Page:Emanuel Swedenborg, Scientist and Mystic.djvu/145

XI ] fall spontaneously into a kind of ecstasy in which they are deprived of the external senses and of all motion, and with being engaged meanwhile in the operations of the soul alone, in order that after resuscitation they may reveal thefts and declare desired secrets."

Physically, he noted, the circulation seems to have stopped in "persons subject to ecstasy," as well as the respiration, and he concluded that "for the leading of an ecstatic life a peculiar disposition is required." 14

Without at this stage exploring the modern theories that may cover Swedenborg's own experiences, it may be mentioned here that he had himself, unconsciously, stumbled on an old technique for inducing such a peculiar disposition. It was not lacking in significance that he marked the apparent cessation of breathing in the "ecstatic" subject.

Professor H. H. Price, of New College, Oxford, in his presidential address to the Society for Psychical Research (1937), declared one of their great difficulties to be that the investigator of psychic phenomena usually has to rely on hearsay. Not only is a technique wanted by which psychic phenomena can be repeated at will, but the investigator should be able to experience the phenomena himself. Professor Price then with all the diffidence in the world called attention to the fact that for a couple of thousand years certain Hindus have practiced a technique which may lead to psychic phenomena, though this is not the primary object—"yoga," or a conviction of union with God, being the primary object. Professor Price suggested that students might try this, but scientifically rather than religiously.

At least two modern investigators, one a Hindu and one an American, have studied yoga technique scientifically and reported their findings. Dr. K. T. Behanan (on a Sterling fellowship from Yale University) went to India to study the subject firsthand and to practice the exercises.15 Dr. Theos Bernard also went to India for these purposes.16

From both one gathers that besides intense concentration on a serious idea the ability to hold one's breath is of vital importance