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Prana is percieved in Yoga as an all prevading force in the material world similiar to the Brahmajoyti which fills the spiritual realms. The prefix "Pra-" in Sanskit refers to the act of creation, and prana is the raw energy of the universe which is the spark of creation. In the spiritual realm nothing is created or destroyed since time isn't a factor. Prana interacts with Kala to stir the Maya energy of the Parahtma, of which perceives that prana appears to move from one point to another. Movement of the prana coherses the Shakti to collect in time, percieved in the moment, which Purusha is symbolic of. The stillness and absoluteness of the Purusha, stimulates the Shakti which draws the Brahmajoyti into manifesting as prana the insubstantial energy, and matter, the condensed energy. These energies formulate to create reality as we know it, percieved by the subjective.
wow. I want what this guy's having.
Iṣṭa Devatā (
talk)
07:24, 27 May 2015 (UTC)
Is prana the counterpart of qi or is its equivalence?
Ok, so we know Prana and Qi are the same. What about Prana and the Gnostic Christina idea of Pneuma?
Add: Manna, Mana, Seid, Magic, Orgone, Kraft, Power, Energy, Love, Life-force, Ether.....[unsigned]
Don't forget Lhoong! But seriously, the (pre-christian) concept of pneuma has a remarkable similarity to both qi/chi and prana. Remember that Greek and Indian history have a number of overlaps (Alexander the Great, Greco-Indian states, the spice trade etc...) not to mention shared protoindoeuropean roots. There are a couple of random folks who write about this, but none with any solid evidence that would lend itself to this article. And the Chinese culture is also heavily influenced by the Indian philosophies: "The first Shaolin Monastery abbot was Batuo (also called Fotuo or Buddhabhadra) a dhyana master who came to China from India[2] in 464 AD or from Greco-Buddhist Central Asia[3] to spread Buddhist teachings." Side note: it's important to remember that different Hindu (and Jain, Sikh, etc) groups have very different cosmologies and our modern understanding of Prana comes largely from the esoteric Yoga school and its sister Ayurveda, both derivative of Sankhya cosmology. One can compare the Jing and Shen of the dantians in Chinese Medicine, and tejas and ojas in Ayurveda. The popular new age view of prana (and atman) was pretty heavily reshaped by more contemporary yogis like Swami Vivekananda who blended Neo-Vedanta philosophy with western 'harmonialism' schools like mesmerism. Read Elizabeth DeMichelis for more about that. So it's often hard to tell what you think you know about prana from the orthodox concept. Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 07:49, 27 May 2015 (UTC)
removed from article: Science: Some believe that Quantum foam or Quantum vacuum are prana being discovered by the scientific community, due to the similarities of the fact that both are universal energies with vast potential and that both are said to be all-pervading and have potential to be harnessed. But right now this is sheer conjecture until research has shown that quantum foam or vacuum energy can be tapped by a biological entity via the electromagnetic field, bio-photons, or the much debated supposed faculty of psychokinesis.
In addition to being, well, not encyclopedic, and pseudoscientific, that's just bad grammar. Sheer conjecture by not-scientists is not-science. Sheer conjecture by scientists is not science. WP:NOR. Hipocrite 19:54, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
The article in prana described is incomplete and in many cases improper. 1. Prana is essentially Vedic in origin. 2. The Scripture that is known as the base of prana concept --the prasna upanishad have not even been mentioned 3. Prana is a Cosmic principle. (See the vedic creation.) 4. Adoption of Prana in Yoga is just an application. 5. According to Vivekananda it is a unified energy/ force. He says all matter can be resolved back to Akasha and all forces to Prana. Refer to Jnana Yoga and complete works of Swami Vivekananda.
Above all I cannot understand the sheer conjecture-pseudoscientific relation. Show me any branch of science that is independent of conjecture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sevenseas ( talk • contribs) 10:01, 14 June 2008 (UTC)
I have done a small re-edit. As it stands, the article is informative, but I believe that it needs more reference material from Religious Studies, or parallell fields.-- Hawol 12:59, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
I removed a link to
Ruach after double-checking the removal with several practicing Hindus. My apologies if this was unjustified; we believed the link to have been placed because of the mentions of 'air' in the start of this article.
