Of course, this is not possible according to science. But Indian yogis have a track record of doing things that are impossible according to science.

I think the theory is that yogis can convert 'pranic energy'. I have a book with account of yogis who were sealed in containers for days on end with no oxygen. They appear to be able to suspend their metabolic activity and then restart it again.

I have no particular interest in whether these accounts are true or not - if they turn out to be bogus, it would not particularly surprise me. But unlike everyone else who has written here, I think it is possible they might be true. You can go through all the accounts, and those purporting to demonstrate the existence of parapsychological phenomena, and question every one of them on the basis that these kinds of things just can't happen. Michael Shermer and Skeptic magazine make a living out of doing that.

I am not going to argue the case for or against. I don't want to typecast myself as a PSI advocate. But I do have an open mind.

Maybe the age of magic and miracles is upon us?

Maybe we have always been this age?

Has the age of Aquarius already happened?

Thirdly. It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations; or if a civilized people has ever given admission to any of them, that people will be found to have received them from ignorant and barbarous ancestors, who transmitted them with that inviolable sanction and authority, which always attend received opinions. When we peruse the first histories of all nations, we are apt to imagine ourselves transported into some new world; where the whole frame of nature is disjointed, and every element performs its operations in a different manner, from what it does at present. Battles, revolutions, pestilence, famine and death, are never the effect of those natural causes, which we experience. Prodigies, omens, oracles, judgements, quite obscure the few natural events, that are intermingled with them. But as the former grow thinner every page, in proportion as we advance nearer the enlightened ages, we soon learn, that there is nothing mysterious or supernatural in the case, but that all proceeds from the usual propensity of mankind towards the marvellous, and that, though this inclination may at intervals receive a check from sense and learning, it can never be thoroughly extirpated from human nature.

It is strange, a judicious reader is apt to say, upon the perusal of these wonderful historians, that such prodigious events never happen in our days. But it is nothing strange, I hope, that men should lie in all ages. You must surely have seen instances enough of that frailty. You have yourself heard many such marvellous relations started, which, being treated with scorn by all the wise and judicious, have at last been abandoned even by the vulgar. Be assured, that those renowned lies, which have spread and flourished to such a monstrous height, arose from like beginnings; but being sown in a more proper soil, shot up at last into prodigies almost equal to those which they relate.

It was a wise policy in that false prophet, Alexander, who though now forgotten, was once so famous, to lay the first scene of his impostures in Paphlagonia, where, as Lucian tells us, the people were extremely ignorant and stupid, and ready to swallow even the grossest delusion. People at a distance, who are weak enough to think the matter at all worth enquiry, have no opportunity of receiving better information. The stories come magnified to them by a hundred circumstances. Fools are industrious in propagating the imposture; while the wise and learned are contented, in general, to deride its absurdity, without informing themselves of the particular facts, by which it may be distinctly refuted. And thus the impostor above mentioned was enabled to proceed, from his ignorant Paphlagonians, to the enlisting of votaries, even among the Grecian philosophers, and men of the most eminent rank and distinction in Rome: nay, could engage the attention of that sage emperor Marcus Aurelius; so far as to make him trust the success of a military expedition to his delusive prophecies.

The advantages are so great, of starting an imposture among an ignorant people, that, even though the delusion should be too gross to impose on the generality of them (which, though seldom, is sometimes the case) it has a much better chance for succeeding in remote countries, than if the first scene had been laid in a city renowned for arts and knowledge. The most ignorant and barbarous of these barbarians carry the report abroad. None of their countrymen have a large correspondence, or sufficient credit and authority to contradict and beat down the delusion. Men's inclination to the marvellous has full opportunity to display itself. And thus a story, which is universally exploded in the place where it was first started, shall pass for certain at a thousand miles distance. But had Alexander fixed his residence at Athens, the philosophers of that renowned mart of learning had immediately spread, throughout the whole Roman empire, their sense of the matter; which, being supported by so great authority, and displayed by all the force of reason and eloquence, had entirely opened the eyes of mankind. It is true; Lucian, passing by chance through Paphlagonia, had an opportunity of performing this good office. But, though much to be wished, it does not always happen, that every Alexander meets with a Lucian, ready to expose and detect his impostures.

he really had the ability he claims, and if he really wanted to prove himself, he could do so. The fact that he does not suggests that he is a total fraud. If he wanted to keep the matter to himself, he would not have told anyone such a story, so we know that that is not the reason for his lack of proof.

I think the theory is that yogis can convert 'pranic energy'. I have a book with account of yogis who were sealed in containers for days on end with no oxygen. They appear to be able to suspend their metabolic activity and then restart it again.

I have no particular interest in whether these accounts are true or not - if they turn out to be bogus, it would not particularly surprise me. But unlike everyone else who has written here, I think it is possible they might be true. You can go through all the accounts, and those purporting to demonstrate the existence of parapsychological phenomena, and question every one of them on the basis that these kinds of things just can't happen. Michael Shermer and Skeptic magazine make a living out of doing that.

I am not going to argue the case for or against. I don't want to typecast myself as a PSI advocate. But I do have an open mind.

Well most people will say 'no such thing'. But I am not so sure. After all, we are now told that the vacuum of interstellar space is seething with energy, and the universe is thought to consist mainly of some form of energy/matter which we can't even conceive of, let alone measure.
...
Scientific skepticism is completely different. It is based on an attitude of metaphysical naturalism. It is not skeptical at all in the philosophical sense, but rather is concerned to defend 'science' against what it perceives as 'supernaturalism'.

I wonder if pranic energy assumes another substance that is mental/spirtual? Whereas caloric energy is material or at its limit E=mc2.

An ability to convert pranic energy to caloric body sustaining energy constitutes an ability to transmute the one substance into the other.

I'm guessing a bit here but I don't think I'm too far off base.

Where do you think he gets his energy from? If we set aside traditional science for a moment, is there a theory within Yogic Science to explain this?

pranic energy is in at least every liging organism if not every thing...it is the same as chi. and one of the theories is that if you eat food as soon as it is picked there is more left in it-and that it feeds not only the physical body but the mental and causal as well, so the longer it sits the more it becomes only suitable for the physical needs.

ultimately, there must be pranic energy in the sunlight-my memory is not that good, maybe that is just my personal opinion-but there are supposed to be people who can exist as a result of using that alone. it is something everyone can do but forgot how...or maybe the faculties we have are not attuned and developed enough, it comes after a lot of meditation...opening the chakras and all that.

gee...i am glad this is in the lounge...glad they dont have a separate crackpot woo-woo subforum, or we would be thrown out by now.

Most will regard this as pre-scientific folklore. But it is interesting from an anthropological perspective, if nothing else.

gee...i am glad this is in the lounge...glad they dont have a separate crackpot woo-woo subforum, or we would be thrown out by now:lol: