The Five Tibetan Rites

I first encountered the Five Tibetan Rites in the book Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig. I didn't start practicing the rites then, but one of my friends sent me an ebook version over the holidays and I decided to at least give the rites a try.

Although they're called "rites" they are actually a set of simple physical exercises. Simple they may be, but not ordinary because these physical exercises supposedly result in a rejuvenated body, with the years peeled away from one's looks. But before we get into that, let's have a short look at the background of the Five Tibetan Rites.

These Tibetan Rites first came out in 1939 as a 32-page booklet called The Eye of Revelation by Peter Kelder. Kelder was supposedly taught these Rites by a certain Colonel Bradford (a pseudonym), a retired British army officer who once served in India. While still in active service, Colonel Bradford heard of a lamasery (Tibetan monastery) in India where the "Fountain of Youth" could be found. At the time Kelder met Bradford, the colonel was already in his 60s and looked every bit his age.

The colonel then decided to go back to India to search for this lamasery and Kelder didn't hear from him for the next few years. When Colonel Bradford finally returned, Kelder was shocked to see that the colonel looked like a man in his 40s, full of health and vigor. While Kelder's claims may seem outrageous, it's interesting to note that the Tibetan Rites do seem to derive from genuine Tibetan yantra-yoga practices.

From a physiological standpoint, the five exercises taken together seem to work out most of the muscles in the body. The slight whole body tensing (isometric) postures at the end of the fourth rite and at two points of the fifth rite help to stimulate blood circulation throughout the body. When I tried the exercises myself, my abdominal muscles were slightly sore the next day. So it seems the exercises particularly target the core muscles, just like in Pilates.

Even treated as a purely physical endeavor, the Five Tibetan Rites already seem to be a good exercise regimen, one that can be done everyday for as little as 10 minutes each workout. As with any exercise regimen that one is trying out for the first time, the booklet suggests starting with a few repetitions and then slowly building up to 21 repetitions for each exercise. If one also follows the dietary recommendations at the end of the booklet, one pretty much has a simple yet effective program for overall physical health.

A simple yet effective exercise program is one thing, but is there any basis to the booklet's claim that the Five Tibetan Rites can rejuvenate the body to such an extent that one seemingly grows younger? For that, we need to take a closer look at the esoteric part of the material.

According to the booklet, the body has seven psychic vortices. The booklet doesn't mention it, but these psychic vortices are also known as chakras. In a young and healthy person, the chakras are slightly further out from the body and are spinning rapidly. In old or sick people, the chakras are more sunken and spinning sluggishly. Therefore, the difference between young and healthy from old and sickly is the speed at which the chakras spin. This is also the explanation in pranic healing, so this is at least one thing that the booklet has going for it.

What the Tibetan Rites do is that they stimulate the seven chakras so that over time, they will return to the spin rate of a young, healthy person. By the Law of Correspondence, when the energy body becomes healthy, physical health soon follows.

Although the booklet mentions 7 chakras, they are not referring to the 7 chakras commonly known (i.e. root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, crown). Rather, the 7 chakras in The Eye of Revelation refer to one in the forehead, one in the posterior part of the brain, the throat, the right side of the body above the waistline, the sex/sacral and the chakras on both knees. It's interesting to note that the booklet also says that the sex chakra is directly connected with the throat chakra, which is the same information found in pranic healing. But even more interesting are the locations of the chakras themselves.

Take a look at the image on the right. They pretty much correspond to the location of the psychic vortices mentioned in The Eye of Revelation. However, this image was taken from the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception by Max Heindel. They are psychic centers in the desire (astral) body that determine how clairvoyant a person is. So there is the intriguing possibility that the Five Tibetan Rites may also activate clairvoyance to a certain extent.

But what really takes the cake for me is the Sixth or Secret Rite. According to Colonel Bradford, the sex energy must not be suppressed, but rather transmuted by bringing it up to the higher centers. A person who does this transforms from an ordinary man to a "superman." The Sixth Rite is therefore an exercise that brings the sex energy up to the higher chakras to be used as "spiritual gasoline."

This is really amazing because Master Choa Kok Sui also teaches the same thing about sex energy. In fact, in The Spiritual Essence of Man, Master Choa also gives the exact technique how to bring sex energy up towards the higher chakras, and for me it's even more simple to do than the Sixth Rite.

Based on such analysis of the esoteric components of the booklet, I can say that there really is something to the information that had been presented. Of course, with regard to regaining youthfulness, it's not like getting a liposuction and some botox. It'll probably take some time to achieve the full effects, and a lot will also depend on one's dietary habits and lifestyle. According to information from Dr. Mercola, exercise, although important, actually represents about 20% of overall health, with the remaining 80% coming from diet. So you cannot exercise yourself out of a bad diet.

In any case, whether one is looking to regain one's youth or simply looking for easy-to-do exercises to round out one's daily health regimen, the Five Tibetan Rites do seem to fit the bill quite nicely.