Zakahori
21:05, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
i have hesitantly offered the following as indicative of the kind of thinking that was origionally conducive to my first contribution on the "rough"(=~) correllation of corresponding philos/theos/yogic/etc
[[
Kornukopea1
19:47, 3 November 2006 (UTC)]]
Suggest consideration of
Yechidah in place of
Ruach. It is, it seems to me,-(based on my limited understanding and decades of personal studies)-the closest and/or highest conception that we have in the qabballistic system/tradition that i am aware of thus far; Whereas the
Ruach
may compared to prana in the sense of 'vital' animal heat-("i dare say the distinction between heat and the waves produced thereby might be argued to be pretty much the same to an eastern yogin, hindu or otherwise")-, so too, the
Ruach was usually written of as the vehicle and/or the animal 'soul' on the schemmatical diagramme
OTZ CHIIM.
The gist of this is that
yechidah, much like that found in the definition(s) of
LIEBNEZ's Monad(ology), is the Quintiessential 'spark', of which reference here i make to the former associations
Prana equals approx.=~ Spirit=~ Pneuma=~ Yechidah=~[[Chi]
=~ ? ? ? ....
There ARE, indeed, i am confident, many others...the important point, i submit, is to keep the planes of correspondences or levels of hierachical meaning on the same plane of 'associative congruence'-("i daresay this is hardly clear")-I do think it will nudge us a little closer to uncovering more in this area... User:Kornukopea1 15:11, 24 October 2006 Kornukopea1 20:22, 25 October 2006 (UTC) [[[User:Kornukopea1|Kornukopea1]] 19:52, 3 November 2006 (UTC)]
// There is no such thing as a mysterious entity "Eastern medicine" ( and "east" of whom/where, by the way ? ). That is an esoteric belief ( "All from a common VERY ancient source" etc. ), not a concept anyone would be allowed to use in a scholarly context !
- Inserted while I was still editing was the following:
-- To which I now reply, after it was shown to me:
.."Eastern hemisphere": Oh really, I could never have imagined... - you missed my point: it is a pretty Eurocentric term, isn`t it ?
..."recognisably different": your lines prove my criticism. That is a laypersons's idea, and pretty vague it is. Indian and Chinese Medicine do use drugs and ointments, including many poisonous substances ( e.g. mercury ). Homoeopathics, on the other hand, is a most European medical system, completely developed by one German physician and scientist, without any non-European "input" whatsoever ( hence "western" in every sense of the word, to use your preferred terminology ). And completely different from all others, by practice and underlying theoretical concepts ( and homoeopathic medical journals are kept by large University libraries, where I live, so don't tell my it is a "fringe phaenomenon" or something ).
...."Eastern medicine": again ( but for the last time ): that is an "entity" ( a "one-thing" ) which exists in your head ( and that of others, no doubt ), based on very vague ideas, very superficial information, and a tradition of esoteric thinking and marketing ( "Wisdom from the East etc.", the whole story of romanticism, the theosophist movement etc., "New Age", religious sects with their marketing branches, and what I term "alternative markets/capitialism" with their advertising professionals... ). The differences between various medical traditions, practices, concepts and theories, and above all underlying philosophies, are many and huge over space and time, when seen with a scholarly critical mind, with a comparative and "non-ahistoric" approach. The one correct "neutral" term to use here is "Medical traditons in Asia" or "~Southern and Eastern Asia".
You might wish to inform yourself before posting - I recommend "The Journal of the European Ayurvedic Society", Meulenbeld`s "giant" "A history of Indian Medical Literature", "The transmission of Chinese Medicine" by Elizabeth Hsu ( Cambridge UP 1999 ) and the journal "Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity" by Brill Publishers ( Leiden, Netherlands ), all by "professional scholars", but a joy to read ( for me, at least... ).
