Researcher/Scientist

" Imagine my finger is the conscious mind and the rest of my body is the unconscious. You see, the conscious mind is but a small part of the whole totality of the mind, and what we so far have not yet learned is how to use this totality."

Swami Rama received his formal education at Bangalore, Prayaga, Varanasi, and Oxford University, England. He completed his degree at the medical college in Darbhanga. He worked as a medical consultant in London and assisted in parapsychological research in Moscow. He then returned to India, where he established a clinic and ashram in Rishikesh. Later he went to Japan, where he met Rev. Yokadasan, the spiritual head of Sukyo Mahikari. Swamiji lived with him for six months and taught various groups in Tokyo, Osaka, and other cities.In 1969 Swamiji went to the United States at the instruction of his Master to scientifically verify the ancient teachings. Upon the invitation of Dr. Elmer Green of the Menninger Foundation, he was a consultant in a research project investigating the voluntary control of involuntary states. He participated in experiments that helped to revolutionize scientific thinking about the relationship between body and mind, of precise conscious control of autonomic physical responses and mental functioning, previously thought to be impossible. Under these scientific conditions, Swamiji demonstrated the ability to stop his heart from pumping blood for seventeen seconds and to produce a ten-degree difference in temperature between different parts of the palm of his hand. In one demonstration, using only mental power, he caused a fourteen - inch aluminum knitting needle mounted on a shaft five feet away, to spin.

He also voluntarily produced and maintained specific brain wave patterns . He first generated brain wave patterns by beta waves; then he produced alpha waves, which are generally associated with a relaxed state. Finally, he demonstrated theta waves. Theta waves are associated with unconscious states, in contrast to alpha and beta waves, which are associated with conscious states. While producing theta waves, Swamiji appeared to be in a state of deep sleep. However, he was able to accurately recall everything that had transpired in the room during that period. This technique is called yoga nidra, "The secret," he said, "lies in turning inward and exploring one's unconscious mind."

"I am doing this not to show that I am a magician or a super human being, but to show that by controlling the mind one can control one's bodily functions, including the so-called involuntary systems such as respiratory and circulatory. This is done through control of the autonomic nervous system, which is involved in the development of most psychosomatic diseases."

Reports of his work have been documented in the World Book Science Annual 1974, the 1973 Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook of Science, the Time-Life 1973 Nature Science Annual, and numerous other publications. Journals and newspapers across the United States reported on the experiments. Through his work with the Menninger Foundation he helped to pioneer the use of biofeedback as a therapeutic modality, to lay the foundation for stress management and holistic health programs, and to generate interest in the human capacity to experience previously unrecognized levels of consciousness. He was the first yogi to subject himself to modern scientific methods of testing his states of consciousness while at the highest levels of meditation. When questioned about these feats by an interviewer from The World Book Science Annual, 1974 Science Year, he explained that he could control his heart and blood vessels, and consciously produce various kinds of brain waves at will, because,

" All of the body is in the mind, but not all of the mind is in the body."