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The Eleventh Lesson: Hindu Wonder-Working.1349
of the capacity to understand and correctly apply it to the best advantage—
each view has its own arguments and merits, and the real wisdom probably
lies in the middle of the road between the two.
Another feat which has caused much interest among educated Westerners
in India is that of the germination of seeds under the influence of Prana
directed by Rhythmic Breathing and Concentrated Will. This feat is entirely
different from the Mango Feat and similar exhibitions along the lines of
illusory mental influence as mentioned in the first part of this chapter, and
in which there is no real sprouting or growth, but only an appearance or
illusion of the same. In the present case the germination is real, as evidenced
by photographs and the preservation of the germinated sprout attached
to the seed after the termination of the performance. It is unnecessary
to say that in a feat of this kind the chances of sleight-of-hand are great,
and that the investigators have taken means to obviate the chances of the
same by employing the methods familiar to the investigators of psychic
phenomena. In this feat the fakir takes seeds of certain quick-growing plants
of India, which are brought by the investigators and which subsequent
analysis shows to be free from foreign chemicals, and enclosing them with
a handful of earth, likewise examined and afterward tested, holds the mass
of earth in his hand for a space of about half-an-hour to an hour, at the
same time concentrating the Prana upon it by means of Rhythmic Breathing
and Concentrated Will. After a time there appears a tiny sprout of green
working out of the earth, which is allowed to grow until it attains a height of
several inches. Examination shows the remnants of the seed clinging to the
sprout, as is the case in natural and normal germination, and the presence of
a tiny root which has been sent in the opposite direction to the sprout. The
reports are that this feat has been performed frequently under the strictest
test conditions, the elements of deception having been eliminated. The
explanation given is that the energy of the Prana operates precisely as do
the rays of the sun in a tropical country, only in a more concentrated degree,
and that the energy employed and that contained in the sun’s rays is identical.