On checking out Johnnys post of the Alexandra David-Neel book, I found
the references to the Lung-Gom-Pa and recalled a similar phenomenon
referred to as 'Nightwalking' that was posted on the BBS back about
1992, so I redid the file and posted it to the website at;
http://www.keelynet.com/BIOLOGY/nitewalk.htm
The quotes from the book are included in that file now but here is what
is interesting, a trance state that allows rapid motion in the form of
leaps and bounds.
It kind of reminds me of the folklore about the seven league boots which
I could not find on the net.
What if this was a phenomenon known by certain people long ago? The
file Saucer Song indicates it;
http://www.keelynet.com/gravity/saucsong.htm
Everything points to some controllable phenomenon, ideally without
machinery but for NOW, what kind of technology would produce the same
effect.
Interesting how it seems to relate to AIR and some kind of breathing
associated with a trance state which seems to focus on a distant point.
Years ago, a friend of mine was studying Wing Chun and he had studied
several other disciplines, but he confirmed something I'd read about
focusing your mind on a specific point, like your navel, which would
alter your 'center of gravity', making it impossible for anyone to move
you against your will.
Of late, I have seen reports of the little girls daring a big beefy guy
to pick them up into the air, that they rest their hands on the guys
forearm to press against certain nerves which negate his strength.
Maybe finding someone who could do this weight reduction at will,
mapping the EEG patterns extant at that time, then playing them back
into a test subject to see if the effect could be imparted by virtue of
entrainment or even kindling to entrainment using less power.
Here are the relevant quotes to the Lung Gom Pa with the main URL;
http://www.algonet.se/~johnnyfg/books/mmtibet/index.htm
The man continued to advance towards us and his curious speed became
more and more evident. What was to be done if he really was a
lung-gom-pa ? I wanted to observe him at close quarters, I also wished
to have a talk with him, to put him some questions, to photograph him. .
.. . I wanted many things.
But at the very first words I said about it, the man who had recognized
him as a lama lung-gom-pa exclaimed:
'Your Reverence will not stop the lama, nor speak to him. This would
certainly kill him. These lamas when travelling must not break their
meditation. The god who is in them escapes if they cease to repeat the
ngags, and when thus leaving them before the proper time, he shakes them
so hard that they die.'
By that time he had nearly reached us; I could clearly see his perfectly
calm impassive face and wide-open eyes with their gaze fixed on some
invisible far-distant object situated somewhere high up in space. The
man did not run. He seemed to lift himself from the ground, proceeding
by leaps.
It looked as if he had been endowed with the elasticity of a ball and
rebounded each tine his feet touched the ground. His steps had the
regularity of a pendulum. He wore the usual monastic robe and toga, both
rather ragged. His left hand gripped a fold of the toga and was half
hidden under the cloth.
The right held a phurba (magic dagger). His right arm moved slightly at
each step as if leaning on a stick, just as though the phurba, whose
pointed extremity was far above the ground, had touched it and were
actually a support.
However, our slow pace could not in any way be compared to that of the
leaping lung-gom-pa, who seemed as if carried on wings.
The student sits cross-legged on a large and thick cushion. He inhales
slowly and for a long time, just as if he wanted to fill his body with
air. Then, holding his breath, he jumps up with legs crossed, without
using his hands and falls back on his cushion, still remaining in the
same position.
He repeats that exercise a number of times during each period of
practice. Some lamas succeed in jumping very high in that way. Some
women train themselves in the same manner.
As one can easily believe the object of this exercise is not acrobatic
jumping.
(unlike with the TMers who photograph themselves at the moment of
bounding into the air when in the lotus position and claim they are
actually flying.)
According to Tibetans, the body of those who drill themselves for years,
by that method, become exceedingly light; nearly without weight. These
men, they say, are able to sit on an ear, of barley without bending its
stalk or to stand on the top of a heap of grain without displacing any
of it. In fact the aim is levitation.
We were travelling in a forest, Yongden and I walking ahead of our
servants and
beasts, when at the turning of the path, we came upon a naked man with
ron chains rolled all round his body.
He was seated on a rock and seemed so deeply buried in thoughts that he
had not
heard us coming. We stopped, astonished, but he must have suddenly
become aware of our presence, for after gazing at us a moment, he jumped
up and threw himself into the thickets more quickly than a deer. For a
while we heard the noise of the chains jingling on his body growing
rapidly fainted and fainter, then all was silence again.
'That man is a lung-gom-pa,' said Yongden to me. 'I have already seen
one like him. They wear these chains to make themselves heavy, for
through the practice of lung-gom, their bodies have become so light that
they are always in danger of floating in the air.'
He was most unwilling to answer, but I managed to obtain some
information which confirmed what I knew already. He had been told that
sunset and clear nights were favourable conditions for the walker.
He had also been advised to train himself by looking fixedly at the
starry sky.
Any clear night is deemed good for the training of beginners, but strong
starlight is especially favourable. One is often advised to keep the
eyes fixed on a particular star.
This appears connected with hypnotic effects, and I have been told that
among novices who train themselves in that way, some stop walking when
"their" star sinks below the skyline or rises above their head. Others,
on the contrary, do not notice its disappearance because, by the time
that the star has passed out of sight, they have formed a subjective
image of it which remains fixed before them.
-- Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187