End of reply. ---
> There is not a single reference to an ancient source text where the "wisdom" contained in the article is supposed to originate.
> The discussion is not any better either ( or most of it ): all ( most ) so naive, mixing terms and concepts regardless of culture, time, contexts, connotations etc..
- I give up. This is a hobby style project, all a collection of hearsay and bits of contents taken from very few secondary sources, far removed from any scholarly standarts. - Bye. 147.142.186.54 15:23, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
( The same writer added a minor correction to these statements from the same library today: ) 129.206.196.191 11:40, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
No, prana is life/ether (not spirit,) bois (not pneuma,) and 'coach ha guf,' or 'zoe,' (not yeshidah, it is at least rauch if the latter terms are not used.) However, it is chi.-- Dchmelik ( talk) 07:44, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
This is not an encylopedia entry and the "references" are pseudoscientific tomes with no scholarly or factual basis. The entire entry is phrased as just another pseudoscientific or pseudocultural parade of gibberish and nonsense. Strictly speaking it has no place on Wikipedia, although lord knows Wikipedia is virtually 100% total nonsense as it currently stands. It needs to be redone by someone who is not earning some or all of his or her living peddling fake "oriental" wisdom. Cokerwr 20:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree with this assessment. This article should be completely redone. --
Ida noeman (
talk)
19:03, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
The "references" on this article are a horror to look at! They contain links to unreliable arbitrary websties and even other wikipedia articles. At best books written by people in the recent past after (supposedly) studying the ancient scriptures. If the concepts described in the article really derive from the Upanishads and other Vedantic texts or Patanjali's writings etc., why are those not included? I am not saying references to prana don't exist, but they need to be directly referenced so that there is some accuracy in the article. Otherwise it's just a bunch of OR. It's better to blank the article immediately and redo it. ReluctantPhilosopher ( talk)
I've proposed that Pranic Heling be merged into this article. -- Salimfadhley ( talk) 09:33, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
Pranic Healing should not be merged into this article for a couple of reasons (User:JRBC1) 05:45, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
1) Because Pranic Healing is a particular specific form of energetic vibrational medicine developed by a specific organisation
2) Prana is a very broad subject, far wider than Pranic Healing. It would be confusing and misleading to merge these two subjects
— Preceding unsigned comment added by JRBC1 ( talk • contribs) 05:46, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
I know nothing about this topic so cannot even suggest a fix.
However, the first paragraph ends like this:
"from which all the other vāyus arise.vikas"
Clearly a problem with that dangling "vikas" which is not capitalized so is it the beginning of a new sentence that has disappeared, or just a brain fart?
Can someone please fix this? Thanks Zlama ( talk) 23:06, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
Greetings @
RhinoMind:. I do not understand your removal of cited material for earlier non-cited material. Your accusations of yoga centrism appear to be backwards. The article currently suffers from hindu centrism. 'Pranic theory' (for lack of a better term) is not original research. Prana is not in any way exclusive to hindu philosophy or yoga (although its generally agreed to come from the 'yogic milieu' of non-vedic ascetic traditions before its assimilation into mainstream Brahmanism). Prana is utilized in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, New Age practices, etc and predates the modern notion of 'hinduism' (the Vratyas mentioned in the article are just one example of an early non-vedic group that utilized Prana in 'shamanic ritual'). A more general term should be utilized. Pranic theory just means the worldview that posits the existence of prana. How is that in any way original research? If you have another generic term you would rather use please introduce it as 'hindu philosophy' is simply inaccurate.
Also, the description of Pranayama was too specific and its citations too flimsy (internet articles instead of books or journals). Using pranayama can be for nadi cleaning in many if not most extant traditions, but as is clearly demonstrated in the Eliade and Feuerstein references elsewhere in the article, pranayama was often used just to arrest respiration with no specific conceptions of energy work. We do not replace the broad definition with the specific, especially when there is an actual pranayama page for these detailed descriptions. This is actually you replacing the broader Indic concept with the contemporary yoga-specific concept of Prana that as it was eventually absorbed into mainstream Brahmanism (again, see Eliade for an entire chapter on this subject). Please let me know if you understand these points and why the listed items were altered. If you agree, please take the time to self revert or better defend your changes and accusations (especially as this page desperately needs to be cleaned up and defensive editing can prevent us from achieving any progress).
