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THE HELIOTROPIC METHOD OF SOLAR GAZING

Now, it must be noted that the Life Force in the body must be kept alive and alert,

for it is this force which vitalizes and chemicalizes the most important of all energies.

Ultra violet rays are ineffective on a dead man. The method of simultaneously using Life

Force and sunlight is the great new Heliotropic or Heliotherapic method of healing.

Everyone of the following methods is based upon quickening the Life Force and sun’s

rays to combine into a greater force for the healing of different body parts. Ordinary sun

baths are partially effective, but very little about harnessing sunlight to Life Force for

therapeutic purposes is yet known. 1

When the sun shines everything seems to smile with its halo of golden rays.

Gloomy, dark places seem to forsake their mystery-dreaded atmosphere. The sun seems

to cheer the mind. It is the life of all Nature’s living children, the trees, flowers, and

human being.

We are proud of our sky scrapers and often remain there with seeming

satisfaction, banished, imprisoned, and pigeon-holed, walking on velvet cushions, stuffed

with rich food, without exercise and above all without the life-giving sunlight.

Scientists put some chickens in ordinary glass houses, and some others in small

glass houses fitted with quartz glass. Within a month, the chickens in the quartz glass

houses were twice as healthy as the chickens in the ordinary glass houses. The latter

began to decline fast. Ordinary glass shuts out the ultra violet rays, whereas the quartz

glass does not. The ultra violet rays are not only life-giving but they are the best killers of

all forms of bacteria. How can we live safely in rooms fitted with ordinary glass? This is

the reason that most indoor resorters, self-elected prisoners of darkness, businessmen and

women, suffer from catarrh and colds and emaciation.

An ordinary bath cleans the body pores and keeps the sweat glands working

properly, eliminating impurities. So the Hindu savants say that the person who bathes

daily and keeps the pores of his body open, helps his increased body heat to escape

through these pores.

Sunlight and ultra violet ray baths are also necessary to fill the tissues and pores

with life-giving energy from without. They redden the hemoglobin of the blood,

recharging it and making it richer and healthier. As an ordinary bath washes away and

clears the bacteria and dirt from the human body, so also the ultra violet rays in the

sunlight not only cleanse the body of bacteria but also destroy them. The ultra violet rays

are the death rays which penetrate the homes of enemy bacteria hiding in the fingernails

and body pores, and scorch them out.

By all means, if you have not time for a walk, open your glass windows and let

your life-giving, soliciting friend, Sunlight, fall on you and bathe you all over. Keep on

jumping up and down, if you are afraid of catching cold, but each morning do bathe in

the ocean of x-ray which God has created for you. Without a daily bath in God’s sea of x-

ray, you cannot be healthy. And remember, only healthy persons are happy. 2

2

In the healing of various afflictions, you will notice that a certain procedure is

common to most of them. Exposure of the affected part to the direct rays of the sun,

gentle contraction and relaxation of the part, and, except in cases of wounds, sores, and

skin troubles, rubbing the part with the fingers or palms of the hands, while visualizing

and thinking that the Life Energy is flowing through the hands and the affected part. 3

Early in the morning, during the first hour after sunrise, and early in the evening,

during the last hour before sunset, the destructive rays of the sun are filtered out by the

earth’s atmosphere, and the healing rays pass through. At either of these times it is safe

to practice the following exercise.

This exercise does not cause harm to the eyes because the sun’s light is refracted through

the atmosphere, one is not looking at the sun directly. 4

The light of His perfect health shines in all the dark nooks of my bodily

sickness. In all my body cells His healing light is shining.

They are entirely well, for His perfection is in them. 5

3

A. Stare into the sunA with eyes open and unwinking as long as you can with-

out discomfort. Practice this a half minute to a minute at first, gradually

increasing the time to not more than nine minutes.

B. Then blink the eyes rapidly for one full minute.

C. Close the eyes and turn your back to the sun.

D. Put the right hand over the eyes and the left hand over the right hand. You

will see the image of the sun, which is still retained, on the retina of the

eye.

E. Concentrate on that image and visualize all the healing rays of the sun

coming into your eyes through that sun which you see with closed eyes.

That is actually what happens.

F. Keep the hands over the eyes. When the image of the sun begins to fade,

move the eyeballs up, to the right, down, to the left, and so on, repeating

this rotation with a little tension, and visualizing energy from the sun

flowing into the eyes and strengthening them.

G. Take the hands way and squeeze the eyes shut, holding them shut to the

count of twelve, and then relax. Repeat twice more, tensing to the count

of twelve and relaxing, making a total of three times.

1 Yogananda, Paramhansa, Praecepta Lessons, S-1* P-39 2 Yogananda, Paramhansa, East-West, March-April 1930, volume 4-4 3 Yogananda, Paramhansa, Praecepta lessons, S-2 * P-52/3 4 Trefil, James, Meditations at Sunset., 5 Yogananda, Paramhansa, Metaphysical Meditations, First Edition, 1932; Sixth Edition, 1952

A Early in the morning, during the first hour after sunrise, and early in the evening, during

the last hour before sunset.