Fire, with its expansion or extendability in all directions, has the specific quality of heat, and
therefore is spherical. Let us then, first of all, acquire this quality and produce it at will in the
body as well as in the soul. In body-control we chose an attitude allowing us to remain in a
comfortable position, free of any disturbance; Indians call this position asana. For the sale of
better understanding, we shall also use this expression henceforth. Take the asana position
and imagine yourself in the center of the fiery element which, in the shape of a ball, envelops
the universe. Imagine all around you, even the entire universe being fiery. Now inhale the fire
element with your nose and, at the same time, with your whole body (pore-breathing). Draw
deep breaths regularly, without pressing air or straining the lungs. The material and the astral
body ought to resemble an empty vessel into which the element is being inhaled or sucked in
with each breath. This heat ought to grow more and more intense with every breath. The heat
and the expansion-power must become stronger, the fiery pressure higher and higher, until
you feel yourself at last fiery red hot. This whole process of inhaling the fiery element through
the body is, of course, a purely imaginary occurrence and should be exercised with the utmost
plastic imagination of the element. Start on seen times inhaling the fire element and increase
each exercise by one breath more. An average of 20-30 breaths will do. Only physically strong
pupils of great willpower are allowed to exceed his number at discretion.
Having finished the exercise of imaginary accumulation of the fiery element, you will,
through imagination, feel the heat and the expansion of the fire, and now you may start on the
exercise in the opposite succession, inhaling the fire element normally through the mouth and
exhaling through it and through the whole body (pore-breathing) into the universe again. The
number of breaths done when exhaling the element has to correspond exactly to the number
of inhalations. For example, if you begin with seven inhalations of the fire element, you must
also exhale seven the element seven times. This is very important, because after finishing the
exercise the scholar should have the impression that not the smallest particle of this element
has remained in him, and the sensation of heat it produced in him must disappear. Therefore
it is advisable to use the string of beads for breathing in as well as breathing out. Do the
exercises with the eyes closed at first, and then with open eyes. The Tibetan explorer and
traveler Alexandra David-Neel in her books a similar experiment practiced by lamas under
the name of tumo, which is, however, very imperfect for practical purposes for Europeans and
not at all suitable for any student of magic.
What has been said about the fire element applies in the same way top the air element, but for the fact that a different
imagination of the senses has to be considered. Take up the same comfortable position, close
your eyes, and imagine yourself to be in the middle of a mass of air that is filling the whole
universe. You must not perceive anything of your surroundings, and nothing should exist for
you but the air-filled space embracing the whole universe. You are inhaling the air element
into your empty vessel of the soul, and the material body thorough the whole-body breathing
(with the lungs and pores). Every breath is filling the whole body to an increasing extent and
with more air. You have got to hold fast the imagination of your body being filled with air by
each breath in such a way that is resembles a balloon. Combine it at the same time with the
imagination that your body is becoming lighter, as light as air itself. The sensation of
lightness should be so intense that finally you do not feel your body at all. In the same way
you did begin with the fire element, start now also with seven inhalations and exhalations.
With this exercise done, you should again have the positive feeling that not the smallest
particle of the air element remains in your body, and consequently you should feel in the same
normal condition as before. To avoid any counting, use the string of beads again. Increase the
number of breaths (inspirations and expirations) from one exercise to the next, but do not
exceed the number of forty. By constant practice of this experiment, adepts will succeed in
producing phenomena of levitation such as walking on the surface of water, floating in the
air, displacement of the body and many more, especially if one concentrates on one element
only. But magician is not satisfied with one-sided phenomena, because this would not agree
with his aims. He wants to penetrate far deeper into the cognition and the mastery, and
achieve more.
Take up the position you are accustomed to by now, close your eyes, and forget all around you. Imagine
the whole universe is an enormous ocean and you are in the center of it. Your body becomes
filled with this element with each whole-body breath. You should feel the cold of the water in
your whole body. If you have filled up your body with this element in seven breaths, you
should empty it with seven breaths. Not the smallest amount of water element should remain
in you at the last exhalation. Here again the string of beads will be a great help to you. With
each new exercise, take one more breath. The more often you practice this exercise, the more
distinctly you will feel the cold properties of the water element. You ought to feel, as it were,
like a lump of ice. Each of the exercises should not exceed twenty minutes. As time goes by,
you ought to be able to keep your body cold as ice even in the hottest summer weather.
Oriental adepts master this element in such a degree that they can perform the most
astonishing phenomena straight away. For example, they produce rain during the hot or dry
season, and stop it again at will. They can ban thunderstorms, calm down the roaring ocean,
control all animals in the water, and so on. Such and similar phenomena are no miracles for a
real magician who understands them perfectly.
Take up your routine position as you did before. This time, imagine the whole universe being the earth with
yourself sitting in the middle of it. But do not imagine the earth as a lump of clay, but being a
dense earthy material. The specific property of this earthy material is density and gravity.
Now you ought to fill your body with this heavy material. Begin again with seven breaths and
increase one breath more with each new exercise. You must manage to concentrate so much
of the earthy material into yourself that your body seems as heavy as a lump of lead and
almost paralyzed by the weight. Breathing out happens in the same way as it did in the other
exercises. At the end of this exercise you ought to feel as normal as before the beginning. The
duration of this exercise also is limited to twenty minutes at the most.
This exercise (sadhana) is practiced by a great deal of Tibetan lamas mostly in such a way that
they begin meditating on a lump of clay, dissecting it and going on to meditate on it again.
The genuine magician knows better how to approach this element in a much simpler way, and
to master it without such a difficult meditation process.