"Old Friend" Became Deep Throat for More Energy Than Ever

If you've been reading this Daily Yoga Tip, you know I've been concerned about my mother's recovery from recent surgery. I talked to her last night in particular about how her voice seems so soft and high-pitched now.

Even though my mom is listening to inspiring and uplifting music, she says she doesn't have the "pep" to sing along. Practical person that she is, she mouths the words.

Brilliant, if you ask me. Yet I am concerned, because a weak, high-pitched voice is a sign of low energy. Her system has been weakened.

I remember being very surprised by the same sign when I first talked to my father-in-law over a year ago as he sat in his hospital bed following a surgery. His voice was thin. But now his voice is deep and strong.

This all came to a head yesterday with all the fuss that was made over the Watergate character, "Deep Throat," now known to be Mark Felt.

When Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate story in the early 1970's the informant who told the reporters to "follow the money" was known to Woodward as "old friend."

As the story gained the energy that ultimately led to convictions and the resignation of the President, "old friend" became known as "Deep Throat," an allusion to the then-popular porn film by the same title and the fact that the secret informer was fond of cigarettes and Scotch.

My father-in-law did not take up Scotch whiskey and cigarettes to recover his energy and deep voice. And I don't recommend it for my mother, either.

But I do recommend this. And you can do it, too. Want more energy? More vibrant health? Speak with a lower voice.

"Consciously make the effort to lower your voice. Listen to yourself speak, and if you hear yourself becoming higher and more shrill, adjust your voice to a lower register."

"Before long the lowered vibration of your voice will speed up the vortex in your throat."

That's a quote from Peter Kelder in his book Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth (p. 69). His book gives precise instructions on how to do what are now known as "the Five Tibetans," a series of yoga-like practices that have, like yoga, altered many peoples' health for the better.



I encourage you to not laugh this off because of the odd book title. The ancient yogis and Tibetan monks knew about energy centers in the body. And we can know about them and benefit from that understanding now.

I think one of the best explanations I've ever read about these fluctuating, turning, energy vortices, known as chakras (wheels), is in a book by Geshe Michael Roach called The Tibetan Book of Yoga.



Roach explains that there is a network of energy channels that runs up and down the core of your body. Much like the double-helix of a DNA strand, two of the major channels (ida & pingala) spiral around the central channel (shushumna).

If you're familiar with the caduceus, the often-used symbol of the medical profession, it portrays this idea pretty vividly.


See the double helix around the central axis of these two Caduceus.

Here's the key: like a traffic jam at a big highway on-ramp, energy gets clogged up and easily congested near the intersections. These points along the central channel where the other channels come close-by are areas of high energy fluctuations. They're chakras.

When you use your voice by chanting or talking in a low tone, you can break up the congestions of the energy around the throat and heart chakras.

"Singing or chanting has an especially powerful effect on loosening this tie-up of the channels at the heart. That's why it's so hard to sing when we're in a grumpy mood," says Roach (p. 22).

Roach recommends chanting before every asana practice.

By lowering your voice all the time, you're doing yoga all the time and keeping the energy tie-ups out of your way so you can grow stronger and healthier without interruption.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., These are both great books. In fact, I've done a series of workshops called the "Experience What's Inside" book series. I've featured both of these books at one time or another. If you've been practicing yoga for a while, I strongly recommend the Tibetan Book of Yoga. It's full of powerful practices like specific chants, visualizations, and hand gestures (mudras) that enhance your posture practice and make the beneficial effects of asanas "stick."

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