I would ask for a review by fellow editors @
Joshua Jonathan: @
Ms Sarah Welch: @
VictoriaGrayson: to restore my clean-up efforts and ask
user:rhinomind to be less defensive of uncited and poorly sourced material on this page so it may be effectively cleaned. And if you're going to accuse me of yogic centrism, defend that accusation as I was undoing POV and verifiability issues.
Iṣṭa Devatā (
talk)
16:41, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
Hi. While I do not have all the time in the world, I do appreciate that you engaged here in the TalkPage about these issues. But to spare time, let me get to two central point:
I have more to say and haven't replied to all the issues you are raising either. I will be back when time permits. Now there is a constructive dialogue and perhaps even a loose agenda for what to improve upon?
We have both recently improved upon the article and I am glad to see that we both agree that it is vital to encompass the concept of prana in as broad a way as possible. Cheers. RhinoMind ( talk) 23:26, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
I agree that we should be able to make some great progress on this page together and get that pesky issue box removed. These pages seem to get a higher proportion of eagerly opinionated yoga neophytes making poorly worded and uncited claims, so I apologize if my editing feels a little destructive. I'd often rather remove bad information temporarily than leave it until it can be reworded. ॐ Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 00:28, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
Do any of the books listed in further reading have anything directly to do with Prana? None of their titles suggest so. Recommend removing or replacing with more appropriate titles like Vivekananda, Prasna Upanishad, Sivananda or Satyananda's books on kriya, et cetera... Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 20:27, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
I'm just wondering if this page needs another disambiguation option for the clothing brand PrAna (which could direct to Columbia Sportswear). I'm not sure about how to do this or what the criteria are for needing disambiguation, so if this is too commercial or not significant enough, let me know. (I was just looking for more information on the company, "PrAna," and came to Wikipedia to look for it. Bjtplett ( talk) 20:08, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
A lot is said in Wikipedia's voice like if it was fact. For instance, section "Source of Prana" claims: "because they appear as small spheres or globules of light when seen clairvoyantly or by a person with slightly more sensitive eyes". The blue field entoptic phenomenon is not necessarily Prana. There may also be an issue with sources, this will require further review. — Paleo Neonate – 09:57, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
Hi. I and another editor who is a professional yoga teacher tried to clean up things some years ago and made considerable progress both in relation to providing basic credible sources and providing a general description that was easy to grasp and without unnecessary details and POV focus points. All this work has since been diluted and corrupted by several random editors, resulting in the current disrupted and degraded state. It is sad, but it is a Wikipedia trend that is not limited to this particular article unfortunately. I wish you good luck with cleaning up and presenting the issue of prana in a solid and comprehensive way once again. I am out of here myself. RhinoMind ( talk) 21:58, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
Samāna The heat of digestion, which resides in the belly between prāṇa above and uḍāna below : how can be uḍāna located in the throat and under the "central" prana ?.. Contradiction is carrying a lot of doubts Papalain ( talk) 03:23, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
Merriam-Webster states that "Prana" entered English in 1785. It is therefore an English word, not a foreign one. It may help to realise that the English word differs from the Sanskrit prāṇa, from which it was "borrowed" (as Merriam-Webster writes). The Sanskrit word is foreign and should be in italics; the English word is not and should not.
This is one of the terms in Yoga and Hinduism that have been widely used in English for many years, and can be found in the major English dictionaries (such as Oxford, Merriam-Webster). When a term is widely used in English, it is no longer "foreign" whatever its etymology, and should not be marked up in italics: the MoS policy on foreign words does not apply to terms adopted into English.
