The stages of pranayama

Foreword to the 7th edition

This little book is one of my bestsellers. When I was looking for a suitable building for my Kyborg Institute in 1989, the real estate agent not only found me a building that perfectly met my requirements, but also put me in touch with the Montabaur Academy, where the management of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken is trained. He had been trained there himself before setting up his own brokerage business.

It’s always good to find a hand that can open an important door! The director of the academy asked me what I could offer him and his guests (that others weren’t already doing) and I had to react quickly. I looked at the man and thought, if the people here are all like that, then energy training is just too much for them. They have other things on their minds than doing one or two hours of intensive training every day. So I quickly and decisively said, “Breathing and concentration!” No further comment from me. He was taken aback. He hadn’t expected such a short answer. He thought about it for a few seconds and then he said, “Okay, let’s try it! I’ll call you!”

It was the beginning of a good, casual collaboration that lasted 7 years until I finally ended it myself.

Why? I got bored and I saw better ways to use my energy. If you find the right tone and are able to meet people where they are, then you can build a good relationship with many people and everyone involved will benefit. During my time at Schloß Montabaur, I only had directors and board members in my seminars and once a special seminar with the executive secretaries of these gentlemen.

Most of these people are real professionals in their profession and are under constant stress and pressure to succeed. They didn’t all know each other, even if they had graduated from the same academy. When the seminar started, they all signed in on lists. In these lists, they also entered how many millions or billions in turnover their own bank had achieved in the previous year. They obviously derived their appreciation from this list. On the one hand, they were dealing with millions and on the other, they were people like you and me.

I made quite a few friends in these circles and received only the best marks in the participants’ final reports. At the end of the course, each seminar leader received an evaluation from each participant. It was a meaningful and educational time for me, and these top managers were really pleased with the variety that such a simple topic as breathing and concentration brought to their lives.

Who thinks much about their breathing? Nobody does. And if you do start to think about it, then you should pay very close attention to the effects of the various breathing techniques. Of course, I’m not the only one who offers something like this, but my decades of experience with the special methods of Kundalini Yoga speak for themselves. These are the best methods and those who use them will benefit greatly!

Just do it, try it out! Of course, there are all sorts of other methods that have been developed by someone. But I think the methods described here get to the heart of the matter. With Pranayama you can reorganize your whole life!

Breathing is life, with breathing we regulate our energy, and the method presented here was good enough to train top bank managers for 7 years to make their daily tasks easier. Everyone can use these methods, and those who apply them conscientiously will raise their quality of life to a new level.

“My boys” were really a good bunch, but the majority of them only used it for personal fitness. The spiritual aspects remained alien to them. For this reason, after 7 years I turned to a different group of people, the seriously spiritually interested people, regardless of their profession. That has always been my concern. In Montabaur, I was only able to pass on a limited part of my teaching.

It is difficult to deny a spiritual calling. My bank participants were surprisingly open-minded, but I was not allowed to come to them with truly spiritual content, not too much. Some of them sought me out privately, looking for advice or coaching, or invited me to their banks for personal training, but these were few and far between.

And it is not my way to impose my mindset on other people. Everyone may be happy in their own way, and everyone will have good reasons for choosing and following a particular path in life with all its advantages and turmoil. We should always respect that. So if you want to get involved with my program, then proceed step by step, experiment with the various methods and then turn to the exercises that bring the most benefit.

Actually, chapters 1 – 7 are only preparations for the climax in chapters 8 and 9. Once you have learned how the individual steps are meant, then practise the exercise from chapter 8 regularly. It is best to do it 3 times a day for about 5 minutes, and if you are ever in a deep life crisis, then do it for an hour!

With intensive practice, the program of energy regulation through pranayama blows away all gloomy thoughts and emotions! Once you have experienced this, it is the beginning of a new, positive phase of life in which enthusiasm for life takes center stage.

Life is beautiful, our earth is beautiful, and we are a living part of it! We should always keep this in mind and make a living contribution to it.

These methods have given many thousands of people a new quality of life, and if you study and practice it carefully, you will soon know what I am talking about and how much it can bring us!

With this in mind, I wish you a good time, many wonderful experiences and the courage to succeed!

Take courage, live well!

Your D. Harald Alke wishes you light on the way