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THE SCIENCE OF BREATHING
them, and say that breathing in and breathing out imply the state of vibrations only, which implies something that has vibrations, and viberations can only be produced in material substance; therefore this breathing in and out has only to do with matter and the material universe, and so far as this is concerned, this theory is all right; but the soul can produce vibrations but itself does not vibrate; so that when we see physical objects and see vibrations it is not the consciousness that is vibrating but the physical part, and this is on account of the spiritual nature. In vegetables and animals, and in human life also, we pass through different stages of growth, which are expressed in these vibrations. The Hindu science explains from this standspoint the growth of the body from the smallest germ to the fully developed organism, and says that in the beginning, before the birth of the human being the centers are being formed; the first is brain, the second is heart, and these two centers are the original sources from which the powers are propagated to all sides of the body, and in this way other centers are formed also, which we call in our philosophy the plexuses. When the brain center is formed, and the heart center is formed, the nerves proceed from the brain center and ramify over the whole human body; when the heart center is formed the blood vessels separate all over the body. These two centers have two poles as in all force one positive and the other negative, as in all forces
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