I do hope this is clear; there is no justification for treating it as foreign. Chiswick Chap ( talk) 09:13, 15 November 2019 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Prana article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Prana is percieved in Yoga as an all prevading force in the material world similiar to the Brahmajoyti which fills the spiritual realms. The prefix "Pra-" in Sanskit refers to the act of creation, and prana is the raw energy of the universe which is the spark of creation. In the spiritual realm nothing is created or destroyed since time isn't a factor. Prana interacts with Kala to stir the Maya energy of the Parahtma, of which perceives that prana appears to move from one point to another. Movement of the prana coherses the Shakti to collect in time, percieved in the moment, which Purusha is symbolic of. The stillness and absoluteness of the Purusha, stimulates the Shakti which draws the Brahmajoyti into manifesting as prana the insubstantial energy, and matter, the condensed energy. These energies formulate to create reality as we know it, percieved by the subjective.
wow. I want what this guy's having.
Iṣṭa Devatā (
talk)
07:24, 27 May 2015 (UTC)
Is prana the counterpart of qi or is its equivalence?
Ok, so we know Prana and Qi are the same. What about Prana and the Gnostic Christina idea of Pneuma?
Add: Manna, Mana, Seid, Magic, Orgone, Kraft, Power, Energy, Love, Life-force, Ether.....[unsigned]
Don't forget Lhoong! But seriously, the (pre-christian) concept of pneuma has a remarkable similarity to both qi/chi and prana. Remember that Greek and Indian history have a number of overlaps (Alexander the Great, Greco-Indian states, the spice trade etc...) not to mention shared protoindoeuropean roots. There are a couple of random folks who write about this, but none with any solid evidence that would lend itself to this article. And the Chinese culture is also heavily influenced by the Indian philosophies: "The first Shaolin Monastery abbot was Batuo (also called Fotuo or Buddhabhadra) a dhyana master who came to China from India[2] in 464 AD or from Greco-Buddhist Central Asia[3] to spread Buddhist teachings." Side note: it's important to remember that different Hindu (and Jain, Sikh, etc) groups have very different cosmologies and our modern understanding of Prana comes largely from the esoteric Yoga school and its sister Ayurveda, both derivative of Sankhya cosmology. One can compare the Jing and Shen of the dantians in Chinese Medicine, and tejas and ojas in Ayurveda. The popular new age view of prana (and atman) was pretty heavily reshaped by more contemporary yogis like Swami Vivekananda who blended Neo-Vedanta philosophy with western 'harmonialism' schools like mesmerism. Read Elizabeth DeMichelis for more about that. So it's often hard to tell what you think you know about prana from the orthodox concept. Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 07:49, 27 May 2015 (UTC)
removed from article: Science: Some believe that Quantum foam or Quantum vacuum are prana being discovered by the scientific community, due to the similarities of the fact that both are universal energies with vast potential and that both are said to be all-pervading and have potential to be harnessed. But right now this is sheer conjecture until research has shown that quantum foam or vacuum energy can be tapped by a biological entity via the electromagnetic field, bio-photons, or the much debated supposed faculty of psychokinesis.
In addition to being, well, not encyclopedic, and pseudoscientific, that's just bad grammar. Sheer conjecture by not-scientists is not-science. Sheer conjecture by scientists is not science. WP:NOR. Hipocrite 19:54, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
The article in prana described is incomplete and in many cases improper. 1. Prana is essentially Vedic in origin. 2. The Scripture that is known as the base of prana concept --the prasna upanishad have not even been mentioned 3. Prana is a Cosmic principle. (See the vedic creation.) 4. Adoption of Prana in Yoga is just an application. 5. According to Vivekananda it is a unified energy/ force. He says all matter can be resolved back to Akasha and all forces to Prana. Refer to Jnana Yoga and complete works of Swami Vivekananda.
Above all I cannot understand the sheer conjecture-pseudoscientific relation. Show me any branch of science that is independent of conjecture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sevenseas ( talk • contribs) 10:01, 14 June 2008 (UTC)
I have done a small re-edit. As it stands, the article is informative, but I believe that it needs more reference material from Religious Studies, or parallell fields.-- Hawol 12:59, 28 September 2005 (UTC)
I removed a link to
Ruach after double-checking the removal with several practicing Hindus. My apologies if this was unjustified; we believed the link to have been placed because of the mentions of 'air' in the start of this article.
