciples that it is by making the two one that they will become the sons of man, and move mountains by saying, “Mountain, move!”

Then the ‘lost Word’, on which the Masonic tradition is based, will have been recovered, and the Temple rebuilt forever. The alchemists often defined their art as a way of speeding up the natural processes of evolution of nature. For instance they considered that all the metals were on their way to becoming gold, and that by transmuting base metals into gold one does nothing other than achieve within a short time what nature would otherwise take a long time to accomplish. I will have several occasions in this book and others of the Clairvision Corpus to come back to the inner significance of the gold of the alchemists. According to them, their gold was ‘no common gold’. At this stage we could use this concept of ‘speeding up’ to define inner alchemy: inner alchemy aims at achieving now, transformations that humankind will only complete much later in its natural course of evolution.

The throat friction is designed to achieve an alchemical transformation of the larynx and start tapping from its creative power. In particular, in the Clairvision style of inner alchemy the larynx is used extensively to give shape and to ‘densify’ various structures of the body of energy, as you will start experiencing with the practices of Chapter 3.

2.4 Humming sound and the magic of bees

Sit in a meditation position, with your back extremely straight. Become aware of the cervical part of the spine, in the neck, and aim for a perfectly vertical position aligned with the rest of the back.
Keep your eyes closed.

Become aware in the larynx.

Start chanting a continuous humming, buzzing sound, making your throat vibrate. Make the sound while both exhaling and inhaling. Make short inhalations and long exhalations.

Remain aware of the physical vibration generated in your larynx by the buzzing.

Continue the practice for a few minutes. Then remain silent and motionless for a few more minutes, just feeling the vibration in the throat.

Tips

• This technique can be quite intoxicating. If practised long enough, it induces a slightly exhilarating altered state of consciousness. The effect is strongly reinforced by being aware in the third eye at the same time, according to the principles developed in the next chapter. • One way of practising this exercise is to make your humming sound resemble the buzzing of a bee. Then the practice becomes the bhrāmarin technique of Hatha-yoga. If this proves difficult, don't worry. Any humming sound will do, provided you create a tangible vibration which you can feel when placing your fingers on the protuberance of the larynx.

Bees, who are great experts in humming/buzzing sounds, are highly alchemical little creatures. Their connection with the sexual energy of plants is easy to observe. For instance, they help many plants to reproduce, by carrying pollen (the plant equivalent of semen) from one to another. They take the nectar from the reproductive parts of plants and turn it into honey.

Honey is a remarkable substance in many ways. It keeps for years without any preservation process – a very long time, especially if you compare it to the lifespan of a worker-bee, which is about one or two months. So the bees take a sexually-related product and turn it into a non-perishable substance. This of course reminds us of the alchemical processes by which the sexual force is transmuted and which result in the formation of the body of immortality. On a simpler level, royal jelly, another product of the hive, is highly sought after and regarded as a substance of longevity.

Honey, interestingly enough, has always been considered an excellent remedy for the throat, and bees a symbol of eloquence. In Hebrew one of the words for voice is dibur, coming from the root daber that gives the verb ledaber, to speak. And bee is dvora, coming from the same root. (The name Deborah comes from the Hebrew dvora, bee.)

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