Grow Young Guide Ellen Wood demonstrates the RIGHT way to practice the Five Tibetan Rites.

The Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation are exercises developed about 2500 years ago by lamas in Tibet. They were kept secret in monasteries for centuries because they were considered to be a path to higher consciousness, ONLY for the initiated.

The Tibetan Rites, also called The Five Tibetans, were introduced to the Western world by author Peter Kelder and first published in 1939. Kelder had met a retired British army colonel in southern California in the 1930s who told him stories of his travels and the discovery of the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation. The author published The Eye of Revelation based on his conversations with the colonel.

Kelder makes it clear that these are not physical fitness exercises. The Five Tibetans affect the body, mind and emotions and activate key energy centers in the body. These seven energy centers are similar to the seven chakras many of us are familiar with, but not exactly the same. There are two in the head, one at the base of the throat, one in the right side at the waist, one in the sexual center and one in each knee. The whole purpose for doing the Tibetan Rites is to get those seven energy centers, or vortexes, all spinning at the same rate of speed – the rate for a robust 25-year-old. That's how they work to make us grow younger.

I first learned about the Tibetan Rites in 2004 and I have been practicing the Five Tibetans daily since then. Recently I discovered a new edition of Kelder’s The Eye of Revelation, edited by W.J. Watt and published in 2008 in hardback and 2009 in paperback. This book, based on a recently discovered manuscript of Kelder’s from the 1940s, gives additional detail and information on the correct way to do the exercises and their benefits.

One of the details is that they should be performed VERY SLOWLY. What a difference that makes! I had easily worked up to 21 of each of the rites doing them the old way but when I slowed down, I had to cut back to just six a day of each and my muscles were sore! Now I'm back up to 21 of each and no soreness. Please do not attempt these exercises unless you first get a doctor's permission.

Rights to Kelder's book were purchased in the 1970s by Harbor Press, publisher of a revised version titled Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth. In 1999 Doubleday published Ancient Secrets of the Fountain of Youth: Book 2, which provides a great deal of useful information along with photos illustrating the exercises, and has a foreword by Bernie Siegel, MD. The newer book edited by J.W. Watt is much more detailed and thorough in its instructions on how to do the Five Tibetans. I highly recommend both books.

A future volume of The Secret Method for Growing Younger will be devoted totally to The Five Tibetans.

THE EYE OF REVELATION: The Ancient Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation by Peter Kelder; edited by J.W. Watt, pub. 2008 and 2009, Booklocker.com, Inc.

ANCIENT SECRET OF THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH: BOOK 2 by Peter Kelder; published by Doubleday 1999

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