Zakahori
21:05, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
i have hesitantly offered the following as indicative of the kind of thinking that was origionally conducive to my first contribution on the "rough"(=~) correllation of corresponding philos/theos/yogic/etc
[[
Kornukopea1
19:47, 3 November 2006 (UTC)]]
Suggest consideration of
Yechidah in place of
Ruach. It is, it seems to me,-(based on my limited understanding and decades of personal studies)-the closest and/or highest conception that we have in the qabballistic system/tradition that i am aware of thus far; Whereas the
Ruach
may compared to prana in the sense of 'vital' animal heat-("i dare say the distinction between heat and the waves produced thereby might be argued to be pretty much the same to an eastern yogin, hindu or otherwise")-, so too, the
Ruach was usually written of as the vehicle and/or the animal 'soul' on the schemmatical diagramme
OTZ CHIIM.
The gist of this is that
yechidah, much like that found in the definition(s) of
LIEBNEZ's Monad(ology), is the Quintiessential 'spark', of which reference here i make to the former associations
Prana equals approx.=~ Spirit=~ Pneuma=~ Yechidah=~[[Chi]
=~ ? ? ? ....
There ARE, indeed, i am confident, many others...the important point, i submit, is to keep the planes of correspondences or levels of hierachical meaning on the same plane of 'associative congruence'-("i daresay this is hardly clear")-I do think it will nudge us a little closer to uncovering more in this area... User:Kornukopea1 15:11, 24 October 2006 Kornukopea1 20:22, 25 October 2006 (UTC) [[[User:Kornukopea1|Kornukopea1]] 19:52, 3 November 2006 (UTC)]
// There is no such thing as a mysterious entity "Eastern medicine" ( and "east" of whom/where, by the way ? ). That is an esoteric belief ( "All from a common VERY ancient source" etc. ), not a concept anyone would be allowed to use in a scholarly context !
- Inserted while I was still editing was the following:
-- To which I now reply, after it was shown to me:
.."Eastern hemisphere": Oh really, I could never have imagined... - you missed my point: it is a pretty Eurocentric term, isn`t it ?
..."recognisably different": your lines prove my criticism. That is a laypersons's idea, and pretty vague it is. Indian and Chinese Medicine do use drugs and ointments, including many poisonous substances ( e.g. mercury ). Homoeopathics, on the other hand, is a most European medical system, completely developed by one German physician and scientist, without any non-European "input" whatsoever ( hence "western" in every sense of the word, to use your preferred terminology ). And completely different from all others, by practice and underlying theoretical concepts ( and homoeopathic medical journals are kept by large University libraries, where I live, so don't tell my it is a "fringe phaenomenon" or something ).
...."Eastern medicine": again ( but for the last time ): that is an "entity" ( a "one-thing" ) which exists in your head ( and that of others, no doubt ), based on very vague ideas, very superficial information, and a tradition of esoteric thinking and marketing ( "Wisdom from the East etc.", the whole story of romanticism, the theosophist movement etc., "New Age", religious sects with their marketing branches, and what I term "alternative markets/capitialism" with their advertising professionals... ). The differences between various medical traditions, practices, concepts and theories, and above all underlying philosophies, are many and huge over space and time, when seen with a scholarly critical mind, with a comparative and "non-ahistoric" approach. The one correct "neutral" term to use here is "Medical traditons in Asia" or "~Southern and Eastern Asia".
You might wish to inform yourself before posting - I recommend "The Journal of the European Ayurvedic Society", Meulenbeld`s "giant" "A history of Indian Medical Literature", "The transmission of Chinese Medicine" by Elizabeth Hsu ( Cambridge UP 1999 ) and the journal "Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity" by Brill Publishers ( Leiden, Netherlands ), all by "professional scholars", but a joy to read ( for me, at least... ).
End of reply. ---
> There is not a single reference to an ancient source text where the "wisdom" contained in the article is supposed to originate.
> The discussion is not any better either ( or most of it ): all ( most ) so naive, mixing terms and concepts regardless of culture, time, contexts, connotations etc..
- I give up. This is a hobby style project, all a collection of hearsay and bits of contents taken from very few secondary sources, far removed from any scholarly standarts. - Bye. 147.142.186.54 15:23, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
( The same writer added a minor correction to these statements from the same library today: ) 129.206.196.191 11:40, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
No, prana is life/ether (not spirit,) bois (not pneuma,) and 'coach ha guf,' or 'zoe,' (not yeshidah, it is at least rauch if the latter terms are not used.) However, it is chi.-- Dchmelik ( talk) 07:44, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
This is not an encylopedia entry and the "references" are pseudoscientific tomes with no scholarly or factual basis. The entire entry is phrased as just another pseudoscientific or pseudocultural parade of gibberish and nonsense. Strictly speaking it has no place on Wikipedia, although lord knows Wikipedia is virtually 100% total nonsense as it currently stands. It needs to be redone by someone who is not earning some or all of his or her living peddling fake "oriental" wisdom. Cokerwr 20:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree with this assessment. This article should be completely redone. --
Ida noeman (
talk)
19:03, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
The "references" on this article are a horror to look at! They contain links to unreliable arbitrary websties and even other wikipedia articles. At best books written by people in the recent past after (supposedly) studying the ancient scriptures. If the concepts described in the article really derive from the Upanishads and other Vedantic texts or Patanjali's writings etc., why are those not included? I am not saying references to prana don't exist, but they need to be directly referenced so that there is some accuracy in the article. Otherwise it's just a bunch of OR. It's better to blank the article immediately and redo it. ReluctantPhilosopher ( talk)
I've proposed that Pranic Heling be merged into this article. -- Salimfadhley ( talk) 09:33, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
Pranic Healing should not be merged into this article for a couple of reasons (User:JRBC1) 05:45, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
1) Because Pranic Healing is a particular specific form of energetic vibrational medicine developed by a specific organisation
2) Prana is a very broad subject, far wider than Pranic Healing. It would be confusing and misleading to merge these two subjects
— Preceding unsigned comment added by JRBC1 ( talk • contribs) 05:46, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
I know nothing about this topic so cannot even suggest a fix.
However, the first paragraph ends like this:
"from which all the other vāyus arise.vikas"
Clearly a problem with that dangling "vikas" which is not capitalized so is it the beginning of a new sentence that has disappeared, or just a brain fart?
Can someone please fix this? Thanks Zlama ( talk) 23:06, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
Greetings @
RhinoMind:. I do not understand your removal of cited material for earlier non-cited material. Your accusations of yoga centrism appear to be backwards. The article currently suffers from hindu centrism. 'Pranic theory' (for lack of a better term) is not original research. Prana is not in any way exclusive to hindu philosophy or yoga (although its generally agreed to come from the 'yogic milieu' of non-vedic ascetic traditions before its assimilation into mainstream Brahmanism). Prana is utilized in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, New Age practices, etc and predates the modern notion of 'hinduism' (the Vratyas mentioned in the article are just one example of an early non-vedic group that utilized Prana in 'shamanic ritual'). A more general term should be utilized. Pranic theory just means the worldview that posits the existence of prana. How is that in any way original research? If you have another generic term you would rather use please introduce it as 'hindu philosophy' is simply inaccurate.
Also, the description of Pranayama was too specific and its citations too flimsy (internet articles instead of books or journals). Using pranayama can be for nadi cleaning in many if not most extant traditions, but as is clearly demonstrated in the Eliade and Feuerstein references elsewhere in the article, pranayama was often used just to arrest respiration with no specific conceptions of energy work. We do not replace the broad definition with the specific, especially when there is an actual pranayama page for these detailed descriptions. This is actually you replacing the broader Indic concept with the contemporary yoga-specific concept of Prana that as it was eventually absorbed into mainstream Brahmanism (again, see Eliade for an entire chapter on this subject). Please let me know if you understand these points and why the listed items were altered. If you agree, please take the time to self revert or better defend your changes and accusations (especially as this page desperately needs to be cleaned up and defensive editing can prevent us from achieving any progress).
I would ask for a review by fellow editors @
Joshua Jonathan: @
Ms Sarah Welch: @
VictoriaGrayson: to restore my clean-up efforts and ask
user:rhinomind to be less defensive of uncited and poorly sourced material on this page so it may be effectively cleaned. And if you're going to accuse me of yogic centrism, defend that accusation as I was undoing POV and verifiability issues.
Iṣṭa Devatā (
talk)
16:41, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
Hi. While I do not have all the time in the world, I do appreciate that you engaged here in the TalkPage about these issues. But to spare time, let me get to two central point:
I have more to say and haven't replied to all the issues you are raising either. I will be back when time permits. Now there is a constructive dialogue and perhaps even a loose agenda for what to improve upon?
We have both recently improved upon the article and I am glad to see that we both agree that it is vital to encompass the concept of prana in as broad a way as possible. Cheers. RhinoMind ( talk) 23:26, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
I agree that we should be able to make some great progress on this page together and get that pesky issue box removed. These pages seem to get a higher proportion of eagerly opinionated yoga neophytes making poorly worded and uncited claims, so I apologize if my editing feels a little destructive. I'd often rather remove bad information temporarily than leave it until it can be reworded. ॐ Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 00:28, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
Do any of the books listed in further reading have anything directly to do with Prana? None of their titles suggest so. Recommend removing or replacing with more appropriate titles like Vivekananda, Prasna Upanishad, Sivananda or Satyananda's books on kriya, et cetera... Iṣṭa Devatā ( talk) 20:27, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
I'm just wondering if this page needs another disambiguation option for the clothing brand PrAna (which could direct to Columbia Sportswear). I'm not sure about how to do this or what the criteria are for needing disambiguation, so if this is too commercial or not significant enough, let me know. (I was just looking for more information on the company, "PrAna," and came to Wikipedia to look for it. Bjtplett ( talk) 20:08, 22 May 2018 (UTC)
A lot is said in Wikipedia's voice like if it was fact. For instance, section "Source of Prana" claims: "because they appear as small spheres or globules of light when seen clairvoyantly or by a person with slightly more sensitive eyes". The blue field entoptic phenomenon is not necessarily Prana. There may also be an issue with sources, this will require further review. — Paleo Neonate – 09:57, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
Hi. I and another editor who is a professional yoga teacher tried to clean up things some years ago and made considerable progress both in relation to providing basic credible sources and providing a general description that was easy to grasp and without unnecessary details and POV focus points. All this work has since been diluted and corrupted by several random editors, resulting in the current disrupted and degraded state. It is sad, but it is a Wikipedia trend that is not limited to this particular article unfortunately. I wish you good luck with cleaning up and presenting the issue of prana in a solid and comprehensive way once again. I am out of here myself. RhinoMind ( talk) 21:58, 17 August 2018 (UTC)
Samāna The heat of digestion, which resides in the belly between prāṇa above and uḍāna below : how can be uḍāna located in the throat and under the "central" prana ?.. Contradiction is carrying a lot of doubts Papalain ( talk) 03:23, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
Merriam-Webster states that "Prana" entered English in 1785. It is therefore an English word, not a foreign one. It may help to realise that the English word differs from the Sanskrit prāṇa, from which it was "borrowed" (as Merriam-Webster writes). The Sanskrit word is foreign and should be in italics; the English word is not and should not.
This is one of the terms in Yoga and Hinduism that have been widely used in English for many years, and can be found in the major English dictionaries (such as Oxford, Merriam-Webster). When a term is widely used in English, it is no longer "foreign" whatever its etymology, and should not be marked up in italics: the MoS policy on foreign words does not apply to terms adopted into English.
I do hope this is clear; there is no justification for treating it as foreign. Chiswick Chap ( talk) 09:13, 15 November 2019 (UTC)